Mani Shankar Aiyar: The Controversy About My Remarks On Charlie Hebdo Attack

I highly recommend this piece, its about creating cohesive societies. I have come to admire Mani Shankar Aiyar for his sense of fairness, justice and rationality behind it. This what gives hope to humanity; there are always people out there who will speak up for others and stand up for others.

You can wake up Mani Shankar Aiyar in the middle of the night, he will not lose his sense of Justice. He will speak what is dharma, what is righteous where every one's space and rights are valued. I have read a few pieces by him, and each one is a gem of a piece.

I read a lot of articles on a given day, write on different issue and discuss with multiplicity of groups of unlimited diversity - what I see is the mind-set of people. Those who have a deep sense of justice and fairness for all will always speak and write with that sense of Justice, and those whose only interest is them, and they speak differently. There is no logic or rhyme to them, they just support the bullies.  One wants to find solutions and feels saddened with destruction and the other wants to annihilate the other and rejoice destruction. There are those who support peace and those who support Netanyahus.

His take on Terrorism is fairly identical to mine that I wrote Nine years ago on 9/11/2006. http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2006/12/laser-barking-bark-at-terrorists-not.html 

Mike Ghouse
# # #

Courtesy - NDTV

Mani Shankar Aiyar is a Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha.)

I was on my way to the airport to catch a flight to Bahrain, where I had been invited to speak on the one hundredth anniversary of Gandhiji's return to India from South Africa, when my family rang to say that the usual suspect had gone bonkers on his TV channel lambasting me for something I had said to a TV agency earlier in the day in connection with the terrorist attack in Paris. As I hold this hysterical humbug in the uttermost contempt, I have not bothered to find out what the anchor was screaming about, but I do believe that in justice to myself, I should clarify my position to readers who may have been misled by what he has distorted and misrepresented.

I was as horrified as you to hear of 12 lives being lost in the armed assault on a Paris satirical weekly for their repeatedly sneering at the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) and running cartoons denigrating him and the religion he has brought to hundreds of millions of families the world over. That such horror at terrorism was not just my reaction as a non-Muslim to the Paris outrage, but widely shared by Muslims too was brought home to me by a statement issued by a collegium of Imams and preachers of Bahrain who said: "Violence and extremism have always been - and still are - the biggest enemies of Islam, and contravene its teachings, tolerance and genuine precepts. All countries should take unified stances against terrorism. We call for the need to devise a unified international strategy to combat its forms and manifestation everywhere."

That precisely reflects the position taken by the Dar-ul-Uloom. It precisely reflects my own personal position. To go by the Congress President's reaction, it also reflects my party's position: "The Congress President, Smt Sonia Gandhi, has condemned the cowardly and dastardly terror attack on Media in Paris. Shocked at the audacity of the gruesome act, Smt Gandhi said that extremism and intolerance will never be able to curb freedom of expression and will only result in perpetuation of violence."

What then is the controversy about? It is about my describing the incident as a "backlash" to the War on Terrorism. That is not a justification of terrorism. It is an explanation. The distinction is important. I condemn terrorism. I do not commend it. If, however, war is declared on terrorists, it is stupid to imagine that the terrorists will take it lying down; inevitably they will hit back - that is a consequence we have to be prepared for.

Charlie Hebdo, the satirical weekly, was so obviously on the hit list that it was virtually inviting a reaction week after week. The threat to the Editor was so palpable that he had been personally provided with just about the highest level of security that France could offer. Why the magazine's office was not protected with an adequate posse of armed security is being investigated.  But it also reflects the mind-set that thinks the West can mount a war and get away with little or no loss to themselves. The West is so militarily powerful and so technologically superior that it is able to unleash an unequal war in which their resources in money and machines cannot be matched even remotely by those whom they are combating.

Therefore, terrorists resort to an asymmetrical response. They target non-combatants by way of avenging themselves on those whose war machines kill - daily - scores, hundreds, even thousands of the non-combatants in whose midst the terrorists live and shield themselves.

A dead innocent is a dead innocent. Terrorists deliberately target the innocent. The War on Terrorism does not target innocents. It kills them indiscriminately by way of what is delicately called "collateral damage". But the loved ones and the community are equally affected - whether the killing is deliberate or incidental. The rage is the same. The urge to revenge is the same. For, as Gandhi said - and I quoted him to the TV agency - "Violence begets violence".

The West is near perfecting the art of killing their enemies (plus "collateral damage") without risking their own lives. When eight American body bags returned from Somalia, Bill Clinton immediately called off the operation "Black Hawk Down". When eight Pathan bodies of helpless mothers, hapless children, and innocent by-standers lie in the midst of the carnage wrought by a Drone attack, the wailing families do not react differently. They seek justice, each in his or her own way. The Drone wins out because even if it is downed, as it is unmanned, no American family is left with a tear in its eye. When terrorists attack, they know they are going to be killed - or kill themselves. They take the vicious consequences of their vicious action. The Drone just flies away - to come back another day.

Till even the First World War, war was fought on the terrain of war - the battle-field. Those who died or got injured were soldiers.

Civilians only accidentally got in the way. That changed when the Germans started assassinating mayors of towns where snipers shot at German soldiers. It horrified the world and contributed more to Britain coming in against Germany than perhaps any other single action. Not even into the Thirties had men been desensitized to the atrocity of civilian beings killed in armed attack. Picasso earned eternal fame because his painting captured and symbolized the horror experienced by all civilized people at the aerial bombing of the Spanish village of Guernica.

But by the Second World War, these niceties were abandoned. The terror opened by the Nazis through their Blitzkrieg on England, followed by their merciless genocide of Jews in the East European countries they occupied, started the process of desensitizing the hitherto-unknown horror of innocents being mown to death.

Stalingrad finally dulled sensitivities to the point where Churchill could order the bombing of Dresden and kill more innocents in a single night than all the terrorist attacks since 9/11 and after.

Truman's atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki removed the final constraints on sparing non-combatants the terrible fate of the battle-field. Since then, it has been open house for those with the military means to do so.

I was posted as a young diplomat to Hanoi in the middle of the US-Vietnam war. Day after day, twice a day, US Air Force planes would pound the city without regard to civilian habitation or military target, shooting to death and severely injuring any living being - man, woman or child - they could fit into their sights. Uncounted millions died. Many were non-combatant civilians. A young British colleague said to me that American U-2s flying at such speed that they could cross the country in 10 minutes at a height of 60,000 feet could take a photograph of the saucer I held in my hand that would be more accurate than my naked eye could see. "How," he asked, "do you think these guys on bicycles will ever drive them out?" The bicyclists did; they won. But only after millions of civilians had been slaughtered.

I condemn what happened in Paris with all the strength in my voice. It was dreadful. But I regard all forms of terrorism, especially by armed force that takes the lives of non-combatants as equally - perhaps even more -  terrible. That is why my heart bleeds when 1,500 Palestinians are killed in their homes by bombs rained on them from the skies because they have the temerity to ask for the right to return to their homeland. The Modi government had little or nothing to say about that outrage. It is this lack of balance in the BJP's approach to terrorism that fills me with dread and despair.

Most of us Indians, except the fringe lunatics of the BJP-RSS-Sangh Parivar, have learned millennia ago to live with diversity, indeed to celebrate our diversity, for out of it is forged our unity as a nation.

For the West, however, diversity is a totally new experience. They have been compelled for economic reasons to import millions of Third World labourers, and since an arc of Arab countries lies immediately south of France on the other littoral of the Mediterranean, most of France's imported labour comprises Muslims from the Maghreb. France wants them to become Frenchmen as if the Arabs had fostered 1789 and never been subjected to colonial rule. The Arab Muslims wish to remain themselves, notwithstanding their having emigrated to France for the same economic reasons that have led to France and other Western countries importing them in such large numbers. Hence, stupid measures like insisting that no Muslim schoolchild in France may wear the hijab that her sisters wear in their home countries will result in a backlash.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. NDTV is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on this article. All information is provided on an as-is basis. The information, facts or opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.

Story First Published: January 12, 2015 13:19 IST

Indian Muslims - one of a kind

The times of India Article "The distinctiveness of Indian Muslims is asserting itself again." follows my commentary.

I applaud Times of India for consciously making an effort to reflect the views of the moderates of India who make up perhaps 98% of the population across the board. They want to get along with all and silently act, talk and think of goodwill for every Indian; they are the peace makers.

The article by Harbans Mukhia is a reflection of those peace makers; it is written with the purpose of mitigating conflicts and nurturing goodwill.

The battle cry of the insecure members of our society who are less than 1/10th of 1% of our population is to spread hate so they can make a political capital out of it; they are the surrogates of our past colonial masters who believed in dividing and weakening India. The Indians be it Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists and others have seen this time and again and have rejected that extremist ideology.

I am pleased to see Muslims of India sending a strong, firm, clear and emphatic signal to the terrorists; "when you die you will not even get burial grounds and you will become the curse of people", and 6000 Ulema's coming together for the express purpose of condemning terrorism must be lauded and encouraged.

Times of India will continue to keep its lead, as long as it promotes articles that unite India. Every Indian hankers for one India, and it is there and I am glad to see their view reflected in the leading paper of India. This is what it takes to lead. Keep it up!

Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net

The distinctiveness of Indian Muslims is asserting itself again.
TOP ARTICLE One Of A Kind
Harbans Mukhia

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Editorial/COMMENT_One_Of_A_Kind/articleshow/3863570.cms#write

The distinctiveness of Indian Muslims is asserting itself again. Over the past few months, Muslim theologians distanced themselves from what has come to be branded "Islamist terror" in the media followed by an organised expression of unqualified disapproval by as many as 6,000 Ulema (Muslim Clergy) from around the country gathered in Hyderabad specifically for the purpose. This highlights the distinctiveness of Indian Muslims which has evolved through centuries of Indian history. There is probably no other instance of the Ulema rising up in protest against terrorism on this scale anywhere else in the world. And in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, ordinary as well as elite Muslims also gave public vent to their outrage.

To appreciate this distinctiveness, it is instructive to look at the process of conversions to Islam that took place in India. The Muslims inhabiting the Indian subcontinent comprise the largest concentration of the community in the world. The easiest assumption is that conversions were effected by the might of the medieval Muslim state in India over the six centuries that it ruled. Yet, interestingly there is not a single book on the subject of conversion in India as a whole. There are two books on the subject in Kashmir, another on Bengal. That's it. The reason is that there is not enough historical evidence to substantiate a book length work. This in turn implies that conversion did not take place at the hands of one agency or at one go or for one reason, either by the use of force or temptation or persuasion. For, if such had been the case, there was no way it could have escaped being recorded either by Islamic scholars or their opponents.

Indeed, the geographical distribution of the density of Muslim population in the subcontinent flies in the face of the notion that the medieval Indian state could have been even the chief agency of conversion. The highest density is located in four geographical peripheries of the subcontinent: the Kashmir valley in the north, Pakistan in the west, Bangladesh in the east and in the Malabar region down south. That is where the Muslims are, and were, in a majority. These were also the political peripheries of the medieval Muslim state. Kashmir had turned to Islam long before the medieval Indian state reached there in Akbar's reign. West Punjab was a land where the hold of the medieval state was forever disputed and tenuous. East Bengal was seldom under the control of Delhi or Agra either and the Muslim state's reach never extended to Kerala anyway.

On the other hand, in the heartland of the Muslim empire Bihar, UP, Delhi, East Punjab for nearly six centuries the Muslims never exceeded around 15 per cent of the total population. Significantly, the massive conversions amounting to about a 50 per cent rise from about one in six to one in four of the population occurred between the second quarter of the 19th century and 1941, the last census before the partition, when the British ruled here. And overall, a fraction less than 25 per cent of the population had converted from the arrival of Islam in India to about the time of the partition.

Massive as these conversions are, two things stand out: if the medieval Indian Muslim state had taken upon itself the role of the religious zealot, it could not have been satisfied with converting just about one in every six inhabitants; and, the process of conversion was so slow, spread out over such long stretches of time and almost imperceptible that medieval historians and litterateurs, both Hindu and Muslim, failed to notice and record it, except as sporadic events.

It is this slow, stretched out process that explains the persistence of a wide spectrum of pre-Islamic, sometimes even anti-Islamic, customs, ceremonies, values and mores among the converts. Historian Ghulam Ahmad Tabtabai, writing in the 1780s, noted that the Muslims celebrated Holi as much as the Hindus. And Mirza Qateel a little later said that except for the Afghans and fanatics among Muslims, everyone played Holi and celebrated Diwali. But much more significant is the fact that militancy has never found much civil support either among the Hindus or Indian Muslims. It, therefore, becomes understandable that all the assaults on temples, mosques and dargahs in the past few years with the clear intention of inflaming communal passions and inciting violence have failed to provoke a single incident of rioting.

The Indian Muslims are thus a part of that all encompassing civilisation of which tolerance of difference is a central feature. The offence that Islamic militants have caused to this civilisation and to the Muslims in the process is now being confronted with protests from within the community.

One happy result of these happenings is the gradual lifting of the siege mentality with which Indian Muslims have lived for a long time. The seeping realisation that peace lies in reaching out, rather than sulking in isolation from the other communities, bodes well for us all. It has the capability to erode the hold of other forms of communalism as well.

The writer was professor of history at JNU, New Delhi.

Muslims send a strong Message to Terrorists

A Strong Message to Terrorists

Muslims had enough of this non-sense from terrorists claiming to be Muslims. It is time to treat them as criminals and do what needs to be done, if some one calls them Muslim, shame on them.

The Muslim majority has spoken, give no room to these terrorists. I have been writing "that Muslims get from both ends, Muslims are more sick of terrorism than others" This was also echoed by Javed Akhtar “Indian Muslims have often suffered twice: first from the terror, and then from the accusations afterward.

It is good to see a solidarity in the fight against terrorism. Those bad boys should know now that they have been duped that they will go to heaven and get the houris. Heck no, their bodies won't even be buried. This is the strongest message Muslims are sending them, that terrorism is bad and those who duped them are bums and no need to listen to them any more. Just live a decent life, even with hunger and poverty but get a decent burial.

Thank God, Muslims are given a space in the media, I wish Media had done this for a long time, we would have had less of this.

Mike Ghouse

A Strong Message

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Editorial/EDIT_A_Strong_Message/articleshow/3819386.cms#write

All over India, Eid celebrations on Tuesday were muted. Many Muslims wore black bands in protest against the Mumbai terror strikes while imams of
several prominent mosques spoke out against terrorism and pledged to stand united against terrorists. The Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid India's biggest mosque called the 'jihad' which took nearly 200 lives in Mumbai a crime against all people. He also slammed Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism in India. So did the imam of another prominent mosque, the Fatehpuri Masjid.

The nationwide protests on Eid by Muslims against the terror attacks weren't a one-off event. In the immediate aftermath of the Mumbai attack, the city's Muslims refused to allow the dead terrorists to be buried in Muslim graveyards. Earlier this week, Muslim organisations in Mumbai took out a rally to send the message that killers of innocent people are the enemies of Islam. And over the past few days, several Muslim icons of India, including Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, have spoken out against terrorism. These strong words and actions by India's Muslims are a slap in the face of groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba which are intent on spreading terror in the name of Islam and to supposedly avenge wrongs done to Indian Muslims. What Indian Muslims are saying is that terror has no religion. But by clearly speaking out against Islamist terrorism, India's Muslims are taking away any justification that the terrorists might claim for their bloody acts.

Groups like LeT not only want to spread immediate mayhem but eventually to break up India. India, with its 150-million Muslim minority population, is a direct challenge to Islamist terror groups. Nothing would please the terrorists more than if blasts and terror attacks were followed by communal violence. But every time there has been a terrorist act, Indians, irrespective of religion, have closed ranks. This has been so since 1993 when terrorists first struck in a big way in Mumbai. Since then there have been several terror attacks across India, but none has provoked rioting or large-scale violence.

Indian Muslims occupy a unique position. They're the largest Muslim minority anywhere and practise an Islam that is much more syncretic than elsewhere. At a time when radical Islamic ideologies are trying to gain the upper hand across the world, Indian Muslims could offer a compelling counter-narrative. Indian Muslims have already given a fitting answer to the Islamist groups that were behind the Mumbai terror attacks. The point now is to sustain the debate and to widen it further.

Muslims in India Repudiate Terrorism

Muslims in India Repudiate Terrorism

Individuals are terrorists, not their religion. Muslims had enough of this non-sense from terrorists claiming to be Muslims. The Muslim majority has spoken, give no room for the terrorists. I have been writing "that Muslims get from both ends, Muslims are more sick of terrorism than others" This is echoed by Javed Akhtar “Indian Muslims have often suffered twice: first from the terror, and then from the accusations afterward,” a Muslim poet and lyricist. “Perhaps because of that, they have been much more articulate and more unconditionally clear about condemning this attack.”

Thank God, Muslims are given a space in the media, I wish Media had done this for a long time, we would have had less of this.

Mike Ghouse

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/world/asia/08muslims.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

By ROBERT F. WORTH
Published: December 7, 2008

MUMBAI, India — Throngs of Indian Muslims, ranging from Bollywood actors to skullcap-wearing seminary students, marched through the heart of Mumbai and several other cities on Sunday, holding up banners proclaiming their condemnation of terrorism and loyalty to the Indian state.


Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

Muslims took part in a candlelight march last week toward the Oberoi hotel in Mumbai.
The protests, though relatively small, were the latest in a series of striking public gestures by Muslims — who have often come under suspicion after past attacks — to defensively dissociate their own grievances as a minority here from any sort of sympathy for terrorism or radical politics in the wake of the deadly assault here that ended Nov. 29.

Muslim leaders have refused to allow the bodies of the nine militants killed in the attacks to be buried in Islamic cemeteries, saying the men were not true Muslims. They also suspended the annual Dec. 6 commemoration of a 1992 riot in which Hindus destroyed a mosque, in an effort to avert communal tension. Muslim religious scholars and public figures have issued strongly worded condemnations of the attacks.

So far, their approach appears to have worked: the response has been remarkably unified, with little of the suspicion and fear that followed some previous attacks.

Hindu right-wing groups have been noticeably absent from the streets. Although leaders of the opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have criticized the government’s handling of the crisis, they have not stirred anti-Muslim sentiment. The fact that some 40 Muslims were among the victims of the attackers may well have helped dispel any strife.

Still, many Muslims seem anxious, fearing that some of the anger unleashed by the attacks may be directed into the Hindu-Muslim violence that has often marred India’s modern history.

“It’s a pity we have to prove ourselves as Indians,” said Mohammed Siddique, a young accountant who was marching in the protest here on Sunday afternoon with his wife and mother. “But the fact is, we need to speak louder than others, to make clear that those people do not speak for our religion — and that we are not Pakistanis.”

The cluster of banners all around him, held aloft by marchers, seemed to bear out his point. Some read “Our Country’s Enemies are Our Enemies,” others, “Killers of Innocents are Enemies of Islam.” A few declared, in uncertain grammar, “Pakistan Be Declared Terrorist State.”

There were also slogans defending against the charge often made by right-wing Hindus that Muslims constitute a fifth column, easily exploited by terrorists. “Communalist and Terrorist are Cousins,” one sign read. Some of the marchers held up a sign with lines drawn through the names of various terrorist or extremist groups, including, notably, the acronym S.I.M.I.

That stands for the Students’ Islamic Movement of India, a radical group, now banned, that has come under suspicion after recent attacks. One of the men arrested earlier this year in what appears to have been a similar plot against Mumbai landmarks used to belong to the group. Unlike the most recent attackers, who are all believed to be Pakistani, four of six members of the earlier plot were Indian.

There is little doubt that jihadists — including Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant group believed to be responsible for the Nov. 26-29 attacks — are seeking Indian recruits. Although such groups are rooted in the ideology of global jihad, many people fear that the Indians who join them may be motivated in part by essentially Indian grievances, like the 2002 mass killings of Muslims in the state of Gujarat that left 1,100 dead.

One of the gunmen in last month’s attacks referred to the Gujarat riots before he shot and killed a hostage at the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel, apparently in an effort to identify his own cause with that of Indian Muslims.

He seems to have failed. The brutality of the attacks and the fact that many Muslims died have strengthened a sense of outrage among ordinary Muslims here, and even some sense of communal harmony, however precarious.





“After this attack, everything has changed; people now see the realities,” said Saeed Ahmed, 45, as he stood outside his stationery shop on Muhammad Ali Road, a working-class Muslim area. “This is something different from what we had before, it’s like your American 9/11. It is not about Hindus and Muslims; it is about the nation being attacked.”

Certainly, the violence has prompted many Muslims, including religious scholars, Bollywood figures and politicians, to speak out more urgently than they had in the past.

“Indian Muslims have often suffered twice: first from the terror, and then from the accusations afterward,” said Javed Akhtar, a Muslim poet and lyricist. “Perhaps because of that, they have been much more articulate and more unconditionally clear about condemning this attack.”

But many remain anxious that foreign jihadists could take advantage of the divisions in Indian society to wreak more havoc here. India’s 140 million Muslims are generally much poorer and less educated than Hindus. Although some of the very rich and many Bollywood stars are Muslim, the faith is far less well represented in the professions and the middle class. Many have bitter memories of communal riots and violence, from the 2002 killings in Gujarat all the way back to the bloodletting that accompanied the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947.

“There is a very deep divide,” said Mahesh Bhatt, a well-known film producer and director who is half Muslim, half Hindu, as he sat on a plastic chair on the set of his latest film on Sunday morning, with actors strolling nearby. “And if the foreign element is using the indigenous clay, how can justice be done?”

Mr. Bhatt, who has the baroque manner of an old-fashioned Hollywood eminence, added that he saw in the crisis a chance for India to heal the religious and social fractures that make it vulnerable.

“In every danger there is an opportunity, a chance to look at the evil within,” he said. “If you’re going to do this fight against terror, you’d better start by fortifying your own house.”

Battle For The Muslim Mind

Battle For The Muslim Mind

Ronojoy,

Your powerful sentence is the highlight of the article "By identifying the terror attacks as "un-Islamic", the clerics undermine the religious legitimacy that the terrorists seek to bring to their violent acts." Furthermore, the denial of burial space for the terrorists by Indian Muslims sends a very strong signal to the terrorists that upon their death, ugliness will be meted out to them and not the houris. They will realize that they have been duped and hopefully the recruitment to terrorism will dwindle.

Mike Ghouse

###
Battle For The Mind
9 Dec 2008, 0012 hrs IST,
RONOJOY SEN
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Editorial/COMMENT_Battle_For_The_Mind/articleshow/3809701.cms
Post-Mumbai terror strikes, most of the talk has been about improved security and ways of hitting terror camps within Pakistan. But we often forget that the battle against terror must be won in the mind too. It is in this context that the unequivocal condemnation of the Mumbai terror by prominent imams in Delhi and Mumbai is important. And well before the Mumbai carnage happened, a gathering of some 6,000 Islamic clerics in Hyderabad endorsed a fatwa against terror issued by the influential Deoband seminary.

What effect, you might ask, would the Deoband fatwa and the imams have on those who inflict terror in the name of Islam? Possibly not much. Those who have been indoctrinated into taking up arms in the name of martyrdom and a place in paradise would probably continue doing terrible deeds. But the actions of the clerics are not academic exercises either. By identifying the terror attacks as "un-Islamic", the clerics undermine the religious legitimacy that the terrorists seek to bring to their violent acts.

In a larger context, the proclamations by the clerics and the Deoband school are very much a part of the process of interpretation of Islamic law and canons, which have been going on since centuries. It's a common error to regard Islamic law as unchanging and cast in stone. Though the Quran, the sunna (the practice of the Prophet) and the hadiths (sayings of the Prophet) are the primary sources of Islamic law, there is also a place for ijma (consensus), qiyas (analogical thinking) and ijtihad (systematic original thinking).

Ever since Islam was founded, change has been a part of the religion. And this continues to be so. Just a few weeks ago, lawyers, religious scholars, judges, journalists and activists gathered at Salzburg a not-so-unlikely place considering the Ottomans had once reached the gates of Vienna to debate and discuss if there was a common ground between Islamic and international law. There were no simple answers at the Salzburg Global Seminar but the consensus was that in many areas Islamic law was compatible with international law and covenants such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The gatherings in Hyderabad or Salzburg must be seen in this context of reinterpreting tenets of Islam, perhaps the most controversial being jihad. Jihad which in Arabic means "righteous struggle" or "striving" can be looked at in several ways. There are many Islamic scholars who believe that the greater jihad is the inner or spiritual struggle. These interpretations, of course, cut no ice with the terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) or the "army of the pure" which orchestrated the Mumbai terror.

It is no secret that jihadi terrorism has emanated from radical and backward-looking strains of Islam such as Wahhabism and Salafism. It's also no secret that the dominance of these hardline ideologies can be traced to Saudi backing and money. This has resulted in the mushrooming of mosques and madrassas across the world that preach an ideology of hate. LeT is known to have received Saudi funds and, of course, Pakistani patronage. Undoubtedly there are some in India who are also receptive to this ideology.

This is where Islamic clerics figures of authority for many Muslims could play a crucial role. If they interpret Islam as being patently against terror and violence, it is bound to have an effect on believers. And if the majority of Muslims subscribe to that view, it makes it that much more difficult for the purveyors of terror to gain acceptability.

A long-term solution to countering the ideology of hate must involve liberal interpretations of Islam. India, and indeed South Asia, could be one of the poles of this transformation. It is often forgotten that nearly half of the world's Muslims live in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. And contrary to what many people think, an overwhelming majority of ordinary Muslims in South Asia we must not, of course, confuse them with governments reject the ideologies of hate and violence. That's why international relations scholar Vali Nasr said during a recent visit to India that South Asia "matters to the Muslim world in real terms much more than the Arab world".

There could be other poles for the reinterpretation of Islam. Turkey, where the AKP party has won elections for the second time running, could provide a testing ground for a confluence of Islam and secular ideologies. The AKP leader and Turkish PM, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has on more than one occasion affirmed his faith in secularism even while arguing for more freedom for Muslims. Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation but also a multi-religious one, could be another pole. Recent reports suggest that the government is serious about cracking down on radical groups such as the Jemaah Islamiah. And Muslim groups, including the Indonesian Ulemas' Council, have said that the three men recently executed for the 2002 Bali bombings must not be treated as martyrs. These are encouraging signs.

It is a truism that terror has no religion. But when that terror emanates from a twisted interpretation of religion, we must acknowledge it instead of justifying it by referring to Kashmir or atrocities against Muslims as some prominent commentators have done. This is precisely the sort of logic employed by LeT ideologues. Such bigots and their followers have no place in civilised society. But they cannot be countered by force alone; their militant ideologies have to be thoroughly discredited. This is where India's 150 million Muslims and clerics could play a significant role.

Hindus Call for a New Dialogue on Terrorism

North American Hindus Call for a New Dialogue on Terrorism -

Chandra,

Please include "World Muslim Congress" and the"Foundation for Pluralism" as dialogue participants. I will be representing the group. It sounds funny that this dialogue does not have participants from the Muslim, Jewish, Christian and other communities who are equal victims of terrorism. Most certainly Musilms get it more than the others. Their presence is a must and every group that is committed to non-violence and co-existence must be included. Make the sincere effort, sincere results will come out.

As peace makers, our words and our actions should create an environment of peace, where one is encouraged to dialogue, put everything on the table with an open mind and an open heart. The goal should be finding solutions and not pointing fingers. No one can bring the dead back to life today, so there is no need to make calls on them. We have to find solutions and not excuses. As citizens for peace, it is our duty to focus on working for peace and co-existence. Terrorism has got to go from our lives.

There was a time, when you could find fliers at Mosques with hate for others, no more, enough of us have worked hard to rid of such fliers, come to find out no one wanted them in the first place. Yesterday, I found the orange flier distributed at the temple to contain language that was not peace makers language.

We have not been able to solve Terrorism because we are eager to bark at the wrong tree, we are smart people, we can do better than that. It is my deviousness that makes me rob the bank, kill any one that comes my way, and my religion does not teach me to do that. There are millions of Christian, Hindu, Muslims and Jews rotting in Jails for their wrong doing, their religion surely did not teach them to do that.

If we blame the religion, can we punish it? Is it tangible? It is the wrong effort to blame religion and leave the problem un-solved. We need to find the individuals, however many they may be and punish them for their crimes to disturb peace and creating chaos and anarchy. Then we will have justice with justice comes peace and prosperity. Truth triumphs, hate does not.

Religion came in to existence to make us better beings. Lord Krishna says whenever there is Adharma, he will appear and re-store dharma; Allah in Qur'aan says that he sends a messenger to every nation, every community to set them on the right track.

If I burn the Belgian embassy, or burn the busses in the fight for Cauvery water, or burn the innocent men and women in train compartment in Godhra or burn innocent men and women in Gujarat or bomb the trains or bomb Mumbai, It is me, who is the criminal and I should be punished, and each individual should be punished who does that ugly crime. Does blaming my family members make any sense to you? Does blaming the State of Karnataka make sense to you? Does blaming India make sense to you? Does blaming Islam or Hinduism I claim to practice makes sense to you?

We all have the base emotions playing at us, the terrorist find excuses to blame injustice or some other idiotic excuse to kill us, and some of us are eager to act on our base emotions to harm the ones who have done no harm to us.

In the press release below, I took out the Prefix- terrorism attached to the name of the religion. Here is a letter from Iffat Khan about the flier.

Mike Ghouse, Moderator
Dallasindians@yahoogroups.com
______________________________________________________________________
As a proud Indian and Muslim, I felt a great need to join my Indian compatriots who held the prayer ceremony in memory of the victims of the Mumbai carnage at the DFW temple.

I laud you for having taken the initiative for a “new dialogue” to promote peace. But, I am dismayed at the choice of language in your call for dialogue on “Islamic Terrorism”. Labeling the acts of few disaffected beings to vilify the religion Islam does not promote dialogue. Terrorism has no religion, and has been and is being committed by Hindus in India and SriLanka; and by Jews and Christians elsewhere -- i.e. by people professing various faiths. These acts have NEVER been labeled Hindu, Jewish or Christian Terrorism. I, therefore, beseech you to refrain from labeling atrocious acts as “Islamic”.

It behooves people of conscience to use greater prudence in the choice of words, especially if they genuinely espouse "dialogue". Remember one of the debates we have all had in our schooling - "The Pen is mightier that the Sword".

Ardently striving (JIHAD) for peace, justice,charity and fraternity--the cornerstones of Islam.

Iffat Khan
______________________________________________________________________
Chandra Siv
Date: Sun Dec 7, 2008 12:25 am
Subject: North American Hindus Call for a New Dialogue on Terrorism -

Dear Mike,

I understand that you had called and attended the Shanti Homam performed at the DFW Hindu Temple to-day, Dec 6, 2008 morning along with ...... Akram from IANT representing the Islamic faith and Community. I was there too.... distributing the copies of the Press Release.....

Missed talking to you there....Below is the Press Release Dt, Dec 6, 2008, from the North American Hindu Community

PRESS RELEASE

North American Hindus Call for a New Dialogue on Terrorism

The heinous terrorist attack on the City of Mumbai from 26 November, 2008 through 29 November, 2008 that claimed over 200 innocent victims and left over 300 injured is a stark reminder that Terrorism is one of the greatest dangers to the future of peaceful human existence in the world. This incident clearly exposes the fact that it was a cold blooded, well orchestrated attack, with months of planning and preparation behind it, and targeted at destabilizing the democratic and secular society of India in particular and the world at large.

“We are extremely disturbed by this horrible terrorist attack on Mumbai. Our hearts bleed for the departed souls and families who have lost their loved ones, we also feel compelled to state that the people who master-minded this attack should be severely punished. The Hindu community of North America has come together to perform a Shanti Homa (ceremony of peace) to pray for peace for the affected families and also for the world” says Kalyan Viswanathan president of Dallas-based Sanatana Dharma Foundation.

The Shanti Homam at the DFW Hindu Temple, Irving, Texas attracted members of over 30 Hindu organizations living in the DFW metro area. Members of the Jewish and Islamic faiths were also present at the ceremony where prayers for world peace and solace for the affected families were offered, in the Sanskrit language in a traditional Vedic ritual. “We come together to look into the eyes of terror and say we stand together as one people of the world in support of humanity - Not in despair or hopelessness, but rather in love, strength, resolve, and peace for the present and the future” says Ranna Jani, President of the DFW Hindu Temple, Irving, Texas. Similar Homam ceremonies were also offered in many cities in United States of America, Canada, Australia and around the world.

Nearly 3 million Hindus live in North America today. India is home to another 900+ Million Hindus. Pluralism or the ability to accept many different belief systems and pathways to God is not new to Hindus. Right from the early Rig Vedic era (5,000 BC), Hinduism aka Sanatana Dharma has upheld and valued the fundamental spiritual freedom and the right of the individual to believe and practice his or her faith. As a result numerous sects and sub-traditions within the family of traditions called Hinduism exist in harmony within India and across the world. Over the ages, Hinduism also welcomed many religions born in distant lands to come into her land to make a home, free from fear of persecution. This has been the very core of the Hindu civilization for many millennia. In keeping with her ancient Hindu pluralistic ethos, India embraced a Secular Constitution after its independence in 1947 further affirming and accepting the co-existence of many diverse faiths in its land. As a non-proselytizing family of religious traditions, Ahimsa (non violence) being one of its core values, Hinduism poses no threat to any other faith community in the world.

However, this essential pluralistic tradition has made India vulnerable to threats that have come into its lands from afar and within. Since 2004 alone, nearly 7000 people lost their lives due to terrorist attacks. Behind every terrorist attack is the same ideology that sanctions violence against innocent people, in the name of a particular religion and its God. We are concerned that the civilized world and India in specific, which are committed to democracy and pluralism, are increasingly under threat.

Even as our heart goes out to the innocent victims of this heinous crime and we affirm the validity of different paths and religious traditions in this world, we are obliged in this hour of crisis to raise our voice, and say “Enough. We need a new resolve. We need fresh thinking. We need an approach to resolving the problem of Terrorism that does not tip-toe around the hard issues, and keeps making practical compromises, leaving behind the infrastructure that graduates yet another batch of terrorists. We need our Islamic brothers and sisters, who truly believe in peaceful coexistence, to step up and be equal stakeholders in stamping out this deadly cancer from the world”.

Signed by :

Sanatana Dharma Foundation, Dallas, Texas
DFW Hindu Temple, Irving, Texas
Vaishno Devi Temple, Ontario, Canada
North Texas Hindu Mandir, Dallas, Texas
Foundation Against Continuing Terrorism, (FACT), Houston, Texas
Kanchi Kamakoti Seva Foundation, New Jersey
International Sanatana Dharma Society, Omaha, Nebraska
Samskrita Bharati, San Jose, California
United States Hindu Alliance, Atlanta, Georgia
Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Vadtal Dham, Scarborough, Ontario
Kanchi Kamakoti Seva Kendra, Toronto, Canada
Global Hindu Heritage Foundation, Madison, Mississippi
Hindu Mahasabha of America, Houston, Texas
The Arise Arjuna Foundation, New Jersey
Indic Studies Foundation, California
Indian Intellectuals Forum, New York City, New York
Third Eye Meditation Inc., Dallas, Texas
Denton County India Cultural Association, Denton, Texas
SEWA International, USA – Dallas Chapter
National Federation of Indian American Association (NFIA), California
International Kashmir Federation (IKF), San Francisco, California
Global organization of the people of Indian Origin, San Francisco, California
Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, Dallas Chapter
Foundation for Hindu Religious Studies, Cleveland, Ohio
Forum for Religious Freedom, New York City, New York
Yoga Bharati, San Jose, California
Sri Kripalu Kunj Mission, Houston, Texas
Kashmiri Association of North Texas, Dallas, USA
Jagadguru Kripalu Yog, USA
Frisco Vishnu Sahasranama Group, Frisco, Texas
Sanatana Dharma School, Irving, Texas
DFW Hindu TRAC Group, Dallas, Texas
Vedanta Today, Boston, Massachusetts
American Telugu Association (ATA), Irving, Texas
Indo-Caribbean Cultural Council, Trinidad and Tobago, Caribbean
Subhodhayam Group, College Station, Texas
Canadian Hindu Advocay, Toronto, Canada
DFW Gayatri Parivar, Arlingon, Texas
Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Sydney, Australia


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net
www.MikeGhouseforAmerica.net
www.FoundationforPluralism.com
www.WorldMuslimCongress.com
2665 Villa Creek Dr, Suite 206
Dallas, Texas 75234
(214) 325-1916

Mumbai - Elite Ironies

Death Of A Salesman And Other Elite Ironies
TARUN J TEJPAL

ROHINTON MALOO was shot doing two things he enjoyed immensely. Eating good food and tossing new ideas. He was among the 13 diners at the Kandahar, Trident-Oberoi, who were marched out onto the service staircase, ostensibly as hostages. But the killers had nothing to bargain for. The answers to the big questions — Babri Masjid, Gujarat, Muslim persecution — were beyond the power of anyone to deliver neatly to the hotel lobby. The small ones — of money and materialism — their crazed indoctrination had already taken them well beyond. With the final banality of all fanaticism, flaunting the paradox of modern technology and medieval fervour — AK-47 in one hand; mobile phone in the other — the killers asked their minders, “Udan dein?” The minder, probably a maintainer of cold statistics, said, “Uda do.”

Photo: AP
Rohinton caught seven bullets, and by the time his body was recovered, it could only be identified by the ring on his finger. Rohinton was just 48, with two teenage children, and a hundred plans.

A few of these had to do with TEHELKA, where he was a strategic advisor for the last two years. As Indians, we seldom have a good word to say about the living, but in the dead we discover virtues that strain the imagination. Perhaps it has to do with a strange mix of driving envy and blinding piety. Let me just say Rohinton was charismatic, ambitious, and a man of his time, and place. The time was always now, and in his outstanding career in media marketing, he was ever at the cutting edge of the new — in the creation of Star Networks, and a score of ventures on the web. The place was always Mumbai, the city he grew up in and lived in, and he exemplified its attitudes: the hedonism, the get-go, the easy pluralism.

For me there is a deep irony in his death. He was killed by what he set very little store by. In his every meeting with us, he was bemused and baffled by TEHELKA’s obsessive engagement with politics. He was quite sure no one of his class — our class — was interested in the subject. Politics happened elsewhere, a regrettable business carried out by unsavoury characters. Mostly, it had nothing to do with our lives. Eventually, sitting through our political ranting, he came to grudgingly accept we may have some kind of a case. But he remained unconvinced of its commercial viability. Our kind of readers were interested in other things, which were germane to their lives — food, films, cricket, fashion, gizmos, television, health and the strategies of seduction. Politics, at best, was something they endured.

In the end, politics killed Rohinton, and a few hundred other innocents. In the final count, politics, every single day, is killing, impoverishing, starving, denigrating, millions of Indians all across the country. If the backdrop were not so heartbreaking, the spectacle of the nation’s elite — the keepers of most of our wealth and privilege — frothing on television screens and screaming through mobile phones would be amusing. They have been outraged because the enduring tragedy of India has suddenly arrived in their marbled precincts. The Taj, the Oberoi. We dine here. We sleep here. Is nothing sacrosanct in this country any more?

Photo: REUTERS

What the Indian elite is discovering today on the debris of fancy eateries is an acidic truth large numbers of ordinary Indians are forced to swallow every day. Children who die of malnutrition, farmers who commit suicide, dalits who are raped and massacred, tribals who are turfed out of centuryold habitats, peasants whose lands are taken over for car factories, minorities who are bludgeoned into paranoia — these, and many others, know that something is grossly wrong. The system does not work, the system is cruel, the system is unjust, the system exists to only serve those who run it. Crucially, what we, the elite, need to understand is that most of us are complicit in the system. In fact, chances are the more we have — of privilege and money — the more invested we are in the shoring up of an unfair state.

IT IS time each one of us understood that at the heart of every society is its politics. If the politics is third-rate, the condition of the society will be no better. For too many decades now, the elite of India has washed its hands off the country’s politics. Entire generations have grown up viewing it as a distasteful activity. In an astonishing perversion, the finest imaginative act of the last thousand years on the subcontinent, the creation and flowering of the idea of modern India through mass politics, has for the last 40 years been rendered infra dig, déclassé, uncool. Let us blame our parents, and let our children blame us, for not bequeathing onwards the sheer beauty of a collective vision, collective will, and collective action. In a word, politics: which, at its best, created the wonder of a liberal and democratic idea, and at its worst threatens to tear it down.
We stand faulted then in two ways. For turning our back on the collective endeavour; and for our passive embrace of the status quo. This is in equal parts due to selfish instinct and to shallow thinking. Since shining India is basically only about us getting an even greater share of the pie, we have been happy to buy its half-truths, and look away from the rest of the sordid story. Like all elites, historically, that have presided over the decline of their societies, we focus too much of our energy on acquiring and consuming, and too little on thinking and decoding. Egged on by a helium media, we exhaust ourselves through paroxysms over vacant celebrities and trivia, quite happy not to see what might cause us discomfort.

For years, it has been evident that we are a society being systematically hollowed out by inequality, corruption, bigotry and lack of justice. The planks of public discourse have increasingly been divisive, widening the faultlines of caste, language, religion, class, community and region. As the elite of the most complex society in the world, we have failed to see that we are ratcheted into an intricate framework, full of causal links, where one wrong word begets another, one horrific event leads to another. Where one man’s misery will eventually trigger another’s.
Let’s track one causal chain. The Congress creates Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale to neutralise the Akalis; Bhindranwale creates terrorism; Indira Gandhi moves against terrorism; terrorism assassinates Indira Gandhi; blameless Sikhs are slaughtered in Delhi; in the course of a decade, numberless innocents, militants, and securitymen die. Let’s track another. The BJP takes out an inflammatory rath yatra; inflamed kar sewaks pull down the Babri Masjid; riots ensue; vengeful Muslims trigger Mumbai blasts; 10 years later a bogey of kar sewaks is burnt in Gujarat; in the next week 2,000 Muslims are slaughtered; six years later retaliatory violence continues. Let’s track one more. In the early 1940s, in the midst of the freedom movement, patrician Muslims demand a separate homeland; Mahatma Gandhi opposes it; the British support it; Partition ensues; a million people are slaughtered; four wars follow; two countries drain each other through rhetoric and poison; nuclear arsenals are built; hotels in Mumbai are attacked.

IN EACH of these rough causal chains, there is one thing in common. Their origin in the decisions of the elite. Interlaced with numberless lines of potential divisiveness, the India framework is highly delicate and complicated. It is critical for the elite to understand the framework, and its role in it. The elite has its hands on the levers of capital, influence and privilege. It can fix the framework. It has much to give, and it must give generously. The mass, with nothing in its hands, nothing to give, can out of frustration and anger, only pull it all down. And when the volcano blows, rich and poor burn alike.

And so what should we be doing? Well, screaming at politicians is certainly not political engagement. And airy socialites demanding the carpet-bombing of Pakistan and the boycott of taxes are plain absurd, just another neon sign advertising shallow thought. It’s the kind of dumb public theatre the media ought to deftly side-step rather than showcase. The world is already over-shrill with animus: we need to tone it down, not add to it. Pakistan is itself badly damaged by the flawed politics at its heart. It needs help, not bombing.. Just remember, when hardboiled bureaucrats clench their teeth, little children die.

Most of the shouting of the last few days is little more than personal catharsis through public venting. The fact is the politician has been doing what we have been doing, and as an über Indian he has been doing it much better. Watching out for himself, cornering maximum resource, and turning away from the challenge of the greater good.

The first thing we need to do is to square up to the truth. Acknow ledge the fact that we have made a fair shambles of the project of nation-building. Fifty million Indians doing well does not for a great India make, given that 500 million are grovelling to survive. Sixty years after independence, it can safely be said that India’s political leadership — and the nation’s elite — have badly let down the country’s dispossessed and wretched. If you care to look, India today is heartbreak hotel, where infants die like flies, and equal opportunity is a cruel mirage.
Let’s be clear we are not in a crisis because the Taj hotel was gutted. We are in a crisis because six years after 2,000 Muslims were slaughtered in Gujarat there is still no sign of justice. This is the second thing the elite need to understand — after the obscenity of gross inequality. The plinth of every society — since the beginning of Man — has been set on the notion of justice. You cannot light candles for just those of your class and creed. You have to strike a blow for every wronged citizen.

And let no one tell us we need more laws. We need men to implement those that we have. Today all our institutions and processes are failing us. We have compromised each of them on their values, their robustness, their vision and their sense of fairplay. Now, at every crucial juncture we depend on random acts of individual excellence and courage to save the day. Great systems, triumphant societies, are veined with ladders of inspiration. Electrified by those above them, men strive to do their very best. Look around.. How many constables, head constables, sub-inspectors would risk their lives for the dishonest, weak men they serve, who in turn serve even more compromised masters?

I wish Rohinton had survived the lottery of death in Mumbai last week. In an instant, he would have understood what we always went on about. India’s crying need is not economic tinkering or social engineering. It is a political overhaul, a political cleansing. As it once did to create a free nation, India’s elite should start getting its hands dirty so they can get a clean country.

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 49, Dated Dec 13, 2008

Dismantling Terrorism in India

Dismantling Terrorism in India

Indian government must be applauded and appreciated for handling the terrorism wisely. Ramesh Thakur has rightly pointed out the example of Jaswant Singh, India’s foreign minister who escorted the terrorist to get release of the hostages; it must go down in the annals of history as act of wisdom. While India’s approach towards terrorism has contained terrorism, Bush’s mindless aggression has increased terrorism, and it must be condemned for its stupidity. By the way, it is not an American aggression, as the American public is not with the administration and it is the act of the few, just as terrorism was the act of the few. Unfortunately our laws prevent us to take Mr. Bush off the Presidency and save the nation from further ruin, there is no such thing as a no confidence move to get him off, as we do in Israel, India, UK and other democracies.
If some one murders on the street, his ass must be hauled off to Jail and must be tried for his crimes, and not bomb the whole country. We have to isolate the criminals and not lump them with their community. India has done a lot of wise things that we can learn from, including handling of terrorism and containing the evil to the specific act and has not let it spread to the whole nation, nor has it blamed a religion for the acts of the individuals. It is a good example of not making a mess of the situation.

A snap shot of Iraq in 2001 which had nothing to do with terrorism or 9/11; Neither the Sunnis were killing the Shia’s or vice versa. Except the reign of Terror of Saddam, there was no terrorism in the public square. It was progressive secular society and look at today what is happening.

Our aggression has created over half a million widows, who have no one to support but live their livelihood through the flesh trade, as the only supporters their brothers, fathers or husbands are dead. Our aggression has created massive unemployment causing the youth to resort to vandalism and leading to the Shia Sunni rift, a new phenomenon in Iraq because of our aggression. Unless we admit we are the cause of evil in Iraq, we cannot bring a resolution to our collective guilt and liberation and peace to us and the Iraqis. Our presence has caused so much death and destruction. The world has to be repaired from these ventures. Every war, every evil in the world can always be traced to hate filled insecure individuals; religion is just an easy target.

As Ramesh Thakur has pointed out, there is a lot of anger festering in the youth whose parents were burned alive in front of them, or were made homeless for no fault of their own. It was again like an act of Bush, killing the whole township for the evil acts of the few. India has room to set things right and continue to express and act on its traditional wisdom. It needs to bring justice to the people who have suffered in Gujarat, both the victims and victimizers without regard to the religion they wear. Injustice causes the victims to fester and keeps the spark of the anger alive; it can be extinguished only by bringing justice to every Gujarati. Without justice every one remains tense and alert on their toes and live in paranoia. We have an opportunity to live in peace, it is in our interest as Indians, as Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Jews, Tribals and others to put things behind. It can be achieved by repentance, justice and forgiveness. We have to move from cautionary living to unguarded living.

When others are not in peace, we cannot expect peace for us.

Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker and a Writer. He is president of the Foundation for Pluralism and is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing interfaith, political and civic issues. He is the founding president of World Muslim Congress with a simple theme: Good for Muslims and good for the world. His comments, news analysis and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed at his personal website www.MikeGhouse.net. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080728.wcomment0729/BNStory/specialComment/home/

RAMESH THAKUR
Special to Globe and Mail Update
July 28, 2008 at 11:27 PM EDT

Seventeen bomb blasts in a 10-kilometre radius in 70 minutes on Saturday in Ahmadabad. Nine blasts in Bangalore, outsourcing capital of the world, on Friday. A country on the edge of panic.

The world shares in Indians' pain, anger and determination to face down the terrorists, to not give them the triumph of being cowed or the satisfaction of fomenting communal hatred and bloodletting. For security from acts and the fear of terrorism is indeed indivisible, and the world is the battlefield.


We have been here before. In 1993, twin attacks on Bombay's financial centre and Air India building were dress rehearsals of a sort for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York. Then, the world ignored how India and Southwest Asia had joined the front line of global terrorism. No longer.

The most immediate tasks will be to help the victims, tighten security, plug the fatal intelligence gaps and prevent outbreaks of violence against Muslims.
Chances are high the perpetrators will turn out to have pan-Islamic links with the banned Students Islamic Movement of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh or similar groups. All the more reason to insist that not all Muslims are terrorists and not all terrorists are Muslim.

Before the Iraq war, the leading practitioners of suicide terrorism were Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers: Hindus. The most ruthless terrorism in 1980s India was perpetrated by Sikhs. Europe, including Britain, has had its share of Christian terrorists. If anything, India's 140 million Muslims are a salutary negation of the facile thesis about Islam's incompatibility with democracy.

In a billion-strong country with an 80-per-cent Hindu population, the Prime Minister and army chief are Sikhs, the previous president was a Muslim and the power behind the throne is a Catholic of Italian origin — profound testimony to the pluralism and accommodation of India's complex and adaptable power-sharing arrangements. Democratic politics, political freedoms, civil liberties and religious tolerance must be protected at all costs.

But India earned its reputation as a soft state that can be intimidated into meeting terrorists' demands. Jailed terror suspects are released in exchange for kidnapped kin of political leaders. In December, 1999, in a day that will live in infamy in the annals of international terrorism, foreign minister Jaswant Singh personally escorted three terrorists to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in order to secure the release of passengers from a hijacked Indian Airlines flight. One of the freed terrorists was later implicated in 9/11. In response to an attack on Parliament in December, 2001, India mobilized its defence forces for a year along the border with Pakistan at great expense, only to send them back to barracks with no actual action — war-mongering without war.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the anger and disdain of the people for the tough rhetoric followed by no action of successive governments of all parties.
To break out of this trap, India must eliminate the corruption and politicization of the police forces and their antiquated training and equipment, as well as criminalization of politics. The number of parliamentarians with pending criminal cases is alarming. Terrorism thrives and prospers in such conditions.

India habitually points the finger of criminality at Pakistan, whose offers to help with the investigations are repeatedly spurned. Some foreign footprint — training, financing, arming — is likely. But for a foreign government to be able to infiltrate groups of Indians and recruit them to the terrorist cause indicates failures of intelligence and interdiction, on the one hand, and disaffection among sections of the population, on the other.

The intelligence agencies function as autonomous fiefs with little oversight and virtually no accountability for failures and lapses. This is matched by the flaws of the criminal justice system, which is rudimentary and lamentable by the standards of mature democracies.

Justice has neither been done nor seen to be done with respect to the large-scale atrocities against Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. They spawned a crop of angry and twisted young men whose rage can be channelled into lethal terrorist violence.
India also needs to be tough on the causes of terrorism. Poverty is not a direct cause, but it is an incubator of terrorism and a root cause of corruption. New Delhi needs to implement reform in order to maintain rapid economic growth. It also needs to solve its long-running territorial conflicts — more than 90 per cent of suicide terrorists aim to compel military forces to withdraw from territory they consider an occupied homeland. India's terrorism problem is specific to Kashmir, not generic to Muslims.

External involvement in Kashmiri militancy is not absent, however. The world must coax or coerce regimes that are tolerant of export-only terrorist cells to confront the menace. One group's terrorist cannot be tolerated as another's freedom fighter.
The blowback phenomenon has returned to haunt the West, which supported jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan. It also consumed Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. Pakistan remains in danger of tearing itself apart from the inside because of armed elements espousing a variety of foreign extremist causes. These South Asian neighbours must pool resources to root out the tyranny of terrorism throughout the region.

Ramesh Thakur is distinguished fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and professor of political science at the University of Waterloo.

Muslim support for terror

The myth of Muslim support for terror

The issue is not Muslims V. Christians or Jews, Palestinians V. Israelis or other wise, the issue is simply bad people V. all of us.

Blaming Muslims does no good, and it is downright stupid, it rather aggravates the situation to blame Muslims for the acts of a few. It is like saying Americans are bad people for the inhuman acts of those at Abu-Ghraib.

Throw me in the Jail for the wrongs I do, but do not blame my family, my neighbors, my religion or my nation. By blaming the religion, we are pissing of the good people who follow that religion.

Shoot me with a good aim, hoping I am the target but don't shoot blindly and run down Afghanistan, Iraq and the universe. Destroying others for the acts of few have caused the people to be agitated who would otherwise would not have been. We look like maniacs with an open gun with no aim. We need to laser bark

http://mikeghouse.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/12/laser-barking-bark-at-the-terrorists-not-islam.htm . We need compassionate people around to make the world a better place and not revengers.
Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer. He is president of the Foundation for Pluralism and is a frequent guest on talk radio, discussing interfaith and civic issues. He has appeared on the local affiliates of CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, PBS and FOX and has been written up the news papers. He founded the World Muslim Congress on the belief that we all have to live together and we might as well enjoy living it. He believes if people can learn to accept and respect the God given uniqueness of each one of the 7 billion of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge. His articles can be found at www.FoundationforPluralism.com , and http://mikeghouse.sulekha.com/

The myth of Muslim support for terror

The common enemy is violence and terrorism, not Muslims any more than Christians or Jews.
By Kenneth Ballen
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0223/p09s01-coop.html

DEAN ROHRER
WASHINGTON - Those who think that Muslim countries and pro-terrorist attitudes go hand-in-hand might be shocked by new polling research: Americans are more approving of terrorist attacks against civilians than any major Muslim country except for Nigeria .
The survey, conducted in December 2006 by the University of Maryland 's prestigious Program on International Public Attitudes, shows that only 46 percent of Americans think that "bombing and other attacks intentionally aimed at civilians" are "never justified," while 24 percent believe these attacks are "often or sometimes justified."


Contrast those numbers with 2006 polling results from the world's most-populous Muslim countries – Indonesia , Pakistan , Bangladesh , and Nigeria . Terror Free Tomorrow, the organization I lead, found that 74 percent of respondents in Indonesia agreed that terrorist attacks are "never justified"; in Pakistan , that figure was 86 percent; in Bangladesh , 81 percent.

Do these findings mean that Americans are closet terrorist sympathizers?
Hardly. Yet, far too often, Americans and other Westerners seem willing to draw that conclusion about Muslims. Public opinion surveys in the United States and Europe show that nearly half of Westerners associate Islam with violence and Muslims with terrorists. Given the many radicals who commit violence in the name of Islam around the world, that's an understandable polling result.

But these stereotypes, affirmed by simplistic media coverage and many radicals themselves, are not supported by the facts – and they are detrimental to the war on terror. When the West wrongly attributes radical views to all of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims, it perpetuates a myth that has the very real effect of marginalizing critical allies in the war on terror.

Indeed, the far-too-frequent stereotyping of Muslims serves only to reinforce the radical appeal of the small minority of Muslims who peddle hatred of the West and others as authentic religious practice.

Terror Free Tomorrow's 20-plus surveys of Muslim countries in the past two years reveal another surprise: Even among the minority who indicated support for terrorist attacks and Osama bin Laden, most overwhelmingly approved of specific American actions in their own countries. For example, 71 percent of bin Laden supporters in Indonesia and 79 percent in Pakistan said they thought more favorably of the United States as a result of American humanitarian assistance in their countries – not exactly the profile of hard-core terrorist sympathizers. For most people, their professed support of terrorism/bin Laden can be more accurately characterized as a kind of "protest vote" against current US foreign policies, not as a deeply held religious conviction or even an inherently anti- American or anti-Western view.

In truth, the common enemy is violence and terrorism, not Muslims any more than Christians or Jews. Whether recruits to violent causes join gangs in Los Angeles or terrorist cells in Lahore , the enemy is the violence they exalt.

Our surveys show that not only do Muslims reject terrorism as much if not more than Americans, but even those who are sympathetic to radical ideology can be won over by positive American actions that promote goodwill and offer real hope.

America 's goal, in partnership with Muslim public opinion, should be to defeat terrorists by isolating them from their own societies. The most effective policies to achieve that goal are the ones that build on our common humanity. And we can start by recognizing that Muslims throughout the world want peace as much as Americans do.

• Kenneth Ballen is founder and president of Terror Free Tomorrow, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to finding effective policies that win popular support away from global terrorists.

Terrorism is a Menace

Terrorism is a Menace

"We hope that the criminals and their network will be hunted down and punished to the fullest extant of the law. The World Muslim Congress is thankful to Almighty God that the alleged extremists were caught and urges the Muslim community to actively

Dallas, Texas - Monday, June 05, 2006. The World Muslim Congress (WMC) has expressed relief at the arrest of suspected members of a terrorist cell in Canada.

In a statement released today, the WMC has expressed its shock and disappointment in learning about the young members of the Muslim community who are accused of planning terror attacks on fellow citizens in Canada. We, the Muslims of the World Muslim Congress, condemn this terrorist activity and urge the Muslim community around the world to report suspicion of any such activity to their respective Governments. We invite citizens of the world to join together in identifying the sources of terrorist plots and helping our respective governments and international agencies uproot terrorism.

Statements from Muslim leadership from different communities:"Thank God these men were stopped before they could carry out their alleged plot. We would like to commend the RCMP for preempting this action by apprehending the suspects." -- Niaz Salimi, President of the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC)

" Muslims need to recognize that the agenda of these extremists is a cult of hate and fascism, not one of advocacy for the their community.” -- Tarek Fatah, Communications Director of Muslim Canadian Congress

"We hope that the criminals and their network will be hunted down and punished to the fullest extant of the law. The World Muslim Congress is thankful to Almighty God that the alleged extremists were caught and urges the Muslim community to actively seek to expunge extremists in our communities, recognizing that ‘saving one life is like saving the entire humanity‘ as our Prophet and our Holy books urge us to do. -- Mike Ghouse, President, World Muslim Congress

“Terrorism is the antithesis of morality, decency, humanity and peace. It not only hurts the innocents, but it defiles the cause its misguided proponents purport to serve. There is no such thing as collateral damage. It is a myth that the terrorists of all shades use to fool themselves and end up insulting and injuring the causes they think they believe in and hold dear.” -- Mirza A. Beg, Board Member, World Muslim Congress

“United Muslims of America Interfaith Alliance joins the WMC in condemning the alleged terrorist activities that were being planned in Canada. We urge Canadian Muslims and Muslims all over the world to come forward and alert the activities of terrorist groups who urge violence on other people.” -- Iftekhar Hai, President, United Muslims of America Interfaith Alliance, California -- www.Uma.net

“Muslims must realize that indiscriminate violence is both un-Islamic and counter productive. The best way to improve the condition of Muslims worldwide is to bring peace not more violence.” – Dr. Muqtedar Khan, leading proponent of Islamic Ijtehad, www.ijtihad.org

"These terrorists have no authority to represent Islam or commit crimes in behalf of Islam; they are traitors to their religion and their country." -- Claudia G. S. Martins, World Muslim Congress interfaith advisor for Latin America from Brazil


"Terrorism is not just a problem for the USA or Canada but it is a menace for the entire human race. The international community should act together to foil the evil designs of terrorists, who are out to create chaos and discord, and resolve to fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and that includes state sponsored terrorism.” – Ashraf Abbasi, Chair, Pakistan American Congress, pacongress.com/


"Terrorism, which consists of targeting and killing innocent civilians, is clearly against Islam, and against all major religions. It is immoral, unethical, and it destroys lives of innocent people. Muslims have many legitimate grievances, but there is no grievance that can justify the taking of a single innocent life. Even if our enemies target or kill innocent civilians, this does not make the practice acceptable. Two wrongs do not make a right. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) would have never accepted nor tolerated those who practice terrorism." – Radwan A. Masmoudi, President, Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy, www.islam-democracy.org/

“American Muslim Forum is deeply disturbed, shocked and condemns the alleged planned terrorist activities in Canada. We dissociate ourselves with any individuals or groups claiming to represent us or our religion with their alleged heinous plans and hope they will bear the just full brunt of law. – Dr. Mohammad Khalid, President, American Muslim Forum, www.AmericanMuslimForum.com

World Muslim Congress joins Muslims around the world in unequivocally condemning the very idea of terrorism. Terrorism is negation of peace and justice which are the deeply rooted tenets of Islam. We invite and urge all Muslims to follow the practices enjoined by Islam to resist oppression of all types and most of all terrorism. Terrorism saps the strength of the people to bring about justice, peace and harmony.

The World Muslim Congress is in its formative stages with the specific purpose of creating an inclusive platform for a serious dialogue to lead to a better world for all human beings. It has been functioning as American Muslim Agenda for the last two years.

Contact information:

Mike Ghouse, President
World Muslim Congress
3928 Brazos Drive, Carrollton, TX 75007
E-mail address MikeGhouse@gmail.com

Bark at Terrorists not Muslims

LASER BARKING: Bark at Terrorists not Muslims

Mike Ghouse, Dallas,
Texas 09/11/06

If I were to commit a crime, I must be punished by the laws of the land. I must be blamed for it , not my family, not my neighbors, not my employer, and certainly not my religion. Even though I may claim to be a Muslim, the act is mine and not approved by the Muslim community, please just go along with me now.

I have debated about this quite often with myself and have often won and have lost a few times, paradoxically at the same instance. Please put your wisdom hat and take a look at this proposition.

The following statements and questions are the frame of reference to go further from here:
How would you suggest I describe the terrorist attacks carried out by “radical Muslims” since they use Islam as a shield for their murderous acts?
Using the word “Moderate Muslim” is certainly pleasing to almost all Muslims, as they are. However, Muslims have difficulty in getting classified on a group basis. It will tick the “Radicals” even more, we can choose to embrace or confront them whichever produces the best results for the overall peace and prosperity of the society.

Please avoid using the words terrorism as a prefix or suffix to the words Islam or Muslim. We should not fall into the pit of taking out on religions - religions are always peaceful, it is the individuals who are bad. The phrases “Islamist terrorism” and “Islamist fascism” are counter productive, just terrorism would be the right choice. By just using the word terrorism, we will not be alienating “Moderate Muslims”, who make up 98% of the Muslim population.
All wars start with words. So do the conflicts within the family, community, or friends circle starts with the wrong choice of words.

If the goal of societies is to work on acceptable co-existence, then we have the following choices to make from an extremist point of view to a liberal thought and a whole range of options in between. What would you come up with, and why?

Explore if the actions of the terrorists were prompted by any reason that can be addressed or removed. We have to have goodwill within us to assume that they are humans and their motivations are similar to ours; a peaceful life, respect, family and worship. If we are flawed, we are no better than them.

Get them to dialogue. The thought of wiping them off the face of the earth may subside our short-term rage, but will aggravate the conflict even more. As there is difference between child abuse and child discipline, there is a difference in how we handle the terrorists. It will take a few more generations to unburden the guilt of Holocaust.

What guarantee do we have that we will not produce Hitler’s, Crusaders or the inquisition gang again? We did the right thing by not bashing their religions, had we done that, the conflict would have been eternal. Can we apply that logic to the terrorists.

By barking at Muslims (insinuating all Muslims) which comes from prefixing the word terrorist with Islam or Muslim, we are being un-just and are not sincere about building goodwill - meaning our intent for peace is not forthright, we are biased and confirming it with the logic in hidden words. Let's earnestly seek the peace and work for co-existence. Let's learn to bark at the right people; the criminals. Let's not give them the privilege of the word Islam or Muslim. They are pure criminals and let's treat them as such. Those wordings will gain a lot more support from Muslims, who are great people, like the people in every faith.

Bomb them all and clean the world of all Arabs first, next get the Muslims out, then get all Muslims sympathizers out, and finally get every one out who is opposed to wiping them off. The world would be a heaven, wouldn’t it ?

Then the right wing extremists will clean the world of all the Jews, Hindus, Catholics, Mormons, Baptists, Lutherans, Pagans and any one who is not a member of their party. Then who will be left? Remember Martin Niemöller's poem? The thought of cleansing is more dangerous to our world and is responsible for spurring terrorism.

If we understand our choices, we need to develop the attitudes that will seek solutions, and bring sustainable peace and equilibrium to the society. Our actions towards them are based on our arrogance and that makes the terrorists dig in their heels. Our cry for peace is as fake as their cry for solutions.

Terrorism is succeeding because we are pushing them. Some 20 years have gone by since the fall of the evil Russian Empire, which we eagerly replaced by Muslims as the evil. Neither our attitudes nor our actions have worked because we believe in our might and not in our wisdom.

Islam forbids war, suicide, compulsion, oppression and killing of any one, unless it is in self-defense. So is every faith! Let’s separate bad guys from religion. Throw me in the ditch for the wrongs I do, do not crucify my family, my neighbors or my religion. Don’t let me escape by broadening your shooting range to a billion Muslims.

My suggestion is to laser bark, meaning bark at the criminals for who they are. Don’t create a whole world around them to be blamed, don’t bomb the whole country for it, don’t give them a religion to be blamed, and don’t shift the blame on anything that surrounds them. Just laser bark at the criminals and then we will make progress.

If we had laser barked at Osama Bin Laden; 3000 of our men and women, 600,000 + Iraqi's, families in Afghanistan celebrating weddings. Perhaps even 2000+ Lebanese, 400+ Israeli Soldiers and now thousands of Children, men and women's life in Gaza is endangered. I seriously question if AhmediNejad would have been emboldened to make evil statements. The problem is our disorientation more so than the few Satan's tempting us. Thanks God, democracy is re-stored in America and reason and logic will prevail and once again, we will earn our name in the community of nations that we, the Americans are a fair, kind, rational and reasonable people committed to stand for the liberty and justice for all.

By barking at the Universe, we have failed to point our gun at the bad guys… Let’s not bark at Muslims or Islam, instead go after the wrong doers. Results are bound to come.

Mike Ghouse is a free thinker and a pluralist with the aptitude to find solutions. He believes that if we can learn to accept and respect the God given uniqueness of each one of the seven billion of us, conflicts fade and solutions emerge. Mike can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com and at the websites http://www.mikeghouse.net/ and http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/ and http://www.worldmuslimcongress.com/