I n d i a n M u s l i m s L e a d i n g E n g l i s h N e w s p a p e r , p u b l i s h e d s i n c e J a n u a r y 2 0 0 0

MG THE
Fortnightly
287 Vol. 13 No. 1

MILLI GAZETTE
1-15 January 2012 24 pages
State terror 8-9 Reservation 1,2 U.P elections . 3,7 Indian Muslims/Israel 3 Caste 9 AIMPLB 15 Riots 2,4 Mayawati 7 Gujarat 10 MG 1,23 Kandhamal 4 J&K 10

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VICTIM OF STATE TERROR...8-9

PROF. MUHAMMAD IQBAL... 12

Analysis 11 Special Reports 3,13 Issues 2,12-13 Books 19 National 3-22 International 16-18 Speaking Out 14 Newsmakers 12 14-15 Community News Our Publications 20 Islamic Perspectives 21 Classifieds 22 Letters 23

4.5% : Congress sleight of hand

ZAFARUL-ISLAM KHAN
heating is the name of the game when it comes to offering any real benefit to the Muslim community. In 1947, Muslims enjoyed reservation not only in government services but also in the legislatures, but it was taken away in the Constituent Assembly where defeatist Muslim members were coaxed to demand the removal of reservations for Muslims. In turn, Muslims were promised the moon: that in free India they will get more than they dream. And the result six decades later stares in our face - it is really what we failed to dream. From being on top at the time of independence, we lie today at the bottom of the Indian communities as per Sachar Report. In 1950, through a constitutionally doubtful Presidential Order even Muslim and Christian dalits were deprived of their right to reservation and the wisdom offered ever-since is that as per Constitution, reservation cannot be given to any religious community. The facts deny it: reservation to dalits is religion-specific as they enjoy it only while they remain Hindu and as soon as they shun Hinduism the same is snatched away from them. Waiting in vain for decades, Christian and Muslim dalits

Joke...tokenism...dangerous...
While Left and Samajwadi parties have criticised the quota of 4.5 % as "most inadequate" and "tokenism," Muslim organisations like Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, All India Ulema Mashaikh Board (AIUMB) and All India Muslim Majlise Mushawarat strongly criticised the 4.5% quota within quota for all minorities, terming it as "joke" and cheating But the same is a "dangerous political game" of Congress, according to the BJP which claimed on 23 December that this could result in a "civil war" among different communities in the country. BJP VicePresident Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi charged the ruling Congress party of exploiting the Muslim votes for political gains for the last 60 years. "This quota within quota 'lollipop' is also part of the Congress' political exploitation campaign. This is the biggest fraud of the Congress and its government against the Muslims as well as the Constitution. On one hand, it is constitutionally wrong and on the other Muslims are not going to benefit by this," Naqvi said. "By injecting the cocaine of quota, Congress is conspiring to hijack the Muslim votes. We will not allow this dirty and dangerous game to succeed...," he added.

went to the Supreme Court a few years back seeking justice. in the general OBC quota of 27%. The fact is that this quota All the signs are that the verdict will favour them but the central was already available to some Muslim biradaris included in the government has chosen not to reply to the apex court queries OBC list. What is new is that that old quota has been segregat- a clear sign of playing for time in order to delay the verdict. ed and identified so that minorities alone may avail of it. Not only this, sources in the central government say that if the This "4.5%" is now being marketed by Congress spin docverdict went in favour of Christian and Muslim dalits, the gov- tors as a sop to the "Muslims" while the fact is that it is for all ernment will appeal seeking a larger bench to look into the religious communities which, like Sikhs, Christians and Parsis, case - yet another delaying and denying tactic. are much more well-placed to avail this facility than Muslims. At After the eye-opening Sachar Report, the central govern- best the Muslim share out of this 4.5% will not exceed 2.5%. ment itself appointed a high-level commission headed by a forIn sum, this "sop" is another sleight of hand by the mer chief justice of India (Justice Mishra) to suggest a remedy. Congress, while both the Congress and BJP practically follow This was in October 2004. After years of deliberations, Mishra the same policy of turning Muslims into new dalits. It is for Commission presented its report to the government on 21 May Muslims to see if they are ready to accept this status or if they 2007. The government has since been sleeping on it. First it wish to change their fate using all possible avenues especially tried to keep it secret but somehow the report was leaked and political empowerment by becoming a political force instead of now it is in public domain. It clearly recommends 15% reserva- remaining a captive vote bank. tion for minorities, out of which the Muslim share is 10% and any percentage left unused of the share of other ccording to a report released by the on broader perspective India must step forreligious communities will Asian Centre for Human Rights in the ward to take the lead in establishing South also revert to Muslims. Since past ten years police have killed on an Asian Human Rights Commission in order to then we have been hearing average four a day in police and judicial cus- deal with cases of human rights violation in the various excuses - that the tody. As per the report the number of custodial region. Ganguly while speaking on the occaUPA does not want to antagdeaths between 2001 to 2010 is 14,231 which sion of Human Rights Day function organised onise Hindu voters, that works out on an average of at least four custo- at OP Jindal Global University at Sonipat said reservation to religious comdial deaths daily. Of these total deaths 1504 that religious violence, social deprivation and munities is "unconstitutional" people died in police custody and 12,727 died lack of political will comes in the way of devel(a former chief Justice was in judicial custody. In the same period Uttar opment of human rights. The Centre for blissfully unaware of this Pradesh registered a maximum of 331 custodi- Promotion of Human Rights Teaching & "fact"). And now, as elections al deaths followed by Bihar (136), Maharashtra Research in association with Equal in a number of states, partic(130), Andhra Pradesh (106), Punjab (96), Opportunity Office of Jawarharlal Nehru ularly U.P. approached, we Rajasthan (85), Madhya Pradesh (84), Tamil University organised a seminar on Human heard that the central governNadu (77), Gujarat (75) and West Bengal (73). Rights Education in India: Past, Present and ment after all is going to give Earlier, report released by the United Nations, Future in order to gauge the progress made by reservation to Muslims, and the Working Group on Human Rights in India India for the promotion of teaching and that it will be close to the rechas presented a very bleak scenario of human research on human rights education and ommendations of Mishra. It rights in India. Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth duties. Despite paucity of figures available on finally came out on 22 Human Rights Initiative Executive Director has human right violation or highlighted by various December in a hasty decision said that the existing institutions are in despair human rights groups the Prevention of Torture designed to beat the Election and failing our needs and our police and judi- Bill, 2010 has not been sincerely tabled in parCommission announcement ciary needs more reforms and accountability. liament to get it passed at the earliest. It is of polls (after which such an In order to stretch out further on issues per- believed that the draft of the bill is very close to announcement would have taining to human rights violation AK Ganguly, the UN convention against torture. defied the model code). MOHAMMAD NAUSHAD KHAN Supreme Court Judge has recently said that Minorities, and not Muslims were offered 4.5% sub-quota

During last 10 years, Police killed 4 in custody daily

MG/Yusuf

MG, media and Muslims

Supporter of Gujarat rioters

Demolisher of Babri

Supporter of saffron terror

Enemy of minorities

Parliament has to be saved from such people also

With this issue, The Milli Gazette starts its 13th year. This is a matter of pride and joy for a publication which from the very beginning chose to swim against the tide and took up issues not appreciated by the so-called mainstream media and powers that be. Yet this is also a fact that we have been accumulating losses every single issue since MG was launched in January 2000 as a bid to give voice to the voiceless community which has no presence in English, the language increasingly read and even spoken by the old and the new emerging elite in the country, while Muslim media in India remains mostly limited to Urdu publications. Even this media is being slowly snatched away from the community as non-Muslim corporates are entering the Urdu press and buying away successful newspapers like Inquilab and Azad Hind besides starting a new ones like Rashtriya Sahara which, thanks to huge resources, became number one Urdu daily

published from over a dozen locations. No doubt, you still find some news of Muslim interest in these publications but the policies are set by their corporate owners whose sole concern is raking profits and serving their national and international masters. This is clear when these publications support international corporate agenda like pressing for FDI in retail business in India. We had thought that within 2-3 years MG will not only stand on its feet but will also progress to become a weekly publication. But this remains a dream. Our community does not seem to be putting its money where its mouth is. Unless you buy your copy of MG and advertise in it, we will not survive for long. As of now, we have decided to reduce our pages from 32 to 24 and to trim our long list of complimentary subscriptions. This will reduce our losses to some extent but the gap will still be huge.

EDITOR

2 The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012

ISSUES / OPINION

Rotten Roots, Rotten Fruits

rom the times when India was called The Golden Bird, till today, when it has been recognized as The Silicon Valley of Asia, the country has proved its excellence on many counts. Be it in the field of sports, literature or science, our countrymen have proved their worth. But, quite honestly, I feel this is no development until our government ceases treating the minorities as though they are inferior creatures! This is one of the main reasons as to why India is still lingering behind in progress. Rotten roots yield rotten fruits Injustice has taken its worst form despite the fact that weve come a long way from being subjects to being citizens. This has reached a saturation point in India, where we boast of having a heterogeneous society with the so-called unity in diversity. Our nation stands on the very verge of despair like a castle built on sand. In this age, when unity is seen as the need of the hour, hatred against Muslims holds sway over millions of people, including the leaders. They seem to have forgotten the fact that

they are their own brothers and compatriots. How can one forget the awful comment made by the Shiv Sena boss in 1993:If you take Mein Kampf and if you remove the word Jew and put in the word Muslim that is what I believe. Or Varun Gandhi who said during electioneering in 2009, All the Hindus stay on one side and send them to the other side. This is the Lotus Hand. I will cut their throats after elections. Is this what we call a secular state? Why then, do these people demand respect when they themselves cannot give respect? And for sure these remarks show a great deal of character that these people have! Why is it that when bomb blasts or anything of that sort occurs, Muslims are always at the receiving end? They are made to feel, through bitter experience, that they are the outcaste and that they alone are responsible for all the chaos in the nation. It is a fact that time and again they fail to find any evidence against Muslims yet they are the prime suspects. After 2006 Malegaon blasts, 115 Muslims were arrested and all, except nine, were released after 5 years of torture and maltreatment. The remaining innocents remained behind bars until last

month despite Swami Aseemanands confession last year. 63 Muslims who had remained in jail for nine years for alleged involvement in the Godhra train incident of 2002 were released for they did not have any evidence against them and it is by now, crystal clear that it was nothing but an engineered conspiracy by the state government itself in which more people died than 9/11. In July, last year 11 Muslim youth, who were accused of Haren Pandya murder, were set free after 5 years due to the lack of proof against them. 21 Muslims, who had been implicated for the Mecca Masjid bomb blasts of 2008, were released because they were innocent. How can one even think of development in India in such a pitiable state, when real culprits are left scot-free? How can we dream of Indias name in the list of developed nations when we still live with such predicaments? The ideal progress will be when every hand gets a chance to reach the fruits of development and we cannot achieve this until a concrete step is taken to wipe out the differences. Though books like Who Killed Karkare?, To The Last Bullet and Godses Children have done wonders to expose the reality to the common people yet our leaders need to realize that every finger is significant in its own place but the power of a fist is remarkable. NADA ZAIM FARUQI, AMU

The reality of 4.5%

I like to draw your attention towards Muslim OBC reservation. You must be clear in your mind that Central Government is not doing something new. They are simply bifurcating 27% OBC quota to identify the proportion of Muslims. Out of this, 8.44% share should be identified for minority OBCs and among them 6% share should be for Muslim OBCs. This is according to the wishes of Mandal Commission. Media and some Muslim leaders and even some Hindu leaders are not clear about this bifurcation. They are thinking that the central government is going to provide some new reservation for Muslims like meeting the demand of Ranganath Mishra Commission. Some are saying that by this way Hindu OBCs will be at a loss. These Muslim OBCs are already covered under 27% reservation for OBCs. Their share will be identified by this way so as to give 6% to Muslim OBCs and the rest to other minority OBCs. Now upto 140 biradaris have been declared Muslim OBC in the Common Central List, while the UP state list is different as the state list contains only 38 Muslim briadaris, and its proportion is about 85% of the total Muslim population in the state. These biradaris are included in the BC list on the ground of their social and educational status according to the Constitutions aricle 16(4) and not for being Muslims only. After passing about 20 years, still only 6% OBCs are in the Central jobs. Out of this 4% are Hindu OBCs and only 0.85% are Muslims while the rest are other OBCs. Here the question arises as to why Hindu OBCs will be against Muslims? The fact is that about 14.6% of their quota is still unused. Our share must be 6% but Muslim OBCs are only 0.85% in the central government jobs. I hope this makes it clear that the government is not providing any new reservation for Muslims. Dr Idrees Qureshi General Secretary, All India Muslim Backward Classes Federation, Old DPI campus, Near Tajul Masajid, Bhopal, M. P. idreesdr@gmail.com
Indian Muslims Leading English Newspaper

Rising Communal Violence

AYESHA PERVEZ
ayeshapervez1@gmail.com Targeted communal violence like the Mumbai and Gujarat riots are heavily publicised. However, many lesser-known riots regularly take place in India, the most recent being the Moradabad riots in Uttar Pradesh in August, the Bharatpur riots in Rajasthan in September, and the Rudrapur riots in Uttarakhand in October. If we look closely at these recent cases of communal violence, we see the trend of police complicity wherein they have colluded not only with the dominant community but also with right-wing groups to perpetrate violence against the Muslim minority. The violence in Bharatpur claimed nine lives, all Muslims; 19 of the 23 grievously injured were also Muslims; a mosque was vandalised; and perhaps the most glaring aspect of this incident was that the police fired 219 bullets at the Muslims in a mosque. Police atrocities against the Muslim minority were again evident within three weeks of the Bharatpur violence, when Muslims in Rudrapur (Uttarakhand) went to the police station to complain about two incidents of desecration and burning of the Quran within a span of three days. Not only did the police refuse to lodge an FIR, they also took no action against the culprits. When the group of Muslims protested and refused to leave the police station without an FIR being lodged and action taken, the police started a lathi-charge which resulted in stone-pelting by protestors. In response, the police opened fire at the protestors killing four Muslims and injuring many others. A Hindu mob that had gathered during the firing began destroying shops and setting vehicles on fire. An important aspect to be noted here is that, in both incidents, Muslims had approached the police only to demand action against miscreants. Instead of controlling the situation by taking immediate action, the police played the role of catalyst in escalating the violence. The polices response of not only denying justice but actually participating in the rioting against Muslims reiterates the communal bias entrenched in our police machinery. This kind of bias, if unchecked and left unaccounted, increases the level of mistrust felt by the minority towards the law and order mechanism, and results in deep scepticism about the states protection and justice machinery. India has faced communal riots since Independence. If we study the justice and reparation process of riots over the last 64 years of independence, we see that on most counts victims have failed to get justice and the perpetrators have never been held accountable in the absence of any strong and exclusive legislative tool to address this violence. In all these cases, existing IPC provisions have proven inadequate in addressing targeted violence. These limitations have been addressed in the pending Communal Violence (Prevention) Bill. The most remarkable aspect of the proposed legislation is that it holds public servants accountable for their negligent behaviour or wilful failure in controlling riots in their area. An officer can
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be prosecuted if he fails to act without adequate reason. Not only the complicit officer, his superior too can be punished for the omissions/commissions of his subordinates, if it can be proved that the superior had information about the situation and he failed to issue appropriate orders and directions to his subordinates. Relief, reparation, restitution and compensation become the right of every victim of communal and targeted violence. Compensation and reparation will be in accordance with the loss and damage; victims will have to be rehabilitated in their areas, and the state will have to ensure the safety and security of the rehabilitated victims. The bill also defines the new offence of sexual assault which goes beyond the narrow definition of rape. Rape requires penile penetration whereas sexual assault includes causing harm to reproductive organs, disrobing a person or compelling a person to undress, exposing ones sexual organs in front of a person or subjecting them to sexual indignity, exhibiting private parts, and inserting sharp objects into a persons private parts. The bill also constitutes a National Authority for Communal Harmony, Justice and Reparation and a state authority of the same name whose objective it will be to prevent acts of communal and targeted violence, control the spread of organised communal and targeted violence, monitor due investigation, prosecution and trial of offences, and monitor relief, reparation and restitution in a fair and impartial manner. The draft bill, which still has to see a debate in Parliament, has been attacked by right-wing groups calling it anti-Hindu. What they fail to understand is that Hindu minorities too are covered under the bill in states where they form a minority population. Further, it covers all religious and linguistic minorities in India and scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Under the bill, relief shall be granted to all, including minorities, non-minorities, SCs, non-SCs, STs and non-STs affected by communal and targeted violence. We already have a similar legislative tool in India -- the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act -- which protects particular social groups like dalits and tribals. The new bill has been drafted along similar lines. The Indian state, till date, has not effectively been able to protect this minority neither from communal violence nor from day-to-day exclusion. These factors have resulted in a high level of mistrust between Indian Muslims and the state. Strong protective legislation is the right of the minority community to address targeted violence against them and hold the perpetrators and failed police and government machinery accountable. Minorities, especially Muslims who are targeted on a regular basis, need this in the growing environment of insecurity and fear. It is also important for reinstating trust in the government, and will empower the community to fight for justice and reparation. This calls for the government to act proactively to create an environment where, first and foremost, this minority community feels it is being protected and that it has access to strong legal tools and redressal mechanisms to address specific forms of exclusion and protection of human rights.
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The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012 3

Parties wooing Muslims ahead of U.P. polls

MASOOD HASAN
Lucknow: Political parties have geared up to woo the Muslim minority as the election to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly draws closer. The Muslim community constitutes 18 per cent of the states population. Chief Minister Mayawati has shot off a letter to the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh demanding reservation to the Muslims. She followed it up with another letter to draw PMs attention to the Central Government withholding of funds earmarked for the welfare of minorities, particularly the Muslims and OBCs. The two letters were released to the media. I have always been committed to the cause of Muslims and way back in 1995 when I formed my first government, I had ordered reservation in all state government jobs for as many as 38 Muslim castes and sub-castes, under the category of OBCs, Mayawati pointed out. She added that she has now set up a new university in Lucknow named after the founder of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Kanshiram for promotion of Urdu, Arabic and Persian languages. "Besides, I have also instituted a scholarship of Rs.25,000 together with a bicycle to all Muslim girls pursuing the course of Alim (intermediate), she said. Mayawati has also sought to draw the attention of the Prime Minister to the long-pending issue of recognition of Islamic educational institutions under the category of minority institutions. A bill in this regard was duly approved by the Assembly but was still pending with the Central Government, she said. The Chief Minister in her letter pointed out that the Central Government was sitting over a grant of Rs.381 crore earmarked for Multi-Sectoral Development Plan, against which the state had already released the statutory matching grant of Rs.97 crore. Referring to yet another provision for the uplift of Muslims and the most downtrodden among OBCs, she stated: As against the Central Governments assured funding of Rs.5,286 crore for scholarships to Muslims and Most Backward Castes (MBCs), the state government had received only Rs.346 crore while the remaining grant of Rs.3,372 crore was still held back by the centre. In an appeal to the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister said: This is to request you to kindly accord due importance to this significant issue of the welfare and uplif of the minorities in general and Muslim community in particular. A day after Mayawati wrote to the Prime minister demanding reservation for the Muslims, Muslim leaders slammed it as pre-poll politics and said the CM was not serious about the issue. She should follow the established democratic procedure of first getting a resolution passed in the Assembly. They pointed out that the state has not made any progress in implementation of the recommendations of the Ranganath Mishra Commission that there should be 15 per cent reservation for Muslims in the OBC quota. The Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has criticized the Chief Minister and said that her letter to the Prime Minister demanding reservation to Muslims was an insult to the community. He told reporters that Mayawati Government is not serious about the problems being faced by Muslims. He described the letter written by her ahead of the Assembly polls as a poll gimmick. While citing Sachar Committee recommendations, Azam Khan said Kerala and Andhra Pradesh have provided reservation to the Muslims but nothing was done in Uttar Pradesh. He said that the BSP Government was anti-Muslim as it had failed to provide letter of authorization to Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar University so that it could start admissions. He said that an Arabic-Persian university was opened under his regime and was not named after an Arabic or Persian scholar but the BSP founder late Kanshi Ram. I respect late Kanshi Ram but it is only after his death that I have come to know that he was an Arabic scholar, he said sarcastically. Kamal Farooqui, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said that if she is really serious about it then she should have passed the resolution first. The Centre too will obviously see through it and they are unlikely to take it seriously. Muslims supported her last time and got nothing in return. I do not have the figures in front of me but vast funds have remained unspent in Muslim majority districts of Uttar Pradesh and the state government has not tried to change. Maulana Arshad Madani, who heads one of the factions of Jamiat Ulama-e Hind, said he had written many times to the Central Government on the issue of Muslim reservation but Mayawatis letter was nothing more than vote bank politics. She is the Chief Minister with the mandate to implement Muslim reservation but she has not moved a finger. Jamaat-e-Islami Hind central consultative council member Mujtaba Farooq said her move was a last ditch effort to woo the Muslims. Mayawati is scared which forces her to resort to a semblance of quota politics, he said.

New Delhi: A conference sponsored by International Human Rights Protection Council was held in Delhis Mavlankar Hall on 10 December which is observed as Human Rights Day. Speaking on this occasion Ram Jethmalani, noted Supreme Court lawyer and former union minister said all of us should work together for the protection of rights of all men and fraternities of the world and as long as I am alive I will continue fighting for human rights. Praising Islam and its Prophet he said that a prophet like Muhammad was not born in any religion. He said that I am a Hindu but I am also a worshipper of Islam and I read Gita as much I read the Quran. He said in the period of Caliphate of Islam, maximum work on human rights was done during that period. He said that putting the blame of terrorism on Muslims is wrong and because of some elements no community or religion as a whole can be branded. He said that many people always talk about jehad in a wrong sense because they do not know what Jehad is. He said that taking a life is a great sin in Islam. He said that whoever believed in the teachings of the Prophet automatically began to work for the protection of human rights but today we are afraid of calling a thief a thief which Islam never permits. He said that in Islam the status and importance of knowledge is bigger and higher than martyrdom. Dr. Tajuddin, one of the speakers said that there are many prisoners in Indian jails who if at all are punished, their sentence should not be more than 15 or 20 days but they are not getting bail even after 5 years. Is it not a gross violation of human rights, he asked. Organiser of this Conference Chaudhari Jamshed Alam said that even though draconian laws have been enacted in the world for the protection of human rights and against violation of human rights but in spite of all this, there is no end to gross violation of human rights. On this occasion Shahid Azmi, Correspondent of Urdu daily Hindustan Express, was given an award for the best reporting. (NA Ansari)

NATIONAL Prophet Muhammad unsurpassed: Jethmalani

Six more innocent Muslims released

New Delhi: It is not understood why in spite of being admonished many times by courts Delhi police does not learn anything and continues to arrest innocent Muslims on frivolous and concocted charges of terrorism but when they are presented in courts, police accusations and concocted charges are found totally false and they are released. Another similar case was brought to Delhis lower court in Dwarka. Delhi police had arrested six Kashmiri youths near Delhis Indira Gandhi Airport in 2005 and after presenting them before the media had claimed to the media persons that these hard core Kashmiris were arrested near the airport at National Highway No. 8 after a fierce encounter. They had come from Jaipur and wanted to bomb the airport. Police claimed having recovered fake army uniforms, hand grenades and A.K. 47 rifles from their possession. The case against them continued for six years. Last week, on 8 December court cleared them of all charges and released them. Justice Virendra Bhat clearly said in his judgement that on the basis of deposition and proofs submitted, it is found that the encounter they (police) are talking about in fact never took place but Delhi police had fabricated it in its office on paper. Falsifying all accusations of police Justice Bhat said that the fake army uniform that police is talking about was got stitched by the police itself by a tailor of Delhi Cantt who is also an informer of the police and the hand grenade and rifle that police claims to have recovered from these people could not also be presented in court. Justice Bhat in his order releasing these youths said that all those police jawans are complicit in falsely implicating these youths. The judge also ordered that FIR should be filed against them, they should be prosecuted and departmental enquiry also should be made against them. Delhi police, however, not satisfied with the lower courts verdict and also probably to protect their personnel from being legally prosecuted, filed an appeal against the lower courts verdict in the High Court.

Fake Indian Muslim delegation visits Israel

New Delhi: A delegation of some unscrupulous Muslims visited Israel for a week from 5 December. The delegation consisted of some simple-minded clerics who are fond of foreign tours and sightseeing and were told that an opportunity will be given to them to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Israeli embassy in Delhi rebuffed media enquiries about the nature and composition of this delegation. MG enquiries revealed that the main person who persuaded others is an Urdu journalist called SM Asif who publishes an Urdu daily of sorts which is printed in a few hundred copies and distributed in government offices. Other members, according to MG sources, included Omair Ilyasi, the head of the so-called Imams Organisation, Dr Tauqeer Ahmad Khan of the Urdu department of Delhi University, and some nonentities from Lucknow and other places. The so-called editor is reportedly in close contacts with the Israeli embassy in Delhi and had some time ago taken some khadims of Ajmer Dargah to an Israeli function held in New Delhis Claridges Hotel. An obscure English magazine is also published by the office of this editor which contains articles of Israels publicity. Reportedly, last year this editor had also sent his modern daughter to Israel on such a trip. There, while she tried to enter AlAqsa Mosque as a Muslim, the security staff stopped her and asked her to recite Kalma and some ayats of the Quran which she failed to do. It may be stated that ever since Israels embassy was set up in Delhi, this country has consistently been hopelessly trying to make inroads into the Indian Muslim community and it succeeded in making friends with some opportunist, unscrupulous and rootless Muslim clerics, mediamen, Dargahs sajjadas etc. Three years ago a delegation of such a subsequent report the same paper revealed the name of Dr. Tauqeer Ahmad Khan, head of Delhi Universitys Urdu Department who had secretly left for Israel on 2 December. He kept his visit a secret even from his department and did not disclose the details of his visit to even his close friends Israeli President flanked by Khwaja Iftikhar and Ilyasi also nor did he formally hand over his charge to any other during the 2007 visit which was widely condemned person in the Department by Indian Muslims which is being widely conMuslims had gone to Israel. Its members demned by Muslim intellectuals including included a Sajjada Nashin of Dargah teachers of Delhi University. General secHazrat Nizamuddin, Khwaja Iftikhar, leader retary of Progressive Writers Association of the Vajpayee Himayet Committee, edi- and a teacher in Delhi Universitys tors of an Urdu news agency and an Urdu Department of Urdu, Dr. Javed Ali, comdaily. During that meeting the head of the menting on Dr. Tauqeer Ahmad Khans fake Imams Organisation had signed a visit to Israel said that maintaining any kind document with the Israeli President sup- of relationship with a country which is supporting peace and Israeli media had pressing the fundamental and human claimed that this nonentity represents fifty rights of the people of Palestine is a matter thousand Imams in India while in fact this of shame. Azim Akhtar, prominent columfake Imam should be lucky if he can muster nist and former secretary of Delhi Urdu the support of fifty Imams (leaders of Academy, while strongly condemning prayers) in the whole width and breadth of Tauqeer Khans visit to Israel said that it is India. a great misfortune of our time and Muslims The number of such opportunist people that Urdu teachers like Tauqeer Ahmad who, by visiting Israel and enjoying its hos- Khan, who have no contributions to Urdu pitality, support its cruel and oppressive literature, and whose reputation is conpolicies towards Palestine, is increasing fined to the University campus, has gone slowly. Israel is making full use of such self- to an oppressor country like Israel to repish people in order to weaken the cause of resent the Urdu world and added that Palestine while the overwhelming majority Israeli diplomats probably want to draw the of Indian Muslims support Palestine and attention of Indian Muslims towards their the cause of its people who want to regain country through such unknown people. their occupied land. Maulana Ahmad Ali Qasmi, chairing a The Delhi-based Urdu daily Jadeed meeting organised by United Muslim of Khabar was the first to disclose this infor- India, said that such selfish and opportunist mation as the delegation left and returned clerics, journalists etc. should be conin complete secrecy. Muslim leaders and demned as they are joining hands with an intellectuals expressed their strong reac- anti-Islam aggressor and occupier state. tion against the visit of these nonentities. In (NA Ansari & Zafarul-Islam Khan)

Gang rape exposes Gujarat Gaurav

Amreli: The reputation of good governance claimed by the Modi government got tarnished when a member of a village panchayat in Amreli district accused a BJP M.L.A. of gangrape alongwith 17 others. The allegation was made by the husband of the victim in two applications submitted to the police. While six persons (including Dhari BJP M.L.A. Mansukh Bhuva) have been named, 12 others have been shown as unidentified. The incident is reported to have occurred six months ago.

MG NEWS DESK

Quote, Unquote
Many things and issues should be studied and dealt with. Hence, the issue of revising the Camp David Accord will also be in the list of the top priorities to be studied in its appropriate timeThe Camp David Accord has damaged Egypt's honor and dignity. KAMAL AL-HALBAWI Senior Muslim Brotherhood leader, Egypt

4 The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012

NATIONAL
Delhi most unsafe for women: study
Delhi: More than 50 per cent of women feel unsafe while travelling on Indian roads, and the capital was perceived to be the most unsafe of all the metros, a study claimed on 9 December 2011. According to the study, 51 per cent of the women surveyed in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai felt unsafe while travelling on roads while 73 per cent said they were scared of travelling alone at night. The study conducted by Navteq, global provider of navigation enabled maps, and TNS Market Research claims 87 per cent women regarded Delhi as most unsafe city while Mumbai was touted as the safest city by 74 per cent women. While women in Kolkata felt safer than those in Delhi and Mumbai, most women in Chennai felt their city was safer than Delhi but not as safe as Mumbai. The study also claimed that to find their way, most women preferred to seek direction from friends and family before setting out while en-route in unfamiliar areas, a similar number will seek directions from strangers with an aim to overcome the fear of losing their way. The survey carried out across the four metro cities comprised of 760 respondents. Tamil Nadu governments bounty for Muslims Chennai: Tamil Nadu chief minister Ms. Jaya Lalita, in order to give some benefits to Muslims of the state, announced an increase in Haj subsidy from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 20 lakh. This is partly to compensate the state Haj Committee whose activities, administrative and overhead expenses have increased. In addition to this, she also announced an increase in pensions of Masjid Imams, Madrasa teachers and those working in mosques, dargahs etc. for more than 20 years from Rs. 750 to Rs. 1000 p.m. All this will put an additional burden of Rs. 3.12 crores on the state exchequer. She also announced the increase in annual subsidy of Waqf Board upto Rs. one crore and sanctioned a separate amount of Rs. 3 crores for the increased pension benefits of former employees of Waqf Board. Desecration of the Quran: five minors released on bail New Delhi: Allahabad High Court granted bail to six persons on 1 December including five minor children who were arrested in connection with the violence between Muslims of Dengerpur, Minather villages of Muradabad and police following desecration of the Quran by the police. The sixth person granted bail is the Pradhan of the village, named Kamil. Minors who were released on bail are Qamrul Hasan, Bilal, Muhammad Rafi, Muhammad Mujeeb and Tahzeeb. It may be recalled that because of the desecration of the Quran by the police in Muradabads village on 6 July 11,. Muslims were protesting against the desecration. Police had used force to control the situation which led to some of them attacking the police and some police personnel, and some officers were injured. In retaliation police had arrested as many as 38 persons including some minor children. Muslim leaders had been trying ever since for their release most of whom were innocent. After many hearings, the court granted bail to six persons. When the news of the release of these people on bail reached the concerned villagers, they felt some relief and hoped that the remaining ones will also he released, at least on bail. Maulana Mohibb Ali Naeemi, president of a local religious organisation, reacting to the release of these people said that their release is our first success and we hope that others also will be released soon and our efforts to get them released will continue. He said that Pradhan Kamil was described as the main person who had first started the violence against the police who then, was mercilessly beaten by the police and dragged from his house but now that he has been released on bail, it is hoped that others will also be released soon. Maulana Naeemi further said that in order to frighten the people, the police has filed charge sheets against about hundred persons in the district court under serious sections but police accusations against them are a bundle of lies. He said that this chargesheet is filed so that innocent people could be arrested one by one but we shall never allow this to happen. National Human Rights Commission, Delhi after examining Mohibb Ali Naeemis complaint about desecration of the Holy Quran which it received on 8 August entrusted the whole matter to U.P. State Human Rights Commission under Protection of Human Rights Act 1993. Hence now the whole matter will be examined first by the State Human Rights Commission.

Conference on Prevention of Communal Violence Bill

New Delhi: Jamiat Ulama-e Hind (JUH)-sponsored Conference on Prevention of Communal Violence Bill was held in India Islamic Cultural Centre, New Delhi on 30 November. Speaking at this Conference JUH president Maulana Arshad Madni said in his presidential address that after making necessary amendment in it the government should get this Bill passed in Parliaments current (winter) session and if because of the on-going disturbing and uncertain conditions in Parliament there will be difficulty in getting it passed, the government should issue an ordinance to this effect so that not only the life and property of minorities could be protected from communal and fascist forces but both the majority and minority communities could live in peace. If there is an atmosphere of peace and harmony, the country will prosper and progress in all walks of life. He suggested that district authorities (collectors, SPs, DSPs) should be made responsible for preventing communal riots and it may also be made clear that in case of any such riot breaking out, they will be held responsible and suspended, tried and in case their negligence and guilt is proved they will be penalised. Moreover, the majority population of the affected area/s, irrespective of their religion, should also be made answerable for it. He said that JUH had to convene this conference because the wave of communal riots has once again been revived, starting from Bihars Forbesganj it soon spread to Gopalgarh (Rajasthan), Rudrapur (Uttarakhand), Muradabad (U.P.) and Nandobar (Maharashtra). Giving a brief account of the history of communal riots and in the light of judicial commissions reports on many serious riots, he said that JUH has been demanding enactment of a comprehensive and effective law to prevent such riots since long. He also made some secular parties the butt of his criticism who are opposing this bill. He said that opposition to this bill by BJP and other communal parties is understandable, the foundation of whose politics itself is laid on communalism and communal hatred but the pity is that some regional parties which claim to be secular, are opposing this bill. He also ridiculed Mamta Banerjis (whose party Trinamool Congress is an ally of U.P.A.) logic that communal riots are no longer taking place and hence there is no need of this bill. In reply to the opponents of this bill on the ground that this will create a division between the majority and minority communities, that this will give the centre an excuse to interfere in states autonomy and weaken the federal structure of the country, he gave the example of anti-terrorism law and asked does it in any way weaken the federal structure of the country or does it affect the autonomy of states? The same argument was advanced by C.P.I. member Sita Ram Yechuri also, saying that if this law (antiterrorism) does not affect states autonomy, how Communal Violence Bill will affect their autonomy? Union health and family planning minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said in his speech that UPA government is serious about passing the proposed bill for prevention of communal riots, adding that in the recent cabinet meeting the prime minister himself had raised this matter. He said that as a central minister and as chief minister (of J&K) he has the experience of what important role local officers and administration have in such riots. He said that 90 percent riots take place because of negligence of district and police authorities. Dr. Farooq Abdullah, union minister for renewable energy sources regretted that negative propaganda is being made against this bill. He said that alongwith this bill, forces that spread communal hatred also need to be reined in. CPI general secretary Sita Ram Yechuri said that after a brief study of this bill he is of the view that clause 130 of this bill should be amended and local authorities should be made responsible for preventing and controlling such riots. He said that he holds the view that if anti-terrorism law does not interfere in states autonomy, in the same way this bill also will not affect their autonomy. Samajwadi Partys general secretary Akhilesh Yadav said that his party has always been raising its voice for the safety of minorities and Mulayam Singh Yadav and he fully support this bill. He said that when his party was in power in UP, Muslims in large numbers were recruited in the U.P. police and P.A.C. to effectively control riots. Muslim Majlis Mushawarats working president Dr. ZafarulIslam Khan said that in cases of communal violence the governments role has been shameful. Hence such cases need to be raised in international forums because India is a signatory to many international agreements and covenants in matters of rights of minorities. He also said that after every communal riot Mushawarat will prepare a report and present it before international organisations so that India may feel at least some sense of guilt and shame. Asaduddin Owaisi, M.P. and President of Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen asked why the people who talk of passing Jan Lokpal Bill to end corruption are opposed to passage of this bill to end communal riots? He said that this bill is not for providing security to Muslims only but will provide safety to Hindus also in Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland, Punjab etc. Kuldeep Nayyar, famous journalist while supporting the bill said that the same circumstances and reasons because of which the country was divided are again taking place which is a matter of great concern. In the beginning of the conference a letter from home minister P. Chidambaram to Maulana Arshad Madni was read out by Maulana Asjud Madni, convener of this conference in which he had written that a bill regarding prevention of communal riots and for rehabilitation of riot-affected people has been introduced in Parliament and in your conference if some proposals or amendments are suggested, these may be sent to us which will be considered alongwith other amendments suggested. Maulana Asjud Madni also read out a message from Mrs. Sonia Gandhi in which she had expressed her good wishes for the success of the conference. Ghulam Nabi Azad read out a message from Rahul Gandhi saying that he himself wanted to attend and speak at this conference but was unable do so because of some unavoidable reasons. He, however laid emphasis on the need for such a conference. In addition to the persons mentioned above, among the many others who also expressed their views in this conference were Maulana Imam Asghar Salfi of Jamat Ahle Hadees, Safdar Khan, Chairman of Delhi Minorities Commission, Prof. P.K. Abdul Azis, AMUs V.C., Arif Naseem Khan, Maharastras minister for minorities affairs, Qazi Rasheed Masood, former minister and M.P., Muhammad Ahmad, Jamat-e Islamis secretary, Saifuddin Soz, minister of water resources, PSI Josh, member of Communal Violence Bill Drafting Committee etc. At the end of the Conference a 10-point resolution of JUH regarding this bill and other problems was presented which was unanimously approved. (NA Ansari)

Ulama and muftis asked not to issue fatwas which confuse Muslims
Barahmulla: Maulana Basharat Qadiri, President of M.S.O. Jammu & Kashmir, representing Kashmir's Ahle Sunnat Ulama, and Mudassir Naqshbandi Advocate, general secretary of M.S.O. J&K, have appealed to people not to approach muftis and ulama who issue wrong and misleading fatwas for their own selfish interests and objectives because their fatwas create confusion among people. They gave this advice to people because of a wrong and partial fatwa recently given by Mufti Abdur Raheem. According to sources, someone had approached Mufti Abdur Raheem of Barahmulla's Darul Uloom Mustafvi for his opinion or fatwa in connection with a certain problem. Mufti Abdur Raheem, because of his personal relationship rejected the deposition of two reliable eye-witnesses and issued his fatwa which was partial and not in accordance with the Shariat. This created great confusion and differences among people. The reason for Mufti Abdur Raheem's rejection of the deposition of two eye-witnesses was that they belonged to an Islamic and non-political organisation associated with Kashmir's famous saint Hazrat Syed Muhammad Jaanbaz Wali, to which Mufti Abdur Raheem was very much opposed. Maulana Bashart Qadiri, while strongly condemning Mufti Abdur Raheem's fatwa which was motivated by his selfishness and self-interest asked the people never to approach Ulama and Muftis who issue wrong and partial fatwas for their personal interests and are not in line with the Qur'an and Shariat because such people, by misusing their post and position, issue wrong fatwas and create great confusion and differences among people. (NA Ansari)

Attacks on Christians were pre-planned: Kandhamal tribunal

According to the National Peoples Tribunal (NPT) report on Kanchanalak, the attacks on Christians in 2008 at Kandhamal district in Orissa were executed with planning and preparation. The tribunal which was held in the national capital during 22-24 August 2010 was organised by the National Solidarity Forum comprising of more than 50 social organisations and rights groups. The final report of the National Peoples Tribunal (NPT) on Kandhamal was released in Bhubaneswar on 2 December. The tribunal headed by retired Justice AP Shah said that Christians who were reluctant to give up their faith and convert to Hinduism were brutally assaulted and even killed. The report has recommended setting up of a Special Investigation Team to reexamine the First Information Reports already registered. The report has also sought to file fresh FIR if it is required and make recommendations. The tribunal has also recommended adopting compensation package on the lines of the 1984 anti-Sikh and 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat. The Tribunal report has been applauded by many, it has given an account of not only what happened in Kandhamal but has also pointed to the cause and the possible solutions in the aftermath of the violence. As per the report, The targeted violence against the Adivasi and Dalit Christian community in Orissa violates the fundamental rights to life, liberty and equality guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. The brutality of the violence also falls within the definition of torture under international law, particularly the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The tribunal has also asked to adequately address the concerns of those living in relief camps including children and women. The report says: The complicity of the police and their collusion with the perpetrators during the phase of investigation and prosecution, indicate an institutional bias against the targeted Christian Adivasi and Dalit community. Victims and witnesses engaged in the justice process have been threatened and intimidated, as there is no guarantee of safe passage to and from the courts. The jury members of the tribunal among others included Harsh Mander (member of National Advisory Council), Mahesh Bhatt (film maker and activist), Miloon Kothari (former UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Housing), PS Krishnan (retired Secretary, Government of India), Vrinda Grover (advocate, Delhi High Court), Ruth Manorama (women and Dalit rights activist), Syeda Hameed (member of Planning Commission, Government of India), and Vishnu Bhagwat, former Chief of Naval Staff. (Mohammad Naushad Khan)

The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012

NATIONAL

Seminar on Shibli and his legacy

Azamgarh: An international seminar on Shibli and his legacy Sirat-un-Nabi are actual Sirat. Syed Sulaiman Nadwis criticism of (Allama Shibli ka Ilmi aur Fikri Warsa) in collaboration with Iran Shibli regarding lack of spiritualism is actually his own thought. Cultural House was held on 11-12 December in the conference hall Criticism of Shiblis personality and his work can be traced to jealof Darul Musannefin Shibli Academy. ousy, Prof Siddiqui said. Professor Ishtiaq Ahmad Iran Cultural House printed Zilli, director of Shibli selected manuscripts as well Academy, elaborated on the as a list of manuscripts premulti-faceted personality of served in Shibli Academy. The Allama Shibli Nomani and following were released on this briefly described the various occasion: institutions established by 1. Ain-e-Akbari him. In his key note address, 2. Munis-ul-arwah Professor Yaseen Mazhar 3. List of manuscripts Siddiqui said that Shibli as a 4. Index of Marif, first volume, critic used to point out not compiled by Dr. Jamshed of A. only the deficiencies of M. U. Ulama and the old school of 5. Kitabiyat-e-Shibli by Dr. Ilyas A rare manuscript being released during the conference thought but also of modern Azmi system of education. Shiblis Prof. Syed Salman Nadwi intellectual growth after consultation of Sir Syeds library was phe- in his address emphasized that it depends on inheritors as to how nomenal. Shibli viewed that modern Ilm-ul-kalam should be based they preserve the legacy. Darul Musannefin Shibli Academy is the on history and not on Greek philosophy. Prof. Yaseen Mazhar biggest legacy of Shibli and one can safely surmise that inheritors opined that it is not right to say that Shibli took up the work on Sirat of the legacy of Shibli accomplished to a great extent his mission. at last. Actually, he wrote his first Arabic book on Sirat at the D. Ali Reza Qazveh of Iran Cultural House said that translation request of Sir Syed and it was included in the syllabus of Aligarh of Sher-ul-Ajam was published many times in Iran. Dr. Karim Najafi College. Shibli took up modern issues and wrote books on them. extolled the multi-faceted personality of Shibli. He said that Shibli In the last hundred years, no scholar or group of scholars had appears to be a great theologian, philosopher and thinker through the command on resources compared to Shibli. Many scholars his books and said that Shibli wrote on Maulana Rum thirty years were not even aware of the available literature. Shibli used to col- before such a book was written in Iran. Shibli wanted to revive the lect references not only from history but also from literature and heritage of Muslims as Islam has given everything to us. Shiblis that too when he had not the facilities of modern times. Shibli is crit- article Musalmanon ki Guzishta Taleem is actually educational ical of old references and he sifted after collecting all which could guideline for present and future. have been possible. He painted a picture of the era in his writing. In his presidential remarks Syed Shahid Mehdi, former VC of Shibli appreciated Mohammad Husain Azads language but was Jamial Millia Islamia and Vice President ICCR, said that the British critical of the bland language of Hali. He preferred an impressive compiled the history in a way to disturb communal harmony. He language. Shiblis language progressed slowly. Initial colloquial opined that Shiblis attitude was good but defensive and quoted influence gave way to an erudite and highly polished language Syed Sulaiman Nadwi that history should be written to promote which got perfected in his work on Sirat. communal harmony. He said that Bhasha aur Musalman as well Shibli did not suffer from regionalism and was always in search as Musalmanon ki Political Karwat written by Shibli has a releof talent. Shibli greatly influences the reader of his books. Shibli vance today. Shibli refuted the apprehension that Muslims will get preferred Urdu because it was the language of Ulama as well as annihilated through their association with majority community and the common man. Shibli used to say that he wanted to create compared Parsis in this respect. Shibli was critical of Muslim appreciation of literature among Ulama. Shibli wanted to be asso- League and highlighted the plight of small farmers. Shibli quesciated with Ulama but also wished to influence them discreetly. A tioned the work done by Anjuman Urdu for the promotion of lanbook like Al-Farooq of Shibli has still not been written in the lan- guage. guages known to me (Urdu, Arabic, English). Only two volumes of

Christian & Muslim leaders hold consultations with MPs and leaders of political parties
New Delhi: Christian and Muslim leaders held a meeting with MPs and functionaries of political parties at the conference hall of CNI Bhawan on 30 Nov 2011. The meeting was held to carry forward the resolutions of earlier meeting held on 21 Nov 2011 between Muslim and Christian leaders to work together to secure reservation for Muslim and Christian dalits. Briefing the participants the convener of the discussion, Mr. Samuel Jaykumar, said that the discussion was to seek supportive actions of the honourable Members of Parliament for removal of the discriminatory paragraph of the presidential (Schedule Castes) Order of 1950 which precludes Dalits of Christian and Muslim communities so that they also could avail benefits of the affirmative action of the government in favour of dalits. Honourable MPs who took part in the discussion, include PR Natarajan of CPM, Harsh Kumar, Prof PJ Kurien, Husain Dalwai of Congress, JD Seelam of Congress, CL Ruala, Dr Charles Dias and Francisco Sardinha of Congress, Syed Azeez Pasha, D Raja and P Lingam of CPI, Ali Anwar Ansari of Muslim Pasmanda Mahaz, Asaduddin Owaisi of All India Majlis-e-lttehadul Muslimeen, M Thol Thirumaavalavan of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, Abdul Rahman of DMK and Mohammed Shafi of Jammu Kashmir National Congress. All the MPs expressed support for the demands and assured that they would raise the issue on their behalf in all proper forums as and when it will be convenient to do so but they refused to sign a memorandum for the same. The following Christian and Muslim leaders attended along with many members of the community: Ms. Susma Ramswami, Vice president NCCI, Dr. Roger Gaikwad, General Secretary of NCCI, Mr. Alvin Masih, General Secretary of Church of North India Synod, Ms. Leila Passah, General Secretary of YWCA, Mr. Eric Christopher of Habitat for Humanity, Mr. John Varghese, General Secretary YMCA, Dr. Daniel Ezhilaraus, General Secretary of AIACHE. Fr. Cosmon Arikara, Secretary of SC/ ST Commission of CBCI, Fr. Charles of CBCI, Fr. Bosco of NCDC, Mr. Franklin Casesar Thomas of NCDC, Fr. Selvaraj of ISI. Attendants from the Muslim side included Abdul Rashid Agwan convener All India Muslim Majlis-e Mashawarat Delhi unit, Muhammad Ahmad, secretary of Jamat-e Islami Hind and Dr Qasim Rasul Ilyas and Mr. PC Hamza of Welfare Party of India. They reiterated their support on behalf of their organisations. At the end of the discussions a memorandum of resolutions was passed and sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The memo bears the request firstly, for implementation of Justice Ranganath Misra Commission recommendations concerning the exclusion of Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims, and deletion of the controversial para 3 of the 1950 Presidential order; secondly, introduction and passage of a bill in the Parliament so as to grant SC status to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims which needs only a simple majority, and thirdly, to look into the matter of advice or direction to the concerned Ministry to respond to the queries of the Supreme Court concerning the PIL (Writ Petition (Civil) 180/2004). (Nadim Ahmad) Naroda case: court orders probe against four cops Ahmedabad: The Special court probing the Naroda case has ordered the SIT team to further probe the role of four senior police officers in the larger interest of justice based on the phone call records provided by the victims. Contending that the four officers were part of a conspiracy, the victims had demanded further probe. Jyotsna Yagnik, the special court magistrate, disposed the victims application after the investigation officer, Himanshu Shukla, filed a reply stating the necessity of further probe. Gulbarg massacre could have been averted Ahmedabad: Former I.P.S. officer Rajan Priyadarshi expressed the conviction that the Gulbarg massacre of 2002 could have been averted had the police force shown a desire to control. He was speaking at the time of release of the film Parzania which covers the tragic events of 2002 in which a thirteen year Parsi boy Rusi Modi was lost. Priyadarshi recalled an earlier situation in 1995 at the same place when he was DCP. At that time Ehsan Jafri and others were extremely scared and had begun planning to move away from the locality. Rajan had provided perfect security at that time and no untoward incident could take place because of police presence round the clock. Gujarat to have a new CBI unit for fresh probes Ahmedabad: The CBI which has now been entrusted with the Ishrat encounter probe is charged with the responsibility of investigating four encounters resulting in eight deaths. This will necessitate the formation for a new unit of the CBI involving inducting personnel of all the ranks - from constable to the senior most officer. At present the CBI is functioning as a wing of the anti-corruption bureau. In view of four probes covering Sohrabuddin Shaikh, Tulsi Prajapati, Sadiq Jamal and Ishrat (and others) it has to be strengthened. Till now there has been little progress in the Tulsi and Sadiq encounters which will gather momentum only when its strength is increased.

Truth is out: Ishrat was murdered by Gujarat police: SIT

The SIT in its report submitted to the Gujarat unholy nexus between police and the Central IB in perpetrating this High court on 18 November has said that Ishrat fake encounter and in this regard the role of officials like Rajendra Jahan along with Javed Sheikh Alias Pranesh Kumar needs to be thoroughly investigated. CPM in a statement has Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were said, Justice for the victims demands that Modi quit office. The killed in a fake encounter by the state police party said the Modi government has done everything in its power to prior to the encounter date of 15 June, 2004. shield the criminals in uniform and indulge in character assassinaThe Gujarat High Court is considering hand- tion of the young 19-year-old student. The order of the High Court ing over the case to the CBI or NIA and for that matter it has sought to file a fresh FIR and charges of murder against the police officers suggestions from the concerned parties in the case. The court has must be immediately complied with. The accused must be arrested asked for fresh FIRs to be registered against the policemen involved without any delay. Ishrats mother Shamima Kausar in an interview in the fake encounter. The court also said, The probe agency said that all those involved in the fake encounter must be hanged. would need to find out who played the key role in the encounter, They have destroyed my life and killed my innocent daughter. what the motive was and what was the Manish Tiwari of the Congress said that actual time of death of the four people. what the Congress party and human After the encounter, IPS DG Vanjara who rights body have said has finally come out is accused in the Soharabuddin Sheikh in the open. Gopinathan, father of Javed fake encounter case and murder of Ahmedabad: The SIT, appointed by the Gujarat Sheikh said that from now onwards I may Sheikhs wife Kausar Bi is presently High Court to probe the Ishrat Jahan fake not be called the father of a terrorist. I behind bars had at that point of time encounter killing case, has in its complaint to have been fighting the case for the last claimed that Ishrat and others were killed CBI said there was no evidence to indicate that seven years. I am happy that the truth has in an encounter after the crime branch the teenager had any terrorist link. finally come out. Local MLA Jitendra had intercepted an Indica car, in which the However, the SIT at the same time said the three Awhad has demanded that the report that four were travelling. He had also claimed others, who were killed along with Ishrat, might Ishrat and other were on a mission to kill that they were leT members and were on have terrorist links. Modi must be verified and the chief minisa mission to kill Chief Minister Narendra The SIT also said certain reports after the inci- ter must also be brought under the dent had indicated that David Headley, the ter- purview of the investigation. Modi. S P Tamang, metropolitan magistrate rorist arrested in the US, had revealed that Apart from those who have carried in his report submitted on 7 September, Ishrat was part of a terror network, however, out the fake encounter, it is now important 2009 had said Ishrat and others were there is no evidence to substantiate it. to find out who ordered them to carry it killed in a fake encounter by Gujarat out. It is a larger issue, as it involves police for their own benefit. Based on medical jurisprudence, many top policemen as well as politicians, said Sinha, lawyer of Tamang had said that Ishrat and others were detained by Javed Gopinath Pillai, who was one of the victims of the fake Ahmedabad Crime Branch officials on 12 June 2004. Tamang had encounter. Rauf Lala, maternal uncle of Ishrat has said that the SIT concluded that Javed was killed between 8.30 pm and 9 pm on June report has proved that Ishrat was not a terrorist and the findings of 14 itself while the three others were killed between 11 pm and 12 the SIT are in front of the nation. Former home secretary Pillai has midnights. Tamang had also pointed out that the Indica car was said in an interview, When I was the Home Secretary I had seen the either pulled or driven to the crime spot. input received by the intelligence agencies about her suspicious RB Shreekumar, former DGP of Gujarat has said, As the chief activities and links with the militant outfit LeT. The Intelligence of state intelligence during that period, all the IB inputs I have seen Bureau then clearly warned that a LeT terror module was planning were against Muslims, with nothing against Hindu groups who were to eliminate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. wreaking havoc in the state. Inadequate police reforms in India can be blamed for such acts. He has alleged that all the encounters that had taken place in The colonial-era Police Act of 1861 needs to be reviewed and forGujarat after the communal riots of 2002 were fake and part of a mulated in the present context and as per our present requirement. political gameplan to justify the communal riots. Social activist Police reforms have been promised by our successive governments MOHAMMAD NAUSHAD KHAN Teesta Setalvad in her reaction has said that there has been an but nothing has changed so far.

No evidence that Ishrat had terror links: SIT

6 The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012

Aligarh: Syed Shariq Ahmad, student of B. A. (Final) was elected President of the Aligarh Muslim University Students Union (AMUSU) in the election held on 10 December. Abdul Quadir Jilani, M. A., (Previous) was declared Vice President and Mr. Hammad Nabi (MSW Previous) as Honorary Secretary of the Students Union. The result of the Students Union elections were declared early next day by the Chief Election Officer Prof. Mahmood S. Khan. AMUSU was established in 1884 as a debating club on the pattern of Oxford and Cambridge universities and this students body has produced great freedom fighters, leaders and statesmen like Dr. Zakir Husain, Ali Brothers, Hasrat Mohani, Sheikh Abdullah and Arif Mohammad Khan. For the post of President and Honorary Secretary, six candidates each were in fray while five contested for the post of Vice Presidentship. The polling was also held on the same day for ten Cabinet Members of AMUSU. Mr. Saeed Ali Rizvi, B. Com. (II Year) secured highest votes and was declared Senior Cabinet. Miss Wajiha Fatima Mehdi, Shakeel Ahmad, Aamir Khan, Md. Kaikubad Ali, Waquar Siddiqi, Shahzad Sami, Mustafa Muqeet, Syed Fahad Hussain and Inzemamul Haque were declared elected out of a total of 18 candidates who were in the fray. The election of the AMUSU was held as per the recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee. The elections of three representatives of the students on the University Court were also held same day. Mohammad Asim Khan, Syed Wasif Iqbal and Tausif Alam were declared elected as members of the University Court under faculty of Engineering and Technology, Life Sciences and Social Sciences respectively. The whole process of election, from filing of nomination to campaigning, voting, counting and declaration of results, was completed in festive and peaceful atmosphere.

NATIONAL AMU Students Union election results declared

Minority educational institutions exempted from RTE

New Delhi: Central government, in response to repeated requests by Muslim religious leaders and organisations, has decided to exempt minority educational institutions like madrasas, pathshalas etc. from the Right to Education Act (RTE Act). A decision to this effect was taken in a meeting of the central cabinet, chaired by the prime minister on 13 December. An amendment will now be made in the RTE Act to exempt these educational institutions. It may be stated that Muslim leaders and organisations like All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Jamiatul Ulama-e Hind, Jamat-e Islami, All India Muslim Majlis Mushawarat etc. had been repeatedly demanding that madrasas should be exempted from this Act because this Act will be very harmful for these madrasas and such other institutions. Government, while accepting their demands, clarified that the existing RTE Act will be amended so that Muslim educational institutions like madrasas etc. and Hindu pathshalas etc. could be exempted from this Act. Though HRD minister Kapil Sibal had assured Muslim organisations that government through a notification has exempted such educational institutions but at the same time had stated that any government can change this notification. In addition to Muslim leaders and organisations, Hindu religious organisations and leaders also while supporting the stand of Muslims had pleaded that this notification should be given legal status. Succumbing to such pressures by both Muslim and Hindu organisations and intellectuals and probably because of political compulsions, government has approved the amendment of the RTE Act to exempt all such institutions. All the concerned organisations and intellectuals including Pundit N.K. Sharma, President of Universal Association for Spiritual Awareness welcomed this step of the government.

few proposals which I found non-controversial. One of his proposals related to cultural activities undertaken together like drama, musical performances and the like with both Hindus and Muslims participating. Two, to celebrate national festiASGHAR ALI ENGINEER vals like 15th August and 26th January together. Thirdly, to ensure I was invited by Jnana Prabodhini, an organization affiliated to the that in every housing society 5 to 10 percent Muslims be given RSS in Pune to speak on the Communal Violence Bill which is pro- accommodation so that there is better interaction between Hindus posed to be tabled in Parliament sometime in the near future. Of and Muslims He also proposed that secucourse I did not know the To ensure riot-free India the most important tool is the larism requires that we undertake background of this organization and since we education system. Today our education system is value- criticism of religion and religious have undertaken to talk neutral and competitive and perpetuates casteism and com- practices as Hamid Dalwai did. about the bill in various munalism. It does not produce critical but instead conform- He felt this is necessary to ensure places to remove misun- ing mind. It distorts history and perpetuates mandir-masjid consolidation of secularism. I responded by saying that I welderstandings against it, I controversy. We talk about Auangzeb but never about come the proposals made by my immediately accepted the Darashikoh who was such a profound scholar of both Islam friend Arvind Bal except the one invitation. Later on my and Hinduism. We still include in the syllabus the fight about criticism of orthodoxy like friend from Pune Mr. between Shivaji and Afzal Khan and project Shivaji as anti- Hamid Dalwai did. Orthodoxy has Anwar Rajan a social nothing to do with communalism. Muslim and Aurangzeb as anti-Hindu... activist told me that it is Jinnah was quite liberal and even RSS affiliated but you a non-believer and yet he demanded Pakistan whereas Maulana must come and speak. It was sound advice. I went and spoke on the bill before a group of some 200 peo- Husain Ahmed Madani, President Jamiat-ul-Ulama-i-Hind was ple including their top leaders and students. Jnana Probhodini is a very orthodox and yet he opposed partition and justified united huge organization which trains students, teachers and those who democratic secular India. We have to accept orthodoxy in a demoappear for various competitive examinations like IAS, IPS or cratic spirit as everyone has the right to practice religion the way entrance organizations etc. Thousands of candidates benefit from one wants to and in the true democratic spirit one has to accept the these training. It is true they have huge resources but Muslims other as the other is and one cannot dictate to other how the other should also make similar efforts though on a smaller scale raising should be. It would lead to intolerance and conflict. However, it does not mean that one should accept orthodoxy resources from within the community as well as taking the help of and narrow mindedness. No certainly not but one has to struggle government schemes. I spoke candidly on the bill to remove misunderstandings about against it through persuasive means and through wisdom and a it in the BJP and RSS groups. They feel it is an anti-Hindu bill proper strategy. One should also not worship reason though reameant to harass Hindus and as many dalits use the untouchability son is a very valuable gift of nature, Reason is a tool, a very imporlaw against the upper caste Hindus this bill will be used by Muslims tant tool but not the goal. To ensure riot-free India the most important tool is the educaagainst Hindus. After my presentation there were a host of question system. Today our education system is value-neutral and comtions and many points were raised. Because of the Gujarat riots, petitive and perpetuates casteism and communalism. It does not this bill has become a necessary deterrent. I narrated the history of communal riots in post-independence produce critical but instead conforming mind. It distorts history and India from the Jabalpur riots of 1961 and told them that in most of perpetuates mandir-masjid controversy. We talk about Auangzeb these riots the guilty were by and large not punished and no but never about Darashikoh who was such a profound scholar of responsibility was fixed as to who engineered these riots. I also told both Islam and Hinduism. We still include in the syllabus the fight between Shivaji and them that I have personally investigated most of these riots in Afzal Khan and project Shivaji as anti-Muslim and Aurangzeb as which more than 35 thousand innocent people were killed and found that with a few exceptions, the administration and police anti-Hindu. It is total distortion of truth. Sihvaji killed Afzal Khan not were biased. Not only that I told them how in Hashimpura, Meerut because he was Muslim but because he was political rival and in 1987 the PAC Commandant Tripathi and his cohorts pulled out when he realized that he had killed him, fearing he (Afzalkhan) 54 people from their houses , all between the ages of 20 to 25, shot would take revenge on him he gave a large plot of land to build his them dead in cold blood and threw their bodies into the Hindon mazar (mausoleum) and one can prove this through land records canal two of which survived to tell the tale. But not one of them has of the government. One should stop teaching such distorted history and there is been punished so far. much in history which proves Hindu-Muslim unity and mutual harBut in all these riots, state governments were not directly involved nor did they play any role in instigating riots. But it was for monious living. This is not the way to build a nation. Our country is the first time in Gujarat that the state government was directly so great, so diverse and so multi-cultural that the only way to build involved in instigating the rioter. And the entire administration and the nation is to emphasise harmonious living, inclusive living and in police force, willingly or unwillingly, was involved in aiding and everything we should not go on speaking as Hindus and Muslims abetting these rioters (with a few honourable exceptions). but only as Indian nationals, if India is to be a strong nation. In Mr. Narendra Modi, as some VHP activists claimed in a sting oper- everything if we go on speaking only as Hindus and Muslims, it means we are not speaking of India as a nation, we are not proud ation done by Tehelka gave them protection. It was because of the Gujarat riots that this bill became neces- of being Indian, Yes, there are areas in which we are Hindus and sary. There are three objectives of this bill: first, to take preventive Muslims but let us keep these two areas apart. These two areas measures in time to stop communal violence breaking out; second, should be co-centric, not cross-cutting. There are many things which we have to discuss including if communal violence breaks out to fix responsibility on the people whether Islam and Hinduism are mutually conflicting or have areas concerned and get them punished through due process of law and thirdly to fix proper compensation for the dead and fix recompense of commonality. Whether religions clash, or is it our egos and our politics. Sufi saints found much that is common between the two for properties destroyed. Today this is all arbitrarily done. It is entirely dependent on the religions but all this requires much discussion and we can meet Chief Minister, as to how much he sanctions. In some cases only again for such discussions. As I had to rush back to Mumbai I one or two lakhs are given for those who died and in some cases hoped we will meet again to continue the talks in this spirit. (Secular

On riot-free India

Two dead in Shia groups bloody fight

Nahtore: In a tragic incident two real brothers died and many were injured in a bloody fight between two groups of the Shia community. According to the report available, as the Muharram mourning was going on after the Majlis in village Salarpurs Imambara on 8 December, two groups of Shia sect fell out because of some old enmity. The fight took a very serious turn when guns and swords were also used. There was great confusion and two sons of one Sardar Hussain, Iftekhar Hussain and Azadar Husain died on the spot and six others including some girls were injured. Among the injured the condition of one Shabab Haidar was serious so he was sent to Meerut for better treatment and the remaining ones were got admitted in district hospital. On getting to know of this bloody clash Police Captain Mahesh Mishra and other officers visited the spot and posted police jawans in the trouble spots. After this tragic incident there was deadly silence in the entire village. Uncle of the deceased lodged a complaint against the attackers in the police station but it is reported that the attackers and their family members had fled from the village.

MG NEWS DESK

it may be 5 lakhs. Mr. Modi gave 5 lakhs to those who died in the Sabarmati train fire and only two lakhs for those who died in the subsequent communal riots. It was blatant discrimination. And Modi government offered as little as Rs. 500 for houses destroyed. This Bill fixes compensation at a minimum of 15 lakhs for the dead and proposes that it will be linked to price index. Similarly it takes care of relief and rehabilitation to be decided by Central or State authority comprising government as well as civil society representatives with proper minority representation. A long discussion followed and many questions were raised saying the Bill is heavily biased against Hindus and in favour of Muslims. I tried to satisfy their doubts and said it is wrong to say it is against Hindus. In fact the Bill is directed against those who perpetrate violence (be they Hindus or Muslims or any other group for that matter) and for the first time this Bill will try to fix responsibility on the perpetrators of violence in an unbiased manner through proper representation of minorities in the Central or state authority. Thus how can it be said to be anti-Hindu? It is anti- all those who perpetrate or provoke violence. However, all I can is say that I answered all their questions which were aplenty but cannot claim to have changed their minds as after all they belonged to the RSS affiliated organizations. Besides them, there were many others too - Muslims as well as non-Muslims who were interested in the debate. However, what followed after lunch was of more interest to me. The organizers had requested me to spare two hours after lunch for discussion with a smaller group of people and I had consented. There were some 30 people in this group and the idea was to discuss how one could ensure a riot-free India. Mr. Arvind Bal a prominent member of Jnana Prabodhini, started the discussion with a

Perspective)

The word secularism has lost its meaning: Romila Thapar Noted historian Romila Thapar while speaking at a symposium on
Redefining the Secular in Indian Society at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in the national capital on 7 December said that the word secularism has now become meaningless and in the present context it is only used as a reaction to a non-secular accident which take place in Indian Society and its role and use is diminishing by the day. She also pointed out that secularism does not mean only presence of all religion and in India the implication of secularism is generally misinterpreted and equated with westernisation. Thapar also said that in India secularism has not been fully understood till date. Another historian Prof. K.N. Panikkar said that secularism does not only cater to religious harmony but one has to understand both secularism and community formation in a society. P Sainath said that the issue of caste does not go well with the definition of secularism as other than religion the caste factor also at times takes centrestage. To many of us secularism is primarily our response towards any conflict between Hindus and Muslims. The symposium was organised in association with SAHMAT and Social Scientist in order to celebrate the birthday of Romila Thapar even though she was reluctant for such celebrations

MOHAMMAD NAUSHAD KHAN

The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012

NATIONAL
The Bombay High Court has deferred its judgement on the death sentence awarded to three accused in 2003 Mumbai twin blast at Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar that killed 52 people. The trial court had found that the three accused Ashrat Ansari (32), his aide Hanif Sayed Anees (46) and Hanifs wife Fehmida Sayed (43) guilty of planting bombs in two taxis at two locations in Mumbai on 24 August, 2009. All of them were convicted by the trial court in August 2009 under POTA and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and were awarded death sentences which has been deferred by the Mumbai High Court. The special POTA court awarded death sentence to these three accused in the year 2009. Justice A.M Khanwilkar has said that the verdict will be pronounced in the first week of January. The court has cited technical reason for the postponement of the verdict.

Death sentence in 2003 Mumbai blast case deferred

Mayawati with Muslim leaders of Lucknow

Mayawati and her Muslim Report Card

HAIDER ABBAS
LUCKNOW: The last phase of Bahujan Samaj Partys UP government under Mayawati has begun, as May 19 is its last day for it is same day when in 2007 she had taken oath to office, and the Election Commission can announce elections any moment during the last six months of the state government. The last four and a half years of Mayawati in government were marred with overt corruption and an uninterrupted supply of public money - in hundreds of thousand of crores - towards Mayawatis pet projects: Ambedkar parks and Ambedkar statues, along with Kanshi Ram (her mentor) and that of herself. The second quality of her rule is that ministers were found embroiled in dozens of cases of corruption, murders and amassing disproportionate wealth. Some have been expelled while some are facing inquiries by Loyayukta. Every morning the newspapers are full with the news of one minister or the other facing an indictment by the Lokayukta. Five ministers have already been indicted. Naseem-ud-Din Siddiqui who is considered to be the Muslim face of the government, can perhaps at best be called the revenue-collector who took the portfolio of Excise (which includes wine industry) and has nothing on his sleeve to produce any report-card for Muslims in terms of jobs in the state or in Police apparatus etc, during the unstinted fullmajority rule of his government. In fact, it is learnt that Naseem-udDin is said to have always drawn heavy feet whenever the question of any work pertaining to a Muslim had come, as that would have stigmatised him as Muslim friendly which was supposedly to earn the wrath of the CM. Notwithstanding that he and his coterie have become overnight super-rich during his stint in power. Muslims hence did not get anything worthwhile even when Muslims had won the highest ever 29 seats for BSP out of the 61 tickets given to Muslims. Whereas, the upper caste Brahmins, who have been traditionally with Congress and later with BJP, were to be rewarded the plum portfolios and high ranking appointments by the BSP government despite BSPs ideological enmity towards Brahmins and vice-versa. Satish Chandra Misra, an advocate by profession and one who belongs to a family of judges, became the Brahmin mascot who secured everything worthwhile for the Brahmins. His close family members occupied the AdvocateGeneral post, cabinet minister portfolios, dozens of his Brahmin associates were adjusted as government counsels in Allahabad and Lucknow High Courts and also as district government counsels throughout UP. State information department, UP Law Commission, Ministry of Health etc all became the Brahmin monopoly. Out-of-turn promotions to Brahmin bureaucrats were meticulously done so as to keep SC Misra in good humuor. A membership to his close relative in the most prestigious UP Bar Council of India added yet another feather into the Brahmin cap. As many of 86 Brahmin candidates had stood on BSP tickets in 2007 and only 40 had won. Just before the 2009 parliamentary general elections, it was found that in UP principals were to be appointed in 80 degree colleges and lo, all of them were Brahmins. The Brahmin-controlled media never took a chance to ever deliberate on the Brahmin monolith extracting the lions share. The upper caste 18 Thakurs winning out of 38 tickets given to members of their community, remained widely invisible. The result was that BSPs diehard cadres gave it a new acronym: Brahmin Samaj Party! The irony is that Muslims, who had been BSP party cadres since over two decades, found Naseem-ud-Din Siddiqui as the only cabinet minister and four Muslims as ministers of state, namely Anees Ahmed Khan (independent-charge), Akbar Husain, Abdul Mannan and Sajil Islam Ansari, whereas, Nakul Dubey and Daddan Misra (both SC Misras protgs), the new converted BSP MLAs made hay with independent state ministerial portfolios. Both of them had joined BSP only six months before the polls in 2007! So after dishing the creme de la creme to Brahmins and also a special section of Dalits (excluding Balmikis, Khatiks and Pasis), Mayawati has started to turn her gaze towards Muslims who hold the key to the fortunes of any political party in U.P. As many as 37 million Muslims live in UP, as per the 2001 census. Yet Muslims meant nothing for the BSP during the current tenure. The only Muslim face, Naseem-ud-Din Siddiqui sat pretty in his bungalow while two Muslim boys (Asghar Ali and Mahboob Ali) died inhaling poisonous gas on June 17, 2011 just outside his house. They were employed for the cleaning of sewer. No FIR was lodged against the contractor as the police did not receive any complaint. As if this was not enough, later three Dalits also died on Oct 10, 2011, at another place, doing the same job. Dalits and Muslims have same fate under Mayawati. On the terrorism front, Mayawati was too eager to oblige the saffron constituency, as she refused to order a CBI inquiry into the blasts of 24 August 2008 in Kanpur which killed two Bajrang Dal activists who were assembling a bomb. National Investigation Agency is now all set to investigate this case. Mayawati could well placate her saffron constituency, as it is their support which got her chief ministership three times earlier, and who knows, after 2012 polls, she might need them again. BSP-BJP government can be after all the best bet for her to remain in office. Her campaigns for Narendra Modi in Gujarat, during her 2002 tenure, are still fresh in memory. Hence, dithered and cornered by all sides on account of her misrule, as many of her Brahmin ministers were involved into rape cases (some times with Dalit girls), Mayawati woos Muslims for crass tokenism, and what else could be better than to write to the Prime Minister. Thus, she on September 14, chose to write to Manmohan Singh demanding reservation for Muslims in proportion to their population. She found this route convenient to fool Muslims as even a novice can understand that she could have herself allocated a separate 9 percent quota for Other Backward Caste (OBC) Muslims within the stipulated 27% given to the OBCs. This is the sole prerogative of the state government. The PM reminded here in his reply on Oct 24 that she could well implement the same in UP on the lines of what has been done in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka (by the Congress Party). This led Mayawati to send a reminder to the PM on Nov 24 saying that during her first stint to power in 1995, she had got 38 Muslim OBC sub-castes of Muslims demarcated within the OBCs. Needless to mention here that the largest chunk of the 27% reservation is siphoned by Yadavs, Kurmis, Jats and Lodhs while Muslims barely make the residual 1 to 2 percent despite making 9 % within the overall OBC structure. PM had also chosen to emphasise that UP CM should implement in the earnest the various schemes under Multi-SectoralDevelopemental Plan in the 21 minority-concentrated districts in UP for which the Center had allocated a fund of 1,015.7 crores. This triggered Mayawati to write back on Nov 24 claiming that 381 crores are still to be released for the purpose. There is a certain method in her madness as the fact of the matter is that she has barely cared for the Muslim-concentrated districts such as Bareilli which was the worst hit as its 13 crores, Bhagpat (11 crores), Bijnaur (4 crores), Ghaziabad (11 crores) and Muradabad (2 crores), all remained unused under the said scheme. So an overall 90 crores had remained unspent! Mayawatis concern for Muslims seem to be just a public-relation exercise as it is worth remembering how she charted the doom for thousands of Muslim Urdu teachers and translators by a single stroke of her pen. It may be mentioned that this exercise was started by CM Mulayam Singh Yadav who through Government Order (GO) No. 80 on March 24, 1994 had announced that fifteen thousand Urdu teachers and ten thousand Urdu translators would be appointed within three years and the same very year he passed yet another GO on Sep 13, 1994 which declared that Muallim-e-Urdu (Jamia Urdu, Aligarh) were to be treated at par with trained teachers. But, the project could not be completed as his government fell in 1995, and it was succeeded by a BSP-BJP coalition government. The BSP-BJP government on August 11, 1997, under Mayawati scrapped the scheme. This combination of BSP-BJP somehow continued until 2003, hence, any redressal for the Urdu Muallims was out of question. This left the Urdu Muallims high and dry, as all the due appointments were frozen. Hopes of thousands of Urdu Muallims were belied as their prospects of becoming government employees were perhaps stalled for all times to come. What merits attention here is that this time Mayawati was under no such constraint and yet she sat comfortably over the scheme. She could have readily amended her own Aug 11, 1997 GO, but why ever she would do it? Instead, the state government on Sep 25, announced that Urdu Muallims will have to undergo the Teachers Eligibility Test. So, after almost a decade and a half of forced unemployment, and with no concomitant solution in sight, the Urdu Muallims can only froth thanks to Mayawati. Would Naseem-ud-Din Siddiqui please explain? As despite his governments withdrawal of the Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court when the state governments appeal against the reprieve given to Urdu Muallims by the Lucknow High Court on July 14, 2010 and later a two-judges bench on Oct 1, 2010, upholding that they be treated at par with BTC was twice rejected. Despie such attitude, Mayawati is to address a Muslim convention on Dec 18 in Lucknow. The last five years of Mayawati are now drawing to a close. There is a rapid anti-incumbency wave against the government. Muslims are fresh with the memories of the pernicious stark reality enacted at the very onset of her government when within the first three months of her taking to power, UP had its Gujarat hour as over a half dozen Muslim women were raped for hours in Dhanideeh in Shravasti district, in the eastern part of UP, organised by Ashok Misra, the younger brother of BSP minister Daddan Misra.

PMOs directive to Uttrakhand to submit report on October riots

Rampur: All India Muslim Federations general secretary Babar Khan said in a statement here on 12 December that he made a complaint about Rudrapur (Uttrakhand)s communal riots of 2 October and state governments partisan role in it to Prime Minister and Chairman of National Minorities Commission. One member of Minorities Commission had also toured the riot-hit city to find out the true position. Babar Khan said that PMs personal secretary Chandar Prakash had directed Uttrakhands chief secretary to send a factual report of the riot to PMs office. He said that Minorities Commissions member K.N. Daruwala had recently visited Rudrapur and met riot-affected Muslims to find out their problems and had also expressed his displeasure over state administration officials action against beleaguered riot-hit Muslims. He (Babar) said that N.C.M. member Daruwala had also asked the Commissioner of Gadhwal Division and Udham Singh Nagars S.S.P. to stop their partisan and one-sided action (against Muslims). He also said that this case is now in court and High Courts noted lawyer Asad Hayat is fighting the case of riot-hit Muslims.

A.P. govts compensation to released victims lauded but with a rider

New Delhi: Jamiatul Ulamas president Maulana Arshad Madni while lauding and welcoming Andhra governments announcement of compensations to the 70 innocent Muslim youths who were released after being falsely accused and jailed for the Makka Masjids bomb blast (in May 2007) and describing them (compensations) as putting balm on the wounds of Muslims asked the states chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy whether because of police and concerned agencies wrong investigations the compensations of Rs. 3 lakh and 20,000 will be enough for innocent persons who were wrongly imprisoned, underwent police torture and whose valuable periods and dreams for future were shattered because of no fault of theirs. Speaking about the letters he sent to prime minister Manmohan Singh, U.P.A. chairperson Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and A.P. chief minister he demanded that in such cases enough compensations should be given to such persons so that all their losses could be suitably compensated. He also demanded that a character certificate be given to such people which will be useful to them and that guilty officers should also be punished and a good part of compensation should be deducted from the concerned police officers salaries so that others should learn a lesson from this and in future they should be careful and not recklessly arrest persons without any proof and sense of responsibility. He also praised the efforts and support of Muslim organisations, justice loving people and National Minorities Commission authorities who put moral pressure on the ruling class to take steps for ensuring justice to the wronged persons. He described A.P. chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddys initiative of giving compensations to the innocent persons as an example for other chief ministers and governments. At the same time while referring to the arrests of communal and saffron terrorists he regretted that when these people have been exposed and have admitted their crimes, investigating agencies even then are arresting and sending Muslim youth to jail.

Team visits Odh 2002 riot scene

Anand: A team comprising second additional and sessions judge, public prosecutor, nodal officer, (retired) dy. Superintendent police etc. visited Odh, the village where 27 persons were burnt alive during the 2002 carnage. The case is being heard in the special court at Anand. Heavy police arrangements were made to enable the team to examine eye witnesses. It inspected Muhammad Khan Pathans residence the site of the massacre where 23 persons were killed by sitting them ablaze. Later on it visited another site where an old woman was set ablaze alongwith three other persons. Rehana Yusuf Bhai, the survivor, narrated before the additional judge, R.N. Shrin, the harrowing tale in which her grand mother, uncle and aunt were set ablaze. The team inspected the place and also examined witnesses about the dead bodies, places where the accused had been etc. Mostly all the witnesses have already given their statements and the verdict is likely to be given soon. This rigorous inspection is expected to provide important facts prior to delivery of the verdict.

MG NEWS DESK

8 The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012

NATIONAL

Syed Mubarak - The Agony Of Being A Terrorist!

HAIDER ABBAS

n todays India if one is tall, fair, healthy, has an aquiline nose, sports a beard, and also possesses a Muslim name, then one is absolutely fulfilling the basic requirements of being branded as a terrorist. This is now perhaps a general formula for our security apparatus, or else, how it would be proved that India too is active on the worldwide front in the fight against terrorism. Thus, Syed Mubarak, now 42 years old, and son of Syed Nawab Husain, quite deservingly according to the abovementioned criteria, was overnight turned into a terrorist. All hell broke loose on him on Aug 14, 2006, as he was zeroed in by U.P. police as a prize catch involved in waging a war against India. A closer look into the police and prosecution theory unveils the fallacy of the case. Thus, according to the police records, on August 20, 2006, at 6:30 pm, on an information passed on by RK Yadav, Local Intelligence Unit (LIU) Inspector, that someone who was describing himself as a Kashmiri, and was also present inside the area of Police Station CB Ganj, Bareilly, UP, and was engaged in addressing people in a Muslim-dominated locality in village Tiliyapur, Bandiya and its adjoining Sanaiyarani area, by making rounds with his speeches, filled with hatred and poison against the State of India. Here, it may be mentioned that the concerned LIU Inspector was at that time present at Sanaiyarani which is a small hamlet in the district of Bareilly in western UP. So, on receiving this information, the LIU Inspector along with two policemen went to the spot and found that the concerned Kashmiri was still engaged in the same vitriolic speech with around 15 to 20 persons as his audience. All the three mingled in the crowd so as to decode the usage of the words and note the content of the speech. The exact place was in close proximity to the house of one Babu Khan, a local resident. Then the LIU Inspector and his two police associates quietly left the scene and without evoking any sign of suspicion came back to Police Station (PS) CB Ganj, to collect a police force in order to raid the venue. Very soon a police team swamped the site to finally nab the

Ironically, some people had protested against Mubaraks arrest. They were assured by the police and they left. Assistant Superintendent of Police of Bareilly, Anand Swaroop said at the time that some other persons were also arrested on the ground of suspicion. The plot was thus complete: Syed Mubarak was an ISI agent. After some sensational coverage, the issue died down. But, the case had to run its course. Therefore, according to the chargesheet filed by the police and submitted before the court, it was claimed that on frisking Mubarak, it was found that he only had his clothes on and was carrying a sum of rupees 100 only at the time of arrest. He was brought to the police station and was informed about his arrest. He was told that he was arrested because of his involvement in a hateful campaign against the Government of India and for him being a participant in perpetuating hatred against the community. Hence, he was charged under section 124-A of Indian Penal Code. The FIR was read to Mubarak and thereafter his arrest memo was prepared. Interestingly, all those who were his supposed audiences and who were seemingly impressed and agitated by his speech according to First Information Report (FIR), refused to stand witness to the police theory in the court. The Investigation: The case was thereafter investigated, hence, all witnesses accounts, who were all policemen, were collected. A map was was made of the site of the arrest. After the arrest, his address in Kashmir was investigated, and here came the complete antidote to police claims, as during interrogation Mubarak had informed that he had nothing to do with Kashmir and that he was actually a resident of Sitapur in the eastern part of UP state itself. Police records, however, say that he had wrongly informed about his Kashmir antecedents, which made police to further slap on him sections 205/419 of IPC! The Chargesheet: The case was to make its headway after the chargesheet was filed. He was charged under two crimes in the same case. Crime No. 1240/2006 had charges under section 124-A of IPC and also under section 205/419 of IPC. The case was put into the court which did not pass any order until finally it came to Upper Session Judge (Fast Track Court) of Bareilly on November 3, 2009. This stage came only after both the crimes were bunched together and when all the witnesses from the prosecution side had put in their testimonies before the court.

Unscrupulous reporting in HIndi media

Syed Mubarak person calling himself a Kashmiri who was by then still engaged in his speech saying, according to the police report, that the Indian military at the direction of the Indian government had killed 250 innocent Muslims (not Kashmiris) in a mass murder by raining bullets on them on account of all of them being terrorists, and that the dead included his father, mother, sister, wife and children and somehow he was able to save his life by fleeing from the scene. The police team, which reached the site in a government jeep included LIU Inspector, Station House Officer Satyadev Singh of PS CB Ganj, Sub-Inspector Munna Singh and Constable Vinod Kumar Singh and Constable Brijender Singh. Finally, at the very site, where the LIU Inspector RK Yadav had seen and heard the anti-India speech, Syed Mubarak was arrested. He was found just adjacent to the house of Babu Khan in the village Sanaiyarani, Bareilly, according to the police. On questioning, it was found that he was Syed Mubarak, son-of Syed Nawab Husain, a resident of Chandanpur, Mehmudi, Tehsil Ranibagh, District Poonch, Kashmir. The arrest was optimum senstational material for newspapers like Dainik Jagran, one of the largest circulation Hindi papers in the country. It carried his arrest as front page news, and two days later, as a follow-up, carried an exclusive first-page news item claiming that its team had visited Sanaiyarani, and had found that Syed Mubarak was involved in instigating local residents against the state, and had told the villagers that he was a resident of Kashmir and had quite often repeated to them about the massacre of Muslims by the Indian military during his discourses in a local mosque, and that despite of being alone, he had some suspicious persons visiting him, and of course, the police had started the hunt for those people. The report further said that, according to intelligence agencies, he had been to Pakistan and had undergone arms training there and was an expert in bomb making and explosive techniques, and that he had also recruited 20 persons and sent them to Pakistan for the same purpose and that all these 20 persosns have returned to India after their successful training. The newspaper said that this information has baffled the intelligence agencies. UP Special Task Force was soon on its way to interrogate Mubarak.

The Trial and its Toll: A close analysis of the prosecution is an eye-opener. During more thatn three years, from August 20, 2006, the officially declared date of arrest of Syed Mubarak to Nov 3, 2009, the prosecution could produce quite a number of witnesses to prove his crime. No wonder, all the witnesses were policemen! The first witness, named as PW-1, was Sub-Inspector Tejbir Singh. He was later registered as PW-1A as PW-1 had appeared as Munna Singh. Munna Singh, said before the court on oath that on August 20, 2006, when he was stationed as SI at PS CB Acquittal orders of Syed Mubarak Ganj, the same day Inspector Mahinder Singh along with some policemen came to the PS PS Biswan in district Sitapur, UP. Despite the fact that his voter ID and on the information given by LIU Inspector RK Yadav, he went card and ration card proved that he was a resident of Sitapur, yet to the spot and found that there was a crowd and that one person the prosecution in order to press its claim, put the onus on Mubarak was addressing them, at the top of his voice, saying that the Indian claiming that he had engaged in misinforming the police about his military at the direction of government of India had killed 250 innoreal address and, hence, it further slapped on him a charge under cent Muslims by firing indiscriminately on unarmed and defenceSection 205/419 of IPC. less victims which included his mother, father, wife and children as The next witness was PW-2, a police constable who had writmartyrs and that somehow he was able to run from there to save ten the General Diary, which is the sum of every entry or exit of any his life [and curiously landed in a small hamlet in the district police official, registration of FIR and contains all the details of any Bareilly!]. one who is arrested. It is a document of the proceedings of the conThe prosecution informed the court that Syed Mubarak was finally cerned police station. The exhibit 3(GD) was proved by him. Later, arrested from near the house of Babu Khan Mewati, on August 20, the PW-3 witness repeated all the same as to what PW-A (Munna) 2006, in village Sanaiyarani, Bareilly, and on his interrogation he had said. The witness PW-3 was the Investigation Officer (IO) who said that his name was Syed Mubarak and that he was the son of submitted the chargesheet along with the site plan of the arrest. He Syed Nawab Husain, a resident of Chandanpur, Mehmudi, Tehsil brought to the notice of the court the site plan as exhibit A-4 along Rambagh, District Poonch, Kashmir. On frisking him, it was found with the chargesheet. The other witnesses who were named by the that he had a cash of rupees 100 on him. He was involved into an prosecution as PW-6, Yaqoob Ali, remained unknown, PW-8, act and speech against the Indian government. Babu Khan, was declared as hostile. Those who were present at the spot had refused to stand witness to prove the police claim. During the investigation, the prosecution Continued on the next page further claimed that Mubarak was actually a resident of Makwapur,

The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012

NATIONAL

Conference on Social Issues and Apostasy in Kashmir

rinagar: Islamic Relief & Research Trust Kashmir (IRRT) organised a one day conference on the topic Social Issues and Apostasy (Samaaji Masaail aur fitnah-e irtidaad). A galaxy of religious scholars, intellectuals, social activists, members of civil society and students attended the conference. Retd. Justice Bashir Ahmad Kirmani delivered the keynote address dealing with the topic in a wider historical, social, economic, political and religious framework. He said that the moral waywardness and the decadence of the social fabric of Kashmir was the underlying reason for a certain trend of apostasy in the Kashmiri society, as otherwise there never has been any major apostasy in Kashmir during the past 600 years even in the worst conditions. He stressed that the Christian community in Kashmir are our brothers and Muslims have a religious duty of making them feel secure. He appreciated the Muslim scholars of Kashmir for showing maturity in handling this issue and not just ignoring it. He advised that Muslims should not react in a negative manner as in todays globalised world it can have serious repercussions. He said that the controversy surrounding certain respected figures of IRRT should be dealt with within the Muslim scholarship and not in the public domain.

Other scholars who participated and spoke on the occasion were Mufti Ziaul Haq, Dr. Hamid Naseem Rafiabadi, Professor Yasin Kirmani, Maulana Khurshid Ahmad Qanoongo, Dr. Nazir Ahmad Zargar, Dr. Bashir Ahmad Nehvi, Maulana Showkat Hussain Keng, Maulana Hakeem Sajad, Mr. Aijaz Ahmad Kakroo, Engineer Abdul Kareem. A tafsir compilation of the Noble Quran, Zubdadtut Tafasir, compiled by Maulana Muhammad Muzaffar Hussain Nadwi, was released on the occasion. The following resolutions were passed unanimously during the conference. 1. The ulama are urged to visit the remotest corners of Kashmir and preach Islamic teachings in very simple language especially to those people who have gone away from the pristine teachings of Islam or have apostatised. 2. Since the issue of apostasy is a very delicate matter and has global implications, therefore, talking about its pros and cons in Kashmir context should be left to the ulama and scholars of Islam in tandem with the notables of our society, so that a positive response is given to such sensitive issues. Common people should not deliberate upon such delicate issues in order to safeguard the sanctity of the brotherhood Islam

teaches to Muslims. 3. People should not pass judgements without any genuine reason and without the approval of the ulama council about NGOs, social activists or respectable Muslim citizens of Kashmir, which may be detrimental to the dignity of the ulama and their sincere efforts at reaching amicable solutions to the problems facing our society. 4. This conference gives assurance to all the minorities that they should not feel insecure in Kashmir in the wake of this unfortunate conversion controversy. However, they are requested that they should also help in maintaining the peaceful and harmonious relationships among various sections of people in the society. 5. This conference strongly requests the government that the religious education known as Deeniyat and Islamiyat should be reintroduced in the school curriculum as it was in vogue in earlier time in these institutions. Moreover, it was suggested that the Muslim organisations and ulama should make arrangements for the Qur'anic and Islamic teaching of their children through morning and evening sessions at various places. probably will never again until some untoward incident that has an alleged media value than the ritual itself happens. Such is the media vigilance in India on some important issues, and the Indian media is not immune to caste prejudice. It is clear from the fact that many other similar inhuman practices based on dominant caste prejudices are of no news value for the Indian media. This includes widespread bonded labour of Dalits, Devadasi practices, the denial of food and medicine to the Dalit and tribal children in rural villages by the dominant caste government servants and land grabbing by dominant castes. The only entities that openly express discomfort regarding caste prejudices are the government agencies that represent India in international fora. For these institutions and the persons who work for them representing the government, caste is an internal matter of the country. So was apartheid an internal matter of South Africa, holocaust a domestic affair for Nazi Germany, and slavery an in-house labour management for the racists. Mistakes get corrected starting from the moment defects are admitted. Caste-based prejudices in India will continue until the government publicly admits that discrimination based on caste, in all its manifest forms, is a crime against humanity. What it requires is honesty in polity, and it is precisely what the governments in India lack. Founded in 1977, The Vigil India movement is a collective of jurists, intellectuals, journalists and human rights defenders with its office in Bangalore. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is a regional non-governmental organisation that monitors human rights in Asia, documents violations and advocates for justice and institutional reform to ensure the protection and promotion of these rights. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

Government promotes the gutter of caste

A joint statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission and the Vigil India movement on 5 December said that the Made Snana practiced at the Kukke Subramanya temple, near Mangalore attracts severe criticism and equal amount of support in India. The practice involves devotees rolling over plantain leaves, reportedly after dominant caste Brahmins have eaten from the leaves. It is believed that the ritual will cure skin diseases, like leprosy, mostly of the inferior castes, in particular the Dalits. The temple is under the Muzrai Department of the Government of Karnataka. Dr. Vedavyas Srinivas Acharya, a senior minister of the state cabinet, who is also responsible for higher education, planning, statistics and information technology departments in the state government heads the Muzrai department. Dr. Acharya is a medical doctor turned politician. That a qualified medical doctor heads a government department which manages religious institutions and the revenue generated from such institutions is also responsible for other important cabinet portfolios, not only allows such inhuman practices in the country but justifies it in the name of religious belief and centuries-old tradition is not just a shame for the country, but illuminates the deep-rooted nature of orthodox prejudices that benefits the dominant castes in the caste system of India. It underscores the fact that the liberation of the country from the clutches of caste is impossible should the current situations continue. It paints an appalling picture of what modernisation means in India, that Acharya is a senior minister in the state, which hosts the countrys IT capital, Bangalore. It reiterates the argument that neoDalit political leaders like Ms Mayawati are nothing more than shrewd politicians who use pro-Dalit sentiments to maintain power and intend no good to the community that she allegedly represents and her newfound affinity for Brahminical practices could justify, manual scavenging, a practice vicious and demeaning that rolling over banana leaves. The government had prohibited the practice of Made Snana in 1979. But it was soon reintroduced on the justification that it is a centuriesold religious ritual. So is untouchability, a much older practice, which today is prohibited not only in the constitution, but also in at least half a dozen statutes. Yet it continues openly in the country. The practice of manual scavenging is also prohibited, including the construction of dry latrines. But institutions like the Indian Railway, the municipalities, corporations and panchayats employ manual scavengers. The Indian Railway is the largest employer of manual scavengers, and manages some of the longest rows of open latrines in the world. The open-hole lavatories in every railway compartment that is in service in the country turns the largest rail network of the world into one big lavatory that drops raw human excreta and other waste onto the rails, and over people and vehicles - where the rail

line runs above roads. It is a common scene in every railway station in the country, railway employees cleaning with a broom, railway sleepers covered with human excreta. In a country that tolerates this and accepts the practice as god-given to a community, a few thousand devotees rolling over leftover food and plantain leaves upon which the food was served and eaten by some of the most exploiting communities in the world - those Brahmins who believe in the caste hierarchy - have eaten must be a negligible incident. That caste-based discrimination continues in India is nothing new. There is neither news value in it, nor is there any shocking discovery about the incident. That this years Made Snana was widely reported in the media can be discounted due to the news value the event attracted since a person who protested against this was publically assaulted. The inhuman ritual never attracted such media frenzy before, and

Continued from the previous page

One more witness, IO PW-9, was produced before the court who is said to have verified the address given by Syed Mubarak. All the witnesses statements were recorded by him before being produced in the court. One witness, named as PW-10, was the one who had gone to Kashmir to verify the address provided by Mubarak and found that the said address was wrong. He got the same recorded before the Court. After all the testimonies were recorded, came the turn of Mubarak who, under Section 313 CrPC, pleaded innocent. He refused to give evidence in his defence as after all it was for the prosecution to prove the case, and such there was no need for his defence. For prosecuting u/s 124-A IPC a sanction from the state is required and in this case no such sanction was taken. In a case like this the IO, by not securing such a sanction, has done a great mistake, says Mirza Muhammed Bashir Baig, the counsel for Mubarak who volunteered his services for the cause. Baig is a wellknown criminal lawyer and is practicing law for the past 35 years. The Judgement: The stage was thus set for the court verdict. The Upper Sessions Judge (Fast Track Court) of Bareilly, Vinay Khare, after a thorough inquiry, found the theory of police too compelling and short of any concrete evidence. He was quite vocal in his order which came after deliberating on perhaps all of the aspects and details claimed by the police. He referred, as per the record made available to the court, that according to LIU, at 6:30 pm, they reached the spot and found the accused involved in a hateful speech with 15 to 20 persons as audience. The LIU officer

remained there listening to the speech, and later returned to the PS, collected the police personnel, and again reached the same spot. The distance between the spot and the PS is two kms, and when the LIU and police reached the spot, the accused was still involved in the same speech. This could have taken around onehour. The accused as permanently involved in the same speech for one-hour continuously, according to the prosecution, does not seen natural, said Vinay Khare, on Dec 2, 2009. He said in his order that he found that Mubarak in fact did not misrepresent his address before the court and also did not engage to try to benefit from wrong informing that he was from Kashmir. Therefore, the charge of 205/419 is totally wrong, said the order of the court. It might be mentioned that IPC 205 stands for impersonation and IPC 419 is fraud by way of misrepresenting and also to give loss to anyone by such an act -- something which Mubarak did not even obliquely intended to. He was simply branded and made to reel under police atrocities and paid the price of being a Muslim in a secular state, said advocate Bashir Baig. He called the present state in India as an age of executive anarchy. He not only did not charge a single rupee in his 18 months persuasion of the case but in fact also paid all the court expenses by himself. Post Script: Syed Mubarak is a slightly relieved man today. His current economic plight betrays signs of comfortable living in the past. He was on a visit to Lucknow to reflect on his experience in the police custody. He is hard-pressed and only partially able to negotiate with his life back in Sitapur where he cultivates his land. The major part of his land had to be mortgaged during the loathsome ordeal. He has four sisters, ailing parents, and a daughter

who studies in XIth standard in a government school. What exactly had happened, I asked him. I had gone to the dargah of Aala Hazrat Ahmed Raza Khan, and was looking for some sustenance when one Haji Sahab offered me the opportunity to sell stitched clothes to villages on a bicycle. So I was on a regular errand to Gumdapur, Lata, Latori, Faridpur, Partapur and Bibiapur villages selling clothes at a meagre profit. I was able to earn around Rs 250 a day this way. On occasions when Imam sahib was unavailable, I would lead the prayers in a nearby mosque close to the residence of Babu Khan. I was arrested from the same mosque on August 14, 2006 and was taken to nine police stations where I was treated like an animal. Two constables would stand on my hands and two on my legs and water was inserted into my nose. I was asked to name my friends whom I had recruited to go to Pakistan. I had never visited Kashmir even in the wildest of my dreams. Whom would I have named then? They showed me to be arrested on August 20, 2006 after running me down with the worst physical torture and abuse. My whole back was strewn with bruises and the pain was such that for an year I could not sleep in the jail. I would just sit by the wall to sleep. After two years and seven days I was out on bail and after 18 months of trial I was a free man. All charges were set aside against me. This is primarily due to the yeoman services of Bashir Sahab, he said while brushing aside a tear in his eye. His release was also prominently published in the local newspapers. Bashir Baig has in the meantime started a legal suit against Dainik Jagran for publishing fabricated news. Legal proceedings have also been started against the police officers who implicated Mubarak.

10 The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012

JAMMU & KASHMIR

Debate continues in Kashmir over AFSPA

AFSANA RASHID
Srinagar: Chief minister Omar Abdullah, while addressing a public gathering in south Kashmirs Kokernag on December 5 said that there will be no let up in his struggle to gradually see-off laws like AFSPA from the state. He accused the main opposition PDP of changing its views on the Act. While party speaks in favour of revocation of Act in Srinagar, its leadership keep mum about it in Jammu, and at Delhi they make revocation of AFSPA subservient to the desire of Army. PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, while addressing public meetings at Darhal and Thanamandi in Rajouri-Jammu on December 12 said the issue of revoking AFSPA was raised to divert attention of people from the alleged custodial death of NC worker, Sayeed Yousuf Shah as killing has exposed the corruption in government and ruling NC party. The Army on December 12 said revocation of the Disturbed Area Act by the state government will not affect applicability of AFSPA in the state as the two laws arent interlinked. Col. Sanjay Vishwas Rao, Internal Security Officer, during an interaction with media at 15 Corps headquarters here was quoted as saying DAA has no relation with AFSPA. It is a misconception that the two laws are linked. Kashmir has been classified as a disturbed area by a Parliament resolution which made applicability of AFSPA possible in the state. DAA is a state law that was meant to give more powers to police. DAA was supposed to be extended every year but last time it was extended in 1997. As such, DAA doesnt even exist in Kashmir. The debate over the partial revocation of AFSPA was triggered by the chief minister, Omar Abdullah on October 21 when, during a police function at Zewan on outskirts of city, he declared that Act would be removed from parts of state within days.

Various deliberations, seminars and conferences were held here on the occasion of the international human rights day observed on December 10. Accusing the international community of showing double standards over human rights violations in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, chairman of Hurriyat Conference (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, while addressing a seminar on Human rights violations-double standards of international community held here on December 10 said, Kashmir is a political issue which needs to be resolved and addressed. There are conspiracies going on to disturb the social and political fabric of the Kashmiri society. But well not allow it. He said western countries are maintaining silence over the Kashmir issue. They are giving preference to economic interests over human rights. He appealed to the international and Indian human rights organizations to take notice of human rights abuses in Kashmir. Noted human rights activist and president of Coalition of Civil Society, advocate Pervez Imroz called for documentation of human rights violations in Kashmir from the past 20 years. He appealed to the separatist camp for establishing collective information bank that will remain a

Human rights day in the Valley

Union Minister and president of the National Conference Farooq Abdullah on December 5 asked for the reopening of liquor shops and cinemas in Kashmir in order to attract more tourists to the Valley. The call received wide condemnation from various sections of society. Chairman of Huriyat Conference (G) Syed Ali Shah Geelani next day 6 Dec sought a fatwa against the National Conference president. Islam has declared liquor as haram (unlawful) and ordered punitive action against those who consume it, said Geelani, while chairing the advisory council meeting of the conglomerate. He added that there has been no impact on tourism industry of states in the country which have banned the sale of liquor. It was National Conference that made sale of liquor in Kashmir legal by getting state assembly pass a bill in 1978. Imams and Khateebs of mosques too flayed Dr. Abdullah and strongly opposed any move to reopen cinemas and liquor shops in the Valley. Political analysts here claim that National Conference president had a design in making a call at a time when his chief minister-son Omar Abdullah was confronted with serious problems. They described it as a tactic to shift attention from real issue. Cinemas and liquor shops closed down across the Valley with the onset of militancy in 1989-90. They, however, re-emerged during Abdullahs government in 1996-2002. Some more liquor shops opened between 2002 and 2008.

database for human rights violations committed by the army over the years in Kashmir. JKLF chief, Mohammad Yasin Malik and his party workers took out a torch procession after staging a sit-in and candle light protest on the international human rights day towards Lal Chowk from the party headquarters at Maisuma. As the march reached Regal Chowk, police arrested Malik along with some activists and lodged them at the nearby Kothi Bagh police station. Malik, who recently returned from Hajj, said while military might is unleashed against the people here, the world is watching like a mute spectator while peaceful protestors are being killed or thrown into jails. He urged India and Pakistan to resolve the long pending issue as per the aspirations of the people of Kashmir. Convener of Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information movement, Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat, while addressing a workshop on December 10 said that a tool meant to empower people could be used to find disappeared people in the conflict-torn region. Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons submitted 132 cases of disappearances of Banihal and Ramban areas to the State Human Rights Commission. Out of 132 cases, 21 have been perpetrated by the Army, 24 by different militant groups and one by police personnel. In 43 cases, perpetrators were unidentified gunmen and in the remaining 43 cases the victims disappeared in unknown circumstances at the hands of unknown agencies. High Court Bar Association also organised a seminar on the day while the independent MLA from Langate, Sheikh Abdul Rashed, led a rally in Lal Chowk.

Is time ripe for Presidents rule in Gujarat?

ABDUL HAFIZ LAKHANI

hmedabad: The upcoming Gujarat election will be held this year (2012) and Gujarat CM Narendra Modi already has swung into action to win the battle. But it is now high time for Presidents rule in the state as about more than 33 police officers including some IPS officers are in jails in various fake encounter cases. Moreover, some senior policewalas are under the CBI and SIT scanner. The most important thing is that many officers are willing to depose before several investigating agencies against Modi. Only the exit of Modi can bring true justice to the victims of his misrule. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case with the CBIs Mumbai Special Crime Unit on 17 December. The case has been registered under IPC section 302 (murder). The CBI had earlier received an official complaint from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case. Nineteen-year-old Ishrat had paid her fees for the second year of graduation on June 9, two days before she was kidnapped. It is clear now that in both Ishrat and Kauserbis cases, they were kidnapped, physically abused, killed, all evidence destroyed and false cases framed. All this cannot be in the spurt of the moment. These were cold-blooded murders. Such crime takes a different dimension because the people who committed it were supposed to be the protectors of the people and patronised by the state. Itll not be wrong to say that murders in the name of encounters are the worst form of state terrorism. The people who brought real shame to the state by their heinous criminal acts are the ones who point their finger at those who speak for justice claiming, that the latter defame the state. And worst, a fairly good chunk of the prejudiced population buys their argument. The recent revelations by IGP Satish Verma, a member of the SIT investigating the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, has given another jolt to the unscrupulous elements in the Gujarat police. The officers involved in the extrajudicial killings of Muslims by declaring them terrorists, had fine-tuned sycophancy into an art aimed at serving the political agenda of the Modi government. The main objective of the police officers involved in the fake encounters was to project Modi as the prime target of Muslim ter-

rorists and, thereby, generate among Hindus sympathy for the chief minister. A related aim of the guilty policemen was to paint themselves as very efficient professionals who were able to protect the CM. The fake encounters carried out by the Gujarat police, from October 2002 to April 2007 when DG Vanzara and his partners in crime were arrested, were possible because of a sense of misplaced confidence that they were beyond the reach of law. They were filled with the sense of impunity from legal action generated and sustained by the Modi government among the perpetrators of anti-minority violence in the 2002 riots. The findings of the judicial magistrate MP Tamang, who had earlier conducted an enquiry into the Ishrat case, now seem to be corroborated by Vermas assessment as stated in his affidavit filed in the Gujarat high court. Their investigation reveals how brazenly every rule and regulation of the administrative system was flouted by senior officials of the state government. The fictitious account of the encounters given by the police officers involved was possible because the higher authorities in the police and the government did nothing to verify the truth of their statements. The post-encounter inquiries made no effort to identify the men and material used, the communication network involved, and the shelters and safe-houses used for the encounter. There was no effort to verify the account of the encounter specialists from valid corroborative evidence or even the antecedents of the victims who had been projected as terrorists. There was not even a perfunctory inquiry to see whether the rules regarding custodial deaths or deaths in encounters had been violated. All this was possible because of the extra-legal nexus between the encounter experts and the people in the highest echelons of the Modi government. Protagonists of police raj have expressed strange concern about the setback to police morale caused by the arrest of so many police officers in connection with fake encounters. But does high police morale require that a group of unscrupulous policemen be given the license to kill without fear of the law and ordinary citizens (Muslims) pay for it with their lives? Where was the state of Gujarat polices morale when the whole world expressed disgust at their overt and covert complicity in the mass murders that took place during the 2002 communal riots? The morale of an individual or organisation rests on their commitment to the ideals of truth, their courage of conviction, and their willingness to do their duty irrespective of whether or not it

served their personal interests Some unanswered points: The Central Bureau of Investigation that has taken over investigations into the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter has to reconcile to the fact that it has quite a few loose ends to tie up. How did Pakistani fidayeen Amjad Ali Rana and Jishan Johar, who were killed in the encounter, come to join Ishrat Jahan and Javed Sheikh? According to the FIR, intelligence inputs received by the then police chief K R Kaushik more than 15 days before the encounter suggested that two Pakistani terrorists Amjad Ali Rana of Sargoda, Punjab, and Jishan Johar alias Jaanbaj alias Abdulgani, of Gujranwala in Punjab, had left from Kashmir for Ahmedabad. How did the fidayeen reach Gujarat? And when did they meet Javed and Ishrat? These are questions that beg answers. The investigators found that Amjad Ali had been with Javed in UP, and together they had purchased the blue Indica car, used in the encounter, in May 2004 in Pune. Javed had also tried to obtain some illegal firearms in UP. Thus, it appears from available evidence that Javed was involved with Amjad Ali in some illegal activities and may have had links with some terrorist organistation, the FIR states. If Javed and Ishrat were picked up near Vasad tollnaka by N K Amin and Tarun Barot, as per the report, then where were Amjad Ali and Jishan Johar at that time. And how and when did they join them? Ishrat was killed in an encounter along with Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Jishan Johar by crime branch officials on June 15, 2004. There is circumstantial evidence to suggest that Amjad Ali was kept at Arham farmhouse near Koba circle prior to the encounter. However, there is no mention of how Amjad Ali came to be there, who brought him there and when. That remains a mystery. Also, the mysterious appearance of Johar in the case, is something the CBI will have to figure out to establish that the Ishrat encounter was preplanned. Though Johars identity was established on the basis of his fake identity card in the name of Abdul Gani from Udhampur in J&K, it needs to be found out how he came to be with Ishrat and the others. After the encounter when no one came to claim the bodies of Amjad Ali and Jishan Johar, they were given a burial at Musa Suhaag graveyard in Girdharnagar by crime branch officials and Waqf Board members.

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THE MILLI GAZETTE

The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012 11

ANALYSIS
Speaking Out
N I L O FA R S U H R AWA R D Y

Hazare: Only A Protestor

Anna Hazare is back on the political stage threatening a jail bharo protest movement from January 1, if an effective Lok Pal bill is not passed during the winter session of the Indian Parliament. He has also announced his intentions to go on an indefinite fast from December 27. If the bill is passed in keeping with recommendations made by him, it will be welcomed with a ceremony at Ramlila grounds, according to Hazare. Legally, politically and socially, Hazare has the right and as an Indian citizen, is certainly playing a responsible role by raising his voice against corruption. His demand for a Lokpal Bill is also to a degree justified. In the process, he has received substantial media coverage, enough for the world to consider him as an Indian protestor. There, however, appears to be a major communication gap between how the world, media and politicians regard Hazare as and what people at the grassroots think of him. The real voter cares little about Hazare being labelled among the 10 leading protestors. What have they gained in the process? The apathy shown by the Indian voter towards Hazare is reflected by the results of civic body elections in Hazares home district, Ahmednagar (Maharashtra). The Congress has won 80 seats, the NCP37, the BJP-14, Shiv Sena three and small parties together with independents or rebels have won 39 of 173 seats. Clearly, there is a major difference between the politi-

cal appeal that a protestor has for the voters and a democratic leader. Democratically, Hazare does not hold any political office nor has been elected to any democratic body. In this context, politically and legally, Hazare can protest on issues concerning him, but to a limit. He does not hold the democratic authority to issue commands to a democratically-elected government that is answerable to the entire country and not to just one man called Hazare. Undeniably, even as a protestor, Hazare would not have won acclaim from certain circles, if he had not received considerable media coverage. The coverage given to him by Indian media has played a major role for him being recognized by western media as a protestor. In this context, the Indian media has played a responsible role by not allowing Hazares voice to remain unheard. It may be noted that there exist numerous demonstrators and protestors whose voice remains confined within their own circles. The media coverage received by Hazare has apparently also prompted the central government to pay some importance to his demands. Considering that substantial success has been achieved by Hazare in being acclaimed as a protestor, isnt it time that he started moving beyond these to achieve his goal, that is his anti-corruption drive? Hazare has certainly issued repeated warnings to the government and also asked it to quit, if it is not keen on paying heed to his demands. Considering that legally, politically and democratically, Hazare does not have any authority to pressurize the government to his terms, isnt he going a little overboard? The government is apparently well aware that Hazares drive is probably a politically motivated move, providing ample ammunition to the opposition parties to target those in power. This probably explains

as to why the government is giving the impression of paying some attention to Hazares demands. If the government decides to bluntly reject Hazares stand, it would only provide him and his political supporters an issue to lash at the ruling parties. If Hazare is genuinely serious on issues that have made him demand resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his cabinet, why hasnt he paid more attention to opting for a legal course of action? It may be recalled, around 35 years ago the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, was not spared legally and politically for alleged election fraud. A case was filed against her in Allahabad High Court by Raj Narain. The court upheld the accusations against Indira Gandhi on June 12, 1975, set aside her election and also disqualified her from contesting polls for six years. Definitely, the court verdict was not welcomed by Indira Gandhi. Displaying no inclination to quit office, she reacted by imposing Emergency on June 26, 1975. In 1977, she called for polls, apparently under the impression that she had the peoples support. The illusion was shattered by her own defeat in Rae Bareilly constituency, where Raj Narain emerged as the winner amid miserable performance of Indiras party which could secure only 153 seats against the 350 Congress had won in the previous polls. Hazare has the right to protest on issues he feels aggrieved about, but he certainly does not have the authority to dictate terms to the government. Democratically, politically and legally, if Hazare is convinced about his own stand, what prevents him from adopting a politico-legal course of action? If he continues only protesting, then as mildly proved by Ahmednagar civic elections, it may not take long before he is viewed as a protestor without genuine democratic base.

PATRICIA MUKHIM
endy Goldmans Inventing the Enemy describes how, during Stalins rule, terror was unleashed by the regime on anyone suspected of being disloyal to the state. In her book, Goldman reconstructs how individuals and activists were caught in a web of accusation and counter- accusation, concealment and betrayal, belief and doubt. The lines between victims and perpetrators became completely blurred, not just because of the well- documented practice of selfprotection - denouncing others before you were denounced yourself - but because the Bolshevik Revolution and the rapid and dramatic social changes brought about by Stalinist industrialisation left no one with a pure Bolshevik (or Stalinist) pedigree. Even those loyal to the cause of Stalinism had family and political ties to individuals and groups singled out for repression and elimination by the Terror Machine of the time. This left everyone vulnerable. Goldman tells the story of that grim era of fear and paranoia and pushes us to imagine how we might have behaved had we lived in those times. Party leaders strongly encouraged ordinary citizens and party members to unmask the hidden enemy. Out of fear of repression or because people were brainwashed, they responded by reporting to the secret police and local authorities. The secret police picked up all those who were of doubtful integrity vis--vis the state, and terrorised them further. This book reveals the dilemmas people confronted in their struggles to survive. Anyone who studies the security situation in the North-East will not miss the contours of the conflict or how each phase is projected by security forces. With the reduction in armed conflict in Assam (all prominent militant groups are engaged in talks with representatives of the government of India), things are supposed to be quiet on this front. But is that happening? Not from the recent spate of arrests of so-called Maoists or people having links with them. It appears that the state or its security wing is all set to reinvent the enemy. There are many reasons for this. Armed conflicts create their own constituencies of vested interests. There is unaccounted money to be spent in unearthing information or containing terror. The sudden upsurge in arrests of so-called Maoists in Upper Assam makes you wonder how they have suddenly emerged on the scene and what defines a Maoist. Are all anti-dam activists also Maoists? Is dissent against certain paradigms of development equivalent to Maoism? Are protests against mal-governance also facets of Maoism? These questions need answers before we allow the state to label everyone a Maoist. The arrest of a young, spirited Adivasi woman and her personal associates on the plea that she has Maoist links is a state- invented alibi for terror. If you are an underdog fighting for your rights, chances are that the state will quash that voice sooner than later. And when the state has identified an enemy and that enemy is usually not those who continuously pilfer the state exchequer or sell off the states assets for a song or are in league with extortionists or even with insurgents, but the voiceless, then God alone can save you. Look at what happened to Binayak Sen. If Dr Sen is out of jail today, and on bail, it is because he has a strong support group across the world. What support do poor, voiceless peasants have to fight the state? I am all for tackling the forces of sedition, not because they disrupt the even tenor of life for our pompous rulers but because terrorism/militancy or its different avatars create a dissonance in governance. For a long time governments have rested on the alibi that

Inventing The Enemy

Armed conflicts create their own constituencies of vested interests. There is unaccounted money to be spent in unearthing information or containing terror. The sudden upsurge in arrests of socalled Maoists in Upper Assam makes you wonder how they have suddenly emerged on the scene and what defines a Maoist. Are all anti-dam activists also Maoists? Is dissent against certain paradigms of development equivalent to Maoism? Are protests against mal-governance also facets of Maoism? These questions need answers before we allow the state to label everyone a Maoist. The arrest of a young, spirited Adivasi woman and her personal associates on the plea that she has Maoist links is a state- invented alibi for terror. If you are an underdog fighting for your rights, chances are that the state will quash that voice sooner than later. And when the state has identified an enemy and that enemy is usually not those who continuously pilfer the state exchequer or sell off the states assets for a song or are in league with extortionists or even with insurgents, but the voiceless, then God alone can save you. Look at what happened to Binayak Sen. If Dr Sen is out of jail today, and on bail, it is because he has a strong support group across the world. What support do poor, voiceless peasants have to fight the state? governance suffers on account of adverse law and order situations. Much debate has gone into whether development comes first or vice-versa. This is an unresolved dilemma. But I would like to believe that there is never any excuse for halting development because that, precisely, is the reason for unrest. However, our paranoid security establishment has other views. So used are they to seeing ghosts everywhere that they are likely to shoot at their own shadows. I am also not inclined to throw my lot in with the anti-development, anti-World Bank, antiADB bogey. Demonising development is fine but what are the alternatives for the poor? If we are anti-dam (mega dams in particular) it is because of the huge environmental costs that these constructions extract; the displacement of populations in the areas to be dammed; the downstream repercussions and the amorphous relief and rehabilitation packages that do not reach those who deserve the money to create alternative lives and livelihoods. It is on these issues that the arguments must rest. The state as an entity to which citizens have signed a social contract with, to protect their lives and livelihoods ought to be seen as an enlightened provider of the rule of law and other public goods and services. But is the state playing that role today? Recent reports published by the United Nations Development Programme say that the quality of life among the Scheduled Castes and Tribes of India has gone further down the development indices. This obviously means that the much-vaunted Millennium Development Goals set by the UN as an aspirational end to be achieved by 2015 will remain a distant dream. This is not to say that life for the poor citizens who do not fall in the scheduled category is better. The poor are poor anyway because of the lack of resources for their growth and uplift. But when the poor revolt, why are they conveniently termed Maoists? It is also a coincidence that the bulk of natural resources is parked in SC/ST/Dalit habitats. These are the areas worst exploited for timber, coal, iron ore, gas, limestone, etc. And how much do the people in those areas get in lieu of their resources? Peanuts. What is the environmental cost they have to pay? Poisoned rivers, loss of biodiversity and other cascading effects. This means loss of natural eco-system, and with that several health disorders and other impacts. The impacts are visible in the climate change patterns and the change in cropping patterns as well. All these are insecurities that stare people in the face. Human security implies not just military security, which the state is obsessed with. It means a holistic sense of security for the human person ranging from access to education, health care, livelihood, basic needs, clean drinking water and clean air to breathe. Needless to say, much of the above are not within the reach of the majority of the poor. Many find voices in solidarity groups. But the state fails to recognise the symptoms of its failure and prefers to stick its head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich. The state takes the easy way out and punishes all those who point out at its failures. Some, like Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi (third consecutive term), have assumed the role of dictator, believing they ought to crush all voices of dissent. The people of Assam may be divided on their opinion about dissent and its different expressions. The elite would prefer life to proceed at an uninterrupted pace because they have everything going for them. But the poor are impatient. And unless the poor upset the current paradigm of development, they are unlikely to get anything out of the state. However, doing so means paying a heavy price. Many are likely to rot in jail because they do not have the money to pay lawyers to bail them out. So is that going to crush the voices of the teeming disadvantaged groups? Revolutions are necessary to bring change. We ought to learn a lesson or two from the Arab uprisings. After all history is the greatest teacher. The writer is editor, The Shillong Times, and can be contacted at patricia17@rediffmail.com

12 The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012

NEWSMAKERS
MEN & WOMEN IN NEWS
MG editor DR ZAFARUL-ISLAM KHAN has been appointed as a member of the advisory board of the Ankara Universitys Islamic and academic journal, The Journal of Islamic Studies, according to a communication from Prof. Dr. Mehmet Mahfuz Sylemez of the universitys Ilahiyat Fakltesi gretim yesi. Dr Khan is a member of many international organisations including the board of trustees of the Qatar-based International Association of Islamic Scholars headed by Shaikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi. Dr Khan participated in the Muslim media conference held at Jakarta jointly by Muslim World League and Indonesias Ministry of Religious Affairs during 13-15 December 2011; he presented a paper on Western media attitudes to Muslims. MUSHIR KHAN, a child of less than 7 years and a class 2 student of Mumbais Anjuman Al Islamia Allana English School has become the youngest cricketer in the 114-year old history of Cricket Tournament and included in Indian cricket teams Under-14 group by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). An all-rounder at this age, he is a fine off-spinner as well as a promising batsman. His fathercum-coach, Naushad Khan had also trained his elder brother Sarfaraz Khan who also was included in Indias under 14 team at the age of 9 years and two years ago i.e. in 2009 had scored 438 runs while playing for the same school i.e. Anjuman Al Islamia. Mushirs actual age is 6 years and about 10 months. On 14 December while playing for his school, in 8 overs he bagged six wickets for 11 runs only of the rival team of Shailendra Education Society and bundled it out for 28 runs only and his team defeated it by an innings and 40 runs. A magnificent performance indeed for a barely 7-year child. Saudi Arabian monarch King ABDUL AZIZ occupies the first rank among 500 most powerful and influential personalities of Islamic world, according to a joint study carried out by USAs Georgetown Universitys Islamic and Christian Understanding Centre and Jordans Islamic Centre for Strategic Studies. According to this study, Moroccos King SHAH MUHAMMAD VI occupies second rank and Trukeys Prime Minister TAYYAB ERDOGAN occupies third position. The criteria on which rankings of these personalities have been made by the two research centres are their services in academic and scientific, social, political, public welfare etc. fields. Among the Indian Muslims those included in this list are Allama Mufti AKHTAR RAZA KHAN Azhari Qadiri of Barely Sharif, Syed Dr. AMEEN Mian Qadiri of AMUs Department of Urdu, QAMRUZZAMAN KHAN Azmi, general secretary of World Islamic Mission, London, though they occupy lower ranks. Syed AKBARUDDIN, 1985-batch I.F.S. officer who has been appointed Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in external affairs ministrys Publicity Wing is tipped to be the spokesman of Indias ministry of foreign affairs. Earlier, he was on deputation to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for four years and after return to India has been appointed OSD. He served in Indian embassies in different countries. He will succeed the present spokesman VISHNU PRAKASH who has been appointed Indias ambassador to South Korea. ASLAM SHER KHAN, hocky star of yesteryears was unanimously elected President of the newly constituted Olympic Association of India at the meeting of the Association held at Olympic Bhawan on 13 December Haji ABDUL KHALIQ ANSARI, president of All India Momin Conference has been appointed a member of Planning Commission, Govt. of Indias Steering Committee. Dr. SALEEM KIDWAI, senior professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, has been invited by Americas Alabama University to deliver a lecture on relations between America and South Asia in a 3-day symposium there starting from 30 January 2012. He will also deliver a key-note lecture on Indo-American relationship. In JNU he is working in American Studies Division. An author of many books on foreign affairs, he frequently visits different higher educational institutions of USA for delivering lectures.

OBITUARIES
FARHAN MUJEEB, a Physics teacher at AMU and a famous artist who is better known to many as a scientist died of heart attack in Aligarh on 15 December at the age of 65 years. He voluntarily took retirement from AMU in 2004 and took to creative art and painting. He was also director of AMUs Centre for Promotion of Science. He also made many documentary films for Doordarshan for popularisation and promotion of science. He is survived by wife Fawzia who is a teacher in AMUs Womens College. Mrs. MASOODA HAYAT, noted Urdu poetess and an excellent teacher of Delhis Zeenat Mahal Sr. Sec. School died in Delhi on 6 December at the age of 82 years. Her three books have been published. Born in Bareilys Ginnaur, she was described as a poetess of unique style. Prof. FARID PARBATI, famous Urdu critic and researcher died on 9 December in Delhis AIIMS where he was admitted for treatment of blood cancer. An author of seven books on criticism and research, he was a poet also and was a teacher in Kashmir Universitys Department of Urdu. Maulana ABDUS SALAM RAHMANI, a scholar of Arabic language and literature, teacher and preacher died in Mumbai on 13 December at the age of 95 years. A native of District Balrampur (U.P.) he is survived by his wife, two sons and four daughters. Haji SHAHID AHSAN Muradabadi, noted Urdu poet born in Jaipur 1925, he settled down in Muradabad and rendered valuable services to Urdu language and literature. An author of six anthologies of poems, of whom as many as five books were selected by U.P. Urdu Academy for its different awards. At a condolence meeting held in Muradabad on 16 December a booklet Yaad-e Ahsan was released to perpetuate his contributions to Urdu literature. ZIAUL HAQ SOZ Haqqi Dehlwi, social and political personality of Delhi, senior Congress leader, poet and a former member of Delhi State Haj Committee died of heart attack in Delhi on 22 December. He was also the Sajjada Nashin of Dargah Sheikh Abdul Haq Mohaddis Dehlwi, chairman of Shah Abdul Haq Trust and founder of Shah Abdul Haq Academy. He was 62 and is survived by his wife, one son and one daughter. MAULANA ZEESHAN HIDAYATI, well-known Shia scholar and community leader, died in Varanasi on 23 December.

AWARDS
IBRAHIM KHALIL, wicket keeper of Hyderabad Cricket Association team has been given a cash award of Rs. 3 lakh by his team for his excellent performace in his teams match with Assam in Ranji Trophy played at Guwahati in November. In this match he bagged 14 wickets of Assam team which is probably a record in India. He had caught 11 batsmen behind the wicket and stumped out 3 batsmen. KHLIL MAMOON, prominent Urdu poet and a former chairman of Karnataka Urdu Academy is among the many litterateurs of different Indian languages who were selected, or rather whose literary works were selected by Sahitya Academy, New Delhi for being honoured with its Awards 2011. Khalils book Aafaaq ki Taraf (Towards Horizon or Universe), an anthology of poems, was selected for this prestigious award which is given for deserving literary works and their authors in 22 Indian languages every year. Khalil Mamoon, who retired as Inspector General of Police in 2008, did valuable work for the promotion of Urdu during the period he was chairman of Karnataka Urdu Academy. The language of his works, either in poetry or prose is simple and easily understandable and in most cases the theme of his works is degradation of man and moral and political values in the present age. For Kashmiri language, NASEEM SHIFAEE has been selected for

Sahitya Academys Award 2011. These Awards consist of the Academys insignia and a cash prize of Rs. one lakh which will be given to the award winners at a function to be held in Delhi on 14 February 2012. An author of 13 books, both poetry and prose, he is settled in Bangalore. In English language the Award goes to RAM CHANDRA GUHA for his book India after Gandhi. Dr. SULTANA N. NAHAR, an alumnus of AMU who is now a citizen of Bangladesh and is working in USAs Ohio State University as a research scientist, has given a cash prize of 150 Dollars each to two Physics students (one boy and one girl) of BSc (final year) i.e. Muhammad Imadur Rahman and Zara Aftab. In addition to this she has also deposited 12,000 USD as Capital fund in AMUs finance office for four cash prizes of 400 USD each to two Physics teachers every year. Prof. Wasi Hyder head of the Universitys Physics Department said that Dr. Sultana Nahar is a world class scientist whose many articles have been published in about a hundred scientific magazines and journals. Paying tributes to founder of AMU she said that the institution founded by him has done, and is doing, a great service to Muslims of the entire subcontinent by spreading quality education among them.

Air Car
Badhana (Baghpat): One has heard about coal-fired steam engines, power houses, petrol, diesel or gas-fired engines etc. but no one would have heard about air-fired car or a car operat-

ed by air; but HAMID HUSAIN SAIFI of Basodh village of Baghpat district of U.P. claims to have built such a car. He drove a Maruti 800 car which was powered not by petrol or diesel but by air. He demonstrated his feat before Badhanas S.D.M., Dharam Pal Singh who honoured him with an award consisting of a shield and commendation certificate. Hamid Husain said while talking to media persons that after working hard for about 20 years and spending all whatever he had he built a car that runs with air. He said that in his keenness to do something unique, he spent all his money, sold his shop and even ornaments of his wife. He said that after building this car in 2010 he demonstrated it to Baghpat districts SDM. On one occasion he drove it upto 14 kilometres but he did not receive any help or encouragement from any minister, MLA or M.P. of the state and if he gets any cooperation and help he will start building new and updated version of air-operated car. He said that now that he has spent everything, he hopes to get help and cooperation from government. Basodh village is unknown to people but it has historical importance because at the time of freedom movement British army had faced stiff resistance from the village people. He said that he has tried to make his small contribution in providing some relief to the people from growing cost of petrol and diesel. He says that with the engine of this car motor bikes, four-seater cars and three wheelers also can be driven. He said that building of an air-driven car costs about 2.5 lakh rupees. Development, held at Dhaka, Bangladesh (2005) and the 2nd International Symposium on Medicinal Plants, their Cultivation and Aspects of Uses held at Petra, Jordan (2010), to name a few. Iqbal has been on the editorial boards of 14 research journals, including Journal of Ecology and Health (Poland), Journal of Environmental Biology (India), Journal of Natural Sciences & Mathematics (Saudi Arabia), Indian Journal of Plant Physiology, Journal of Indian Botanical Society and Phytomorphology (India), and acted as reviewer for over 30 academic journals. He was President of the Academy of Environmental Biology (2006-2009), Vice-President of the Indian Botanical Society (2003-2004), and Executive Councillor of the National Environmental Science Academy (1998-2000; 2007-2011) and International Society of Environmental Botanists (1999-2011), among several others. He worked as Visiting Scientist at South Korea (1998) and Poland (2003 & 2008) under the Scientists Exchange Programme of INSA and as Visiting Professor at the King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (2008-2010). A Life Member of over 20 scientific/academic bodies and an elected Fellow of six national and international scientific organizations, including the Linnean Society of London (FLS) and the National Academy of Sciences, India (FNASc), Prof. Iqbal is a recipient of eight national awards, including the H. L. Chakravarty Award of the Indian Science Congress Association (1986), the Young Scientist Award of the MAAS-TWAS (1988), the Best Scientist Award of the National Environmental Science Academy (2001), the V. Puri Medal Award of the Indian Botanical Society (2002), the R. C. Dalela Oration Award of the Academy of Environmental Biology (2008), and the Vigyan Gaurav Award of the Uttar Pradesh Council of Science & Technology (2011). Comments on his work and achievements have appeared in several Biographical Directories (Whos Who) published from India, UK and USA.

Prof. Muhammad Iqbal

Born in Khatauli town in the Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, Muhammad Iqbal received his early education at Islamia Inter College, Muzaffarnagar and obtained his BSc (Hons), MSc (Botany), MPhil (Botany), and PhD (Botany) degrees from Aligarh Muslim University. He started his professional career as a lecturer in the Govt PG College of Uttarkashi (1981) and later shifted to Aligarh Muslim University to teach botany during 1982-90. He joined Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, as Professor of Botany in 1990. Prof. Iqbal specializes in developmental, environmental and medicinal botany. He identified the ontogenetic trends of dimensional variation and the polynucleate status of the cambial initials, and studied the cambial activity in relation to season and environment. His novel work on cambial cell dynamics revealed that the elongating tips of fusiform initials grow along the tangential walls rather than the radial walls of the neighbouring cells, and that the intrusive growth of fusiform initials has a role in establishing boundaries of horizontal tiers of the initials in the storeyed cambium, and in materializing the elimination of the initials. He established correlation of leaf emergence with cambial activation even in those species with a considerable time gap between the two events. Iqbal analyzed the structural, functional and biochemical responses of plants to environmental pollution at different stages of plant growth and demonstrated that the pollution stress may alter plant- growth patterns, production of secondary metabolites, efficiency of enzymatic as well as non-enzymatic antioxidant defence system, composition of seed oils, development of lateral meristem, periodicity of cambial activity, as well as the wood biology. He experimented to develop stress-tolerant plants in vitro. His recent works focus on the modulation of antioxidant defence system in plants against abiotic stress, and the phytoremediation potential of some medicinal and crop plants. Iqbal has produced over 300 publications, including 193 original research papers, 62 book chapters and several technical reports, book reviews and popular articles. He also published seven books, viz., The Vascular Cambium (Research Studies Press/John Wiley, Chichester, UK: 1990), The Cambial Derivatives (Gebrder Borntraeger, Stuttgart, Germany: 1995), Growth Patterns in Vascular Plants (Dioscorides Press, Portland, USA: 1994), Plant Response to Air Pollution (John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK: 1996), Environmental Hazards: Plants and People (CBS Publishers, New Delhi: 2000), Medicinal Plants in Changing Environment (Capital Publishing Company, New Delhi: 2011) and The Current Face of Medicinal Botany (IK International, New Delhi: 2012). He was a participant, speaker and/or sectional chairman in the 15th International Botanical Congress held at Yokohama, Japan (1993), the International Meeting on Periodicity of Growth in Tropical Trees held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1994), the Third International Congress on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants held at Chiang Mai, Thailand (2003), The 1st Conference of the Polish Society for Plant Experimental Biology held at Olsztyn, Poland (2003), the International Conference on Actual Problems of Botany and Plant Physiology, held at Saransk, Russia (2004), the 17th International Botanical Congress held at Vienna, Austria (2005), the International Botanical Conference on Plant Resources for Human

The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012 13

SPECIAL REPORTS

Muslim media conference in Jakarta

OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT
Jakarta: The second international Islamic media conference was held here during 12-15 December after a long gap. The first such conference was also held in Jakarta 33 years ago. The purpose of the conference, held jointly by the Mecca-based Muslim World League and the Indonesia Ministry of Religious Affairs, was to bring together Muslim media experts and important journalists to deliberate on the problems of media in the Muslim World, the image of Islam and Muslims in world media and to thrash out plans and programmes for a better Muslim presence in world media. Dr Turki at the concluding ceremony Zafarul-Islam Khan presenting his paper The majority of the around 500 participants were from Indonesia while about age of their issues. The UN appointed McBride committee which a hundred came from other countries including the West and Internet sources as it is brimming with unverified and concocted information. He also warned against the dangers found out that imbalance is huge in western medias coverage of erstwhile Soviet Union. From India, three persons participated: Dr SQR Ilyas, editor of Urdu monthly Afkar-e Milli, Ejaz Aslam, faced by Arabic language as a new language of very limited Third World issues. He also mentioned that an EU report said that western media has not been fair to Muslims. He said that editor of weekly Radiance and Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan, editor of vocabulary is emerging as a result of the new IT media. Prof. Parni Hadi of Indonesia said that the new media is spending on media in our societies comes third after food and The Milli Gazette. clothing and we spend a lot of our time on media. He said that The conference deliberated on five core issues: destroying our language and culture. Jamal Muhammad Arafah of Egypt, formerly of Islamonline, de-regulation as a result of WTO accords has allowed western Contemporary Media: Components and Impact; Collaboration and Networking of Media in the Muslim World; Islamic Media stressed on the many uses of modern media and said that we media to penetrate our societies as never before. Dr Kamaluddin Umar Zayat of Indonesia said that it is not Discourse; Media and Dialogue; and Proposals to Boost Muslim have still not managed to answer the question: how to use media to achieve progress. true to say that new media is all about pornography. He menMedia. Muhammad Ali Harrath, CEO of UKs Islam Channel, offered tioned that ulama in Indonesia are using twitter and facebook to Speakers included Abdul Rahman Al-Shubaily, a prominent a presentation of his channel and said that British medias daily preach Islam. Saudi writer and former member of the Shoura Council, Dr Saud The conference approved a revised code of honour for Saleh Katib of King Abdulaziz University, Muhammad Sallam, message to Muslims is: you should feel ashamed of your past director general of Iqra Channels who spoke on Successful and your presence in the west. He said that the Mayor of London media institutions and journalists in the Muslim world. The first had conducted a survey of UK media and discovered that 90% code of honour was proposed by the first media conference 33 Satellite Islamic Channels & Websites. years ago. The new draft called on mediapersons to spread Farhat Umar of South Africa said that western societies tol- of contents were anti-Muslim. Dr Syed Arabi Idid, former rector of International Islamic Islamic teachings and values while countering biased reports. erate multiculturalism so far as Muslims promote the chosen University of Malaysia, stressed that ownership of media is very The code asks mediamen to support Muslim people in their brand of multiculturalism in their host societies. efforts to resist oppression and occupation and to adhere to the Prof. Izzuddin of Malaysia said that stereotyping Muslims is important. He said that we should not be afraid of new media. He gave the example of television, saying that in the beginning we general principles in journalists universal code of ethics such as not new; it has been going on for centuries. He said that while refraining from publishing and broadcasting all forms of incitebuilding skyscrapers and buying billions worth of Boeing aircraft, were very much afraid about its adverse influence but look, five ment to violence, keeping away from fabrication of events and to decades later we are still good Muslims. we want to preserve our identity. He said that Muslims should MG editor Zafarul-Islam Khan presented a paper in Arabic verify the news and be honest in reporting. build their own brands and added that Halal is now a 3 billion dolAddressing the concluding session, Abdullah Al-Turki, secreon the Western media attitude towards Muslims and Third lar economy. World. The paper studied the attitude and policies of western tary-general of the Muslim World League, called on Muslim Dr Hamdi Abul Ainain of Egypt said that 700 TV channels media organizations to implement the resolutions taken by the are now active in the Arab World and the decadence that they media towards Muslims. Dr Khan stressed that Muslims conference in order to have a major impact on the world, correctshould own media organisations and enter all fields of the preach is not coming from the West. He lamented that Arab ing wrong perceptions about Islam and Muslims. We should regimes controlled the political content of these channels but world of media. Muhammad Ali of New Zealand said that Third World coun- also make use of the media including social networks to enhance have left all else without check. He warned against reliance on tries complained to the UN against western media for its cover- dialogue with other faith communities, he added. Ranchi (Jharkhand): The 20th International Educational Convention and Gala Award Ceremony hosted by American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin (AFMI) was held here on 24-25 December. The chief guest at AFMIs Ranchi-convention was Dr. Syed Ahmed, Governor of Jharkhand. In his opinion, Female education is a must as that helps in the literacy of the entire family. Trustee and founder, AFMI, Dr. A. S. Nakedar, highlighted the importance of social justice, gender equality, 100% literacy with substantial importance given to both formal and religious education. Appreciating the educational importance of Indian Muslims, Subodh Kant Sahai, Union Minister of Tourism, took note of Jharkhand children being among the national toppers. Among 11 class ten toppers from India, three belonged to Jharkhand. Sahai pointed out that AFMIs convention has held people in Jharkhand and outside become aware of educational importance given by Indian Muslims in this state and elsewhere. He pointed out, We have gone through a tough stage when because of communal polarization, secularism was at stake. The situation has changed now. Sahai sent salaam to the Indian madarsas which give
MG/Yusuf

AFMI Convention at Ranchi

Governor Syed Ahmad speaking during the convention; right: AFMI leaders with some toppers

We belong to different parties but our destination is same

We belong to different parties but ourdestination is same

Anticorrup bus tion

importance to education. Though Haji Hussain Ansari, Minority Welfare Minister (Jharkhand) accepted that Muslims are moving ahead, he pointed out their progress is not in keeping with their population. AFMI, formed by American Muslims of Indian origin in 1989, aims to work towards educational and economic uplift of Indian Muslims with cooperation between American and Indian relief and education-

al organizations. All over India, the Top Eleven from Class 10th are: Inamdar Farhat Iqbal 97.2% (Maharashtra); Kanize Robab Ali 96.71% (West Bengal); Ruksar Banu 96.48% (Karnataka); Memon Shaheen Iqbal Bhai 95.60% (Gujarat) with the following having secured 95% Suffeya Zeb (Bihar); Nausheen Najmul Haque Ansari (Jharkhand); Nafis Ahmed Siraj Ahemd (Jharkhand), Aarifuzzaman (Jharkhand); Navar P. M. (Kerala); Faheem K. (Kerala) and Sheikh Mohammed Israil (Orissa). The Top Ten from Class 12th Examination (all over India) are: Maha Fathima 98% (Kerala); Sarah S. D. 96.33% (Tamil Nadu); Maria Yusuf Lakkadwala- 95.4% (Maharashtra); Israrbanu Mansoor Ballary 95.33% (Karnataka); Syed Safaraz Syed Hasham 95.30% (Andhra Pradesh); Mohd. Arish Abdul Nasir 94.20% (Uttar Pradesh); Rana Junaid Babar 94.00% (Gujarat); Sarfaraz Abdul Gafoor 93.08% (Rajasthan); Sakina Pitalwala 91.8% (Madhya Pradesh) and Nazneen Nighar Sultana- 91% (Orissa) In addition to national level awards, six candidates from different states were selected for gold, silver and bronze medals.

NILOFAR SUHRAWARDY

14 The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012

COMMUNITY NEWS
Teesta Setalvads Lecture at AMU
Aligarh: Teesta Setalvad, eminent human rights activist, delivered a lecture on Human Rights Education at a special session of ongoing Refresher Course on Human Rights for University/College teachers at the UGC Academic Staff College, Aligarh Muslim University. Setelvad focused on childrens rights and said that human rights discourse and policies in India are adult-centric. She emphasized that children cannot be ignored by any society while formulating policies and programmes. The shrinking space for children is a matter of great concern for us. She also highlighted the plight of minorities in India and observed that they are the victims of targeted violence in the country. There must be effective institutional and legal measures for safeguarding the interests of minority communities in a multicultural democracy, she observed. Expressing concern at the opposition of the proposed Communal Violence Draft Bill 2011, Setelvad said that it creates an effective institutional and legal measure against communal and targeted violence towards linguistic, religious and other minorities. She stressed the need of an early passage of the Bill by the Parliament. Teesta Setalvad has been associated with the drafting of the said Bill. A total of 81 participants of the course hailing from all parts of the country took part in this course. Omar and Farooq to woo Muslim voters for Congress in UP In an effort to pacify the angry voters of the state, Congress Omar and Farooq Abdullah are believed to have agreed to campaign for the Congress in the UP assembly polls. Mustafa Kamal, brother of Farooq Abdullah, who was the partys chief spokesman and additional secretary has been sacked by the party for saying that Rahul Gandhi had no role in running the government in Jammu and Kashmir and his role is to run the Congress and not the state. Kamal had made this statement while replying to a statement made by state Congress chief Saifuddin Soz that Rahul was unhappy with the governance in the state. Muslim votes are crucial for all parties including the Congress and therefore Omar Abdullah friend of Rahul Gandhi is most likely to campaign for the Congress in Muslim dominated areas to woo Muslim votes. However, whether the father-son duo will campaign for the Congress will be finally decided by Sonia Gandhi in consultation with other senior leaders of the party. Nanavati Commission allows Jadejas cross examination Ahmedabad: The Commission investigating riots that took place after the Godhara incident, comprising Justices G.T. Nanavati and Akshay Mehta, has granted permission to parties for cross examining I.K. Jadeja, the former minister, inspite of strong objections for this permission from the state government. A petition seeking such permission was accepted by the two judges and fixed 28, 29 and 30 November as the date for hearing. Jadeja appeared before the panel on 8 November and replied to queries raised for a period of one and half hours. However, the concerned parties and media were not allowed at that time. Jan Sangharsh Manch, in this context, submitted a petition for the granting of permission to cross examine the former minister, because he was a key witness with regards to 27 February meeting. Demand for a Dalit CM gaining momentum in Punjab Demand for a Dalit or Hindu chief minister is gaining momentum these days in a section of the Punjab Congress. The state which has the highest population of Dalits in the country, a section within the Congress wants to reverse the trend of Jat Sikh chief ministers with a Dalit chief minister in a bid to woo Dalits. As usual the Jat Sikhs have always dominated Congress politics in the state but this time some Congressmen want a Dalit chief minister in order to consolidate their vote bank. To press the demand even further Shamsher Singh Dullo former Punjab Congress president has said he has decided to launch a campaign to mobilise support for a Dalit chief minister in the state. Gujarat connection haunts AP police Hyderabad: The SIT report in the Ishrat Jahan case that has indicted Gujarat police officials for a fake encounter has brought the focus on officials of the Andhra Pradesh police also. Though not directly connected with Ishrat fake encounter, AP cops have closely collaborated with Gujarat police in many cases. In many cases, Gujarat police has used the help of AP police and what is worrisome is that this cooperation was without the knowledge of senior political bosses, a top police official from AP confessed. What this boils down to is that AP police has helped Gujarat police to further the agenda of the Modi government although the government in AP is ideologically opposed to that in the saffron state, he added. Though the help provided by the AP police in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case is well known, what is causing worry is the apprehension that the elimination was linked with the murder of Gujarats former home minister Haren Pandya. The former minister, a Modi baiter, was killed in January 2003. Asghar Ali was arrested from Hyderabad for pulling the trigger, but a few weeks ago he was released on the orders of the Gujarat High Court which dismissed his conviction. Sohrabuddin Sheikh was kidnapped from Andhra-Karnataka border by the Gujarat police with the active help of officials of AP police in November 2005. He was then taken to Gujarat along with his wife Kauser Bi and both of them were bumped off. It is now being suspected that Sohrabuddin was bumped off because he knew too much about Haren Pandya murder. Hitherto, it was suggested that Sohrabuddin was a notorious blackmailer. Not only was Sohrabuddin kidnapped with the help of AP police, he was first lured to Hyderabad with the help of a Naxalite renegade Nayeemuddin who was suspected to be working with the AP

Dowry evil in West Bengal

Like many parts of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, West Bengal too is drowning in the system of dowry. During our 5-day Stop-Dowry campaign in Kolkata, we observed that if our scholars and madarsas do not raise their voice loudly, and if the rich and educated but greedy class of our society does not refrain from extravagance, the community is going to be destroyed morally and financially. Although the Quran defines the male as the one who spends on the women, the situation is reverse in our society. A majority of our males have given up their malehood and opted to begging or expecting from their wives and never pay the due mahr which is obligatory for them to pay to their wives at the time of marriage. In Bengal, the minimum cash payable as dowry by the wifes family starts at Rs. 50,000 besides furniture, household items and gold jewellery. The price of the groom is fixed according to his educational qualification, financial background, family status etc. and may end up in crores. Sometimes dowry is expressly demanded but mostly it is by default, i. e., the father of the girl is supposed to give voluntarily. The wedding day dinner is also mandatory and borne by the brides family. This evil is common in other communities too, and they are suffering more than Muslims. It is a great chance for us to rise to the occasion, cleanse the marriage system in accordance with the Sunnah and present a model to others. They will be police. Nayeemuddin, who has now disappeared belongs to Nalgonda, the same place to where Asghar Ali belongs. Strangely enough, Asghar Ali has been silent ever since he came back. The moment Asghar Ali landed in Nalgonda, he was arrested by the AP police in some old cases and sent to jail in Hyderabad. After a few days, he was transferred to Visakhapatnam jail. Though administrative reasons were cited for his transfer to Vizag jail, analysts wonder whether this was a crude attempt to keep him quiet. Sources say that Asghar, though he did not kill Haren Pandya, knows a lot about the case. In fact, while in Sabarmati jail he seems to have revealed a lot on this to then superintendent of the prison Sanjiv Bhatt who has now taken up the cudgels against Modi. It seems that the CBI has zeroed in on two senior IPS officers of AP who were responsible for providing logistical support to the Gujarat police in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case but are yet to interrogate them. The complicity between Gujarat police and elements of the AP police is still continuing. Sources point out that in a case that is only a few months old, Afaque Equabal, an IT company employee in Hyderabad was picked by the Gujarat police with the help of the AP police on suspicion of being a terrorist Danish Riaz. But he was shown as being arrested from Vadodara while alighting from a train from Secunderabad. Obviously, the AP police does not want to be seen as assisting the Gujarat police so recourse to this stratagem though everybody knows that this young man was picked up from outside his office in Banjara Hills, well informed sources told Times of India. Everybody knows that Gujarat police has an agenda. Why should elements in AP police help them thereby jeopardizing the interests of the Congress government in AP which has secular credentials, the sources asked. Equabal was picked up on June 17, 2011 from Hyderabad but was shown as arrested on June 22, 2011 from Vadodara. His arrest went unnoticed because he is a Muslim from Ranchi with not much local contacts. It seems that the CBI has zeroed in on two senior IPS officers of AP who were responsible for providing logistical support to the Gujarat police in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case but are yet to interrogate them. Handicapped Muslims captivated by Modi mantra Ahmedabad: Refusing to budge from his cap allergy Modi is so afraid of Muslim caps that a circular from the chief ministers office has banned the use of caps while attending state programmes. The sadbhavna programme at Rajpipla witnessed the humiliation of Gujarat Rajya Haj Samiti chairman, Mehboob Ali, who arrived there donning a black cap. At the entrance he was thoroughly searched by the security guard and then was asked to remove his cap by Dy. S.P. on duty. After a tiff Mehboob Ali obliged and removed his cap and put a handkerchief over his head. Later on his cap was returned after rigorous checking and interrogation. Such humiliation of Muslims, from BJPs own cadre based persons should have taught them a lesson. But BJP Muslims of Gujarat are, as we reported earlier, incorrigible. Lucknow Scientist gets Urdu Academy Award Lucknow: U. P. Urdu Academy announced its annual awards to several authors and journalists of repute. These awards include the Salim Ali Award (Rs one lakh) to popularize science through Urdu, which this year has been given to the well-known scientist of Lucknow, Dr. M. Iqtedar Husain Farooqi, retired deputy director of NBRI. Apart from his researches on plant chemistry, Dr. Farooqi is known for his acclaimed books, Plants of Quran, and Medicinal Plants In Prophetic Traditions for which he received Sultan Qaboos (ruler of Oman) Award a few months ago. Urdu versions of these books have been appreciated by several Islamic scholars including late Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi of Nadwa Islamic seminary. These books have also been translated into several Indian and foreign languages including Hindi, Kannada, Malyalam, Bangla, Bhasha (Indonesia), Persian, French and Arabic. impressed by Islam if we perfom our marriages according to the way of Hazrat Ali and Fatima (may Allah be pleased with them). Rahma Foundation patronised this campaign and held several seminars, gatherings and arranged Friday khutbas at various places like Muslim Institute, Madarsa Khaja Ghareeb Nawaz, Kanki pura, Ameenapura, Malanchak, Mahesh Gaddi, Matyabride, Garden Beach, Chaabdani etc. Huge audiences turned up at these places, and Alhamdulillah they realised the illegitimacy of the dowry system and pledged by raising hands to refrain from dowry as well as from wedding-day dinners. They realised the importance of mahr and many pledged to pay mahr. Those who took dowry by compulsion, demand or due to lack of awareness pledged to return it as according to the Sharia, it is obligatory to return such extorted gifts. A booklet, Mard bhi bikte hain... jahez ke liye was distributed free in Urdu, Hindi and Telugu. Its translation is underway in Bengali. Mr. Rahman Sarkar, Azad Hind, Rashtriya Sahara, Payame Mashriq, Kee Khobar and Srishti TV helped to launch the campaign in media through newspapers and TV in Bengali, Urdu and English. Future campaigns will be held in Sholapur (Jan 2012) and Bihar (March 2012). (Excerpted from a communication sent by Aleem Khan Falaki, Jeddah - aleemfalki@yahoo.com www.socioreforms.com) Parzania now released in Gujarat too

Scene from Parzania

Ahmedabad: Parzania released in 2007 in the entire country could not be released in Gujarat at that time because of local agitation against it. The film that captures the genocide of 2002 focuses on the plight of Rusi Modi, a thirteen year old Parsi boy, who has been missing since them. Rusis mother, Rupa Modi, while addressing the press conference at the time of the release weeping asked if a thirteen year child could be a terrorist as was claimed by the police, and that too when she had approached the police staff to help her trace her missing son. She was silenced by saying, your son has become a terrorist. The film had moved many all over the world, who expressed their sympathy by phone of course, the Modi government has yet to make a courtesy call. Appointment of Moallim Urdu as assistant teachers Allahabad: Central government has directed U.P. government to appoint recognised certificate/degree holders of Moallim Urdu as assistant teachers in government schools of the state. Education Director of HRD ministrys Department of School Education, Vikram Sahai in his letter to U.P. governments Basic Education secretary directed him to appoint certificate holders of Moallim Urdu on the posts of assistant teachers (Urdu) in government schools of U.P. He further wrote that I want to invite your attention to the verdict of High Court in which it (High Court) has accepted the validity of Moallim Urdu certificate. He further wrote in his letter that I have been directed to tell you that U.P. government should take necessary steps to implement the courts verdict. Urdu Development Organisation, which is carrying on a campaign for the promotion of Urdu, sent a copy of this letter to U.N.I. Urdu service and said in a statement that if U.P. chief minister Mayawati wants to come to power again, she should implement this verdict of the court at the earliest. Kashmiris to be trained and hired by PSUs: Centre New Delhi: The Central government has asked public sector undertakings (PSUs) and banks to impart quality training and provide employment to youths from Jammu and Kashmir. The government has initiated this effort in order to integrate the youth of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country by providing jobs outside their state. The need for this was felt because youth from this state have faced militancy and political disturbance for a long time. Home Minister P Chidambaram recently held a meeting with all heads of the PSUs and Banks in order to encourage them to work towards providing employment to 40,000 youths from Jammu and Kashmir in the next five years. The onus of providing training lies with the National Skill Development Corporation and every year 8000 youth will be trained. Yunus Patels chivalry: Nikah in hospital Ahmedabad: Demonstrating his sincerity and word of honour Yunus Patel, the bridegroom, married Taslimbanu when she suffered burn injuries and was bedridden. Refusing to postpone the date of nikah following the incident in which Taslima suffered 40% burn, Yunus decided to lead his marriage procession to the L.G. Hospital to which she was admitted as a patient. People recalled the fiction portrayed in the film vivah (marriage) in which the hero goes round the marriage fire with his bride in his hands. That was fiction here is fact, nobler than fiction. Who says the days of French Chivalry are over?

The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012 15

COMMUNITY NEWS
Muslim leaders meet to consider issues
New Delhi: Different milli organisations and leaders are now thinking of adopting a suitable strategy to meet the problems arising out of the changing social and political scenario in the country. An important meeting was held at Jamat-e Islami Hinds headquarters in Abul Fazl Enclave here on 21 December in which leaders of various milli organisations sat together to consider and discuss suitable steps to be taken to meet the situation arising out of the changing scenario. The change in VHP leadership is being seen by media and opinion makers as a positive situation that may lead to communal peace and security in the country but milli leaders and organisations do not agree to such views and are not optimistic about it. They agree that no doubt communal riots on a large scale are not taking place in the country now but there is no let-up in communal viciousness. Communal forces are adopting different ways to destroy or at least weaken communal harmony and have even succeeded in maintaining their hold and influence in different government and other departments. Recent arrests of Muslim youths are being seen by Muslim organisations from this angle. It is learnt that in this meeting exchange of views had taken place to suitably meet this situation. It is learnt that increasing cases of attacks on mosques and their desecration in Palestine and Israels aggressiveness were also discussed in this meeting and emphasis was laid on the need to make joint efforts for this to bring about the victimhood of the Palestinian people. Among those who attended this meeting were Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan, working president of All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, Dr T.A. Rahmani, president of Muslim Political Council, Maulana Abdul Wahab Khilji, President of the All India Islahi Movement, Maulana Abdul Hameed Nomani, secretary of Jamiat Ulama-e Hind; Muhammad Ahmad, secretary of Jamat-e Islami Hind, Maulana Juned Banarsi etc. When asked about this meeting, Dr. T.A. Rahmani said that in this meeting a suitable strategy to be adopted to meet the different challenges and problems being faced by Muslims and finding their solutions was considered. He said that concern was expressed on the way arrests of Muslim youths have restarted in recent days and, like Azamgarh, efforts are now being made at government level to target Muslim majority areas of Bihar to defame Muslim youth there. He said that suggestions were made to prepare a fact-sheet as to how innocent Muslim youths were falsely implicated in cases of bomb blasts and terrorism but were honourably released by courts and to send such reports to higher and responsible government authorities so as to bring to their notice that in the past also innocent Muslim youths were arrested and subjected to inhuman treatment for crimes they never committed. These facts were admitted by courts as well as by government. And now the old chain of arrests has been started again which gives rise to suspicion that communal elements are behind such arrests and harassment in some way or the other and that all this is part of a deep conspiracy against the Muslim community. Maulana Abdul Hameed Nomani, while confirming this, said that in view of such circumstances it is considered that the need for working unitedly and with determination is felt more than ever before. He said that the millat is under attack from different fronts and hence we have to work with a sound and practicable strategy. He said that the existing situation is certainly a matter of grave concern and sitting and discussing together like this is a good initiative. (Translated from Urdu daily Sahafat, 23 Dec. 2011) HRD Minister inaugurates AMU Malappuram Centre

AIMPLB to start nationwide protests

New Delhi: All India Muslim Personal Law Board in its executive committee meeting held in Delhis New Horizon School on 26 November under the chairmanship of Boards President Maulana Rabey Hasani Nadwi decided to start a countrywide protest against the Right to Education Act, Direct Taxes Code and Waqf Bill because union ministers, inspite of admitting to the shortcomings and discrepancies in these acts and bills are not taking any action to amend these acts and bills. In order to organise and strengthen this movement the Executive Committee (E.C.) constituted a Central Action Committee with Maulana Muhammad Wali Rahmani, secretary of AIMPL Board as convener and Maulana Dr. Muhammad Saud Alam Qasmi as joint convener. According to the Board, Central Action Committee will constitute action committees in all states which will organise protests in all districts and important cities of the state. In U.P., these committees of the Board will also demand, in addition to a movement for the above mentioned three bills/acts, enactment of a law to ensure women inherit their share in agricultural lands and properties (of their parents). It was stated that on the demands of M.P.L. Board amendment was made in the law regarding agricultural lands but inheritance rights were not given to married daughters. Hence this issue was also included in the protest movement in U.P. As regards Right to Education Act, a demand has been made to exempt institutions imparting religious education like madrasas, Vedic pathshalas etc. from this Act. It is argued that HRD minister Kapil Sibal had promised to amend this Act so as to exempt these institutions but took no concrete action except issuing some guidelines to this effect. The Board expressed surBabri Masjid. According to Yugal Kishore Shastri, who is also the 16th witness of CBI in Babri Masjids demolition investigation, Americas secret agency CIA and an American company had given a huge amount to VHP for this purpose and had also fixed the date (6 December 1992) and time for demolition. He said that karsevaks associated with RSS had started their nefarious activities right from the morning on that day and after getting the green signal from it (CIA), started their destructive activities in full force and alongwith demolition they also indulged in killing Muslims and destroying their properties after which they celebrated the event. He said that such incidents are poisonous for humanity and open violation and contempt of law. Government must make its stand clear on this issue and ensure the safety of minorities whether Muslims, Christians or anyone else belonging to any religion. He said that without this neither the country can be strong nor democracy. He also expressed his concern over the arrest of Muslim youth on the pretext of national security and warned that if these things are not stopped, the country can reach the orifice of partition. TCN holds annual event in Mumbai
Acquitted victims of state terror

prise that the ministry of a legal expert like Kapil Sibal issues guidelines in which wrong and misleading references have been made to articles of the Constitution and which are openly in contradiction of the Constitution About Direct Tax Code, the executive committee said that after carefully studying it, it was felt that these institutions (madrasas, places of religious worship, trusts etc.) were not exempted from payment of income tax from which these institutions so far were exempted. After passing or approval of this code, it is to be enforced from 1 April 2012 and these religious institutions also will have to pay tax. Other provisions and shortcomings of this Code were also highlighted. It was argued that under R.T.E. Act and Direct Taxes Code not only Muslims and their religious institutions but those of other religious groups also will be affected. Hence, efforts will be made to seek the cooperation and support of other religious communities / groups also. Regarding the Waqf Bill, the M.P.L. Board said that there are many shortcomings in this bill and an effort has been made to bring to an end the Muslim character of Waqf Board and Waqf Council. Moreover, there are certain sections in this bill because of which thousands of auqafs will get abolished or wound up. In this meeting of the Boards executive committee, reports on the appeals filed on Babri Masjid (against Allahabad High Courts Lucknow Benchs verdict), Boards appeal in the Supreme Court against the High courts verdict legalising homosexuality, writ filed against Darul Qazas, another writ filed in adoption, writ filed in Kerala High Court against Islamic law of inheritance etc. were presented for the information of members. (NA Ansari) Acquittals an incomplete justice: Salim Engineer

Aligarh: Union Minister of Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal said on 24 December that it is not the building or the health which is an asset but it is the mind which is the real asset. The mind can only be in a position to become a real asset when it goes through the process of education. Therefore, education is a key to improvement. Sibal was inaugurating the AMU Malappuram Centre at Chelamala, Perinthalmanna in Kerala and dedicating it to the nation. The function was presided over by the Kerala Chief Minister, Mr. Oommen Chandy. Mr. Kapil Sibal said that this historical educational project is a result of an extremely productive tripartite partnership between the Kerala state government, the AMU and the Government of India. He further said that it is an outstanding example of a pragmatic solution to the daunting problem of inclusive development which the nation is striving to accomplish. He said that the dream of Sir Syed and his son Justice Mahmood is going to materialize with the establishment of AMU Centre. Earlier, AMU Vice Chancellor, Prof. P. K. Abdul Azis said that AMU Malappuram centre will focus on minority education, female education, technical and vocational education. America behind Babri Masjids demolition New Delhi: Mahant Yugal Kishore Shastri of Ayodhya who has led many movements and yatras for communal harmony, said in an interview that America which projects itself as the promoter of peace and freedom in the world was behind the demolition of the

Mumbai: Twocircles.nets 2nd annual event and award ceremony was held here at Taj President on 17 December. It began with the inaugural speech of Dr. Abusaleh Shariff, former MemberSecretary of Sachar Committee, who presided over the event. Eminent economists, Islamic banking experts and business elite including bosses from top stock exchanges of the country converged to discuss remedy for economic backwardness of Muslims in India beyond Sachar report and affirmative action of the government. Topics discussed at the meeting were: promoting Muslim entrepreneurship, alleviating poverty through Islamic finance, market for ethical investors, Islamic micro-finance in India, challenges of financial inclusion, etc. On the occasion, TCN Annual Awards 2011 were presented. Young Gandhian activist Faisal Khan, associated with the National Alliance for Peoples Movement (NAPM), received TCN Person of the Year 2011 in recognition of his initiative to revive Khudai Khidmatgar (Servants for Gods Creation), while Taqwaa Advisory and Shariah Investment Solutions Pvt. Ltd (TASIS) received TCN Organization of the Year 2011 Award in recognition of its stature as a credible and highly competent Shariah advisory institution. Growing popularity of Arabic-Persian Board Rampur: The number of students interested in appearing for Arabic and Persian examinations is increasing every year and not only boys but girls also are desirous of appearing in these examinations. This is evident from the fact that in Jamiatul Uloom Furqania alone more than 500 students have submitted forms for appearance in these examination, more than half of whom are girl candidates. In Madrasa Jamiatul Ansar also, number of students who have applied for examinations forms this year is almost three times more (than previous year). It may be noted that after declaration of certificates of such madrasas equivalent to U.P. Boards the number of students appearing for and passing out from Arabic-Persian Board is increasing every year. Whereas Arabic-Persian education is considered comparatively easier, it is also easier for students qualifying from this Board to get jobs.

Jaipur: We were treated like criminals and terrorists in the jail. We were tortured to the extent that we might have gone mad. We had been provided only with one pot to eat, drink and wash. We were kept in underwears only for almost four months. Everybody in the jail used to call us blast waale, despite the fact that no charge of Jaipur blasts was framed against us, narrated Suhail Modi, one of the 10 victims of the communal mindset of Rajasthan ATS released from jail on 9 December. A number of Muslim youth were arrested following the serial bomb blasts in Jaipur on 13 May 2008. When Muslim and Human Rights organisations created pressure, the ATS released most of them. Then they framed false charges of indulging in SIMI activities against 14 persons including 10 from Kota, one from Baran, two from Jodhpur and one from Jhalawar. These innocent youth spent almost three and a half years in jail for committing no crime. They faced severe torture, humiliation, defamation in the society, destruction of their careers and occupations and an everlasting wound on their hearts. All the 14 were acquitted by the Rajasthan High Court on 9 December this year. Ten of them were released from jail on the same day, while three are still facing other charges in Gujarat and a trial is going on against them and one Inamurrahman was detained further as a case is pending against him in Madhya Pradesh. The Rajasthan Muslim Forum, a forum of prominent Muslim organisations of Rajasthan, APCR and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind welcomed these 10 people at Muslim Musafir Khana after their release. The next day, Rajasthan Muslim Forum, JIH Rajasthan and APCR held a joint press conference in Jaipur. Two of the victims, Suhail Modi and Mohammad Azam Gajdhar were present in the press conference and shared the agony they had passed through during the past three and a half years. Now, we have been proved innocent by the court, this is the victory of justice. We will start our lives anew and continue the work of social service we used to do with the Jamaat, said Azam. Engineer Mohammad Salim, national secretary JIH, told the media that this justice will remain incomplete till the real culprits are bought behind the bars and the guilty police officers, responsible for destroying lives of these innocent people are brought to justice. He demanded from the state government to get the Jaipur blasts case reinvestigated as it was earlier probed by the communal officers appointed by the BJP government.

16 The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012

INTERNATIONAL

We Are The Terrorists

Truth Hurts, Lies Kill. Reality behind the Phony Wars
DR. DAHLIA WASFI
We have an obligation to every last victim of this illegal aggression because all of this carnage has been done in our name. Since World War II, 90% of the casualties of war are unarmed civilians. 1/3 of them children. Our victims have done nothing to us. From Palestine to Afghanistan to Iraq to Somalia to wherever our next target may be, their murders are not collateral damage, they are the nature of modern warfare. They don't hate us because of our freedoms. They hate us because every day we are funding and committing crimes against humanity. The so-called "war on terror" is a cover for our military aggression to gain control of the resources of western Asia. This is sending the poor of this country to kill the poor of those Muslim countries. This is trading blood for oil. This is genocide, and to most of the world, we are the terrorists. In these times, remaining silent on our responsibility to the world and its future is criminal. And in light of our complicity in the supreme crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan, and ongoing violations of the U.N. Charter in International Law, how dare any American criticize the actions of legitimate resistance to illegal occupation. Our so-called enemies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, our other colonies around the world, and our inner cities here at home, are struggling against the oppressive hand of empire, demanding respect for their humanity. They are labeled insurgents or terrorists for resisting rape and pillage by the white establishment, but they are our brothers and sisters in the struggle for justice. The civilians at the other end of our weapons don't have a choice, but American soldiers have choices, and while there may have been some doubt 5 years ago, today we know the truth. Our soldiers don't sacrifice for duty-honor-country, they sacrifice for Kellogg Brown & Root. They don't fight for America, they fight for their lives and their buddies beside them, because we put them in a war zone. They're not defending our freedoms, they're laying the foundation for 14 permanent military bases to defend the freedoms of Exxon Mobil and British Petroleum. They're not establishing democracy, they're establishing the
MG/Yusuf

basis for an economic occupation to continue after the military occupation has ended. Iraqi society today, thanks to American "help" is defined by house raids, death squads, check-points, detentions, curfews, blood in the streets, and constant violence. We must dare to speak out in support of the Iraqi people, who resist and endure the horrific existence we brought upon them through our bloodthirsty imperial crusade. We must dare to speak out in support of those American war-resisters, the real military heroes, who uphold their oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, including those terrorist cells in Washington DC more commonly known as the Legislative, Executive & Judicial branches. "If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress," Frederick Douglass said, "Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both ... but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." Every one of us, every one of us must keep demanding, keep fighting, keep thundering, keep plowing, keep speaking, keep struggling until justice is served. NO justice, NO peace. To listen to this brillian speech, visit: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30066.htm

Israeli lawmaker proposes ban on mosque loudspeakers

The latest installment in a series of controversial legislative efforts in Israel is a proposal to restrict use of loudspeakers in houses of worship, which really means mosques as the other main religions don't use them. Lawmaker Anastassia Michaeli insists her proposal isn't aimed at silencing the Muslim call to prayer for religious or political reasons but for environmental reasons: it's too loud. Michaeli -- whose bill doesn't have sufficient ministerial support at this point to become law -- complained that she's wrongfully accused of being politically motivated because she's a member of Yisrael Beitenu, the right-wing party of foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman. "I don't want the issue to become a religious-nationalcultural symposium, it's purely an environmental matter," she wrote in the preamble. But Israel already upgraded its anti-noise legislation last year, when the Ministry of Environmental Protection took on leaf-blowers, parties, car alarms and even piano lessons during certain hours, in an effort to give citizens some relief in the dense country where quiet residential life is becoming increasingly rare. The problem isn't lack of law but enforcement, Amir Fuchs of the Israel Democracy Institute told Israel Radio Sunday. "Michaeli's bill doesn't solve a problem but creates one, by proposing a sweeping ban that undermines freedom of religious worship even in cases where the noise level is perfectly reasonable," he said, noting Michaeli's overlooked wording about restricting use of loudspeakers for "religious and national content." In this battle over the airwaves, Jewish communities occasionally fight back. The northern community of Kfar Vradim enlisted Bach and Mozart to blow away the Arab neighbors' nightly loud music during the summer wedding season. The affluent Caesarea is considering an acoustic barrier to block the noise from the adjacent Arab town of Jisser A-Zarka (although the neighbors call it a racist fence meant to hide them entirely). In Hebron, an overwhelmingly Palestinian city on the West Bank, veteran right-wing Israeli activist Baruch Marzel rented a sound system to blast Hasidic music around the clock from the Jewish settlement inside Hebron. Marzel said Palestinians were using mosque loudspeakers "just to make us miserable." If law enforcement is lax on noise, efforts have been made to make religious practices more friendly to neighbors and the environment. In recent years, several towns -- including the mixed area of Tel Aviv-Jaffa -- have connected their mosques to one system in an attempt to control the sound level and to synchronize the call to prayer. However, synchronizing a handful of mosques is an easier feat than similar efforts being made in some Arab countries, where synchronizing thousands of mosques is proving more complicated and expensive. (Batsheva Sobelman - latimesblogs.latimes.com)

"Israeli embassy will open in Tripoli if Sun rises from west"

Abdur Rahman Shalgam, Libya's permanent representative in the UN and a former foreign minister, decried on 11 December the "rubbish" published in some Arab newspaper that Israel is going to open an embassy in Tripoli. He said, @This is a lie and defamation. Every proud Muslim and Arab knowing the permanent bases of our policies will not even doubt that this information is correct." He added, "An Israeli embassy will be opened in Tripoli when Sun rises from the West. This is rubbish and does not require even thinking before we refute it."

'We hacked U.S. drone': Iran claims it electronically hijacked spy aircraft's GPS and tricked aircraft into landing on its soil

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The US military is hiring concentration camp guards for civilian detainees. U.S. Detention Camps political prisoners have been built all over the USA. NDAA S.1867 has passed making it possible to arrest Americans without any charge, and to detain them indefinitely without any trial. The federal government is gathering intelligence to confiscate food supplies. Senate Passed NDAA 1867. America is now officially a Police State (http://community2.webtv.net/ranger116/doc/). This law allows the U.S. Military to arrest U.S. Citizens in the USA without charges and hold them indefinitely without the Right to a Trial. Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of "an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs." Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees. According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of "all removable aliens" and "potential terrorists." Fraud-busters such as Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, have complained about these contracts, saying that more taxpayer dollars should not go to taxpayer-gouging Halliburton. But the real question is: What kind of "new programs" require the construction and refurbishment of detention facilities in nearly every state of the union with the capacity to house perhaps millions of people? Sect. 1042 of the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), "Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies," gives the executive the power to invoke martial law. For the first time in more than a century, the president is now authorized to use the military in response to "a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a terrorist attack or any other condition in which the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to the extent that state officials cannot maintain public order."

American Holocaust ready

The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012 17

INTERNATIONAL

Global March for Jerusalem

An international initiative is underway to prepare the Global hope for the oppressed. It has symbolized the unity and equality March to Jerusalem in March 2012. Jerusalem is our common of all of God's creation and has given an universal message of heritage and a center of spirituality with great religious signifi- love, mercy and compassion, a message that must continue to cance for Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This remarkable his- be true. toric city of great antiquity is The world recogvenerated across the world nizes the threat and so for enhancing the rich spirian international initiatual heritage of all of tive is underway as a humanity. sign of resolution and However, today we are persistence: We are all witnessing the increasing preparing to march to Zionization of Jerusalem, Jerusalem. with illegal Israeli settleThe objective of ments being constructed on the Global March to a daily basis, under the Jerusalem (GMJ) is to political protection of the raise public awareness Obama administration (as globally about the exemplified by the US threat to the existence vetoes at the UN). of historic Jerusalem. Palestinians are compelled On the 30th of March Jerusalem is occupied since June 1967 to leave the city under eco2012, we intend to nomic pressures, legal strictures or violent military actions. converge from across three continents and gather at the borders Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders of Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, with delegations that will have referred to Jerusalem as the "Eternal capital of Eretz join us from every nation of the world. Then, we will march peace(Greater) Israel". These politicians have clearly stated, in contra- fully over into Palestine. The international advisory committee for vention of all relevant UN resolutions, that the status of the Global March to Jerusalem is made up of activists from the Jerusalem cannot be negotiated. The dominant position within West, the Middle East, India and Africa. It includes George the Israeli political-military and religious leadership is that Israel Galloway (UK), Mazin Qumsiyeh (Palestine), Paul Larudee has a right to occupy all of historic Palestine. (USA), Khaled Soufiyani (Morocco) and others. Jerusalem needs to be reclaimed by the people of the world. To read full article, visit: http://www.stoppression.com/globalThe city of Jerusalem has been a beacon of emancipation and march-to-jerusalem/ .

The Economic Bulletin editor Jean-Paul Cassone' broke ranks with the status quo and lame-stream media in his comments on remedying some of the dire troubles facing the world today! When asked what the economist-editor might offer as some solutions to both America's burgeoning problems and Europe's economic contagion, he replied as follows: "If you really are serious about restoring things like morality, ethics, justice, accountability and civility into the American society, to resolve Europe's fiscal woes and illicit practices and to put an end to the profane meddlesomeness in both Iran and the Middle East, it would require removing a sizeable chunk of the Zionist population and influence! The United States needs to drastically redirect its support networks and just exactly who it is funding for what these days"! He went onto to say, "clearly Israel's Zionists have demonstrated they are infatuated with a hate; a hate of Arabs and against Muslims, which is both wrong and Un-American. Until some people handed over Zionists complete control of US foreign policy and military agendas, it was never America's characteristic to hate any people! Look, when farmers have crops that experience an infestation by a major pest they eradicate them with toxic applications of pesticides, right? For the United States to give Israeli Zionists not only control of itself, but funding as well, it is like the farmers feeding their malignant pests to help accelerate the complete destruction of their crops! What I'm driving at here is, maybe its time we bomb Israel! Now I suggest you all go home and put that in your pipe and smoke it"!

Maybe its Time we "Bomb Israel"

Moscow: Russia's Vladimir Putin implicated Washington on Thursday in the killing of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and launched a tirade against Senator John McCain in an extraordinary attack on US policies. The Russian premier used his annual televised phone-in to unleash the type of no-holds-barred attack that characterized his 2000-2008 term as president and threatens to shadow his expected return to the Kremlin in March polls. Putin turned stone-faced when asked about a tweet from McCain -- one of Washington's fiercest critics of Putin -- warning Russia it faced an "Arab spring" revolt over the disputed December 4 Parliamentary elections. "Mr McCain fought in Vietnam. I think that he has enough blood of peaceful citizens on his hands. It must be impossible for him to live without these disgusting scenes anymore," Putin said in reference to Gaddafi. "Who did this?" Putin demanded. "Drones, including American ones. "They attacked his column. Then using the radio -- through the Special Forces, who should not have been there - they brought in the so-called opposition and fighters, and killed him without court or investigation." The Pentagon immediately dismissed the charge as "ludicrous". "The assertion that US special operations forces were involved in the killing of Colonel Gaddafi is ludicrous," spokesman Captain John Kirby told AFP on the sidelines of US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta's visit to Iraq. (post.jagran.com)

US involved in Gaddafi killing: Putin

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18 The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012

INTERNATIONAL

Memo-Gate Exposes Pakistans Fault Lines

KARAMATULLAH K. GHORI
They are calling it Memo-gate in Pakistan and the whole nation seems to be living up to the excitement that a scandal to parallel the epic proportions of the historic Water-gate scandal of US-back in 1974could stir. Pakistan, ostensibly an ideological state, is more prone to scandals than ideology. It has, in any case, desecrated and banished from its collective memory its so-called ideology a long time ago. In its place, it has developed an acute sense of nurturing scandals of all types and living by them. Memo-gate, of course, looks like it has overshadowed all previous national scandals already and paled them into boring episodes. Memo-gate, in a nutshell, is the story of Pakistans enigmatic and hideous head of state, Asif Ali Zardari, conjuring up a plan to undercut the authority of the countrys powerful military establishment with the help of his mentors in US but, apparently, failing in that bid. Zardaris front-man in what was obviously an intriguing cloak-and-dagger operation was Pakistans ambassador in Washington, Hussain Haqqani, who has, since, lost his job and become the first wall-guy in the episode. Haqqani had the dubious reputation of being Zardaris top henchman. But more than that he was derided and ridiculed by the Pakistani intelligentsia as Americas ambassador masquerading as Pakistans man in Washington. Hed earned this sobriquet on account of his pandering to the Americans, for whom he used to work as a loyal factotum in the think-tank community of pen-pushers before landing the most coveted diplomatic assignment for a Pakistani technocrat. The high-drama began on the heels of the May 2 stealth operation by US that eliminated the notorious Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani garrison city of Abbottabad. That over-publicized operation had embarrassed the Pakistan armed forces to no end and left them smarting. It seems that Zardari and his scheming minion, Haqqani, thought that vulnerability of the Pakistani military establishment was god-send for them to administer a coup de grace of their own to finish it off for good. Haqqani hired the services of Mansur Ejaz, a Washington lobbyist of Pakistani origin and dubious reputation as an agent of both CIA and Pakistans ISI intelligence outfits. Ejaz was pressed into service to pass on a memo, on behalf of Zardari-Haqqani duo, to the then Chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, seeking his help to discipline the Pakistani military establishment and ensure that it didnt topple the Zardari regime. In return, US were given all assurances that the Pakistan military would be made completely subservient to Washington and cast in its image, literally. The memo, allegedly, undertook to make sure that the top brass of the Pakistan army would be studded with officers loyal to Washington. Mullen was assured that ISIs wings would be clipped, as persistently demanded by the Americans, and its special operations division would be disbanded. The most startling-and for the Pakistanis the most annoying-undertaking in the memo affirmed that US would be given a key role in overseeing Pakistans nuclear programme, something the Americans have been after for a number of years, especially since 9/11 and continually disputing Pakistans ability to safeguard its nuclear assets. Its easy to see why the Pakistani military establishment has taken umbrage to the memo and regards it as a blatant effort to breach Pakistans national security, particularly its nuclear capability of which it regards itself the sole custodian. The choice of Mnsur Ejaz as the memos messenger was tactically a brilliant move by Haqqani, who obviously saw in it a win-win situation for himself. Ejaz dubious credentials as a

Pakistanis from all walks of life, likewise, have no doubt of Zardaris culpability in Memo-gate. Zardari has never been an honourable man in the esteem of the Pakistani people. To the man on the street he has the reputation of a crook and a scoundrel who-as the conventional wisdom of Pakistanis dictates-should be in jail but is occupying the highest office of the land because of a quirk of fate and fluke of history. With Zardaris credibility at zero-and the people of Pakistan having no more tolerance for the culture of loot and plunder that Zardari and his cabal of corrupt cronies in power have taken to abysmal depths-it didnt take a genius to tell them who the real author of the memo was.
free-lancer-a euphemism for an agent open to sale to the highest bidder-were a boon to Haqqani. If the Americans swallowed the bait and acted as required in the memo, Haqqani would have collected all the laurels from his boss sitting in the Presidents House of Islamabad. If the scheme didnt work out-as it didnt, eventually-Haqqani thought hed an escape clause: he would disown the memo, altogether, and blame Ejaz for doing it off his own bat. This is exactly how Haqqani has been pretending his innocence in the matter and professing no knowledge of it in the wake of the scandal blowing sky-high in Pakistan and taking the country by storm. But Mansur Ejaz is as clever and crafty and operator as Haqqani is. He not only unraveled the whole scheme in a whistle-blowing piece he wrote for Londons Financial Times, in midOctober but has since passed on every detail of the episode and every bit of material evidenceBlackberry messages and e-mails record etc.-to the head of ISI, General Ahmed Shuja Pasha. Those privy to the cache of material handed over by Ejaz to the ISI chief contend that its enough to bury all those who sought to present Pakistans security establishment on a platter to US. The uproar the unveiling of the scandal caused in Pakistan should be quite understandable to anyone knowing how the Pakistanis have been used to living on the edge. Likening the scandal to the historic Water-gate scandal of 1974 that brought down President Richard Nixon is also understandable. Nixon bore the ultimate responsibility for the scandalous breaking-in of the rival Democratic Partys headquarters. The American people were convinced of Nixons culpability and forced him to step down. Pakistanis from all walks of life, likewise, have no doubt of Zardaris culpability in Memogate. Zardari has never been an honourable man in the esteem of the Pakistani people. To the man on the street he has the reputation of a crook and a scoundrel who-as the conventional wisdom of Pakistanis dictates-should be in jail but is occupying the highest office of the land because of a quirk of fate and fluke of history. With Zardaris credibility at zero-and the people of Pakistan having no more tolerance for the culture of loot and plunder that Zardari and his cabal of corrupt cronies in power have taken to abysmal depths-it didnt take a genius to tell them who the real author of the memo was. In sharp contrast to Zardaris image of a thief, the Pakistan army has always had a special place in the hearts of its people. Call it anything, a mental fixation or a legacy of its martial culture, there is a soft spot for the man-in-uniform despite the militarys track record of lording over the countrys political fortunes. With Zardaris shenanigans and petty intrigues unravelling in full display of a watchful peoplewhose lives have become an unremitting toil under the corrupt civilian rule-the reservoir of goodwill for the army swelled to a new height. In the midst of a groundswell for the armyseen as an under-dog in the memo scandal and an unwitting victim of a heinous plot to hand over Pakistans national security to aliens-the NATO military strike, of November 26, against a military post in Mohmand Agency, along the border with Afghanistan, took the popular support for the army to unprecedented heights. The murder of 24 Pakistani soldiers fuelled public anger against US to the hilt and, by coincidence, lent more grist to discontent against a thieving and conniving pro-American government. Zardari, unnerved by crescendo of popular uproar against his corrupt setup and its collusion with a hated US, took fright and fled the country, on December 6, on the excuse of seeking medical help in Dubai, his favourite foreign perch. The tsunami of speculations triggered by his craven flight from a tight spot at home made him more of a villain in the public eye. This perception was directly opposite to the empathy for the military establishment seen under assault from US and its Pakistani hirelings. The intercession of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the memo scandal has been welcomed by all strata of the Pakistani society, except those currently in power and partner to the crimes of Zardari and his henchmen. The courts initiative to appoint a special commission to investigate the whole sordid affair has won it kudos from the people. But it also lit a fire under the feet of Zardari and PM Gilani, The hypocrisy of this bumbling-duo stands blatantly exposed to the people of Pakistan, because of their robust insistence that the apex court has no locus standi in the matter. Zardari sneaked back into Pakistan after 12 days of hibernation in Dubai. However, the prodigal sons return to home shores was as surreptitious as was his flight from it. During those 12 days when Zardaris flight to Dubai remained a subject of intense speculation and media debate-as to whether he was gone for good or would return, eventually-and held the people of Pakistan hostage to a state of utter confusion and diffidence. It not only exposed the inherent weaknesses of Pakistans tenuous democracy but also served a reminder to the people of Pakistan that there was an urgent need to clean up the mess of governance in Pakistan. Nothing could be more graphic and illustrative of the structural vacuity of the state system in Pakistan than the manner of Zardaris mysterious flight from Pakistan, in obvious panic, and his return home wrapped in secrecy and stealth. t was in every laymans knowledge in Pakistan that Zardari-with his acute sense of a street-smart thug-had fled the country because he suspected the army was planning to stage another coup detat in Pakistan and would grab him as a much-sought trophy. But hed totally misread the situation. The army may be sick and tired of his antics and shenanigans but has no stomach to upstage his corrupt regime because of fear it would bring upon it international condemnation and opprobrium. However, Zardari still needed a green-light from the Chief of Pakistans Army, General Ashfaq Kayani to return in safety. He got the generals nod the night before setting sail for Pakistan again in a phone conversation. Assured that the army entertained no ill-will to him or his regime-at least not yet-he came back to carry on the perverse game of deception and deceit that has been the signature theme of his 4 years in power. The fact that a so-called democratically elected head of state needed a laissez-passe from the army chief to return home is a vociferous manifestation of Pakistans macabre political chemistry and dispensation of power. For all intents and purposes it attests to the most prominent feature of governance in Pakistan, i.e. power resides, first and foremost, in the General Headquarters of the army and not in the elected parliament or whatever sham democratic government this may have propped up. The question why its so in Pakistan and how has this weird system of governance survived for so long-it has been there since the first military coup detat of October 1958-is largely academic to those familiar with the countrys political history. Democracy in Pakistan has been hostage to the greed and avarice of hereditary politicians who mostly hail from feudal families and owe allegiance not to the people who have been electing them year-after-year but to their narrow agenda of loot and plunder. The powerful and well-disciplined armed forces-a polished and honed institution-doesnt mind, up to a point, the lustful politicians making hay under their auspices so long as their core interests arent threatened. Few are the politicos with the death wish to challenge the army at its turf or poach on the grounds reserved for the military brass. However, it leaves the people of Pakistan on shaky grounds and at the mercy of forces-be they in uniform or in civvies-that dont, necessarily, have any compulsion on them to think of the peoples interests before their own , or think of cleaning up the Augean Stables that political one-upmanship has been in Pakistan for decades. But theres still light at the end of the dark tunnel. Hope that the wave of Arab Spring would also, in the course of time, wash up at the shores of Pakistan and stir its people to get rid of the yoke of living under their robber-barons is faintly there. After all, the people of Pakistan swear by the camaraderie, nay kinship, with their Arab brethren.

If Assad falls in Syria...

Israel warns of Islamic Empire in Middle East

Cairo: The head of Israel's defense ministry's diplomatic-security bureau warned of a possible "Islamic empire" if Syria's President Bashar al-Assad were to be ousted. Amos Gilad said that the removal of the Syrian leader would lead to a "devastating crisis for Israel." His comments come as violence in Syria reached new heights this week, with over 70 people being killed in one day alone. The Arab League has suspended Damascus over the violence, which the United Nations estimates to have left over 3,500 people dead, while other rights groups say the number is much higher. If Assad is ousted by the popular revolt, Gilad said that the Middle East would be facing an Islamic empire led by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Jordan and Syria. His fearmongering continued, when he said that wars could arise and Israel would be threatened by "wars with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Syria and Jordan if the Syrian Revolution succeeds in overthrowing al- Assad's regime." He argued that the Brotherhood, one of Egypt's largest political organizations, with branches in Jordan and Syria, "aims to eliminate Israel and build an Islamic empire controlling" the entire region and destroy Israel. "Israel feels the dangers coming from Egypt, so it decided to develop relations with Turkey so it will not have to fight Muslims, which would certainly cause the end of Israel," Gilad added. However, Gilad gave no specific evidence that any of the groups in the region are mobilizing an offensive against Israel.(Desmond Shephard - statestimes.net)

The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012 19

BOOKS

Distorting history for Sangh propaganda

Book: The India Doctrine (1947-2007) Author: MBI Munshi Publisher: The Bookworm, Twin Peaks Complex, Old Airport, Tejgaon, Dhaka Bangladesh. Tel: 9120387. Fax: 8802-8828595. E-Mail - vietbhai@gmail.com Year: 2009 Price: Tk. 1200/US$17 Pages: 636

A. G. KHAN
Born in 1925, the author is a committed Hindu Mahasabha/Jansangh/VHP activist. He delivered 175 lectures on Shivaji during 1974-75 period. Encouraged by public response he was entrusted with the same assignment in 1981-82 by the VHP during which period he visited (and lectured at) MP/UP/Bengal, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and delivered 225 lectures. If there is a vast army of dedicated activists in these states he must be given due credit for this success. He can be proud of indoctrinating the minds of generations that have produced the likes of Sunil Joshi and Pragya Sinh. As early as 1944 (when he was only 19) he participated in an essay competition on Samartha Ramdas. Later on he devoted his entire pursuit to the study of Maharashtrian saints. Though the present book was not intended to be a work on Shivaji (page 6) the title chosen was deliberately to convince readers - Shivajis immense contribution as saviour of the Hindu faith. The incomplete title is more suggestive than the complete line of the poem that a Hindi poet (of the Medieval period) Bhushan wrote praising Shivaji: Shivaji na hoto to sunati hoti sabhi (But for Shivaji every Hindu would have been circumcised) (Sunati - circumcised). There is a lot of hate literature being churned by scores of Vivekananda Kendras over the length and breath of the country. Much venom is being poured by such intellectuals in the boudhiks of the shakhas. What prompts us to review the book is the fact that this is one of the books that the department of school education has distributed among teachers to orientin orientation of their minds. Government teachers in orientation programmes are being supplied with hate literature of this kind. This is a backdoor entry of saffron sermons which the late Arjun Sinh and Kapil Sibal tried to resist/stop. I The book is a hotch-potch of mythology, history, literature. On the one hand, Ramdas is described as an incarnation of Hanuman (p. 54); on the other hand, he is said to have a vision of Ramchandraji also. Shivaji too is, in a vision, granted permission for his coronation as chhatrapati because being a non-kshatriya he was not entitled to become a raja. The fact that a very competent (and shrewd) Brahmin was induced to serve as purohit for the incarnation has not been mentioned. Gaga pandit was, of course, very handsomely rewarded. While citing from Bhavarth Ramayan, Muslims have been portrayed as the Ravana, Rakshas dadhiwale hain that women are a commodity for consumption, the idea of such demonic possession was grabbed by the followers of Islam. (p. 43) He bestows the halo of a visionary to samarth Ramdas who could know 350 years ago the menace of present day Islamic terrorism (p. 57). He gives credit to the inheritors of Shivajis legacy who accomplished what none in Indian history till then (for 800 years) could do completely sealed the North-west border, stalling/stopping for any future Islamic aggression (p. 109) and, then of course, admits Ahmad Shah Abdali to be the sole exception. He reminds through mythological parallel of Kichak slaughter (who wanted to possess draupadi in Mahabharat) the murder of Afzal Khan (p. 96). Battees danton ka hrishtpusht bakra (a healthy goat of 32 teeth) was sacrificed at the altar of Tulja Bhavani (the goddess) (p. 96) He reminds that even today the demonic attempt to establish Darus Salaam by routing faith continues (p. 61). He reacalls that almost all the freedom fighters drew inspiration from Samarth Ramdas. He enumerates Nana Saheb Peshwa, (1857 freedom struggle), Tilak, Veer Savarkar and emphatically reminds that Dr. Hedgewar drew his administrative planning of sangth from Ramdass dasbodh (p. 55) II We must remember the fact that medieval history cannot be understood through communal lens. Dont we know that Muslims in India had invited Babar against a Muslim Ibrahim Lodhi? Rana Prataps army was commanded by a Muslim Pathan, Salim Shah Sur whereas Akbars camp was commanded by Raja Mansinh a rajput. Even Aurangzeb had a Rajput Raja Jaisinh to command his forces. The five Muslim states always relied on Hindu Vijay Nagar state for their internecine wars in which every time the Hindu state used to be the ultimate beneficiary of such wars the story of two cats and a monkey! Coming to Shivajis case, we must note the fact (which such writers deliberately suppress), is that the commanders of his navy were Daulat Khan and Siddi Mistry. He had a

We must remember the fact that medieval history cannot be understood through communal lens. Dont we know that Muslims in India had invited Babar against a Muslim Ibrahim Lodhi? Rana Prataps army was commanded by a Muslim Pathan, Salim Shah Sur whereas Akbars camp was commanded by Raja Mansinh a rajput. Even Aurangzeb had a Rajput Raja Jaisinh to command his forces. The five Muslim states always relied on Hindu Vijay Nagar state for their internecine wars in which every time the Hindu state used to be the ultimate beneficiary of such wars the story of two cats and a monkey! Coming to Shivajis case, we must note the fact (which such writers deliberately suppress), is that the commanders of his navy were Daulat Khan and Siddi Mistry. He had a faithful attendant (as bodyguard) Madari mehtar. His external affairs secretary was Mulla Haider. Sardesai admits these facts. Shivaji was above communal considerations which our modern fanatics want us to forget.
faithful attendant (as bodyguard) Madari mehtar. His external affairs secretary was Mulla Haider. Sardesai admits these facts. Shivaji was above communal considerations which our modern fanatics want us to forget. Returning to Shivajis inheritors let us again note that Shivajis grandson, Sahu, spent 17 years with his mother in Aurangzebs court. He was immensely fond of Aurangzebs daughters Zeenat-un-Nisa who considered him like her son and he too reciprocated as a son. When Shahu tried to claim Shivajis throne after the death of his uncle Rajaram, his widow opposed Shahus claim and she was supported (as well as opposed) by several Maratha noblemen. Similarly, Aurangzebs son Akbar, sought refuge in Shambhajis court against his father. Akbar was also supported by Durgadas. Such facts are deliberately suppressed by fanatics of both the sides to give a black and white account of medieval history. We are unwilling to bury the bruises of the past. III What induces the government machinery to reopen these wounds? Why should money be spent on such hate literature? What is the intention of the department wanting to popularise such monographs under the pretext of orientation programmes? It is time for secular forces to be vigilant lest we should suffer holocausts in future. Not content with gifting land to sangha outfits, the state government is now siphoning money to them.

A book which rattled Zionists

Book: The Founding Myths of Modern Israel Author: Roger Garaudy Price: $19.95 The Founding Myths of Modern Israel Softcover book, 224 pages ISBN: 0939484757

In this headline-making work, a prominent French scholar delivers one powerful blow after another to the pernicious historical myths cited for decades to justify Zionist aggression and repression, including the Israeli legend of a land without people for a people without land, and the most sacred of Jewish-Zionist icons, the Holocaust extermination story. For financial gain, as an alibi for indefensible policies, and for other reasons, Jews have used what the author calls theological myths to arrogate for themselves a right of theological divine chosenness. The wartime suffering of Europes Jews, he contends, has been elevated to the status of a secular religion, and is now treated with sacrosanct historical uniqueness. This readable, thoroughly documented study examines the brutal dispossession and mass expulsion of Palestines Arabs, exposes the farce of the Nuremberg victors show trial, and shows that the notorious German final solution term referred to a territorial program of resettlement, not extermination. Founding Myths details the secret collaboration for prominent Jews with the young Nazi regime, and the 1941 offer by some Zionists, including a future Israeli prime minister, to join Hitlers Germany in a military alliance against Britain. The author presents a frank assessment of the powerful Jewish-Zionist lobby in the United States, showing how it effectively controls US policy regarding Israel, and plays a crucial role in shaping American public opinion. For decades Roger Garaudy was prominent in the French Communist Party, making a name for himself as a Communist deputy in the French National Assembly, and as a leading Marxist intellectual and theoretician. Later he broke with Communism, eventually becoming a Muslim. When Founding Myths first appeared in France, it touched off a storm of controversy among intellectuals and a furious uproar in the media. Soon Garaudy was charged with violating Frances notorious Gayssot law, which makes it a crime to contest the crimes against humanity as defined by the Nuremberg Tribunal of 1945-46. A paris court found him guilty and fined him $40,000. His trial and conviction for Holocaust heresy prompted wide international support, above all from across the Arab and Muslim world. Relying on a vast range of Zionist, Soviet, American, and German source references, this well-documented study is packed with hundreds of eye-opening quotations, many by prominent Jewish scholars and personalities. Here, at last, this important work is available in a handsome, professionally edited English-language edition, with a valuable foreword by Theodore J. OKeefe. Roger Garaudy was tried for this book and fined an equivalent of US$ 40,000 for daring to expose Zionist and Zionist lies which are used to justify the state of Israel built on stolen Palestinian land.

Sitaaron se Aagey
By Naseema Hurzuk
The incredible story of Naseema who, at age 16, became wheelchair-bound and spent days crying and thinking of suicide, but Alhamdulillah, today she runs one of the countrys largest organisations for the physically challenged and has helped thousands of handicapped stand on their feet.
Pages: 272 / Price: Rs 150 Language: Urdu Binding: PB ISBN: 817221054X Publishers: Pharos Media & Publishing Pvt Ltd Ordering details on page 20

20 The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012

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The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012 21

ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE

Role of Women In Karbala

ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER
csss@mtnl.net.in

hese days we find a lot of restrictions on women. In many cases they cannot even venture out of their homes and are required to restrict themselves to household chores. Very few Muslim women have public role, much less participating in tumultuous events of life. And all this is being done in the name of Islam. However, if we cast a glance on early history of Islam we will find women taking part in various events along with men. The Prophet (pbuh) had from Khadija four daughters and brought them up as model women participating in the Islamic revolution. Islam was not only a spiritual but also a social and political revolution. It empowered women and gave them equal rights which was simply unthinkable in those days. Women could play at best a secondary role in any civilization in any part of the world during those times. However, Islam upheld their human dignity and assigned them equal role in all worldly affairs along with men. Many women like Umm Amara even took part in various battles which the Prophet (pbuh) was forced by his enemies to fight. In the Battle of Uhud, Umm Amarah took an attack by sword on her arm and saved the life of the Prophet (pbuh). Hazrat Fatimah, as all Muslims agree, was one of the five bodies (Panjatan) whom Muslims highly revere and Hazrat Fatima, who was brought up by the Prophet (pbuh) himself in the highest values of Islam, gave birth to Imam Hasan, Imam Husain along with Hazrat Zainab who played pivotal role in the aftermath of the Battle of Karbala. Hazrat Shahr Banu, or Shah Zanan, was the daughter of Kisra, the King of Iran who was defeated by Muslims and Hazrat Ali married her to his son Husain. Hazrat Shah Banu faced the tragic events of Karbala very bravely and sacrificed her two sons Ali Akbar and Ali Asghar gladly in the way of Allah. It is important to note that when Imam Husain was leaving Mecca for Kufa (Iraq) in response to the letters he had received from many important citizens of Kufa to lead them in a revolt against Yazid who had usurped Khilafat in violation of the conditions laid down by Imam Hasan while abdicating

Hazrat Zainab was the eldest among those women and was leading the entire family including Imam Zainul Abidin who was then quite sick and unable to play an active role and it was Hazrat Zainab who had to perform the leadership role and she proved to be more than what was expected of her. Today women have to learn much from Hazrat Zainab and her leadership. Her public role and oratorical skills have much to learn from. It is wrong to think, as many Muslim men do, that women are weak by nature and cannot achieve much in public life.
in favour of Muawiyah, he (Imam Husain) was advised by many of his well-wishers not to take his family members with him to Kufa and go there alone as people of Kufa may betray him and side with the rulers. However, despite the foreseen risks, Imam Husain turned down the advice and took all his family members including women with him. He knew better than his advisors that these women which included his wife, his sister and his daughters, would play very important role, even if he had to fight against Yazids forces in or near Kufa. As feared, people of Kufa did betray him including those very people who had invited him to lead them in a fight against Yazid and his counter-revolution. Yazid stood for all that which was against Islam. Not only his life-style was against that of the Prophet (pbuh) and his companions but he also tried to destroy the institute of khilafah and introduced the reactionary institution of monarchy which was totally against the revolutionary political system introduced by the Islam Husain knew. Before he left for Kufah, Imam Husain knew what was in store and he deliberately took his womenfolk along with

him to show to the world that women can also play very important role in saving the Islamic revolution. And these women did play a very significant role which was no less significant than that of the male companions of the Imam. And Imam was right. These women played very important role, particularly the Imams sister Hazrat Zainab. After the martyrdom of the Imam and his colleagues Imam Zainul Abidin and all women and children were arrested and taken to Damascus on bare camel back via Kufa. Syeda Zainab, a brave and bold woman, addressed Muslims everywhere exposing Yazid and his evil actions and un-Islamic acts and his counter-revolutionary designs. Syeda Zainab and the Imams entire family was kept in prison in Damascus and when they were brought to Yazids court, Zainab, eloquently spoke in front of all Yazids courtiers and thoroughly exposed him. She never shied away in exposing him so much so that he had to release her and Imams entire family and sent them back to Madina ensuring their security. Syeda Zainabs role was exemplary and it very well shows how bold were Muslim women and how they played important roles in consolidating the Islamic revolution. Today despite so much progress and spread of education Muslim women are still suppressed and in some countries even their voice is considered awrah, i.e., their voice should not be heard by outsiders and here Zainab and other women from Imams family were the main speakers publicly. Hazrat Zainab was the eldest among those women and was leading the entire family including Imam Zainul Abidin who was then quite sick and unable to play an active role and it was Hazrat Zainab who had to perform the leadership role and she proved to be more than what was expected of her. Today women have to learn much from Hazrat Zainab and her leadership. Her public role and oratorical skills have much to learn from. It is wrong to think, as many Muslim men do, that women are weak by nature and cannot achieve much in public life. Hazrat Zainabs public role is very inspiring for Muslim women today and should be an example for those women who feel they are fit only for domestic chores. three times. Al-Rubayyi followed in her fathers footsteps. She joined the Prophets army whenever there was a campaign of jihad. Her role, like the women who joined the army, was to give support, nursing the wounded and giving the soldiers water to drink. She reports: We used to join the Prophet on his expeditions, to give water to the fighters, serve them, attend to the wounded and send them and the dead back to Madinah. (Related by Al-Bukhari) Al-Rubayyi was keen to learn from the Prophet whatever she could. She reported no less than 21 Hadiths, some of them are related by Al-Bukhari and Muslim while the others are reported in other authentic anthologies of Hadith. Few of the Prophets companions gave us detailed descriptions of him. Among these were Ali ibn Abi Talib and Umm Maabad at whose tent the Prophet stopped on his journey when he immigrated to Madinah. They would mostly give a general description. Both Abu Bakr and Umar describe him as the full moon giving light. A man asked Al-Rubayyi to describe the Prophet. She could only give a general description. She said: Son, were you to see him, you would have almost seen the Sun in its full splendor. (Received from mail2shahid@gmail.com)

Al-Rubayyi: a visit to the bride

Imagine a bride receiving the head of the state or the king who knocks at her door the morning after her wedding night to offer his congratulations. I suppose she will feel over the moon on receiving such an honour. Yet Al-Rubayyi received a far more honourable visitor, the Prophet (peace be upon him) himself who came in and sat with her people. She reports: Gods messenger came to visit us the morning after my wedding, and he sat on this couch as you are sitting now. We had a few maids who were playing the tambourine and chanting praises of my relatives who were martyrs in the Battle of Badr. He listened to their singing until one of them said: Among us is a prophet who knows what will happen tomorrow. He said to her: Do not say this. Go back to what you were saying earlier. (Related by Al-Tirmidhi) Perhaps we should explain here that the Prophet did not object to the maids singing, playing the tambourine, or extolling the praises of AlRubayyis father and uncle. He only objected when the maid attributed to him something that belongs to God only, which is knowledge of the future. Who was Al-Rubayyi then, and why would the Prophet pay her such a visit? She was the daughter of Muawwidh ibn Afra, a man from the Ansar who, with his brother, mortally wounded Abu Jahl during the Battle of Badr and he could no longer stand on his feet. He then was killed by Abdullah ibn Masoud. Both brothers were then killed in the battle. Perhaps because of this, the Prophet wanted to reassure her that he would continue to be her guardian. She must have felt elated by the Prophets visit, as it signified an honour any bride would dearly love to have. Indeed the Prophet continued to visit her. She might offer him a meal and he would willingly eat with her family. He accepted her gifts and was generous to her. She once brought the Prophet a plate of dates and a plate of grapes. The Prophet accepted her gift and gave her a piece of jewellery telling her to wear it. On one of his visits, he told her to pour water for him to do his ablution. She did and reported a Hadith describing how he performed his ablution, mentioning that he washed every part

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REJOINDERS/OPINION/LETTERS
Maa-Shaa-Allah, Milli Gazette has become almost a Jaame Jahan Numaa-e-Islam or Mirror of Muslim world affairs making every aspect encircled without any exception to end confusion by providing a clear vision. Long Live MG and all its sincere contributors. Sultan Akhtar, Khanpur Deh-392150 II Congrates on behalf of Muslims of Gujarat for the completion of 12 years without any interruption. Long live Milli Gazette. Farooq Abdul Gaffar Bawani , Rajkot Gujarat mohammed.galeriya@yahoo.co.in III I am very much disturbed to read about the financial and other difficulties you are facing in connection of the publication of your excellent Milli Gazette. Please do not lose heart and kindly maintain your perseverance. InshaAllah, few good souls will definitely come forward to strengthen your hands. InshaAllah I will also try to enrol at least ten new subscribers. With best wishes and warm regards Dr. Iqbal Ahmad, Langford Town, Bangalore 560025 IV Heartiest congratulation on the publication of the Milli Gazette and sent a copy to me. We the Nation (Muslim) are living in dark shadow in gloomy, air castle and know nothing all round problems of our Nation. Now, it is my earnest desire and pray to Allah that the Milli Gazette flourished day to day. Hope this letter finds you in the best of health and cheers. M. Ahmad Konandi, Advocate, Civil Court Munger 811201 (Bihar) V I just read an article that your Milli Gazette is in danger of closing. I got a lump in my throat when I read this. I am writing you from Los Angeles. I am not Muslim, I am Catholic, extremely amicably divorced from my recently deceased ex-husband who was Muslim. He died Nov 5 in our daughter's arms of cancer. He was Saudi, frankly, one of the most brilliant men I have ever known, also kind, humorous, loved by so many it is impossible to count. It was he who began me at age 19 on learning about Palestine, for his passion was politics, Palestine at its core. Four years ago a dear friend of mine died. Her name was Florence Richards, age 83. She left behind 5000 books. Her passion was also Palestine, a former college history teacher, she came to her pro-Palestine stance from reading, READING and more reading. When she passed all her books on the Middle East were to go to a library. I was charged with going through those books and cataloging. It was ok that I kept a few, which I did. Amongst her books was your book, "Palestine Documents". It sits next to me all the time, with her careful handwritten notes on postit notes throughout. Now I never miss a chance to recommend your book. It's was Florence's "Bible" of her knowledge of Palestine also. I am saddened now to read your paper is in some trouble. I am an activist here myself, almost entirely for Palestine and to work against Islamophobia. I have many friends in CAIRO who I am beyond blessed to know along with my other Muslim friends and family. Your book "Palestine Documents" and all you do is appreciated by me so much Zafrul. Thank you, this coming from a Catholic who has known, loved and been loved by more Muslims than I could ever count. Blessings to you. Your works have touched so many, including my friend Florence and now me through the book I inherited from her as her friend. Take care, and thank you again, Robin Algosaibi McLaren, USA (via email) Editor: Thank you very much for your mail. Please accept my sincere apologies for this delay in replying to you. I was in Jakarta when your mail came and was saved in the to-read folder by my colleagues. Though I returned a few days back, it is only now that I had the time to reply to you. Its really very kind of you to take interest in affairs of people so far away from your shores. Interestingly, you live in LA where my eldest daughter also lived for a few years working for LA Times (now she has moved to NY working for New York Times). Your connection with Dr Ghazi Al-Gosaibi brings so many thoughts to my mind about this great man who did not get his due in his own country. I was one of his admirers but never met him. Out of my admiration, I once translated one of his moving poems; you may read it here: http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/01052002/0105200257.htm The issue of Palestine also binds us together. A great injustice of historical proportions has been done to a whole nation and the world is still silent six decades later. I have been writing and speaking about Palestine most of my adult life - since 1967 to be precise when I was a student in Cairo and the socalled "pre-emptive strike" took place in June 1967 while I was there and it jolted me to enquire about "Palestine". Yes, The Milli Gazette is in trouble and has piled up losses over the years. Yet, it will not be closed easily as it is very dear to my heart and it serves a purpose here in India, though with the next issue, we will reduce some pages to cut our losses to some extent. Indian Muslims reject the two-nation theory The Dhaka Dividend by Shekhar Gupta [Indian Express, Dec. 17] is a commendable attempt to examine pros and cons of our foreign policy post Bangladesh war of independence. True it was agreat victory for us, or so it seemed then, but later events turned it into pyhrric victory as we failed to consolidate our gains in geoeconomic terms.The result was that we had one more hostile nation on our eastern border, with whom we are trying to mend fences albeit shakily.Post Bangladesh, we lost friends and smaller countries began to view us with suspicion. Even our next door neighbour and a Hindu nation Nepal complained about our interference in its internal affairs.This was the main reason for our lost decade.Then we were confronted with terrorism in Punjab and in Kashmir which fully preoccupied our attention so much so that Singapores reformist prime minister Li Kuan Yew proclaimed that India was trailing behind on the road to reforms and liberlisation by almost a decade. By the time India arrives, the road will have lot of traffic he famously said.We had become so inconsequential that that the Soviet Union did not consult us before it launched its forces in Afghanistan in 1979 though our joint security treaty obliged it to do so. Secondly, Mr. Gupta says that the people of Bangladesh rejected the two nation theory by becoming independent, does not wash.People of East Bengal, more numerous than what came later to be West Pakistan had opted for a Muslim nation in 1947.It was in Bengal that the Muslim League was able to form its only provincial government. The fact is that the birth of Bangladesh marks the creation of an additional nation out of South Asian conglomerate.If Bangladesh had opted to join the Indian union, then Mr. Gupta could have rightly argued

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that the two nation theory was indeed consigned to the dust bin.The real nay sayers to the partition were Indian Muslims who made India their home by choice.It is time we discard the redundant notion of two nation theory.The South Asian countries have come into their own. Now there are no more one, two or three theoretical nations; they are simply nations. Yunus Chitalwala Dhoraji, Gujarat mohammed.galeriya@yahoo.co.in Sarkari Musalman I have gone through the article Beware of the Sarkari Musalamaan by Mahtab Alam vide MG 16 -31 December 2011 very carefully. I congratulate writer for having written boldly and exposing Sarkari Musalamaans. There are many more Sarkari Musalmaans working secretly in various fields. It becomes a duty of pure Muslims (e.g. Respected Mahtab Alam saheb) to expose Sarkari Musalmaans (e.g. M Saleem) Dear Mr. Editor please join with me in prayer for the long and healthy life of Janab Mahtab Alam Saheb. May the tribe of respected Janab Mahtab Alam saheb increase. Farooq Abdul Gaffar Bawani , Rajkot Gujarat mohammed.galeriya@yahoo.co.in My son is not a terrorist Aftabs father Police claimed to bust the terrorist network and solved the Delhi H. C. gate blast, Chinnaswamy blast and German Bakery blast when police caught few Muslim students from North Bihar among them some are Madrasa students and some are higher technical students. Md. Aftab Alam is one of them from Purnia police caught him. National media showered news reports of terror linking and doubt raising. A Hindi National daily 10 December published a report saying Aftab bought 20 bigha land of Rs. 40 lakh paid in four instalments. But the fact, Aftabs father said that he had sold six bigha of his ancestral land and bought with that amount (Rs. 4 lakh) in the other vicinity. Aftabs father said my son cannot be a terrorist. After fake encounter at Batla House, police announced that 30 lakhs of rupees transaction took from Atif and Amins bank accounts. Atif and Amin were killed by police in Batla fake encounter. But the banks officials denied the police reports. Aftabs father and Human Right organisation N. C. M. must question media to prove their reports. S. Haque Patna Media and Muslims Justice Markande Katju is cent percent correct for saying that the media presents Indian Muslims as terrorists and blasters of bombs while the fact is that 99 percent of Hindus, Muslims, Christians and followers of other religion are gently and law-abiding people. He rightly observes that the news about bomb blast are presented on TV channels and in newspaper gives this impression that all Muslims are terrorists and bad people. He rightly laments that a large section a print and electronic media. Is engaged in disintegrating the social fabric of Indian society. Justice Katju has really done a national service by advising the media to give up their anti-Muslim bias and maintain principles of honest And fair journalism by not indulging in anti-Muslim baiting. Dr. M.H. Kidwai, Ex-M.P. (R.S.), New Delhi II Madhubani police arrested two Muslim youth named Md. Ajmal and Gaur Ahmad Jamal from two different area of Madhubani on 25 Nov. As per Information it was fake passport and illegal arms possession case. But whole day local channels (ETV(Bihar) Sahara (Bihar) air news like 2 terrorist are nabbed from Madhubani on 25 Nov. even Bihar Urdu daily published on page 1 that two suspected terrorist nabbed from Madhubani. But R.K. Mishra police IG said it would be premature to call them terrorists. Unbridled media spread poison. Justice Katju has opined very right about media. S. Haque, Patna Wine shops in Kashmir Politicians like Dr Farooq Sahab and all those who advocate wine shops opening and defending the opening of cinema's, etc, by terming the state a secular one, must realise that such vices are not dysfunctional for Islamic states only but perpetrate immorality in any society. Provision of such immoral facilities will not boost our tourism industry in any way because tourists don't throng valley in large numbers to enjoy the wine or cinema or other such things. It is a hard fact that they come either for pilgrimage or for its beautiful environs. Also tourism industry development must not be at the cost of our values and rich sufi-rishi glory. Today if such an opinion is encouraged may be tomorrow there will be the advocacy of sex tourism in the valley, who knows. Such a step will distort the basic essence of Kashmiriyat and our rich cultural and religious ethos. Being secular is alright but that does not mean to be the breeding ground of vices like filthy wine culture, etc. Syed Adfar Rashid Shah, JMI, New Delhi. adfer.syed@gmail.com BJP and Muslims It is being noted that the BJP has started luring Muslims in number of ways. We cannot say that BJP is not serious about this move. If they want real support from Muslims BJP should apologize Muslims for the demolition of Babri Masjid and promise to rebuild on the same place if it comes in power. The Muslims will exonerate BJP and they will support whole heartedly. They will not mind for reservation. They are getting good jobs in the Middle East countries. The BJP should also promise to release all the youths who have been apprehended by the police on the false charges of Indian Mujahideen or Lashkare taiba etc. Najma Heptullah is hated much by Muslims. She cannot do any score to the BJP Dr Maqdoomi Hyderabad drmaqdoomi@yahoo.com Ban smoking tobacco and eating gutka Due to lack of moral values youths are becoming tobacco smokers and gutka eaters. Tobacco smoking burns health and life. Poisonous gutka is being consumed by boys and girls on large scale. Medical researches bear testimony to the fact that main causes of mouth and throat cancer are smoking tobacco and eating gutka. Today there are about 5 lakh mouth and throat cancer patients in India. 90 percent of these are cigarettes and bidi smokers and gutka eaters. About 50 lakhs boys and girls are tobacco smokers and gutka eaters. Tobacco smokers smoke in injurious for non-smokers health. Tobacco and gutka are grave threats to health and lives. More over it is threat to Indias economy and progress. We should create awareness, particularly among students and youths about the harmful effects of tobacco smoking and gutka eating. Central and state governments should ban smoking tobacco and eating gutka. G. Hasnain Kaif Azad Ward, Bhandara 441904

Death sentence Death sentence deserves to remain only in a society wherein people are ever ready to offer their heads for upholding Truth and Justice. Sultan A. Patel, Khanpur Deh 392150 Lokpal It is universally accepted by all political parties including the BJPthat Anna Hazares Jan Lokpal bill as it stands does not deserve their votes. Annas pet party BJP has said a flat no to bring the Prime minister under Lokpal unconditionally and is vehemently against placing judiciary under Lokpal. Why, then, is Annas team training all their guns on the Congress and is silent on the BJPs rebuff? Annas totally unnecessary and largely unethical agitation at this stage, his and his cronies intemperate language, arrogance, disdain for the institution of parliament and parliamentarians have been condemned by all parties in the house except by the BJP. There is no doubt that the Lokpal act is a much awaited law and all parties must huddle together and offer to the nation a strong anti-corruption law. More important than this is the undoing of the insult to our parliament which Anna Hazare and his men have inflicted on it. This is the need of our democracy. Now is the time for all parliamentarians to close rank and pass a resolution disapproving of Anna Hazare's campaign and asking him to desist from adopting the methods of agitation which are now bordering on blackmail. Dr Mookhi Amir Ali, Santacruz west, Mumbai 400054. drmookhi@yahoo.co.in Shamsuddin death compensation? Bihar cabinet decided on 1 Dec. 11 to give compensation to the kith of late Md. Shamsuddin who was beaten to death by police beating on 5 Aug. 2011. Md. Shamsuddin s/o Late Md. Ibrahim of Kanhauli Dih, thana Mithan Pura Distt. Muzaffarpur Bihar was beaten by police in broad daylight. He succumbed to injuries of police canning Bihar cabinet ordered to pay compensation Rs. 3 lakh to Md. Shamsuddin relatives. Why so much difference in compensating the life of innocents persons? Delhi H.C. has ordered the Delhi Government to pay compensation of Rs. 10.00 lakh who died in the blast at HC gate. S. Haque, Patna Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi Being a Muslim how Naqvi can talk against the interest of Muslims according to Sachar Committee and Ranganath Commission Muslins are more backward than SC and ST communities. On the moral ground they must be given reservation up to 10% The UPA government has decided To give 4.5% to minorities among the minorities may consists only 2% According to population Muslims are 15% they deserve 13% more reservations. This decision has been taken in view of UP election.The sane diplomacy for BJP is to be mute on the move to get the votes of minorities. But the myopic leadership has opposed the decision of the UPA government. The BJP is in the wrong impression that its stance will be favoured by 90 percent population Naqvi must know only 10 percent hardly will endorse the BJP. The fate of hypocrites in Islam is worse than Kafers They will be thrown in the deepest strata of Hell. Dr Maqdoomi, Hyderabad drmaqdoomi@yahoo.com No to Sehwag's Statue in JMI Campus I am dismayed to learn that Jamia is going to install the statue of Sehwag, the cricketer. After Mirza Ghalib, Sehwag would be the second person, in fact the first one while alive, to be thus honoured. May I request the people in general, and the concerned authorities in particular, to kindly read the article by Retired Supreme Court Justice Markanday Katju on the topic of Bharat Ratna, wherein he has suggested Ghalib, Subramanya Bharti and Saratchandra Chattopadhyay, the persistently illuminating Indian stars of great relevance for humanity, to be considered for this highest honour, and not the currently shining stars of cricket and filmdom.Please save the honour of a great seat of learning, that too Jamia Millia Islamia, a product of freedom struggle, and reconsider the decision to install the statue of a cricketer. Hasan Abdullah (JMI, Higher Secondary 1975) AMU centre Janab Shahabuddin sb, in a letter of previous edition has further refined my idea and I do agree with him on several counts. During the time of Roman empire giant Roman colosseum and structures like it used to hold games of all kind for greater part of year. Once a young Roman senator asked another senior senator why games all year round? To this experienced senator replied because it distracts population from real issues. Perhaps this might sum up the attitude of those be in power today. Distract population and engage them in cheerful but fruitless games. For the case of Muslims what better than a game of AMU to distract them from the real issue. And this game has won many a parliamentary seats also to be precise, but the point is whether it serves the purpose it is projected for or it serves something else. The whole AMU center was touted as manifestation of Sacchar committee as exemplified in Fatimi report. But surprisingly enough 404 page Sacchar Committee does not even mention AMU even once in its report, leave aside recommending playing with its charter. On the contrary Sacchar Committee after thorough statistical analysis of data available at national level, arrives at the conclusion that, major problems (of Muslims) lie in school education; the likelihood of Muslim children completing school education is significantly lower. Once the "hurdle" of school education is crossed, the likelihood of completing graduate studies increases. Therefore, a sharper focus on school education is desirable. Sacchar committee recommends 8 point or for educational uplifment of Muslims including devising a new admission policy for all the educational institutes in India (to help Muslims get admission in any college or university in India more easily), to opening of schools, hostels, ITIs and polytechnique in Muslim dominated areas. Not a single recommendation of Sacchar has been implemented in spirit or letter till this date. What has been implemented in the name of Sacchar is what Sacchar himself might not have imagined in his wildest dreams. So much could have been done as per Sacchar committee and Janab Shahabuddin sb but what we got instead is games to keep us distracted while the real issues remain at large. Do I hear that one of the most successful games of past 20 years (Babri Masjid) has been taken down after serving its utility and is now being replaced by more authentic and dynamic games. Sameer Qaiyum sameerqaiyum@gmail.com

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24 The Milli Gazette, 1-15 January 2012

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