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[1] From: Abhiyya 2006 <abhiyya@yahoo.com Date: Sun Mar 9, 2008 2:55 pm Subject: Memoranda of non-understanding - A. G. Noorani "In a globalised society, respect for diversity is a moral and legal obligation. But as Wilfred Cantwell Smith, a devout Christian and scholar on Islam, wrote, “The fact is that the West has begun in only extremely incipient fashion to understand any civilisation other than its own."" February 25, 2008 http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx? Id=f2f3956c-9064-4943-9b7c-2b\ 7de1efefb0 Memoranda of non-understanding ‘Happy birthday’ the Black convert said to the Mother Superior (Deborah Kerr) at Christmas and was duly corrected: “We do not take his name so casually.” This memorable scene in Black Narcissus reveals in a flash the impact of cultural diversity among people of the same faith. No Indian Christian would say, as Mike Huckabee famously did, “Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office” or emulate Robert Wright’s remark, “Jesus knew viral marketing.” A Polish paper published a picture of Jesus and Mary with gas masks over their faces. The American thrash metal band Slayer’s album Christ Illusion was withdrawn in India. Its depiction of Christ as an amputee drew protests in Britain also. Within Britain the offence of ‘incitement to racial hatred’ covers, in Northern Ireland alone, incitement to religious hatred. History mandates diversity. An authority on freedom of speech, Eric Barendt notes that, “White English Catholics are more likely to experience vicious denigration of their religious convictions as insulting than they are hate speech about their colour”. France’s ban on ‘conspicuous signs’ of religious affiliation in public schools flies in the face of realities. In her book The Politics of the Veil, Joan Wallach Scott demonstrates the conflicting approaches to sexuality that lay at the heart of the debate — how French supporters of the ban view sexual openness as the standard for normalcy, emancipation, and individuality, and the sexual modesty implicit in the headscarf as proof that Muslims can never become fully ‘French’. The ban, far from reconciling religious and ethnic differences, only exacerbates them. Insistence on homogeneity is no longer feasible in any plural society. When defining the limits of free speech, respect for cultural diversity is not cultural relativism in respect of human rights. The test of ‘malicious violation of the spirit of tolerance’ is of universal application. International courts grant individual States a ‘margin of appreciation’. What passes for jest or satire in one country might be regarded as insult and ridicule in another. That is the core of the law of blasphemy in force in most European States, including Britain, and is applied by the European Court of Human Rights. In 1993, it upheld the forfeiture of a film that disparaged Christ, the Virgin Mary and the Eucharist. In 1997 it upheld the decision of the British censors not to allow the release of a video portraying the sexual fantasies of St Teresa of Avila. In the 1994 case, it gave significant weight to the conditions in the Tyrolean region of Austria where the majority of the people were Catholic. Some States penalise denial of the Holocaust. Popular sentiment and the burden of history require that. That is true also of Muslim sensitivity about the Prophet Muhammad. Ayyub Axel Kohler, a convert, and Chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, pleaded, “One has to understand how much we love our Prophet.” Urdu poetry is replete with reproaches at and complaints to the Almighty. But none would take liberties with the name of Prophet Muhammad. Hence, the Persian couplet, “Ba Khuda deewana basho, Ba Muhammad Hoshyar (Play madly with God if you wish, but be careful with Muhammad). Unfortunately, few non-Muslims have understood his station in the Muslim psyche and in Muslim lives. The scholar, Arthur Jeffery, recalled that the rector of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Sheikh Mustafa al-Maraghi, once told his friend, the Anglican Bishop in Egypt, that “the commonest cause of offence, generally unwitting offence, given by Christians to Muslims, arose from their complete failure to understand the very high regard all Muslims have for the person of their Prophet”. On this, Annemarie Schimmel makes the perfect comment: “ Misunderstanding of the role of the Prophet has been, and still is, one of the greatest obstacles to Christians’ appreciation of the Muslim interpretation of Islamic history and culture.” Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses identified 12 women in a brothel with the Prophet’s wives. To him, who said that “the ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of the martyr” are attributed these words: “Writer and whores I see no difference here.” The Prophet is called Mahound. Dictionaries tell us that it means “the false prophet Mammad (sic.)... a name for the devil” or “a name of contempt for Mahomet... sometimes used as a synonym for the ‘the Devil’”. On May 15, 2007, L. K. Advani said that the BJP does not support a concept of artistic freedom to hurt religious sentiments. That he singled out Rushdie testifies to his sincerity. Debate in India on both sides was simplistic. Few read the novel. The poet Nissim Ezekiel and six of his colleagues did and denounced Rushdie in a detailed critique citing the text for outraging religious sentiment “by obscenity and slander”. Jimmy Carter called it a “direct insult” to Muslims. But the most devastating censure came from Lord Shawcross. It was not “a contribution to scholarship” but “a deplorable abuse of the freedom [of speech]”. The Danish cartoons fell into the same category. Hugh Hewitt, an evangelical Christian, remarked that “a cartoon of Christ’s crown of thorns transformed into sticks of TNT” would offend Christians. The issue is not freedom of speech but the West’s refusal to accept and respect diversity. Michael Day, Chairman of the British Commission for Racial Equality, referred to the blind support for Rushdie and wrote that “what many people had in mind was not a pluralist society but one in which most immigrant groups gradually assimilated and, except perhaps for some essentially private customs, complied with the dominant systems of the ‘host’ community. There was indignation and transparent racism in response to the demand from Muslims that the right to freedom of expression might be constrained by sensitivity to non-Christian religious belief, which is not covered by the blasphemy law”, which protects Christian beliefs alone. In a globalised society, respect for diversity is a moral and legal obligation. But as Wilfred Cantwell Smith, a devout Christian and scholar on Islam, wrote, “The fact is that the West has begun in only extremely incipient fashion to understand any civilisation other than its own." http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx? Id=f2f3956c-9064-4943-9b7c-2b\ 7de1efefb0 © Copyright 2007 Hindustan Times With Regards Abi ------- [2] From: "Dr.Y. C.Zala" <yczala@yahoo.co.in Date: Sun Mar 9, 2008 12:10 am Subject: Time-Optimization by Email Management Dear Friends, We get daily many emails and therefore it is very necessary to think on Email Management as checking email, reading email and answering email can take up hours of time if you let it. Is your email killing your productivity? Then it's time for some basic email management. Here are given four simple email management rules to help you keep control of your inbox: 1) Let your email program manage your email as much as possible. Email management starts with setting up and using filters. If you're using an email program such as Outlook, you can configure email rules to send your spam directly to the trash - meaning that you don't waste your time reading and deleting it. 2) Do not check your email on demand. You don't need to see every piece of email the second it arrives. If you're using an email program that announces the arrival of new email, turn off the program's announcement features, such as making a sound or having a pop-up screen announce the arrival of email. Checking email on demand can seriously interfere with whatever other tasks you're trying to accomplish because most people will read email when they check it. 3) Don't read and answer your email all day long. You may get anywhere from a handful to hundreds of emails each day that need to be answered, but they don't need to be answered immediately, interrupting whatever else you're doing. Instead, set aside a particular time each day to review and answer your email. Schedule the hour or whatever time it takes you to answer the volume of email you get, and stick to that schedule as regularly as possible. 4) Don't answer your email at your most productive time of day. For me, (and for many others, I suspect), my most productive work time is the morning. If I start my work day by answering my email, I lose the time that I'm at my most creative. If I'm writing a piece, for instance, it takes me twice as long to compose it in the afternoon or evening than it would in the morning, when I feel fresh and alert. Answering email, on the other hand, isn't usually a task that calls for a great deal of creativity. So by ignoring my email until the late afternoon, and answering it then, I get the dual benefit of saving my most productive time for other more demanding tasks, and not continually interrupting whatever other tasks I'm trying to accomplish. What time of day is your most productive? Scheduling less demanding tasks such as checking, reading and answering email outside of your "best" working time will help you make the most of your working day - and that's good email management. ---------- [3] From: WebXpurt <webxpurt@yahoo.com Date: Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:08 am Subject: TOURISTS BREATHING THEIR LAST IN GOA Why more tourists are breathing their last in Goa http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/mar/08goa1.htm March 08, 2008 Rediff. com Death of foreign tourists visiting Goa [Images] has been on a rise with 17 cases already been registered in just two months this year in the state. With Goa increasingly becoming a hot spot for drug abuse, the involvement of tourists is evident from the fact that nearly half of the people arrested in narcotics cases were foreigners. Police sources said that many of them who died were found to be drug addicts. Last year, the death toll was 59. And 55 foreigners died in the previous year. The police records reveal that in half the cases, the cause of death is unknown sans the viscera report. In 2008, the number of such cases sent for viscera analysis is six out of 12. "The viscera report basically establishes whether there is presence of drugs in the stomach or is it poison. Depending on it, section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (murder) can be invoked in these cases," a senior police officer said. "Visit any rave party and you will find hoard of foreigners inhaling drugs. The coastal belt is getting increasingly ruined with the drug rackets," a police officer said. The Goa police website lends an insight into foreigners' link with drug cartels in the state. The anti-narcotic cell has found almost 50 per cent of its drug accused as foreign tourists. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/mar/08goa1.htm --------- [4] From: WebXpurt <webxpurt@yahoo.com Date: Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:17 am Subject: Govt backs down over N-deal - ULTRA CURRENTS Govt backs down over N-deal after Left's threat http://ultracurrents.blogspot.com/ Smitha Nair, Divyamanu Choudhary March8, 2008 New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has confirmed that the talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on India-specific safeguards have been completed. "We had decided in November last year we would go to the IAEA for talks on India-specific safeguards. That stage is over now. We have completed the negotiation. We had told them (Left) that before we finalise we will come and report to you what transpired at the IAEA," Mukherjee said. While this means that the Indo-US civil nuclear deal has reached a decisive phase, Mukherjee has indicated that they will go ahead only after a green signal from the Left whose support is cruicial for the survival of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government. Mukherjee signalled that the UPA is not in favour of sacrificing the government at the altar of the nuclear deal. The UPA-Left nuclear committee will be meeting shortly to discuss the issue. So the UPA government seems to be backing down a bit on the Indo-US nuclear deal after the Communist Party of India (CPI) made an official statement on Friday that the party would withdraw its support if the government went ahead with the deal. CPI General Secretary AB Bardhan has already written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and asked him not to go ahead with the deal. "What’s the hurry?” Bardhan asked. “If you move ahead with the deal, then the Left parties will withdraw support." Bardhan’s letter stated: "Should the Government decide to push ahead with the deal, we will not and cannot be a party to go along with it. We will then be left with no other option than to withdraw our support to the Government.” He also said that the PM’s efforts to build a consensus were hollow as no consensus was possible. Referring to US Assistant Under Secretary of State Richard Boucher's statement that "the nature of the govt, minority or caretaker will be of no concern to the US when the agreement is signed", Bardhan questioned why this statement went unchallenged. Now, 24 hours after the threat by the CPI, the government is backing off, at least for the moment. Mukherjee said that no one in the government is talking of an early poll. He further said that none of the Congress' coalition partners wanted an early election. Will India Survive?: Surrounded by China's Surrogates? E-B'desh, W-Pak, N-Nepal, S-Lanka? ------------- [5] From: Abhiyya 2006 <abhiyya@yahoo.com Date: Mon Mar 10, 2008 1:46 pm Subject: The jihad in “God’s Own Country” Please see how Mr. Praveen Swami misuses the name & reputation of an established national newspaper, to publicize his fabricated and baseless ‘report’ on ‘Islamic terrorism in Kerala’. Kindly note that Mr. Swami was “a fellow at the U. S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D. C., where he was working on a project examining the history of terror in the Jammu & Kashmir regions”. Comments of some readers to the editor also attached. - Abhiyya The jihad in “God’s Own Country” Praveen Swami Islamist groups are gaining both followers and influence in Kerala Within Kerala, politics has contributed to the empowerment of Islamists Islamist groups able to market religious message as an answer to problems of young people THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: One morning 17 years ago, C. A. M. Basheer walked into work at Mumbai’s international airport and handed in his resignation. Since then, he has become one of India’s most-wanted terrorists: a key figure the Islamist terror networks that have, since 2003, struck cities across southern India. Basheer’s story raises a critical question: why residents of States with no history of large-scale communal pogroms, like Kerala and Karnataka, are contributing cadre to Islamist terror groups. Born into a middle-class family from Aluva, Basheer was an improbable Islamist. After finishing his studies at the Aeronautical Engineering College in Chalakudy, he joined a flight training institute in Bangalore. He then moved to Mumbai, and encountered the movement that would transform his life: the Students Islamic Movement of India. In 1990, angered by the religious discrimination he encountered in Mumbai, Basheer joined SIMI full-time. A year later, he helped organise one of its largest-ever rallies, at the Bandra Reclamation grounds in Mumbai, where more than 10,000 supporters gathered. And after the demolition of the Babri Masjid 1992, Basheer joined the ranks of SIMI radicals calling for violence After SIMI was proscribed in 2001, Basheer played a critical role in ensuring funding for the terror cells it had began to spawn, drawing on connections in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Cash channelled to an old SIMI comrade-in-arms, Saqib Nachan, is thought to have paid for the 2003 serial bombings in Mumbai. “God’s Own Country,” as Kerala’s tourism advertisements call it, hasn’t seen a terrorist strike — an exception among the major southern States. But Islamist groups are gaining both followers and influence. Last year, the State government said SIMI now operates through twelve front organisations, mainly in the districts of Malappuram and Kondotty. Most of these front organisations aren’t directly linked to SIMI. Groups like the Tahreeek Tahaffuz-e-Sha’aire Islam [Movement for the Protection of Islamic Symbols and Monuments], the Muslim Youth Forum or the Karuna Foundation do however help propagate chauvinist Salafi-sect ideologues who advocate violence, and provide a forum for SIMI talent-scouts. Over the years, SIMI has had not a little success in funnelling recruits to terrorist groups, notably the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Kamakutty, a computer engineer-turned terrorist held in Bangalore last month, is known to have worked closely with Lashkar commander Muhammad Faisal Khan, a key organiser of bombings in Mumbai during 2002-2003. Hard questions How does one account for the growth of Islamist terror networks in Kerala? One important point is that most of SIMI’s key leaders in Kerala worked or studied elsewhere — thus encountering communal discrimination of an intensity unknown in the State itself. Highly educated, their access to the internet enables them to link local grievances to the larger, global jihadist movement. Within Kerala itself, politics has contributed to the empowerment of Islamists. In recent years, the Jamaat-e-Islami’s traditional control of Muslim votes in north Kerala has weakened, as the Left has taken control of the region. Religious neo-conservatism has been seen by some Jamaat-e-Islami ground-level leaders as a means of fighting the secular tide. Islamist groups have been able to market their religious message as an answer to the problems of young people, like drugs and alcoholism. Parents often welcome their operations, believing their wards’ religious interests keep them safe from modern vices. Elements of Kerala’s West Asia-based Muslim diaspora have often unwittingly funded these enterprises. In the imagination of Kerala Islamists, SIMI-linked terrorists are inheritors of an unbroken line of Islamist resistance dating back to struggles against Portuguese imperialism. Recruits are told of Zayn-ad-Din, a Malabar coast resident who in his 1580 book, Tuhfat al-Mujahideen, called on “the Faithful to undertake a jihad against the worshippers of the Cross.” Kerala jihadists, with their close link to the worldwide Salafi-jihadi movement, claim their struggle forms part of the same tradition. Kerala’s government is alive to the threat. Last year, clashes between Islamists and Hindu fundamentalists in Malappuram led police to make several hundred arrests. But the resilience of SIMI’s networks shows no quick-fix solution exists to the growing problem. http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl? file=2008030958711000.htm&da\ te=2008/03/09/&prd=th& On jihad This refers to the report “The jihad in ‘God’s Own Country’” (March 9). The book the author refers to, Tuhfat al-Mujahideen, was first published in English by the Madras University in 1942. Tuhfat al-Mujahideen was one of the earliest anti-colonial manifestos and was translated into many European languages. Zayn-ad-Din wrote against the Portuguese colonial incursion and his fight was with the then king of Calicut, Zamorin. Other Books, Calicut, came out with a reprint of the Tuhfat al-Mujahideen with a foreword from Dr. K. K. N. Kurupp, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calicut and Professor of History, in 2006. There are four Malayalam translations of the work. To relate the jihad mentioned in this book to the jihad as it is understood today is as dangerous as George Bush’s use of the word ‘crusade’ for the ‘war against terror.’ A. Ahsan, Kozhikode India’s first authenticated historical document, Tuhfat al-Mujahideen written in 1580 depicting southern India’s fight against foreigners, is in no way connected with the Maududi-supported SIMI and Salafi-inspired Al Qaeda, which has started a new brand of Islam that tarnishes the fine message spread by great sufi saints such as Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer and Khwaja Bakhtiyar Kaki of Delhi. Zaynad-Din’s first and powerful struggle was against the Portuguese policy of divide and rule, not Christianity. Abdul Aziz, New Delhi http://www.hindu.com/2008/03/10/stories/2008031055031001.htm With Regards Abi ---------- |
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| << March08, 2008 - [India Thinkers Net] A river reborn ,Iran ,countercurrents updates etc |
March12, 2008 - [India Thinkers Net] Attack on CPM office ,Lankan Christians ,Deoband convention etc >> |
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