Those patriotic Indians who attended this rally were abused and attacked by Muslims at Sanfranciso, California:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/30/MNL914EPSB.DTL&tsp=1
Jews, Indians in S.F. protest terrorism
Julian Guthrie, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, December 1, 2008
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(11-30) 18:31 PST -- For hundreds of people who attended a vigil in downtown San Francisco on Sunday, there was a collective sense of sadness and outrage at the three-day terror spree that left scores dead in the Indian city of Mumbai. But for Rabbi Peretz Mochkin, there was something else.
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Mochkin, 26, was a childhood friend of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, who was killed with his wife, Rivkah, 28, in the Jewish center they operated in Mumbai. Mochkin and Holtzberg lived on the same block in Brooklyn, where the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement - an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect with some 3,500 centers worldwide - has its American roots.
The center in Mumbai, called the Nariman House, was seized by terrorists on Wednesday. On Friday, when Indian commandos stormed the site, six hostages were found dead inside, including the Holtzbergs. Their toddler son, Mosche, had been spirited safely out by a nanny.
"When terror touches our lives, we have a mission not to fight back with hatred," Mochkin said, speaking to the crowd gathered at Market and Powell streets. "Our mission is to turn what could be numbness and sadness into goodness and kindness."
Noting the barrage of media attention, e-mails and chat room discussions prompted by the young couple's deaths, Mochkin said, "We lost special people, but we see the souls of Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife inspiring people worldwide."
Mochkin was one of nearly 30 speakers at the rally, which drew some 300 people - mostly Indians and Jews, who carried signs reading "Democracies against terror" and chanted "Bharat Mata ki jai," an Indian phrase meaning "Long live Mother India." The organizations participating ranged from the Sunnyvale Hindu Temple to the Friends of India Society International.
Ashwini Surper, a software developer and one of the event organizers, said she has been glued to the television since Thursday, when news of the siege by terrorists began.
"Our message today is that it is not one nation, not one ethnic group, that has to fight terrorism," Surper said. "People have looked at terrorism as a fragmented problem, or as America's problem. But it is a global problem."
Surper, who has been a guest at Mumbai's Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel, a 105-year-old landmark that was seized by attackers believed to be Muslim extremists, called Mumbai "the pride of India."
"I am really angry, and I am not an angry person," she said, shaking her head. "India is a spiritual place. I am spiritual. I am a yoga practitioner who believes in nonviolence and peace. But the world is letting terrorism happen. That's why I'm angry."
Madhu Upadhyay, who was born in Ahmadabad, India, and was visiting San Francisco from his home in New York, called last week's attacks "an ominous sign." He said that Ahmadabad was the site of another terrorist attack in late July, in which dozens of people were killed.
"The message is, this madness must end," Upadhyay said. "India must tackle this problem with like-minded nations."
Khanderao Kand, an architect who was another organizer of the event, said President-elect Barack Obama "must take the lead in ensuring a concerted international action to combat terrorism beyond Iraq and Afghanistan."
He said the 30 groups that gathered Sunday also are calling on the United States to "put pressure on Pakistan and Bangladesh to purge extremist elements from government, military and intelligence apparatus."
Standing off to the side was Mochkin, with his wife and young son. The past week had been full of emotions for him.
He was at home in San Francisco on Wednesday night when he received the first of many e-mails from a Chabad rabbi in New York, urging the faithful to pray an extra psalm for their brothers and sisters whose lives were in peril in Mumbai.
That was when Mochkin learned that terrorists had stormed Nariman House and an unknown number of people were being held hostage inside. That was when he learned his friend Holtzberg and his wife were inside.
On Friday night, after learning the Holtzbergs were among six killed at the Jewish center, Mochkin convened a group of some 75 people at a San Francisco Chabad house. They gathered to share a meal and pray.
Mochkin said that dozens of Bay Area leaders of Chabad-Lubavitch, which was named after the town of Lyubavichi in Russia where the movement started, are expected to meet Tuesday in San Francisco. They plan to again pay tribute to the faithful who lost their lives.
E-mail Julian Guthrie at jguthrie@sfchronicle.com.
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