இந்து மத செய்திகள்

மங்களாரம்பம்

2011-11-04T08:01:00.000-07:00

சந்தன பாளித குங்கும புளகித சண்பக கடகபுயச்
சமர சிகாவல குமர ஷடாநந சரவண குரவணியுங்
கொந்தள பாரகி ராதபு ராதநி கொண்க எனப்பரவுங்
கூதள சீதள பாதம் எனக்கருள் குஞ்சரி மஞ்சரிதோய்
கந்தக்ரு பாகர கோமள கும்ப கராதிப மோகரத
கரமுக சாமர கர்ண விசால கபோல விதானமதத்
தெந்த மகோதர மூஷிக வாகன சிந்துர பத்மமுகச்
சிவசுத கணபதி விக்ந விநாயக தெய்வ சகோதரனே.

இலங்கை - அழியும் சைவம்... அடைக்கல திட்டம்!

2010-02-10T04:51:00.000-08:00

நன்றி: ஜூனியர் விகடன்.

இன்னொரு இலங்கை சோகம்...

http://www.vikatan.com/jv/2010/feb/14022010/jv0401.asp

அழியும் சைவம்... அடைக்கல திட்டம்!

இலங்கையில் போர் முடிந்தாலும், ஈழத் தமிழனின் சோகம் தீரவில்லை. தமிழர்களின் கோயில்கள் எல்லாம் தரை யோடு தரையாக சிதிலமாகிக் கிடக்கின்றன. இந்நிலையில், அவர்களைப் பலமுனைகளிலும் மதமாற்றம் செய்யும் முயற்சிகளும் அதிவேகம் பிடிக்க... 'அதைத் தடுத்து நிறுத்த, இலங்கையில் தமிழர்கள் வசிக்கும் பகுதிகளில் திருமுறை வேள்விகளை நடத்தத் திட்டமிட்டுள்ளனர் ஆன்மிகவாதிகள் சிலர்..!' என்றொரு செய்தி வந்தது. இது என்ன புது சோதனை என்று விசாரித்தோம்.

தமிழ்நாட்டின் காஞ்சி மடத்தோடு சேர்ந்து அகில இலங்கை இந்து மாமன்றம், இந்திய இலங்கை தமிழர் கூட்டமைப்பு ஆகியவைதான் இந்தப் பணியில் குதித்திருக்கின்றன.

முதலில் அகில இலங்கை இந்து மாமன்ற உதவிச் செயலாளர் கார்த்திகேயனிடம் பேசினோம். ''உக்கிரமான போர் முடிந்து, மக்கள் மீள் குடியேறி வரும் சூழலிலும் ஏகக் குழப்பங்கள்! இங்குள்ள இந்துக்கள் பெரும்பாலும் சைவர்களே. அவர்களுக்கு நம்பிக்கை ஊட்ட இலங்கையில் எதுவுமே இல்லை. 'திக்கற்றவர்க்கு தெய்வமே துணை' என்பார்கள். ஆனால், எல்லா கோயில் களுமே இடிக்கப்பட்டு விட்டன. அதனால், சைவர்களான தமிழர்கள் எங்கு போவதென்று தெரியாமல் குழப்பமுற்று இருக்கின்றனர். அதனால் மாற்று மதத்தினர், எம் மக்களை மதம் மாற்றத் துடிக்கின்றனர். எம் மக்கள் அவர் களின் சூழ்ச்சிக்கு முழுதும் இரையாகிவிடுவார்களோ என்று அச்சமாயிருக்கிறது. அதற்காக என்ன செய்யலாம் என்று யோசித்தபோதுதான் 'திருமுறை வேள்விகள் செயல் திட்டம்' என்பதை வடிவமைத்தோம்!'' என்றார்.

இந்திய-இலங்கை தமிழர் கூட்டமைப்பின் தலைவரும், 'காந் தளகம்' பதிப்பகத்தின் ஒருங்கிணைப்பாளருமான சச்சிதானந்தம் நம்மிடம், ''இலங்கைத் தமிழர் பூமியில் இப்போது, தமிழும் இல்லை; அவர்கள் மதமான சைவமும் இல்லை. எங்களுக்கு சமயம் என்றால் சைவம்தான், கோயில் என்றால் சிதம்பரம்தான். பல நூறு ஆண்டுகளாக ஈழமும், தமிழகமும்தான் தமிழ் வளர்த்த இடங்கள், சைவத்தைப் போற்றிய இடங்கள். அப்படிதொல்பெருமை கொண்ட எம் ஈழத்தில் இன்று சைவத்தை அழித்தொழிக்கும் வேலைகள் முழுமூச்சில் நடந்துவருகின்றன. மீள்குடியமரும் தமிழர் பகுதிகளில் நுழையும் என்.ஜி.ஓ-க்கள், மதமாற்ற வேலைகளில் மும்முரமாக இறங்கியுள்ளனர். 'உங்கள் மதம் உங்களைக் காப்பாற்றவில்லையே, உங்கள் தாய்நாடு உங்களைக் காப்பாற்றவில்லையே... இந்தோனேஷியாவில் கிழக்கு தீமோர் மக்கள் கிறிஸ்துவத்தை மேற்கொண்டதால்தான் அவர்களைப் பிரித்து, தனி நாடாக்க முடிந்தது. இப்பவும்கூட உங்கள் தாய்நாடு போராட்டத்தை கிறிஸ்துவ நாடுகள் மட்டும்தானே ஆதரித்தது?' என்றெல்லாம் சொல்லியே கிறிஸ்துவ மதத்தின்பால் ஈர்க்கிறார்கள்.

இஸ்லாமியர்களும் அவ்வாறே செய லாற்றுகிறார்கள். மட்டக்களப்பில் தமிழர் பெருவாரியாக வசித்த பகுதி ஒன்றின் பெயர், இப்போது 'சதாம் உசைன் நகர்.' இன்னொரு இடம், 'அயத்துல்லா நகர்.' வேறொரு இடத்தில் சவூதி மன்னர் பைசலின் பெயரில் நகர் உருவாகிவிட்டது. அங்கிருந்த கோயில்கள், பள்ளிவாசல்களாக மாறிக் கொண்டுள்ளன!

புத்த மதத்தினரும் தங்கள் வேலையைக் காட்டு கிறார்கள். அங்கு பாதுகாப்புக்கு இருக்கும் படைவீரர்கள் தங்கள் வழிபாட்டுக்கு என்று சொல்லி, ஒரு புத்தர் சிலையை வைத்து, 'இது புத்தர் நடமாடிய நாடு, அவரது பொருள்கள் புழங்கிய இடம்' என்றெல்லாம் சொல்லி, மனதை மாற்றுகிறார்கள். அநாதைகளாக, ஆதரவற்று நிற்கும் எம் தமிழர்களை இப்படி மூன்று மதத்தினரும் முக்கோண நெருக்கடி கொடுத்து, முற்றிலுமாக இந்து மதத்தில் இருந்தும் சைவத்தில் இருந்தும் வெளியேற்றுகின்றனர். எங்களின் வறுமையைப் பயன்படுத்தி, நல்ல உணவும், கை நிறையப் பணமும் கொடுத்து முகம் நிறைய கள்ளச் சிரிப்புடன் வரும் மாற்று மதத்தினரிடம், எம் மக்கள் மந்தைகளாக சாய்ந்து கொண்டிருக்கிறார்கள்! இதை தடுக்கும் முதல் கடமையும் பொறுப்பும் அதே சைவமும் தமிழும் தழைத்தோங்கும் தமிழகத்துக்குத்தானே உண்டு?'' என்று ஆவேசமாகக் கேட்டார் சச்சிதானந்தம்.

அவர் இதுகுறித்து, இங்குள்ள ஆன்மிகப் பெரியவர்களிடம் பல நாட்கள் கலந்து பேசி, திட்ட மிட்டதில்... 'இலங்கையில் திருமுறை வேள்விகளும், சொற்பொழிவுகளும் நடத்தி, தமிழக சைவர்களும் தங்களோடு இருக்கிறார்கள் என்ற நம்பிக்கையை ஊட்டுவது..!' என்று முடிவெடுக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

இதைத் தொடர்ந்து, இலங்கையில் அறுவடைக்காலம் முடியும் சித்திரையில் வேள்விகள் நடக்குமாம். இதற்காக கோவையை சேர்ந்த திருமுறை ஓதுவாரான கங்காதர் ஓதுவார் தலைமையில் 15 பேர் கொண்ட குழு அமைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. அதில் துறவிகள், ஓதுவார்கள், தொண்டர்கள் ஆகியோர் தலா ஐந்து பேர்! இவர்கள் இலங்கைக்குச் சென்று தமிழர்கள் வசிக்கும் அம்பாறை, மட்டக்களப்பு, திருகோணமலை, வவுனியா, புத்தகளம், மன்னார், கிளிநொச்சி, முல்லைத்தீவு, யாழ்ப்பாணம், மாத்தளை, கேகாலை, கண்டி, நுவரெலியா, பதுளை ஆகிய பகுதிகள் உள்ளடங்கிய 14 மாவட்டங்களில் திருமுறை வேள்விகளை நடத்த உள்ளார்கள்.

மொத்தம் 150 இடங்களைத் தேர்ந்தெடுத்து, ஒவ்வொரு இடத்திலும் ஒருநாள் தங்கி, காலையில் திருமுறை வேள்வி களையும், மாலையில் சைவப் பெருமை சொல்லும் சொற் பொழிவுகளை நிகழ்த்தவும் திட்டமிட்டிருக்கிறார்கள். இதனை இலங்கையில் முன்னின்று வழிநடத்தப்போகும், உள்ளூர் அமைப்புகளை ஒருங் கிணைக்கும் பணியை அகில இலங்கை இந்து மாமன்றம் செய்து வருகிறது. தமிழகத்தில் வேள்விக் குழுவினரை தயார் செய்யவும், செலவுகளையும் காஞ்சி சங்கராச்சாரியார் ஏற்றுக் கொண்டுள்ளாராம்.

காஞ்சி மடத்தைதொடர்பு கொண்டபோது, மடத்துக்கு நெருக்கமானவரும் கும்ப கோணத்தை சேர்ந்தவருமான குருமூர்த்தி நம்மிடம், ''சைவத் தையும் தமிழையும் இணைத்து வளர்த்ததில் காஞ்சி மடம் உள்ளிட்ட ஆன்மிக மடாலயங்களின் பங்கு பெரிது. இப்போது இலங்கையில் நடக்கும் சமய அழித்தொழிப்பை தடுக்க... பெரியவர் உணர்ந்திருக்கிறார். இந்தத் திட்டம் உருவானதுமே ஆதரித்து, அதற்கான எல்லாவற்றையும் தாமே ஏற்றுக்கொள்வதாகச் சொன்னார். ஆதரவற்றோர்களாக அங்கே கலங்குகிறவர்களுக்கு, இந்த திருமுறை வேள்விகள் மிகப்பெரும் ஆதரவு காட்டும்! இந்தக் குழுவில் செல்லப்போகிறவர்களின் ஒப்புதல் பெறப்பட்டு, அவர்களுக்கான பாஸ்போர்ட், விசா ஏற்பாடுகள் நடைபெறுகிறது. இதற்கான எல்லா உதவிகளையும் மடம் செய்து கொடுக்கும்!'' என்றார் குருமூர்த்தி.

தங்கள் கனவான 'ஈழம்' உருவாகத்தான்தாய்நாடான தமிழகம் உதவவில்லை. தங்களின் 'சமயம் அழிவதையாவது தடுக்கும் முயற்சியில் ஈடுபட முன்வந்துள்ளதே!' என்று மகிழ்வுடன் இதை வரவேற்கக் காத்திருக்கிறார்கள், ஈழத் தமிழர்கள்!

- கரு.முத்து

Pakistan's self-inflicted suffering comes from an education system that, like Saudi Arabia's system, provides an ideological foundation for violence

2009-01-18T06:57:00.001-08:00

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200901152074.htm

*News Update Service*
Thursday, January 15, 2009 : 2045 Hrs
*For Pakistan's kids, 'J' is for jehad, 'B' for 'bandook'*
Islamabad (PTI): Thousands of Pakistan's schoolgoing children are growing up
learning that the Urdu equivalent of the letter A stands for Allah, B for
'bandook' (gun) and J for 'jehad'.
Though not officially prescribed for pre-schoolers, books printed by Iqra
Publishers are being used in several regular schools and madrassas across
Pakistan.
The three examples of Allah, 'bandook' and jehad are not the only ones which
sound like a "blueprint for a religious fascist state".
The Urdu letter for the T sound stands for 'takrao' (collision), K for
'khunjar' (dagger), H for 'hijab' (veil) and Z for 'zunoob' (sins) – which
includes watching television, playing musical instruments and flying kites.
According to the National Bureau of Curriculum and Textbooks, Class 5
children are expected to "acknowledge and identify forces that may be
working against Pakistan","make speeches on jihad and shahadat", "understand
Hindu-Muslim differences and the resultant need for Pakistan", "India's evil
designs about Pakistan" and "demonstrate by actions a belief in the fear of
Allah", said a report in Newsline magazine.
In an article titled "The Saudi-isation of Pakistan", renowned physicist
Pervez Hoodbhoy argued that "a stern, unyielding version of Islam is
replacing the kinder, gentler Islam of the Sufis of Pakistan".
"Pakistan's self-inflicted suffering comes from an education system that,
like Saudi Arabia's system, provides an ideological foundation for violence
and future jihadists," he wrote.

Studying Islam has made me an atheist

2009-01-18T06:55:00.000-08:00

http://www.spectator.co.uk/print/the-magazine/features/3194231/studyi...
Studying Islam has made me an atheist
Douglas MurrayMonday, 29th December 2008
Douglas Murray says that he stopped being an Anglican after analysing
Muslim texts and deciding that no book — of any religion — could claim
infallibility
Just over a year ago I told a lie. In print. In this magazine. I was
one of those asked by The Spectator last Christmas whether I believed
in the virgin birth. Since it had always seemed to me that if you
believed in God a ‘pick and mix’ approach to the central tenets of the
faith was pointless, I said ‘yes’. But in fact I felt ‘no’. It wasn’t
that I had been wrestling over the doctrine of the incarnation, I
simply felt that if I didn’t believe in the virgin birth, I would not
believe in God. The truth is I didn’t and don’t. The guilt has been
lingering since. This is my atheist mea culpa.
Many people hold on to belief as an unquestioned part of their make-
up. They never have to confront the source of their belief, and as
long as nothing actively pushes them into addressing it, they keep it
as something which rarely does much harm and might actually do some
good. I have been an Anglican since birth — and not just a cultural
Anglican but at times (rarest of things) a real, worshipping,
believing Anglican. Like a lot of believers, I knew that there were
parts of my belief that wouldn’t stand up to analysis. But that was
fine. I didn’t need to analyse them. I only lost faith when I was
forced to.
Charles Darwin didn’t do for God. German biblical criticism did — the
scholarship on lost texts, discoveries of added-to texts and edited
texts. All pointed away from the initial starting-block of faith —
that the texts transmitted immutable truths. Realising that ‘holy’
texts are, like most other things in life, the result of an accretion
of human effort and human error is one of the most troubling
discoveries any believer can make. I remember trying to read some of
this scholarship when I was younger, and finding it so terrifying, so
ground-shaking, that I put it off for another day.
But it found me via another route. Some years ago I started studying
Islam. It didn’t take long to recognise the problems of that
religion’s texts — the repetitions, contradictions and absurdities.
Unlike Christianity, scholarship on these problems in Islam has barely
begun. But they are manifest for anyone to see. For a holy book which
in its opening lines boasts ‘that is the book, wherein is no doubt’,
plenty of doubt emerges. Not least in recognising demonstrable
plagiarisms from the Torah and the Christian Bible. If God spoke
through an archangel to one illiterate tradesman in 7th-century
Arabia, then — just for starters — why was he stealing material? Or
was he just repeating himself?
Gradually, scepticism of the claims made by one religion was joined by
scepticism of all such claims. Incredulity that anybody thought an
archangel dictated a book to Mohammed produced a strange
contradiction. I found myself still clinging to belief in
Christianity. I was trying to believe — though rarely arguing — ‘Well,
your guy didn’t hear voices: but I know a man who did.’ This last,
shortest and sharpest, phase pulled down the whole thing. In the end
Mohammed made me an atheist.
Though it was a supplementary realisation, the problems that these
texts have caused cannot be avoided either. Where else does your real
bona-fide bigot find his metier? Anyone can repress a woman, but you
need ‘dictated’ scriptures to feel you’re really right in repressing
her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel
you’ve got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious ‘Adam
and Eve not Adam and Steve’-style arguments instead of just
recognising that some people are different to you.
Anyone can be a bigot. But divine bigots must count as the most
intractable — the most infuriatingly impervious to reason. Besides —
to a bibliophile, indeed bibliomaniac — the idea that there is any
book ‘wherein is no doubt’ is insulting as well demonstrably untrue.
Even when I stopped believing I pretended I did, or said I did for a
bit, for fear of the break in the dike. Like many people, the first
thing that troubled me about leaving religion was fear of
meaninglessness. Where would ethics come from? If nothing was revealed
then surely everything would be relative — and that way lay nihilism.
As it happens, it becomes clearer the more I look at it that religious
texts are not only unnecessary to the ethical life. More often than
believers like to admit, they are directly contrary to it.
Then there is the loss of the guiding hand. It is the one utterly
irreplaceable aspect of belief. Without God, where is the enduring
melody — the cantus firmus — of life? Alexander Herzen asked, ‘Where
is the song before it is sung?’ It is impossible to replace the belief
in a deity’s plans for you. Though less comforting, it is simply
observably truer that there is no song before you sing it — no path
before you tread it. You make the song as you sing it. You make the
path as you tread it. It makes life more precarious, certainly — but
just as the risk of falling is greater, so, likewise, is the
possibility of soaring.
My final fear was one which I think a lot of Christians in this
country feel, particularly as they see Islam re-emerging and gaining
adherents in spite (or perhaps because) of its intransigence and
intractability. It is, I suppose, a sense of cultural abandonment. We
know how much of what we enjoy and relish comes through Christianity.
Can we really go on without it? Doesn’t it leave our building without
foundations? Slowly I discover that it doesn’t. I still can’t pass a
country church or cathedral without going in. The texts are still
essential to me. They are just (and ‘just’ hardly does the job here)
no more divine than Shakespeare.
The question of how, without believing it, we transmit the good of our
historical faith to another generation is certainly problematic.
Perhaps like many Jewish people who rejoice in their identity but
don’t believe in God we could be better — and franker — at being
cultural Christians. I tried it this year, at my first atheist
Christmas.
I went to church on Christmas morning, and went with my family to the
carol service a few nights before. The readings were comforting not
only because of their familiarity but because taken as great stories
they still transmit, like all great literature, truths which you can
live by. The momentousness and simplicity of Adam’s fall was as tragic
and resonant to this atheist heart as it once was to the believing
one.
Fundamentalist Islam challenges us politically. But tackling
literalism of one kind with literalism of another doesn’t work.
Complexity is harder to accept, but more evident to the eye. After
long struggle, I find reason enough.
My first non-believing Christmas was different, certainly. Different —
but, contrary to my fears, no shallower. Quite the opposite. Things
this year seemed both more open and more possible. More fragile and
more precious. It also struck me, in ways which are hard to explain —
and the religious language cannot be avoided — that it was all, if
anything, even more miraculous.

A strategy to deter terrorism By Subramanian Swamy

2009-01-18T06:54:00.000-08:00

A strategy to deter terrorism
By Subramanian Swamy

Most prominent national security analysts have argued that in countering terrorist threats, deterrent strategies as formulated for conventional warfare have no significant role to play in combating terrorism. A 2002 Rand Corporation study asserts: “The concept of deterrence is both too limiting and too naive to be applicable to the war on terrorism.”

Within the coming four years, we have to prepare to pre-empt this holocaust by making meaningful allies and drawing up a strategy. This necessarily means an US, Israel, and India compact. The LeT has delivered in effect that message to the world by brutal murders on 26/11 and thus written the message for us in blood.

In the human body, when the cells start to grow independently of the brain, we say that the body has cancer. Pakistan as a nation thus is suffering from political cancer. After another few, may be four, years this cancer will become terminal.

In four years, I reckon that the Taliban, Mullah, ISI and Army government will unite to form a unified jehadi government. Zardari will then have to return to Dubai and the rest of the prominent members of Pakistani civil society will end up as kafirs in a morgue. Thereafter, India will have nothing left to piously debate about Pakistan on 24/7 TV channels because a jehadi nuclear war will be on the cards. Hence if we do not risk a war with Pakistan at a time of our choosing, we shall have a war anyway of the united jehadi government after four years at the time of their choosing.

Hence, within the coming four years, we have to prepare to pre-empt this holocaust by making meaningful allies and drawing up a strategy. This necessarily means a US, Israel and India compact. The LeT has delivered in effect that message to the world by brutal murders on 26/11 and thus written the message for us in blood.

I do however think our neighbour, and Pakistan’s unwavering benefactor, China, has to be kept in the loop, and won over. It can be done because China cannot survive as an economic power without the US. The recent financial crisis has proved that convincingly. Moreover, China has a Islamic fundamentalist problem brewing in Xinjiang, and would be interested in ending it, particularly the infiltration from Kazhakstan and Turkmenistan.

But the core countries of our strategic planning have to be those who have been long identified by Osama bin Laden as the enemies of Islam: US, Israel and India.

Today destiny has bound us together for a common purpose: the extermination of terrorism from the face of the earth by going to its festering source: Islamic fundamentalist theology embedded in the Koran, Sira and Hadith. The hardliners are in control, and their inspiration is Umar of the Caliphate.

All the humane sounding verses quoted by apologists from Koranic texts are really reserved for “believers” i.e., Muslims. For others especially non-kitabis, only brutality, murder and reducing to degrading dhimmi status are prescribed. Let us therefore not be under any illusions. There is therefore no such thing as a “moderate” Muslim. Either one is a Muslim or a renegade equivalent to a kafir. There is no room in Islamic theology for a third alternative believer.

A study by Peter Hammond concludes that where Muslim population in a country is less than 5 per cent, that population does not agitate for a separate law, the Sharia, in fact the community totally integrates itself with the majority in society. He cites the US and Australia as examples. Where the population of Muslims is between 5 per cent and 15 per cent they start agitating on religious grievances and separate identity. He gives India, France and UK as examples. When the population crosses 15 per cent and reaches 40 per cent, then an aggressive struggle by Muslims for autonomy starts. Thus India is at the threshold percentage today. Hammonds analysis corresponds to the classification of countries in Islamic theology: Darul Islam where Muslims rule, Darul Harab where Muslims are not in power but as a minority can agitate by fair or foul, hook or crook, to convert these countries to Darul Islam, and Darul Ahad (or Taqqiya) where a Muslim in minority risk the wrath of the majority, and hence Muslims must be compliant to the wishes of the majority for survival. Islamic theology does not, however as Hammond does, classify nations according to percentage of Muslim population but according to the nature of the majority—whether it is united and aggressive or divided and passive. India is in the latter category, and hence even where Muslims are less than five per cent as in Tamil Nadu, in pockets in the state where Muslims are in majority such as Thondi in Ramanathapuram district or Melvisharam in Vellore district, Muslims have established Darul Islam where Hindus are denied all civic amenities and live defacto as dhimmis. In Kashmir, where statewise they are in a narrow majority, they have engaged in religious cleansing to achieve Darul Islam by driving out half a million Hindus and Sikhs and made them refugees in a 83 per cent Hindu country. Only the Indian army is holding back the establishment of Darul Islam in Kashmir.

I do not blame Islam for this behaviour but find fault with the Hindus for not understanding the nature of Islamic theology even after a 1000 year experience of brutal Islamic rule, or by the betrayal by Ali brothers of Mahatma Gandhi following the foolish Khilafat movement, or the religious cleansing in Kashmir. Globally today, no Muslim nation permits any other religion to be practised even inside one’s home, nor permits gender equality as even a goal, or regards democracy as a human value.

No Muslim can be a “moderate” unless he risks becoming a kafir. The experience of Rushdie and Taslima should leave no one in doubt about this. That is why I insist that unless an Indian Muslim proudly acknowledges that his ancestors are Hindus, and hence Hindu civilisation is his or her legacy too, he or she cannot be treated as an equal citizen in India. We need this commitment from the Muslims of India to secure our nation and civilisation from jehadi terror from abroad. According to me, even if half the 83 per cent Hindus unite above caste and linguistic divisions, Muslims will accept this historical truth of being descendents of Hindus. India then can become through the democratic process a virat brihad Hindu nation, where Hindus and Muslims can live securely as blood brothers.

At the same time, let us be clear not to go overboard, as we are prone to do, in forging the US-Israel-India compact against Islamic terrorism. The US interest will always remain to make India into another Australia or Japan, a reliable, pliant, and neutered poodle. But Indian mindset must never waver on the basic goal of a virat brihad Hindutva, and to make India a power of global reach.

Every concession to the US therefore must be negotiated as a return for India’s emergence in the global power structure as a pole. India has one asset that the US or Israel does not have, but urgently needs—a huge labour surplus of gifted and intelligent individuals—our demographic dividend now available thanks to the resounding defeat of the Congress in 1977 by the Janata Party and thus putting an end to its horrid nasbandi campaign.

Hence, wherever there exists a “demographic hole” in these two societies, we must offer to fill it. That means readiness to make available our best brains for R&D, and to deploy our army, airforce, and navy in any theatre that they cannot adequately. In return, we must get them to build our infrastructure, modernising our armed forces, and develop our agro-industries with market access.

This bonding is sufficient to make the US-Israel-India compact durable and rewarding for us. Without India the other two cannot fight Islamic terrorism in the most important theatres of the world.

With this compact in place, our virat brihad Hindu identity or Hindutva clearly defined and assimiliated, India can formulate a strategy for deterrence against terrorism that nullifies the political objectives of the patrons of terrorists.

India is today infested with a host of terrorist insurgency. The JKLF, SIMI, ULFA, the PWG, the Maoists, the Tripura TNA, the Naxalites, the Naga terrorists, the Manipur terrorists, etc., etc. They can be crushed quickly except for one factor: The support given to them by Pakistan and Bangladesh. Pakistan’s support is via the ISI, a wing of the army, which engages also in fake Indian currency to finance such activities. Pakistani involvement is not because its civil society wants it, but because of the Islamic fervour in the army that is not reconciled to the defeat of its forces in Bangladesh. The same Islamic fervour has turned the Bangladesh establishment against India, and hence with the help of the ISI, AI Qaeda has through it’s Indonesian wing established a base to help these terrorists and also to develop the HuJI which is emerging as the human infrastructure of the terrorists in India. Thus, Islam is the heart and Pakistan is the brain of terrorism devil in India. Challenging Islam in the realm of ideas, without diluting the debate with secular platitudes, jamming the brain of terror, and destructing its human infrastructure embedded in Indians the core of a strategy to deter terrorism. This means sanitising Pakistan and truncating Bangladesh is required.

Most prominent national security analysts have argued that in countering terrorist threats, deterrent strategies as formulated for conventional warfare have no significant role to play in combating terrorism. A 2002 Rand Corporation study asserts: “The concept of deterrence is both too limiting and too naive to be applicable to the war on terrorism.1' US President’s National Security Strategy document states: “Traditional’ concepts of deterrence will not work against a terrorist enemy”.

Of course. I am not concerned here with “traditional concepts” but with new ideas to combat the new form of warfare—clandestine violence under the name of terrorism.

This overwhelming consensus against efficacy of deterrence has now been challenged by two US based scholars, Robert Trager and Desseslava Zagorcheva [in “Deterring Terrorism - It can be Done” International Security Journal (Harvard-MIT publication, Vol.30. No. 3, 2006)]

According to them the case against the use of deterrence strategies in counter-terrorist campaigns appears to rest on three pillars. First, terrorists are thought to be irrational, and therefore unresponsive to the cost-benefit calculation required in successful deterrence. Second, many terrorists are said to be so highly motivated that they are willing to die, and so not deterred by fear of punishment or of anything else. Third, even if terrorists were afraid of punishment, they cannot be deterred because they lack or have a shifting “return address”1 on which retaliation can be visited. Therefore if terrorists’ base cannot be found, the use of force against them is useless, eounterterrorist strategies that advocate addressing “root causes”, such as by “winning hearts and minds’’, economic packages and promoting human rights, are for the long run. The required cure is however for the short run.

Trager and Zagorcheva argue that neverthrelress even the most highly motivated terrorists can be deterred by holding at risk the political goals of their patrons and financier rather than by threatening the life or liberty of the terrorists themselves.

Thus from a policy perspective, my view is that the ability of a terrorist targeted nation to put political goals of the patrons of the terrorists and their benefactors at risk stands the best chance deterring terrorism, and hence is the most important objective of counter-terrorism policy.

The structure of a counter-terrorism policy and the selection of instruments for implementation of this policy has to be targeted nation-specific and terrorist organisation-centric. There cannot be a general global strategy of deterrence against terrorism.

Harvard scholar and Nobel Laureate Thomas Schelling, in his Arms and Influence, (pp.70-71), contrasts deterrence (the threat to take hostile action unless the adversary acts).

Traditional view of deterrence in strategic studies literature implies the scope for a bargain: both sides agree to co-operate on a state of affairs that both prefer to alternatives they face. This is called cost-benefit analysis. Deterrence, therefore, is not just about making threats; it is also about making offers. Deterrence by punishment is about finding the right combination of threat and offer.

(To be continued)

(The writer is former Union Law Minister and can be contacted at swamy@post.harvard.edu)

http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=271&page=8

Saudis call to curb 'extremist' fatwas

2009-01-18T06:52:00.000-08:00

Saudi Arabia is calling for tougher guidelines on issuing fatwas, or Muslim religious edicts, in order to combat the spreading of what Riyadh calls "ill-considered" fatwas issued by unqualified scholars.
Ruler of Saudi Arabia, King...

Ruler of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud.
Photo: AP [file]
Slideshow: Pictures of the week

The call is part of Saudi Arabia's efforts to stem religious extremism.

Saudi Arabia has been fighting a homegrown terrorist threat since 2003.

Groups belonging to, or inspired by international Al-Qa'ida, are trying to undermine the monarchy in Saudi Arabia, which has faced criticism because of its alliance with the West, and especially with the United States.
RELATED

* The Media Line

The country has arrested and tried thousands of terror suspects and is trying to weed out extremist elements planning terror attacks, recruiting operatives or spreading extremist ideology through the Internet.

More than 170 Muslims scholars from around the world are currently gathered in Mecca for a five-day conference organized by the Mecca-based Muslim World League's Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence) Academy.

The Muslim world is being plagued by a tendency to deliver fatwas by unqualified people, Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abd Al-Aziz said in a statement read out at the conference.

This is especially prevalent on satellite channels, the Internet and other forms of communication, he said.

Some of these edicts were being issued without any criterion by biased, ignorant, careless or extremist individuals posing as religious experts, the king added.

"They have been abusing Islam and distorting its noble values," which could contaminate the minds, faith and conduct of Muslims youth, he said, according to ArabNews.

Westerners associate the word "fatwa" with edicts on warfare and death sentences, such as the fatwa seeking the death of author Salman Rushdie after the Iranians found his writing offensive to Islam.

However, fatwas are in fact very diverse in content and are a guideline for endless mundane matters, such as whether a Muslim can consume caffeine, play football, and many other matters.

A fatwa can be issued by anyone with the appropriate training and qualification for the task, usually a Muslim with high standing in his community.

But some Muslims scholars complain that extremist scholars create a warped portrayal of Islam by taking Quranic verses and other Muslim scriptures out of context.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1232275663025&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

In US, Lashkar-e-Toiba chief's kin raised funds for jihad

2009-01-18T06:41:00.000-08:00

In US, LeT chief's kin raised funds for jihad
12 Jan 2009, 0123 hrs IST, Indrani Bagchi, TNN
Print Email Discuss Share Save Comment Text:
NEW DELHI: For all the protestations that the Jamaat-ud-Dawa is a charitable organisation and Hafiz Mohammed Saeed is an injured innocent, it's
clear that the organisation and Saeed's family, in particular, have been in the crosshairs of US government for several years and a couple of Saeed's family members are already in US custody.

As the Lashkar-e-Taiba grew in stature, profile and links to violent terrorism in Pakistan, curiously, its amir Saeed's family kept making tracks to the US to live and work there over the past decade.

Over the years, LeT aka Jamaat-ud-Dawa has morphed from an ISI-sponsored terror outfit against India to become a global jihadist organisation with increasing ties to Al Qaeda.

The US has been on its trail for some time now, but could not do much because the JuD had sprouted roots in almost all areas of Pakistani life. The Mumbai attacks resurrected US security agencies' interest in this outfit.

And the reason for that, sources said, was that Saeed's family had been making determined tracks to the US -- to live there as imams and preach and raise funds for jihad.

The evidence for that came in bits and pieces. The first to land in the US was Muhammad Masood, Saeed's brother, who arrived in 1987 on a J-1 exchange visitor visa. He lived in the Boston area, working odd jobs until he started teaching at the Islamic Academy of New England at the Islamic Center of New England in Sharon, Massachusetts. Masood was arrested in November 2006 and charged with visa fraud and other unnamed crimes.

The second family member to arrive was Abdul Hannan, Saeed's brother-in-law (married to Masood's sister). Hannan arrived in the late-1990s, coming to the US through another member of their organisation, Muhammad Khalil, who is serving time currently in a US jail. By 1998, Hannan himself was in jail, also in Massachusetts.

He was out by 2002, and for the next couple of years floated around another US state, Rhode Island, also as an imam, before returning, as imam to Massachusetts. Hannan was again arrested in November 2006 with his brother-in-law Masood. So far, there were two members of Saeed's family in US jails.

The third member, another brother of Saeed named Hamid arrived in the US in 2001 for a programme at Harvard University. He returned to the US later in the year and became an imam at the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester. In October 2007, Hamid was deported to Pakistan, on visa irregularities. But one of the reasons, said sources, was that the US discovered that he used to run a safe house for LeT terrorists in Moon Chowk, Lahore, and that his imam activities in the US were all about teaching jihad to youngsters there.

By 2003, LeT offices were visible in California and Virginia. After the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, international organisations also discovered that the LeT had become an outsourcing centre, their terror training camps were also used to train other terrorists from other groups.

Basically, they became more anti-US, anti-west along with their anti-India fundamentals than ever before. The culmination of that was shown in the Mumbai attacks on November 26.

Bruce Riedel, a close foreign policy aide to US president-elect Barack Obama and author of the book `The Search for Al Qaeda', told TOI, "Mumbai demonstrated that Al Qaeda's ideology of global jihad has been adopted by LeT. The targets were Qaeda's targets: Israel America and India. I suspect that Qaeda may have had a hand in the planning given the longstanding and close ties between the two."

Gradually, the hunt for Al Qaeda and the hunt for terrorist groups targeting India are becoming the same. Which explains the intense interest of the international intelligence community in the investigations into the Mumbai attacks.

Daniel Markey, currently with the Council for Foreign Relations and earlier with the US State Department, told US media last year that US' greater concerns was that the LeT was becoming too allied to global jihad and not just an anti-India group.

Hussain Haqqani, currently, Pakistan ambassador in the US, wrote in his book `Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military', "They have managed to fly under the radar of the global network of law enforcement and still maintain their global links. But they have a grandiose ideological agenda and the capacity to wage violence, which makes them very dangerous."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/In_US_LeT_chiefs_kin_raised_funds_for_jihad/articleshow/3964960.cms

Pak Jihadi groups recruiting young children for Jihad, suicide attacks: MQM

2009-01-18T06:40:00.000-08:00

Pak Jihadi groups recruiting young children for Jihad, suicide attacks: MQM
January 17th, 2009 - 5:51 pm ICT by ANI -
x
Send to a Friend:
Your name:
Your email:
Friend name:
Friend email:
Send to a friend:

Karachi, Jan.17 (ANI): The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Party has claimed that banned religious organizations in Pakistan were busy recruiting minors for Jihad (holy war) and using them as suicide attackers.
According to a press release by the London based secretariat of the movements investigation committee (IC), various banned organizations are involved in persuading minors and youngsters for Jihad and after keeping them at various offices, they are sent to Waziristan for training.
Young boys are being trained for bombings, suicide attacks and in the use of modern weaponry in training institutions located in the tribal areas, The Daily Times quoted the press release, as stating.
The report claimed that the banned organizations are increasing their dominance in newer areas, which earlier used to be centered in and around Pakhtoon.
It also said that most of these young Jihadis are taken to training camps without their parentsconsent. (ANI)

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asia/pak-jihadi-groups-recruiting-young-children-for-jihad-suicide-attacks-mqm_100143629.html

Now, ISI training muslim women for jihad in J&K

2009-01-18T06:37:00.000-08:00

Now, ISI training women for jihad in J&K
18 Jan 2009, 0127 hrs IST, M Saleem Pandit, TNN
Print Email Discuss Share Save Comment Text:
JAMMU: At the time when militancy in Jammu & Kashmir has fallen to its lowest levels in two decades, desperation across the border is evident
with Pakistan's ISI preparing women terrorists squads to fuel violence in the state.

The revelation of a Pakistani woman, Asiya Bibi (23), who is in J&K police's custody, that ISI is training about 100 women for terror assignments in the state has sent the security establishment into a tizzy. Asiya, arrested from Rajouri along the LoC in November last year, told her interrogators that the women fidayeen were undergoing arms training in various terror camps at Bimbar, Kotli and Sena in PoK. "In Bimbar, dozens of women are receiving arms training along with men,'' an interrogator quoted Asiya as saying. "Pakistan army soldiers are training women in Sensa and Kotli while ISI men are incharge at Bimbar.''

Asiya, wife of a Pakistani soldier Mohammed Sajjad, confessed that ISI had deputed her for spying along the LoC. "She was on mission to take photographs of the fencing and collect information on the deployment along the LoC,'' a source said. She also told her interrogators that ISI was initially planning to push 17 girls into India to mix with the local population. "As per the plan, they were to marry locals and finally act as spies,'' the source said.

But an intelligence source refused to accept Asiya's confession and said she could be exaggerating. "Asiya had a quarrel with her husband and crossed over to this side in a fit of rage,'' he said.

Jammu SSP Manohar Singh said women have been involved in terrorism in the past too. "Dozens of women may be directly involved in militancy but most of them are driven by money and not conviction,'' Singh said. He said last year in March, police identified six such women. "We arrested three of them and kept the rest under surveillance,'' he said.

In November 2005, a Jaish-e-Mohammed suicide bomber Yasmeena (22) had blown herself up at Awantipora in south Kashmir's Pulwama district. In 2006, police arrested an LeT terrorist Khalida Akhter, who had undergone arms training in PoK in 2002. "She was sent back with a mission to befriend security forces and kill them,'' a police officer said. Khalida was provided a safe house in Srinagar from where she coordinated terrorist activities along with two of her associates.
In March 2008, police arrested two women Rafiqa Begum and Rubeena Begum after intercepting an ammunition-laden vehicle on its way from Doda to Qazigund in the Valley. "The two told their interrogators that they were assisting the terrorists for money. They also confessed to having delivered Rs 2 lakh hawala money to LeT commanders Abu Yasir and Mohammed Iqbal in Doda,'' SSP Manohar Singh said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Now_ISI_training_women_for_jihad_in_JK_/articleshow/3994900.cms

The Changing Patterns of Terrorism in India": a Study by Orkash

2009-01-18T06:36:00.000-08:00

The Changing Patterns of Terrorism in India": a Study by Orkash PDF Print E-mail
“In the wake of the Mumbai terror siege, the challenge today for India's security machinery is not only tackling terror attacks but also providing a tactical response to the changing operational and ideological undercurrents that terrorism in the country is presently going through.” - Ashish Sonal, CEO, Orkash Services Pvt. Limited.

Terrorism is not new to India – but what is unique now is the evolved characteristics and the enhanced operational capabilities of the terrorist outfits and their operatives. Surprisingly, India is ranked second, right behind Iraq in the number of terrorist activities (excluding Jammu and Kashmir) despite the fact it is not a country in conflict. In the study titled “The changing patterns of terrorism in India”, Orkash has identified the bellwether currents that define the new breed of terrorism which is sending 'wake up' waves across the security machinery of the country. About 2-3 years ago – more precisely before the 'defining' year of 2008 – terror attacks mostly included only sporadic blasts in the target cities. The frequency of major terror attacks was also comparatively moderate – 4 terror attacks in 2007, 3 in 2006, and 1 attack in 2005. But 2008 was different – there were at least 12 highly synchronized large terror attacks since the beginning of the year.

The 'new breed' of terrorism in India is confident, bold in actions and increasingly sophisticated. In the study leveraging upon the expert domain knowledge and proprietary research work, Orkash identified the prominent undercurrents of the changing patterns of terrorism in India:

a) For the first time ever, the (Islamic) terrorism has a pan-India network of operatives and logistics support. Our calculations designed to quantify the size and scale of organizational resources needed to carry out terror attacks that happened in Indian cities between May and November 2008 indicate the requirement for at least 80 to 120 well trained terrorist operatives not including sleeper cells and those involved in logistic support. This is a very large number.

b) The trend towards larger and sophisticated attacks - i.e. terrorists are exploiting the increasingly abundant communication infrastructure and information flow for their collaboration, creation of covert support networks, financing, intelligence gathering, logistics and operational execution. The high degree of planning and existence of large all-India terror network is exuded by the fact that the terror outfits did not feel the need to even give a day's break between the serial blasts in two Indian cities (Bangalore and Ahmedabad).

c) The ideological underpinning of the movement is undergoing a change, as reflected by the operatives increasingly having a local urban face, contrary to what used to happen a few years back. Increasingly, indigenous organizations such as SIMI have been created on the lines of the Deobandi ideology of extreme fundamentalism. Another Domino effect is the surfacing of Indian-origin tech savvy terrorists working in prominent IT companies (indicative of the diluting definition of 'infiltrators').

d) There has been a major shift in the targeting patterns of the terror outfits as is evident in the recent attacks wherein posh business and commercial institutions have been attacked. Terrorists are increasingly likely to target westerners and businesses, and employ new tactics such as hostage-taking and random shootings at peak hours in crowded places. The excessive nature of the terror attacks is in itself a big concern. This can further trigger a wave of copycat terror incidents with a change in the tactics and targets of terrorists. The terror groups have realized that large-scale attacks in critical business hubs of India helps them realize their objectives much faster than sustaining insurgency in the border states of the country.

In its study, Orkash recommends that as an immediate priority, terrorism in India needs to be handled more as a matter of internal security and not be dominated by its trans-national context alone, particularly given the existing geo-political scenario in south Asia. The need of the hour is the development and implementation of an evolved incident response, clear definition of responsibilities of the numerous security forces/agencies, easy mobilization of emergency security teams, better investigative capabilities and coordinated and expedited response to intelligence inputs. Although, India's security infrastructure is suitably large to support the emerging demands, the shortcomings has been primarily due to the uncoordinated tactical response and the absence of the necessary skills to undertake an effective operational management.

http://pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=160264&Itemid=95

Marad: How Muslim League politicians fanned a communal riot

2009-01-18T06:33:00.000-08:00

Marad: How politicians fanned a communal riot

George Iype in Kochi | September 28, 2006 | 16:33 IST

What happens when politicians get involved in a minor social problem in a communally-sensitive area? They simply transform it into a major communal riot.

More than three years after one of the worst communal riots at Marad village in Kozhikode, north Kerala, a judicial report has damned political parties for precipitating a minor incident into a major communal issue.

Nine people were killed and several others injured when a group of some 50 people armed with swords, knives and other lethal weapons like country-made bombs pounced on the fishing village of Marad on the night of May 2, 2003.

Eight of those killed were Hindus.

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders then alleged that Muslim political parties in the region were behind the massacre.

The police recovered explosives and arms from the local Jama Masjid two days after the killings. A special investigation team of the Kerala Crime Branch filed chargesheets against 147 people accused of involvement or complicity in the crime.

Then Kerala Chief Minister A K Antony ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident. The inquiry was headed by Justice Thomas P Joseph and his report was tabled in the Kerala assembly on Wednesday, September 27.

The Justice Joseph Commission recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the conspiracy involving fundamentalist forces and terrorists in the massacre. The Communist Party of India-Marxist government headed by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan has requested the central government's permission to order a CBI probe.

Most Kerala political parties have welcomed the CBI probe. But not many of them would perhaps like to read through the report that damns political parties.

The report is particularly critical of the Indian Union of Muslim League, a coalition partner of the Congress-led United Democratic Front government that ruled the state in 2003. It says some IUML leaders were aware of the conspiracy behind the massacre.

It says activists of the National Development Front -- a Muslim organisation with a base in Malappuram -- and some IUML activists were actively involved in the planning and execution of the massacre at Marad beach. 'It was unlikely that the attack did not have the blessings of their leadership at least at the local level,' says the report.

The IUML is not the only party that the Marad Judicial Commission report indicts.

It says a minor incident -- an altercation between fishermen -- in communally-sensitive Marad in 2001 was the beginning of a larger social problem, and the subsequent communal killings.

The 2001 altercation was then settled by local elders. But local leaders of the CPI-M, IUML, BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh got involved with the issue which led to a communal riot in 2002 that claimed five lives in Marad.

Local politicians used the 2002 riot to create a further divide between Hindus and Muslims in the area. And the police who operate under strict instructions from local politicians kept quiet, the report says.

The wedge between the Hindu and Muslims led to the communal killings in May 2003, which claimed nine lives.

'The communal division that existed in Marad beach coupled with the divisive activities of Muslim fundamentalists and other forces contributed to the 2003 violence,' the report states.

It has particularly flayed the A K Antony government for not ordering a CBI probe into the incident and found serious lapses on the part of the civil and police administration in Kozhikode during the period.

Marxist leaders have claimed that the Antony government did not order the CBI probe because IUML leaders were indirectly involved in the massacre.

But Congress leaders reject the argument. "Our government did not order a CBI probe because we ordered a judicial probe. Now that the judicial report has recommended a CBI enquiry, it should be done," Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala told rediff.com

He said the Marad massacre has exposed the BJP and the CPI-M. "Both parties have been creating a dangerous communal situation in north Kerala all these years. I hope they learn from this report, work for the people and not create communal flare-ups," he added.

Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan says the CBI should not only arrest the culprits, but also inquire into aspects like the possible involvement of terrorists, the dimensions of the conspiracy and mobilisation of explosives in a fishing village like Marad.

The state government has sought explanations from four officials who have been criticised by the Marad Commission -- then District Collector T O Suraj, Kozhikode Police Commissioner Sanjivkumar Patjoshi, Assistant Commissioner of Police M Abdul Rahim and Inspector General of Police Mahesh Kumar Singla.

For full report:

http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/sep/28gi.htm

மாராட் கலவரம் : 63 முஸ்லீம்களுக்கு ஆயுள் தண்டனை

2009-01-18T06:32:00.000-08:00

Marad carnage: 62 people get life sentence
16 Jan 2009, 0228 hrs IST, TNN
Print Email Discuss Share Save Comment Text:
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A special court in Kerala's Kozhikode district on Thursday sentenced 62 people to life imprisonment for the communal killing
of nine people in coastal village of Marad more than five years ago.

On May 2, 2003, nine people eight fishermen and one of the attackers were killed in Marad. The attackers came from the sea under the cover of night, hacked the fishermen who were sleeping on the beach and escaped.

Additional sessions judge (special court) Babu Mathew P Joseph also sentenced one person Abdul Latheef, who was the secretary of the local Juma Masjid committee to five years' imprisonment for misusing a place of worship. The judge said the case didn't fall under the category of rarest of rare crime, hence life sentence was the most appropriate.

The court had on December 27, 2008, convicted 63 of the 139 accused in the case.

Though a one-man judicial commission hinted at an international conspiracy behind the incident, the prosecution couldn't prove this in court. Although the commission headed by district judge Thomas P Joseph recommended a CBI probe into the matter, political interference ensured that this didn't happen. The panel had hinted at the role of some Muslim League leaders in the carnage.

The panel said police botched the case and planted fake leads. The then state government headed by A K Antony had refused to order a CBI probe. The Left, then in the Opposition, didn't favour a CBI inquiry either.

Terming Antony's refusal to hand over the case to the CBI as "unjustified'', it said, "The failure of the Crime Branch CID to investigate into the larger conspiracy involving other forces, source of all weapons and the source of the large funding in the planning and execution of the massacre at Marad beach on May 2, 2003 is quite suspicious and disturbing.''

According to the prosecution, the massacre was a revenge for the 2002 violence in Marad in which three Muslims and two Hindus were killed over a minor altercation.

The commission blamed some bureacrats and politicians for their alleged role in the communal carnage. It especially pointed at the role of the then district collector T O Sooraj. He had taken control of the Marad Juma Masjid soon after the clashes following information that some of the accused were hiding there. Police recovered a huge cache of arms from the mosque. The collector allegedly allowed Muslim League MP E Ahmed, now MoS for external affairs, to enter the mosque.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Marad_carnage_62_people_get_life_sentence/articleshow/3985061.cms

Pied Piper to the Muslim world

2009-01-18T06:23:00.000-08:00

Pied Piper to the Muslim world
11 Jan 2009, 0618 hrs IST, Harit Mehta, TNN

AHMEDABAD: Call it the seven-year itch. Those many years after the 2002 Gujarat riots, Chief Minister Narendra Modi is changing partners. And it
is having effect, as the Muslim world too now sees this tainted state and its government in a new light.

The fourth Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit 2009, which will unfold on Monday, is drawing a huge participation from Islamic countries, as well as those which are predominantly Muslim.

This, even as US and European Union continue to deny Modi a visa to visit their countries on the grounds of alleged state complicity in the riots which killed over 1,000 Muslims. Also, human rights groups still allege that the Modi government has continued to thwart the process of justice for the riots victims. And terror organisations place Gujarat high on the hit-list, the latest grim reminder of which came on July 26, 2008, when 19 serial blasts killed 58 people in Ahmedabad.

For full article:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3962581.cms

2nd Australian Hindu Conference to be held on April 11-12 at UWS, Parramatta, Sydney.

2009-01-18T06:14:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends

I cordially invite you to attend the 2nd Australian Hindu Conference to be held on the weekend of April 11-12 at UWS, Parramatta, Sydney.

Building on the success of 1st Hindu Conference in 2008, the theme of this 2009 Conference is "Sustaining Australia through strengthening bonds amongst Communities"

2nd Australian Hindu Conference will be opened & presided by Pujya Swamiji Dayananda Saraswati, the Jagadguru & Convenor of Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha from India.

He will be joined by Swami Vigyanananda -VHP Internatinal Co -ordinator, and several community leaders & spiritual leaders from Temples and Missions of Australia and overseas. The 2 day conference also brings together Youth, Women and top professionals to highlight their issues/contributions and stimulate discussions through various workshops. Also attending will be Australian Political leaders and spiritual leaders from other Dharmic traditions such as Jain, Sikh, Buddhism and so on.

The purpose of this annual Australian Hindu Conference is to bring together all Hindus and Australian leaders to foster better understanding of the diversity of the Hindu way of life and work jointly in contributing to the on-going well being of Australia & the World!

The Conference will explore the following topics, your participation is important:

*
Uniting all Hindus in Australia coming from different countries.
* Understanding all Dharma traditions such as Jain, Sikh, Buddhist, Confucian, Shinto, Taoist etc. strengthening bonds amongst them & working together for common good.
* Unity within Hindu Dharma: Saiva, Vaishnava, Veer-Shaiva, Sakta, Arya Samaj etc.
* Understanding Aboriginal, Hindu and Australian communities and interactions.
* Developing relations and working with Australian Government agencies, leaders etc.

Special Workshops focusing on

* Youth - Developing leadership among Hindu youth; Challenges and their responses
* Women, Children and Elders - Need of Hindu Social Service to address their issues
* Co-operation amongst Hindu Temples/Missions & Integrating Youth & Family

Great opportunity to meet, greet & contribute!

* Join Top Leaders from all walks of Life speak on their experiences and contributions.
* Join the Workshops on Community issues & make a contribution.
* Enjoy 2 days of meeting great people & energise on Hindu Heritage & its positive future!
* Enjoy various cultural programs, discussions and refreshments, all included.

We cordially invite you with family & friends to attend this inspiring event.

Conference Details:

Venue: University of Western Sydney(UWS) Campus, Parramatta, Corner, James Ruse Drive & Victoria Road, Plenty of Parking on Campus.

Date/Time: Sat/Sun April 11-12, 2009. Conf. opens at 9am on Sat 11th April.

Conf.Fee: Only $50 for both days (includes delicious lunch, Tea/Coffee etc); Concession $30

RSVP: Reply email to confirm your booking as seats are limited.

Payment: Cheque or Direct Deposit.

Cheque payble to Vishva Hindu Parishad, Post to: Mr. Brij Pal Singh, President, VHP Australia, 4 Albion Street, Pennant Hills, NSW 2120

I look forward to your company,

Kindly attend and forward this invitation to your colleagues and friends,

Best Regards

Akila Ramarathinam.

_

Pakistan's Text Books : Hindu, Enemy Of Islam

2009-01-02T05:14:00.000-08:00

Hindu, Enemy Of Islam
These extracts from government-sponsored textbooks illustrate the deep-seated ideological and religious intolerance which is taught to Pakistani children at a young age and which continues throughout their primary education. From Outlook India:
"Before the Arab conquest people were fed up with the teachings of Buddhists & Hindus." "Before Islam people lived in untold misery."
Class IV
* The Muslims of Pakistan provided all facilities to the Hindus and the Sikhs who left for India. But the Hindus and the Sikhs looted the Muslims in India with both hands and they attacked their caravans, buses and railway trains. Therefore, about one million Muslims were martyred on their way to Pakistan.
* The Hindus treated the ancient population of the Indus Valley very badly. They set fire to their houses and butchered them.
* The religion of Hindus did not teach them good things, Hindus did not respect women.
Class V
* After the war of 1965, India with the help of Hindus living in East Pakistan, incited the people of East Pakistan against West Pakistanis. In December 1971, the Indians themselves also attacked East Pakistan. As a result...East Pakistan separated from us. We should all receive military training so that we can foil the designs of the enemy in the future.
* The Hindu has always been an enemy of Islam.
There are numerous other examples of this type of instruction so please read it all. An additional report concerning what Pakistan teaches its children can be found here, another article from Outlook India.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/008394.php

Pakistan "security expert": Mumbai the work of "Hindu Zionists" and "Western Zionists"

2009-01-02T05:04:00.000-08:00

Pakistan "security expert": Mumbai the work of "Hindu Zionists" and "Western Zionists"
And for a little lagniappe, he blamed America for 9/11.

Remember also that the Muslim Brotherhood said something like this a few days ago. Projection Alert: "Pak TV channel says 26/11 hatched by Hindu Zionists," from the Times of India, December 2 (thanks to Sr. Soph):
NEW DELHI: Mumbai's 26/11 was actually a plan hatched by "Hindu Zionists" and "Western Zionists", including the Mossad, said a self-styled Pakistan security expert on a Pakistan news television show, uploaded on www.hotklix.com.
"Inki shaklein Hinduonwali hain, jis zabaan mein guftagoo kar rahein hain, woh zabaan koi Pakistani istemaal nahin karta hai (They look like Hindus. No Pakistani speaks the language they chatted in)," said Zaid Hamid while referring to the terrorists on the show Mujhe Ikhtilaf Hai (I differ) on Pakistan's News One channel. The sensationalist channel was launched in November last year.
Hamid said that it was a "badly planned" operation that had gone horribly wrong. "9/11 jo Americans ne kiya tha usko bahut khoobsurat camouflage kiya tha. Unhone media mein perception management bahut acchha kiya . Indians ne wahi game repeat karne ki koshish ki, lekin akal to hai nahin . In ahmakon ne complete disaster kiya isko handle karne mein . (The Americans executed the 9/11 attack perfectly. They managed the media very well. The Indians tried to repeat the formula but goofed up. The idiots made a complete mess of it).
He said that the attackers wore saffron Hindu Zionist bands, which no Muslim would tie. Hamid also said that within the first 5 minutes of the attack, the three ATS policemen investigating the network of terror within India's security agencies and radical right were killed....
"Hindu Zionists." Well, I suppose it is no more outlandish a construct than "Non-Supremacist Islam."

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/023748.php

A Muslim rape epidemic in sweeping over Europe -- and over many other nations host to immigrants from the Islamic world.

2009-01-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

Symposium: To Rape an Unveiled Woman
By Jamie GlazovFrontPageMagazine.com Tuesday, March 07, 2006
A Muslim rape epidemic in sweeping over Europe -- and over many other nations host to immigrants from the Islamic world. The direct connection between the rapes and Islam is irrefutable, as Muslims are significantly overrepresented among convicted rapists and rape suspects. The Muslim perpetrators themselves boast that their crime is justified since their victims were, among other things, not properly veiled.
What is the psychology here? What is the significance of this epidemic? And how do we face it when our own feminists, with a few exceptions, are deafingly silent about it?
To discuss this issue with us today, we are joined by:

Pierre Rehov, a French filmmaker who has filmed six documentaries on the Palestinian Intifada. His new documentary, Suicide Killers, explores the psychology of suicide bombers. It is based on interviews with the victims of suicide bombers, the families of suicide bombers, would-be bombers themselves, and experts on suicide killer mentality.

Nancy Kobrin, an affiliated professor to the University of Haifa, Arabist, psychoanalyst and author of the upcoming book, The Sheikh's New Clothes: Islamic Suicide Terror and What It's Really All About;

Peter Raddatz, a German scholar of Islamic Studies and the co-author of the renowned “Encyclopaedia of Islam.” He is the author of many books, including From Allah to Terror? Jihad and the Western Deformation, Allah's Veil and The Turkish Danger. In a few months he will publish World Risk Iran.

and

Gudrun Eussner, a journalist with a Ph.D at Free University Berlin, specializing in mass communication and political science, and Iranian philology. She has experience working in numerous Muslim countries, including Bosnia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan,Turkey, Usbekistan and others.

FP: Pierre Rehov, Nancy Kobrin, Peter Raddatz and Dr. Gudrun Eussner welcome to Frontpage Symposium.

Peter Raddaz let’s begin with you.

A man sees a woman and she is not veiled. He thinks to himself: “Oh, I must rape her now.”

No matter how much I try to figure this out, I can’t. What’s the mindset here? If a person is upset that a woman is not veiled, it implies he wants some kind of supposed “morality.” But if he is thirsting for purity, how does perpetrating a violent sexual atrocity against the “immoral” one fit into moralizing her and the rest of society – and himself?

Raddatz: Your questions concerning mindset and morals put us right into the middle of the problem. They are the terms any culture's collective psychology is basing on. In the case of prevailing orthodox Islam we are faced with a deep division between the sexes. With Allah's unlimited ruling license the males are entitled to be the masters of the females. The Koranic order says that the man has to "go to the woman" whenever he likes, to "enjoy her however he likes", and to discipline her in case she develops her own ideas like sexual self-determination.

Over the centuries this basic frame had been filled with a lot of "prophetic" instructions as to what disastrous role the woman could play if the man as Allah's deputy does not carry out this divine license of fertilizing control. Insofar the woman is looked upon from a "higher" biologistic viewpoint regarding her as "seed field" that - under strict male surveillance signaled by "Islamic correct" veiling - guarantees for the continued survival and expansion of Islam.

We are dealing here with premodern, partly archaic thinking that divides its world into two Manichaean halves. Irrespective of the usual statistical remnant of liberal "dissidents", the orthodox ideology bases on an Islamic half that accords to Koran and "prophetic" tradition and a non-Islamic half consisting of unbelievers and disobedient women. The religious war - known as "jihad" - against the latter two groups belongs, therefore, to the most prominent duties of the "believing" Muslim. Its "religious" dimension is boosted enormously by customary family "honor" installing male control from early youth on, often widening into brutal raping, sometimes incestuous punishing patterns. Here a complicated interaction between father, mother, son and daughter comes into play about which, I guess, Dr. Kobrin will give us quite interesting insights.

Thus, the ontological being in Islam is not defined by individual right but clearly as integral part of the community in terms of a whole and "holy" entirety. In this context the primary form of human being is seen in the male that assumes the right and duty to assist Allah in conserving and expanding his "umma", meaning his community.

Its biologistic "thinking" demands the "pure" man as the real human dominating the "impure" woman as a lower form, rather close to some animal-like existence. Therefore, sexuality cannot be sublimated and has to serve - aside from ramifications into homo-, paedo- and sodo-variants - a basic double function: fertilizing and punishing.

This paradigm expresses itself not only in highly standardized family patterns but also in an equally conformistic education system. All contents, in school and university of almost every Islamic country, are ultimately restricted and tied to Islamic purposes, thereby avoiding abstract thinking categories that could relativate and jeopardize the dogma's absolute uniqueness. By the same token, however, and this is the core of "modern" Islam's tragedy, the male controllers are confined to physical methods of "sublimation" whenever problems arise. Aside from the usual bombing "protest" against Western "arrogance" and "unbelieving morals", the current rape wave is the vital expression of an ongoing jihad against women who under Western influence may drift slowly out of the grip of male Muslim hands.

The war character of this behaviour may become clearer from its archaic punishment perspective that has come out of use generally but survived in Islam until present times. During the Algerian independence war the freedom fighters used to publicly sodomize French officers in order to achieve the enemy's maximum degradation. The same applies to the woman as a possible internal enemy containing even a double danger: her alleged disobedience is a bio-political security risk for the Islamic entirety and her independent "devilish" sexuality represents a religious blasphemy, contaminating male purity. Both have to be dealt with accordingly: beating, raping, torturing, stoning, and killing.

While some UN organizations keep on complaining about this, the Western feminists keep silent because they are not interested in the general problem but rather concentrate on clutching to their few elitarian privileges, mainly in business. Doing this they are simple part of a greater Western mainstream that has started to adjust to Muslim immigrant political "sharia" demands based on the growing radical Islamist influence as well as oil price pressure. And mind you: keeping Muslim women obedient through male "honor" might also sustain their "seed field" fertilization rate thereby compensating for the Western "morals" of pornography and weak reproduction. In this respect global elite ideology, anti-Semitic "new age" fascism and Islam are not so far apart.

FP: Thank you Dr. Raddatz. Dr. Eussner?

Eussner: Thank you, Jamie. I agree with Peter: The survival and expansion of Islam worldwide is the main goal of Islam since its invention by Mohammed. In this respect, the history of Islamic conquest is self-explanatory. The other aspect is the lack of appreciation for the individual as such. For both, men and women, it is true, that there are no individual rights, but for women it is even worse.

It may sound harsh, but the distinction between "fertilizing" and "punishing" a woman is evident. On the one hand you have sexuality as a tool serving the expansion of Islam, and on the other hand there is sexuality as a weapon against disobedient and non-Muslim women, both categorized as "unbelievers". Against them jihad is the duty, and what to do with women "conquered" in jihad, this may be read in the Qur'an: they become slaves to be used by the victors.

Why is the raping of unveiled women, either Muslim or non-Muslim, now spreading widely in our countries?

The conduct towards these women is due to the new developments initiated by Salafists like Tariq Ramadan. He has invented and introduced a new definition for the Western countries: they should no longer be seen the traditional way as Dar ul-harb, the space of war, but as Dar el-dawaà, the invitation to Islam, or Dar ash-shahâda, the space of testimony.

While orthodox Sunni Muslims, stuck to the unchanged application of the tradition are not at all in line with this "modern" interpretation, the "scholar" Tariq Ramadan has paved a soft way for Muslims to take possession of countries formerly belonging to the Dar ul-harb. When living in Dar ul-harb there are two alternatives for the Muslims: either conquer the land by force and rule it by Qur'anic law or, if not strong enough, keep quiet and wait, not touching the property of the enemy.

Dar el-dawaà and Dar ash-shahâda are two of the trickiest inventions ever to reach the goal of conquest: at a quick and superficial glance it means resigning from the conversion of the West to Islam, permitting everybody to keep on in his belief, but on closer examination that means what the French call "l'entrisme", unnoticed penetration.

The Muslims are not living any longer in a hostile surrounding; they are almost in Dar ul-Islam. Professor Nezvat Yalçintas, member of the Istanbul parliament, made an interesting statement. During the inauguration of the Murabitun mosque in Granada, Spain, in July 2003, he told the audience that Paris, Rome, Madrid now were components of the Islamic world due to the erection of new mosques.

But as Muslims are still obliged to wage a perpetual war against those infidels who refuse to submit, the jihad is continuing in Dar ash-shahâda, and people not behaving according to the Qur'anic laws have to be punished. The trick of introducing these new definitions has a severe impact on Muslims' consciousness, especially on young Muslim men. People not behaving according to the Qur'anic laws are to be punished even stronger now. The Muslims are not any more restricted by the laws of Dar ul-harb, that has evaporated without notice, merely by changing the definition. The inhabitants of our countries are to obey to Muslim male supremacy and Qur'anic laws. What better a justification for conduct towards women?

The jihad against the infidels is conducted on each and every level, not only as terror and suicide bombing. The jihad against women, who by their behaviour in the public sphere, are "asking for rape", as the Danish mufti Shahid Mehdi, a Qur'an teacher of young Muslims in Copenhagen, put it in 2004, and/or towards their husbands, by their alleged disobedience are challenging the survival and expansion of Islam, of the "Ummah", is a must for the Muslim men.

As far as the Western feminists are concerned, they seem to be hovering in other dimensions, in absolute arrogance, learned from ethnologues like Claude Lévy-Strauss. For them, freedom is that each "culture" may it be as inhuman as can be, is entitled to prosper even on our soil. The next act in this surrealistic piece of stage play is the unlimited understanding that Norwegian Professor Ms.Unni Wikan, shows for Muslims raping Western women: Norwegian women must take their share of responsibility for these rapes, as they are not dressing and behaving according to Muslim understanding. The Norwegian women, in her view, are to realize that they live in a multicultural society and adapt themselves to it, as Mark Steyn reported already in 2002.

FP: Thank you Dr. Eussner. Mr. Rehov, your turn.

Rehov: There are very few observations that I can add to Dr Eussner’s and Dr Raddatz’s surveys on both the cultural and religious seeds of the phenomenon, although there is a personal dimension that I would like to explore.

Of course, in a cultural environment where women are undermined, not to say considered as second rate citizens or even dangerous to the dominant male, the temptation to rape as a result to “ provocation “ is great. Female “provocation” in the Muslim society is usually a definition for the mildest behavior. Smiling, singing, talking, being alone for one minute in the same room as the rapist, having answered a question in an inappropriate way, wearing clothes which are not strictly in obedience with what is locally considered as the Muslim rules, all of these innocent behaviors are seen as a misconduct authorizing “revenge.”

In a society where sex is absolutely forbidden, taboo, and where separation between males and females is absolute, where in most cases marriages are not the result of love but of a financial arrangement between two families, the sensual or erotic aspect of any relationship between genders is, de-facto, suspicious, considered evil, and therefore an act of aggression. Sexual “revenge”, containing violence, can be naturally considered as the automatic answer to the “ provocations “ described above, and this for two reasons.

In Muslim society the male is dominant and almighty since he is made after God, when women have been created as a necessary evil to tempt males. In other words, the female body is the closest thing to the Devil, something which has to be dominated as a proof a faith. We go back to the sacrifice of Eros to Thanatos, as one of the basic sacrifices of all monotheisms, where, since the origins of the Bible, first inspiration to the Koran, women have been the carriers of the original sin.

In such a pattern, a male will not only consider any suspect behavior, including the mildest one, as an evil temptation, but he might look forward to experiencing one, as a religious challenge. Whatever will happen then won’t be the result of his own will, but he believes in having received absolution in advance for an act that, he knows, is against his own religion. During these minutes of deception and absolute power, he is not abusing a woman but fighting the Devil inside.

Of course, primitive chauvinism is the second reason. Again, since males in chauvinist societies are deprived of all natural pleasures resulting from what we consider a normal relationship between men and women, beside sexual ones, the level of frustration is very high and the fear of impotency even higher. A male tempted must react. The automatic result to frustration and fear is usually violence. In this case, sexual violence.

A friend of mine is a retired chief of police, who used to be in charge of the security of a major city in the south of France. He reported to me that his men had to face an average of 10 rapes a week, 80% made by Muslim young men. 30% being what we call, in French, a “ tournante “, meaning that the victim is being raped by an entire gang, one after the other, often during an entire night. My friend reports that, in many cases, he was able to locate and arrest the rapists, often very young ones, and, as part of the investigation, call the families. He was astonished that, in most cases, the parents not only would back up their rapist children, but also would not even understand why they would be arrested. There is an instant shift in the notion of good and evil as a major component of culture. The only evil those parents would see, genuinely, is the temptation that the male children had to face. Since in most cases the victims were not Muslims, the parents’ answer and rejection was even more genuine: how could their boys be guilty of anything, when normally answering to a provocation by occidental women, known for their unacceptable behavior?

Kobrin: Thanks, Jamie. So far I agree with everything the panel has said. There are several layers to this tragedy which will ultimately occur here in the United States, if it hasn’t already. Why? Because other aspects of Islamic practices in extremis, such as marriage under Sharia law but not civil law, polygamy and clan practices of female genital mutilation in the African Muslim immigrant populations persist even though FGM was outlawed in 1994.

I have it from first hand experience interviewing Muslim male immigrants that they hate it here in the United States because if they raise their hand, the women and children call the police. However, in the same breath, these same women will defend their men because it is part of the fused mentality and identification with the aggressor.

I interviewed Muslim women who justified wife beating because it is “educational.” These women were probably brutalized as little girls and are unable to know NOT to blame the unveiled woman victim. Every Muslim male and female that I have interviewed has experienced being beaten as a child and have witnessed the beating of their mother.

Rape is learned behavior in the home. Peter is absolutely correct in describing the insidious sexual dichotomy of Muslim male supremacy over the lowly denigrated female. Pierre underscored the degree to which a family will defend its own rapist because of alleged “honor.” Why should it surprise us that they have moved out into the streets and feel entitled to rape? At the ideological level which Gudrun has so aptly introduced into this discussion, we encounter the classic practice of taqiya, lit. ‘guarding one’s self’ more commonly thought of dissimulation and its insidious behavior of orchestrating jihad by every possible means in a clandestine manner. Rape is just one more weapon in the jihadi arsenal for Dar el-dawaa and Dar ash-shahada. While the labels may change, Muslim male sexual inadequacies, to put it mildly, remain the same and their rage is inflicted brutally on the other. I do not recall ever reading in the literature on rape as a weapon of war that the underlying issue of child sexual abuse is probably the precursor for such despicable behavior. The sexual norms of the Arab Muslim world are totally different. As a psychoanalyst and trauma expert, if there is physical violence going on in the home, I always wonder about sexual abuse and the perpetrator parents. These Muslim rapists are essentially babies, as they show us their pathetic need to target the most vulnerable because they are completely emasculated. They cannot control themselves sexually and they are sexually confused as well. Power, aggression, rage and sex yield a near lethal mix arising out of bizarre family dynamics which they experienced growing up.

They are directly attacking not only the venerable Western female but also the rape should be thought of as a kind of ambush on the Western male.

I never really bought the argument that Bouyeri murdered Theo van Gogh because of the film -- Submission. Sure that was part of it but the fact that Van Gogh called the Jihadis – a fifth column of goat f--kers must have really hit Bouyeri where it hurt and he lost it – I might add, shortly after his mother died. To be a goat herder is to be on the lowest rung. Male children are routinely treated as if they were goats. The pet goat is also slaughtered and eaten. Again the imagery goes hand in glove with the dissociated, denied behaviors and ideologies. Rape is a forced sexual fusion. The rapists remain erotically fused to their mothers upon whom they completely depend emotionally but hate it. As for the Western feminists in academe who have completely sold out to political correctness, they too remain clueless as to what their behavior tells us about themselves. They function as another fused family who must go to extreme lengths to defend these male rapists as well. I would assume that at some level these feminists must really be terrified because if they were to take a hard look, they would have to admit to themselves that they might be next.

FP: I think you have hit the nail on the head, but I do not think the radical feminists are afraid of being next. From my study of the Left, they crave to be next and that is why they support these dark forces. They yearn to submit to the dark forces of totalitarianism and even to be devoured by them. It is the same death-wish virus that motivated many Western communists to go to Stalinist Russia to supposedly build communism, when they actually only went to their deaths, giving their lives for an idea that butchered them.

Dr. Raddatz, go ahead.

Raddatz: There seems to be a remarkable consent among ourselves on the subject, contrary however, to the official "Islamic correct" reception on Western elite level. Here we can register a very modest resonance to the rising wave of violence against Muslim women. In Europe, for instance, we have a whole species of literature at hand in which female authors from Islamic countries give us personal experience reports on their respective lives with male violence in their families. The public discussion on this was and still is close to zero and the current rape wave has not given much incentive to it.

In Germany in 1960, in words: sixty so-called scientists from all thinkable and unthinkable departments, foundations, institutes and what have you published an "appeal" in "Die Zeit", a renowned weekly paper. Here they warned against a "general suspicion" the Western societies may spread over all Muslims in case they keep on criticizing "the few" who act violently against their women. By the same token they themselves criticized a German-Turkish female sociologist for her book on her personal youth experience with family violence as well as the inability of the vast majority of Turkish immigrants to integrate into the German society. Here we see another case of the Western decadence game called "victim turning perpetrator" which is constantly gaining aggressive elements among European - male - "intellectuals".

Earlier in this discussion, Nancy Kobrin described the central role the mother-son-relation is playing in this cynical game, how rape is functioning as substitute measure punishing the mother for eternalizing the male dependence on her, irrespective of the usual imitation reflex following the parental violence behaviour. The personal literary reports and the official UN analyses on Islamic family dynamics concur in a somewhat disquieting aspect. They confirm not only the tendency to incest but also an even stronger attitude towards anal sexuality, meaning an unusually high percentage of males preferring anal intercourse to vaginal, especially in the framework of "normal" marital life.

Nancy certainly knows much more about this but the so far irrefutable Freudian theory, the "Anatomy of Human Perversion", offers en explanation which might give us some additional insight. According to this the phallic organization of infantile sexuality if kept from diversification, for instance by Oedipal defectiveness, develops into a general male dominance neglecting the female i.e. vaginal "specialty" altogether. In the adult phase neglect turns into semi-conscious contempt and hate for all female attributes forcing the pervert to physically prefer anus to vagina and verbally compare women with animals and even feces. All this is vastly manifest in the texts of Islamic tradition and daily confirmed in the regrettable practice of actual Islamic life.

If Western "elites" are not able to openly discuss these deficits they indicate their readiness to assume similar attitudes and possibly destruct the grown order. The growing aggression against women as well as the obvious sympathy for homo- and paedo-sexuality put them closer to Islamic preferences and may even signal a meta-social trend that could lead back into pre-modern i.e. totalitarian structures. Insofar we are not only dealing with a mere mode of the Left as Jamie implies, but also with a Neo-fascist thinking frame that wants to install Islam unchanged and incessantly demands "respect" for its adored wholeness.

FP: Dr. Raddatz, could you kindly, in simple terms, explain what you mean when you refer to “the phallic organization of infantile sexuality” being kept from “diversification”? What exactly is “oedipal defectiveness” and why and how does it develop “into a general male dominance” that neglects the female vagina, etc.? Break this down into simple terms for me and our readers. This is obviously crucial because it is the foundation to the pathology in the culture under examination.

Raddatz: I will at least try to put this matter into somewhat simpler terms, as it is a very complicated problem indeed. It gets even more complicated as the relativistic development of modern Western science often obscures the view into those contexts, especially if they concern other cultures. Take for instance what I refer to as "the phallic organization of infantile sexuality". Basically it means that the Koran and Tradition are the fundamentals of Islamic societies and are centered around the maximization of male potency. Upon certain festivities like circumcision and others all family members fondle and even kiss the "member" of male babies, speak respective magic formulas and donate money notes to activate Allah’s mercy for its future fertilizing power.

The term "infantile" in this respect does not stop at individual male dominance from juvenile age on. It also concerns an infantile society from the anthropological point of view. Western psychology has declared the Freudian theory of "penis envy" as obsolete. The Muslim theory represents the opposite. Since a millennium ago here the sex theologians circle around one and the same project: the optimized spreading and utilization of collective semen by elevation of man, repression of woman, polygamy, rape and marital law. Even Allah bows to the penis power: She, who wants to pray rather than to have sexual intercourse, is a sinneress. And Muhammad bowed to those who wanted to fornicate with prostitutes during pilgrimage, leading to the world famous tradition of "dripping penises in Mecca".

What do these practices tell us? Above all they lead us back into pre-modern if not pre-cultural times. Cave drawings show hunters killing big animals while their erected penises are connected through a power line with vaginas of the group' s women. In other words, without dominating women men cannot rule freely - i.e. neglecting the natural order - over the society. This is a very old, pre-modern truth, obviously still deeply rooted in Islam, thereby preventing this culture from sexual and ethical emancipation. Female existence is felt as being lower than the animal stage, and satisfying female sexuality is, therefore, psychotically feared as "devilish" temptation which leads us right into our second point, the "oedipal defectiveness".

Men who have been raised as omnipotent family monarchs, some sort of alpha males with a penis as irrefutable power instrument, things may get difficult in the adult age. As I pointed out before, and Nancy Kobrin has described so clearly, incest is one of the biggest social problems in Islam, and incest at last is also connected inseparably to the Oedipus complex. It is the meta-historical expression of breaking the world order by elevating the narcissistic omnipotence of man. As this obviously cannot find the basic fulfillment though reuniting with the mother, it "sublimates" its frustration by repressing, punishing and raping women. The male principle culminates in itself, thereby forced to destruct instead of construct, to express itself not in terms of products but in "disducts" - like feces - and to ultimately drift from vagina to anus. There is no "culture" in the world where more married people practice anal intercourse than in Islam. Individually it is again connected to a regression of the adult person into a childhood ego-idea closing the Oedipal circle of hating the female uniqueness one more time.

There can be no doubt that homosexuality is on a strong march forward, and there can be even less doubt that "disducts" like vomit and feces are also gaining popularity as means of expression on theater stages as well as in films and on television. Watch also the many other aesthetic aspects to this phenomenon like the diminishing degree of light in films, the growing majority of black clothing instead of bright colors, the spreading primitivity of "art" and so on. Not to speak of the biological regression into which a whole myriad of reasons against children has converged. Needless to say that the grown order and its society has to be replaced by an "order" that functions on a counter basis as opposite and alien as possible. The late Michel Foucault is the most efficient priest of this project.

What we are watching here is an ultra long-term, meta-historical process, which cannot be influenced on a short-term basis - one of the reasons why it is so difficult to explain and why I must apologize for having been quite academic again. This process simply exceeds the limits of human feasibilities and our lifetimes as well. It is the consequent inexorability of its "progress" that stuns everybody who observes it. All we can do is to be conscious of it and talk and write against it where ever our creator has put us.

Meanwhile we can enjoy people who recognize that the creation does not come from man but contains men and women as unity inside an order which is compatible with their minds. The goal of the non-system, however, is the abolishment of every known system, the break of the human mind, the total change from perpetrator to victim, from the old reality to a "New Age, the ultimate return into chaos where we - allegedly - come from. On its way there this "thinking" regards Islam as the most attractive companion as it has "achieved" the most important prerequisite already - the absence of "old" ethics.

FP: Dr. Eussner, your turn.

Eussner: Let me answer Pierre Rehov first. I agree in what you said about experiencing religious challenge, the proof of faith, Pierre. The religious task of fighting the Devil inside may be achieved in abusing unveiled women. But this is only half of the story, the religious side. The political side is even more important, as political Islam is using religion as a pretext, as a manipulating tool. The message given to the Muslim women in Muslim and in Western countries is: you don't ask for nothing, neither for equal treatment nor for liberty, otherwise you will be punished, i.e. beaten and raped.

A disobedient woman is outlawed. The high percentage of gang raping is due to the cowardliness of the young Muslim men, in France named "les jeunes", the youngsters. As their religion is never appreciating the individuum as such, but only as part of the Ummah, "les jeunes" are not strong enough on their own, so they are acting as representatives of the Ummah, fighting unbelievers, disobedient and unveiled women.

This is consented to by the families. You said it in mentioning your friend, the retired chief of police: the parents of the rapist children don't understand why their children were arrested. This is showing their close attachment to Islamic law, the sharia. In midst of our Western society they are living according to their law, which is not compatible to our values and laws.

Allow me to please comment on the very interesting comments you made, Nancy Kobrin. Your words support what Pierre said for Europe. The Muslim male immigrants hate it in the USAbecause they are not totally free to live according to the sharia. Women and children are entitled to call the police and sometimes do. But Muslim women are submitted to their law, they defend their men, they identify with the aggressor. They are afraid of the men. Islam rules by force and violence. And the young Muslim men, living somewhere at the end of a hierarchy of Muslim men, starting with Mohammed at the top and themselves at the bottom, they are indeed essentially babies who are not able to control themselves. Targeting the most vulnerable parts of the society is a typical sign of totalitarian regimes.

Political Islam, that is an Islam not only confined to the mosques and the private spiritual life but ruling through the sharia, leads to fear and submission. And we find today, that this fear is spreading into our Western society. Government authorities and offices, media, educational institutions, political parties, intellectuals and feminists are submitting themselves to Islamic claims and laws. The Islamization of our societies is in the making. Step by step we are pulling back. We are not defending our values, but we are submitting to the outrageous claims of dictatorial Islamic governments. What better an example as the handling of the publication of 12 Danish cartoons!

And, Peter, you said it: there is a very modest resonance to the raising wave of violence against Muslim women. Even worse: in Germany we are not only facing opposition by ignorant ministries, government authorities and media against the reality Muslim women are facing, but a whole bunch of social scientists are running down testimonies and reports by the victims.

Turkish female academics testifying about the situation of Muslim women in our society, talking about forced marriages, beating and rape, are torn down by multi-culti loving leftist social scientists. In my research work on the campaign against the French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut I came across a feminist in favour of the head scarf, who is understanding fully the rioting Muslim youngsters, that is the Allah Houakhbar shouting mob of the French suburbs, and to round it off, cooperating closely with the Salafist Web Site Oumma.com and a so-called Third World Solidarity Center, supporting Tali Fahima and thanking Yasser Arafat for his valuable contribution: "Choukran Abu Amar!"

FP: Pierre Rehov?

Rehov: Answering first to Dr Raddatz, I'd like to stay a little bit away from any kind of Freudian approach to the problem. In some ways, I believe that Freudism is a tool to explain many problems and behaviors in an involved civilization, most of those problems being generated by the "taboos" of this civilization.

When talking about "rape" by young Muslims, I think that our usual approaches don't apply anymore. What builds a Muslim young male's ego is very far away from what we consider as part of the subconscious of any young male in a modern Judeo-Christian society. I am not sure, for instance, that a Freudian approach could explain the level of fear towards Witches, or the violence generated by Inquisition during the dark ages of Christianity. Freudian- in my opinion - is not a tool to understand behaviors connected to the irrational. Although, of course, I am not a psychiatrist, not an analyst.

Back to our rapists, I would make it simple by saying that genuine frustration, combined with a high contempt toward women, as a result of a culture in which women are classified way under men, leads to an instinctive - animal type - behavior, not censored nor punished by common cultural values.

Inside the Palestinian territories, I collected a lot of different stories involving raping of an innocent girl who later on was slaughtered by her own father or cousin, because she had lost her virginity.

This example to say that, in Muslim culture, values exist, but the line between good and evil is drawn somewhere else, far away from our understanding. Protecting women against themselves is considered a good action, even if this includes death penalty, as long as family's honor - which is paramount - is saved.

When Dr. Eussner adds to my previous comments that religion is only half of the explanation, and that we mustn't forget the political aims, I could not agree more. Although I'd like to emphasize that in the Muslim world, religion and politics is one single thing. There is no separation between powers in any Muslim society and the ideal Muslim society accepts the Shari'ah (Muslim law, written in the Koran ) as the basis for any civil society, including its rules of punishment.

In addition, I can see in any raping of a non-Muslim woman by a Muslim male as a racist action, and it is high time for us to acknowledge and condemn it. The level of contempt towards non-Muslim women is the reflection of the level of hatred towards the society which creates equality between men and women. We all know that there is a sexual component in any form of racism. I personally see primitive racism as the expression of a fear connected to the unconscious protection of the genes among the males. Raping women belonging to another cultural, religious group or race is an act of male domination not only against the woman herself, but against the entire group in which she belongs.

Therefore, we have to differentiate two types of rapings: the aims are different whether the victim is a Muslim or a non-Muslim. In the second case, hatred is added to contempt.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=473928E3-18E1-4E4E-ADF6-1AD796E3D400

யூதர்களிடம் அடி வாங்கும் தீவிரவாதிகள்

2008-12-30T20:58:00.000-08:00

யூதர்களிடம் செம அடி வாங்கும் சுன்னி வஹாபி
முஸ்லீம்கள்

http://veruvelai.blogspot.com/2008/12/blog-post_28.html

தொடர்ந்து ராக்கெட்டுக்களால் இஸ்ரேலை தாக்கி வந்த சுன்னி வஹாபி முஸ்லீம்களான
ஹமாஸ் போர் நிறுத்தத்தை முடித்துவிட்டு கொக்கரித்தனர்.

ஹமாஸ் தொடர்ந்து ராக்கெட்டுகளை இஸ்ரேல் மீது அனுப்பினாலும் இஸ்ரேல் திருப்பி
தாக்கவே இல்லை.

நவம்பரில் போர் நிறுத்தம் வந்தாலும், அதற்கு முன்பிருந்தே காஜா பகுதியிலிருந்து
தொடர்ந்து இஸ்ரேல் மீது ராக்கெட்டுகளையும் ஏவு கணைகளையும் அனுப்பிக்கொண்டே
இருந்தார்கள் ஹமாஸ் கும்பல்.

இஸ்ரேல் திருப்பி தாக்கவே இல்லை.

ஆனால் திடீரென்று ஒரு நாள் திருப்பி தாக்கியது. மூன்று நிமிடங்களில் 200 ஹமாஸ்
போர்வீரர்களை கொன்று அதிரடி தாக்குதல் நடத்தியது.

உடனே ஹமாஸ் கும்பல் அதில் இடையே வந்து சிக்கி இறந்து போன பொதுமக்கள் சிலரை
வைத்து ஊளையிட ஆரம்பித்துள்ளது வழக்கம்போல.

இதுவரை இறந்துபோன இஸ்ரேலியர்களுக்காக குரல் கொடுக்காத உலக சமுகம், திடீரென்று
கருணையும் இரக்கமும் பொங்கி, இஸ்ரேல் போர் நிறுத்தம் செய்யவேண்டும் என்று
கேட்டுக்கொள்ள ஆரம்பித்துள்ளது.

ஹமாஸ் அடி வாங்கியதும், உலகெங்கும் உள்ள சுன்னி முஸ்லீம்கள் அங்கங்கு
கூக்குரலிட ஆரம்பித்துள்ளனர்.

அவர்களது ஓட்டுக்களுக்காக பிச்சையெடுக்கும் கட்சிகள் (இந்தியாவில் காங்கிரஸ்
கட்சியும் கம்யுனிஸ்டு சிபிஎம் கட்சியும்) இஸ்ரேல் போரை நிறுத்தவேண்டும்
என்றும் காஜாவில் தாக்கியதையும் கண்டித்தும் அறிக்கை விட்டுள்ளனர்.

ஹமாஸ் கும்பல் செய்வதற்கு ஏன் முஸ்லீம் பொதுமக்கள் தண்டிக்கப்படவேண்டும் என்று
இங்கே அறிவுஜீவிகள் கேட்கலாம்.

இந்த முஸ்லீம் பொதுமக்கள்தான் பெருவாரியான அளவில் ஓட்டுப்போட்டு இந்த பயங்கரவாத
கும்பலை அரசில் உட்காரவைத்தார்கள்.

இந்த கும்பல் இஸ்ரேல் மீது தொடர்ந்து கொலைவெறித்தனமான தாக்குதல்களை
மேற்கொள்ளும்போது, பொதுமக்கள் அதனை தடுத்திருக்கவேண்டும். இஸ்ரேல் திருப்பி
தாக்கினால், அது பொதுமக்களைத்தான் பாதிக்கும் என்று சொல்லியிருக்கவேண்டும்.

இந்த முஸ்லீம் பொதுமக்களுக்கு சரியான தலைமை ஹமாஸ் சுன்னி கும்பல்தான்.

இவர்கள் காயம்பட்ட பொதுமக்களுக்கு மருத்துவ சிகிச்சை கொடுக்காமல் செத்துபோக
விட்டிருக்கிறது.

அப்போதுதான் இன்னும் நன்றாக இஸ்ரேல் மீது கெட்ட பெயர் வருமாம்.
Posted by சீரா at 7:07

Israel wipes out Hamas police stations

2008-12-27T08:24:00.000-08:00

Hamas: All police HQs in Gaza destroyed

Dec. 26, 2008
Jpost.com staff and ap , THE JERUSALEM POST

Just days after the cabinet gave the military final approval to counter ongoing Palestinian rocket fire against communities in the western Negev, the IDF launched a massive operation, striking Hamas installations throughout the Gaza Strip on Saturday.

The wide-scale offensive on Hamas installations in the Gaza Strip was codenamed 'Operation Cast Lead,' after a Hanukkah poem by H.N. Bialik referring to a "dreidel cast from solid lead."

At least 190 people were reported killed - the majority of them Hamas operatives - and more than 310 wounded in the attacks. It was not clear if the aerial offensive would be coupled with a ground offensive. Asked if Hamas political leaders might be targeted next, military spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich said, "Any Hamas target is a target."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a press conference that the IAF had succeeded in eliminating senior Hamas commanders during the offensive. According to witnesses, among the dead was Hamas police chief Maj.-Gen. Tawfik Jaber.

Despite the massive casualties, Hamas remained defiant, vowing revenge and calling on all other Palestinian factions to join in the fight.

"Today we are stronger then we've ever been," one spokesperson for the group said at a press conference. "We won't raise the white flag, we won't give anything up, we won't retreat."

"We call on the Arab states in the region to take a stance against this massacre and not to be satisfied with just condemnations," he continued.

Minutes after the first wave of air strikes hit areas in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinians reported a second wave which targeted installations in the center and the north of the Strip. Channel 2 reported that 60 planes were involved in the attack, and nearly 100 targets were hit.

Hamas's Interior Ministry said that all security compounds in Gaza were destroyed.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230111714969&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Muslims riot over Israeli retaliation against terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians

2008-12-27T08:22:00.000-08:00

Israeli Arabs ferment over IAF Gaza op

By JPOST.COM STAFF

Print	Subscribe
E-mail	Toolbar

What's this?

Following the IAF assault on Gaza, outbreaks of rioting were being reported in East Jerusalem Saturday.

Soldiers fire rubber bullets and throw stun grenades at Palestinian demonstrators during clashes following a demonstration against the IAF missiles strike on Gaza, at the Kalandia checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem on Saturday.
Photo: AP

Slideshow: Pictures of the week

Hundreds of Palestinians at the entrance to the Shoafat refugee camp were hurling rocks at police and Border Police forces, who were attempting to disperse the demonstration. On Salah-a-Din street in the city, dozens of protesters set garbage containers ablaze.

Earlier, several demonstrators were arrested after hurling rocks at police at the Flowers Gate in the Old City, and in the Muslim Quarter.

A police officer was hit by a private car and taken to Augusta Victoria Hospital in east Jerusalem Saturday afternoon. Police were investigating whether the officer was deliberately hit in an improvised terror attack avenging IAF actions in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Higher Committee for Arab Citizens in Israel called on Israeli Arabs to hold protests against "Israeli aggression wherever it happens."

Israeli Arabs were holding protests in Umm al-Fahm, Nazareth, Tamra and Sakhnin according to Israel Radio.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230111718524&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Israeli Air Strikes in Gaza Strip Kill as Many as 200 People

2008-12-27T08:18:00.000-08:00

Israeli Air Strikes in Gaza Strip Kill as Many as 200 People

Email | Print | A A A

By Calev Ben-David and Saud Abu Ramadan

Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli aircraft attacked police and security installations across the Gaza Strip, killing scores of people in the deadliest raid since the occupation of the coastal region ended in 2005, security and medical officials said.

As many as 200 people were killed and 750 injured, including women and children, Mu’awia Hassanien, a Palestinian medical-services official in Gaza, said today. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, called the air strike a massacre and said it would retaliate. At least 30 rockets were fired from Gaza today, Israel Radio reported, killing a woman in Netivot.

Israel’s strikes started at 11:30 a.m. and in two minutes hit more than 30 targets, most of them security compounds run by Hamas, said an official of the movement who declined to be identified. They came after a week in which dozens of Qassam rockets were fired into Israel following the expiration Dec. 19 of a six-month cease-fire with Hamas.

“Israel expects the support and understanding of the international community as it confronts terror,” Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said. The government ordered the strikes on Hamas only after it saw no other way to stop rocket attacks on its southern towns. The attack comes amid an election campaign in Israel, with the ballot scheduled for Feb. 10.

“The operation will be continued, expanded and intensified as much as will be required,” the Israeli army said in an e- mailed statement. The Israel Home Front Command warned people within 20 kilometers of Gaza to stay close to air-raid shelters.

Police Chief Killed

Most of the Palestinian dead were members of the Hamas security forces, including police chief Tawfiq Jaber and the head of the organization’s Security and Protection Service, Ismail al-Jabary, said Taher Noono, a spokesman for Hamas.

Dead and wounded people were laid in the corridors of Gaza’s Shifra Hospital because the morgue couldn’t cope with the bodies.

There were immediate calls for restraint from around the world.

President Nicholas Sarkozy of France, who holds the rotating European Union presidency, said he “firmly condemns the irresponsible provocations that have led to this situation, as well as the disproportionate use of force,” according to an e-mailed statement.

“President Mahmoud Abbas strongly condemns this harsh aggression that Israel is waging now against the Gaza Strip,” said Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority president, in an e-mailed statement. “The president calls on the Israeli government to stop this aggression immediately and urges the international community to intervene.”

U.S. Urges Restraint

In Washington, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in an e-mailed statement from President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, that “Hamas’s continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop.” He also urged “Israel to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas in Gaza.”

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in a statement that he “condemns the Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip and blames Israel, as an occupying force, for the victims and the wounded.” Egypt ordered the Rafah terminal on its border with Gaza to be opened so that the wounded could be treated in Egyptian hospitals, the statement said.

Hamas ruled out renewal of a six-month cease-fire with Israel as the conflict started to escalate last week, with Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli border towns and retaliatory air raids on Gaza.

Trade Restrictions

Hamas leaders blamed Israel’s refusal to remove restrictions on the flow of food, medical supplies and other goods through Gaza border crossings, and Israeli military operations, for the failure of the cease-fire. Israel says the restrictions on trade with Gaza and its air strikes were in response to Palestinian rocket attacks.

Israeli and Hamas officials agreed to the cease-fire through Egyptian mediators in June without negotiating directly. Hamas canceled meetings in Cairo planned earlier this month that were aimed at renewing the truce.

For full story: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aw5WKSxUSqHU&refer=home

திண்டுக்கல் : ஆர்.எஸ்.எஸ் தலித் தலைவர் பாஸ்கர் மீது ஜிகாதிகள் தாக்குதல்

2008-12-23T08:22:00.000-08:00

ஆர்.எஸ்.எஸ் தலைவர் மீதான தாக்குதலை கண்டித்து திண்டுக்கலில் தமிழர்கள் போராட்டம்.

ஆர்.எஸ்.எஸ் ஊழியர் மீதான கொலைவெறித்தாக்குதலைக் கண்டித்து பμவலாக ஆர்ப்பாட்டங்கள்திண்டுக்கல், டிசம்பர் 22(ஹிந்துஸ்தான் சமாச்சார்) திண்டுக்கல்லில் ஆர்.எஸ்.எஸ் மாவட்ட அமைப்பாளர் (ஜில்லா பிரசாரகர்) பாஸ்கர் (வயது34) டிசம்பர் 21 ஞாயிறு காலை 6.20 மணிக்கு அடையாளம் தெரியாத ஒரு கும்பலால்வெட்டப்பட்டதைக் கண்டனம் செய்து மாநிலத்தில் பல ஊர்களில் திங்களன்றுகடையடைப்பு, ஆர்ப்பாட்டம் நடைபெற்றது. குற்றவாளிகளைப் பிடிப்பதற்கு முன்அவசμம் காட்டி இன்று திண்டுக்கல் மாவட்த பாஜக தலைவர் போஸ் உள்ளிட்டஆர்ப்பாட்டக்காμர்களை காவல்துறை கைது செய்திருப்பது பல வட்டாμங்களில்ஆச்சரியத்தை ஏற்படுத்தியது.

பாஸ்கøμத் தாக்கிய குற்றவாளிகளை 24 மணி நேμத்திற்குள் பிடிக்க மாவட்ட நிர்வாகம்தவறினால் மாநில அளவில் நீடித்த கண்டன போμõட்டம் நடத்துவோம் என்று ஹிந்துமுன்னணி முதலிய ஹிந்து அமைப்புகளும் பா.ஜ.க.வும் அறிவித்துள்ளன. விøμந்துகுற்றவாளிகளை பிடிக்க காவல் துறை ஆவன அனைத்தும் செய்யும் என்று திண்டுக்கல்எஸ்.பி. பாரிவள்ளல் ஞாயிறு பிற்பகல் தன்னை சந்தித்த ஹிந்து அமைப்புகளின்தலைவர்களிடம் உறுதி அளித்தார்.

நேற்று காலையே, ஹிந்து ஊழியர் தாக்கப்பட்டதை கண்டனம் செய்து திண்டுக்கல்லிலும்மற்றும் பல ஊர்களிலும் கடையடைப்பு நடத்தப்பட்டது. டிசம்பர் 22 திங்களன்றுமாலையில் சென்னை மெமோரியல் ஹால் அருகே ஹிந்து முன்னணி சார்பில் நடந்தகண்டன ஆர்பாட்டத்தில் மகளிர் உள்பட500 பேர் கலந்து கொண்டார்கள் என்று அந்தஅமைப்பின் மாநகμ செயலர் முருகேசன் தெரிவித்தார். ஆர்ப்பாட்டத்தில் ஆர்.எஸ்.எஸ்ஸின்வட தமிழக பிμச்சார் பிμமுக் இல. நடμõஜன், ஹிந்து முன்னணித் தலைவர்இராம.கோபாலன், சேவா பாரதி அமைப்பாளர் μõம. ரரஜசேகர், பாஜக மாநிலத் தலைவர் இல.கணேசன், பாஜக மாநில பொதுச் செயலர் டாக்டர் தமிழிசை சௌந்தரரரஜன் உள்ளிட்டோர் இந்த ஜிகாதி பயங்கரவாதத்தைக் கண்டித்துப் பேசினார்கள்.தி.மு.க. அμசு கடைபிடிக்கும் முஸ்லீம் மகிழ்விப்பு போக்குதான் இது போன்ற ஹிந்துபிரமுகர்கள் மீதான கொலை வெறிச் சம்பவங்களுக்கு முக்கிய காμணம் என்று தென் தமிழகஆர்.எஸ்.எஸ் பிμமுகர்கள் குற்றம் சாட்டினார்கள்.

14 ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்பு திண்டுக்கல்மாவட்டத்தை தேசதுரோக, பாகிஸ்தான் ஆதரவு காயிதேமில்லத் மாவட்டமாக மாற்ற அரசு முயன்ற போது அதற்கு தமிழ் ஹிந்து சமுதாயத்தின் நீடித்த எதிர்ப்பு ஏற்பட்டது. அந்த எதிர்ப்பை ஆர்.எஸ்.எஸ் ஒருங்கிணைத்தது என்று அவர்கள் சுட்டிக்காட்டினார்கள்.

சமீபத்தில் சில தேச துரோக முஸ்லீம் அமைப்புகள் திண்டுக்கல்லில் உள்ள ""செல்லாயி அம்மன் கோயில் தெரு""வை, "'ஈத்கா மசூதி தெரு""என்று மாற்ற முயன்ற போது அதற்கு கடும் எதிர்ப்பு ஏற்பட்டது. அந்த எதிர்ப்பில் பாஸ்கரும்மற்றும் பலரும் முன்னணி வகித்தார்கள் என்று கூறப்படுகிறது. கடந்த 20 ஆண்டுகளாகநகரில் அமைதிகரமாக விநாயகர் சதுர்த்தி விழா நடைபெற்றதால் ஏற்பட்ட தமிழ் ஹிந்து எழுச்சி,சமூக விரோத சக்திகளுக்கு எரிச்சலைத் தந்தது; இந்த ஆண்டு விநாயகர் சதுர்த்தி ஊர்வலத்தை பாகிஸ்ததன் ஆதரவு விஷமிகள் சீர்குலைக்க முயன்ற போது ஆர்.எஸ்.எஸ் ஊழியர் பாஸ்கர் தலையிட்டு அமைதியை நிலை நாட்டினார் இது பாஸ்கர் மீதான கொலைவெறித்தாக்குதலுக்கு ஹிந்து அமைப்பினர் கூறும் இன்னொரு காரணம்.

தாக்கப்பட்ட பாஸ்கரின் இடது கால் முழங்காலுக்கு கீழே துண்டாகி விழுந்தது. இடதுகையில் பல வெட்டுக்காயங்கள். நல்ல வெளிச்சத்தில் நடுத்தெருவில் நடந்த இந்த கொலைவெறித்தாக்குதல், திட்டமிட்ட சதியின் விளைவு என்று தென் தமிழக ஆர்.எஸ்.எஸ்அமைப்பாளர் கோ. ஸ்தாணுமாலயன் தெரிவித்தார். குற்றுயிரரக நகர மருத்துவமனையில்அனுமதிக்கப்பட்ட பாஸ்கரின் உடல் நிலை கவலைக்கிடமான நிலையிலிருந்து தேறியதாக இன்று வரை அறிவிப்பு இல்லை.

மூலம்: ஹிந்துஸ்தான் சமாச்சார். நன்றி: நம்பி நாராயணன், இராமநாதபுரம்

சட்டிஸ்காரில் மாவோயிஸ்டு ஏரியாக்களில் பாஜக வெற்றி

2008-12-19T09:54:00.000-08:00

Maoists' 'Karma' helps lotus bloom in 'red' Dantewada

Dantewada (PTI): It was Maoists versus Mahendra Karma, the Congress's
Leader of Opposition in Chhattisgarh, which led to the "unexpected"
and maiden lotus bloom in the 'red zone' of Dantewada constituency.

More than Congress MLA Karma's loss, it's the win of BJP's Bheema
Mandavi which surprises many as the CPI candidate Manish Kunjam's anti-
Salwa Judum campaign here had made him a favourite among the rural
masses. Kunjam had appeared a sure winner in case Karma fell from
grace.

Mandavi chances were considered bleak after two important leaders of
the saffron party were killed by Maoists in the same constituency just
a few days prior to the polls.

Despite the odds against him, Mandavi's victory margin was quite
impressive. He secured a total of 36,813 votes, which accounted for
38.06 per cent of the total 96,722 valid votes cast. Kunjam got 24,805
(25.65 per cent) and Karma received 24,250 (25.07 per cent votes) in
his favour.

The Maoists antipathy with Karma, the architect of the Salwa Judum
movement in the state, dates long back and the ultras from the very
beginning made it clear that they will leave no stone unturned to
ensure that Karma loses this election.

Karma, too, in his election meetings, had made it clear that his
contest is not with any political party but with the Maoists.

RSS, VHP back Tamil Hindus in Sri Lanka

2008-12-19T09:53:00.000-08:00

News in the New Indian
Express<http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=RSS,+VHP+back+Hin...>

*RSS, VHP back 'Hindu Tamils' in Sri Lanka*

NEW DELHI: Two leading Hindu groups in India have declared their support to
"Hindu Tamils" in Sri Lanka after a Tamil MP from there alleged attacks by
security forces on temples in the island.

The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) told
M.K. Shivaji Lingam of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) separately that
they opposed assaults on Hindu shrines and culture in Sri Lanka.

"You can tell your people that we will be with them. We are here to help
Hindus. Since most Sri Lankan Tamils are Hindus, we won't let them down,"
the Sri Lankan MP quoted HP chief Ashok Singhal as telling him at the
group's headquarters here.

Shivaji Lingam is one of over 20 MPs in Sri Lanka from the TNA, the largest
Tamil bloc in parliament who are allied to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE).

Shivaji Lingam told IANS that he and K. Nagaimugan, president of the
Bharatiya Forward Bloc in Tamil Nadu, informed Singhal and VHP leader S.
Vedantam that security forces and Sinhalese supremacists in Sri Lanka had
destroyed or damaged scores of Hindu temples.

He said security forces had taken over many Hindu temples and in many cases
property of these shrines had been badly damaged.

"Hindu culture (in Sri Lanka) is at stake," Shivaji Lingam said. Singhal
said he was not aware of the losses suffered by Hindu temples in Sri Lanka's
dragging war.

Most Sri Lankan Tamils are Hindus while an overwhelming majority of the
Sinhalese are Buddhists. Both communities have many Christians too. Muslims,
the second largest minority after Tamils, mostly speak Tamil but consider
themselves a distinct ethnic group.

RSS joint general secretary Suresh Joshi also told Shivaji Lingam and
Nagaimugan that his organisation would not allow Hindu religion as well as
shrines to be attacked in Sri Lanka. "We will not allow Hindus anywhere to
suffer," Joshi reportedly said.

The Tamil MP said his meetings with Joshi and Singhal lasted one hour each.

Shivaji Lingam, who flew into New Delhi Monday, had earlier met Jayendra
Saraswathi, the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu who enjoys close
ties with the RSS and VHP.

The MP said a meeting had been fixed with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
leader L.K. Advani here on Sunday and that other MPs from TNA could join him
that day.

மார்கழித் திங்கள் மதி நிறைந்த நன்னாளால்

2008-12-19T09:50:00.000-08:00

Source:http://balaji_ammu.blogspot.com/2007/12/400-tpv1.html*<http://balaji_ammu.blogspot.com/2007/12/400-tpv1.html

மார்கழித் திங்கள் மதி நிறைந்த நன்னாளால் -
TPV1<http://balaji_ammu.blogspot.com/2007/12/400-tpv1.html>

********************************************************************
*திருப்பாவையுடன் எனது நானூறாவது பதிவு !*

சென்ற வருடம் மார்கழி மாதத்தின் போது ஒரு சில திருப்பாவை பாசுரங்களுக்கு பொருள்
விளக்கத்தையும், சிறப்பையும் எனது திருப்பாவைப் பதிவுகளில்
<http://balaji_ammu.blogspot.com/search/label/à(R)¤à(R)¿à(R)°à¯ à(R)ªà¯ à(R)ªà(R)¾à(R)µà¯ˆ>
எழுதியிருந்தேன்.

விட்டுப்போன பாசுரங்களுக்கு, பொருள் விளக்கத்தையும், சிறப்பையும் எடுத்துச்
சொல்லும் பதிவுகளை இந்த மார்கழி மாதம் இட உத்தேசம். திருப்பாவையின் முதல்
பாடலிலிருந்து ஆரம்பிக்கிறேன். அதற்கு முன் மார்கழி பற்றியும், பாவை நோன்பு
குறித்தும் ஒரு சிறிய முன்னுரை !

மார்கழி, பன்னிரண்டு தமிழ் மாதங்களில் ஒரு மாதம். 'மாரி' என்ற
வார்த்தையிலிருந்து உண்டானது 'மார்' என்பது. 'மாரி' என்றால் மழை என்று பொருள்.
'கழி' என்றால் 'கழிந்த' அல்லது 'பின்னர்' என்று அர்த்தம். எனவே, மழைகாலம்
முடிந்த பின்னர் ஆரம்பிக்கும் மாதம் என்று பொருள்.

மார்கழி மாதத்தில், முக்கியமாக பெண்கள் ஏற்கும் விரதம், 'மார்கழி நோன்பு'
ஆகும். ஆயர்ப்பாடியிலுள்ள கன்னியர்கள், நாட்டு நலத்திற்காகவும், பால் வளம்
பெருகவும், நல்ல கணவர்களை அடையவும், நோன்பு நோற்றனர். மார்கழியில் நோற்றதால்
மார்கழி நோன்பு என்றும், கன்னிப் பெண்களால் நோற்கப்படுவதால் 'பாவை நோன்பு'
என்றும் கூறப்படுகின்றது. கன்னியர்கள் விடியற்காலை எழுந்து, மற்றப் பெண்களையும்
எழுப்பி, ஆற்றங்கரை சென்று, அங்குள்ள மணலினால் பாவை போன்ற உருவம் செய்து,
மலர்கள் சூட்டி, பார்வதிதேவியை பாடித் துதித்து வழிபட்டனர்.

தான் பிறந்து வளர்ந்தது ஸ்ரீவில்லிபுத்தூர் ஆயினும், தன்னை கோகுலத்திலுள்ள
கோபியராகவே கருதி, கண்ணனை மணக்க வேண்டி, 'பாவை நோன்பு' நோற்ற சமயம் சூடிக்
கொடுத்த நாச்சியார் பாடிய முப்பது பாடல்களே 'திருப்பாவை'.

'திருப்பாவை' யும் (திருமால் மீது பாடப்பட்ட பாடல்கள்), மாணிக்கவாசகர்
சிவபெருமான் மீது இயற்றிய 'திருவெம்பாவை' யும் பாவைப் பாட்டுக்களில் சிறந்தவை.
திருப்பாவை முப்பது பாடல்களைக் கொண்டது. திருவெம்பாவை இருபது பாடல்களைக்
கொண்டது. இந்த இருபது பாடல்களுடன் 'திருப்பள்ளியெழுச்சி' யிலுள்ள பத்து
பாடல்களும் சேர்த்து அதுவும் முப்பது பாடல்களாக மார்கழி மாத முப்பது
நாட்களிலும் பாடப்படுகின்றது. இப்பாடல்களில் பக்திப் பெருக்கும், தன்னலமற்ற
இறைசேவை ஆகியவை தவிர வேறு நோக்கம் எதுவும் இல்லாமலிருப்பதையும் காணலாம்.

*நோன்பு கொண்டாட விரும்பும் சிறுமியர், மற்ற சிறுமியர்களை விடியற்காலை நீராட
அழைத்தல்*
<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_71BapBG7NyE/R2aAIBkSzAI/AAAAAAAAAGw/wED6aie...>
*மார்கழித்திங்கள் மதிநிறைந்த நன்னாளால்,
நீராடப்போதுவீர், போதுமினோ, நேரிழையீர்!
சீர்மல்கும் ஆய்ப்பாடிச் செல்வ சிறுமீர்காள்!
கூர்வேல் கொடுந்தொழிலன் நந்தகோபன் குமரன்
ஏர் ஆர்ந்தகண்ணி யசோதை இளஞ்சிங்கம்
கார்மேனிச்செங்கண், கதிர்மதியம் போல் முகத்தான்
நாராயணனே நமக்கே பறை தருவான்
பாரோர் புகழப் படிந்தேலோரெம்பாவாய்.
*
"அழகிய ஆபரணங்களை அணிந்த கன்னிப் பெண்களே! வளமும் சிறப்பும் மிக்க ஆயர்பாடியில்
உள்ள செல்வச் சிறுமியரே! மாதங்களில் சிறந்த மார்கழி மாதத்தில், முழு நிலவு
வீசும் பௌர்ணமி நன்னாளில், பாவை நோன்பில் கலந்து கொண்டு நீராட
விரும்புகின்றவர்கள், வாருங்கள், போகலாம்!
<http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_71BapBG7NyE/R2aAIRkSzBI/AAAAAAAAAG4/Vas_QPj...>
கூர்மையான வேலைக் கொண்டு பகைவர்க்கு கொடுமை செய்பவனாகிய நந்தகோபனுடைய
குமாரனும், அழகிய விரிந்த விழிகளை உடைய யசோதைக்கு இளம் சிங்கக்குட்டி
போன்றவனும், கரிய வண்ண மேனியனும், செந்தாமரை போன்ற கண்களையும், சூரியனைப்போல
பிரகாசமாயும் நிலவைப்போல குளிர்ந்ததாயும் உள்ள திருமுகத்தையும், உடையவனும், ஆன
நாராயணன், நம் நோன்புக்கு வேண்டிய பொருட்களையும், நாம் விரும்பிய வரங்களையும்
தந்து அருள் புரிவான். எனவே உலகத்தார் நம்மை போற்றும் வண்ணம், நோன்பிருந்து
அவன் திருவடி பணிவோம், வாருங்கள்!"
<http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_71BapBG7NyE/R2aAIRkSzCI/AAAAAAAAAHA/Lv82SoQ...>

*பாசுர விசேஷம்:*

*1. அடியவர், தனக்கும் எம்பெருமானுக்கும் ஆன உறவை உணரும் நாள் "நன்னாள்" என்று
போற்றப்படுகிறது! "நீராடப் போதுவீர்" என்பது அடியவரை கைங்கர்யம் செய்ய அழைப்பதை
உள்ளர்த்தமாக கொண்டுள்ளது.

2. மதி நிறைந்த - அந்த வேண்டுகோளை கேட்ட மாத்திரத்தில், கோபியரின் முகங்களும்
பவுர்ணமி நிலவை ஒத்த பிரகாசம் அடைவதாகவும் வைத்துக் கொள்ளலாம் ! வெண்ணிலவு,
வானத்தில் மட்டுமே இல்லை :)

3. 'செல்வ சிறுமீர்காள்' என்பதில் உள்ள 'செல்வம்' என்ற பதம் கண்ணன் மேல் உள்ள
பேரன்பையும், அவனது துணை தரும் மகிழ்ச்சியையும் உள்ளர்த்தமாகக் கொண்டுள்ளது.

4. இப்பாசுரத்தில், 'ஆய்ப்பாடி' என்பது சம்சார சாகரத்தை உள்ளர்த்தமாக
குறிக்கிறது.

5. "நேரிழையீர்" என்ற பதம் அமைதியையும், புலனடக்கத்தையும் ஒரு சேர வாய்க்கப்
பெற்ற மாந்தரைக் குறிக்கிறது.

6. கூர்வேல் கொடுந்தொழிலன் -- தன்னுடைய சங்கல்பத்தால், நமது பாவங்களுக்கு
நிவர்த்தி தர வல்லவன் கிருஷ்ணன் என்பதை உள்ளர்த்தமாக உணர்த்துகிறது.

7. கதிர் மதியம் போல் முகத்தான் -- பரந்தாமன் ஒரே சமயத்தில், அடியார்களுக்கு
அருளையும் (குளிர்ச்சி), பகைவர்க்குத் துன்பமும் (வெப்பம்) தர வல்லவன் என்பதால்
!

8. பறை தருவான் -- "மோட்ச சித்தியை அடைவதற்கான உபாயங்களை அருள்வான்" என்பது
உட்பொருள்.

9. "நாராயணனே" என்பது உபய ஸ்வரூபத்தையும், "நமக்கே" என்பது அதிகாரி
ஸ்வரூபத்தையும் குறிப்பில் உணர்த்துகிறது. இந்த இரண்டு சொற்களிலும் காணப்படும்
ஏகாரம், பரமனை விட்டால் நமக்கு வேறு கதியில்லை என்பதை அறுதியிட்டு
உணர்த்துகிறது இல்லையா ?

10. மேலும், கர்ம/ஞான யோகங்களை விடவும், பக்தி யோகமே பரமனின் அருளைப் பெறவும்,
அவனை அடையவும் சிறந்த மார்க்கமாக, திருப்பாவையின் முதல் பாசுரம் அறிவிக்கிறது.*

ABVP asks Centre to stop illegal infiltration from Bangladesh

2008-12-19T09:49:00.000-08:00

ABVP asks Centre to stop illegal infiltration

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Wednesday organised *a
massive anti-infiltration rally in Kishanganj.* According to its leaders,
the rally was organised to highlight the issue of illegal infiltration of
Bangladeshis into the country, especially Bihar.

*Over 50,000 ABVP cadre* and sympathisers drawn from all-over the country
had assembled in Kishanganj, where illegal infiltration has been taking
place on an alarming scale.

The rally was an effort to make people aware of the illegal Bangladeshi
infiltration in Kishanganj and Bihar," said the ABVP president Ram Naresh
Singh. Organising secretary of ABVP B Surendran and national secretary K
Raghunandan too addressed the rally and appealed the Central Government to
take immediate measures to stop illegal infiltration through Kishanganj.
According to the ABVP leaders, over three crore people had infiltrated into
India out of which 1.5 crore have settled in northeastern part of the
country alone. "Despite such a large number of illegal infiltrations the
Central Government is oblivious of the issue and has not been making any
sincere effort to check it which would be a great national security threat
in upcoming days," said ABVP leaders.

"When the entire country is facing terror threat from across the border, how
come the Central Government be oblivious of such huge problem," said ABVP
leader Sunil Ambekar.

Ambekar further said ABVP through its nationwide movement will aware the
people and awake the Central Government about the gravity of the situation
and continue its sustain efforts to deport all these illegal Bangaladeshi
infiltrations. prove

*The 30 km long stretch between Kishanganj and Islampur in the adjacent West
Bengal is known as "Chicken's Neck" area and is completely affected with the
Bangladeshi infiltrators mostly of whom are engaged in illegal activities,
claimed the ABVP leaders.* The ABVP leaders also raised slogans like *"save
Chicken's Neck"* and *"Bangladeshi Bhagao"* in the rally.

Earlier, on Tuesday the ABVP cadres and members had formed a human chain on
the main road of the district, Kishanganj-Dinajpur road highlighting the
issue.

Interestingly, the district officials denied that there was any illegal
infiltration in the district as no case has been registered regarding this
in any police stations of Kishanganj. "As far as knowledge goes there is no
Bangaldeshi infiltration in Kishanganj", said DIG, urnia S K Jha. The
Kishanganj SP MR Naik too said that district administration has no figure on
illegal Bangladeshi settlers in the district.

Daniel Martin Varisco: Mumbai and the Blame Game

2008-12-02T06:23:00.000-08:00

Daniel Martin Varisco: Mumbai and the Blame Game

Source: Tabsir (11-29-08)

[Daniel Martin Varisco is Chair, Anthropology Department at Hofstra University.]

Must every country have its 9/11 moment and must these tragedies continue to be the work of extremists who attack and kill as if they were commanded by Allah? This is a rhetorical question, of course. The latest events in Mumbai have trumped the economic slump in the news. Once again billowing smoke from a famous building clouds the sky; again Islam is tainted as the religion that fosters terrorists. And the blame game begins anew.

The sheer audacity of the attack, more like a Rambo commando raid than the hijacking scenario that felled the Twin Towers, is staggering. How could such landmarks have been targeted in tandem? Where was the security? These are the questions inevitably asked after the fact. As reported in Al-Jazeera, here is the unfolding of the drama:

Following are the key events in the crisis (all times are in Mumbai local time):

Wednesday 26, 2008:

Shooting starts at Chhatrapati Shivaji rail station, one of the world’s busiest, handling thousands of passengers each day.

Within the hour other attacks occur at four other locations: the Nariman House, home of the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch; Leopold’s restaurant, a landmark popular with foreigners; the Trident-Oberoi hotel, a five-star landmark; the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel, a landmark of Mumbai since 1903.

Shooting breaks out in south Mumbai, quickly followed by attacks near the Bombay Municipal Corporation, the civic body that governs Mumbai, and the Cama hospital and the GT hospital in the city centre.

Just after midnight, armed men attack the Vidhan Sabha, the legislative assembly, the lower house of state legislature in India.

Thursday 27

A large fire breaks out at the Taj Palace hotel and an hour later authorities begin escorting people out of the hotel.

Indian security forces are brought in to try to regain control of the Taj hotel and the Oberoi hotel.

Members of the National Security Guard start doing room-to-room searches at the Taj hotel and within the hour surround the Nariman House. Local media show people being rescued from the Oberoi hotel.

A little-known group calling itself the Deccan Mujahedeen claims responsibility for the attacks.

Indian troops continue to battle armed men in the city.

Friday 28

Firing and explosions are reported from both the Taj Mahal and Trident-Oberoi hotels.

Officers kill two gunmen inside the Trident-Oberoi hotel and ended the attack.

Dozens of people are evacuated from the Trident-Oberoi. A bus carrying the rescued guests was seen leaving the scene and police are said to have control of the building.

Meanwhile explosions and gunfire continue intermittently at the Taj Mahal hotel.

An airborne assault gets under way at the Nariban House, where commandos are beseiging a centre run by the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch. Attackers holed up in the building are said to have hostages. The seige is punctuated by gunshots and explosions.

Troops storm the Nariman House, reportedly killing the gunmen inside. The troops emerged from the building to applause but the bodies of five hostages are recovered, including that of the rabbi that ran the centre.

Pakistan warns India not to play politics over the incident, but says the two countries face a common enemy and agrees to send its spy chief to share intelligence on the attacks.

There is little doubt “who” did it as most of the perpetrators appear to be dead, nine out of estimated ten of them. But little is yet known about the individuals behind the who. One rumor is that they are members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group which aims to end Indian rule in Kashmir. If revenge on Americans and Britains was the aim, as is reported from eyewitness accounts, then the raid was a failure. Only 15 foreigners are among the estimated 150 casualties thus far. So far only five Americans were killed.

Why did 100 men commit an act that was sure to result in their own deaths? What did they hope to accomplish by willy nilly killing just about anyone in their way? The pundits and pandits will debate these slippery questions until the next tragedy. An article to be published in Time Magazine by Aryn Baker dredges up the colonial history, highlighting the Muslim-Hindu divide in India (and by extension Pakistan) to the Sepoy Mutiny:

On the afternoon of March 29, 1857, Mangal Pandey, a handsome, mustachioed soldier in the East India Company’s native regiment, attacked his British lieutenant. His hanging a week later sparked a subcontinental revolt known to Indians as the first war of independence and to the British as the Sepoy Mutiny. Retribution was swift, and though Pandey was a Hindu, it was the subcontinent’s Muslims, whose Mughal King nominally held power in Delhi, who bore the brunt of British rage. The remnants of the Mughal Empire were dismantled, and five hundred years of Muslim supremacy on the subcontinent was brought to a halt.

Muslim society in India collapsed. The British imposed English as the official language. The impact was cataclysmic. Muslims went from near 100% literacy to 20% within a half-century. The country’s educated Muslim Élite was effectively blocked from administrative jobs in the government. Between 1858 and 1878, only 57 out of 3,100 graduates of Calcutta University - then the center of South Asian education - were Muslim. While discrimination by both Hindus and the British played a role, it was as if the whole of Muslim society had retreated to lick its collective wounds.

Blame British imperialism: it remains an easy target. But how far back can the blame game extend? Did the Muslim armies ask permission when they first invaded and slaughtered Hindus? Or perhaps the anger is directed at Timur, who not only conquered Delhi some 610 years ago, but dispatched virtually all the inhabitants, sending tens of thousands into eternity without pity? Or perhaps more recent history is at fault. Such tragedies can always be blamed on the Americans or the Israelis, as though the foreign policy or domestic policy of a state creates an open season for killing any of its citizens.

There is only one way to end the blame game; this is a path provided by a native of India who dealt with oppression and colonial power plays with a human rather than a divine dictate. His name was Gandhi. Among the truths he passed on is the following: “Retaliation is not the solution. The policy of an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.” The men who took the lives of other men and women in Mumbai over the past few days were blind, blinded by a hate that reduces their God to the worst level of human nature. The lessons found in sacred writings of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad echo the wisdom of Gandhi. When mortals usurp the divine for vengeance, they dishonor the very notion of God’s greatness.

We should not be blind to injustice nor deny the misdeeds of the past, but those who kill in the name of any God dim the world for us all. There were no Muslim martyrs in Mumbai (except perhaps those who were innocent victims in the killings), no cause great enough to justify taking life. There is room enough in this world for Allah, Yahweh, the Trinity, all the gods and goddesses of Hinduism and even those who deny that divine entities exist. Because we humans have so many blood baths in our history, we owe it to future generations to replace retaliation with tolerance, lest blindness damn us all to more of the same; and for that we will only have ourselves to blame.

http://hnn.us/roundup/comments/57550.html

PRAYERS FOR MUMBAI: USA Temple holds vigil to mourn attacks

2008-12-02T06:20:00.000-08:00

PRAYERS FOR MUMBAI: Temple holds vigil to mourn attacks
Rites in Riverdale: Non-Hindus among congregants feeling ‘sense of loss’ after terror attacks

By Ben Smith

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Monday, December 01, 2008

Priests led chants and tossed sacred rice on carved deities. At least 174 candles perched on gold plates flickered at their feet.

The candles burned for the victims slain in a terrorist attack on two upscale hotels and a Jewish center in Mumbai, India, last week.

The death toll was revised down Sunday, but authorities said it could rise again as areas of the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel, where the militants made their final stand, were still being searched.

The seige lasted three days and targeted 10 sites across India’s financial and cultral capital.

On Sunday afternoon in Riverdale, about 75 congregants braved a rainy-day drive and 20 barefoot steps on cold, wet concrete to attend a memorial service at the Hindu Temple of Atlanta.

Among them were several non-Hindus who felt compelled to participate.

“Being Jewish, we feel a sense of loss,” said Karla Tievsky, wiping away tears.

Tievsky and her husband, Seth Kirschenbaum, said they attended simply because they had read about the event in the newspaper and felt drawn to it.

P.V. Rao, an Emory University physics professor and a Hindu, read sacred texts and urged members of the congregation not to succumb to fear, because the terrorists cannot destroy them.

Reading from the Bhagavad Gita, Rao said, “The soul … is never born, it never dies, nor having once born does it again cease to be. Unborn, eternal, permanent and primeval, it is not slain when the body is slain.”

Rao said of the terrorists, “We want to pray that their kind are converted to a peaceful way.”

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin sent chief of staff Greg Pridgeon to the event. State Sen. Valencia Seay (D-Riverdale) also came.

Probably none of the attendants was directly affected by the Mumbai attack, according to P. Ravi Sarma, president of the Hindu temple. Yet several felt they were connected to the tragedy, in part because of intense news coverage of the 60-hour ordeal. Among the dead were 18 foreigners, including six Americans.

“This has been happening for years,” said Vijay Chennur of Marietta, referring to the decades of violent clashes between Muslims and Hindus in his home country.

Chennur said this attack was different, though, because it was meticulously planned and included the seizing of buildings and the taking of non-Indian hostages. “This time, the conflict went global,” he said.

Chennur was joined by his wife Nandini and his 12-year-old daughter Gautami.

The Chennurs led the congregation in devotional songs. With Vijay Chennur, playing a harmonium, they sang a song to Vinayaka, the elephant-faced lord, to remove all obstacles from the community.

Then, they sang to Krishna to bring light into the world.

Just then, the rays of a setting sun broke through the clouds and streamed through windows of the temple.

Includes information from the Associated Press.

http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2008/12/01/vigil.html

Leeds(UK) Hindu temple renovated

2008-12-02T06:19:00.000-08:00

Leeds Hindu temple 'open for all' thanks to improvement work

Published by Hannah Wooderson for 24dash.com in Communities , Local Government

Leeds Hindu temple 'open for all' thanks to improvement work Leeds Hindu temple 'open for all' thanks to improvement work

Leeds’ only Hindu temple is open for all users, thanks to support worth thousands of pounds to improve its facilities.

The temple and community centre in Alexandra Road, Burley Lodge, can now accommodate its growing number of disabled users after regeneration specialists Frank Haslam Milan (FHM) installed improved accessible facilities at no cost.

Leeds City Council has also provided some support by installing improved lighting in the car park, funded by the Group Repair project.

FHM carried out the work after being told of the grave need for improvements in the centre when Stephen Pearson, Leeds City Council’s Senior Group Repair Officer, and Gail Fairbank FHM’s Resident Liaison Officer visited earlier this year. The company is working in the area improving around 200 homes in partnership with Leeds City Council and saw this move as a chance to support the local community.

The work ends a long running campaign by the Temple’s Management Committee to raise the £5,000 they say was needed to fit the much-needed disabled toilets and washrooms.

This move now means the facilities are more accessible to all elderly and disabled residents who use the centre for lunch clubs, community events and religious gatherings. To show their gratitude, FHM staff were recently invited to a ‘thank you’ event at the centre with committee members and Leeds councillors.

Temple Chairman Niranjan Vakharia said: “This makes a real difference to older and disabled community members, many of whom have used the centre for some years. A few have even used it since it opened in the 1960s.

“As people moved into this area, and have seen their children grow up and live in other parts of the country, this temple has remained important to them. Having facilities that all our members can use is a big bonus for us.

“Myself and the Management Committee are really grateful to FHM for all their help – they have made a huge difference.”

In carrying out the improvement FHM worked with local firms Dale Stephensons, who supplied the toilet facilities, Scott Anson, who carried out the decorating, and Steve Woodman, who supplied and fitted the flooring.

Community Liaison Officer Gail Fairbank said: “So many people use this facility and it’s great that we have been able to help in this way.

“We’ve been working in this part of Leeds for some time now, improving people’s homes, and we have got to know some of the tenants and residents really well.

“It’s extremely rewarding to see how satisfied they are with the completed work.”

http://www.24dash.com/news/Communities/2008-12-01-Leeds-Hindu-temple-open-for-all-thanks-to-improvement-work

Euphemisms No Match for Radical Islam

2008-12-02T04:52:00.000-08:00

Euphemisms No Match for Radical Islam

PDF Print E-mail
November 29, 2008
by David J. Rusin
IslamistWatch.org

While Western governments scoff at the anti-blasphemy measure that a UN General Assembly committee passed on November 24, they actually have led the way in perfecting the art of self-censorship. Bureaucrats and elected officials, in de facto sympathy with the resolution's claim that "Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism," twist themselves into pretzels to cleanse references to the faith from relevant discussions.

The immediate consequences of refusing to call a spade a spade are as predictable as they are maddening. Consider this lesson in the obvious, courtesy of Great Britain:

Attempts to turn young people away from Islamic extremism are being hampered by politically correct language, according to a new report.

Ministers last year directed councils to use the terms "anti-Islamic activity" and "community resilience" instead of terrorism and extremism, as part of a drive to win over the Muslim community.

But the rebranding has spread confusion and is preventing local authorities and public bodies from talking openly about the radicalization of young people.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was ridiculed for renaming terrorism "anti-Islamic activity." Given that citizens and councilors alike can point to legions of Muslim terrorists who have sought to justify their atrocities by appealing to Islam, it is little surprise that such policies "spread confusion." The replacement of "extremism" with "community resilience" is even more baffling.

Yet Americans should not laugh too hard at their cousins in the UK. As reported earlier this year:

Federal agencies, including the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Counter Terrorism Center, are telling their people not to describe Islamic extremists as "jihadists" or "mujahedeen," according to documents obtained by the Associated Press. Lingo like "Islamo-fascism" is out, too.

The reason: Such words may actually boost support for radicals among Arab and Muslim audiences by giving them a veneer of religious credibility or by causing offense to moderates.

There is, however, a ray of hope. A U.S. military "red team" recently called for the rejection of these policies, arguing that "while there is concern that we not label all Muslims as Islamist terrorists, it is proper to address certain aspects of violence as uniquely Islamic."

Knowing the enemy is prerequisite to defeating him. Islamists and the UN hope to muzzle the West into ignorance; we must not compound the problem by muzzling ourselves.
------------------------
IslamistWatch.org A Project of the Middle East Forum Summary: Launched in April 2006, Islamist Watch combats the ideas and institutions of nonviolent, radical Islam in the United States and other Western countries. It exposes the far-reaching goals of Islamists, works to reduce their power, and seeks to strengthen moderate Muslims.

http://www.rightsidenews.com/200811292810/culture-wars/euphemisms-no-match-for-radical-islam.html

Mumbai Attacks: It was the teachings of the Quran that drove these men to terrorism

2008-12-02T04:51:00.000-08:00

INDIA! It was the teachings of the Quran that drove these men to terrorism PDF Print E-mail

December 2, 2008
by Mark Harding

This Islamic terror from India is the typical result of the blind leading the blind. It started along time ago with the teachings of a madman called Muhammad, and the world continues to be terrorized by his followers today. Until the world wakes up to the "real cause" of the terror it finds itself facing today, Islamic terrorism will continue.

Hitler was the madman that drove so many Germans to do the un-thinkable terror that eventually caused the world to wake up and react to the destruction the terrorism and the murder of Jews and Christians, it was called Hitlerism.

Today the world must wake up to a new form of Nazism, its called Islam.

The teachings of Islam are the soul reason for the Islamic terrorism that we are seeing today. Muhammad the so called prophet of Islam may be dead but his terrorism lives on today in the hearts and the minds of many Muslim victims today because of the teachings of his manual's for terrorism, destruction and the murder of the Un-believers. These Manuals are the Quran and the Hadiths.

And until we are willing to speak the truth about Islam and protect those who are brave enough to do so, we will continue to see Islamic terrorist attacks like this one that took place in India.

I have studied Islam and its followers for almost 20 years now.

And after some intensive studying I have found that Islam's prophet, Muhammad, was a man that found a way to make other men fight and kill for wealth, power and a false hope of eternal salvation with a war god named "Allah" that does not even exist, unless one calls Lucifer a god.

These men were trained to kill Jews and Christian Infidels or as Islam calls us "Kafirs". There are other Islamic men and women trained to lie and to tell everyone that Islam is a ‘religion of peace'. And yet they're others who have been trained to be moderates and their job is to deceive you and I into believing that these "Islamic radicals" are misinterpreting the Quran and that the media and our governments are lying about the persecution of Christians and Jews in Islamic societies. I have met with all three types of these Muslims and with questioning have found these trained men and women to be lying as they themselves exposed the truth about the teachings of Islam and their true identities in a very short order.

Yes there are many that call themselves Muslims but have never even studied the Quran this is true. They are the victims. They are the ones that follow the crowds of Muslims who want to believe in their hearts that Islam is what the teachers of Islam (Imams) are saying, ‘that Islam is a religion of peace' and yet these same Imams are those who also remind the follows of Islam that they are not allowed to question its teachings. These that have been told not to question Muhammad and his teachings are those who I have talked with on the streets and because of their lack of knowledge about the Quran, have no answers to my questions.

They have won this battle in India against 10 Islamic terrorists, but look at the destruction and murder that these 10 Islamic terrorists have caused.

Does stopping these 10 Islamic followers solve the problem, or does it just create more Islamic martyrs from the teachings of Islam who are willing to follow them?
----------------
Mark Harding

Editor of: Islam is not what you think.com
E-mail: news@islamisnotwhatyouthink.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

A video worth seeing.
The strength and bravery of this Jewish man is well worth watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs4sdBflc0I

http://www.rightsidenews.com/200812022836/editorial/india-it-was-the-teachings-of-the-quran-that-drove-these-men-to-terrorism.html

Terror In The Name Of God

2008-12-02T04:18:00.000-08:00

Terror In The Name Of God

By Yoginder Sikand

01 December, 2008
Countercurrents.org

"Never forget that the life of this world is only a game and a passing delight, a show ….the life of this world is nothing but means of deception:.
(The Quran, Al-Hadid: 20)

"There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim"
(Baba Guru Nanak Sahib)

According to media reports, it is possible that the recent deadly assault on Mumbai was masterminded by the Lashkar-e Tayyeba, a Pakistan-based self-styled Islamist terrorist outfit. Whether the attacks were indeed the handiwork of the Lashkar, as is being alleged, or of some other agency, such as the CIA and the Israseli Mossad, as others believe, remains to be fully investigated, but there can be no doubt that radical Islamism, like radical Hindutva, poses a major threat to peace and security in both India and Pakistan.

What makes such terror-driven self-styled Islamist groups thrive in Pakistan? It would appear that the very foundational myth of Pakistan, the so-called 'two nation theory' on which the country was founded, is itself conducive to militaristic interpretations of Islam. In a mirror image of the thesis propounded by the early ideologues of Hindutva—that the Hindus and Muslims of India were two entirely different nations and that the latter could live in India only if they agreed to turn Hindu or else be stripped of all civic rights—the ideologues of the Pakistan movement claimed that the Hindus and Muslims of pre-Partition India were two irreconcilable nations that could not live together. On the basis of this specious argument, they demanded a separate state for the Indian Muslims. This is how Pakistan came into being.

Thus, the very basis of the Pakistan movement was the myth of undying hatred and hostility between Hindus and Muslims. This so-called 'two-nation theory' remains the official ideology of the state of Pakistan, and is taught to every Pakistani child in school through carefully doctored textbooks. To question the theory, as many Pakistanis privately do, is considered a punishable crime and as akin to sedition. Accordingly, the Pakistani state has, since its inception, seen its survival as being crucially dependent on actively promoting as well as indirectly abetting anti-Indian and anti-Hindu sentiments. As movements for autonomy in provinces increasingly restive of Punjabi domination mounted, first in the erstwhile East Bengal, and then in Baluchistan and Sindh, the Pakistani state came to increasingly rely on an instrumental use and cynical manipulation of Islam and on the bogey of Hindu or Indian domination to ensure its survival and increasingly threatened legitimacy. Naturally, this expanded the space and scope for groups, not just the Lashkar, but scores of others as well, who claimed to speak in the name of Islam to whip up anti-Indian and anti-Hindu sentiments. For them hatred of India and the Hindus were considered as among the defining features of Pakistani nationalism.

The rise of the Lashkar and similar self-styled jihadist groups thus cannot be understood in isolation from these broader political processes. These groups received a major impetus under the American-backed and hugely unpopular military dictator, General Zia ul-Haq, who cynically backed radical Islamist groups to win public support as well as to pursue the CIA-funded war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. It was at around this time that self-styled Islamist groups began entering the political arena in a major way, setting up political parties and fighting elections. This led to all sorts of compromises, to widespread corruption and to rapidly escalating militancy by different Islamist groups competing with each other to prove to the electorate their purported claims of representing and speaking for Islam. The more obscurantist a group's approach was with regard to a whole host of issues—women's rights, the Kashmir question, relations with India and so on—the more ardently 'Islamic' it considered itself to be and it presented itself so to the public whose support it sought to win.

Under Zia, several dozen radical Islamist groups were liberally funded by the Saudis and the Americans in the war in Afghanistan, but soon these went out of control. They turned against their American patrons and started dreaming of exporting their self-styled jihad to the rest of the world. Some of them, including the Lashkar, even went to the extent of calling for the establishment of a global so-called Islamic Caliphate and for conquering the entire world under the 'Islamic flag'. Whether or not the leaders of these groups actually believed all this bombastic rhetoric no one can say, but it certainly appealed to vast numbers of youth, particularly from impoverished families, who were fed on a steady diet of fanciful tales about the luxuries they would wallow in if they died or were 'martyred' in the cause of what was presented to them as a divine mission.

These groups went on to serve what were seen as the strategic interests of the Pakistani state, as for instance in Kashmir, where they were sent to battle Indian forces as well as Kashmiri nationalist groups struggling for a sovereign Jammu and Kashmir, which would be independent of both India and Pakistan. Since Pakistan was a crucial ally of the West, America chose to remain mute in the face of these developments. Likewise, these groups were solidly backed by the Pakistani state in its desperate effort to install the pro-Pakistan Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and this also received American support. The Lashkar set up several training camps in Afghanistan and gave the Taliban considerable military and moral support.

It is thus the consistent assistance given by the Pakistani state to self-styled Islamist groups that has allowed them to flourish in the country, so much so that now, when the Pakistani state has itself begun to face an immense threat from these very groups, it finds itself helpless. It is an indicator of how powerful these groups have become in Pakistan that even though the present government might want to clamp down on them it cannot do so. Large parts of Pakistan are today characterized by extreme lawlessness where the writ of the state does not run. Decades of cynical manipulation of Islam by the Pakistani state for the narrowly construed ends of Pakistan's elites have now led to a situation where even if the state wants to curb these self-styled Islamist groups it finds itself helpless. Powerful sections within the Pakistani state apparatus, including in the ISI and the Army, are fiercely averse to taking any action against these groups, and are said to be consistently providing support to them.

But is the Pakistani state serious in its claims of being determined to take on Islamist terror groups that have mushroomed across the country? It appears not, just as the Indian state has not taken any serious steps against Hindutva terror groups in India. The Pakistani government claims to have banned the Lashkar, to have frozen all its assets and to have put its leaders under arrest. But ample indications exist to suggest that, in actual fact, the Lashkar is being permitted to operate freely after being conveniently allowed to change its name and re-christen itself as the Jamaat ud-Dawa. The Jamaat ud-Dawa's website is freely accessible on the Internet, relaying incendiary, hate-driven speeches of its senior leaders, who seem to be under no control whatsoever. The Markaz's magazines in English, Arabic and Urdu continue to be published, with a reported circulation of several hundred thousand. On a visit to Lahore three years ago I chanced upon a bookshop in the very heart of the sprawling Urdu Bazaar that specializes in Lashkar literature that spews venom and hatred against India and the Hindus, but also against a whole host of Muslim groups that the Lashkar does not consider genuinely Islamic—including the followers of the Sufis, the Barelvis, the quietistic Deobandi-related Tablighi Jamaat and the Shias, all of which it brands as 'enemies of Islam' or their 'agents'. And, I was told, despite the fact that the Lashkar was officially 'banned', it still operated from its headquarters in Muridke, not far from Lahore, and also managed several dozens of centres across the country under various names. Is one to imagine that the Pakistani government is so weak in the face of radical groups as to be unable to close all these institutions down?

In this context, the question arises as to why Pakistani civil society has been unable to effectively challenge the venomous (and what I, as someone who has studied Islam for the past two decades, regard as a wholly distorted) version of Islam that is propelled by self-styled Islamist groups such as the Lashkar. This issue is particularly intriguing given the fact that radical Islamist groups have consistently received only a relatively small share of the vote in successive elections, indicating that their hate-driven vision of Islam does not appeal to the majority of Pakistani people.

There are several reasons for this, among the most salient being the fact that the liberal, progressive middle class in Pakistan is very miniscule, the country still remaining largely feudal, tribalistic and extremely patriarchal in its set-up and ethos. Efforts by the few liberal Islamic scholars that exist in Pakistan to articulate progressive interpretations of Islam on a range of issues—including women's rights, relations with non-Muslims and relations between India and Pakistan—have generally met with stern opposition and even violence from Islamist outfits, with some of these scholars being forced to flee for safety to the West. The sheer fear of being killed for publicly opposing radicals and their perverted brand of Islam keeps numerous progressive thinkers in Pakistan silent, thus perpetuating a vicious circle in which the radicals are allowed to go unchallenged. Furthermore, the state has consistently denied space to progressive Islamic scholars, fearing their potential for dissent from the official view, seeing the radicals as more pliable and amenable to manipulation. This explains, for instance, the fact that despite its bombastic 'Islamic' credentials, Pakistan is yet to produce any well-known Islamic intellectual who has sought to deal creatively with the manifold demands and challenges that modernity poses. The status of Islamic, in addition to social science, research in Pakistan is woeful, and this can be explained, in part, by the fear on the part of the establishment of voices of dissenting scholars that might challenge ruling myths. The fact that Pakistan spends less than 2 per cent of its budget on education and that numerous Vice-Chancellors of Pakistani universities are retired army generals are indicators of this mind-set.

Terrorism—and this includes terror resorted to by non-state actors as well as by the state—today poses a grave threat to the peoples of both India and Pakistan. Islamist and Hindutva terrorism feed on each other, while posing to be each other's most inveterate foes. I recall reading some years ago—I cannot recall where, though—the perverse pleasure that a senior Lashkar expressed when the BJP-led NDA government came to power. Syed Maududi, the chief ideologue of the Jamaat-e Islami, who can be considered the major architect of modern-day Islamism, is on record as having declared that he would prefer India to be an officially Hindu country to being secular because that would further his case for the 'Islamic state' that he dreamed of establishing in Pakistan. Islamist outfits in Pakistan find ready fodder for whipping up anti-Indian and anti-Hindu passions by pouncing on acts of terror and anti-Muslim violence spearheaded by Hindutva groups in India, often abetted by the state. Likewise, gruesome acts of terror committed by Pakistan-based Islamist groups are quickly seized upon by Hindutva forces in India to further demonise Muslims and to build their Hindu vote-bank. Hindu and Islamist terror thus enjoy a symbiotic or mutually beneficial relationship while claiming to oppose each other. This obvious fact must be recognized when conceiving responses to the challenge of terrorism in our region.

There are no easy solutions to the predicament we find ourselves in today. But there is surely at least one thing that we must do, and this was suggested to me by the noted New Delhi-based Arya Samaj scholar, Swami Agnivesh, who has consistently been speaking out against all forms of terror, including in the name of Islam and Hinduism as well as state terrorism. The most effective way to challenge terrorism in the name of religion, Swami Agnivesh suggested, is for Muslims to denounce and stiffly oppose terror engaged in by self-styled Islamic groups who claim to speak in the name of Islam, and for Hindus to do likewise with regard to terror spread by militant Hindu groups. Sadly, today, the approach of many of us to the phenomenon is selective and skewed, with many Hindus denouncing only the terror unleashed by self-styled Islamist groups, and many Muslims denouncing only acts of terror masterminded by Hindu groups. At the same time, many Hindus and Muslims continue to turn a blind eye to, or even support, forms of terror being perpetrated in the name of the very religion which they claim to follow.

And there is something else that we need to do as individuals, and I have found that this simple principle works wonders even at a very personal level. It might sound 'unfashionable' or even 'purile' for those who do not find any place for God in their lives, but for millions of people in India and Pakistan who do believe in some higher force, no matter what they name it, it would strike an immediate chord.

This principle I owe to Rano Devi, a landless Dalit labourer from the Bhil tribe who had been released through the efforts of a human rights' group from slavery-like conditions in the estate of a powerful landlord. I Rano met while on a visit to Sindh in southern Pakistan three years ago. A powerful woman she was—dark and tall, and walking proud and erect. A courteous hostess, she welcomed me into her one-roomed hovel built on a scrawny patch of land that a social activist friend of mine had provided her and plied me with milk-less tea and a roti, which was all that she could afford.

Rano told me her story, of how she was enslaved by a landlord, who happened to be a Muslim, and who kept her for four years in shackles. Then, after a protracted legal battle, she was released through the efforts of my friend and his comrades, all of who happened to be Muslims.

She went on to enunciate a simple but very compelling principle thus:

'Live for your religion, don't die or kill for it. Express your religion through love and service, like the brothers who rescued me did, not through oppression, murder and mayhem, for that is a heinous crime in God's eyes. After all, we are all accountable for all our actions to God. To Him we shall return after we die, when He will decide our fate till eternity based on our deeds in this world'.

'If we were to realize that this world is temporary and that real, eternal life starts after death,' Rano continued softly, tears welling up in her eyes, 'and if we were to constantly keep this in mind, perhaps people would dread to misuse God's name for un-Godly acts'.

And there was another thing that Rano said that inspires me as I write these lines:

'We call Him Ishwar, and Muslims call Him Allah, but He is one and the same', said Rano. 'There are good people in every community, just as there are bad people, too. Just as that landlord who enslaved me claimed to be a Muslim, the brothers who freed me were also Muslims. And there are both good and bad people among Hindus as well. Remember that, brother. It is only when good people in every community join hands that this Hindu-Muslim problem or the problems between India and Pakistan can ever be resolved'.

That sage advice from this impoverished Pakistani Dalit woman is, to my mind, a basic premise we need to start from in our joint struggle against terror in the name of religion and national chauvinism.

http://www.countercurrents.org/sikand011208.htm

வெடிகுண்டு வைக்க சதி: கோவையில் மூன்று ஜிகாதிகள் கைது!

2008-12-02T04:15:00.001-08:00

அகமதாபாத்தில் குண்டு வெடித்த பின்னர் இங்கே சில ஜிகாதிகள் கைது செய்யப்பட்டு
புழல் சிறையில் அடைக்கப் பட்டனர். அதன் பிறகு என்னவாயிற்று என்று
தெரிவிக்கப்படவில்லை. மக்களும் மறந்திருப்பார்.

இப்போது மும்பை தாக்குதலுக்குப் பிறகு மீண்டும் மூன்று பேர் கைது
செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளனர்.
இதெல்லாம் சீரியஸ்ஸான விஷயமா; இல்லை கேலிக்கூத்தா; இல்லை மக்களின்
ஜீரனத்திற்கா; ஒன்றும் புரியவில்லை. அதெப்படி, நாட்டில் எங்கேயாவது குண்டு
வெடித்தால் மட்டும் இங்கு கைது நடக்கிறது? மற்ற சமயங்களில் காவல் துறை
தூங்குகிறதா?

http://www.maalaisudar.com/newsindex.php?id=23102%20&%20section=1

* கோவை: 3 முஸ்லீம் தீவிரவாதிகள் கைது *
.
Tuesday, 02 December, 2008 02:02 PM
.
*கோவை, டிச. 2: *கோவை நகரில் 3 முஸ்லீம் தீவிரவாதிகள் சிக்கியுள்ளனர். அவர்கள்
கோவை நகரை குண்டு வைத்து தகர்க்க சதித்திட்டம் தீட்டியதாக கூறப்படுகிறது.
தீவிரவாதிகளிடமிருந்து கோவை நகர வரைபடம், செல்போன்கள் ஆகியவை பறிமுதல்
செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளன.
.
மும்பையில் தீவிரவாதிகள் தாஜ் ஓட்டல் உட்பட முக்கிய இடங்களில் புகுந்து
தாக்குதல் நடத்தியதில் சுமார் 200 பேர் உயிரிழந்தனர்.
தேசிய பாதுகாப்புப்படையின் அதிரடிப்படையினர் புகுந்து தாக்குதல் நடத்தி
பிணைகைதிகளை மீட்டனர். தீவிரவாதிகளை சுட்டுக் கொன்றனர். இதனைத் தொடர்ந்து நாடு
முழுவதும் உஷார்ப்படுத்தப் பட்டுள்ளது.
இந்த நிலையில், கோவையில் ஒரு விடுதி ஒன்றில் சந்தேகத்திற்குரிய நபர்கள்
தங்கியிருப்பதாக போலீசாருக்கு தகவல் கிடைத்தது. அவர்கள் வெளிநாடுகளில் உள்ள
சிலரிடம் தொடர்பு கொண்டு பேசி இருப்பது தெரியவந்தது.
இது தொடர்பாக சென்னையில் இருந்து கோவை நகர காவல் துறை அதிகாரிகளுக்கு தகவல்
வந்தது. இதனைத் தொடர்ந்து கோவை நகர போலீஸ் கமிஷனர் ராஜேந்திரன் தலைமையில்,
போலீசாரும், அதிரடிப்படையினரும் கோவை நகரில் உள்ள முக்கிய நட்சத்திர ஓட்டல்கள்,
தங்கும் விடுதிகளில் தேடுதல் வேட்டை நடத்தினர்.
கோவையில் லங்கா கார்னர் பகுதியில் உள்ள ஒரு விடுதியில் அதிரடிப்படையினர் சோதனை
யிட்டனர். அங்கு உள்ள ஒரு அறையில் 3 பேர் பதுங்கியிருப்பதை அதிரடிப்படையினர்
கண்டனர். துப்பாக்கி முனையில் அவர்களை சுற்றி வளைத்தினர்.
அவர்களிடம் விசாரணை நடத்தியபோது அவர்கள் முன்னுக்கு பின் முரணாக பேசினார்கள்.
இதனால் அவர்கள் மீது அதிரடிப்படையினருக்கு சந்தேகம் ஏற்பட்டது. அவர்கள்
மலையாளம், இந்தி, ஆங்கிலம் ஆகிய மொழிகளில் பேசினார்கள்.
அவர்களிடம் விசாரணை நடத்தியதில் சம்சுதீன் (வயது 23), இர்பான் அகமது (வயது 20),
அப்துல் தமீம் (வயது 21) என்று தெரிய வந்தது. 3 பேரும் கேரள மாநிலம்
கோழிக்கோட்டைச் சேர்ந்தவர்கள் என்று தெரியவந்தது.
எர்ணாக்குளத்திலுள்ள எங்கள் தலைவர் கூறியபடி 3 பேரும் கொச்சி துறைமுகத்தில்
இருந்து தனித்தனியாக பிரிந்து கோவை வந்தோம் என்று அவர்கள் கூறினார்கள்.
எதற்காக வந்தீர்கள் என்ற கேட்ட கேள்விக்கு அவர்கள் பதில் சொல்லாமல் மவுனம்
சாதித்தனர். அவர்களிடமிருந்து கோவை நகர வரைபடம், ஒரு டைரி, 4 செல்போன்கள், 2
வில்போன்கள் ஆகியவை பறிமுதல் செய்யப்பட்டன. அவர்களிடமிருந்து கைப்பற்றப்பட்ட
டைரியில் கோவை நகரிலுள்ள முக்கிய இடங்கள், செல்போன் எண்கள் இருந்தன.
அவர்கள் வைத்திருந்த செல்போனை சோதனையிட்ட போது துபாய் மற்றும் அரபு நாடுகளுக்கு
பேசியிருப்பது தெரியவந்தது. கோவை நகரை தகர்க்கும் சதித்திட்டத்துடன் அவர்கள்
வந்திருக்கலாம் என்று போலீசார் சந்தேகிக்கின்றனர்.
இவர்கள் 3 பேரும் மும்பை குண்டுவெடிப்பு சம்பவத்திற்கு பிறகு கோவை வந்துள்ளனர்.
கோவையைச் சேர்ந்த 2 பேர் அவர்களுக்கு கோவை நகரை சுற்றி
காண்பித்திருக்கிறார்கள். ரெயில் நிலையம், விமான நிலையம், கலெக்டர் அலுவலகம்,
போலீஸ் கமிஷனர் அலுவலகம், தலைமை டெலிபோன் அலுவலகம், அரசு மருத்துவமனை, உயரமான
கட்டிடங்கள், நட்சத்திர ஓட்டல்கள் ஆகிய இடங்களுக்கு சென்று இவர்கள் கண்காணித்து
இருக்கிறார் என்று விவரமும் தெரியவந்துள்ளது.
இவர்களுக்கு உதவிகரமாக இருந்த கோவையைச் சேர்ந்த 2 பேரை போலீசார் வலைவீசி
தேடி வருகிறார்கள். கைதான 3 தீவிரவாதிகளையும் ரேஸ் கோர்ஸ் போலீஸ் நிலையத்தில்
வைத்து உயர அதிகாரிகள் விசாரணை நடத்தி வருகிறார்கள்.

http://newstodaynet.com/newsindex.php?id=12705%20&%20section=5

Three terrorists held at Kovai
Tue, 02 Dec, 2008,03:06 PM
* *
It seems that the new Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has got some job in
his home State itself. Just days after a terror attack rocked Mumbai, three
Islamic terrorists have been arrested at Coimbatore. Sources say that they
had plans to blow up vital installations in the textile city. A map of
Coimbatore, mobile phones and other materials were seized from them.
Based on a tip-off from Chennai that few suspicious persons were staying at
a lodge in Coimbatore, a police team led by city police Commissioner
Rajendran raided hotels and other boarding places in the industrial hub,
which witnessed serial bomb blasts a decade ago.
During one such search at Lanka Corner, the police found three men hiding in
a lodge. When enquired, the trio Samsudeen (23), Irfan Ahmed (20) and Abdul
Thameem (21), all reportedly from Kozhikode, gave contradictory statements
in Malayalam, Hindi and English.
This further fuelled the doubts of the police. A search in their room
revealed that the trio possessed a map of Coimbatore, a diary, four mobile
phones and two 'willphones' (wireless in local loop). It was found that they
spoke to Dubai and Arab countries from their phones.
Police sources said that they might have had plans to 'orchestrate'
explosions in the city. A search is on for a duo, both Coimbatore residents,
who allegedly took the three persons on a tour to important places of the
city including railway station, airport, Collector's office, Police
Commissioner's office, telephone exchange, star hotels, hospitals and other
important establishments. Further interrogations are on at the Race Course
police station.
It is to be noted that Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Monday said Tamilnadu
would seek a detachment of the elite National Security Guards to be
stationed at Chennai, following the terror attacks on the country's business
capital Mumbai.
At an urgent meeting of senior police officials at the
Secretariat, Karunanidhi took stock of the security scenario and
preparedness of the police force in Tamilnadu. Among other issues, the
reaction mechanism of the law enforcing agencies in the event of an
emergency was discussed at length.
According to Inspector General of Police (Operations), Ashutosh Shukla, the
Tamilnadu Commando Force, which presently has 290 well-trained commandos,
would request for acquiring modern weaponry, sophisticated gadgets and
specialised training facilities**
* *
* *

பெண்கள் விவாகரத்து கோருவதை இஸ்லாம் தடை செய்கிறது

2008-12-01T22:47:00.000-08:00

Pakistani Law Minister: Islam Does Not Allow A Woman To Divorce

Pakistan’s Minister for Law and Justice Farooq H. Naek has stated that in Islam a woman does not have the right to divorce her husband. Naek declared that he will review a recommendation of the Islamic Ideological Council in this regard.

The Islamic Ideological Council, a constitutional body that advises the government of Pakistan, recently recommended that the government enact a law under which a Muslim woman can have her marriage annulled if her husband fails to respond to her request for divorce within 90 days.

The Council’s recommendation has been widely criticized by religious groups in Pakistan. Naek pledged to consult with religious leaders in Pakistan before legislating on the issue. He added that the government will make laws in consonance with Islam.

Source: Roznama Jang, Pakistan, November 25, 2008

http://www.thememriblog.org/urdupashtu/blog_personal/en/11639.htm

காபிர் இந்தியாவுக்கு எதிராக பயங்கரவாத முஸ்லீம்கள் கைகோர்த்தனர்

2008-12-01T22:45:00.000-08:00

Roznama Jang: Militant Organizations Support Pakistan Against India

The Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Jang reports that all key militant groups in Pakistan’s tribal districts have offered a ceasefire in support of the Pakistani government should it decide to deploy its troops on the Indian border in view of the increasing tension after the Mumbai attacks.

There are indications that Pakistan may accept the ceasefire offer and stop military operations against the Taliban. The report added: ‘‘As a positive sign that this ceasefire offer may be accepted, the Pakistan Army has, as a first step, declared before the media some notorious militant commanders, including Baitullah Mehsud and Maulvi Fazlullah, as “patriotic” Pakistanis.’’
Baitullah Mehsud and Maulvi Fazlullah are the key leaders of the Taliban movement in Pakistan. Baitullah Mehsud has also been accused of plotting the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

The report added: ‘‘These two militant commanders... have invariably been accused of terrorism against Pakistan but the aftermath of the Mumbai carnage has suddenly turned terrorists into patriots.’’
The Roznama Jang quoted a senior Pakistani security official as saying: “We have no big issues with the militants in Fata [tribal districts]. We have only some misunderstandings with Baitullah Mehsud and Fazlullah. These misunderstandings could be removed through dialogue.”

Source: Roznama Jang, Pakistan, December 1, 2008

http://www.thememriblog.org/urdupashtu/blog_personal/en/11745.htm

பாகிஸ்தானில் ஆதிவாசி புஷ்தூன்களுக்கும் மேல்ஜாதி முஸ்லீம்களுக்கும் இடையே ஜாதிக்கலவரம்

2008-12-01T22:44:00.000-08:00

பாகிஸ்தானில் ஆதிவாசி புஷ்தூன்களுக்கும் மேல்ஜாதி முஸ்லீம்களுக்கும் இடையே ஜாதிக்கலவரம் - குறைந்த பட்சம் இருபது பேர் படுகொலை.

Karachi Burns In Ethnic Conflict – 20 People Killed

During two days of rioting and arson attacks between the city’s native residents and Pashtun settlers in Pakistan’s biggest commercial city of Karachi, at least 20 people have been killed and 50 injured and hospitalized.

Recently, media reports had spoken of allegations that Taliban militants from Pakistan’s tribal districts are hiding among the Pashtun populations settled in Karachi, causing tensions between Pashtun and non-Pashtun populations in the city.

On Sunday, attacks on residents and aerial firings were reported from North Nazimabad, New Karachi, Gulberg, Sachal, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Nazimabad, Gulbahar, Orangi Town, Manghopir, Peerabad, Papoosh Nagar and other areas in Karachi.

Source: The News, Pakistan, December 1, 2008

http://www.thememriblog.org/urdupashtu/blog_personal/en/11778.htm

உ.பியில் வெளிநாட்டு இஸ்லாம் மத பிரச்சாரகர்கள் வெளியேற்றம்

2008-12-01T22:40:00.000-08:00

மும்பை ஜிகாதி தாக்குதல்களை தொடர்ந்து உ.பியில் வெளிநாட்டு இஸ்லாம் மத பிரச்சாரகர்கள் வெளியேற்றம்.

12 Foreign Preachers In Indian State Barred

In the Chandauli district of India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh, police officials have asked 12 foreigners on tourist visas to stop preaching Islam and leave the district.

Police officials disclosed that the 12 foreigners were residing in a mosque in the Chakiya village of the district. Of the 12 preachers, seven were from Indonesia, two from Australia and one each from South Africa, Trinidad and England.

Source: ibnlive.in.com, India, November 29, 2008

http://www.thememriblog.org/urdupashtu/blog_personal/en/11779.htm

Pakistani Leader: ‘‘If India Attacks, Several Pakistans Will Be Created Within India’’

2008-12-01T22:39:00.000-08:00

Pakistani Leader: ‘‘If India Attacks, Several Pakistans Will Be Created Within India’’

Expressing a growing concern in Pakistan about a likely Indian response to the Mumbai terror attacks, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, who was Pakistan’s federal minister for information and broadcasting until early this year, has warned that if India attacks Pakistan, several Pakistans will be created within India.

Urging the Pakistani government to give a befitting reply to Indian accusations that the 11/26 attacks in Mumbai were planned by Pakistani nationals, Ahmed added that the United States, Israel and India are working to dismantle Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and the country’s nuclear program.

Ahmed, who early this year formed his own political party called the Awami Muslim League, also asked the government of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to stop the supply lines through Pakistan to the U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. He added: ‘‘If Pakistan stops the supply lines, NATO cannot fight the Afghan war even for two days.’’

Source: Roznama Khabrain, Pakistan, December 1, 2008

Source:
http://www.thememriblog.org/urdupashtu/blog_personal/en/11744.htm

Indians condemning Mumbai Jihadi attacks, abused at Sanfrancisco rally

2008-12-01T02:05:00.000-08:00

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
PRINT E-MAIL SHARE COMMENTS (33) FONT | SIZE:

(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.

IMAGES

View More Images
MORE NEWS

S.F. AIDS Ward 86 - 25 years of saving lives 11.30.08
AIDS: This is no time for complacency 11.30.08
India's leaders promise security reform 11.30.08
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.

Mumbai attacks: Jihadists see "invasion" as a triumph

2008-11-30T08:17:00.000-08:00

Mumbai attacks: Jihadists see "invasion" as a triumph

In India, some already call it the "Invasion of Bombay" and their country's 9/11 moment. This is no exaggeration. For, although the deadly raids on India's economic capital did not claim as many lives as 9/11 did in New York, the psychological impact is likely to be as potent.

By Amir Taheri
Last Updated: 9:39AM GMT 30 Nov 2008

The "invasion" showed that Islamic terror is capable of organising military-style operations against major urban centres in "infidel territory".

Since 1993 when they first gathered in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, to discuss global strategy, Islamic terrorists have come up with a number of theories on how to defeat the "infidel" and achieve world conquest.

Osama bin Laden had theorised that the "infidel", led by the United States, would crumble after spectacular attacks designed to cripple its economy, just as the Meccan "infidel" government did when the Prophet Muhammad crushed its resistance with deadly raids, "Ghazwas", against its trade routes.

However, 9/11 did not lead to an "infidel" retreat. On the contrary, the "Great Satan" hit back, destroying the structures created in Afghanistan to sustain global terror.

That persuaded some al Qaeda leaders that a new strategy was needed. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's number two, started advocating one in 2003, arguing that the Jihad should first target Muslim countries where it had a chance of toppling the "impious" regimes.

Three years later, another theoretician of Jihad, Sheikh Abu-Bakr Naji, proposed his new strategy. This suggests that low intensity war be extended to anywhere in the world with a significant Muslim presence. India, where Muslims account for more than 15 per cent of the population, and Bombay, where 25 per cent of the population is Muslim, are prime candidates for testing that theory.

Naji's theories are spelled out in his book 'Edarat al-Wahsh' (Governance in the Wilderness). The idea is to render places not under "proper Islamic rule" into wildernesses in which no one is safe. The "infidel" and the "impious Muslim", leaving their homes every morning, should be unsure whether they would return in the evening.

Naji recommends kidnappings, the holding of hostages, the use of women and children as human shields, exhibition beheadings, suicide bombings and countless gestures that make normal life impossible for the "infidel" and "impious Muslims".

Whoever organised the "Invasion of Bombay" must have read Naji with care. For the operation amounted to smorgasbord of terror tactics served at the same banquet. Seizure of territory, holding of hostages, suicide attacks, regular military assaults, and exhibition killing were on show for more than 48 hours.

Islamists see the "Invasion of Bombay" as their victory. In their websites yesterday, many called it "Clear Victory" (Fath al-mobeen), a term used to designate the Prophet's earliest victories.

The Jihadists have reason to feel triumphant.

They showed that they were still capable of hitting hard and on a grand scale, continuing the chain of their "triumphs" in New York, Madrid and London. They showed that they are able to change tactics and adapt to new circumstances. They made a mockery of the much advertised "counter-terrorism cooperation" between Washington and New Delhi by showing that Indians were not any safer as a result of their government's alliance with the American " Great Satan".

The utter confusion of Indian counter-terrorist units, rushing about like headless chickens, seen live on TV by millions, must have been greeted by Jihadists with their usual war cry of "Allah Akbar!" (Allah is the Greatest).

Just a few weeks ago, Jihadism was in retreat.

It had lost its bases and safe havens in Afghanistan, was under attack in Pakistan's tribal area, and all but abandoned by the new leadership in Islamabad under President Asif Ali Zardari. Appeals on Jihadist websites for money indicated a cash flow problem while denunciation of Jihadi methods by some leading Muslim theologians affected the flow of new "Volunteers for Martyrdom". The "invasion" may help ease pressure on Jihadists nested in Pakistan's tribal area by diverting public attention to India and the dispute over Kashmir.

More importantly, perhaps, the attacks showed the vulnerability of Indian democracy and economic growth which some Muslim intellectuals have been promoting as models for Islamic nations. The Jihadi response is categorical: Only Islam is the solution! (Al-Islam how-al hall).

The "invasion" is certain to persuade some former donors to resume disbursing "zakat" or religious tax that as pious Muslims they feel they should pay for Jihad. It may also attract new recruits, especially among young Muslims of Asian and North African origin in Western Europe.

If the attacks succeed in wrecking Zardari's efforts at peacemaking while derailing rapprochement between Washington and New Delhi, the "invasion" could also produce an unexpected diplomatic fruit for the Jihadis.

This was a bad week for opponents of Islamic terror. India, Pakistan and other governments concerned should do nothing to make it worse.

*Amir Taheri is author of 'Holy Terror: Inside the World of Islamic Terrorism'. His new book, 'The Persian Night', will be published next month.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/3535740/Mumbai-attacks-Jihadists-see-invasion-as-a-triumph.html

Mumbai : Home Minister resigns, at last!

2008-11-30T08:11:00.000-08:00

Patil quits, P Chidambaram to be Home Minister

NDTV Correspondent

Sunday, November 30, 2008 2:55 PM (New Delhi)

A day after the terror attacks on Mumbai ended, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil who had been under fire for long over a spate of terror attacks in the country, resigned on Sunday.

His replacement is current Finance Minister P Chidambaram. However, Chidambaram will no longer hold the charge of the Finance Ministry. It will go to the Prime Minister.

NDTV has learnt that Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh may be next to go. But the CM has said there's no question of him quitting.

Intelligence Bureau director, Home Secretary and other bureaucrats may also be asked to quit.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil met Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and said that he would not resign from his post. Patil, after meeting Deshmukh at his official residence 'Varsha' in south Mumbai, said that there is no possibility of his resignation.

According to latest reports, some senior bureaucrats may also be asked to go, but no one's sure whose head is on the chopping block.

Earlier, Home Minister Shivraj Patil resigned owning moral responsibility for the Mumbai attacks that left almost 200 people dead and the entire nation angry over the latter part of this week.

The home minister has had a troubled stint right through the over four years of the Congress-led UPA regime, and there has been a clamour for his resignation every time there has been a terror attack in the country.

At the Congress Working Committee meeting on Saturday Sonia Gandhi took the lead in saying that irrespective of the elections there is a feeling that the government and the party must take responsibility.

Taking the cue, other senior leaders like Union Ministers P Chidambaram, Kamal Nath, Kapil Sibal and H R Bhardwaj attacked Patil, without naming him, saying somebody must be held responsible.

The refrain of these leaders at the meeting was that strong action is needed in the wake of the Mumbai terror strikes and accountability has to be ensured at the higher as well as lower levels.

Patil then offered to step down, saying he was ready for any decision the CWC took.

The home ministry under Patil has been criticized for not having acted upon Intelligence reports about the likelihood of a major terror attack much before the Mumbai siege happened.

Patil, who has been in public life for over four decades, was brought into the Manmohan Singh Cabinet as he was considered a complete Gandhi loyalist. Since his appointment, Sonia Gandhi had turned down repeated demands for his ouster from the government.

Patil was also one of the Congress' candidates for the post of President last year after the tenure of A P J Abdul Kalam got over. But, the Left parties, which were supporting the government from outside, had put their foot down.

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/mumbaiterrorstrike/Election_Story.aspx?ID=NEWEN20080074673&type=News

Israel calls India's reaction 'slow, confused'

2008-11-29T07:56:00.000-08:00

Israel calls India's reaction 'slow, confused'
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/israel-calls-indias-reaction-slow-confused...

New Delhi: As India turned down Israel's offer to send its crack
commandos to Mumbai to rescue Israeli hostages held in a Jewish
centre, an influential newspaper in Tel Aviv has criticised "slow,
confused and inefficient" response of Indian authorities to the terror
attacks in Mumbai.

"In the first several hours after the Mumbai incidents began, the
response of the Indian authorities was slow, confused and
inefficient," said an article in Haaretz, entitled "Is al Qaeda behind
the Mumbai terror attacks?"

"The first forces sent to the scene were inexperienced local police
officers, who suffered many casualties as a result," said the article
published in Friday's edition of the daily.

"It took some time before military and security authorities realised
the scope of the attack and deployed skilled security forced,
including army and navy commando units," the article said.

The editorial pages of Haaretz, published in both Hebrew and English,
are considered influential among government leaders, intellectuals,
academics, and professionals.

The bodies of five Jews were found inside the Jewish centre - Nariman
House - a home to Chabad Lubavich sect, in which an Israeli rabbi and
his family were trapped.

"India said a polite no to an offer by Israel for dispatching counter
terror forces," Haaretz pointed out.

"It appears the Indian government is not interested in high profile
security assistance from Israel. Throughout the day, the Homefront
Command prepared to send an aid delegation to India but efforts were
halted when it became clear that Delhi was not enthusiastic about the
prospect," the daily said.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni Thursday
offered Israel's assistance to India in dealing with terror attacks
and its aftermath. Livni also called her Indian counterpart Pranab
Mukherjee and underlined her country's solidarity in the fight against
terrorism.

Tel Aviv is not happy with New Delhi's rejection of its offer to send
its elite commando force to rescue hostages trapped in Mumbai's luxury
hotels and in Nariman House, reliable sources said.

The Israeli defence minister also expressed concerns over the fate of
Israelis caught up in the attacks. He also thanked the Indian
government for its efforts to trace the missing Israeli nationals
visiting Mumbai. New Delhi: As India turned down Israel's offer to
send its crack commandos to Mumbai to rescue Israeli hostages held in
a Jewish centre, an influential newspaper in Tel Aviv has criticised
"slow, confused and inefficient" response of Indian authorities to the
terror attacks in Mumbai.

"The first forces sent to the scene were inexperienced local police
officers, who suffered many casualties as a result," said the article
published in Friday's edition of the daily.

"It took some time before military and security authorities realised
the scope of the attack and deployed skilled security forced,
including army and navy commando units," the article said.

The editorial pages of Haaretz, published in both Hebrew and English,
are considered influential among government leaders, intellectuals,
academics, and professionals.

The bodies of five Jews were found inside the Jewish centre - Nariman
House - a home to Chabad Lubavich sect, in which an Israeli rabbi and
his family were trapped.

"India said a polite no to an offer by Israel for dispatching counter
terror forces," Haaretz pointed out.

Tel Aviv is not happy with New Delhi's rejection of its offer to send
its elite commando force to rescue hostages trapped in Mumbai's luxury
hotels and in Nariman House, reliable sources said.

Dawood involved in Mumbai terror attacks?

2008-11-29T07:54:00.000-08:00

*Dawood involved in Mumbai terror attacks?*
NDTV Correspondent
Saturday, November 29, 2008 6:17 PM (Mumbai)

The war against terror in Mumbai ended on Saturday after almost 60 hours of
gunbattle between forces and the terrorists. Now that the NSG commandos have
gunned down the terrorists and arrested one, the focus has moved to finding
out the culprits behind the dastardly attacks.

As per the results of the initial investigations, Mumbai police have said
that the involvement of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim cannot be ruled out.

The Mumbai police have also revealed that the terrorists carried college ID
cards and were aged between 18 and 28.

Giving stronger indications of across the border links in the attack, the
police said that all terrorists came from Karachi.

Apart from these, the police said that IP address of Deccan Mujahideen, the
group that had earlier claimed the responsibility of the attacks, have been
traced to outside India.

*Dawood aide lent logistic support*

Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's henchman, suspected to be a Colaba-based
businessman, handed over arms and explosives to Lashkar-e-Toiba militants
for carrying out attacks in Mumbai, in what is emerging as the first major
joint operation by the Karachi-based gangster and the banned outfit,
official sources said in Mumbai.

Ajmal Amin, the only militant arrested during the operation, told
interrogators that the dozen ultras who sailed from Karachi had come to
Sasool dock from where they were taken first to Cuff Parade and later to
Gateway of India in boats arranged by a front man of Dawood, who runs
several custom clearing houses in Mumbai, the sources claimed.

Mumbai police and central security agencies have launched a massive manhunt
for the businessman considered as a henchman of Dawood, who has been listed
as Global Terrorist having links to Al-Qaida by the United States.

The suspect looks after some customs clearing mechanism and also indulges in
diesel smuggling for the underworld don, the sources claimed.

After getting into waiting boats arranged by Dawood's gang in Mumbai, arms,
ammunition and plastic explosives were quickly transferred to the waiting
boats that took the terrorists to the Gateway of India which was had been
marked as launching pad for the terror strike, the first of its kind in the
country terrorism history.

The Intelligence agencies had sent a warning note to Coast Guard to keep a
watch for an unidentified Pakistani trawler sailing from Karachi port which
may enter into Indian waters. While the coast guard was looking for a
Pakistani or unidentified vessel, the terrorists hijacked Indian fishing
trawler "MV Kuber" killing its crew and entered the Mumbai seas.

Mumbai Jihadis intended to kill at least 5,000 people

2008-11-29T07:37:00.000-08:00

http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1710739 5,000
people: R.R. Patil

*Mumbai: Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil said the terrorists that
attacked 10 prominent places in Mumbai "intended to kill at least 5,000
people" and were getting instructions from abroad via satellite phones
throughout their 59-hour standoff with security forces.
*
"There were 10 terrorists in all. Nine were killed, while one has been
captured alive. They had been continuously getting instructions from abroad
via satellite phones," Patil told reporters at a press conference also
attended by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

When asked which country they were getting support from, the minister said:
"You all know which country."

"The terrorists came from the sea route Wednesday morning. They landed at a
tiny fishing port in Colaba called Saffoon Dock. From there, they took a
taxi in which all their arms and ammunitions were loaded," Patil said.

Patil said preliminary investigations revealed that "the terrorists wanted
to kill more than 5,000 people in the attack".

"Police have recovered two live bombs, each weighing eight kilograms from
the dead terrorists. GPS equipment and sophisticated satellite phones were
also recovered from them," he added.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service

Mumbai Jihadists Freed Turkish Hostages Because they were Muslims

2008-11-28T09:35:00.000-08:00

Mumbai Jihadists Freed Turkish Hostages Because they were Muslims

11/28/2008

Jihad Watch (www.jihadwatch.org/)

It is not "insulting to Islam" to notice that the Mumbai attackers identify themselves as "mujahideen" -- that is, jihadists, and jihad is an Islamic religious, legal, and political concept.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Jihad Watch) - Who are the attackers in Mumbai? According to AFP, they're "militants" and "extremists." According to the Press Trust of India, they're "terrorists." According to the Indian Foreign Minister, they're backed by "elements in Pakistan."

AP speaks of "suspected Muslim militants," and the Jerusalem Post dares to write about "Islamic terrorists," but in general in the mainstream media there is the expected reticence about identifying the attackers as jihadists or as Muslims at all, and no discussion whatsoever of the Islamic texts and teachings that almost certainly inspired them to this spree of murder and mayhem.

And some will say: what does it matter? There are "extremists" in every religious tradition. You are intent on identifying these attackers as Muslims and jihadists solely out of some irrational hatred for Islam, or racism, or bigotry, or some such.

The response to this is that it is impossible to defeat an enemy one does not understand. Islamic theology and law provide innumerable insights into the behavior and priorities of the jihadists -- and that may be why the Organization of the Islamic Conference is so intent on getting the UN to criminalize any critical examination of Islamic texts and teachings, even for counter-terror purposes.

It is not "insulting to Islam" to notice that the Mumbai attackers identify themselves as "mujahideen" -- that is, jihadists, and jihad is an Islamic religious, legal, and political concept.

That concept is in play here in numerous ways, and this story reveals another: the Mumbai jihadists set free their Muslim hostages, almost certainly because of Islamic strictures against fighting against one's fellow Muslims (cf. Qur'an 4:92, which prohibits a Muslim from killing another Muslim).

"Turkish couple let off by terrorists for being Muslims," by Clara Lewis and Anahita Mukherji in the Times of India, November 28:

"MUMBAI: When faced with a volley of gunshots, while sipping coffee at the Oberoi Hotel on Wednesday night, Ali Arpaciouglu, a Turkish citizen on a business trip to Mumbai, chose to escape through the hotel kitchen and down a flight of stairs that opened onto the road outside.

This was probably one of the best decisions he took. On the other hand, his business partner, Meltem Muezzinoglu, and her husband, Seyfi, both Turks, when faced with the same situation, decided to dash out of the restaurant and head upstairs instead. When terrorists laid siege to the hotel, the Muezzinoglus were held hostage....

The Muezzinoglus, however, found themselves in a hostage situation, along with a group of foreigners. That night, they shared a room with three foreigners - all women. Two machine-gun-wielding terrorists stood guard over them the whole night.

All the hostages were asked to reveal their religion. When the Muezzinoglus said they were Muslims, their captors told them that they would not be harmed. The other three Caucasian women were removed from the room next day, and the terrorists informed the Muezzinoglus that they had been shot...."

http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=30774

Mumbai Attackers Are Jihadis by Any Name - Middle East Times

2008-11-28T09:34:00.000-08:00

Mumbai Attackers Are Jihadis by Any Name

By CLARE M. LOPEZ

Published: November 28, 2008

TIMED FOR AMERICAN EYES -- A hotel guest from the Taj Mahal is rescued following a terrorist attack on the hotel and eight other targets across Mumbai, India’s financial capital on Nov. 26. (Sipa via Newscom)

The attacks bear all the hallmarks of al-Qaida: massive, multiple, and simultaneous assaults against soft civilian targets. Mumbai is also India's largest city, its financial center, and its gateway to the globalized economy characteristics eerily reminiscent of New York City. The timing of the Mumbai attacks - on the night before Americans celebrate Thanksgiving - ensured that a maximum number of American families would be gathered together in living rooms equipped with large screen HDTVs. Thanksgiving Day follow-on reporting would interrupt parades and football games on a regular basis throughout the next 24 hours.

Both India and Mumbai have been the target of terrorist attacks in the recent past by groups identifying themselves as Indian Mujahedin or the Students' Islamic Movement of India. E-mails sent to various media outlets and captured gunmen have claimed that the attackers seek release from prison of Indian Muslims and an end to what they claim is persecution of Indian Muslims.

Claims such as these are in fact only incidental to the central reason for these horrific attacks. Most of the Indian sub-continent — that now includes the predominantly Hindu state of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan as well as the People's Republic of Bangladesh — once belonged to the Islamic umma under the Mughal emperors. The division of British India into today's multiple nation states split Muslims from Muslims, some of whom seek to regain lost territory for Islam.

India, as an increasingly prosperous free market democracy, whose nuclear arsenal faces off against Pakistan's turbulent and equally nuclear-armed society, is an obligatory target for jihadist groups. As long as India remains democratic, free and Hindu, jihad to compel its return to Islam is mandatory, according to Islamic doctrine.

Strategically, the Mumbai attacks inevitably will precipitate a new crisis in Indian-Pakistani relations. The two had been on a tentative path to some measure of rapprochement meant to step down tensions from a series of earlier jihadist attacks including the 2006 Mumbai commuter train bombings and the assassination of Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto almost one year ago.

Now, with Pakistan already facing increasing pressure from NATO coalition forces along its northern border with Afghanistan as well attacks from its own internal extremist elements, the certain accusations from India could well tip these two historical adversaries over the edge into a renewed and dangerous confrontation.

Focus against Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in its Northwest Frontier Provinces and Federally Administered Tribal Areas will shift back to the tense border with India, including the perpetually conflicted Kashmir valley. Calculated instigation of renewed confrontation between India and Pakistan could well take attention away from the hunt for high-value targets, which has been notching up an impressive record of success in recent weeks.

The international community must not allow these jihadist tactics to work. The killers' deliberate focus on singling out for attack some of Mumbai's best-known tourist treasures, such as the Taj Mahal Hotel, the Oberoi Tower, and its magnificent train station, in addition to the Jewish cultural center at Chabad House and American and British citizens, leaves no doubt about the real target of this military-style assault: it is Dar al-Harb which Islamist jihadis are determined to bring into the Dar al-Islam.

All who are thankful for the freedoms of liberal tolerant society under rule of man-made law must understand that just as Mumbai was the target this time, and Bali, Glasgow, Jerusalem, London, Madrid, New York, and Washington, D.C. have been targets before, in the eyes of these jihadis, we are all harbis (enemies).

We are all the targets of those who would impose the harsh strictures of Sharia on the entire world. Whether by military assault with bombs and gunfire, or through the soft jihad of dawa and infiltration, jihad is aimed at conquest. That we still have the ability to recognize that objective and oppose it with every means at the disposal of a free society is reason for all of us to be thankful.

Clare M. Lopez is the vice president of the Intelligence Summit (www.intelligencesummit.org) and a professor at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies (www.cicentre.com).

India, Jihad's Permanent Battleground

2008-11-28T09:33:00.000-08:00

India, Jihad's Permanent Battleground

Chronicles Magazine November 28 2008
By Srdja Trifkovic

Teams of heavily armed terrorists carried out seven coordinated attacks in India's financial capital "Mumbai" (Bombay) on Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning. Over 120 people were reported killed by Friday morning and over 300 wounded, with the final toll likely to rise once the ongoing hostage crisis is ended.

Similar attacks by Islamic terrorists occur with grim regularity in India (see Timetable at the end). The disputed province of Kashmir notwithstanding, militant Islam sees the second most populous country in the world as a piece of "unfinished business": having been ruled by Muslims once, it cannot legitimately revert to Dar al-Harb.

The attacks represent a massive intelligence failure on part of the government in New Delhi. Even India's business capital is now seen as a soft target for Jihadist terror, yet the ruling Congress Party continues its old habit of minority appeasement and automatic insistence that the problem is confined to an unrepresentative extremist fringe aided from abroad (i.e. Pakistan). This attitude indicates common ideological roots of India's political and media elite and its Western role model. Both are supine, secularist and leftist to boot.

Now that the jihadists have targeted two luxury hotels and a top-tier restaurant frequented by visiting foreigners, now that they have brought their holy war to India's upper crust and their Western business partners, the country's elite class should wake up to the fact that India has a Muslim problem. That problem is fundamentally the same in each and every country in the world with a substantial Muslim minority.

It would be there even if the government in Islamabad and its semi-rogue agencies like the ISI were to terminate all support for Islamic terrorist groups active across the Subcontinent (which will never happen, of course). The attacks remind us that global Jihad has India in its sights, no less firmly today than in the early centuries of the expansion of Islam's bloody borders.

Prior to the Muslim invasions which started in the 8th century India was one of the world's great civilizations. It matched its contemporaries in the realms of philosophy, mathematics, and natural science. It was a richly imaginative culture, one of the half-dozen most advanced civilizations of all time. Its sculptures were vigorous and sensual, its architecture ornate and spellbinding.

Muslim invaders began entering India in the early eighth century, on the orders of Hajjaj, the governor of Iraq. Starting in 712 the raiders, commanded by Muhammad Qasim, demolished temples, shattered sculptures, plundered palaces, killed vast numbers of men—it took them three days to slaughter the inhabitants of the port city of Debal—and carried off their women and children to slavery.

After the initial wave of violence, however, Qasim tried to establish law and order in the newly conquered lands, and to that end he even allowed a degree of religious tolerance. Upon hearing of such practices, his superior, Hajjaj, wrote back:

You go on giving pardon to everybody, high or low, without any discretion between a friend and a foe. The great Allah says in the Kuran [47.4]: "O True believers, when you encounter the unbelievers, strike off their heads." The above command is a great command and must be respected and followed. You should not be so fond of showing mercy, as to nullify the virtue of the act. Henceforth, grant pardon to no one of the enemy and spare none of them, or else all will consider you a weak-minded man.

In a subsequent communication, Hajjaj reiterated that all able-bodied men were to be killed, and that their underage sons and daughters were to be enslaved. Qasim obeyed, and, on his arrival at the town of Brahminabad, massacred thousands of men.

Qasim's early exploits were continued in the early eleventh century, when Mahmud of Ghazni "passed through India like a whirlwind, destroying, pillaging, and massacring," zealously following the Kuranic injunctions to kill idolaters, whom he had vowed to chastise every year of his life. In the course of seventeen invasions, in the words of Alberuni, the scholar brought by Mahmud to India,

Mahmud utterly ruined the prosperity of the country and performed there wonderful exploits, by which the Hindus became like atoms of dust scattered in all directions, and like a tale of old in the mouth of the people. Their scattered remains cherish, of course, the most inveterate aversion toward all Muslims.

In the aftermath of the invasion, in the ancient cities of Varanasi, Mathura, Ujjain, Maheshwar, Jwalamukhi, and Dwarka, not one temple survived whole and intact. In his The Story of Civilization, Will Durant lamented the results of what he termed "probably the bloodiest story in history." He called it

a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex order and freedom can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without and multiplying from within…. [E]ternal vigilance is the price of civilization. A nation must love peace, but keep its powder dry.

Islamic invaders broke and burned everything beautiful they came across in Hindustan, displaying, as an Indian commentator put it, the resentment of the less developed warriors who felt intimidated in the encounter with a more refined culture. The Muslim sultans built mosques at the sites of torn down temples, and countless Hindus were sold into slavery.

As far as the invaders were concerned, Hindus were kafirs par excellence. They, and to a lesser extent the peaceful Buddhists, were not "of the book" — "protected," like Jews and Christians, provided they submit to dhimmitude – but at the receiving end of Muhammad's implacable injunction against pagans: "Kill those who join other gods with God wherever you may find them." (Kuran, 9:5-6)

The mountainous northwestern approaches to India are called Hindu Kush, "the Slaughter of the Hindu," a reminder of the days when Hindu slaves from Indian Subcontinent died in the harsh Afghan mountains while being transported to Muslim courts of Central Asia. The slaughter in Somnath, the site of a celebrated Hindu temple, where 50,000 Hindus were slain on Mahmud's orders, set the tone for centuries.

The Buddhists were the next to be subjected to mass slaughter in 1193, when Muhammad Khilji also burned their famous library. By the end of the twelfth century, following the Muslim conquest of their stronghold in Bihar, they were no longer a significant presence in India. The survivors retreated into Nepal and Tibet, or escaped to the south of the Subcontinent. The remnants of their culture lingered on even as far west as Turkestan.

Left to the tender mercies of Muslim conquerors and their heirs, they were systematically destroyed, sometimes—as was the case with the four giant statues of Buddha destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan in March 2001—as late as the first year of the third millennium.

That cultivated disposition and developed sensibility can go hand in hand with bigotry and cruelty is evidenced by the example of Firuz Shah, who became the ruler of northern India in 1351. This educated yet tyrannical Muslim ruler once surprised a village where a Hindu religious festival was celebrated and ordered all present to be slain. He proudly related that, upon completing the slaughter, he destroyed the temples and in their place built mosques.

The Moghul emperor Akbar is remembered as tolerant, and only one major massacre was recorded during his long reign (1542–1605), when he ordered that about 30,000 captured Rajput Hindus be slain on February 24, 1568, after the battle for Chitod. But Akbar's acceptance of other religions and toleration of their public worship, his abolition of poll-tax on non-Muslims, and his interest in other faiths were not a reflection of his Islamic spirit of tolerance.

Quite the contrary, they indicated his propensity for free-thinking experimentation in the realm of religion that finally led him to complete apostasy. Its high points were the formal declaration of his own infallibility in all matters of religious doctrine, his promulgation of a new creed, and his adoption of Hindu and Zoroastrian festivals and practices.

Things were back to normal under Shah Jahan (1593–1666), the fifth Mogul Emperor and a grandson of Akbar the Great. Most Westerners remember him as the builder of Taj Mahal and do not know that he was a cruel warmonger who initiated 48 military campaigns against non-Muslims in less than 30 years.

Taking his cue from his Ottoman co-religionists, on coming to the throne in 1628 he killed all his male relations except one who escaped to Persia. During his reign, in Benares alone 76 Hindu temples were destroyed, and Christian churches at Agra and Lahore were demolished. At the end of the three-month siege of Hugh, a Portuguese enclave near Calcutta, he had 10,000 inhabitants "blown up with powder, drowned in water, or burnt by fire." More than 4,000 were taken captive to Agra where they were offered Islam or death. Most refused and were killed, except for the younger women who went to harems.

The massacres perpetrated by Muslims in India are unparalleled in history. They are bigger in sheer numbers than the Holocaust, or the massacre of the Armenians by the Turks; more extensive even than the slaughter of the South American native populations by the invading Spanish and Portuguese.

Major recent attacks by Islamic terrorists in India:

March 12, 1993: 257 killed and more than 1,000 injured in 15 co-ordinated bomb attacks in Bombay. The blasts were orchestrated by an Islamic group headed by Dawood Ibrahim.
February 14, 1998: 46 people were killed and more than 200 injured in 13 car bombs in the city of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The attacks were blamed on the "Al Umma" Islamist group.
October 1, 2001: Militants belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Kashmiri group, attacked Jammu and Kashmir Assembly complex in Srinagar, killing 35 people.
December 13, 2001: Attack on the Indian Parliament complex in New Delhi led to the killing of a dozen people and 18 injured. Four members of the Pakistan-based Islamist group Jaish-e-Mohammed were later convicted for their part in the plot.
September 24, 2002: 31 people killed, 79 wounded at Akshardham temple in Gujarat
May 14, 2002: Islamic attackers killed more than 30 people in an Army camp near Jammu.
March 13, 2003: A bomb attack on a commuter train in Mumbai killed 11.
Aug. 25, 2003: Twin car bombings in Mumbai killed at least 52 people and injured 150. Indian authorities blamed the Kashmiri Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba
July 5, 2005: Attack on the Ram Janmabhoomi complex, the site of the destroyed Babri Mosque at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.
Oct. 29, 2005: Three explosions in busy shopping areas of south Delhi, two days before the Hindu festival of Diwali, killed 59 and injured 200. Islami Inqilabi Mahaz (Islamic Revolutionary Group) claimed responsibility, but authorities blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba
March 7, 2006: A series of bombings in the holy city of Varanasi killed at least 28 and injured over a hundred. Indian investigators blamed Pakistan-based Islamic terrorists.
July 11, 2006: Seven bomb blasts on the Mumbai Suburban Railway killed over 200 people. Police blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba and Students Islamic Movement of India.
Sept. 8, 2006: At least 37 people were killed and 125 were injured in a series of explosions near a mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra. The Islamic Movement of India claimed responsibility.
Aug. 25, 2007: Forty-two people killed and 50 injured in twin explosions at a crowded park in Hyderabad by Harkat-ul-Jehad-i-Islami (HuJI).
May 13, 2008: A series of six explosions in Jaipur killed 63 people and injured more than 150.
July 26, 2008: Serial explosions in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad killed 45 people and injured more than 150. The Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility.
Sept. 13, 2008: Five bomb blasts in New Delhi's popular shopping centers left 21 people dead and more than 100 injured. The Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility.

And yet, The New York Times manages to produce a long reports on the attacks without mentioning the word "Muslim" or "Islamic" even once!

Posted November 28th, 2008 by hrc

http://europenews.dk/en/node/16654

Transcripts of telephonic conversation with Mumbai Jihadis

2008-11-28T09:30:00.000-08:00

Terrorists Ring Up India TV Twice During Siege Using Hostages’ Cellphones

New Delhi, Delhi, India, Thursday, November 27, 2008 -- (Business Wire India)

Two terrorists, Shadullah and Imran Babar, rang up India TV twice during the siege on Thursday using cellphones of their hostages to place their points of view.

The first call came in the morning from Shadullah who was holed up in Oberoi Hotel, Mumbai. Using Cellphone no. 09769679723 belonging to a Swedish lady named Lisa Ringner from Room No. 1856, Hotel Oberoi, Shadullah rang up India TV’s popular number 93505 93505 and spoke at length about why he and his colleagues carried out the strikes in Mumbai.

Shadullah claimed that he belonged to Deccan Mujahideen, a little known outfit which had claimed responsibility of the terror strikes in Mumbai on Wednesday night. The anchor repeatedly asked whether he was from Hyderabad, India, or from Hyderabad, Pakistan, to which he replied in his heavily Pakistani accent that he belonged to Hyderabad of the Deccan. Shadullah carried on with his litany of perceived injustices meted out Muslims in India. The conversation ran thus :

India TV – What do you want?
Shadullah – When so many of us were killed, who did anything for us? Babri Masjid was demolished. We were not allowed to stay in peace..That time, nobody was with us. You are talking of surrender.. Let these commandos come.. Hum Uski Aisi Chhutti karega ki Who apne bachhey ko yateem kar lega.(We will get rid of them in such a manner that their sons will become orphans)
India TV- You belong to which place? To which faction do you belong?
Shadullah- We belong to Hyderabad.
India TV—Hyderabad of Pakistan?
Shadullah- No, Hyderabad of the Deccan. And we are from Deccan Mujahideen.
India TV—What are your demands?
Shadullah- Wait for a minute ( he consults with somebody)
India TV—Tell us your demands, because the whole of India is listening to you.
Shadullah—Hello, We demand the release of all mujaheddin put in jails. Then will we release these people. Otherwise..Nahin Toh hum Eent se Eent Bajayega (we will destroy this place)..You must have seen, what’s happening here.
India TV- Tell us, how many of you are there in Oberoi hotel?
Shahdullah—Why should I tell you?
India TV—No, you tell us because you are claiming that so many people are fighting for you..At least tell us, how many of you are there?
Shadullah – Hum saath hain (We are seven)..saath (seven)
India TV- You are seven there in Oberoi Hotel?
Shahdullah—Yes
India TV—Do you have the single demand that all mujaheddin arrested be released.. or do you have any other demand?
Shahdullah - Yes, release them, and we, the Muslim who live in India, should not be harassed.. Things like demolition of Babri Masjid and killings should stop.
India TV—Shahdullah, we want to tell you that you are yourself a citizen of India.. You yourself say that you belong to Hyderbad. Don’t you have love for your own country.. your own Hindustan? Because those who are killed they could be your brothers, or the brothers of others..
Shahdullah--- We love this country.. this is our country..but the issue is this: when our elders, our brothers are killed, didn’t these people see all this? OK ..Allah Haafiz.

The second call was from another terrorist Imran Babar from Nariman House, Mumbai, where he used the cellphone no. 9819464530 belonging to Holtzberg Gaverlein, staying at Nariman House Number 3, Hormusji Street, Colaba, Mumbai. Imran Babar also rang up India TV’s popular number kept aside for viewers 93505 93505. Time: 17:07:05 hrs.

India TV—Hello, Imran, where are you?
Imran Babar – We are here..You call their (Israeli) Army Staff to visit Kashmir.. why is it so?..Who are they to come to J & K..This is a matter between us and Hindus..the Hindu government..Why does that Israel come here..To say that Israel and Palestine..
India TV—Imran, you claim that you are in Nariman House.. How many of your friends are there in Nariman House?
Imran –We know how to live.. how to snatch our rights…
India TV – Imran, are you able to listen to what I am saying?
Imran—Yes, I can hear you..
India TV—Just reply to my question.. How many of you are there in Nariman House?
Imran—I have five persons with me..
India TV—And when did you come to Mumbai?
Imran—Hum log.. Hum log apne kaam se aaya hai (We have come here for our work)..Raah Dekhte Raha (we waited)…Saara maamla aapke samne hai (everything is before you).. Zulm aur zyadati bardasht karke jab hum thak gaya hai, tab humne eisa karne ko majboor ho gaya hai.. Aapke saamne haalaat hai.. Main toh wahi aapko baar baar itihaas bata raha hun..lekin (We are tired of facing tortures and injustice, we are forced to do this.. The situation is in front of you..I am merely repeating history to you, but..) I don’t’ understand why you people talk like this?
India TV—What’s your age, Imran?
Imran—I am 25.
India TV—What’s the age of your friends?
Imran—My other friends are also of the same age…young..adults..

Claiming to have worked as a medical representative in a multinational company, Babar said these attacks were to avenge “torture and injustice”. He, however, skirted the query as to which place he hails from.

India TV repeatedly appealed to both the terrorists to surrender and release the hostages, but they were adamant. India TV informed the security agencies in Delhi and Mumbai as soon as the calls were received from the terrorists. The details of the cellphones were obtained from security agencies, who were keeping track of these conversations.

About Mr Rajat Sharma, Ms Ritu Dhawan, and Independent News Service Private Limited (INS):

Mr Rajat Sharma is Chairman of Independent News Service (INS) and Editor-in-Chief of India TV. India TV is the flagship service of INS. INS was co-founded by Mr Sharma and Ms Ritu Dhawan in 1998. Mr Sharma edited important publications before entering television in 1992 with the iconic 'Aap Ki Adalat' and India's first private news bulletin. With 20 years of work behind her, Ms Dhawan, Managind Director, INS, is one of India's senior-most television producers. India TV Interactive (ITVI) Pvt Ltd..is their newest foray.

INS launched India TV in August 2004. Today it has a talent pool of 500+ personnel. As per TAM data across 41 weeks this year, India TV has been a leader in the C&S Hindi news market.

INS had investment from Fuse+ Media, an entity of ComVentures, a leading Silicon Valley-based venture capital and private equity group with over $1.5 billion of assets under management. Earlier this year, after another strategic investment, INS's enterprise value stood at Rs 500 crore.

http://www.businesswireindia.com/PressRelease.asp?b2mid=17627

Muslim terrorists in Mumbai tell media: 'stop hating us'

2008-11-28T09:20:00.000-08:00

Muslim terrorists in Mumbai tell media: 'stop hating us'

THE terror group that ruthlessly struck at Mumbai's heart has demanded an end to persecution of Muslims and the release of militants from prison.

The previously unknown group that claimed responsibility for the attacks across Mumbai has added to the growing belief that India is confronting a home-grown Islamic militancy.

The vast majority of previous attacks on Indian soil have been squarely blamed on groups based in or directly supported by neighbouring Pakistan.

But attacks over the last year have been claimed by groups with names stressing their local origins.

Deccan Mujahedeen, which said it was responsible for the Mumbai assault on Wednesday night, takes its title from the Deccan plateau that covers much of south India.

The outfit sent emails to local media saying it carried out the attacks.

One of the gunmen holed up in the Trident hotel told the India TV channel by phone on Thursday that the little-known terror outfit wanted an end to the persecution of Indian Muslims and the release of all fellow Islamic militants detained in India.

"Muslims in India should not be persecuted. We love this as our country but when our mothers and sisters were being killed, where was everybody?" he said from inside the hotel, which was surrounded by army commandos.

A similarly shadowy group calling itself the Indian Mujahedeen claimed responsibility for serial blasts in Delhi in September, which killed 20 people, and bombings in the western city of Ahmedabad in July when 45 died.

Another group, the Islamic Security Force-Indian Mujahedeen, said it was behind explosions last month in India's north-east state of Assam that killed 80.

It is unclear whether the various groups are connected, but retired senior security official B Raman has said their chosen names were a "bid to Indianise" the Islamic militant movement.

The Indian Mujahedeen, which also calls itself "the militia of Islam", first came to public attention last November following serial blasts in Uttar Pradesh.

The same group sent another email to the media after blasts in May in the city of Jaipur in which it said it would wage an "open war" against India for supporting the United States, and warned of more attacks against tourist sites.

Security services suspect the groups may be fronts for outfits that have been banned by the Indian government over the past few years such as the Students' Islamic Movement of India.

Others say they could be an undercover coalition of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed militant organisations.

Just minutes before the blasts in Ahmedabad, the main commercial city of Gujarat state, the Indian Mujahedeen sent emails to several television news stations warning that people would "feel the terror of death".

It said the Ahmedabad blasts were revenge for riots which swept Gujarat in 2002 in which at least 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, were hacked, shot and burnt to death.

It has warned India's largest-circulation daily, The Times of India, and other media groups to halt their "propaganda war" against Muslims.

And it has told Mukesh Ambani, India's richest businessman, to "think twice" about his construction of a glass-and-steel 27-storey home on land in Mumbai where a Muslim orphanage once stood.

Since 9/11, Muslims have carried out more than 11,000 attacks all in the name of Islam and Muhammad

2008-11-28T09:13:00.000-08:00

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/6575

Since 9/11, Muslims have carried out more than 11,000 attacks all in the name of Islam and Muhammad

The Religion of Peace Strikes Again

By Alan Caruba Thursday, November 27, 2008

The attacks in Mumbai, India are the latest in the 1,400 year history of Islam and yet people continue to express surprise that the alleged religion of peace could harbor so many cold-blooded killers of innocent people.

Since 9/11, Muslims have carried out more than 11,000 attacks all in the name of Islam and Muhammad. Americans got a taste of it when 3,000 of their own were mercilessly killed without warning and, I might add, without any better reason than Muhammad’s call to “wage war against such of the infidels as are your neighbors.”

With more than 1.3 billion Muslims in the world, about 21 percent of the world’s population, that’s a lot of neighbors and wherever Muslims are gathered in great numbers or wherever they have immigrated, the demand for unbelievers is always the same, convert or die.

The death toll in Mumbai as of this writing is nearing 130 and the target area, just as with 9/11’s attack on the World Trade Center, is the financial center of India. Islam takes a dim view of capitalism wherever it is practiced, but then Islam takes a dim view of everything that is not Islamic.

To understand Islam is to understand two central factors, its sense of superiority and its certitude. While other religions exercise tolerance for those who do not share their faith, Islam requires that “unbelievers” either convert or be killed.

While not all Muslims seek their neighbor’s blood and many are good and decent people, the single truth about Islam is that its holy book is a call to war. This thought is so frightening that most in the West end up denying the threat it poses to their lives. Terror, however, was a means to secure new adherents from its beginning.

In a new book, “The 9/11 Verses: Terrorist Teachings in the Koran”, author Karl J. Trautwein has painstakingly studied the book that Muslims are taught is the word of Allah and the Haddith a collection of stories about Muhammad’s life that are intended to guide the lives of Muslims. Islam lays down rules for every single aspect of a Muslim’s life and it requires prayer five times a day, always facing Mecca. One can purchase the book from http://www.The911Verses.com.

Muslims often point to the Koran’s verses on tolerance, but Trautwein notes that, “Passages teaching peace and tolerance are believed to come from the early days when Muhammad lived in Mecca. Verses calling for hate and violence are believed to have been revealed in Medina, which was later in his life.” In Medina, after Jewish tribes that lived there refused to accept him as a prophet and convert, Muhammad had between 600 and 900 men killed. Their wives and children were taken as slaves.

Trautwein calls Islam “bi-polar” because it contains two totally opposite beliefs and sets of behavior. The violence that the Koran demands cannot be “misinterpreted” any more than its more peaceful, earlier statements. Even so, the Koran promises great rewards for hunting, harming or killing non-believers. A statistical study of the Koran found that 52.7 percent of the verses are hatred aimed at infidels.

The lesson of 9/11, the attacks in Spain, the United Kingdom, Mumbai, and elsewhere around the world is that neither the West, nor anywhere else can “peace” be achieved with Islam. Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, animists and all others are the legitimate targets for Muslims because they are not Muslims or refuse to submit to Islam.

The 21st century is now challenged by the 7th century and, everywhere, it finds itself bewildered by what appears to be appalling and senseless killing.

It makes perfect sense, however, to those who believe they are practicing Islam as commanded by Muhammad and the Koran. The Koran heaps scorn on both Judaism and Christianity despite incorporating aspects of both faiths that preceded Islam, claiming that Muhammad received the Koran from the archangel Gabriel and is the last of the prophets. This is a thin veneer to suggest the legitimacy of Islam.

Western and other nations put themselves at peril when they seek accommodation with Islam and it is an irony that 9/11 marked a moment in time when many Muslims began to question their faith, often leaving it either openly or secretly.

An “insult” to Muhammad carries with it a death sentence. Perceived insults can result in riots and attacks as occurred when a Danish cartoonist drew an unflattering picture of Muhammad. Apostasy, the act of converting to another religion is a death sentence for Muslims. Adultery, homosexuality, alcohol, and a long list of other “offenses” can get you killed.

It is an irony, too, that Muslim nations such as Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, and others find themselves the victims of Islamofascism because Islam does not separate the state from the religion.

The final irony is that the United States of America has elected as its next President, Barack Hussein Obama, born to a Muslim father, adopted by a Muslim step-father while living in Indonesia, and amerced in Islam in his formative years.

Mumbai now becomes another page in the history of Islam’s war on the world when its two major sects, Sunni and Shia, are not making war on one another.

For the West and all around the world, there can be only one response to Islam…

Resistance.

Mumbai Jihadis: "We want all mujahidins held in India released."

2008-11-27T08:47:00.000-08:00

Cruel barbarity against us all
Article from: Font size:DecreaseIncreaseEmail article:EmailPrint article:PrintSubmit comment:Submit comment
Andrew Bolt
November 28, 2008 12:00am
THE slaughter in Mumbai was a barbaric attack not just on India, but on us. On the West.

For the first time in India, Muslim terrorists have singled out Westerners and Jews, and the places they are most likely to visit.

And that makes al-Qaida a prime suspect -- either as a partner with local terrorists or prime mover.

From the gunmen's targets, it seems that al-Qaida or associated Islamist groups have in fact chosen a new, easier, battleground for their war against the West.

This will change all the security thinking for next week's Twenty20 Champions League, in which Victoria and Western Australia, were to compete, and for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

And a naive world will learn that the war on terror they'd hoped would die with the presidency of George W. Bush will be inherited by Barack Obama.

Mumbai has been hit by Islamist terrorists before, of course, but those were very different. The targets were locals, and so were the grievances.

The city's stock exchange, trains and hotels and gas stations were attacked in 1993 by criminals and terrorists who killed 257 people to revenge the killing of Muslims by Hindu mobs.

Ten years later, 52 people were killed in car bombings apparently by Muslims fighting for control of Kashmir, and in July 2006 pro-Kashmiri Islamists bombed commuter trains and railway stations, slaughtering at least 187 more.

But this is dangerously different.

Most of the buildings the young gunmen stormed were places tourists would use or know.

There's the five-star Oberoi and the Taj Mahal Hotel, right next to the iconic Gateway of India.

Also attacked were the main railway station and the exclusive Leopold Cafe, popular with foreigners and the rich, and the place where Australian Kate Anstee was shot in the leg.

Explosions have also been reported near the domestic airport.

Even more telling was that the terrorists reportedly took over Nariman House, a residential complex owned by Jews that contained a Jewish prayer hall and the local office of the Chabad movement.

Also different this time was the taking of hostages.

Again, they were mainly Westerners. British witness Ashok Patel said the terrorists at the Taj Mahal shouted out: "Who has US or UK passports?", and guests at the Oberoi said the terrorists there also singled out Americans and Britons for hostages.

Chabad officials feared that their Mumbai emissary, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, was also being held at gunpoint at Nariman House.

In a way, it's pointless trying to decide exactly which Islamist group this time is formally responsible.

It may be the "Deccan Mujahideen", which contacted Indian media outlets to take the bloody credit, but nothing is known of a group with this studiously local name, and first-timers are unlikely to have the men, organisation, experience, cash or fire-power to launch a co-ordinated strike like this on a dozen targets.

The "Deccan Mujahidin" may just be the latest incarnation of another mysterious group, the "Indian Mujahideen", which boasted of carrying out the bombings in Delhi in September, which killed 20 people, and in Ahmedabad in July, which killed 45. But did they, too, have the resources it took to launch this attack?

The names of these outfits may shift, but it's just a rebadging of the same kind of people inspired by the same ideology. And more telling than their temporary names are the deeds.

True, one of the terrorists in the Oberoi rang India TV to say he belonged to an Indian Islamist group wanting to end persecution of India's Muslims, and demanding: "We want all mujahidins held in India released."

But the attacks themselves point to another, more specific agenda as well.

It's India's links to the West that were attacked -- its hotels, foreigners, Jews, and rail and airport links.

The aim, as with the al-Qaida-linked bombings in Hindu Bali, seems to be to split the country from the West. This would make it part of the Islamists' global war against the West and its freedoms -- a war driven by a deadly amalgam of religion and politics.

Some may see this latest horror as proof that US President George Bush has failed against the war in self-defence he launched after the 9/11 attacks of 2001, and Obama must choose more peaceful ways.

But terrible though they are, these killings are an aberration. The trend in recent years has been for fewer terrorist attacks around the world, even in Iraq, where al-Qaida has been mauled. Since 2001, Islamists have not managed one successful attack on the US. Britain has foiled every big terrorist plot since 2005.

Shambolic India was always an easier target, but one only for the desperate. And for this to be first in there against the West shows how small the appeal of jihad is even in a nation with 150 million Muslims.

Indeed, the Pew Research Centre has polled a dramatic drop in support among Muslims around the world for violent jihad and al-Qaida since 2002.

This is the struggle Obama inherits, and it will not end until Islamists horrify enough fellow Muslims by their pointless slaughter - and until Bush's dream is fulfilled, and Muslim nations share our love for the freedom now under such savage attack in Mumbai.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24718190-5000117,00.html

மும்பை ஜிஹாதி தீவிரவாதம்: இப்படியும் சொல்வார்கள்

2008-11-27T08:28:00.000-08:00

"பிச்சைக்காரர்களே இல்லாத பாகிஸ்தானில் தீவிரவாதிகள் இருக்கிறார்கள் என்று
சொல்வது அபாண்டம். இதை சென்றமுறை பாகிஸ்தானுக்கு என் சொந்த செலவில்
சென்றுவிட்டுவந்த என்னால் உறுதியாகச் சொல்ல முடியும். இந்துத்தீவிரவாதிகளே
பாகிஸ்தானுக்குச் சென்று வெடிகுண்டு வைத்துவிட்டுத் திரும்பிவரும் வழியில்
மீதமிருக்கும் குண்டுகளை என்ன செய்வதென்று தெரியாமல் மும்பையில்
வெடித்திருக்கிறார்கள்."
-- அ.மார்க்ஸ், தீராநதி, டிசம்பர் 2008

"வெடிகுண்டு, தீவிரவாதத்தாக்குதல்களைப் பார்த்து பரிதாபப்படுவது ஒரு
பொதுப்புத்தி. பொதுப்புத்தி எதுவாக இருந்தாலும் அதை செருப்பால் அடிப்பது நம்
மரபு. இல்லையென்றால் ழாக் தெரிதாவைப் படிக்கும் நமக்கும் ரமணிசந்திரனைப்
படிக்கும் ஒரு அற்பப் பதருக்கும் வித்தியாசம் தெரியாமல் போய்விடும். வெடிகுண்டு
வெடித்ததில் பலியானவர்கள் உயர்குடி மக்களென்பதாலும், தாக்குதலை நடத்தியவர்கள்
அப்பாவி, ஏழை, சமுதாய அடுக்கின் கீழ்த்தட்டில் அமர்ந்திருப்பவர்கள்
என்பதாலும்தான் பொதுமக்களாகிய, பார்ப்பன கோட்பாடுகளால் கட்டப்பட்ட நம் இந்திய
ஆட்டுமந்தைகள் இத்தனைக் கண்டனம் செய்கிறார்கள். உண்மையில் வெடிகுண்டு
வெடித்தவர்கள் தூண்டப்பட்டவர்களே. அதைப் பற்றிய ஒரு உண்மையறியும் குழு
அமைக்கப்பட்டு, அறிக்கை விரைவில் பதிவர் சந்திப்பில் பகிர்ந்து கொள்ளப்படும்.
அந்த சந்திப்பில் தாக்குதல்களை அருகிலிருந்து பார்த்த ஒரு பத்திரிகையாளரும்
உண்மைகளைப் பகிர்ந்து கொள்ளப்போகிறார்."

-- ஜ்யோவ்ராம்சுந்தர், நாகார்ஜுனன் வட்டாரம். 28.11.2008

"தீவிரவாதம் என்பதே ஒரு கற்பிதம். தீவிரவாதம் என்ற சொல் நம் பண்டைய
இலக்கியங்களில் பல்வேறு பெயர்களில்
ஒளிந்திருக்கிறது. சேர, சோழ, பாண்டியர்கள் காலங்களில் தீவிரவாதம் வீரம்
என்ற பெயரில் போற்றப்பட்டது. போலந்தில் பிடித்துச் செல்லப்பட்ட ஒரு தீவிரவாதி,
பின்னர் தேசத்தியாகியாகி விடுவிக்கப்பட்டார். மேலும்,தீவிரவாதத்தை காந்தி
முதலானவர்கள் எதிர்த்த காலம் போய், இப்போது நிறைய வீடியோகேம்களில்
தீவிரவாதங்கள் விளையாட்டாய்ப் பார்த்து மகிழப்படுகிறது. இதற்கு என்ன
சொல்கிறீர்கள்?"

-- இந்திரா பார்த்தசாரதி, உயிர்மை, டிசம்பர் 2008.

இதை இஸ்லாமியர்கள் செய்திருப்பார்களா என்பதை நாம் இப்பொழுதே சொல்லி விட
முடியாது. இதுவே இந்துவாக இருந்திருந்தால் உடனடியாக நானே கண்டித்திருப்பேன்.
இதையும் கூட வெறுப்பில் ஊறிய இந்துக்கள் செய்திருக்க சாத்தியம் இருக்கிறது. இதை
இஸ்லாமியர்கள் செய்திருந்தால் அதை அவர்கள் அச்ச உணர்வில் செய்திருக்கிறார்கள்
என்பதை நாம் உணர்ந்து நாம் அனுதாபப் பட வேண்டும்., ஈராக்கில் அமெரிக்க
ஏகாதிபத்தியம் தீவீரவாதத்தை செய்யாமல் இருந்தால் ஏன் மும்பையில் முஸ்லீம்கள்
அச்சப் பட்டு இந்தத் தாக்குதலில் ஈடுபடப் போகிறார்கள் ஆகவே இதை முஸ்லீம்கள்
செய்திருந்தால் நாம் அதைப் புரிந்து கொண்டு அனுதாபத்துடன் அவர்களுக்கு உதவ
வேண்டும். அவர்களுக்கு ஆர் டி எக்ஸ் கிடைக்காவிட்டால் நாம் வாங்கிக் கொடுக்க
வேண்டும். தேவைப் படும் இஸ்லாமிய அன்பர்கள் கிழக்குக்கு ஒரு மெயில் அனுப்பினால்
நாங்கள் உடனடியாக அனுப்பி வைப்போம் ஆனால் இதையே இந்துக்கள் செய்திருந்தால்
அவர்களை தடி கொண்டு ஒடுக்க வேண்டும் வெட்டிக் கொல்ல வேண்டும், இஸ்லாம் ஒரு
அமைதி மார்க்கம் என்பதை விளக்கும் இஸ்லாம் ஒரு எளிய அறிமுகத்தை அனைவரும்
வாங்கிப் படித்து குண்டு வைக்குமாறு கேட்டுக் கொள்கிறேன் - பத்ரி

இஸ்லாமியர்கள் (இதை வெவ்வேறு வசனங்களாக ஆங்காங்கே சொல்வார்கள்):

ஹேமந்த் கர்கரே பின்னாளில் இருந்து சுடப்பட்டார். என்கவுண்டர் ஸ்பெஷலிஸ்ட் திடீரென்று எப்படி வந்தார்? இது இஸ்லாமியர்களை தீவிரவாதிகளாக சித்தரிக்க யூதர்கள் செய்யும் சதி

மனித உரிமை பறிபோகிறது. உள்ளே சென்ற தீவிரவாதிகளை மென்மையான முறையிலேயே பிடித்து, குற்றம் நிரூபிக்கப் பட்டிருக்க வேண்டும்

முதலில் அவர்களை நீதிமன்றத்தில் நிறுத்தி, பத்து வருட காலம் விசாரித்து பின்பு தண்டனை வழங்கியபின்பே நீங்கள் முடிவு செய்ய வேண்டும்

இஸ்லாம் வன்முறையை எதிர்க்கிறது. அதனால் இந்துக்களே தங்களைத் தாங்களே சுட்டுக் கொன்றுவிட்டு இஸ்லாத்தின் மீது பழிபோடுகிறார்கள்.

இஸ்லாம் அமைதி மார்க்கம்!

Mumbai attackers may be Pakistani nationals

2008-11-27T08:16:00.000-08:00

Mumbai attackers may be Pakistani nationals

27 Nov 2008, 1359 hrs IST, PTI

Discuss

Save

Comment

Text:

MUMBAI: Preliminary investigations on Thursday pointed to involvement of at least some Pakistani nationals in the serial terror attacks in Mumbai

that left over 100 dead and 270 others injured.

"There are indications that the perpetrators of the crime, who arrived in Mumbai by boats, are Pakistani nationals," authoritative sources said.

The indications are based on information gathered from captured terrorists, the sources said.

Maharashtra deputy chief minister R R Patil, who also holds the Home portfolio, said revealing detailed information on the terror strikes could prove detrimental at this juncture. (Watch )

"We have total clues. But disclosing information would not help the case," Patil said. "This is an attack on the country. We will disclose information at an appropriate time," he said.

Meanwhile, there are reports that Colaba police have impounded four boats allegedly used by the terrorists to reach the Mumbai coast.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mumbai_attackers_may_be_Pakistani_nationals/articleshow/3764564.cms

கடந்த ஐந்து வருடங்களில் ஜிஹாதி தீவிரவாத செயல்கள்

2008-11-27T07:55:00.000-08:00

Following is a chronology of some of the major attacks in India in the past five years:

March 13, 2003 - A bomb attack on a commuter train in Mumbai kills 11 people.

Aug. 25, 2003 - Two car bombs kill about 60 in Mumbai.

Aug. 15, 2004 - A bomb explodes in Assam, killing 16 people, mostly schoolchildren, and wounding dozens.

Oct. 29, 2005 - Sixty-six people are killed when three blasts rip through markets in New Delhi.

March 7, 2006 - At least 15 people are killed and 60 wounded in three blasts in the northerly Hindu pilgrimage city of Varanasi.

July 11, 2006 - More than 180 people are killed in seven bomb explosions at railway stations and on trains in Mumbai that are blamed on Islamist militants.

May 18, 2007 - A bomb explodes during Friday prayers at a anti-wahhabi mosque in Hyderabad, killing 11 worshippers.

Aug. 25, 2007 - Three coordinated explosions at an amusement park and a street stall in Hyderabad kill at least 40 people.

May 13, 2008 - Seven bombs rip through the crowded streets of Jaipur, killing at least 63 people in markets and outside Hindu temples.

July 25 - Eight small bombs hit the IT city of Bangalore, killing at least one woman and wounding at least 15.

July 26 - At least 16 small bombs explode in Ahmedabad killing 45 people and wounding 161. A little-known group called the "Indian Mujahideen" claims responsibility for the attack and the May 13 attack in Jaipur.

Sept 13 - At least five bombs explode in crowded markets and streets in the heart of New Delhi, killing at least 18 people and injuring scores more. The Indian Mujahideen again claim responsibility.

Nov 26 - At least 80 people were killed in a series of attacks apparently aimed at tourists in India's financial capital Mumbai on Wednesday. Police said at least 250 people had been wounded.

Mumbai: Al-Qaeda inspired foreign group behind attacks

2008-11-27T07:51:00.000-08:00

For full story, click this link:

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.2756411110

New Delhi, 27 Nov. (AKI) - The deadly attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai bear the hallmarks of a foreign, Al-Qaeda-inspired group, a New Delhi terrorism expert Vikram Sood told Adnkronos International (AKI) on Thursday. Sood described the attacks as a "very serious" assault on the Indian state.

Suspected Islamist militants launched a series of coordinated gun and hand-grenade attacks late on Wednesday, killing over 100 people, injuring nearly 300. A number of hotel guests were also taken hostage in the attacks.

"I don't believe it was the Deccan Mujahadeen at all," Sood said, referring to a previously unknown group which claimed responsibility for the Mumbai attacks.

"The group doesn't exist. It's a red herring," he told AKI.

Sood is the vice-president of the Observer Research Foundation's Centre for International Affairs, a New Delhi public policy think-tank. He is also a former head of the Indian external intelligence agency's research division.

The militant group that carried out Wednesday's attacks in Mumbai appeared to be extremely well trained and well backed in terms of logistics, money and weapons, Sood said.

"From the TV shots of the terrorists, they are totally in control and have a long-term perspective" he said.

He described the Mumbai attacks as a "qualitative leap" compared with other recent attacks in India such as the May serial blasts in the western Indian city of Jaipur which killed at least 66 people and left about 200 wounded.

"They have made no demands but they are holding hostages and dragging it out. They are anti-Jewish, anti-American and anti-British," said Sood.

The militants reportedly attacked a Jewish centre in Mumbai, took a rabbi hostage, and sought British and American citizens, asking to see their passports.

Sood declined to comment on whether a Pakistani militant group might be responsible, saying it was "too early to say".

But he said: "This kind of attack needs careful planning, reconnaissance, knowing the behaviour of security personnel and those coming and going, and how to be inconspicuous."

Wednesday's highly organised attacks on ten mainly western and business targets in Mumbai are similar to the devastating serial blasts that killed 250 civilians and wounded 700 on 12 March 1993, Sood said.

Mumbai jihadists hold Jewish rabbi and wife hostage , capture Nariman House

2008-11-27T07:47:00.000-08:00

Mumbai jihadists hold rabbi and wife hostage

Why? Because they see their jihad in India as just one part of the larger jihad against America, Britain, and the West, and against Israel. And because the Qur'an says that "strongest among men in enmity to the believers you will find the Jews..." (5:82).

"Terrorist Killed in Chabad House," by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu and Hana Levi Julian for Israel National News, November 27 (thanks to Pamela):

(IsraelNN.com) Commandos have killed at least one terrorist holed up inside Mumbai's Nariman House, the Chabad House where terrorists are holding a rabbi, his wife and a number of others hostage. Six other terrorists are still believed to be hiding in the building.
An unknown Muslim terrorist group linked to the international Al Qaeda terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for the massive multi-site terror attack carried out late Wednesday night in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, home to some 15 million people and India's largest city.

The terrorists struck two luxury hotels frequented by Americans and British nationals, the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Oberoi Hotel as well as the Cama Hospital with automatic weapons and grenades.

Also among the nine sites struck by the Deccan Mujahideen group throughout "the city that never sleeps" was the Mumbai Chabad House, known as Nariman House, run by Chabad-Lubavitch emissary Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka. The Chabad House is a popular stop for Israeli tourists passing through the area, who are provided with kosher food and Jewish programs there.

Local police secured the release of the couple's one and a half-year-old son Moshe, but both parents were still being held captive. According to Yehudit Rozenberg, mother of Rivka Holtzberg, the family's babysitter said that both parents were alive, but unconscious at last report, prior to 9:00 a.m.

Commandos surrounded the Chabad House and were preparing to attack. The terrorists have demanded that India release "all mujahedins," and "Only after that will we release the people," they told a local television station.

At least 101 people, including six foreigners and five terrorists, have died since the attacks began, and 600 others have been wounded. As of 7:00 a.m. Israel time, at least 16 police officers were among the dead. The terrorists have held more than 250 people as hostages in the Chabad House, a hospital and luxury hotels.

Several other Israelis have maintained telephone contact from their eight floor hotel rooms. The Chabad website reported that "the situation is grim."...

Two terrorist ships captured by Indian Navy : Al Kabir and MV Alpha

2008-11-27T07:46:00.000-08:00

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Coast_Guard_locates_suspected_terrorist_ship_M_V_Alpha/articleshow/3765920.cms

One arrested terrorist Abu Ismail was from faridkot, pakistan - another journalist finds mobile phone with pakistan number

2008-11-27T07:40:00.000-08:00

http://www.domain-b.com/economy/general/20081127_mumbai_terror.html

Commandos belonging to the National Security Guards have mounted a decisive assault on the Taj and Nariman House even as reports said some of the hostages, including the wife and two kids of the general manager of the Taj hotel have been killed in the crossfire.

More than 50 commandos have entered the Taj in a bid to flush out the terrorists holed up in the building, even as people continue to be evacuated from the Trident/Oberoi hotel.

It is, however, not clear how many survivors are still held hostage in the three premises – Hotel Taj, Trident/ Oberoi Hotel and Nariman House.

Around 400 people have been evacuated from the Taj hotel, and 78 have been evacuated from the Oberoi. But, reports say some people are still trapped in their rooms and are not stepping out in fear.

Two marine commandos have been injured in a massive explosion in the Oberoi even as two explosions were heard after a large contingent of the RAF came out of the New Taj building.

While police sources claim to have killed 5 terrorists and apprehended another two, the terrorist action is estimated to have claimed the lives of around 150 people, including nine foreigners and 14 police personnel. Over 300 others have also been injured or hospitalised.

Of the two terrorists apprehended so far, one has been identified as Abu Ismail from Faridkot, Pakistan.

Even as the NSG engaged holed up terrorists, sounds of explosions were being heard intermittently from the two hotels, with five loud explosions heard from the Oberoi Hotel alone.

At the Nariman House in Colaba, where many of the hostages are feared to be Israelis and Jews, a specialist NSG team trained in managing hostage crisis has moved in with rocket launchers and bazookas to flush out the terrorists still holed inside and to free the hostages.

Army, NSG and paramilitary forces have cordoned off the area and the Navy and Coast Guard are also aiding the operations.

INS Kunjali is said to be pursuing the vessel M V Alpha which was allegedly used by the terrorists to arrive on the Mumbai coast. Naval choppers Dornier, and IAF's IL 72s have also been deployed.

The terrorists had arrived in Gujarat from Karachi and left for Mumbai last night in M V Alpha. From there they had jumped into speed boats to touch shore with Mumbai.

India's most audacious terror attack began when a group of men carrying a huge quantity of arms and ammunition got off at the Gateway of India jetty, Mumbai's most identifiable landmark, and literally crossed the road to begin the night of mayhem.

The terrorists have landed at the Gateway of India, just across the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel on Wednesday night. The assailants then went about their task commandeering vehicles to attack the Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station, the Leopold café and enter the Taj and the Oberoi Trident hotels where they continue to hold tourists as hostages.

The intelligence agencies had no clue about the attack notwithstanding the scale of the operation and the degree of coordination of the attackers.

Mumbai attacks : Al Qaeda said "infidel" India as a target as important as "Zionist" Israel

2008-11-27T07:35:00.000-08:00

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24719097-601,00.html

INDIA was on a war footing last night after at least 101 people had been killed by a group of al-Qa'ida-trained operatives who arrived by boat out of the Persian Gulf to attack India's financial capital.

(1 vote)

Bride's escape

An Adelaide woman, in Mumbai to wed a Bollywood star, describes her night of terror

Views today: 683

Up to 30 attackers used boats to hit either side of the peninsular metropolis with machinegun and grenade assaults on at least twofive-star hotels, the city's largest train station, a Jewish centre, a cinema and a hospital, in one of the biggest al-Qa'ida-linked terrorist attacks since September 11, 2001.

The Indian navy last night boarded a cargo vessel, the MV Alpha, which had recently sailed to Mumbai from Karachi, Pakistan, and was suspected of being linked to the terror raids.

The co-ordinated assaults across Mumbai, which left one Australian among the dead, also led to at least 200 people reportedly being taken hostage.

The full-frontal attacks, using grenades and assault weapons, had all the hallmarks of the spectacular assault on the Indian parliament in 2001 that killed 12people and brought India andPakistan to the brink of nuclear war.

Indian army commandos laid siege to the two luxury hotels in Mumbai where terrorists were holding Westerners hostage. The terrorists late last night released hostages from one of the hotels, the Oberoi Trident, but the fate of those in the other hotel, the Taj Mahal, was not known.

The Australian killed in the attacks was named last night as Brett Gilbert Taylor. Mr Taylor, 49, was brought dead to St George Hospital, in south Mumbai, sources at the hospital said.

Friends said Mr Taylor, a fourth-generation timber merchant from Turramurra, in Sydney's north, was the epitome of the great Australian male, who loved talking proudly about his family over a beer.

Peter Freedman, who has known Mr Taylor since their high school days at Sydney's Trinity Grammar, said "Stubby" was always a good friend to everyone.

Mr Taylor was in India representing Blacktown Timber, a family-owned business in Sydney's west.

The number of injured was unclear but had been put at 270. They include at least two Australians who were shot as they dined at the popular Cafe Leopold in the heart of Mumbai.

Sydney woman Katie Anstee, 24, underwent surgery and was in intensive care after she was shot through the leg. Her boyfriend, David Coker, 23, from Townsville, has a flesh wound from a bullet that grazed his leg.

A British guest at the Taj Mahal hotel, Rakesh Patel, said of the attackers: "They were very young - like boys, really - wearing jeans and T-shirts."

At least 11 foreigners, including the Australians, were injured in the terror strikes and were admitted to Bombay Hospital.

According to sources, the foreigners were from Australia, Britain, the US, Norway, Spain, Canada and Singapore. Survivors said the attacks had been aimed at Westerners and authorities said an unknown number of foreigners - believed to total at least two groups of 40 in each hotel - were taken hostage.

British businessman Alex Chamberlain said: "They told everybody to stop and put their hands up and asked if there were any British or Americans. My friend said to me, 'Don't be a hero, don't say you're British'."

A group calling itself the Deccan Mujahedeen claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Trident hotels.

The gunmen are demanding the release of "Mujahedeens" held in Indian jails before they free their prisoners. Speaking from the Oberoi hotel, where at least half a dozen foreigners were being held hostage, a gunman, identifed as Sahadullah, told Indian TV he belonged to an Indian Islamist group seeking an end to the persecution of Indian Muslims.

India's navy and coast guard were scouring the seas off Mumbai to look for the "mother ship", which could have ferried the terrorists who carried out attacks in this metropolis.

Security sources said there was little doubt the Deccan Mujahedeen was the same as a group known as the Indian Mujahideen, the al-Qa'ida-linked organisation that has claimed responsibility for the terror attacks that have been sweeping India this year.

Indian Mujahideen is linked to the notorious Students Islamic Movement of India, a mainstay of al-Qa'ida's operating arm in India.

Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri have in the past made it clear they regard "infidel" India as a target as important as "Zionist" Israel, and have placed the "liberation" of the disputed, Indian-controlled Himalayan territory of Kashmir high on the list of priorities.

Kevin Rudd warned Australia's casualty toll could rise. Officials were checking to determine how many Australians had been caught up in the attacks.

Witnesses said the gunmen had specifically chosen US and British citizens as hostages. One Japanese was among the dead, Tokyo's Foreign Ministry said.

Frequent bursts of gunfire in and around the two five-star hotels continued to be heard last night. The head of Mumbai's Anti-Terrorism Squad, Hemant Karkare, was one of at least 11 security personnel killed in the shootouts.

Another siege was in progress at Nariman House, an office building that houses a Jewish centre. The chairman of the Indian Jewish Federation, Jonathan Solomon, said a rabbi and his family were being held inside by gunmen.

Police said two gunmen at the Taj Mahal hotel had been shot dead, but two more were still believed to be holed up inside.

Fundamentalist Muslim websites rejoice over Mumbai jihadi attack

2008-11-27T07:21:00.000-08:00

India: Al-Qaeda websites rejoice over Mumbai attacks

Mumbai, 27 Nov. (AKI) - Al-Qaeda websites on Thursday were swamped with messages from people who were celebrating the devastating Mumbai attacks which have left over 100 people dead and 281 injured. "Oh Allah, destroy the Hindus and do it in the worst of ways," was one of the comments that appeared on Islamist forums on the Internet immediately after the attacks.

"The battle that is underway in Mumbai is a battle for Allah between its servants and the infidels," said another message published on the al-Falluja forum.

Several Al-Qaeda sites also posted several pictures of the victims in Mumbai and provocative statements.

Some media reports are saying that a group calling itself Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks, but this has not yet been confirmed.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.2756280942

"Allah Hafiz" - Mumbai jihadi's telephonic conversation

2008-11-27T07:17:00.000-08:00

Another 'terrorist' calls news channel, wants talks with government
27 Nov 2008, 1919 hrs IST, IANS
NEW DELHI: Imran Babar, who identified himself as one of the terrorists involved in the terror strikes in Mumbai, called up a TV news channel
Thursday and said they wanted to have talks with the government for exchange of the hostages.

"We want to negotiate with the government. Only then will we let go the hostages," said Babar, who claimed to be from the Deccan Mujaheedin, a previously unknown group that has claimed responsibility.

Claiming to have worked as a medical representative in a multinational company, Babar said these attacks were to avenge the "torture and injustice" faced by Muslims in India.

"Do you know how many Muslims are killed in Kashmir by your armed forces? Give them their freedom, why are you creating such a mess there?" Babar, who said he was 25 years of age, told the news channel India TV.

"How much of injustice can we tolerate? How much can we sacrifice?" he said.

He, however, skirted the query as to which place he hails from.

Earlier in the day, another man calling himself a terrorist and identifying himself as Shahadullah, telephoned the news channel from Oberoi-Trident Hotel claiming that he was from the Indian city of Hyderabad. He spoke in Hindustani with what appeared to be a Pakistani accent.

He told the channel that the attack had been carried out to avenge the 1992 razing of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya and the "persecution" of Muslims in India.

He demanded the release of jailed Indian Mujahideen militants in exchange for tourists taken hostage at the Taj and Oberoi Trident hotels as well as Nariman House in the heart of the city.
The man ended the telephonic conversation saying "Allah Hafiz".

India's worst terror attack in Mumbai began Wednesday night when militants attacked high profile landmarks, including the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel, Oberoi Trident Hotel, Metro Theatre and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) railway station.

At least 101 people, including a foreign tourist and four top police officers, were killed and over 250 injured. The crisis continued Thursday with terrorists holding people hostage in the two five-star hotels.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Another_terrorist_calls_news_channel_wants_talks_with_government/articleshow/3766165.cms

பெங்களூர் மாரியம்மன் கோயிலில் குடும்பத்துடன் சென்று வழிபட்டார் துருக்கிய பிரதமர்

2008-11-25T19:20:00.000-08:00

நன்றி : டைம்ஸ் ஆப் இந்தியா செய்தி

http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Bangalore/Temple_priest_recalls_Turkish_PMs_visit/articleshow/3757084.cms

Temple priest recalls Turkish PMs visit
25 Nov 2008, 2339 hrs IST, TNN

Bangalore : "When the police told me the Turkish Prime Minister was coming to the temple, I laughed and told them maybe he was going to Tata Institute and they'd got the programme wrong," recalled Malleswaram's Circle Maramma temple chief priest N Srinivas.

"The irritated police asked me why I'd invited the Turkish PM to the temple. I laughed and said, `Who am I to invite the PM of another country?' Only because of their call did I get to know the PM was coming," Srinivas told TOI.

The PM visited the temple on his wife's recommendation as she had visited it around 10.30 am on Monday. A top government official told TOI: "She was particularly keen on visiting a Hindu temple. We shortlisted a few popular ones, but wanted to see something unusual. Based on security and other considerations, we decided the Circle Maramma temple would be the best bet. She was very happy."

The Turkish PM's wife and daughter saw the pooja by the chief priest and took the theertha and recommended her husband go there too. The official pointed out, "We decided to take the PM to the Circle Maramma temple at noon. Logistically, it worked out well."

Chief priest Srinivas was surprised: "I wonder what they saw in this temple; I don't know why they chose it." In the morning, the PM's wife distributed bananas to monkeys near the temple. When the PM went there, the chief priest was anxious: "I was told to guide the PM. He came in without his footwear even before I could tell him. He was well aware of the customs in Hindu temples. I performed pooja and gave him a plate of fruits. He asked me whether he could give the fruits to everyone. When I said that was fine, he distributed the fruits to his ministers and gave me back the plate. He then took theertha and even suggested that I give theertha and some fruits to his colleagues. He asked about the meravanige devaru. I was very surprised. After hearing me out, he shook hands with me and wished me goodbye."

Circle of life

The Circle Maramma Temple near IISc was built in 1972 under the guidance of Narsiah, father of the present chief priest N Srinivas. It was originally known as Muthu Mariyamma temple and since it was close to the circle, people began calling it Circle Maramma temple. Within it are other temples like Gangamma, Durga Devi, Ganesha and Mahishasura. The temple receives the highest number of vehicles for registration in Bangalore.

சிறாரை சீரழித்த பாதிரி ஒரு எய்ட்ஸ் நோயாளி

2008-11-18T21:23:00.000-08:00

PEDOPHILE INDIAN CHRISTIAN PRIEST WHO COMMITTED SEX CRIMES IN USA
IS HIV POSITIVE

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTrackerArchive/2008/02/

THE RHODE ISLAND CATHOLIC 2008

Providence - Former diocesan priest Rev. Philip A. Magaldi, the
target of three separate allegations of sexual misconduct in
Rhode Island, recently confessed to officials in the Diocese of
Fort Worth that he is HIV Positive.

In 1998, 2002 & 2007, the
Diocese of Providence received allegations of sexual misconduct
relative to the priest, who had left nine years prior to the
first allegation, as he had requested a transfer to the Diocese
of Ft. Worth, Texas. He returned to Rhode Island in 1992 to serve
time in prison after pleading guilty to embezzlement charges at a
North Providence parish. Following release, he returned to Texas.
At the time the complaints against him were made known to the
Diocese of Providence, the Office of Education and Compliance
investigated the allegations and then shared the findings with
officials in the Diocese of Ft. Worth. In a statement released
last week, the Diocese of Providence said it fully supports the
efforts of Bishop Kevin Vann and the Diocese of Ft. Worth to seek
dismissal of Father Magaldi from the priesthood. Furthermore, the
Diocese of Providence has offered to write a letter in support of
his laicization, or removal from clerical status. A prior request
to laicize Magaldi was denied. Bishop Vann traveled to the
Vatican this week to enter an appeal. Father Magaldi was removed
from active priesthood in 1999 by the late Bishop Joseph Delaney
of Fort Worth after allegations of sexual misconduct arose in
Rhode Island and Texas. In August 2006, Bishop Vann removed
Magaldi from all ministries. In addition, the Diocese of
Providence is in the process of contacting individuals who have
made allegations against Father Magaldi to share a report issued
Feb.13 by the Diocese of Ft. Worth confirming that he is HIV
Positive. "Magaldi acknowledged to me that he is HIV positive. We
do not know when Magaldi was diagnosed as HIV positive," Fort
Worth Vicar General Father Michael Olson said. "Because of
federal medical privacy laws, the diocese has no access to
Magaldi's medical records, nor is there any information in
diocesan files indicating that Magaldi was diagnosed as HIV
positive. In trying to assess his condition over the last few
days, we believe Magaldi has been HIV positive at least since
2003. "Out of an abundance of caution," the vicar general
continued, "I have contacted on Tuesday three individuals who
have made allegations of sexual misconduct or expressed concern
about Magaldi's behavior and apprised each that Magaldi is HIV
positive. In addition, I have contacted the Diocese of
Providence, Rhode Island, where Magaldi served before coming to
the Fort Worth Diocese, informing them of his medical status."
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence invites anyone who
wishes to report sexual misconduct by Father Magaldi or by anyone
who serves the church to contact Lt. Robert McCarthy, Office of
Education & Compliance, at 941-0760. Individuals who believe they
had close personal or questionable contact are also invited to
report those incidents.

தெராசாவை புனிதராக்க செய்யப்பட திகிடுதத்தம்

2008-11-18T01:44:00.001-08:00

Indian Rationalists question mother Teresa’s ovarian miracle

By Sanal Edamaruku

Was Monica Besra’s ovarian tumor really cured by the supernatural powers of Mother Teresa’s picture placed on her abdomen? The Missionaries of Charity insist it was. The Vatican has approved the story officially as a first-class miracle. The Indian Rationalist Association says: Such absurd and dangerous claims call for legal action! The rationalists, who have kicked off the controversy about Mother Teresa’s after-death-miracle, demand that the government of West Bengal take the Missionaries of Charity to court for their false claims.

The case of the miracle makers won’t stand in front of any court of law. Their witnesses have vowed to keep mum, not to contradict each other. Their certifiers are anonymous and untraceable. Their proof is obviously faked. And to top it all: their crown witness has vanished!

According to the Vatican, Monica Besra’s ovarian tumor was cured by the powers of Teresa’s picture, placed on her abdomen. But the medical records prove that it was sheer conventional medical treatment that rescued her life. “In the 21st century how can you talk about miracle healing?” says West Bengal health minister Suyrya Kanta Nishra. The miracle documentation claims that several doctors have certified that the healing was “scientifically inexplicable”, but not a single of these anonymous witnesses could so far be traced. The former health minister of West Bengal, Partho De, revealed that he had been approached by the Vatican agents and asked to name a doctor, who would certify that Monica Besra’s healing was a miracle. He declined support. After ordering the medical records of the case in February 2000 for scrutiny to the Kolkata (Calcutta) health department, he was convinced that there was nothing unusual about the disappearance of the tumor after prolonged medical treatment.

Knitting her saintly cowl with relentless efforts, the miracle agents of the Vatican under the leadership of chief investigator Brian Kolodiejchuk have identified several hundred examples for Mother Teresa’s supernatural capacities. Neatly filed, classified and elaborately documented in a dossier of more than 34,000 pages, they are getting ready to be sent by air fright to Vatican now. On this base, they hope, her canonization has become a mere formality. In December, the Pope is expected to check in the heavy luggage, and may be in spring the Albanian born nun could already enter the annals of saints as the speediest one in the history of the Catholic Church.

The most important of those bundled paranormal claims is the miracle, which Teresa has allegedly done on her first death anniversary. At least one proven after-death-miracle is a must for any saint. Teresa’s managers have offered the “Healing of Monica Besra” for this purpose and the Vatican has officially accepted it as a suitable ticket to sainthood. But unexpectedly the miracle has met with a tough challenge. Stripped off the veil of holiness, it looks like a rough-cut fake.

Dr. Manju Murshed, superintendent of the government hospital in Balurghat, informed that Monica Besra was admitted in the hospital with severe pain. She suffered from tubercular meningitis and from an ovarian tumor, which was discovered during an ultra-sound investigation. She was subsequently treated by Dr.Tarun Kumar Biwas and the gynecologist Dr. Ranjan Mustafi. After she left the hospital, the treatment was continued in the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital and ended successfully in March 1999. A final ultra-sound investigation showed that the tumor had disappeared.

Heart piece of the Vatican’s “proof” is a statement of crown witness Monica Besra. It leaked, despite utmost secrecy, to the press. In this statement, Besra describes that she was suffering from terrible pain from a giant tumor in her stomach and nearly lost all hope. She left her family to seek help with the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata. On 5 October, 1998, Mother Teresa’s first death anniversary, she prayed to her ardently. Two nuns, sister Bartholomea and sister Ann Sevika, took a silver medallion with Mother’s picture from the wall and tied it on Monica’s body with a black thread, right on the tumor. The pain vanished the same night and never came back. Her stomach became smaller and smaller and in the morning she felt that the tumor had vanished. She was miraculously healed!

Monica Besra is a 30-year-old tribal woman from Dulidnapur village. She is illiterate and speaks her tribal mother tongue only, laced with a few words of broken Bengali. Until recently she has not been a Christian. The statement is written in fluent English and shows familiarity with details of Catholic belief. It is obvious that the text has not been written or dictated by her. But Monica Besra is not available to bring light into the murky story: she has vanished. She must be “under the protection of the church”, suspect those close to her. She was not seen, since her name, despite all efforts of secrecy, became public.

And the nuns involved in the miracle keep their lips sealed. “An objective miracle has happened”, explains archbishop D’Souza of Kolkata. “The sisters don’t want to give different versions as that would spoil things.”

If this obvious fraud is not brought to book and if the idea of miraculous healings gets credence, it will have dangerous consequences for the uneducated and the poor, insists Indian Rationalist Association. Confidence in modern medicine and science has to be developed and strengthened and people have to be encouraged to use available medical facilities for treatment instead of taking to superstition and miracle belief. The efforts should be to expand the outreach of the modern medicine to all strata of the society.