When protest was being staged in Delhi

When Muslims were staging a strong protest at Parliament Street in New Delhi on Mar 26 against mindless killing and detention of Muslim youth, the Maharashtra police was preparing to kill and arrest some Muslim youth in Aurangabad. And when the Delhi protest was in its last stage and its participants were highly zealous – many of them might have been thinking in the right earnest that their strong protest and the questions and demands raised therein must yield some result, the Maharashtra ATS was killing a 20-year-old boy named Khalil Quraishi, injuring Muhammad Shakir (32) and detaining Abrar (20). The next morning (Mar 27), when English newspapers were replete with the sensational details of Aurangabad “encounter”, the news of New Delhi protest was almost conspicuous by absence. Hindi dailies were no better. The brief news of Muslim protest could be hardly seen on inner pages (of few newspapers) while the reports of Aurangabad “encounter” and ‘gun battle” were spread all over right from the front pages to the inner pages.

What could protest organisers understand?Now one doesn’t know when this news of Aurangabad reached the protest organisers of Delhi and as to what extent they could understand this government message. It seems no sooner had they been considering this result of their protest than the Maharashtra ATS, perhaps to make the government message clearer, the very next day (Mar 27) detained two more persons from Chakli in Buldana district. Their names have been reported as Aquil Khilji and Zafar Husain Qureshi. The Delhi police also did not lag in implementation of the government message. The third day (Mar 28) came the news that they arrested a 20-year-old boy from north-east Delhi last night; his name was reported as Asadullah Rahman Dilkash. In the newspapers of Mar 29 its report with usual details was published. Those who are aware of Police stories may not go through these details but they must see the picture of the one arrested from Delhi. The same piece of cloth is wrapped around the face in the same manner as it was around the face of Muhammad Ahmad Kazmi. It seems the police has purchased these pieces of cloth in bulk from wholesale market of Sadar Bazar, and has a planning to use them on a large scale.

Change the method of protest
This time also there is nothing new in police concoctions. Save and except that the “terrorist” of Maharashtra wanted to kill those “two” judges who had pronounced a judgement in the Babri Masjid case in Lucknow. What is really worth considering is the message that the government agencies have given with the recent incidents – “howsoever loudly the Muslims cry, we will do what we want” – In this situation let’s see where the problem is. Is our method of protest faulty? Whatever the case is, we will have to change the method and make some extraordinary demands which could not have been made twenty years ago. Because now the intervention of Israel in security affairs of our country has increased too much; these tactics are imported therefrom. One demand should be that the police, after its action if not before the action, take local responsible persons in confidence and tell them whom and why they have arrested and where he has been kept; an opportunity should be provided to meet the arrested person. The senselessness of the powers-that-be in India as well as the great minds of Israel can be understood as to why they are afraid of Islam and Muslims. However we will have to keep our legal action well within the parameters of the law of the land.

04/04/12 khabar-O-Nazar by Parwaaz Rahmani, sehrozaDAWAT, translated by: Abu Yusuf

An act of a Pakistani lawyer

When Pakistan’s Deputy Attorney General Muhammad Khurshid Khan, in February 2010, came to know that the Taliban had kidnapped and beheaded a Sikh named Jaspal Singh in Peshawar, he as a Muslim was filled with remorse. He went to the house of Jaspal Singh to condole his death, reached a local gurudwara the next day, heard the chants sitting on its steps, then requested the Granthi to let him give an opportunity to perform seva. Later on he started polishing shoes of devotees in gurudwaras every day, and thereby felt peace.  Simultaneously he reposed faith in places of worship of other religions, temples and churches. Khurshid Khan was perturbed by the act of the Taliban also because such acts bring bad name to Islam, Muslims, Pakistan and Pakhtoons; violence in the name of Islam deeply grieves him. The Pakistani lawyer narrated all this in his own words to Indian newspapers. He visited Delhi to participate in a judicial conference in the fourth week of March. Here too he performed seva in gurudwaras and temples (The Times of India, Mar 26).

The most important question
This reported incident that took place in Sarhad Province in February 2010 also found place in Indian media that the Taliban had kidnapped three Sikhs from Peshawar to demand a heavy ransom for their release. The Pakistani army got two of them released but the third (Jaspal) was killed by the Taliban. This news had aggrieved Muslim readers and viewers of Indian media. Now a government official of Pakistan has expressed his grief in India, which is but natural for a Muslim; and it is in the fitness of things. He also said the sentiments he was expressing towards gurudwaras, temples and churches and the seva he was performing there were penance for the crimes of Taliban. These feelings of Pakistan’s Deputy Attorney General must have been read with interest in India; and a question must have arisen in the minds of knowledgeable persons as to what form of penance it was. Notwithstanding the views and sentiments of a Pakistani citizen, the most important question here is how he believed that the killers of the (abducted) Sikh were the Taliban.

Why are we interested in itMuhammad Khurshid Khan can say that he is a Pakistani citizen and belongs to Peshawar. But it is not enough to understand the violence committed in the name of Taliban; knowledge of the conspiracies of anti-Muslim forces is a must. Who knows that the agents of C.I.A, Mossad and other agencies are active in the northern tribal areas of Pakistan, who are committing these acts of violence just to defame Islam and Muslims; and fake Talibans are only their creation. International media makes every effort to suppress the truth and mislead the world. The rulers of Pakistan are helpless before America. Now after the killing of 28 Pakistani army men at the hands of NATO troops in November last they have experienced shame and are reviewing their relations with America. If it is so, their foremost task is to initiate an enquiry into all the incidents of violence and extremism. – it is evident that this is an internal issue of Pakistan and they should deal with it. But we are interested in revelation of truth only because certain sections here target Indian Muslims too under the pretext of incidents taking place in Pakistan. If Pakistan’s Deputy Attorney General can do anything in this regard, we would be grateful to him; however keeping in view his being simpleton there is no hope of it.

01/04/12 khabar-O-Nazar by Parwaaz Rahmani, sehrozaDAWAT, translated by: Abu Yusuf

This strange argument

Recently newspapers started a debate that no big communal riot occurred in any part of the country after 2002, and this shows that communal amity has been established in the country. This debate was initiated at the completion of ten years of anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat, and certain commentators advised that the Muslims, having forgotten whatever had happened in Gujarat, should concentrate themselves on their socio-economic development. In this context the issue of reservation also came under discussion, and column-writers of a particular mentality expressed their view that as the socio-economic condition of Muslims is improving, the Muslim community should give up its claim to reservation.  An article on this subject was published in The Hindustan Times of 16^th March. The writer Ram Chandra Guha has emphasized that since the condition of Muslims has turned for the better, they should not stake any claim which might provide an opportunity for communalism to raise its head in the country once again. Some commentators and letter-writers rejected this deceitful view with strong arguments.

The candidness of a writer

Now Ram Puniyani, in his fresh article, has strongly rejected both these assumptions. He has written that neither communal amity has been established in the country nor the socio-economic condition of Muslims has changed for the better. Non-occurrence of any major communal riot within a period of ten years does not mean that prejudice and discrimination against Muslims has come to an end. The fact remains that even today this discrimination continues more or less in every branch of life in the country. The police are biased during riots even today as it was seen in Rajasthan recently. The government has adopted a policy all over the country that after every incident of violence the case is “solved” by detaining some Muslims. There is talk of forgetting the incidents that shook Gujarat in 2002 but Muslims are in a worse condition there even today. The victims were not delivered justice nor were they rehabilitated – those who want to keep Muslims deprived of reservation on the ground of non-occurrence of riots are in the wrong. Ram Puniyani is a straightforward and realistic writer of English. This article of his was published in the March 21 issue of The Hindustan Times.

Analyze it more deeply

The realities pointed out by Ram Puniyani are undoubtedly real. There is also no doubt in the fact that he has displayed much courage. However if he gives a further fillip to his courage and analyze the causes of the prevailing situation more deeply, he would definitely reach the conclusion that this is the result of the same planned conspiracy which was hatched during the last few years of the British Raj and a few years before the independence of the country. In the beginning such a situation was created in which a large chunk of Muslims of the subcontinent started seeing solution to their problems in their having a separate State, and then with much deceit a small piece of land in the name of Pakistan was dished out to them and thus the united strength of Muslims was broken, and having taken them permanent hostage they were practically treated as second class citizens. Then putting total responsibility of Partition on their shoulders, continuous propaganda was unleashed against them through syllabi, history books and media. This deep and far-reaching Machiavellian conspiracy was bound to result in the situation which Ram Puniyani is lamenting today. The most colossal loss the Muslim community had to bear is that having been in this situation it forgot its status of Daie (caller to the truth) and Ummat-e-Wast (the median community).

28/03/12 khabar-O-Nazar by Parwaaz Rahmani, sehrozaDAWAT, translated by: Abu Yusuf

The media doesn’t like this

The Indian media has been worried for quite some time that the new generation of Pakistan is increasingly turning towards religion; and they (those who are turning towards religion) include those who had been active in different fields of art and culture, and now they are marching towards religious terrorism. Many comments and analyses on this subject have found place in media during the last few days. Now The Times of India (Mar 18) has lamented on the religious tendencies of musicians and dancers of Pakistan. Referring to Pakistani newspapers, its reporter in Delhi has reported: “Faith & fear silence Pakistan's singers”, and that music is dying gradually in the land of Taliban. To the reporter, its major reason is the threats issued by religious fanatics to the artistes. But the examples he has cited do not suggest any force or coercion behind causing this change in the artistes. May be, in the tribal areas of north-west Pakistan, where there is much stress on following the Shari’ah values, sale of cheap and blue videos is prohibited.

Examples cited by the reporter

(1) Until a few months ago, Lahore’s pop singer Shiraz Uppal's caller tune was a song from an Indian film; now, one hears a prayer. Uppal has recently declared that he has taken an exile from pop music because his religion forbids it. (2) UAE-based Pashtun singer Nazia Iqbal, at a programme this January, announced that she would quit music to live as a "devoted Muslim woman". She also announced her plans to open madrassas in Pakistan. (3) A senior pop singer named Ali Haider made the transition from pop to devotional songs in 2009. Now, he sings only religious naats and has taken to preaching. – The reporter has written that certain singers and musicians have been killed by religious extremists. But even after going through full report on its web site it is not clear that people are doing so under force and coercion. However, the reporter has tried to prove this.

This is particular mindset

In fact, a particular kind of mindset is found in our media as a result of its indifference to Islamic values. They cannot bear promotion of Islamic trend even in a Muslim country. A few years ago some newspapers made hue and cry on the abundance of Muslims in Sri Lankan mosques and on following of Islamic values at common places, saying that Islamic fundamentalism was on increase. The same hue and cry was raised recently on the enthusiasm for Islamic values seen among the men and women of Maldives. And a few years ago the same voice was raised on the bearded faces of some Pakistani cricket players and their Islamic leanings. However then they had not got an opportunity, even after their attempts to find one, to talk of force and coercion used by gun-trotting persons. This mindset is the fruit of traditional anti-Islam minds running the media, and also to some extent the result of their unawareness with Islamic values. It is better that the persons of Pakistan about whom these objections are raised react thereto. Pakistani High Commission should also take notice of such reports.

25/03/12 khabar-O-Nazar by Parwaaz Rahmani, sehrozaDAWAT, translated by: Abu Yusuf

The visit and return of a so-called writer

A so-called English writer Salman Rushdie visited Delhi secretly, addressed a crowd of some literate persons in Delhi, telling them whatever he had been invited for, and returned secretly. During his address to the royal crowd, he mocked in a funny way at those who had objected to his visit. In this conclave of India Today i.e. the tamasha of corporate media, Imran Khan of Pakistan was also invited but when he came to know that Rushdie too was invited to this tamasha, he refused to participate therein and also explained the reason for refusal that he would not like to sit with a person who has hurt millions of men. Akhilesh Yadav from U.P. and Umar Abdullah from Kashmir were also invited to the tamasha, but they sought excuse citing their preoccupations. Rushdie mocked at these two also along with Imran. As for the oppositions asserted by Congress leaders, he said, “Their speculations went wrong; the Congress was defeated badly in Uttar Pradesh.”

He is an impostor

But this time it is useless to talk of the mischief of Rushdie; he adopted the same tone and temper for which the whole western world showers praises on him. Even in this country only the mental slaves of the West opt to honour him. This Satanic writer cannot be expected of any soft attitude, seeking forgiveness and expressing regret. He would fall from the affection of the western Christian world and its cultural slaves the day he effects a change in his tone. Then why would he do this business of utter loss? He is a cunning, mischievous and shrewd writer and works on his personal agenda. He has won the hearts of all destructive forces by haranguing against Islam and its sacred personages. Otherwise, who would have cared for this characterless, voluptuous animal; however detailed and sensational stories of his waywardness and sexual anarchy must have been published. The statements of his former “wives” would have found place in the corporate media. Then his freedom of expression would have been compared with that of Arvind Kejriwal, who has been issued notice for calling a spade a spade.

Analysis but from which angle

The mind-set which invited Rushdie here should be analysed. The corporate owners of India Today Group knew it perfectly well that the question of Rushdie’s participation in Jaipur Literary Festival had caused a great controversy recently, and the move was vehemently opposed by the sections of citizens whom Rushdie had caused mental torture; it had caused an awkward situation for the organisers too. But despite this the Group invited him, why? Has he really contributed something worthwhile to literature and history? Or is freedom of expression really very dear to this corporate media? Or is it that the entire programme would have flopped had Rushdie not participated therein, and defamed the Group? There was nothing of the sort. Non-participation of Rushdie would have made no difference – in fact this mischievous act was done willingly and this is the same mind-set that makes those who call names to minorities hero even inside the country. Bal Thackeray, Modi and Uma Bharti are its examples. Therefore it is this mentality, and not the stooges and swindlers like Rushdie, that has to be analysed.   

16/03/12 khabar-O-Nazar by Parwaaz Rahmani, sehrozaDAWAT, translated by: Abu Yusuf