The MIM narrative: For or against Muslims?

Making wrong mountain of a right molehill?

We have a respon-sibility to bring the

minorities to the mainstream: Mamata

BanerjeeChief minister Mamata Ba-nerjee on Friday criticized the attempts to paint all madrassas as terror hubs, saying it is a collective duty of all to bring the minority to mainstream. “Let them also have a scope to learn,” she said. Mamata was replying to a question posed by SUCI MLA Tarun Naskar who asked whether unaided madrassas were turning out to be terrorist-breeding grounds.

Page 3

BJP to enrol 1 crore members in West

BengalGearing up to get into West Bengal in a big way, BJP has decided to double its target for the membership drive that started on November 1, from enrolling 50 lakh people to 1 crore by March 31, 2015, when the aggressive country-wide drive ends.

Page 4

MIM President Asaduddain Owaisi reached Khuldabad, Maharashtra where thousands of people gather to catch a glance of him. Photo Courtesy: IANS

Targeting Nehruvian Legacy?

The debates about India’s partition, Gandhi murder and policies of Nehru have been a matter of ceaseless debates. Each political tendency has their own interpretation of these events, which in a way are landmarks of sorts in mod-ern Indian History. As such the phenomenon of Partition of India and assassination of Gandhi are interwoven in the sense that Godse held Gandhi responsible for appeasement of Muslims.

Page 9

Maulana Azad: A fighter for intellec-tual emancipation

The name of Mawlana Abul Kalam Azad will be written indelibly across the pages of Indian history as one of those great stalwarts who struggled to win freedom for India. That is the reward of patriotism and of sacrifices made under its compulsive demands.But his name will be equally remembered by posterity as a fighter.

Page 12

Raoof Mir

The All India Majlis-e-Itte-had-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) reg-istered its first impressive debut performance in a region outside its area of influence i.e. Hyderabad by bagging two seats in the re-cently held Maharashtra state leg-islative elections. It has stirred up a contentious debate across vari-ous circles in the country.

The representatives of the right and far right organizations currently dominating the social, cultural and political scene in the country are demanding an outright ban on the Hyderbad-based political organization. These groups compare the agen-da of AIMIM with the Muslim League of Jinnah and therefore consider the success of the party pernicious to the idea of Akhand

Bharat (undivided India). Given by the standards of the current polarization of politics on sectar-ian lines, this demand emanating from those who see in Muslims a challenge to the fascist project of envisaged Hindu self is plausible.

But what, in fact, is more puzzling is that the success of AIMIM has raised few eyebrows in the secular, liberal circles of the Indian public sphere which

considers the rise of AIMIM as an unhealthy sign for democracy in India.

The deep sense of fear attrib-uted to the burgeoning AIMIM springs from that party’s burden of being a casualty rooted in the history of partition and integra-tion of Indian states into Indian Union.

...Continued on page 8

Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood

An innocuous remark by the Aligarh Muslim University vice-chancellor seems to have been used by the local correspond-ent of a national newspaper as the proverbial bait to lure media attention revolving around his byline; but, in the process, the 136 years old seat of high learn-ing had to suffer the ignominy of defamation.

Freedom of the media is surely the ‘ark of the covenant of democracy’. Yet the interna-tional and national laws do not

allow one kind of freedom to trample upon another. London’s Harrow School, Hong Kong’s Diocesan School, Los Angeles’ Loyola School remain exclusive-ly for boys in the year of grace, 2014. Back home, Rajasthan’s Banasthali University and Jayoti Vidyapeeth do not permit boys to study there even today. Satish Chand Dhawan College of Lu-dhiana, Mayo College of Ajmer, Government College of Udham-pur, Christ College of Bangalore have no place for girls.

...Continued on page 8

19th November 2014 25th Muharram 1436

Vol. 8 No. 16

New Delhi: At a time when the activities of madrasas are un-der increasing scrutiny, the Min-istry of Home Affairs has found that majority of such institutions don’t subscribe to jihadi ideology or play a part in its spread.

An internal report of the MHA says majority of madrasas not spreading jihadi or indulge in anti-national activity. However, the report has red-flagged some madrasas operating in the border areas of West Bengal and Assam.

These madrasas are the one where the teachers are foreign-ers, mainly from Bangladesh, and they have been found to be involved in anti-India activities.

Even in those areas, Indian madrasa teachers are not involved in jihadi activities.

The report is based on probe into madrasas aligned to Deoban-di, al-Hadis, Jamat and Barelvi school of thought.

The activities of madrasas, especially those in West Bengal, came into focus after the Burd-wan bomb blast. The NIA probe into the case had unearthed a deep rooted trans-border terror ma-chinery that was at work through some of the madrasas in the state.

“These madrasas are mostly free for students who are not just given Islamic education but also provided with free lodging and food, besides some cash to buy clothes if they are extremely poor. There is a need to encour-age these madrasas to incorporate elements of modern curriculums to help their students in terms of employment and life skills,” the report said.

“There is no hate propaganda if the teachers are Indian Muslims and there is no jehadi indoctrina-tion,” the report states.

In a year-long study, conduct-ed secretly by a combination of central agencies, it was found that though there was no regulation on the number of madrasas and the content they taught, nothing objectionable was found in their teaching.

Madrasah: A peaceful place of education

As per the definition mentioned in Encyclopedia Britannica, Ma-drasah means “school, in Muslim countries and an institution of higher education. The Madrasah functioned until the 20th century as a theologi-cal seminary and law school, with a curriculum centered on the Quran. Arabic grammar and literature, mathematics, logic, and, in some cases, natural science were studied in Madrasah in addition to Islamic theology and law. Tuition was free, and food, lodging, and medical care were provided as well. Instruction usually took place in a courtyard and consisted primarily of memo-rizing textbooks and the instructor’s lectures. The lecturer issued certifi-cates to his students that constituted permission to repeat his words.”

Princes and wealthy families do-nated funds for the erection of build-ings and for stipends to students and lecturers. By the end of the 12th century, Madrasah flourished in Da-mascus, Baghdad, Mosul, and most other Muslim cities.

As per Wikipedia, “however, in English, the term Madrasah usually refers to the specifically Islamic in-stitutions. A typical Islamic school usually offers two courses of study:

a Hifz course teaching memorization of the Qur’an (the person who com-mits the entire Quran to memory is called a hafiz); and an Alim course leading the candidate to become an accepted scholar in the community. A regular curriculum includes cours-es in Arabic, Tafsir (Qur’anic inter-pretation), Shariah (Islamic law), Hadiths (recorded sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad),mantiq (logic), and Muslim history. In the Ottoman Empire, during the Early Modern Period, the study of ha-diths was introduced by Süleyman I. Depending on the educational demands, some Madrasah also of-fer additional advanced courses in Arabic literature, English and other foreign languages, as well as science and world history. Ottoman Madra-sah along with religious teachings also taught “styles of writing, gram-mary, syntax, poetry, composition, natural sciences, political sciences, and etiquette.”

Putting Madrasah under the scanner is a gross injustice as these Madrasah have contributed to the national cause. Graduates from the Madrasah as well as the founders of some of the leading Muslim semi-naries in India played an important

role in the struggle against the Brit-ish. From 1857 to 1947 they never compromised with the British gov-ernment and always held aloft the torch of freedom. It is now a known history that Madrasah people not only participated enthusiastically in the 1857 revolution but also they led the movements at various places. Reshmi Rumal Tahrik (Silky Hand-kerchief Movement) was purely an Ulama-based movement.

Madrasas are the greatest NGOs in the world that promote education among the people. Madrasah and Mak-tabs offer free education; free board and free books while the government of India yet could not managed to pro-vide children with free education.

In recent times, Madrasahs have been a soft target by various interna-tional fronts for no genuine reason. Again, especially in West Bengal Madrasahs are being falsely blamed for breeding terrorism. The recent MHA report is highly encouraging that rightly says “There is no hate propaganda if the teachers are In-dian Muslims and there is no jehadi indoctrination.” Let’s hope and pray that people stop demonizing Madra-sah which is surely a peaceful place of education.

Photo Courtesy: Wiki Media.

Madrasas not spread-ing jihad in India: MHA report

2 Editorial19th November 2014Vol. 8 No. 16

We have a re-sponsibility to bring the minori-ties to the main-stream: Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday criti-cized the attempts to paint all ma-drassas as terror hubs, saying it is a collective duty of all to bring the minority to mainstream. “Let them also have a scope to learn,” she said. Mamata was replying to a question posed by SUCI MLA Tarun Naskar who asked whether unaided madrassas were turn-ing out to be terrorist-breeding grounds.

“Yes there are unaided mad-rassas. They lack infrastructure like the aided ones. Educational institutions should impart edu-cation. I do not believe in such political statements. But, there are also model madrassas. Do you know that in some madrassas English is also taught? Minorities are also taking up studies in sec-ondary and higher secondary cur-riculum. Some are even studying in Ramkrishna Mission. People can read anywhere. Terrorists are terrorists. Do not compare them with any caste, creed or religion. We have a responsibility to bring the minorities to the mainstream,” she said.

She added, “We have now managed to bring 94.5% of the Muslims under the OBC reserva-tions..”

Banerjee said this when asked by a SUCI MLA during a sup-plementary in the Assembly how many terrorists were found to be operating in unrecognised madra-sas.

Defending the sops for the Muslims, she said that the state had extended the benefit of res-ervation to Muslim minorities under the OBC quota and that her government was committed to work for the backward sections.

She said her government was setting up model madrasas with an English medium madrasa coming up.

She said Muslims were be-coming IAS, IPS, doctors and engineers and the state govern-ment had arranged training for them. The government was also appointing people from the mi-nority community to important positions.

West Bengal Urdu Academy celebrates Allama Iqbal’s 137th birth anniversary on the 9th November 2014. M.P Sultan Ahmed speaks on this occasion while Dr. N. Sabah Ismail Nadvi, chairman-Function Committee, West Bengal Urdu Academy (first from right) and Prof. Tauqir Khan, Delhi University (second from right) look on amidst the presence Prof. Yousuf Taqui, Manal Shah Quadri and others.

Dr. N. Sabah Ismail Nadvi, chairman-Function Committee, West Bengal Urdu Academy speaks on the occa-sion of 7th National Education Day which marked the 126th birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad at a programme organised by West Bengal Urdu Academy on 11th November, 2014 in the presence of the Chief Guest Dr. Abid Raza Bedar, Ex-Director, Khuda Baksh Library-Patna (second from right) and others.

Anjuman Abna-e-Qadeem Nadwa (Nadwa Old Boys Association, Kolkata) and Rabita Adab -e- Islami, Kolkata organised an evening on ‘Allama Iqbal and his Philosophy of life’ to mark his 137th birth anniversary at Jibreel International School on 15th November, 2014. Dr. Qaiser Aziz Hasmi Nadvi (third from right) spoke as a special guest on this occasion. The programme was also addressed by eminent scholars and educators including Dr. N. Sabah Ismail Nadvi, President Anjuman Abna-e-Qadeem Nadwa (Nadwa Old Boys Association, Kolkata), Md. Shahjahan, Vice Prin-cipal- Jibreel International School, Abdul Aleem Nadvi, Abdul Basit Ismail and others.

3Kolkata Card19th November 2014Vol. 8 No. 16

New Aliah University Campus Inaugurated in Kolkata

Inaugurating a new campus of Aliah University in Kolkata’s New Town-Rajarhat, Mamta Ba-nerjee said “In this Rajarhat we have an Eco park, financial hub, wax museum and now we have universities.” Referring to the second campuses of Presidency University and St Xaviers Au-tonomous University at Rajarhat, she said they along with Vivek Tirtha modelled on Chicago Uni-versity are under construction.

“In three years if we could do this much, given few more years imagine how much more we can achieve,” she said in a dig at her detractors. “Some have eyes but cannot see, some have ears but cannot hear. “In good work we include all representatives irre-spective of their religion,” Ba-nerjee said.

Referring to the new campus of the Aliah University, she said it will have hostel facilities for 1,400 male students and 800-900 female students. Aliah Uni-versity is a state government-controlled minority autonomous varsity in Salt Lake.

Aliah University started its glorious journey from the 2008-09 academic session with great potential and immense opportu-nities.

Aliah University has with it the rich heritage of the 229-year old educational and cultural in-stitution, Mohammedan College of Calcutta, popularly known as Madrasah-i-Aliah or Calcutta Madrasah, the first educational institution set up in India in 1780 by Warren Hestings, the then Governor General of India. Thus, one of the oldest centres of higher learning and culture, the institution is steeped in history. Many eminent scholars were as-sociated with this institution as administrators, principals, teach-ers as well as students.

Calcutta Madrasah was up-graded to Calcutta Madrasah College and then to Aliah Uni-versity by the Government of West Bengal through Aliah University Act XXVII of 2007 passed in West Bengal Legisla-tive Assembly.

NEW DELHI: Gearing up to get into West Bengal in a big way, BJP has decided to double its tar-get for the membership drive that started on November 1, from en-rolling 50 lakh people to 1 crore by March 31, 2015, when the ag-gressive countrywide drive ends.

This was decided at a recent meeting where the action plan for ‘Mission Bengal’ was discussed. The meeting was presided over by BJP chief Amit Shah and at-tended by Bengal unit chief Ra-hul Sinha and state in charge Sid-dharth Nath Singh.

The party will kick off its campaign for assembly polls in 2016 on November 30, when Shah is slated to address a rally at Esplanade in the heart of Kolkata. If denied permission, BJP plans to move court and turn it into a big issue.

BJP has been sending Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to Bengal is also part of the script that car-ries the message that BJP is not against Muslims, it is learnt.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat will hold a rally on December 20 where he is expected to take on terror, infiltration in the state and alleged appeasement of Muslims by the ruling party.

Bhagwat’s visit is expected to rally all Sangh affiliates in Bengal against the Trinamool Congress.

BJP to enrol 1 crore members in West Bengal

4 State Affairs19th November 2014Vol. 8 No. 16

The Congress is a ‘Head’less Party

Narendra Modi addressing the Jana Chetna Rally at Wardha, Maharashtra. Photo Courtesy: Wiki Media.

M. Burhanuddin Qasmi

The outcome of Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana is out. As projected by experts; the actual results rightly are; the Indian National Congress (INC) bites dust in both the states and the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) makes sweeping victory in Haryana (47 out of 90) and ‘historic’ win in Maharastra (123 out of 288). The party is forming governments in both the states with RSS as heads of the states.

The ultimate loser is the Con-gress because it has been ruling the states – Haryana and Maha-rashtra for last 10 and 15 years respectively. And the principal gainer is the BJP for, the party has won only 4 seats in Haryana in 2009 and it was positioned as the fourth party, at most, throughout the history of Maharashtra, but this election directly put it on the driving seat kicking the Congress on third position in both the states for the first time.

The result was very much ex-pected for me and even for any general students of Indian poli-tics. The Congress had a chance, though by default, to at least make a face-saver retaining Ma-harashtra for the fourth consecu-tive terms in alliance with NCP following a split between the BJP and the Shiv Sena. But the party leadership once again utterly failed to take right decision at the right time, exposing its command and control as virtually collapsed and it is now a head-less party.

In this chaotic but politically open atmosphere Muslims in Maharashtra seem to have not voted very maturely again. They went after emotional rhetoric in some constituencies. The major-ity Muslim constituencies like 2 in Bhiwandi, one each in Mum-bra, Kurla, Bandra, Aurangabad and Nanded went to Shiv Sena or BJP because of heavy division of minority votes among so-called secular party candidates from Congress, NCP, SP or AIMIM.

According to the result an-nounced by the state election commission on 19 October, the Maharashtra house will have a to-tal of 123 BJP MLAs followed by 63 of Shiv Sena, 42 of the Con-

gress, 41 of the NCP, 03 of Bahu-jan Vikas Aghadi and 02 MLAs of the All India Majlis-e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and others belonging to smaller parties.

The only ten Muslim MLAs elected in the 2014 state elections are: Amin Patel (Mumbadevi), Arif Naseem Khan (Chandiwa-li), Aslam Shaikh (Malad), Ab-dus Sattar (Sillod), Asif Shaikh (Malegaon - Central) – all 5 from Congress, Abu Asim Azmi (Mankhurd) from Samajwadi Party (SP), Hasan Mushrif (Ka-gal) from Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Advocate Waris Pathan (Byculla), Imtiyaz Jaleel (Aurangabad - Central) – the duo from All India Majlis-e Ittihadul

Muslimeen (AIMIM) and Pa-sha Patel (Ausa, Latur), the lone Muslim face from BJP.

The number of Muslim MLAs in the previous Maharashtra As-sembly was 11 only, not a satis-factory figure either, comparing to Muslims’ 15 percent popula-tion in the state. This figure would have been little better this time had the Congress and NCP not broken their alliance before elec-tions. Results show in Bhiwandi Shoeb Guddu of Congress was leading however due to the votes taken by Rashid Tahir Momin of the NCP he lost the election.

Other losers are Baba Sid-diqui, Nawab Malik and Bashir Musa Patel. All three are experi-

enced, former MLAs and senior leaders of their respective parties. They lost the election because their parties could not transfer the non-Muslim votes in their favour.

The results once again proved that while the Congress and other secular parties win the elections on Muslim votes, when the time comes non-Muslim voters do not vote for Muslim candidates be-longing to these parties.

The hallmark of this elec-tion, for Muslims, however is the emergence of the Hyderabad based All Indian Majlis-e It-tehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) - the party led by the vocal MP Asaduddin Owaisi has made its presence felt. The AIMIM, which contested the Maharashtra elec-tion for the first time has fielded 24 candidates, pulled over a half million votes, won two seats, run-ner up in three, 3rd in eight seats.

The performance is good for a debutant party. However it is yet to be seen how this ‘Muslim’ party is going to help the Mus-lims in Maharashtra in this highly polarized political and communal conditions.

There is no sign visible any-where that the ‘Head’-less Con-gress can recover from these shockers in near future. The up-coming elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkand and Assam will bring the same ill-fate for the party. Writings on the walls are clear; polity in India is drastically changed, BJP is going to stay in the centre stage for a longer pe-riod than Vajpayee era.

Supreme Court directs to establish winter sheltersWe salute & urge the Court to include Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand

Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood

The Supreme Court has di-rected the governments of five northern states (UP, Delhi, Har-yana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh) to build sufficient num-ber of shelter homes for homeless people ahead of the upcoming winter season. Sending a stern warning to the state governments, a bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu said the states will have to face consequences if they fail to put shelter homes before the onset of winter. ‘We will be very harsh to you if the shelter homes are not ready,’ the bench said. I join the nation in saluting the Supreme Court for its com-passion and benevolence.

The bench was hearing a PIL seeking its direction to govern-ments to build shelter homes as many homeless people die due to cold in winter. The bench said that it will send court commissioners to find out whether the govern-ments have set up night shelters or not. The apex court had earlier passed a series of orders for pro-viding shelter to homeless people saying that right to shelter is a fundamental right.

The apex court said that noth-ing is more important for the State than to preserve and protect the lives of the vulnerable, weak,

poor and helpless people. The threat to life is particularly immi-nent in the severe and biting cold winter, especially in the northern India, the Court added.

We are, however, aware that the coldest place in north India is Kashmir valley and the sec-ond coldest is Uttarakhand. As I write this (Nov 1) the normal temperature in Srinagar is hov-ering around 16 degree Celsius - lower than any other state capital of north India; during Dec-Jan, as per the international weather data portal AccuWeather.Com, the average temperature in the valley goes down to 8 to 3 de-grees. As against that, the aver-age temperature in Mussoorie & Shimla now is 19 degrees while during Dec-Jan it goes down to 15-10 degrees. Thus during the winter season the weather con-ditions in Uttarakhand remain broadly like those in Himachal Pradesh; together, after Kashmir valley, these two states remain second coldest. Needless to add, per capita GDP of Uttarakhand & Himachal Pradesh is almost dou-ble that of Jammu & Kashmir. On the other hand, during winter sea-son, the temperature in Delhi, UP, Rajasthan and Haryana remains higher than Kashmir valley by 15+ and than Himachal Pradesh & Uttarakhand by 7+ degrees.

Also, there have been recent floods in J & K which have fro-zen even the necessities of life in-cluding homes, beds, mattresses, blankets, quilts and hearth etc. Moreover, the attention and re-sources of the J & K and central governments has now been di-verted to preparing for the polls that should have been postponed till after the winter season is over.

In view of the absolute pauci-ty of time caused by the imminent onset of the fast approaching cold weather on the hills, we would respectfully urge the Hon’ble Su-preme Court to kindly treat this write up as PIL and (a) include the states of J&K and Uttara-khand in the list of states to whom directions have been issued by the Supreme Court to establish winter shelters for the needy. (b) Direct the central and J&K Gov-

ernments to ensure not only shel-ter but also warm beddings, warm clothes (pharons) and other basic necessities of life to the tens of thousands of flood victims who got deprived of these amenities. (b) Direct the authorities that the hundreds of government houses that remain vacant in the val-ley during the winters when the state government Darbar shifts to Jammu should be allotted to those people of the valley who otherwise cannot be readily pro-vided with warm shelters and (d) in order to facilitate the imple-mentation of these humanitarian instructions, direct the Election Commission to postpone the J & K state elections till April 2015; Delhi’s is a case in view where elections are being postponed for several months in row, though not because of any natural disaster.

Ajmals Condemn Dastardly Bully of Goons Against Mahesh BhattMumbai: “We severely condemn the recent cowardly intimidation attempt on the life of prominent film maker and producer Mahesh Bhatt and his family members in Mumbai,” Maulana Badrud-din Ajmal, Lok Sabha MP from Dhubri. He is the president of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF). His brother, Sirajuddin Ajmal, another MP from Barpeta, Assam, expressed same feelings through a press statement here in Mumbai.It is unfortunate that Mr. Bhatt with stellar qualities of secular-ism and humanism is for the third time on the target of hoods, ac-cording to media reports with reference to joint commissioner of police (crime) Sadanand Date. They further said, “We eagerly extend all supports to Mr. Bhatt for his activism for human rights and secularism and call upon the authorities to ensure that those whose views are opposed to cer-tain sections of society have a right to freedom of speech and action and the police and govern-ment must ensure that proper pro-tection is provided to such secu-larists and their family members so that they do not fall a prey to the bully of anti-social goons.”

5National Affairs19th November 2014Vol. 8 No. 16

US/India WTO Agreement: How Corporate Greed Trumps Needs of World’s Poor And Hungry

Farmers harvesting in India. (Photo Asian Development Bank/Rakesh Sahai/flickrcc)

The United States cheered on Thursday an agreement it reached with India as progress for the World Trade Organization (WTO). Critics, however, say deal is likely a win for corpora-tions and economic loss for de-veloping countries.

A fact sheet from the U.S. Trade Representative explains that there are two parts to the deal that broke what had been an im-passe over agreements from Min-isterial meeting last year in Bali. The first is that the two countries stated they would move forward on the Trade Facilitation Agree-ment (TFA)—the WTO’s first multilateral trade agreement of the body’s two-decade existence. The second is an agreement on India’s food security program, which allows for domestic “food stockpiling.”

Begging WTO for Food Se-curity

As the Associated Press summed up: “India had insisted on its right to subsidize grains under a national policy to support hundreds of millions of impover-ished farmers and provide food security amid high inflation.”

Regarding that food security program, the New York Times re-ports, “Indian and American offi-cials agreed to a peace clause that protects India’s program from a legal challenge until W.T.O. members reach a permanent reso-lution of the dispute.” India had held out on this issue.

But as the Transnational In-stitute (TNI) pointed out in a re-port released this week: “The big question is why do governments even need the WTO to decide whether they can guarantee the right to food to their people? The right to food is a universal human right that should not be subject to trade rules.”

The report also notes that the need for such a peace clause

highlights the “deep hypocrisy embedded within the WTO,” as the EU and the U.S., unlike India and other developing countries, are able to pour billions into their own agricultural subsidies.

Deborah James, Director of International Programs at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, echoed these points, explaining to Common Dreams: “The entire debate is outrageous.”

“The world has passed through multiple food crises since the WTO rules were written, and nearly every global agricultural agency now recognizes the dire need for developing countries to invest in agricultural production to promote food security, rather than relying on a global market rife with rich countries’ trade-dis-torting subsidies and speculative distortions. And due to a mass Right to Food movement, India now has a food security program that has been hailed as the most ambitious in the world,” James stated.

“It is beyond shameful that the United States blocked these negotiations all year in 2013, and that India and other developing

countries were left with a peace clause as a consolation prize,” she continued.

Yet, according to Timothy A. Wise, who directs the Research and Policy Program at Tufts Uni-versity’s Global Development and Environment Institute, that India and the U.S. were able to reach an agreement on this issue could be positive.

“India was under enormous pressure to settle this, and its al-lies were under pressure to aban-don India. The good news is that India’s firm stance exacted some concessions from the United States that may lead to good-faith negotiations on the food security issues. Time will tell,” Wise ex-plained to Common Dreams.

The TFA as Corporate WinThe agreement also moves

forward the WTO’s TFA, which is also problematic, critics charge.

As CEPR’s James wrote in July:

The new agreement on “Trade Facilitation” would set bind-ing rules on customs procedures and trade operations that would demand huge investments from

developing countries and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to modernize and streamline - ac-cording to U.S. and EU stand-ards -- their port operations. This means that while we still don’t have binding international rules on, say, the right to water, corpo-rations would have the “right” to have their products exported into developing countries quickly, easily, and cheaply. That’s why nearly 200 organizations around the world opposed the agreement when it was being negotiated last year.

The TFA would also divert limited resources away from pri-ority development needs such as health, education, and domes-tic infrastructure investments in LDCs and developing countries. Developed countries refused to make binding commitments on financial support during the ne-gotiations. The World Bank an-nounced on July 17 that it would make available, through its Trade Facilitation Support Program (supported by Australia, the EU, the U.S., Canada, Norway and Switzerland) an embarrassingly paltry $30 million for over 100

developing countries to assist them in implementing the TFA.

As TNI’s new report puts bluntly, the TFA is a win for trans-national corporations. As they “control the global supply chains across the world, [they] will gain the most from an Agreement that slashes costs and relaxes customs procedures, easing the flow of imports and exports,” the report states.

While the WTO had touted the economic gains of the Bali deal, Wise stated: “The bad news is that trade facilitation remains a largely unfunded mandate that will not produce the laughable estimate of $1 trillion in eco-nomic gains for the world, as my colleagueJeronim Capaldo has shown. And it may well create economic losses for some least developed countries.”

The WTO said Friday that the U.S./India agreement will prob-ably be implemented by the full 160-member body within two weeks.

(Andrea Germanos, common-dreams.org)

Mumbai NGOs Condemn Israeli Oppression in Baitul MaqdisMumbai, Nov 10. Address-

ing a press conference at Marathi Patrakar Sangh today, a clutch of Muslim NGOs and social organi-zations expressed their severe dis-may with the anti-Muslim policy of Israel in the environs of Masjid-e Aqsa and also protested against the silence and lack of response from the Indian government.

The NGOs raised several questions before the media about the oppressive actions of the Is-raelis in Baitul Muqqadas, rep-resenting the concern of all In-dian Muslims and the Muslims of Mumbai in particular. They asked whether it was not a fundamen-tal right of all people to pray in their holy places. If yes then why are the Muslims being deprived of the right to worship in Baitul Muqaddas? They also asked whether it is lawful to conduct excavations near a holy place, a world heritage site, to weaken its

foundations. If this is wrong, then why is the world community en-gaged in a conspiracy of silence about this important issue?

The NGOs also said it was whimsical to prevent youth below the age of 35 years from going to the Masjid for prayers.

Among those who addressed the conference were: Maulana Mustaqim Ahsan Azmi, presi-dent Maharashtra Jamiat Ulama-e Hind, Maulana Mahmood Darya-badi, general secretary All India

Ulama Council, Maulana Burha-nuddin Qasmi, director Markazul Ma’arif Education and Research Centre, Mr. Farid Shaikh, presi-dent Mumbai Aman Committee, Mr. Aslam Ghazi, secretary Ma-harashtra unit of Jamat-e Islami Hind, Maulana Anis Ashrafi, president Reza Foundation, and Maulana Ejaz Khashmiri, Imam Handiwali Masjid.

The heads organizations la-beled the sinister machinations of the Israelis in occupied East

Jerusalem as a flagrant violation of human rights and an utter dis-regard for international law.

The intelligentsia who ad-dressed the press meet made it clear that this was not a matter confined only to Palestinians or Arabs, but Muslims throughout the world held the Masjid close to their hearts for it was their first Qiblah, and they are not prepared to let an invasive power destroy the structure. They urged the world community for a quick and just solution to the problem and provide some solace to the af-flicted Palestinians.

The representatives of the NGOs said that the sequestra-tion and depredations at Baitul Muqqadas by Israelis were against the Geneva Conven-tion, and it is incumbent upon the Indian government to use its influence to solve the festering problem. Traditional Indian for-

eign policy had always favored the Palestinians cause and lead-ers such as Mahatma Gandhi and others always raised their voices against the injustice meted out to the Palestinians. This makes it necessary for the Indian gov-ernment to continue favoring the Palestinians cause, without taking any step that may harm it.

The NGOs warned that this conflagration would not be lim-ited to the Middle East alone and the increasing frequency of op-pressive acts by the Israelis may engulf the whole world. To stop this, all those with influence and power should use their good of-fices to iron out the differences between the opposing forces, while at the same time condemn-ing the anti-religious and criminal acts by the Israeli forces and haul it before the international court of justice to punish it’s for the crimes.

6 International Affairs19th November 2014Vol. 8 No. 16

Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, one of the few prominent leaders in the BJP, is known for his versatile personality. This quality, in 2001, made him the youngest Cabinet Minister ever in the Government of India.

First time he was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1999. Though he lost the 2004 general elections, he re-entered the Lok Sabha in November 2006 in a by-election when he won the vacant seat of Bhagalpur in Bihar. He entered the 15th Lok Sabha again from Bhagalpur in 2009. He contested the Lok Sabha election in 2014 from Bhagalpur again but lost with a small margin of 9000 votes.

As, these days, he is the Spokes Person of the party, Eastern Post asked

him some critical questions about his party’s ‘deci-

sive poli-

cies’.Here are edited excerpts from the

interview. The questions are para-phrased and some of Shahnawz’s re-plies have been translated from Hindi.

Q. Let’s start conversation with Kashmir flood which wrecked havoc in many parts of the valley. There are accusations that in first 3 days Central Government and the Army did not take serious steps to help ravaged Kash-miris and rescued only tourists special-ly who had gone to the hindu pilgrim-age center Vaishno devi and Amarnath. Is there any truth?

A. See. This is a propaganda of Separatist forces. Since long time, they have been misguiding Kashmiri people. And this is ridiculous that in the need of hour they are still work-

ing on their decisive agenda. Both, Central govern-

ment and the Army have worked tremendously. Army evacuated people

from remote areas and sheltered them in its camps. Food, medicine and oth-

er goods

were distributed among flood victims. So, this is totally a false allegation that the Central government and the Army have shown discrimination anywhere. My party and I personally monitored the rescue and other relief operations which cannot be questioned at any cost.

Q. In recent by-elections, BJP’s performance was not according to the expectations. Does it seem to you that Modi’s wave is getting slow?

A. By-elections are not for choos-ing Prime Minister or Chief Minister. People cast their votes keeping in mind local issues. On the other hand, we had implemented a policy of not giv-ing tickets to the kin of ministers. So, somewhere, it affected the party ad-versely. As far as Gujarat is concerned, we won 60 percent seats. Yes, In Ra-jasthan we performed worst which is being analyzed. In UP, Bahujan Samaj Party did not fight the by-election and Congress was at nadir which made anti-BJP vote united. If UP general as-sembly elections are held, we will win with an absolute majority.

Q. In UP, Your two MPs Yogi Adi-tyanath and Sakshi Maharaj raised a love-jihad issue and delivered many hate speeches to polarize the voters. Do you think voters rejected this po-larization tactics? Are Adityanath and Sakshi Maharaj responsible for party’s drubbing?

A. I am a Spokes Person of the party and on behalf of my party I am saying that party has nothing to do with communalism. Modi Ji also gave a slogan from the Red Fort, “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” (Together with all, development for all). So, it became meaningless that our party pursue the communal agenda. Look, Modi Ji was also blamed for communalism, but now he is moving ahead with every citizen of India irrespective of ones cast, creed and religion. As far as Yogi Adityanath is concerned, he is a five time MP from UP.

Q. Since BJP came in power, one after one hindu-rightwingers who are allegedly involved in terror cases, are getting released on bail. There are whispers that somewhere BJP is try-ing to influence the Courts. What

is your comment?A. How can you

say this?

Do you have any proof? If you have, show it. You are pointing fingers at honorable court that means indulging in contempt of caurt. Government can-not influence the courts. Judges deliver verdicts own their own without any pressure. So, I would say that these are totally baseless allegations.

Q. Sir, time to time there are alle-gations that BJP has biased attitude to-wards minorities. So, will ministry of minority affairs achieve its objectives under the BJP government?

A. First of all, I would like to clarify, this is only a Congress propa-ganda that we are against minorities. Wherever we have state governments, minorities are flourishing. We are not against minorities but appeasement. As far as ministry of minority affairs are concerned, it will serve its purpose be-cause Najma Aapa (Najma Heptullah) is a talented and hardworking lady. And, I am sure under her ministership this ministry will play an important role in the upliftment of minorities. Earlier, Salman Khurshid was the minister of minority affairs but he had some oth-er important portfolios like corporate affairs. So, it was difficult for him to pay full attention on this ministry. Yes, later on, under K. Rehman Khan this ministry worked at full throttle.

Look, Congress party has ruled this country for 6 decades. Its policies made Muslims most backward class of this country. When its leaders ob-served that Muslims have been pushed into the abyss, they constituted Sachar Committee and created a separate min-istry for minorities. But, under the con-gress rule, this ministry did not yield any result. Now, our government will alocate more funds to this ministry and monitors the utilasation of this fund. More student scholarship schemes will be started.

Q. But, when Narendra Modi was the Gujarat Chief Minister, he did not allow to pay a single penny to the stu-dents of minority communities under the Pre-Matric Scholarship scheme that was run by ministry of minority affairs. Now he is prime minister of India. How one can be sure that these scholarship schemes will not be scut-tled.

A. On its behalf, Gujarat govern-ment was already giving scholarships to the students and the amount of the scholarship was double than the amount given by the Center. As, in one time, two Scholarships can not be giv-en, the scholarship given by the Center were revoked. Now our government will increase the amount of the student scholarships.

Q. Sir, there is a last and direct question for you. Will BJP rule this country by fearing Muslims or win-ning their hearts?

A. I am a Muslim and Spokes Person of the BJP. So, how this ques-tion can be raised that our party has animosity towards Muslims? They are flourishing in Gujarat and Mad-hyapradesh where we have state gov-ernments. Now BJP is in center, so they will flourish in entire country.

Interview with

BJP Spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain

Phot

o C

ourt

esy:

face

book

.com

Photo Courtesy: shahnawazhussain.in

7Exclusive

By Md. Khalilur Rehman

19th November 2014Vol. 8 No. 16

Kasim Rizvi. Photo Courtesy: photodivision.gov.in

Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, father of Asaduddin and Akbaruddin Owaisi, addressing MIM party workers at MIM Headquarters Darussalam. Photo Courtesy: Wiki Media.

Abdul Wahid Owaisi, father of Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi. Photo Courtesy: Wiki Media....Continued from page 1

AIMIM is historically linked to Razakars, “the private militia that resisted the integration of Hyderabad state into the domin-ion of India”. The debate on the question of Razakar movement and its aftermath in the form of “Police Action” continues to re-main the most unresolved issues for the historians dealing with it.

Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), which was founded in 1927, is seen by some historians as a socio-religious organization aiming for the educational and social upliftment of Muslims in the state. For this group of histo-rians, MIM symbolises a move-ment that stood for cultural and political rights of the Muslim community. For other historians, predominantly favouring the na-tionalistic paradigm of history, the current AIMIM continues to seen as an offshoot of infamous Razakar legacy that terrorized many Hindu villagers. Due to the complexity of issues hidden in the pages of history, the integra-tion of Hyderabad state into the Indian Union of India on Septem-ber 17, 1948 is simultaneously termed as a Liberation Day by some and Black Day by others. What is common to all narratives is that the period of 13 months preceding the Liberation or Black Day of Hyderabad was exceed-ingly violent.

In the post independent India MIM was banned while its leader Kasim Rizvi was imprisoned in 1948. It was only in 1957 Rizvi was released on the pretext that he would leave for Pakistan in

48 hours. While leaving for Pa-kistan, Kasim Rizvi passed on the mantle of the president of MIM to Abdul Wahid Owaisi. It is Abdul Wahid Owaisi who is credited with re-writing the new constitution of the party accord-ing to the provisions of the Indian constitution. The MIM was thus renamed as AIMIM in 1958 and made its electoral debut in 1959. From here onwards the party has always attempted to reinvent and reassess itself on the lines of linguistics of parliamentary de-mocracy in India. Therefore any attempt to see AIMIM as a mani-festation of its past will not only be hollow reductionism but also misleading.

The Razakars who are seen as the predecessors of the modern AIMIM were situated in a con-text where the aim was to wrestle for the state power. The current AIMIM does not in any way hold such illusions. The upswing in the fortunes of the AIMIM politics since 1970s therefore makes it im-perative to see the rise of AIMIM in the present context of the larger political scene in the country.

AIMIM being a Muslim par-ty aiming to represent the rights of Muslims bears the burden of operating in a milieu where it is daunting to be secular, democrat-ic and Muslim in chorus. Many sections in the society see com-bination of Muslim political party and secular politics mutually ex-clusive to each other. Therefore a single political error committed by the party is susceptible to be seen as an imminent threat.

We live in the crucial times in the history of postcolonial In-dia. For the first time in the post-independent India, a right wing Hindu political formation called BJP has secured a political major-ity of its own in the 2014 parlia-mentary elections. This has raised several questions concerning the plight of Muslims in India com-prising a significant proportion of the minority populations. The near annihilation of the opposi-tional parties from the national political scene which could in the past claim to represent the case of Indian Muslims has amounted to manifold increase in the already prevalent fear psychosis among the Muslims. This existential di-lemma posed to Muslim commu-nities in India by the rise of Hindu

wave politics has to do a lot in re-lation to the success of AIMIM in Maharashtra.

As per the Sachar and Post-Sachar studies on Indian Mus-lims, it is evident to conclude that the Indian Muslims have so far benefitted very less by taking ref-uge in the comparatively secular outlook of Congress or other such political formations. Majority of the Muslims in India continue to live in ghettoes across the country. Muslims are perpetually branded as anti-national and forced to prove themselves as true Indians. In this context, coupled with the absence of representative Muslim leadership until this day, Muslims can be expected to pin their hopes on the AIMIM strand of politics.

However, there are many nu-ances and caveats appended be-fore jumping to conclusions.

First of all, it would be a bra-zen travesty of truth by assuming that the Muslims of India are go-ing to wholeheartedly accept the politics of AIMIM. This can be clearly understood by the way in which Muslim population of Hy-derabad negotiate their relation-ship with AIMIM.

Despite its strong hold over the Muslim votes in Hyderabad, the Muslims in Hyderabad have an ambivalent relationship with the party. Majority of the Mus-lims in Hyderabad are skeptical about AIMIM when it comes to the question of socio-economic development of the community in Hyderabad. Majority of the Mus-lims in Hyderabad, very much like the other Muslim communi-ties in other states of India, continue to be abysmal- ly poor and live i n

the ghettoes of old city of Hy-derabad. The strong voice of certain section of unemployed educated Muslim youth and other members from the community in the form of Siasat group till today remain the unforgiving critics of AIMIM politics.

Then, what actually works for AIMIM is nothing but the lan-guage which provides shelter to the concerns over the rising in-security of Muslim community in the country. In addition, what phenomenally works for AIMIM is the easy accessibility of its top leadership to all sections from the Muslims community in Hy-derabad.

The role of AIMIM in rep-resenting the case of illegally detained Muslim youth of Hy-derabad is a perfect example of this politics. The erratic politics of AIMIM therefore for all right or wrong reasons poses a concern for varied sections of population across the country. The vitriolic speeches of Akbaruddin Owaisi, the second in command of the organization, have done a cata-strophic damage to the party in the imagination of mainstream Indian public. This has allowed some to compare the politics of AIMIM with the politics of Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. However this pairing of AIMIM with Shiv Sena by those who see these two parties as mirror images of each other is fallacious. The ideology of Shiv Sena theoretically rep-resents an ideology which has fascist leanings and therefore es-sentially dangerous. But the ideology of the AIMIM r e p r e s e n t s

the case of social and cultural interests of the most vulnerable community in the country and hence in essence is essentially democratic.

The fate of AIMIM as a dem-ocratic, secular party lies in the hands of its leaders. The more the focus remains on polariza-tion, the more detrimental will be its consequences for the Muslim community. The agenda to be set by AIMIM should focus more on the recommendations of the Sachar committee than resorting to the speeches of vitriolic type.

In the recent past, the exten-sion of the party to accommodate other deprived communities of India to its fold is a welcome step. This extension to other groups would be decisive to strengthen its secular base.

...Continued from page 1

Similarly, the AMU provides for co-education at postgraduate level. For decades, the postgrad boys and girls have been visiting and benefiting from the varsity’s central Maulana Azad Library as well as dozens of departmental li-braries. For undergrad girls there is exclusive and comprehensive library facility in the women’s college campus where they attend their classes and they also live there in the hostels. However, the media finds AMU retrograde if, in addi-tion to the huge library in the wom-en’s college, the undergrad girls are not accommodated round the clock even in Maulana Azad Library.

Don’t the media scribes think that if they have to unitedly speak against retrograde and offensive anti-women practices in our coun-try these really are feticide, dowry

deaths, absence of reservation for women in the legislature, etc. The media does play the noble task of strengthening the grassroots de-mocracy yet it should not allow itself to undergo a tectonic shift or to have a squinted eye growing out of sub-societal parochialism. It must not even be doubted to sub-serve polarization that may foster short term political interests but does create a long term societal cancer from whose effect nobody can remain safe. Media must re-main above board, apolitical and a-communal. It is important to recapitulate that with the rights of media freedom come respon-sibilities of larger public interest, equity, justice, fair play, non-har-assment and non-discrimination.

The episode prompts one to reflect on the current status of me-dia regulation. The Press Council of India is statutorily empowered

to take suo moto cognizance or entertain complaints against news-papers and journalists accused of violating standards of journalistic ethics. It may summon witnesses and take evidence under oath and issue warnings and admonish the newspaper, news agency, editor or journalist.

The Law Commission’s May 2014 consultation paper on the media law says that the exponen-tial growth and reach of media has shown unhealthy trends of compe-tition, leading to sensationalized reporting. While this is certainly not true across the board in the whole media, the problem is cer-tainly extensive. The Commission added that “civil defamation is dealt with under the law of torts whereas criminal defamation is an offense under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code. A journalist has no special status under defamation

laws in India. Although the press enjoys the freedom of speech and expression under Art. 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, defamation is a ground for a reasonable restriction to this freedom under Art. 19(2)”.

Section 66A of the IT Act makes it a punishable offense to send messages that are offensive or false or created for the purpose of causing annoyance or incon-venience, danger, obstruction, in-sult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill-will, through a computer or other communica-tion device.

The Law Commission has thus asked the people of India a perti-nent question: Is there a need for a regulatory authority with powers to ban or suspend coverage of ob-jectionable material? If yes, should the regulatory authority be self-reg-ulatory or should it have statutory powers?

The UNESCO paper of 2011 on self-regulation by media includes in the essential elements of jour-nalism the responsibility to make the news comprehensive as well as proportional and ensure non-harassment. While dealing with the recent AMU library matter, the media did not report the massive demonstration of the students and staff - men and women - protesting against the media making a wrong mountain of a right molehill and, in the process, showing the AMU in poor light. Even then, AMU should not have banned the news-paper concerned from entering the campus. Rather, it should keep on positively projecting the correct facts and, if warranted, proceed un-der law. Nonetheless, time seems to have come to have in India a media ombudsman as are found today in USA, Latin America, Europe and parts of the Middle East and Asia.

8 Cover Story19th November 2014Vol. 8 No. 16

Targeting Nehruvian Legacy?

Fruit juice ‘as bad’ as sugary drinks, say researchers

Ram Puniyani

The debates about India’s par-tition, Gandhi murder and poli-cies of Nehru have been a matter of ceaseless debates. Each politi-cal tendency has their own inter-pretation of these events, which in a way are landmarks of sorts in modern Indian History. As such the phenomenon of Parti-tion of India and assassination of Gandhi are interwoven in the sense that Godse held Gandhi responsible for appeasement of Muslims. Godse constructed his story around warped understand-ings of the events of the time to create the ground for murder of the Mahatma. These views are shared by many Hindu national-ists, who are in and around RSS-BJP. Now with the ascendance of BJP to the seat of power many of its leaders are coming out more boldly with Hindu nationalist in-terpretation of the events, but a twist is being added. This twist is apparent in the article by a BJP

leader from Kerala in the RSS mouth piece Kesari. This article indirectly suggests that Nathuram Godse should have killed Jawa-harlal Nehru instead of Mahatma Gandhi, as according to him the real culprit was Nehru and not Gandhi.

The BJP leader who wrote this is B Gopalkrishnan. He says “If history students feel Godse aimed at the wrong target, they cannot be blamed. Nehru was solely responsible for the parti-tion of the country.” What does one make of it? Is it the official RSS line? To be on the safe side RSS spokesperson Manmohan Vaidya has distanced the RSS from the statement of its leader. Still it is not difficult to guess that there may be prevalence of such thinking within the RSS circles on the lines of the author of RSS mouthpiece article. This Kesari article is significant as it is try-ing to shift the blame from Gan-dhi to Nehru. It may not be too difficult to understand the reason for the same. Before we have a look at who was responsible for partition, let’s try to understand why the blame is being shifted from the Mahatma to Nehru. Re-cently Narendra Modi launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India campaign) on 2nd October as a tribute to the father of the na-tion, Gandhi. This move has two shrewd aims. One is to appropri-ate Gandhi for the politics of Hin-du nationalism; two is to reduce Gandhi’s contribution to mere cleanliness and hygiene. This over projection of cleanliness associated with Gandhi as such dwarfs the major contribution of

Gandhi, Hindu Muslim unity and national integration in the deepest possible sense.

Nehru’s staunch and princi-pled commitment to Indian na-tionalism, pluralism, secularism and scientific temper make him a figure totally unacceptable to Hindu nationalists, as Hindu nationalism stands for the val-ues totally opposed to these. So the attempts like this article are planned attempts for tasting of waters by throwing up Nehru’s name as the culprit for the parti-tion tragedy.

As such, Gandhi, Nehru and Patel were the most prominent leaders of the anti colonial free-dom movement. Gandhi was the central pillar, who built up the an-ti-British-Indian nationalist mass movement, gave it solid founda-tions and then gradually became the moral guide for the same. He passed the major mantle of his re-sponsibilities to Nehru and Patel. Most of the times Hindu nation-alists, Hindu Mahasabha-RSS, were critical of Gandhi’s efforts for Hindu Muslim unity. The Muslim communal stream, Mus-lim League looked at Congress as a party representing Hindus alone. The truth is that majority of people from all religions were with the Gandhi led movement for Indian nationalism. It is only after 1940s that more Muslims started shifting to Muslim League due to the rise of communalism.

Gandhi was criticized by both communal streams, Hindu com-munal stream criticized him for appeasing Muslims, and Muslim communalists called him a Hindu representative. Partition was due

to multiple factors. The first and foremost of these was the machi-nation of British policy of ‘divide and rule’ which strengthened the communal streams-Muslim and Hindu both. Secondly British had an agenda of colonial mas-ters. They perceived that a united India will be a power in its own right, more likely to ally with Soviet Union in global bipolar world. Their perception was due to the presence of a significant Left wing in the Indian National Congress led by Nehru himself.

Partition tragedy was multi layered phenomenon, which cannot be reduced to a single incident. Many such incidents had their own impact on the totality of the phenomenon of course. We need to see the deeper differences between the Indian nationalists on one hand and Religious na-tionalists (Muslim League-Hindu Mahasabha) on the other and the clever role of British in partitioning the na-tion. That should be central to understanding the process, rather than putting the blame on any single individual.

As per the perception of Hindu communal stream so far it was supposed to be Gan-dhi who was responsible for partition and for appeasement of Muslims, now this stream is trying to shift the blame on to Nehru as they need Gandhi as an icon, though freed from his core virtues of truth and non violence, reduced to mere ‘cleanliness man’. In no way they can appro-priate Nehru, as Nehru lived after Independence to nurture the val-

ues of In-dian nation-a l i s m , p l u r a l -ism, lib-e r a l i s m and di-versity, the principles

which were the cementing factors of Indian national movement, the biggest ever mass movement in the World. So this Keasri, RSS mouthpiece article and the façade of its being disowned!

Catharine Paddock

Two medical researchers writ-ing in one of The Lancet journals argue that because of its high sugar content, fruit juice could be just as bad for us as sugar-sweet-ened beverages like carbonated drinks and sodas.

Naveed Sattar, professor of Metabolic Medicine, and Dr. Ja-son Gill, both of the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sci-ences at the University of Glas-gow in Scotland, call for the UK government to change the current “five a day” guideline to exclude a portion of fruit juice from the list of fruits and vegetable serv-ings that count toward it.

In their paper, published in the The Lancet Diabetes & En-docrinology, they propose that including fruit juice as one of the five a day is “probably counter-productive,” be-cause it leads people to con-sider fruit juice as a healthy food that does not need to be limited, as is the case with less healthy foods.

They also urge food companies to improve container labeling of fruit juices

to inform consumers they should drink no more than 150 ml a day of the product.

Fruit juice has come under the spotlight since medical experts recently started looking more closely at the link between high sugar intake and the risk for heart disease.

In 2012, researchers at Har-vard reported in the journal Cir-culation that daily consumption of sugary drinks raised heart disease risk in men. Two years earlier, researchers presenting at an American Heart Association conference said Americans’ high-er consumption of sugary drinks has led to more diabetes and heart disease over the past decade.

Fruit juice is not a low-sug-ar alternative to s u g a r -

sweetened

drinksDr. Gill says “there seems to

be a clear misperception that fruit juices and smoothies are low-sugar alternatives to sugar-sweet-ened beverages.”

Prof. Sattar explains:“Fruit juice has a similar en-

ergy density and sugar content to other sugary drinks, for example: 250 ml of apple juice typically contains 110 kcal and 26 g of sugar; and 250 ml of cola typi-cally contains 105 kcal and 26.5 g of sugar.”

He says research is beginning to show that unlike solid fruit in-take, for which high consumption appears linked either to reduced or neutral risk for diabetes, high fruit juice intake is linked to raised risk for diabetes.

“One glass of fruit juice con-tains substantially more

s u g a r t h a n

one piece of fruit.”“One glass of fruit juice con-

tains substantially more sugar than one piece of fruit; in addi-tion, much of the goodness in fruit - fibre, for example - is not found in fruit juice, or is there in far smaller amounts,” he adds.

Also, although fruit juices contain vitamins and minerals that are mostly absent in sugar-sweetened drinks, the levels of nutrients in fruit juices many not be enough to offset the unhealthy effect that excessive consumption has on metabolism, says Dr. Gill.

In their paper they refer to a trial where participants drank half a liter of pure grape juice every day for 3 months. And the results showed that despite grape juice’s high antioxidant properties, it led to increased i n s u l i n

resistance and bigger waists in overweight adults.

Poor public awareness about the amount of sugar in fruit juice

The researchers also report an online poll of over 2,000 adults that tested public awareness of the sugar content of fruit juices. Respondents were asked to look at pictures of containers filled with non-alcoholic drinks and estimate how many teaspoons of sugar each contained.

The results showed that even though all the drinks had a simi-lar sugar content, on average the respondents underestimated the sugar content of fruit juices and smoothies by 48%, and overesti-mated that of carbonated drinks by an average of 12%.

Prof. Sattar says there are strong public health reasons for

taxing or targeting sugary drinks in some way, so as to reduce consumption. But he and Dr. Gill do not go as far as to ad-vocate children should not drink fruit juice at all, which is what some have been call-ing for in the US.

They do, however, urge public health policymakers to

include fruit juice when they de-bate the issue of sugar-sweetened drinks.

9Mixed Bag19th November 2014Vol. 8 No. 16

Former Archbishop Supports Teachers’ Niqab

Cairo – The former Archbish-op of Canterbury has voiced sup-port to Muslim primary school teachers’ right to don full-face veil or niqab, saying that “pan-ic” about the religious outfit is “largely misplaced”.

“As I learn a language, I learn not only to identify objects, I learn how to interact with another speaker,” former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Rowan Wil-liams was quoted by The Tel-egraph.

“We all know what happens when people don’t learn that, when they speak without a sense of the codes that are operating – the tone, the timbre, etc.

“I suppose that’s what panics people about, let’s say, a primary school teacher wearing the face veil.

“As a matter of fact I think that’s largely a misplaced anxi-ety, but I can see where it comes from.”

In an interview for the Chris-tian think-tank Theos, the former Archbishop reopened the debate about niqab in the British public life.

The religious attire, donned by a few number of British Mus-lims, sparked a political storm last year after the then Home Office minster, Jeremy Browne, called for a national discussion about re-strictions in some settings such as schools to prevent young women from having the veil “imposed” on them.

David Cameron rejected the

idea of a ban but said he would “back up” schools and courts that ask women to remove veils.

This is not the first time the Archbishop has supported the right of Muslim women to wear hijab.

In 2006, Lord Williams warned that a British ban of the face-veil (niqab) and other reli-gious insignia would be “politi-cally dangerous”.

In 2008, he called for adopt-ing aspects of Islamic Shari`ah law in Britain to improve com-munity relations, saying the Unit-ed Kingdom had to “face up to the fact” that some citizens do not relate to the British legal system.

His latest remarks come amid an-depth academic discussion about his latest book, The Edge of Words, which examines the

meaning of words and language in discussions about God.

“I’ve actually been in pub-lic discussions in Pakistan with women wearing full face veil, and you learn to read differently, it’s not that those codes don’t happen … but there’s a cultural obstacle to overcome,” he said.

Britain is home to nearly 2.7 million Muslims.

Islam sees hijab as an obliga-tory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affilia-tions.

As for the face veil, the ma-jority of Muslim scholars believe that a woman is not obliged to cover her face or hands.

Scholars, however, believe that it is up to women to decide whether to take on the veil.

(Onislam.net)

Malaysia Develops First Halal CSI Unit

Image for visual purpose only.Photo Courtesy: Wiki Media.

Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia’s scientists have developed the world’s first Halal Contamination Scene Investigation (CSI) unit to test the existence of pork DNA and track sources of condemna-tion in halal food.

“We will conduct a thorough investigation to find out the source of the contamination, whether it was by sabotage, a problem in the formulation process or whether it was contaminated post-produc-tion,” Nor Amin Mohd Noor, the Malaysian Technological Park (TPM) Biotech Manager, told Bernama on Monday, November 10.

Developed by the Malaysian TPM, the first halal CSI unit will tackle cases in which halal certi-fied products are tested positive for porcine DNA.

Going through subtle steps, the CSI unit will work on detect-ing pork DNA besides tracing its sources through several investi-gations that will show whether the company was guilty or not.

“However, if the CSI reports found them guilty, they will be dealt with accordingly,” Noor said.

“Muslims can also rest easier knowing that a thorough inves-tigation had been conducted on the product and companies in-volved.”

Deemed as the most difficult task for the halal CSI unit, tracing the source of confirmation may require searching outside the fac-tory, starting with the methods of transportation of the products.

“This is similar to investigat-ing homicide cases. After foren-sics discover a body, they would have to conduct detailed investi-gation while considering several possibilities,” TPM Biotech man-ager explained.

“Everything has to be taken into account. Who were the driver and owner, whether the lorry has been used to transport non-halal products with porcine DNA, and whether it was properly cleaned

afterwards.”“It goes down to the smallest

details,” he said.The investigations may also

include checking the packaging and storage process of the prod-uct.

Besides DNA testing, TPM halal laboratories offer alcohol content testing, polypeptide tests for gelatin-based products and tri-glycerides for emulsifiers.

Analyses of fatty acids methyl esters for products based on oils and test kit for canned and animal food products are also conducted by TPM labs.

Limited ServicesWith only eight specialists

working at the Halal Science Laboratory, services offered by CSI halal unit are still “basic” and “limited”.

“CSI Halal is a grand plan that requires the involvement of many parties,” Noor of TPM said.

“TPM has worked out the concept but we need the expertise of others at every point of investi-gation to make it happen.

“We have received positive feedback from certain parties who have stated their willingness to participate.”

Receiving support in the fields of formulation, transportation and policy will help the halal CSI unit to fully operate within five years, according to Noor.

As the demand for halal prod-ucts increased in several coun-tries, TPM’s halal services have been extended to Korea, Brunei and China.

“China has invited us to de-velop its Halal Technology Park,” Zulkifli Fitri Ismail, general man-ager of TPM Business Develop-ment and Corporate Services, said.

“Korea, meanwhile, has asked our expertise in helping them set up a Halal Science Laboratory.”

According to Ismail, about RM6 million were spent on de-veloping TPM’s labs in 2013.

“We are currently developing a technology to detect whether or not the meat sold in the markets that are claimed to be halal are slaughtered according to Islamic rites,” he said

“This is in response to the concerns and issues regarding the matter of late.”

Islam considers pigs unclean because they are omnivorous, not discerning between meat or

vegetation in their natural dietary habits unlike cows and sheep for instance, which eat only plants.

Muslims do not eat pork and consider pigs and their meat filthy and unhealthy to eat.

The concept of halal, -- mean-ing permissible in Arabic -- has traditionally been applied to food.

Muslims should only eat meat from livestock slaughtered by a sharp knife from their necks, and the name of Allah, the Ara-bic word for God, must be men-tioned.

In an interview for the Christian think-tank Theos, the former Archbish-op reopened the debate about niqab in the British public life.

Korea, meanwhile, has asked our expertise in helping them set up a Halal Science Laboratory.

Sir Syed Awareness Forum Or-ganizes a Meeting on “Biased Media Coverage about AMU”

Abdullah

Aligarh, 13.11.14. A meeting of various social and milli organi-sations was held at the head quar-ters of Sir Syed Awareness Forum (SAF). Presiding over the meet-ing its President, Dr. Shakeel Samdani said that a very simple statement of Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) was blown out of propor-tion by the electronic media. The media tried its best to mislead not only the nation but the en-tire world. By targeting the Vice Chancellor the media has actually targeted the world renowned Uni-versity. On the same day about a dozen women belonging to the weaker and backward sections of the society died due to the negli-gent act of the doctors of the State Government of Chattisgarh. On that issue the media was almost silent and a non issue relating to the AMU got so much coverage that for about 24 hours that non issue became the national issue.

Dr. Shakeel Samdani further said that media is the fourth pil-lar of democracy and if this is the attitude of media then God knows what will happen to the demo-cratic set up of our country. Com-menting about the Vice Chancel-lor, Lt. Gen (Rtd.) Zameer Uddin Shah, Dr. Samdani said that the views of Vice Chancellor regard-ing women and corruption are very clear to the nation. He is en-

couraging the female students for developing their personality and making more facilities for them in the campus. He said that all the office bearers and members of the Sir Syed Awareness Forum have full faith in the Vice Chancellor and are ready to defend the pres-tige of the university at any cost.

Prof Saud Alam Qasmi, For-mer Dean, Faculty of Theology said that AMU not only provides education to the students but also gives them a congenial atmos-phere and constructive mind. At the graduation level the girls are provided every facility for im-proving their personality, includ-ing literary, cultural and sports activities. Keeping in view the old traditions of the university, requirements of college girls and administrative expediency the statement of Vice Chancellor is very reasonable. The entire mil-lat not only supports him but also demands from the central govern-ment to give more package for the students of AMU to fulfil the educational and extracurricular requirements of the students.

Director, Arunanchal Univer-sity of Studies, Dr. Khalil Chaud-hary, said that those who have given statements from outside Aligarh had perhaps a grudge against AMU and by this incident they got an opportunity to defame the university.

...continued on page 16

10 Muslim World News19th November 2014Vol. 8 No. 16

‘Shahi’ Imam Bukhari has lost the confidence of Indian Muslims

Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmad Bukhari, with his son Shaban Bukhari, who will succeed his father as the 14th Shahi Imam.

Abdul Hafiz Lakhani and Danish Ahmad Khan

Ahmedabad/New Delhi: As expected New Delhi’s Jama Mas-jid’s Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari revealed his true color when he invited Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for Dastar-e-Bandi (anointment) of his son Shabban Bukhari as Naib Imam (Deputy Imam) and flagrantly used 2002 Gujarat Riots and victimized Gujarati Muslims to keep India’s duly elected Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi away from the event.

Muslims in New Delhi and Gujarat have for the past several years viewed Ahmed Bukhari with suspicion and derision because of his selfish attitude disregarding Muslims of India. Ahmed Bukhari has now become infamous for his self-benefiting agenda and also for being a rank opportunist and political turncoat. Mr. Bukhari is known to have openly supported almost every political party dur-ing elections, including the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) post 2002 Gujarat Riots.

Hafiz Ruknuddin, a senior Journalist based in Bihar, while talking to Danish Ahmad Khan, Founder-Editor of Indian Muslim Observer, said that it was discour-teous of Ahmed Bukhari for not inviting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who now leads 125 crore Indians, including Muslims. He said that Mr. Bukhari should not have invited Pakistani Prime Min-ister Nawaz in any case because Pakistan has not shirked its habit of LoC violations, beheading In-dian soldiers and spreading ter-rorism in India. He also asked Mr. Bukhari to enlighten Indian Mus-lims whether he has similarly been invited to Pakistan for Dastar-e-Bandi of a ‘Shahi Imam’ in any Pakistani Masjid, and if so, how many times. He also said that he personally knew Ahmed Bukha-ri’s father Syed Abdullah Bukha-ri, the erstwhile ‘Shahi’ Imam of Jama Masjid, who was responsi-ble for degrading the sanctitiy of Jama Masjid and turning it into a political platform instead of al-lowing it to remain a place of Muslim worship. Mr. Ruknuddin alleged that both father-son duo had used Jama Masjid as their personal property, and now Shab-ban Bukhari is being groomed to misuse the masjid.

Muslims in Gujarat have also disapproved Ahmed Bukhari’s action and expressed serious con-

cerns. They unanimously lam-basted Bukhari for throwing his hat in the political ring by using Gujarati Muslims and 2002 riots against PM Nardendra Modi for his own political agenda. They said that Ahmed Bukhari is actu-ally a ‘thug’ instead of being an Imam and has already lost the confidence of 200 million Mus-lims of India.

Imam’s recent immature act where he snubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi was both shock-ing and surprising. Shocking, because he didn’t invite his own Prime Minister to attend the oc-casion of formal announcement of his successor and rather urged Pakistani premier to grace the occasion. He should know that Modi is Prime Minister of whole country not only of Hindus or Muslims. While talking to media-persons Ahmed Bukhari was seen as commenting: “Narendra Modi is yet to win the confidence of Muslims. They have not forgiven him for the Gujarat riots. It is not a personal fight. He does not like us and we do not like him.”

It may be noted that Ahmed Bukhari’s 19-year-old son Shaban Bukhari has been chosen to suc-ceed his father as the 14th Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid.

He will be anointed as the ‘Nayab Shahi Imam’ (Vice Imam) at a ceremony on November 22, 2014, which will be attended by around 1,000 religious leaders from across the world.

It is being said that Ahmed Bukhari is trying to come into the media limelight after his call to

support Congress Party was out-rightly rejected by Muslims in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. He had pledged to support Congress Par-ty, which was routed by Narendra Modi-led BJP. If Muslims would have really followed him then Congress Party must have got large number of seats and should have avoided humiliating defeat, which has exposed Bukhari’s so-called leadership and where he actually stands.

If Ahmed Bukhari cared so much for Muslims why he nev-er talked about their education, growth and development and overall prosperity. Whatever he has done for their uplift over the years already stands exposed. The truth is that he doesn’t want Muslims to grow. It is because he knows that once it will happen they can’t be remote controlled.

Gujarat BJP leader Asifa Khan said, “In Islam, there is no concept of dynasty about Imamat. So the appointment of his son is totally un-islamic. When Pakistan al-ways remains at loggerhead with India, is there any morality to in-vite its premier Nawaz Sharif? If Indian Muslims have soft corner for Nawaz Sharif, it is very un-pleasant, unwarranted and unethi-cal attitude.”

Vadodara-based social activ-ist, educationist and business-man Zuber Gopalani said that Shahi Imam Bukhari is known for changing sides for his own benefit. He has not considered the betterment of the community at any time. Bukhari’s invitation to Nawaz Sharif is coming at a time

when this enemy country is at-tacking us. Prime minister of that country is our enemy. He may be a Muslim, but for us it is India first.

Mr. Gopalani said, “Ahmed Bukhari has invited a controversy which could have been avoided. It is rather unfortunate that non-Mus-lims see Bukhari as spokesperson of Indian Muslims, but in reality no Muslim consider him as a lead-er. He should restrict himself in religious activities only. Next gen-eration do not want such leaders to be a face of community. He could have invited any head of Muslim country other than Pakistan. he has put entire Muslim community to shame. He could have invited heads of all schools of thought. But a person like Ahmed Bukhari, who wants cheap publicity at the cost of Muslim’s integrity, should know that his friend is the head of enemy country.”

Famous political thinker, so-cial activist and former Professor of M.S. University Dr. J.S. Ban-dukwala said, “Imam Bukhari has complicated our relations with Modi. They were already bad, now they may be worse. Modi reacts to insults very strongly. Especially as the Imam wants to invite the Pa-kistan PM. My opinion of these Shahi Imams is poor. They have played politics for years. I wish they would devote their efforts to help the poor people living in the vicinity of Delhi Jama Masjid.”

All India Milli Council Gujarat Chapter President Mufti Rizwan Tarapuri said, “Imam’s decision is not in ‘good taste’. I person-ally feel it is not in good taste. Of

course, it is his prerogative whom to invite and whom not to but if he is trying to do it in the name of Muslims,he must understand that when he is inviting other political leaders, especially Nawaz Sharif, he should have extended invita-tion to our prime minister as well else he should not have invited Nawaz Sharif either.”

“The latest provocative state-ments of Imam Bukhari have once again exposed him as a mindless and cynical self-proclaimed Mus-lim leader, who has played a big and damaging role in alienat-ing the Muslims from the main-stream,” said JUH leader and Mufti Farid Qawi of Jambusar. While Editor of Gujarat Siyasat, a leading fortnightly of Gujarat, Abdul Hafiz Lakhani said, “By inviting the Pakistan Prime Minis-ter, Mr. Bukhari had created con-fusion about the Muslims in the country. This gives a negative im-age to the whole community. The current tense relationship between the two countries does not offer a congenial atmosphere for inviting Mr. Sharif.”

Rajkot based social activist Farook Abdulgaffar Bawani fa-voured Imam Bukhari about his stand on Gujarat 2002 riots. He said that Modi was the CM of Gujarat then. He was not invited for this reason. Any peace loving and neutral person will agree with Bukhari. We must praise Bukhari for his bold stand. Mr. Bawani further said that any minister of Modi government must not be invited in the ceremony as this is RSS-backed government.

Muslims lash out at Jama Masjid Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari

11 In Focus19th November 2014Vol. 8 No. 16

Maulana Azad: A fighter for intellectual emancipation

The feverish politics of Shahi Imam Ahmad Bukhari

Soroor Ahmed

Without holding any brief for Prime Minister Narendra Modi one can say that the action of Maulana Ahmad Bukhari is not only absurd and illogical but to-tally against the basic tenets of Is-lam. The question is not just why he is inviting Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and not his Indian counterpart.

This is one issue. The other is no less important. May one ask one simple question: Is there any scope in Islam to throw lav-ish parties and spend millions of rupees in the name of ‘Dastaar-bandi’?

‘Dastaarbandi’ has nothing to do with Islam as such. There was no such practice during the time of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). It is just a ritual, which came into practice a couple of centuries after him, even when the institu-tions like madarsa (seminary or school) and Jamia (university) were developing. That was the time when individual ‘ustaad’ (teacher) would teach the ‘sha-gird’ (pupils)––just like guru and chela in India.

It used to be a simple cer-emony organized by madarsas or any such institution after the stu-dents become Aalim (Graduate), Fazil (Post-Graduate) or Hafiz (one who memorizes the whole of Quran). The West has borrowed the concept of convocation from ‘Dastaarbandi’. Instead of gown, students passing out from madar-sas are honoured with Dastaar, which means turban or ‘pagdi’. The girls are offered ‘Reda’, that is ‘chaddar’––just as we offer shawls these days.

But many madarsas have given up this practice as they think that there is no such need for it and that it has nothing to do with Islam as such. There is thus no scope whatsoeever for indul-gence. But Bukhari is doing just that.

Using ‘Dastaarbandi’ for achieving name and fame is downright condemnable and against the teachings of Quran, which demands simplicity, fru-gality and condemns extrava-

gance. Islam always espoused the cause of poor and downtrodden. So the whole show organized by Bukhari is against the spirit of Is-lam.

Besides, Prophet Mohammad stood against tyranny and the concept of kingship and dynastic rule. How can Imam of Masjid be Shahi (royal) when the Prophet would himself ask Belal, an Ethi-opian black, to call Azan.

A person can only become an Imam if he fulfills certain quality. There is absolutely no place for hereditary system in this institu-tion. The system of appointing Imam in Jama Masjid of Delhi is just an aberration, which was in-troduced by monarchs like Shah Jehan.

When the need is to do away with the very concept of Shahi Imam––a totally contradictory expression––Ahmad Bukhari is inviting guests from India and abroad to attend ‘Dastaarbandi’ and the anointment of his son as Naib Imam (Deputy Imam).

Bukhari is well aware that Nawaz Sharif cannot come to India to attend such private func-tion. Yet he has done this deliber-ately to hog the media attention. If for argument sake one accepts that Modi has done nothing to win the heart of Muslims; may one ask what Nawaz is doing in his own country. Why has the Pa-kistani prime minister suddenly become so dear to Bukhari, when the latter has never invited him in any other family function––at least there is no public knowledge about it. Is not Bukhari aware of the protocol?

If Modi is worth not attend-ing, where is the point to invite his ministerial colleagues Rajnath Singh and Harsh Vardhan and BJP’s Muslim face, Shahnawaz Husain, not to speak of politicians of other parties?

Not long ago the same Ahmad Bukhari used to champion the cause of the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, notwith-standing the fact that Lal Krishna Advani, the architect of the Ram Janambhoomi movement, which led to the demolition of Babri Masjid, was his deputy.

Syed Mahmud

The name of Mawlana Abul Kalam Azad will be written in-delibly across the pages of In-dian history as one of those great stalwarts who struggled to win freedom for India. That is the reward of patriotism and of sac-rifices made under its compulsive demands. But his name will be equally remembered by posterity as a fighter in the cause of man’s intellectual emancipation as well, fighting hard against the intellec-tual and religious obscurantism which had held mankind under its grip for ages together, particular-ly the mind of his co-religionists, the Muslims of India, and those who inhabited the huge belt which stretched itself along the Central and Western Asia and North Afri-ca right up to the shores of the At-lantic on the one hand, and in its offshoot to the South- East cover-ing in its onward march into the Pacific, the Malaya peninsula and Indonesia, - a form of obscurant-ism which had expressed itself in a rigid adherence to medieval-ism in thought and action styled Taqlid or unthinking allegiance to mere tradition. This struggle in its deeper reaches was at first a strug-gle against his own self, his very upbringing, a veritable Jehad, so to say, against his own personal-ity as built up by medievalism in religion to which he was heir.

The manner in which Maw-lana Azad endeavoured to free his mind from the clutches of his medieval past may be noticed in the pages of the Al-Hilal and the Al-Balagh, two weekly journals in Urdu which he himself edited oft and on between 1912 and 1930, and above all in the pages of his monumental work in Urdu, The Tarjuman al-Qur’an or the interpretation of the Qur’an, the first volume of which was issued in 1930, and the second in 1936. How hard was the struggle in his own soul to rise above h i s own self to seek fresh avenues of approach to the sources of his Faith, the Qur’an” and the example of the Prophet, may be gleaned from the agonised statement

which he makes in the preface to his work.

The Tarjuman al-Qur’an is recognised on all hands as Maw-lana’s magnum opus. Therein he has tried to give to the Qur’anic word the interpretation which it was originally meant to bear, or as was understood by the fol-lowers of the Prophet in his own lifetime. It is in the form of an explanatory translation of the Qur’anic text supported, wher-ever necessary, by foot-notes and comments. The work, as it came out, attracted the serious atten-tion of scholars both in India and abroad, so much so, that when it was revised by him while he was in Ahmednagar Jail and the sec-ond edition of it issued, I suggest-ed to him the need for an English version of his great work, a sug-gestion which he readily appreci-ated. In fact, when he came out of jail in 1946, several scholars, one after another, tried their hand at it, but the result did not satisfy him. The translators themselves had to admit that the work was not easy to translate. The idea had therefore to lie in abeyance. Indeed, Mawlana Azad had well-nigh given up the hope of ever seeing his work in an English translation.

It was when Mawlana and I had the opportunity to read that remarkable work, The Mind Al-Qur’an Builds, written by Dr. Syed Abdul Latif, the distin-guished scholar of Hyderabad, that we felt that here was a scholar who could rise equal to the occasion and fulfil the wish not only of my own self but also of Mawlana Azad. Dr. Latif was personally known to us for sev-eral years as Professor of English at the Osmania University, and a keen student of Islamic thought. When I approached him in this regard, he at first felt hesitant to undertake the task. But when it was brought home to him that his personal talents demanded of him to enter upon the task as a matter

of duty to the world of intel-lect, he yielded. He had, how-ever, long talks with Maw-

lana in regard to the manner of presentation. Mawlana Azad had, as I know, set great store by his commen-

tary of the opening chapter of the Qur’an wherein he had

surveyed its entire ideology. Indeed he regarded

his achievement as a distinct l a n d m a r k in the field of Islamic thought. He was anxious to see at least t h i s part o f

his commentary on the Qur’in - the Surat-ul-Fatiha - rendered into English. So, when Dr. Latif finished its translation, I found Mawlana Azad immensely de-lighted and even overjoyed at the result. May it be noted that Maw-lana was a very hard man to deal with in the matter of literary ex-pression.

At this stage, a thought came to Mawlana that before issuing the finished translation of the opening part of his Commentary which was a serious production, a resume of the views advanced therein might be issued by way of introduction to his great Com-mentary. This was also prepared by Dr. Latif, and received high encomiums from Mawlana. It was sent to the press a few weeks before the tragedy of his death in February 1958 and came out of it a couple of months thereafter un-der the title, “Basic Concepts of the Qur’an” in the series of pub-lications issued by the Academy of Islamic Studies, Hyderabad, of which Dr. Latif was himself President.

Mawlana Azad had made a special request to Dr. Latif to pursue his task and complete the translation of the rest of the Tar-juman which covered the first eighteen parts of the Qur’an. But this undertaking was somewhat of a different nature. It was not a translation of a running commen-tary in the language of Mawlana, as in the commentary of the open-ing chapter of the Qur’an, which forms the subject of the present volume. On the other hand, it was to be a literal translation, verse by verse, of the original Arabic text of the Qur’an fitted into his expla-nation and commentary. The task on the face of it was arduous, and called for the display of consum-mate skill in its execution. Nearly a half of this additional work has been done by now and the rest will be completed in due course, and the entire translation issued in a series in continuation of the present volume.

By rendering into English The Tarjumim al-Qur’an of Mawlana Abul Kalam Azad, Dr. Syed Ab-dul Latif has rendered a great ser-vice to the cause of the Qur’anic interpretation. His work will also be regarded as a lasting memorial to Mawlana Abul Kalam Azad, the great savant of India, whose presence in our midst is so sorely missed at this hour.

In conclusion, as chairman of the Committee formed to or-ganise preparation and publica-tion of the Tarjuman al-Qur’an in its English translation I have to express thanks for the valuable help rendered to me by Profes-sor Humayun Kabir, Minister for Scientific Research arid Cultural Affairs, Shri M. R Shervani of Al-lahabad, Shri Husainbhoy Laljee of Bombay, Shri Nazir Husain of Madras, Hakim Abdul Hamid of Delhi and Shri Mirza Mohammed Begg.

Photo Courtesy: oldindianphotos.in

12 Personality19th November 2014Vol. 8 No. 16

`Umar ibn Al-Khattab and Social Justice

The weak among you shall be strong with me until their rights have been vindicated, and the strong among you shall be weak with me until, if the

Lord wills, I have taken what is due from them.

Khalid B. Sayeed

So many million Muslims observe the rituals of Islam: fasting, praying and pay-ing zakah, and yet Muslims remain weak and subservient to foreign domination. The difference between many Muslims today and `Umar ibn Al-Khattab is that he did not merely observe the rituals but fol-lowed Islam in all its concrete and dynam-ic dimensions. No one sentence encapsu-lates what he stood for and practiced, as when he said, “When I heard the Qur’an my heart was softened and I wept, and Is-lam entered my heart.”

When Islam Enters Great Leaders’ Souls

The key to `Umar’s exemplary behav-ior was social justice. For him, social jus-tice meant redistribution of power and in-come in such a way that, when introduced at the lowest level, it spreads upward to all the reaches of society. This is quite the opposite of what the West practices in the form of production and income filtering down to lower levels; the trickle-down ap-

proach. `Umar followed the principle set by the first caliph, Abu Bakr

As-Siddiq, when he said, “The weak among you

shall be strong with me until their rights have

been vindicated, and the strong among you shall be weak with me until, if the Lord wills, I have tak-en what is due from them…” and considered it

one of the central objectives of his

public policies.On the relation-

ship between ruler and citizens, `Umar said, “Peo-

ple usually hate their ruler, and I seek the protection of Allah lest my

people should have similar feelings about me.” No senator or president could have lectured `Umar about the abuses of cam-paign financing or could have accused `Umar of having handed over the entire social system to corporate elites. How `Umar practiced social equality was best demonstrated when he entered Jerusalem as a liberator, not as leaders would act. He entered Jerusalem in humility, walking on foot with his servant comfortably riding a camel, as they had been taking turns rid-ing. He, then, gave Muslims another prac-tical example of how to treat Christians and non-Muslims, when the Prelate of Je-rusalem asked him to pray in the sepulch-er, but `Umar chose to pray some distance away from the church: saying that he was afraid that in the future Muslims could use this as an excuse to take over the church to build a masjid claiming that this is the place where `Umar prayed — which is a clear practical lesson in respecting others.

There were numerous examples of the caliph moving around incognito at night to find out if anyone was suffering from hun-ger or economic deprivation. There was a moving example of a woman trying to lull her children to sleep by pretending to cook food in an empty pot. `Umar was shocked when he entered this house and asked the woman why she had not sought assistance from the public treasury. The woman, not knowing the identity of `Umar, said, “Who cares for poor people?”

`Umar then brought grain for her, carrying it by himself on his back, and cooked for the hungry children. He was so kind and generous with them to the extent that the woman said, “I wish you were the caliph.” `Umar told his servant, who was remonstrating, that Allah would hold the caliph accountable for the hunger and poverty, which people suffered from. During his reign, `Umar gave the poor stipends from the public treasury with-out any discrimination based on religion. After taking the surrender of Jerusalem

and completing the tour of Syria, Caliph `Umar delivered an important speech that clearly set out his understanding of his role as caliph. He stated,

“Imbibe the teachings of the Qur’an, then practice what the Qur’an teaches. The Qur’an is not a theory; it is a practi-cal code of life. The Qur’an does not only bring you the message of the hereafter, it also primarily intends to guide you in this life. Mold your life in accordance with the teachings of Islam, for that is the way of your well being. By following any other way you will be inviting destruction.

Fear Allah, and whatever you want seek it from Him. All men are equal. Do not flatter those in authority. Do not seek favors from others. By such acts you de-mean yourself. And remember that you will only get what is ordained for you, and no one can give you anything against the will of Allah. So why do you then seek favors from others who have no real con-trol? Only supplicate Allah for He alone is the Sovereign.

And speak the truth. Do not hesitate

to say what you consider to be the truth. Say what you feel. Let your conscience be your guide. Let your intentions be good, for verily Allah is aware of your inten-tions. In your deeds your intentions count.

Allah has, for the time being, made me your ruler. But I am one of you—no special privileges belong to rulers. I have some responsibilities to discharge, and in this I seek your cooperation. Government is a sacred trust, and it is my endeavor not to betray the trust in any way. For the ful-fillment of this trust I have to be a watch-man…”

Contrast Shows the Difference

For example, when Pakistan was es-tablished, its founders followed the British viceregal system with all its consequential pomp and paraphernalia, which created a culture of gross inequalities as well as public expenditures which would often exceed public resources. In contrast, when ambassadors from the Byzantine Empire came to see the caliph, they were told that the caliph did not live in a palace but was

probably resting in the Prophet’s Mosque. The political and economic culture that we have followed has created a clear im-pression that conspicuous consumption is the culture of the ruling elites. The poor masses are consigned to a life steeped in poverty and social degradation. `Umar was not suggesting that our rulers should not have their official residences, but what he was emphasizing was simple living and positive thinking. If our rulers had fol-lowed `Umar’s Islamic model and not the British viceregal model in which the elites like the governor-general or the president or the civil and military bureaucrats have certain built-in privileges, we might have saved our countries from corrupt rulers and military and civil oligarchs.

The hallmark of the Islamic system as developed and defined by `Umar ibn Al-Khattab was that the common man was conscious of his rights and responsibilities as a citizen of participatory democracy. When aMuslim stands in prayer and recites the very first line of Surat Al-Fatihah, he utters the memorable and moving phrase that Allah is the Sustainer of many worlds. Thus, his education has begun. An illiter-ate or poor Muslim is being moved in the direction of physics and astronomy.

Opening Vistas of Knowledge

Islam suggests that the common man is capable of developing his mind in this fash-ion. With this development he becomes aware that he is equal to any other Muslim and that the Qur’an has also told him that he has a right to ask questions even to the Prophet as in Surat `Abasa (surah no. 80). This explains why `Umar ibn Al-Khattab emphasized and practiced social equality. He recognized that this social equality is the reason of why Islam has spread so rap-idly within one generation to the Middle East and North Africa. Those who merely describe `Umar ibn Al-Khattab as a great conqueror whose conquests exceeded those of Charlemagne and Julius Caesar do not appreciate that `Umar tried to spread Islam by captivating human minds through his doctrine of social equality and social justice.

Photo Courtesy: knowingforsure.com

Photo Courtesy: knowingforsure.comPhoto Courtesy: knowingforsure.com

13About Islam19th November 2014Vol. 8 No. 16

14 OpinionsIs Another War Coming To The Occupied West Bank?

Observers of the evolution of the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians have long ar-gued that there are only two likely outcomes of the alternating vio-lence and diplomacy between the two sides that has gone on nearly 70 years now. One is a “two-state solution” wherein Israel accepts a rump Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank. That possibil-ity has by now been more or less forestalled because of the massive land theft and colonization drive of Israeli squatters on Palestinian land in the West Bank. (The UN General Assembly partition plan of 1947, whatever one thinks of its legitimacy, awarded the West Bank to Palestine). The other is a “one-state solution” wherein Is-rael bestows Israeli citizenship on the stateless Palestinians. There is no obvious path to such a decision on the part of what are essentially fascist ruling parties in Israel and it is hard to imagine a scenario in which such a thing happens.

Israeli Prime Minister Biny-amin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman have another ending to the story in mind. And that is the “transfer” of Palestinian-Israelis and of Pales-tinians in the West Bank to some other country, probably Jordan. This crackpot plan of uprooting and moving 5 million people is also not very likely on the face of it.

But there is one scenario in which “transfer” (i.e. ethnic cleansing) could occur. That would be a repeat of the 1947-48 civil war in British Mandate Pal-estine, which eventuated in the ethnic cleansing by Jewish mili-tias of 720,000 Palestinians out of a pre-war total of 1.2 million.

Jewish terrorist organizations such as the Stern Gang simply mowed down Palestinian villag-ers with machine guns to scare their neighbors into fleeing their homes, which the nascent Israelis then usurped. After Israel was es-tablished, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion simply locked the Palestinians out of their homeland for good, creating a massive refu-gee problem in the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon that has never really been resolved to this day (only Jordan gave the Palestinians citizenship, and even there it is sometimes revoked).

Israel conquered the West Bank in 1967 and militarily oc-cupied it, then contravened the Geneva Convention of 1949 on the treatment of occupied popula-tions by flooding Israeli squatters into the territory. It also illegally annexed part of the Palestin-ian West Bank and awarded it to the Israeli district of Jerusalem,

which is roughly 35 percent Pal-estinian. It also has gradually forced many Palestinians in East Jerusalem to depart, confiscat-ing their property, and is building Jews-only squatter settlements all around Jerusalem with an intent of turning Jerusalem into a Jews-only city.

The Israeli government has now put 600,000 Israeli squatters into the Palestinian West Bank (including Palestinian Jerusalem), among nearly 3 million Palestin-ians. There is constant Israeli con-struction of housing on usurped Palestinian land. Squatters dig their wells deeper into aquifers and cause the wells in Palestinian villages to go dry. There is a low-intensity struggle between the incoming squatters and the indig-enous Palestinians. Israelis have attacked mosques and villagers. Palestinians have killed Israelis whom they view as land thieves.

These two populations are

not separate from one another in the West Bank. Nothing would be easier than for tit-for-tat kill-ings to spiral out of control. Then you’d have a war on the West Bank, which of course the Israe-lis would win, being very well armed by the US and very well organized.

In the course of this coming civil war in the West Bank, Is-raeli squatter organizations would seek to repeat the Stern Gang’s achievements in 1947-48 of mak-ing the Palestinian population flee its homes for Jordan. Jordan, a country of 6 million, would sud-denly be a country of 9 million.

On past experience, no one would do anything about such an ethnic cleansing of the West Bank Palestinians, who would end up penniless and living in tents in the desert. The spokesmen for West-ern governments would say they regret that it happened and maybe offer some aid money. The Arab

publics would be outraged but the governments would do noth-ing. Some European governments might slap ineffectual sanctions on Israel. Others would praise the Israeli ethnic cleansing campaign.

The fascist parties in Israel would lock the Palestinians out of the West Bank permanently and flood in more settlers. They might even “transfer” the Palestinian-Israelis, stripping them of their citizenship and making Jordan 10 million, half of them in refugee tents in the desert). They would give press conferences where they regretted that the Jordanian government did not treat its new citizens well enough.

The Jordanian state likely could not survive being almost doubled in population overnight overnight, with most of the new-comers hostile to the Hashemite monarchy. There would likely be a republican revolution in Jordan against King Abdullah II. Ex-tremism would flourish and an ISIL- like state in Jordan would not be impossible. The ethnic cleansing would be extremely destabilizing for the Middle East for decades to come and Israel’s security environment would de-teriorate drastically. Eventually reprisals with things like small rockets would create such a sense of crisis that gradually Israelis might begin emigrating abroad in fair numbers, a process that could snowball.

The killings at the Jerusalem synagogue yesterday and the spate of Israeli killings of Pales-tinians in the West Bank are all small harbingers of this coming civil war.

(Juan Cole, commondreams.org)

Satyameva jayate or Modimeva Jayate? Gujarat riots victims cryAbdul Hafiz Lakhani

It is almost all over for Guja-rat 2002 riots victims as Retired Justice GT Nanavati handed over its report to Gujarat CM Anandi-ben Patel. Though there is no official word about then CM Narendra Modi during this infa-mous riots in that fateful year.But it is widely expected that Modi is spared from law of land. Ac-cording to various reports, the Nanavati Commission that sub-mitted its final report to the Gu-jarat government has found ‘no evidence’ to prove allegations of the erstwhile Modi government’s complicity in the post-Godhara carnage. The report submitted by the two-member commission, headed by Justice (retd) Nanavati, categorically says the Modi gov-ernment was not involved in the riots in any way.

It seems that Nanavati Com-mission has ignored the clinch-ing evidence against chief minis-ter Narendra Modi for his alleged role in orchestrating the 2002 riots. All investigating agencies were only involved in naming ac-cused only those persons present on the spot and committed the crime and not those who aided and abetted the communal riots.

This case is not only limited to those found from the place of offence and who executed the of-fence. But our case is also against those who provoke, abet, aid and planned. The commission is suf-fering from a delusion that those who were not present were not the culprits. It goes without say-ing that in past Even the SIT had changed its view about the infa-mous speech of Modi at Becharaji in Mehsana district in 2002. First, they found it communal, but later changed its stand. It also did not entertain evidence sent by retired state director-general of police RB Sreekumar exposing laxity on part of the state government to curtail the riots.

It doesn’t stop just at giving Modi a clean chit. It also pats his government on the back for tak-ing prompt action against some VHP and Bajrang Dal workers who were present at some venues where riots took place. The com-mission, according to some re-ports, says the Modi government took prompt action and sum-moned the army to control rioters. The Commission has also justi-fied its decision of not summon-ing Modi for a cross-examination, saying there was no credible evi-dence to support the charges.

The Commission took 12 years to submit its report. During this period it got 24 extensions. But the report, ultimately, con-cludes what most enquiries into such riots do: the government did its best but the administra-tion failed to act quickly because of lack of resources and staff.The only additional finding, accord-ing to reports, is that the situation became worse because of me-dia coverage of the riots and the Godhra carnage. But then shoot-ing the messenger has become a standard practice these days.

Fr. Cedric Prakash sj , the Director of Prashant, the Ahmedabad-based Jesuit Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace issued a statement that Several concerned citizens like the late Mukul Sinha of Jan Sang-harsh Manch, Sanjiv Bhatt and others have tried their level best to bring the Commission – any thinking citizen will know – on track and ensure that truth pre-vails and that the victim-survivors are given justice. The Commis-sion, has been full of inconsisten-cies, lapses and loopholes. Sinha who cross-examined several wit-nesses, has consistently demand-ed that Modi who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat at that time,

had to be interrogated too. Why the Commission took the pains to deny this request from Sinha and several others does not leave much room for doubt!

Even though the Commission has submitted its report, many for the victim-survivors (and several others who have accompanied them) are the Gujarat Carnage of 2002 is not a closed chapter. The relentless pursuit for truth and justice will continue until those who presided over this carnage are brought to book. Only then, will they truly be able to sing our motto emblazoned on our nation-al emblem “satyameva jayate” (truth alone triumphs!), he further said.

Vadodara based social activ-ist and former retired professor of M.S. university .J.S.Bandukwala told that the Nanavati Commis-sion is a dark chapter in the ju-dicial history of India. A retired Supreme Court Justice,Nanavati did everything possible to see that the taint of 2002 Gujarat ri-ots does not touch Modi. In return his two sons benefited hugely through the Gujarat Government. The other Justice Mehta, was ap-pointed to this Commission after he granted bail to the notorious Babu Bajrangi in the Naroda Pa-

tia case where over 100 people were killed. These details come from the Teheka expose of Ash-ish Khaitan. It just shows the rot in the highest levels of our judiciary.This Commission got 34 extensions, yet it never once summoned Modi who was the principal architect of the Gujarat genocide. Yet it could confident-ly pronounce that Modi is clean. Hundreds of crores of public fi-nance was spent on this Commis-sion , for what purpose ? I hope no judicial Commissions are ever appointed in India. The Nana-vati Commission was a slap on the memory of Ahsan Jafari and the about 2000 who died, and the hundreds of thousands who suf-fered at that time.

19th November 2014Vol. 8 No. 16

60 percent of Indian men admit violence against wives: UN report

11 women die after sterilisation surgeries in Chhattisgarh

New Delhi : India will launch a mega scheme for saving and educating the girl child in 100 districts of the country that have the least child-sex ratio, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said Tuesday.

The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme will be based on a strong system of incentives and media advocacy to bring about an all-round change in attitudes, Gandhi said after releasing a doc-umentary film “After My Garden Grows”, helmed by Oscar-win-ning director Megan Mylan.

The film is based in West Bengal and highlights the role of the Sabla programme and Angan-wadis to empower the girl child.

The minister said that regional consultations with district collec-tors for implementing the scheme have already begun with the first round having taken place recently in Chandigarh for 27 districts of the north Indian states. Remain-ing regional consultations are expected to be completed within this month, she added.

She said the districts will submit their multi-sectoral plans soon for which they will be given funds of up to Rs.one crore each.

Gandhi said states like West

Bengal and Punjab have devel-oped good models for saving and empowering the girl child. Suc-cessful models developed by oth-er states will also be studied for adoption by states which need to improve their child-sex ratio.

The film “After My Garden Grows” is about empowering girls through education and finan-cial independence. The minister further elaborated that the movie has touched upon extremely cru-cial issues like an efficient an-ganwadi system that forms a core part of the schemes of women and child development ministry.

Director Mylan said her film is an earnest tribute to all the In-dian women who have shown tre-mendous courage and confidence to earn respect and livelihood against all odds.

The documentary film tells the story of Monika Barman, a rural Indian teenager growing a small rooftop garden above her house that is providing food to feed her family. Barman man-ages to delay marriage and return to school through the innova-tive girls’ gardening programme, thereby sowing the seeds of her own independence.

(Courtesy: IANS)

Photo Courtesy: Wiki Media.

New Delhi : Sixty percent of Indian men admit acting violently against their wife or partner at some point in their lives while 52 percent of women admit hav-ing faced some form of violence during their lifetime, says a UN report.

The report, prepared jointly by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Washing-ton-based International Center for Research on Women, was re-leased on the opening day of the four-day “MenEngage Global Symposium” at India Habitat Centre here Monday.

The study, titled “Masculin-ity, Intimate Partner Violence and Son Preference in India”, was conducted in seven Indian states of Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Ra-jasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

It involved over 9,000 men and over 3,000 women aged 18-

49.“What we found is that in In-

dia, rigid forms of masculinity where men exhibit controlling behaviours and inequitable gen-der attitudes, strongly determines their preference of sons over daughters as well as their tenden-cy to perpetuate violence against an intimate partner,” the authors maintained.

According to the report, high-est cases of violence came from Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, where more than 70 percent of men ad-mitted to being abusive towards their wives and partners.

Data also suggest that men who experience economic stress were more likely to have perpetu-ated violence.

In the case of women, phys-ical abuse such as be-ing kicked, slapped, choked and burned was most commonly reported. Nearly 38 percent of women said they had faced such abuse.

This was fol-lowed by emo-tional, sexual and economic vio-lence, respectively.

The findings also strengthen the fact that childhood experiences of vio-lence and discrimina- tion

have a strong impact on adult men and women’s attitudes and behaviours with regard to mascu-linity and control.

“To eliminate intimate part-ner violence and son preference, it is critical that we develop na-tional policies and programmes that promote dialogue between women and girls as well as men and boys to shift harmful gender norms that perpetuate violence and discrimination,” the report emphasised.

“Correspondingly, where edu-cation and economic status were increasing, men were less likely to exercise control over their partners and more likely to re-spect equitable norms,” the study concluded.

Photo Courtesy: Wiki Media

Scheme for saving and educating girls in 100 districts

Eleven women died and 34 were reported critical on Tuesday after undergoing “faulty” sterili-sation surgeries at a government-organised family planning camp in Bilaspur district of Chhattis-garh.

Eighty three women under-went the procedure in five hours at the free sterilisation camp, or-ganised by the Bilaspur district

health department on November 8, at the Nemichand Jain hospital.

“Around 60 women fell sick after the surgery and were ad-mitted to different hospitals in Bilaspur,”said District Collector S.K. Pardeshi.

“I had two babies in the last three years and wanted to go in for family planning. I got to know the district administration had

organised a free camp and I un-derwent the sterilisation surgery on Saturday. Twelve hours after the operation, I started vomiting,” Deepa Yadav, 22, said.

Sarojini Kewat (26), a mother of four, said she started vomit-ing a few hours after the surgery while Hemlata Suryavanshi (25), a mother of three, said she devel-oped breathing problems.

Chief Minister Raman Singh visited the victims at Bilaspur hospitals and suspended four health officials, including Health Director Kamalpreet Singh and Bilaspur Chief Medical Officer Dr. S.C. Bhange.

Mr. Singh has ordered an in-quiry, besides announcing a com-pensation of Rs. 4 lakh each for the families of the deceased and

Rs. 50,000 each for those who fell ill after the surgery. Health and Family Welfare Minster Amar Agrawal, who represents Bilaspur in the Assembly, took “complete moral responsibility” but said that there was no ques-tion of resigning.

(Courtesy: IANS)

Women 1519th November 2014Vol. 8 No. 16

How Did US Muslims Vote in Midterm Elections?Carissa D. Lamkahouan

Dallas – Many American Muslims exercised their voting rights on November 4, however their overwhelming support for Democrats wasn’t enough to keep the party from losing control of Congress to the Republicans.

“It was my first time voting!” newly minted American Aisha Aziz told OnIslam.net.

The GOP gained control of the US Senate, securing 52 seats to the Democrats’ 45. The party also holds the majority in the House of Representatives, win-ning 243 seats.

The Democrats came out of the midterms with 179 slots. Add-ing to their stunning defeat, out of the 48 states selecting governors, 31 elected Republicans compared to 17 who chose Democratic con-tenders..

A veteran voter from Texas, who declined to be named, said she was disappointed with the results, particularly the Republi-cans’ overwhelming victory and taking control of Congress.

“It was a bad day for progres-sivism,” she lamented.

Despite the election results, it’s important to note that US Muslims turned up in high num-bers to vote and made their voices heard.

According to exit polls con-ducted by the Council on Amer-ican-Islamic Relations (CAIR) which were taken in Virginia, Florida, Texas, California, Illi-nois and New York where there are large numbers of Muslims, up to 76 percent of registered Mus-lim voters cast their ballots Tues-day. More than 3,000 people took part in the survey.

“Muslim voters were ener-gized and engaged, turning out

at almost twice the average of all American voters in previous mid-term elections,” said Robert Mc-Caw, CAIR’s government affairs manager.

In California, 72 percent of registered Muslim voters said they cast their ballots while 28 percent said they did not. In Flor-ida and Illinois the percentages were 74 (voted) and 26 (didn’t vote).

Fifty-nine percent of New York’s registered Muslims turned out to vote compared to the 41 percent who stayed home. In Tex-as 68 percent showed up at the polls compared to 32 percent who didn’t, and in Virginia 76 percent of Muslim Americans said they cast a vote compared to the 24 percent who opted out.

Muslims for RepublicansThough more than 70 percent

of the Muslims polled in each state voted Democrat as expect-ed, the polls also showed slight increases in the number of those favoring Republicans, especially when compared to how American Muslims voted in the 2012 presi-dential election.

In that race, Republican presi-dential contender Mitt Romney only garnered single-digit per-centages in terms of Muslim sup-port. Now, two years later, poll numbers show approximately 20 percent of Muslims voted for Re-publican candidates.

In California, 22 percent of voters supported Republican can-didate Jerry Brown for governor.

In Florida, gubernatorial in-cumbent Charlie Crist lost to Re-publican contender Rick Scott, who received 23 percent of the Muslim vote in that state.

Illinois residents also voted their Democratic governor out of office. In that state, 20 percent of

Muslims voted for GOP winner Bruce Rauner.

New York governor, Demo-crat Andew Cuomo, managed to retain his position despite 19 percent of Muslims in the state supporting his Republican oppo-nent Rob Astorino. The same sce-nario played out in Texas, where Republican Greg Abbot defeated Democrat Wendy Davis but gar-nered 20 percent of the Muslim vote in the Lone Star State.

Finally, in Virginia Mark Warner, a Democrat, narrowly defeated Republican challenger Ed Gillespie, who managed to secure 17 percent of the Muslim ballots cast in the state.

It’s clear that changing po-litical attitudes and philosophies among Muslims reflected the na-tion’s disenchantment with law-makers in general, resulting in a shifting of loyalties and a chang-ing of the guard on Capitol Hill. The question is: What turned the tables for so many Muslims?

Will Coley, national direc-tor of Muslims For Liberty - a 2,500-member strong organiza-tion established in 2010 as a reac-tion to the anti-Muslim voices in the Tea Party, an ultra-conserva-tive movement of the Republican party - doesn’t have the answer and admits he’s confused by the growing support for Republicans among some Muslims, in particu-lar because of the GOP’s reputa-tion for anti-Islamic sentiments.

However, he said both Repub-licans and Democrats must take blame for advocating violence against and the killing of Mus-lims in other countries.

“It doesn’t make sense,” he told OnIslam.net of the voting shift.

“I guess if people figure both sides (Democrats and Republi-cans) are going to target and kill Muslims then they might as well have lower taxes.”

According to pre-election polling, many Muslim Americans

named the economy and health-care as the top two issues in the November 4 midterm.

Perhaps many of them are still struggling financially or scram-bling to afford health care and felt that a change in leadership would mean a better future.

Ali Mirza, who has voted Re-publican in the past but consid-ered Democratic and other candi-dates, said, for him, it has always come down to government spend-ing.

He said perhaps other Mus-lims looked to fiscal matters, as well, when voting on November 4 and felt the GOP would be bet-ter stewards of their money.

“I realize lots of Muslims think Democrats are better for minority groups, and maybe that’s true in some ways, but with the economy still struggling to to-tally recover maybe some people thought it was a good idea to give the Republicans a shot to turn it around,” he said.

MADRID – The Spanish par-liament has passed a symbolic motion to urge the government to recognize Palestine as a state, though stating that a peace ac-cord with Israel must precede any Spanish recognition of Palestin-ian sovereignty over the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“The parliament urges the government to recognize Pales-tine as a state,” the text that was adopted was quoted by Reuters late on Tuesday, November 18.

Brought by the opposition Socialists, the motion passed on Tuesday with 319 votes in favor, two opposed and a single absten-tion.

Echoing similar motions in

Britain and Ire-land last month, the symbolic mo-tion was watered down after yes-terday’s attack on Al-Quds syn-agogue which left five Israelis dead.

Israel occupied the holy city of Al-Quds, the West Bank and Golan Heights in the 1967 war and later annexed them in a move not recognized by the interna-tional community or UN resolu-tions.

Since then, Israel has adopted a series of oppressive measures to force the Palestinians out of

Al-Quds, including systematic demolition of their homes and building settlements.

There are more than 164 Jew-ish settlements in the West Bank, eating up more than 40 percent of the occupied West Bank.

The international community considers all settlements on the occupied land illegal.

....Continued from page 10.

Mrs. Anjum Tasneem, Fac-ulty of Jain Girls Inter College opined that the statement of Vice Chancellor should be seen in the right perspective. His statement reflects the concern of a respon-sible guardian. He has always en-couraged the girls to participate in extra circular activities. How can he be accused for discriminating against the girls? She demanded that the Abdullah College library be provided with modern facili-ties and new books.

Maulana Obaid Iqbal Asim, Secretary, UP Rabita Committee said that electronic media is try-ing to divert the attention of the nation from real issues of Mus-lims Mr. Najam Abbassi, Rtd. Bank Officer, said that the girls of Women’s College have been liv-

ing in the campus since its estab-lishment. This is not a new thing which Vice Chancellor has done.

Abdullah Samdani, Media In-charge of SAF, said that the stu-dents of AMU have shown great respect for university and for the Vice Chancellor. The demonstra-tion by the girl students shows that they are hurt by the biased media coverage against the Ali-garh Muslim University. Their demonstration is a slap on biased electronic media coverage.

The meeting was attended by S. Javed Akhtar, Director, ACN Group of Institutions, Shoaib Ali, Ex Cabinet Member, AMUSU, Mohd. Maazul Haq, Research Scholar, AMU, Atiq Ansari, Mo-min Conference, Ayesha Ansari, Afmar Afaq, Senior Student, AMU, Babloo Sherwani, and oth-er concerned citizens of the city.

Spanish Parliament Recognizes Palestine

16Vol. 8 No. 16

HighlightRNI No: WBENG/2007/21522

Printed, Published and owned by Talib Akhter. Printed at: Sixth Sense Advertising, 153, A. J. C. Bose Road, Kolkata – 700014. Published at: 33, Dr. Suresh Sarkar Road, Kolkata – 700014. RNI No: WBENG/2007/21522. Dated: 25/10/2007Editor: A. Basit Ismail