Indian Muslim youth should refrain from attacking the media, a leader activist on Muslim issues has said.

In a telephone interview, Zafaryab Jilani, who is the convener of the All India Babri Masjid Action Committee and the advocate general of Uttar Pradesh state in India, said the state of Assam, due to its difficult terrain and jungles, had become a safe haven for the opponents of the Assamese Muslims.
The state is almost inadmissible for the outside media, so for any news one has to depend on the local media that is sympathetic or influenced by the Bodos tribe, according to Jilani.

He recalled the 2002 Gujarat massacre of Indian Muslims, when India’s national media did expose the nefarious designs of the communal outfits and the wholesale massacre of the defenseless Muslims.

The activist advised Muslim organizations to train and educate Muslim youths to know their democratic rights and duties.

He scoffed at the way the demonstrations were held in Mumbai, Lucknow and Allahabad to express anger at the ongoing massacre of Assamese and Myanmar Muslims.

He said the organizers of these demonstrations should have done some homework before giving a call for demonstrations. The organizers of the Lucknow and Allahabad demonstrations should have taken lessons from the violence that took place in Mumbai.

He gave the example of the Babri Masjid movement in this regard, saying that he advised Muslim youth time and again to hold fast to patience and democratic principles and assured them that through the democratic process one could achieve all the constitutional rights.

While holding marches, the demonstrators should refrain from violence, because violence backfires, he said.

Reza Academy, which gave a call for the Mumbai demonstrations, is a responsible organization that never believed in violence.
It was the work of some antisocial elements that took advantage of the huge crowd, Jilani believed.

He refuted the claim that Assamese Muslims are Bangladeshis and added that Assam for many decades had been suffering from internal divisions and violence.

He was amazed and annoyed that such a huge minority like the Assamese Muslims, who constitute 30 percent of the province’s population, is at the receiving end due to the indecisive, timid and selfish Muslim leadership that is letting down other Muslim leaders for their own agenda.

He said some people blamed a member of the Indian Parliament born in Assam for this poor state of the Assamese Muslims.

Sonia Gandhi’s latest trip to Assam was not able to wipe out tears from the faces of Muslim women, children, the sick and old, who are at the mercy of the armed and violent gangs that have no fear of being taken to task by the government in most of the interior of Assam.

Jilani believed that the government is busy in lip service. The media blackout of the riots makes one think that Sonia Gandhi does not have the upper hand and has lost control there. It is not clear if Assam’s home secretary or the chief minister has cards of the Assam policy, he stated.

The Muslim leaders have met the prime minister to find a solution to this terrifying crisis. Come what may, the Muslims should abide by law, Jilani advised.
SOURCE:MENAFN.COM

The Holy Quran has zero references to the punishment of blasphemy. Hegemonic to the extent of being demonic, Pakistani Muslims are blasphemy-obsessed. Not a single voice from the Muslim clergy community has been raised on the issue of the 11-year-old born with Down syndrome girl, accused of burning pages of the Holy Scripture, and her consequent jailing. She now could face the death penalty although according to law no citizen with mental disability can be tried, let alone jailed. Moreover as a minor, she is supposed to be dealt with as a juvenile.

When it comes to matters of blasphemy, Muslims feel threatened by a disabled girl, who is suspect because she is a Christian. Had the girl not been taken into police custody, she would probably have been set on fire by the mad mob ready to protect the honour of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) who needs no such favours. Theirs is a love that borders on paranoia. Muslims consider themselves minorities in a global world that labels them pariahs, a world that drones them, wages war against them and humiliates them.

The grand narrative of the persecuted Muslim minority — our Muslim ‘us’ to their western/Christian/Jewish/Hindu ‘them’ — now flourishes not just with suicide bombers who strap explosives to their chest but also with talk show hosts on network TV, Urdu press columnists and middle school teachers in both public and private schools through a vitriolic curriculum. We are the underdogs — Palestine, Iraq, Kashmir — and they have the stock market, the Pope and the White House. Recent events have only reinforced this victim mentality, be it the Raymond Davis issue or the Salala incident that eventually led to the NATO supply blockade.

This narrative will grow as media blows it into a monster. It grows in the complete absence of our own narrative. To make matters worse, Pakistan’s imagination as a nation-state is as wild as it is colourful. Instead of looking at the particular politics of Punjab and Bengal as well as the role the Indian National Congress played in driving out the Muslim League from an all-India embrace, we trace Pakistan’s genesis in Muhammad bin Qasim’s horses.

The imagery of conquest from West and Central Asia is played over and over again in our so-called history books. Invaders, soldiers of fortune and plunderers are transformed into glorious heroes of Islam marching into India with the sword in one hand and the Holy Quran in the other, even though Islam in South Asia spread through Sufi sages who adapted themselves to the syncretic traditions of the subcontinent. The biggest casualty of Pakistan’s nationalist mythology is Jinnah, the man. Instead of being known as the fervent ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, that cold logician of courts and parliamentary democracy is presented as a formidable fanatic out to divide India, come hell or high water — a sort of an emblem for Muslim exclusivism that Jinnah could hardly dream of.

It is no wonder that with skewed narratives that we have adopted, which stretch believability, we have become a menace not just to our peace-loving minorities like Christians and Hindus but also sects that are deemed to be heretical by the majority such as the Ahmedis and the Shias. The strategy of the state is to exclude where possible — Sir Zafrullah’s Ahmadi faith has denied him his rightful place as a founding father of this state — and to distort where necessary — Jinnah’s Shia roots are covered up and he is made into a Deobandi by certain ‘historians’.

Thus commences the open season on Christians, Hindus, Shias and Ahmadis. So warped is the frame though which we base our sense of self that we forget the basic tenets of religion that teach compassion, forgiveness and tolerance. Pakistan cannot, in even a decade or two, adopt the magnanimous fortitude our religion demands of us, for the roots of suspicion and malice run deep. What we can do is tactfully ally two and two with those who support reason and logic, and say no to this madness; to say that no minor girl child who is a minority and mentally disabled will be tried in the name of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), who was a prophet of mercy for all mankind. And if this happens in Pakistan, in our name, in our religion’s name, then this not our Pakistan and not a Pakistan worth fighting for.

Dubai:As many as 300 expatriate residents of Dubai embraced the peaceful message of Islam during the month of Ramadan, Dar Al Ber Society has revealed.
The organisation, which caters to the needs of those who seek information about Islam as well as supporting those who need material support, announced that people from varied backgrounds and places, including Africa, Asia, Europe and America seek to embrace Islam.
Rashed Al Jubaibi, director of information at Dar Al Ber, referred that the number of new Muslims this year reached more than 1,500, including men and women.
Referring to the large number of people coming to the fold of Islam he said that the moderate message of the religion attracts people from different communities.

“Islamic preachers at the centre, welcome visitors daily, answering their questions and clarifying their doubts about Islam, tolerance as well as its integrative and universal principles. They also provide information that portrays the correct image of the humanist and merciful Prophet Mphammad (PBUH),” said Al Jubaibi.
As a follow-up, Dar Al Ber also offers books, Quran translations, translated biography of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), lessons and lectures in an easy and simple language to strengthen the faith of new Muslims in Almighty Allah and on His oneness.
It also offers Arabic language courses, holy Quran memorisation, sessions on how to perform prayers and other pillars of Islam.
SOURCE: gulfnews.com