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Tuesday, November 4, 2008

[mukto-mona] Vote o ek vikhirir golpo (Bangla)

http://mukto-mona.com/banga_blog/?p=99

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Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh

http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm

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Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf

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MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.

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Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm

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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm

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Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/


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MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm

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German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/


Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:

http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm

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[mukto-mona] Braving all the odds, Obama sweeps to victory

Commentary

 

Braving all the odds, Obama sweeps to victory

 

A.H. Jaffor Ullah

 

Conquering some insurmountable odds Obama beat Senator John McCain on November 4, 2008.  It was definitely a history making event in America.  Barack Obama, a virtually unknown entity in American politics who came to Washington in 2006 as a senator, had rapidly ascended to the highest position beating all the odds.  He would be sworn as the 44th president of America on January 20, 2009.

 

The Associated Press writer Ron Fournier wrote that Obama's transcendence is beyond race. Hardly a few years ago it was unthinkable to elect a man of color to White House.  Nonetheless, it happened.  This is definitely a once in a life-time event. 

 

About 20 months ago, Barack Obama went to small towns in Iowa expressing an interest to run for the Democratic primaries.  He gave the Iowans a vision for tomorrow, they liked his idea, gave him small donations, and he started a campaign that culminated on November 4, 2008.  The path to White House was tortuous to say the least.  Nonetheless, his message went through and finally he became the nominee of the Democratic Party beating one of the most popular candidates of our time, Senator Hillary Clinton.

 

As the day wore by, the campaign for White House became a nasty one.  The Republican candidate and his surrogates threw all the epithets on him and he braved those insults with a smiling face.  Then the news of economic meltdown in the Wall Street came in September 2008.  This cataclysmic event catapulted Obama to stratospheric height because he remained calm and listened to the expert.  He then went to Washington meeting with the president and his colleague at the senate.  This contrasted with that of Senator McCain who behaved erratically.

 

Barack Obama's message of change struck a chord with the American voters who saw how the nation suffered in the hands of Bush and Cheney.  The government's expense was rising, the budget deficit was escalating, and people's standard of living was heading down due to a rapid inflation in the prices of everyday commodities including that of energy cost.  The common ordinary people were facing economic hardship while the government of Bush-Cheney remained nonchalance. The popularity poll of George W. Bush plummeted all time low and it affected the campaign of John McCain who the voters thought to be a clone of the president who belonged to the same party.  In essence, the political philosophy of George W. Bush and John McCain was virtually the same.

 

About 3 million ordinary people of America have funded Barack Obama's political campaign.  After receiving the news of the victory, Obama wrote this e-mail to his donors and supporters.  It came to my mail box right before he gave the victory speech at Grant Park, Chicago on November 4 and it reads as follows:

 

"I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.
We just made history. And I don't want you to forget how we did it. You made history every single day during this campaign -- every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it's time for change. I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign. We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next. But I want to be very clear about one thing... All of this happened because of you. Thank you, Barack"

 

At CNN's Election Night coverage there were quite a few Republican analysts.  One of them, William Bennett, said that Obama ran a very impressive and flawless campaign.  Most analysts have opined that they have never seen such a campaign that did not make any error.  Also, Obama used the Internet to the fullest extent.  The campaign never had any problem getting donations from supporters.  It was truly an Internet-based grassroots movement.

 

Obama's message of change had touched the hearts and minds of Americans of all walks of life.  He was able to build a coalition of voters from minority folks, younger generation, white collar Americans, and the Democratic base composed of factory workers, unionists, labor, etc.  They have responded to his call for a change in America. 

 

At the Victory speech given at Grant Park before 125,000 people, Obama promised to fulfill his election pledge.  He also said that he will need help and cooperation from ordinary Americans to build a better America.  It was a historic speech which will go down in the annals of American politics as one of the finest victory speeches given at any time.

 

Barack Obama is considered a visionary and transformative politician.  America needs a leader like him when bad times have fallen all across the nation.  He promised to bring a change in the way the government is run.  America is surely entering a new age with an African American president.  Let us hope that it is a new beginning not only for America but also for the world.

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Dr. A.H. Jaffor Ullah, a researcher and columnist, writes from New Orleans, USA

            

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Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh

http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm

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Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf

*****************************************

MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.

*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm

*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm

*****************************************
Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona 
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/


*****************************************
MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm

*****************************************
German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/


Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:

http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm

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Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:

http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm

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VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/

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"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
               -Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190




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[mukto-mona] Interview: Zafarul Islam Khan on Indian Muslims, Media and Terrorism

Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan is the President of the All-India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, a platform of several influential Indian Muslim organizations. He is also the editor of the New Delhi-based fortnightly Milli Gazette, one of the few English-language Muslim news magazines in India. In this interview with Yoginder Sikand he talks about terrorism in India, about how the media projects Muslims and what he feels Muslims should do in the current context.

 

Q: Increasingly, Muslims and Muslim organizations have been singled out by the media, wrongly or rightly, for being behind the escalating incidence of terrorist acts across the country. This has led to Muslim organizations focusing much of their energies simply on countering the charges against them. How do you think this has impacted on their work for the development of the Muslim community?

A: Despite these massive provocations these organisations' work for reform and development still continues. I think the current phase is an aberration, and I hope it will clear soon,  especially now since the media has started waking up to the undeniable reality of Hindutva terrorism, pointing out what I think is just the tip of a hydra-headed monster which, in my view, is behind many of the terrorist activities and bomb blasts that have occurred across the country in recent years. The media is now slowly coming out with details of the precise role of these Hindutva terror groups in setting off deadly blasts, providing armed training to their cadre, indoctrinating them in the ideology of terror and running bomb-making factories.

What for me is a matter of equally grave concern is that this current government simply does not have the guts to fight this sort of Hindutva terrorism, for fear of losing Hindu votes or of what is termed a Hindu backlash, even though all sorts of terror, even if engaged in by some Hindus, is a menace to all Indians, including Hindus as well.  This government does not bother how Muslims feel about how many innocent Muslims and Muslim organizations are being wrongly targeted as allegedly engaged in terrorism because for them we are like orphans, whose liberties the government thinks it can play with any  way it wants.

But I must say that the general public, including many right-thinking Hindus, is now increasingly realizing that the actual situation is something quite different from what the media and the intelligence agencies have all along been claiming. They are gradually realizing the nefarious, yet little talked-of, role of Hindutva terror groups.

Q: But surely one cannot deny that at least some of these deadly blasts might have been the handiwork of some Muslims or some fringe extremist Muslim outfit?

A: I do accept that there is a possibility that some Muslims may have taken to this path. If so, this might have happened as a result of the grave threats and challenges that have been forced on the community, such as the destruction of the Babri Masjid and the Gujarat genocide and the continuing denial of justice to Muslims. But, at the same time, I must say that even though I have been actively involved in Muslim community issues for the last two decades I, at least, do not know of almost any conclusively proven case of a Muslim being involved in terror activity. Almost every single case of Muslims apprehended on charges of being involved in terrorism has been backed simply by 'confessions' made before the police, and of course I do not believe in the methods of investigation of the police that are often based on administering third-degree torture. Take the case of Abdul Nasser Madani, who was kept incarcerated for some nine years till he was let off because the charges against him did not stand. Or the almost 50 cases of former SIMI activists whom the courts have let off for lack of evidence, or the recent report of the tribunal that recommended the lifting of the ban on SIMI because of lack of evidence against it. The same thing happened in the case of the deadly POTA and TADA laws that targeted mainly innocent Muslims. Hardly two per cent of those charged under these draconian laws were proven guilty and convicted.

Today, arrests and targeting of Muslim youths continues in the name of crushing alleged new 'Muslim extremist' outfits, such as what I believe to be the fictitious Indian Mujahideen. I, for one, would not at all be surprised if the so-called Indian Mujahideen is actually a creation of the Bajrang Dal or the intelligence agencies.  And in propagating what I think might well be a total fiction the media is also playing a nefarious role. They all seem hand-in-glove. After all, how can it be that within half an hour of a blast happening the media claims to have all the information of alleged Indian Mujahideen members who it says were behind it? In my view these sections of the media are great story-tellers. They should be earning Booker prizes for the yarns that they weave.

Q: But now some sections of the media are also talking about the role of Hindutva groups in terrorist activities.

A: True, and this is a welcome development, and I think that because of this the general public will increasingly realize and see through the stories that the media has been all along propagating.

Q: What do you feel about the charges against the SIMI leveled by the Government, the intelligence agencies and the media? Surely, its approach was aggressive and un-called for, as was its denunciation of the Indian Constitution and its call for armed jihad. What do you feel about the concept of Khilafah or Caliphate that it claimed it wanted to establish in India, with force, if need be?  Don't you agree that this was bizarre, to say the least?

A: I agree with you entirely that the SIMI's rhetoric was extremist. But the charges against it and its activists of actually being involved in terror acts must first be conclusively proved by the courts, which has not happened. In almost all the cases involving such people all we have are statements made before the police, and we know how often these statements are false and forced out after administering the most brutal forms of torture. On the other hand, while there is ample evidence to prove the role of Hindutva groups and activists in murdering people on a massive scale, no effective action at all is taken against them. This is absolutely unfair. My point is clear: if anyone, including any former SIMI member or any other Muslim, is proven by law to be engaged in any terror act, he or she must be punished according to the law. Give him or her the sternest possible punishment, but do not target innocent people in the name of countering terrorism, but unfortunately this is happening on an increasingly worrying scale today.

Now, as far as the issue of Khilafah or the Caliphate is concerned, surely everyone is within his rights to democratically argue for what he or she believes as an ideal system, whether or not this is derived from religion. Thus, Marxists have their own version of the state, and Gandhiji called for 'Ram Rajya'. Interestingly, Gandhiji is on record as having said that in his view an ideal state would be one that would be like that which was ruled by the Caliph Umar, which Sunni Muslims believe to have been an ideal-sort of Caliphate or Khilafah. An ideal Khilafah is a system where the ruler is accountable to the people and rules in accordance with justice. What is wrong with that? The Caliph Umar is reported to have said that even if a goat dies of thirst on the banks of the Euphrates—a difficult proposition to imagine—he would be held responsible for this. Once, when he saw an old Jewish man begging, the Caliph Umar ordered that the man be given a stipend from the public treasury, saying that the man had served the society when he was young and that now, in his old age, society must serve him. So, this was the ideal sort of Caliphate, which Gandhiji also praised. What a contrast, you will agree, to our present-day politicians, who seem to care nothing at all for the poor and the marginalized.

But then, in this regard, I must also say that seeking to establish any political system, be it the Khilafah or any other, through force and by resorting to violence is wrong and not permissible. If anyone seeks to do that he should be sternly punished according to the law. So, the SIMI's rhetoric of establishing Khilafah by means other than democratic was wrong. It was extremist. We are a political democracy, and the only way to put one's views and agenda forward is through seeking public support, through elections. This is why even before the SIMI was banned, most Muslim leaders shunned the organization, finding its approach extremist. But you must also remember that the SIMI emerged and became more radical at precisely the same time as when the American- and Saudi-backed jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan was at its peak. At that time, even the slogan of 'jihad' was being mouthed and propagated even by American leaders, although now the case is precisely the opposite. This fact needs to be taken into consideration while talking about and seeking to understand the SIMI's radical rhetoric.

Q: Do you think that, increasingly, Islamist movements across the world are beginning to realize the folly of armed confrontation with established states? Is this a general sort of trend?

A: I think so. You cannot seek to establish or impose 'Islamic government' or an 'Islamic state' or any other sort of political system by force. It can only happen through democratic means, through participating in elections. Islamists cannot hope or expect to rule people against their will. Such an approach will be entirely counter-productive for them, as they have today realized. I think Islamist movements across the world have come to realise this, with a few fringe exceptions such as outfits like the Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is a very marginalized group but has a safe haven in the West.

Q: Why do you think that extremist groups such as the Hizb ut-Tahrir have been allowed to freely function in the West?

A: There are some who hold to a conspiracy theory in this regard, but my view is that groups like the Hizb ut-Tahrir have found a safe haven in the West by escaping from their home countries where they would probably have been killed or imprisoned. So, in the West they benefit from the freedoms that Western countries give to all, to Neo-Nazis, Muslims, Jews, radicals and liberals and so on. The authorities in these countries generally leave them alone until and unless they become a real menace.

Q: How do you see a lasting solution emerging to the widening communal chasm in this country?

A: I think that for this it is essential for the majority to realize that minorities, too, have rights, under the Constitution, in law and morality, rights as human beings that must be respected and observed. But see where Muslims stand today. You only have to skim through the Sachar Committee report to realize the utter falsity of the myth of 'Muslim appeasement'.

Muslims have been pushed or kept down ever since 1947. And things are becoming worse today. On the one hand you claim that Muslims are 'backward', that they refuse to take to modern education, and when they do take to such education then you brand them as 'terrorists'. Earlier, Muslims were given very few jobs in the public sector, and now, due to this media hype about 'Muslim terrorism' and about even highly educated Muslim youths allegedly taking to terrorism, do you think the private sector would like to employ Muslims? Obviously not.

I think that all this—this sort of anti-Muslim hatred that is being consciously stirred up—is part of a larger design. Some forces within and without the country want to marginalize the Muslims. They want that the only jobs that can be available to Muslims are as rickshaw-pullers or washermen. They want them to become the new Dalits. But this will not happen. Muslims are citizens of this country, and we must continue to struggle for our rights, using Constitutional and legal means, and also by working with people of goodwill among the Hindus and other communities.

Q: To come back to the question of the media, how do you think Muslim organizations could more effectively engage with the 'mainstream' media in presenting Muslim views and concerns?

A: I think there is a lot that we need to do in order to interact more closely with the media. I don't think that large sections of the media are against Muslims or Islam as such, contrary to what some people might think. But the point is that many people in the media are also influenced by the general social climate, and so, like everyone else, they are not free of anti-Muslim biases. In this regard, I would advise Muslim organizations not to shun the media, but, rather, to seek to engage more closely and effectively with it, in a spirit of dialogue.

We also need to consider developing alternate media of our own, as well as working with the alternate media run by non-Muslims, who are sometimes more willing than the 'mainstream' media to seriously take up Muslim issues and concerns.  But, the world over, the alternate media has always been at the fringes, and so we also need to work to get our views heard in the 'mainstream' media. Unfortunately, Muslim organizations are doing little, if at all, in this regard. They are often content simply to release a statement in Urdu and when they see it published in some Urdu paper the next day they feel that they have done their duty. Obviously, this does not at all serve to bring Muslim views or concerns before non-Muslims because today hardly any non-Muslims read Urdu papers.

Q: How do you think your paper Milli Gazette has been able to address the lacunae that you have pointed out in the existing Muslim media?

A: We have been able, to an extent, to fill the vacuum in the field of the Muslim English-language media. It gives me some satisfaction to say that our paper is read also by government officials and MPs. We are among the very few Muslim periodicals that focus not on religious or ideological issues and debates but, instead, on community affairs and current national and international developments. If you see any 'mainstream' newspaper on any day you would imagine that the day before that all the 160 million Indian Muslims must have been asleep or doing nothing, or, if at all, allegedly bursting bombs, because this media does not report on the positive happenings within the community. This is something that Milli Gazette tries to highlight—news about Muslim social work organizations doing productive work, Muslim groups organizing seminars, Muslims writing books or getting awards for various achievements, although our coverage of this is, admittedly, limited and not exhaustive.

I recognize that at present our paper doesn't fully satisfy the needs of the community. We need to have a weekly, but ours is still a fortnightly. We need better quality reports, stories from the field, but we lack the finances needed for this. Presently, we do not have even a single full-time staff reporter, because of shortage of funds. 

Q: Why is it that the 'mainstream' media focuses almost inevitably on only negative or sensational real or fictive events or developments when it comes to Muslims?

A: I don't think this is a phenomenon specific only to Muslim issues. The media thrives on negative or sensational news about almost anything. Underlying this is the quest for hiking circulation or viewership, and, therefore, profits.

Q: Perhaps one reason for the inability of many Muslim organizations to relate to the 'mainstream' media effectively is that they are run and headed by madrasa-educated ulema, whose cultural background is of a different sort from that of most persons in this sector of the media. Do you agree? In this regard, might not modern educated middle class Muslims be more effective in interacting with the media to try to get Muslim views across to them?

A: That is true. We do need more middle-class Muslims to take an active role in community organizations, including in highlighting their views before the media. Unfortunately, they seem to be more interested in their own careerist aspirations. What typically happens is that many middle-class Muslims begin to take an interest in community issues only after retirement. Then they grow their beards and go to Mecca for the Haj and want to do some sort of work for the community. But of course by the time they reach that stage in life there is little that they can possibly do.

As I said, I would like more middle-class Muslim youth to take part in community-based organizations, which are now mostly run by the ulema. But many of these organizations simply do not have the money to employ them. Muslim organizations have to make  effective media relations as one of their top priorities, but, unfortunately, many of the maulvis who control these organizations do not recognize this as an important priority. They simply want to satisfy their own limited circles.

Q: Why is it that, particularly in north India, the leadership of Muslim organizations is mainly in the hands of traditional madrasa-educated maulvis?

A: This is by default. Before the Partition, the ulema played a supporting, not the leading, role in providing leadership to the community, whether in the Congress or in the Muslim League. But then, with the Partition and the massive migration of north Indian Muslim elites to Pakistan, a great leadership vacuum was created, which had to be filled, and the maulvis stepped in to fill that vacuum. Now that they have occupied that place they won't leave it voluntarily. I am not suggesting that we don't need them. We certainly do, but they should not dominate or be considered the sole leaders, because their views on national and international developments is limited. Often, their views on these are limited simply to what they learn from the one or two Urdu newspapers that they read, and these papers are often based on sensationalism, spiced-up and one-sided news and views and so do not give a correct picture of things.

Q: Do you see the emergence of an alternate sort of leadership emerging among Muslims, particularly in north India, today?

A: Yes, gradually this is happening, and it is a welcome development. We need a joint effort of maulvis and modern-educated intellectuals and leaders, neither of which should dominate the other. If this sort of leadership comes into being, it can play a much more effective role in re-orienting our community's priorities and in working to build better relations with people of other communities.

Unfortunately, there is one major psychological barrier that operates that seems to be inhibiting modern-educated, middle-class Muslims from taking an active role in Muslim community affairs. They have been made to believe and fear that if they do so they might be branded by their non-Muslim peers and colleagues, among whom they often live and work, as being allegedly 'communal' or even 'fundamentalist', although , of course, this is not at all the case. In recent years a vicious sort of climate has been created because of which many such Muslims seem fearful to openly say that they are committed to Islam and to Muslim causes. If they do say so, they are automatically accused, or at least suspected, of being 'communal'.

We have to come out of this complex. We all have our religious, regional and national interests and identities, and there is no necessary contradiction between these. A religious Muslim who works for his community is not a threat to India. In fact, such a Muslim is actually serving his country by working for the welfare of one of its most marginalized communities. In fact, if someone is working for the education of Muslims the Government should  reward him for this because he is doing the work that the Government should actually be doing but which it is not.

Q: To go back to the question of the media, Muslim organizations repeatedly stress the need for a more effective media policy, and some of them claim to have established 'media cells' for this purpose. How effective have these efforts been?

A: Many of these organizations that claim to have established 'media cells' or that keep talking about the need for a proper media policy simply have no idea of what precisely these mean. They think that it simply means having a separate room with a board hung at its entrance proclaiming 'Media Cell', and employing one or two unqualified people to cut out Muslim-related articles from newspapers and issue a statement in badly-written English once in a while, which almost no 'mainstream' paper publishes. This sort of effort will not have any major impact. We need a thoroughly professional approach, which is distinctly lacking in almost all the existing Muslim organizations.

Q: Across the country literally hundreds of Islamic magazines, dealing with religious issues, are published, but there are hardly any Muslim-owned papers that deal mainly with community-related affairs. Besides your Mili Gazette and, to some extent, the Bangalore-based monthly Islamic Voice, there are no other Muslim-run English language periodicals in India that focus on community, as distinct from religious, affairs. Why is this?

A:  The root of the problem is that the community still has not understood or properly estimated the role of the media. We should have our TV channels, radio stations, daily newspapers in English, Hindi and regional languages and so on, but this, sadly, is not the case. There are several Urdu newspapers in the country, but then they are read almost entirely by Muslims, and so cannot play an effective role in getting Muslim views across to non-Muslims and to the state. I think it is only in the Malayalam media where Muslims have been able to make a real and substantial difference. There are four Malayalam daily newspapers brought out by Muslims in Kerala, and they exercise a considerable influence on the local scene. So, other newspapers in Kerala generally abstain from publishing concocted stories about Muslims in the state, because the very next day these Muslim newspapers can reply back by exposing the false claims that they might make. But in north India we have only Urdu newspapers, and even if some false claims are made about Muslims in the English and Hindi press, the only way that Muslim organizations respond is by publishing counter-claims in the Urdu press, which no one but a limited number of Muslims read, and so these responses do not have any impact. And so you have this bizarre phenomenon of people writing 'open letters' to Sonia Gandhi in the Urdu press dealing with matters related to Muslims, which, of course, Sonia Gandhi cannot herself read, and thus these serve  no positive purpose at all.

Even as regards the many Islamic magazines that are published in the country, mainly in Urdu, there is much left to be desired. There are hardly any original religious Urdu journals. Much of what they publish is taken from elsewhere or consists of reprinted articles. Many of these articles have nothing to do with contemporary developments or are on irrelevant issues. Reading many of them, one can't help wondering if those who write and publish them are truly living in this age! And then, most of them simply represent the jamaats or organizations or madrasas that bring them out. For many of them, their basic aim is not to serve as a good Islamic journal or to provide good information, but, rather, to operate as the mouthpiece of a particular jamaat or sect, so as to seek to prove that the particular organization or school of thought or ulema that they represent are supposedly great heroes of Islam and have rendered great services, as they see it, to the cause of the faith. This holds true for all the different Muslim jamaats—the Deobandis, the Ahl-e Hadith, the Barelvis, the Shias, the Jamaat-e Islami, the Nadwis and so on. 

Q: In view of the coming Parliamentary elections in India, what advice would you give Muslims?

A: The old formula: to vote for secular candidates, and, preferably, for Muslim candidates in case they are in a strong position.  I don't think Muslims are any longer tied to any particular political party. And as regards the Congress and the BJP, as far as Muslims are concerned I see them as two sides of the same coin, the only difference being that sometimes the former raises some seemingly good, but misleading, slogans. But, practically, as far as economic policies and attitudes towards Muslims are concerned, there is no difference at all between these two dominant parties.

Q: There is now some talk about a separate Muslim political party. Imam Bukhari of Delhi's Jamia Masjid has sought to float his own party. How do you see these developments?

A:  Bukhari's recent attempt should be seen in the context of similar attempts made by himself, and, before him, by his father, in the last three decades. Just before elections, he and his father have issued announcements about floating a Muslim political party and have organized such meetings as the one he recently called, to project the wrong claim of being the leader of the Indian Muslims. This is absolutely wrong, and I feel that, as in the past, this time, too, this trick will not work. After all, all major Muslim organizations boycotted the meeting that Bukhari had called. Nothing came out of it, and even the resolutions that the meeting passed were weak.

On the other hand, the Jamaat-e Islami has also been talking of possibly entering the field of electoral politics and the political process, whether directly or indirectly. I think this might be a good development, but I am not very optimistic because Muslims are scattered all across the country and there are so many political parties vying for their votes. Frankly, it is really an uphill task to put together an effective Muslim political party.

Q: But if such a party does come into being, would the All-India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, of which you are the President, also be a part of it?

A: No. The Majlis is not a political platform or organization. We do not want to get involved in such issues. This is why we have not supported any political party, and have limited ourselves to appealing to Muslims to work with genuinely secular and democratic forces.

 

Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan can be contacted on zik@vsnl.com

Previous issues of Milli Gazette can be accessed on www.milligazette.com

Sukhia Sab Sansar Khaye Aur Soye
Dukhia Das Kabir Jagey Aur Roye
 
The world is 'happy', eating and sleeping
The forlorn Kabir Das is awake and weeping
 
Check out my blogs: www.madrasareforms.blogspot.com
www.islampeaceandjustice.blogspot.com

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[mukto-mona] Congratulation to Obama

The people of the United States have spoken and have selected Senator Barack Obama as their next President.  This highly-energized election brought out new voter groups and increased levels of involvement where Barack Obama beats John McCain and becomes the country's first black president.  Congratulations to him on behalf of Mukto-Mona.

 

We believe, Obama with his youthful energy and enthusiasm will give USA and the rest of the world a better hope.   At this event of history, we should also remember Martin Luther King Jr. and all of the other martyrs who died for civil rights. We owe all of them for this moment.

 

We have kept some selected articles in our site (www.mukto-mona.com ) which has been turned to a blog site recently.  Please visit our site and be part of the proud moment - "This election eve night". I would like to convey my special thanks to Dr. Jaffor Ullah and  Farid Ahmed for the necessary support.

 

Avijit

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[ALOCHONA] Obama's victory, change of America's racist characteristics

I didn't have to vote for either of the presidential candidates (in fact only once I voted in my life time, and that was a singular vote for that candidate in the booth) but I did wish for a change and the change taken place this morning. Hope, as we understand a president himself can not move all the mountains that is on the way of peace, prosperity and human dignity that have undermined and put all of us in peril, Barack Hussain Obama would try his best to win the support of the congress and senate to bring back the human integrity and pride through out the globe. I strongly belief this morning it is the common hope all around the globe.
Watching McCain in his conceding speech I feel like voting for that speech. 'he is my president', 'from my power I will do all I can to support him', we all should Raleigh behind him to forward America's interests.
Considering the culture where I am from, a dark contrast. Almost every literary person in our land tries hard to put a tag on us and keep dividing us, Muslim – Hindu, Majority – Minority, Religious extremist – cultural extremist, fundamentalists – liberalists, secular – non secular, for and against of our liberation and so on.
They do it knowing very well that it only weakens our solidarity, our strength to unite together and find solutions to our biggest problems, our economy our financial rebuildings.
I am not against our personal belief as a Muslim or Hindu, conservative or liberal, difference in opinions, but for greater causes we should be together as a nation, as a society. Diversity should be our strength not curse. Looking at the spirit of Barack Obama, using all the democratic fundamentals that are available we should set our clear goals and straight forward strategy to reach there.

It took racist America more than 40 years (after blacks were given the voting power) to elect a coloured president, Europe's religious and nationalist bigotry will take yet more time for this kind of assimilation.

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[mukto-mona] Fw: Interview with Hindutva Suicide Bomber

As received

With Regards

Abi


--- On Mon, 11/3/08, Khalid Azam  wrote:
From: Khalid Azam <>
Subject:  Interview with Hindutva Suicide Bomber
 

Please see the video interview of a Hindu nationalist activist in the backdrop of a Hindutva sponsored ammunitions and bomb making training camp. This is particularly relevant in the context of the recent arrests of Hindutva activists for various bomb blasts in India.

An Interview with a member of Hindutva Suicide Bombing Squad
From Chicago Daily Tribune investigation
http://www.dailyher ald.com/special/ passagefromindia /video/suicidesq uad2-1.mov
 
 

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[mukto-mona] Kalo Manusher Gaan (Bangla)

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Re: [mukto-mona] Re: My Red State Blues!

WRT: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/50552

Avijit,

There is NO frustration here. When Sitangshu Guha made his posts attacking Democrats, I was the one who put in the moderators' notes making it clear that pamphleteering was not acceptable. It is interesting that that has been omitted here. Or, is there an official line that has to be towed? With Jaffor Ullah a sacred cow of sorts that cannot be responded to? Is this something that has been forgotten, or is it being conveniently ignored at the moment? Again, while Guha has been gracious, despite my being firm for the past few days, in acknowledging Obama's victory in sending in a post, Jaffor has been baying to the moon asking where Guha was. Whose is the more decent response?

As far as celebrations are concerned, I am one of the organisers at my university tomorrow on behalf of the Campus CFI group. That does not mean that I send in a dozen posts on one evening tooting my own horn.

Sure, call this response to Jaffor�silly if you would like to,�but I have little time for sycophancy of any kind, especially towards someone who has been little more than a boor on the forums in his behavior towards those who differ with him. Personally, I find this defense of boorishness silly, but then I have something to celebrate instead of continuing an argument beyond making a very specific and pertinent point.

Mehul Kamdar

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
- The Riddle of Epicurus


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[mukto-mona] Congratulations, President-Elect Obama

My Congratulations to President-Elect Obama.
 
Whether we believe or not,  this election once again proves the FAIRNESS of the American people - the fairness of the White majority.
 
Congratulations to all who made this historic event happen. We must learn to be fair.
 
nnSarker

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[mukto-mona] U. S. Election 2008

U. S. President Election 2008

Dr. Abdul Momen

 

American Presidential election of 2008 will be over within few hours and most likely it would provide a relief to the world for better days by electing Democratic Presidential nominee Barak Hussain Obama, a mix of Black African and White American heritage.  His mother was a White American while his father was a Kenyan Black.  Like his father who was a Kenyan Muslim his step-father was an Indonesian Muslim. Nevertheless, as he was brought up by his maternal grandparents, he maintained his Christian faith.   

 

This election will reflect whether the Americans are fed up with the lies and self defeating myopic policies of President George Bush that brought economic disaster, job loss and social uncertainty not only in the U. S. but across the globe.  This election will also show whether the fear tactics of President Bush, Carl Rove and his cronies that Americans honestly believed in 2004 election will work or not.  Terrorism was the catch word of the Republican Party to win 2004 election.  Now only 9% voters think it as important to influence their voting decision while 62% as per CNN poll believe that 'economy' is the number one determining factor in making voting decision followed by 'war on Iraq'.  In these days of economic downturn comparable to that of great depression of1930s, many Americans are upset that the administration has wasted over $700 billion in Iraq and still continue wasting another $12 billion a month in Iraq while American towns and cities, schools and colleges, roads and highways, bridges and public services are handicapped owing shortage of funds.  The recent Wall Street crisis added fuel to fire and more importantly, the Republican nominee John McCain failed to distance himself from that of Bush and his discarded policies. While he tried to distance himself at the last minute, people could not believe him as record shows that he voted 95% of time in favor of Bush's failed policies and he still likes to continue his Iraq occupation.

 

This election will be a reflection on President Bush and his Republican parties' failed policies of helping the rich and the powerful while ignoring the middle class and the poor.  It will prove that conspiracy, falsity and politics of war and fear will not succeed in the long run. Once Barak Obama wins, the nation should pursue a case of 'crime against humanity' against President Bush.

 

This election will be historic in many ways. If Barack Obama wins, he will be the first Black American and it will prove that America is a 'land of great people who hate discrimination, and are open to ideas and leadership'.  If McCain wins owing to racial divide, his Vice President Sarah Palin, a hockey mom with questionable background would be the first female VP of USA.  McCain could be the 1st American President born outside U. S. territory and most aged 1st time President elect.  In this election, the Democratic Party is hopeful of winning the Presidency, plus the Senate and the House with significant majority.  This will be unique in the recent history and such may lead to 'one party rule' that the forefathers of American democracy never liked.

 

America is a Republic.  In the initial years of its independence from 1776 through 1788, it was not a nation state.  It went through chaos, confusion, debates and uncertainty.  Luckily many of its 'fathers of independence' survived and ruled the individual states for the 1st 25 years of its independence unlike Bangladesh where its 'fathers of independence' were kicked out and killed within 3.5 years of its independence.  They firmly believed in the principle that the nation must be run by elected individuals, but they also believed that 'single majority vote' might create a land of hoodlum and opportunists.  Therefore, they created a Constitution with lot of check and balances.  It established equally important three branches of government; the Executive (President), the Legislature (Senate and Congress) and the Judiciary.  While the number of Congressmen were determined on the basis of population size, larger states get more congressmen, and smaller ones less, on the other hand, each state gets 2 senators irrespective of geographical or population size.   In addition, it also created state governments basically independent of the federal government in its day today administration. Not only that it created a unique system of 'electoral votes' ---- a U. S. President has to be elected by the majority electoral votes, not by majority popular votes.  The rationale of it was to avoid 'democracy of the majority' out of emotion----it desired to have a balance and consideration even to smaller states.   This system has been questioned time and again and more so when Al Gore lost his bid for Presidency against George Bush in 2000 election although he won over a million popular votes, but Americans did not change or modify it yet. 

 

Today Americans will elect 35 U. S. Senators, 11 Governors, and 435 Congressmen besides its next President.  They have also nearly 150 ballot measures ranging from homo-sexual marriage to allowing drug use on their ballot papers.  This time it is expected that a record number of voters will vote even young Americans that refrain from voting might vote.  During our 'door-to-door campaign' for Obama, we find this year's voters are more aware of election issues vis-à-vis other years and more importantly, people are worried of job loss, economic down turn, loss of healthcare benefits and crumbling of retirement funds. Sadly, we also met a voter who is upset with Bush administration but find difficulty to vote for a Blackman. He said and I quote, 'how do you expect me to vote for a Blackman for the White House? Will you change 'White House' to 'Black House'?   

 

Besides such microscopic few disturbed individuals, the majority Americans irrespective of race, color and caste are asking 'are you better off with 8 years of Bushism'?  Emotional and social issues like gay marriage, abortion, faith, family values or right to bear arms which were more critical in other years is no longer important to voters now.  Since Barack Obama is focusing his campaign on economic issues and Iraq, I have no doubt that he will win the election in spite of his being a Black American with Muslim lineage.  Today the prophetic words of Robert F. Kennedy who said in 1968 at the time of signing the Civil Rights Act of 1968 that he would not be surprised if a Black American is elected as President of USA in 40 years time is echoing again and again. Let us hope that Barack Hussain Obama, a Black American wins the White House and the world gets a relief from the atrocities of self-defeating, self-absorbing myopic and arrogant unilateral Bush doctrine.  Let the American never forget neither the Guantanamo nor the Abu Ghairab prisons and its shame on the nation.  Let it never forgets the killing of innocent people across the globe.  Let sanity prevail for a better future.  Let it be a reality and let us witness a new history. Let our dream of a brighter world comes true. 

 

November 4, 2008, Boston, Massachusetts, 5 PM

 

 



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*****************************************
German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/


Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:

http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm

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Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:

http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm

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VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/

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"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
               -Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190




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