Malasian Church Bombings

Middle East Online, Jan 12, 2010

With respect to the use of the word Allah, it cannot be disputed that Arabic speaking Muslims, Christians and Jews have collectively prayed to God as Allah throughout the last fourteen centuries. Islam clearly grants respect to Christians and Jews. The need for interfaith dialogue in Malaysia is an idea whose time is long overdue, notes Anwar Ibrahim.

We are outraged by the tragic attacks on our Christian brothers and sisters and reiterate our unequivocal condemnation of the bombing of churches in Malaysia. Today’s attack on the oldest standing church in Malaysia, the All Saints Church in Taiping, is an attack on our nation’s heritage.

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Combating Muslim Intolerance

Middle East Online, January 10, 2010 Modern technology and communications can be used as a more powerful tool for major religious leaders and organizations of all faiths. They need more initiatives to join together, condemning all forms of discrimination, intolerance and oppression against ethnic and religious minorities. Together they can speak out whenever and wherever abuses occur, notes John L. Esposito. Recent attacks against Christians in Egypt and firebomb attacks on churches in Malaysia have raised major concerns about deteriorating rights and security for religious minorities in Muslim countries. In the twenty-first century, Muslims are strongly challenged to move beyond older notions of “tolerance” or “co-existence” to a higher level of religious pluralism based on mutual understanding and respect. Regrettably, a significant number of Muslims, like very conservative and fundamentalist Christians and Jews, are not pluralistic but rather strongly exclusivist in their attitudes towards other faiths and even co-believers with whom they disagree. Continues >>

How Western anti-Muslim bigotry became respectable: The historic roots of a newly resilient ideology

By Şener Aktürk & Mujeeb R. Khan

Today’s Zaman

Tuesday, Jan 5, 2010

The Emin Minaret and Mosque in Turpan China, built in 1777

As scholars who work on the centuries-old Islamic presence in Europe and the continent’s first post-Holocaust genocide against, not coincidently, the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we were deeply disturbed but not surprised that an ostensibly tolerant and pluralistic Western democracy like Switzerland would vote by a margin of 57 percent to ban the religious symbol of 400,000 of its Muslim residents because they felt “threatened” by the grand total of four minarets that exist there.

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A Future India Must Do Without

By Badri Raina, ZNet, Jan 3, 2010

Badri Raina’s ZSpace Page

“Genius: a person who has a strong influence upon one for good or ill.”

(Advanced Oxford Dictionary)

I

All of the year gone by, India’s corporate classes—in sundry areas of material control, including the media—have been pushing and prodding the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) to return from the dumps to health and vigour. Editorially this Hindu right-wing formation has been reminded how the nation cannot do without them.

Alas, at the end of it all, its unedifying, even if highly diverting, internal squabbles have been for now set to right, not by its own autonomous political exertions, but per diktat of the RSS—a fascist outfit wholly extraneous to the Constitutional scheme of the Republic.

Brushing aside the many hopefuls within the BJP, Nitin Gadkari, a self-confessed RSS devotee who has never yet won an election to an assembly, not to speak of the parliament, has been installed as President of the BJP vide explicit decree of the RSS.

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The Hypocrisy of Al-Demoqratia

Ramzy Baroud, The Palestine Chronicle, Dec 10, 2009

In Palestine, the price for democracy was even higher.

So this is how democracy works? In 2004, France banned headscarves and school principals chased after young “defiant” Muslim girls who continued to cover their heads in school. Now, following a national referendum, Switzerland has banned the construction of minarets, because minarets also somehow symbolize oppression. Thanks to the dedicated action of the far-right Swiss People’s Party, the Alpine skies will be free from the snaking menace, which would spread intolerance and taint the splendor of Swiss architecture. In between these two peculiar events, the targeting of Muslims in Western countries and the subjugation of entire Muslim nations all over the world has never ceased. Not for a day. Continues >>

Hindu leaders are blamed for mosque plot that led to carnage

The Times/UK, November 24, 2009

Hindu radicals climb on to the mosque hours before it was destroyed

 

Rhys Blakely in Mumbai

 

The destruction of a mosque by Hindu radicals that led to some of the bloodiest religious riots in India since Partition was “meticulously planned” by politicians including a former Prime Minister, according to a leaked report of the official investigation.The razing of the 16th-century Babri mosque — in the northern town of Ayodhya, on December 6, 1992, by an estimated 150,000 Hindus — led to national violence in which about 2,000 people died, mostly Muslims.

 

The demolition also cemented the power base of the Hindu fundamen-talist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came to power four years later. BJP hardliners had long claimed that the mosque stood on the birthplace of Lord Rama, the Hindu warrior god, and had campaigned for a Hindu temple to be built on the site.

The Indian Express newspaper reported yesterday that a longawaited official report would blame several BJP politicians for planning the destruction of the mosque with “military-like precision”. Those allegedly involved included Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the former Prime Minister, the newspaper said. He led the BJP and was Prime Minister for a brief period in 1996, and from 1998 until 2004.

 

Lal Krishna Advani, the party’s current leader, will also be named, according to the newspaper. In 1990 Mr Advani toured India calling for a temple dedicated to Lord Rama to be built on the site of the mosque — a tour the leaked report concludes was designed to incite the “emotionally charged common man”.

The Babri mosque was destroyed when an organised demonstration turned into a frenzied attack, which the BJP insisted took them by surprise. Mr Advani was arrested briefly for provoking the attack, but was released without charge.

The newspaper says that it has seen a report prepared by Justice M. S. Liberhan, the judge appointed by the Government to launch an investigation ten days after the attack. The Liberhan Commission was initially asked to report within three months, but ran for 17 years, becoming the longest and most expensive inquiry in the history of independent India.

The report suggests that the commission has largely exonerated P. V. Narasimha Rao, the Prime Minister at the time of the attack, and a key figure in the Congress Party, which leads the current ruling coalition. If true, this could lead to allegations that the commission has not been impartial, say analysts. Mr Rao was criticised for not sending security forces to the mosque before the attack, despite a Supreme Court order that the building should be protected.

Kuldip Nayar, a veteran political commentator, said: “It’s widely accepted that the BJP stoked the violence, but at the time, everybody thought the [Government] would send in forces to prevent the violation of the mosque.”

The leaks caused uproar in Parliament, with BJP politicians shouting “shame” and disrupting proceedings in both houses. The Home Minister, P. Chidambaram, attempted to calm tempers saying that the report should not be judged until it has been published in full later in the parliamentary session.

Pakistan, the only country in the world with a blasphemy law

AsiaNews.it, Nov. 11, 2009

Peter Jacob, NCJP executive secretary, slams the creation of an “Islamic State” based on a law that strikes minorities as well as Muslims. Groups in government, parliament and the military back fundamentalism. The activist hopes that a “common front” can emerge to “bring democracy to the country”.

Rome (AsiaNews) – In Pakistan, an attempt is underway to create an “Islamic State” that would deny the principle of “equality of its citizens” as intended by the country’s father, Ali Jinnah, in a speech he delivered to the constituent assembly in 1947, said Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) during a press conference organised by AsiaNews on blasphemy. Pakistan is the only country in the world with a “blasphemy law”.

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Who speaks for Islam?

Everyone, it seems, has a party line about who the good Muslims and bad Muslims are. Sadly, many of the dichotomies distort as much as they reveal, and use simple labels based on superficial preconceptions and over-simplifications, says Meena Sharify-Funk.

Middle East Online, Oct 30, 2009

 

Waterloo, Canada – Ever since the tragic events of 9/11, the diverse voices claiming to speak with authority about Islam have become increasingly cacophonous. Few contemporary topics are more controversial than that of how to interpret Islamic practices and beliefs.

In the West as well as in the Muslim world, interpreting Islam has become a virtual cottage industry. The ranks of interpreters are incredibly diverse, including counter-terrorism experts, policymakers and journalists, as well as religious studies academics, political scientists, Muslim ulama (Islamic legal scholars), Muslim feminists in the West, and people speaking on behalf of various religious groups. Interest in how Islam is understood and practiced has expanded dramatically in recent years, and it’s not always clear whom to listen to amongst the din.

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MIDEAST: Is Jerusalem Burning?

Analysis by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler, Inter Press Service

JERUSALEM, Oct 26 (IPS) – Déjà vu on one of the world’s most volatile religious sites, a site deeply revered by both Muslims and Jews.

On Sunday, Israeli police helicopters circle over  the Al-Aqsa mosque and the adjacent Golden Dome of the Rock from where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven and where, for Jews, two Biblical temples once stood.

In the narrow alleyways below, heavy Israeli police reinforcements, batons, tear-gas and shock grenades at the ready in order to confront young Palestinian protesters.

On the contested ‘Temple Mount’ (for Jews), ‘Haram el-Sharif’ or ‘Noble Sanctuary’ (for Muslims), clashes soon erupt – dozens are lightly injured on both sides; the Israeli police arrest 21 Palestinians, among them the former Palestinian Authority minister in charge of Jerusalem, Hatim Abdel Qader.

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Strong reactions in India over a book on Jinnah

Al Jazeerah, Aug 31, 2009 Interview: Jaswant Singh

Singh’s book has provoked a storm of reaction in his own country [EPA] Jaswant Singh, a former leader with India’s main opposition party, has sparked controversy in his own country with a book on Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) expelled Singh over his book Jinnah: India-Partition Independence, which offered a sympathetic portrayal of Jinnah by an Indian writer. The local government in Gujarat, a state controlled by the BJP, even moved to ban the book, saying it ran counter to public and national interests. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Singh, a former finance and foreign minister, gave his thoughts on the controversy sparked by his book, as well as on his former political party. Al Jazeera: When you say that perhaps we need controversy to educate people, that seems to imply that there is some problem for India and Pakistan confronting that history. Jaswant Singh: We have been manufacturing history, inventing history. For example, India has demonised Mohammad Ali Jinnah just as Pakistan has demonised Mahatma Gandhi, or [Jawaharlal] Nehru or [Sardar Vallabhbhai] Patel. They were all Indian. All of them were great Indians. Gandhi and Jinnah were really contemporaries … and Gandhi himself called Jinnah a great Indian. In terms of the book that you have written, what is more important – that discussion takes place in India about that history or that Jinnah is viewed differently? The book has sparked controversy in India over its portrayal of Mohammed Ali Jinnah Once the full book is read, [and] the narrative is grasped, then you understand the enormity of the tragedy and the fruitlessness of the partition, certainly to me.This is not to question the reality of Pakistan, of Bangladesh, but we have to find an answer to the problems of that period. We created a partition to end peace. There is no peace in Pakistan (inside it), there is no peace in India and there is no peace in Bangladesh. There is no peace between the countries. You say in the book that “Pakistan is doubtless Muslim but theocentrically it’s not a theocratic state”. I mean, that’s quite a loaded statement to make. Not at all. “Theocentricism”, where society is centred on Islam – this is in line whether Pakistan, India or Bangladesh, where faith is of paramount importance. Pakistan is not theocratic in the sense it is not the Mullah that is governing Pakistan … but Pakistan society is governed by Islam. That is the difference. It is a very vital and important difference that has to be understood by the West about Islam. Should Pakistan be governed in a secular fashion though? Pakistan should be governed as they determine for themselves … I can wish that it would be better that they were governed as Jinnah had dreamt that they ought to be governed, but it’s for Pakistan to decide. You say in the book that the modern mind just cannot comprehend Islam precisely because it is a totality. It makes it very difficult for Pakistan to govern in anything that might resemble a secular fashion. The Western mind cannot grasp the enormity and subtlety of Islam. India has more Muslims living in it as citizens of India today than Pakistan has. We have lived with Islam for centuries. Islam has been absorbed by the ethos of India. I think India understands Islam much better than the West does. You see it as an adversary. We see it as part of the Indian vividity. The real renaissance of Islam would have taken place in undivided India if there had not been a partition. I’m asking you a very personal and direct question because you’ve been such an integral part of the BJP. Do you take any responsibility for the state of affairs? Do you think that the BJP, not just for the country but for the good of itself, needs to reform? Of course I take responsibility for everything that the party has done up till the moment of my exit. Until the day, I am a member of the party [and] I am responsible for everything the party has had to do or done. As it is, the political parties that exist in the country are really functioning like private limited companies or family concerns … congress of course is purely and unashamedly a family concern and they don’t make any bones about it, but the same problems seem to have afflicted my former political party. It has become sycophantic, full of time-servers. These are not the ideals with which we began. The purpose of the party was the service of the nation.