Oriana Fallaci
Oriana Fallaci was perhaps not a very nice person. She was outspoken and did not hesitate to contradict and offend those who did not agree with her. But she was one of the few people brave enough to openly say what everybody knows and few dare to say: "Radical Islam is evil and inhuman." Even the Pope does not dare to speak the truth, he has withdrawn his earlier comments to this effect with an abject apology in the face of violent opposition from Radical Islamists worldwide.
For saying this truth Oriana had to leave Italy, her country, and Europe altogether, and live in the US, where freedom of speech is taken more seriously and respected. Italy threatened to silence her by putting her in jail.
We have seen people like Oriana Fallaci before in the Indian subcontinent too. Taslima Nasreen of Bangladesh, Salman Rushdie of India, to name a few.
More such people are needed if Humanity and Civilization is to save itself from the grave threat posed by the totalitarian political ideology that calls itself a religion.
This is a crisis that has been building for over 1000 years. The virus of an inhuman ideological disease has spread for 1000 years through violence rape murder arson and mayhem and now has reached the position to wipe out the rest of humanity altogether or forcibly impose its twisted beliefs on it through violent street riots and large-scale inhuman acts of terror. Modern science and technology developed by the free world is being used against it itself by this backward ideology. The liberalism propounded by the free world is being used against it itself.
This is not the time to be nice. This is the time to stand up for one's beliefs. This is the time to fight.
Will the people of India realize that in time ? Or will they continue to support the (pseudo) "secular" Muslim-vote-banking politicians who continue to appease Radical Islam (eg. through imposing Islamic Shariah Law in the guise of "Muslim Personal Law", preventing any discussion of the problems of Islam by silencing people like Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen, etc) and take India into the Medieval Middle East ?
What will happen only the future can tell.
The Economist reports:
Obituary: Oriana Fallaci
Sep 21st 2006
From The Economist print edition
Oriana Fallaci, journalist and fighter, died on September 15th, aged 77
FAINTHEARTS may prefer not to say that the West is at war with terror. But Oriana Fallaci, Italy's fiercest and most famous journalist, had no doubt at all. She felt it “at nine o'clock on the dot” on the morning of September 11th 2001, in her brownstone house in the middle of Manhattan, before she had heard or seen anything she could put a finger on: “the sensation one feels in war, as a matter of fact in combat, when with every pore of your skin you feel the incoming bullet or rocket, and your ears perk up and you scream to those next to you: ‘Down! Get down!’”
Years of experience had primed her for this moment. Her teenage work as a resistance fighter in and around Nazi-occupied Florence, codename “Emilia”, carrying messages and explosives. Reporting from war zones in South America, the Middle East and Vietnam, where a note on her rucksack instructed that her body should be sent to the Italian ambassador “if KIA”. Near-death in the Mexico City massacre of 1968, shot and left lying among heaps of dead beside an “execution wall”. Her waif-like body, with perfect cheekbones and hair sometimes plaited like a schoolgirl's, suggested that she lacked the strength for this sort of life. But she was a tiger.
Anyone who doubted that had only to be interviewed by her. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s she sought out the powerful, collecting such a string of famous pelts that in the end they jostled to be asked. At first she played feminine and demure; then, pouncing and insulting, she would rip out the innards of her victims. She made Henry Kissinger admit that he saw himself as a lone cowboy leading the herd, and drew from Pakistan's Zulfiqar Bhutto such words about India that peace between the two countries was held up for a time. Meeting Ayatollah Khomeini, she appeared barefoot and in a chador; but before long that “medieval rag” was flung boldly off, sending him scuttling away.
Men of this sort, “abusers of power”, both fascinated and repelled her. She dwelled on Yasser Arafat's swollen belly and his red, fleshy lips; she thought Khomeini the most handsome old man she had ever seen. As she talked to Werner von Braun, a former Nazi who was then directing America's space programme, she realised that his sweet-sour smell was the same lemon disinfectant soap used by the Nazis in Florence.
She could always sniff out tyranny, and after that September morning in Manhattan, she knew definitively where it lay. Suddenly she was in the front line again, solid with her adored America against the Muslim enemy. “Duty to her culture” required her to write for hours at a stretch in furious isolation, living on cigarillos and on her nerves, to produce books called “The Rage and the Pride” and “The Force of Reason”, her “weapons of truth”.
The real enemy
It was a strange sort of truth. On every page, legitimate fears for democracy and liberty were laced with nonsense and bile. Moderate Islam, she wrote, did not exist. Islam was “a pool that never purifies”. All Muslims were bent on invading Europe and turning it into a “Eurabia” of veiled women and sharia law. Assimilation was a delusion; they did not want it. Already Miss Fallaci had heard the wailing of imams in the hills of Tuscany, and had seen Somali urine staining the Baptistery in Florence. Soon, she supposed, Muslim men would “shit in the Sistine Chapel”.
Anti-racism groups flew to indict her; defenders of free speech somewhat cautiously embraced her. Right-wing mayors of Italian towns gave her gold medals. Her books sold in the millions, and when she died she was delightedly facing trial for defaming a religion. Although she was an atheist, she had found a “soul-mate” in Pope Benedict XVI, and would have revelled in his unwise words about Islam.
For her, the enemy was always essentially the same: “fascism”, whether in the shape of Mussolini's black-shirts or Islamist suicide-bombers. But tyranny also appeared in another guise. Her real obsession, she admitted, was death.
They had tussled for a long time. Her great love, Alex Panagoulis, a leader of Greek resistance to the colonels, died in 1976 in a car crash possibly rigged by his enemies. She had lost his child in pregnancy. At 16 she chose a writer's life because typed words did not die, like talk, but stayed on the paper. She reported wars to express her hatred for man's mortality.
Her fight against “the Other One”, as she called her cancer, was a war like no other. She forbade her doctors to mention death; they were to talk to her about life. Reduced to taking only fluids, she would drink champagne. Nothing was allowed to diminish her energy for writing, cooking and leaping from her chair with a scream of “Mamma Mia!” at the folly of the world.
Yet her own death was not her chief concern. She mourned the slow death of Western civilisation, its lack of pride and self-esteem, its cowardice before the Muslim “hordes”. If terrorists were prepared to die for Islam, she would have the passion to oppose them. Her words carried the ring of deliberate provocation, challenging the Islamists to put a fatwa on her and raise a sword to behead her. In which case, before the bastards dared, she would toss back her hair, fix them with a glare and declare, in her best Italian snarl, “Fuck you.”
Manmohan to fight terror jointly with Musharraf (and Osama bin Laden and Dawood Ibrahim)
India's invertebrate Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has declared in Havana that he will jointly fight terror with Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf who is directly responsible for planning and carrying out Pakstani Government-sponsored terrorism in India, including the infamous Kargil intrusions of 1999.
Musharraf's Government continues to protect known terrorists like Dawood Ibrahim -- architect of the 1993 Mumbai blasts, Sheikh Omar -- killer of Wall street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl, Maulana Masood Azhar -- founder of Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Muhmmad, and many others. India's demands for extradition of these Pakistani and Pakistani-supported terrorists have been met with ridiculous and flippant steps by Pakistan, like the demand for extradition of Indian politicians like L K Advani on ridiculous charges fabricated by Pakistan.
Pakistan is barely managing to keep up a pretence of co-operation with the US over fighting Islamic terror originating from its soil. According to the latest book written by Musharraf himself, Pakistan joined America's anti-terror coalition only after the US Government threatened to "bomb Pakistan back into the Stone Age" if such co-operation was not extended, in the aftemath of the 9/11 terror attacks on America, at a time when the US President was openly saying "you are either with us or against us".
Since then, Pakistan's record on fighting Islamic terror has been sketchy at best and downright suspicious at worst. Neighbouring Afghanistan has repeatedly accused Pakistan of actively aiding Radical Islamic terrorists fighting the Government of Hamid Karzai. India has continued to provide evidence of the three decade long tradition of Pakistani Islamic terror against India.
Hundreds of Pakistani terrorists have been arrested from inside Pakistani territory by US special forces acting covertly without official authorization from the Pakistani government. Pakistani spy agencies and defence forces have been excluded from close co-operation with US forces after two consecutive narrow escapes by Osama bin Laden in 2002-2003 which were suspected to have been happened due to information leakage through Radical Islamists inside the Pakistani Government, intelligence, and defence hierarchy..
Is Manmohan insane to think that a guy like Musharraf will co-operate with India to fight Pakistan's own terrorists ?
The answer is easy to find out.
Can India make a credible threat to "bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age" like America did ? No. Then of course Pakistan will not co-operate with India to fight its own Islamic terrorists.
Opposition Leader L K Advani is right. If Manmohan is "co-operating" with Musharraf to fight Pakistani Islamic terror, he may as well go all the way and officially include Osama bin Laden and Dawood Ibrahim into his anti-terror team as well.
Hindustan Times reports:
Seeking Pak help to fight terror is ridiculous: Advani
Press Trust of India
Rajkot, September 25, 2006
Deriding the setting up of the joint Indo-Pak mechanism on anti-terror, opposition leader LK Advani on Monday said it was ridiculous for India to seek support of Pakistan to fight terrorism.
Speaking at a function of collective singing of Vande Mataram in Rajkot, Advani said he was "shocked" when he came to know that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced in Havana to form a joint mechanism to fight terrorism with Pakistan.
"This development is like US President George W Bush seeking help of Osama bin Laden to check terrorist activities of Al-Qaeda," Advani remarked.
He said, "...in future, we will hear that Manmohan Singh has sought assistance of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim to catch those behind Mumbai and Malegaon serial blasts".
"Our country is not safe under this government," Advani remarked.
He said that India has to fight Pakistan, which is involved in spreading terror in the country.
The BJP leader alleged that the Centre had compromised on the nation's security, but BJP would not allow it and launch a nationwide campaign if needed.
How Radical Islamic World creates terrorists
From an anonymous contributor:
How the Radical Islamic Countires (like Pakistan, Iran, etc) and Organizations (like Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, PLO, etc) create terrorists:
1. Ban entertainment (movies, music, dance, art), all forms of releasing stress.
2. Kill the sensitivity of a person by regularly killing animals in a gruesome manner (the way "halaal" meat is obtained by cutting goats and cows' throats and have them slowly bleed to death) in front of him/her. Make the person participate in it (++).
3. Hinder free thinking and make people blindly follow a rule book for everything in life (from when to pray to how to treat one's wife to how to run Government and all laws in society). Life from a template.
4. Put restrictions on a lot of harmless things, keeping people perpetually afraid of breaking some religious law or another and place great power in the hands of the clergy and their religious police. This makes religion the most important part of people's lives and incentivizes them to spend great effort on religious studies to become a member of the powerful clergy or their sidekicks. There is much less incentive for people to spend time or effort on science, art and other such non-religious pursuits.
Put 1000 people through the above laws for 10 years, starting from the age of 5. At least 10 of them would become terrorists/criminal/violent. Thus, with a population of about 200 million Muslims living in Pakistan, Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, Liibya, etc combined, they can produce at least 2 million terrorists, at a rate of about 40,000 new hardcore terrorists each year (a conservative estimate obtained by amortizing 2 million over 50 years).
The Civilized World needs to act, and soon.
... Read more !
Pakistani girl raped for going to school
Pakistan is ruled by people following an inhuman evil and Satanic ideology known as Radical Islam (yes Salman Rushdie was right when he wrote "The Satanic Verses").
If left unchecked, this ideology will bring large-scale death and destruction to the rest of the world, and may wipe Civilization as we know it off the face of this planet.
It is high time for people to wake up and see what is going on in the name of thie "religion".
A school-going girl was raped for 12 days for daring to go to school and get educated and on par with men, in violation with what the Koran says she should have done -- remained an uneducated second-class sub-human creature. Yes, the Koran explicitly says "Men are a step above women."
Times of India reports:
Pak girl raped for 'acquiring education'
[16 Sep, 2006 1622hrs ISTIANS ]
ISLAMABAD: After Mukhtaran Mai, a case of Mumtaz Mai has come to light in rural Pakistan, where women become victims of tribal warfare, family feuds or quite simply, male violence.
The News International on Saturday reported the case of one Mumtaz Mai and her daughter, Ghazala Shaheen Bathi, who were abducted, held in captivity and gang-raped for 12 days because daughter Ghazala dared to become educated.
Mukhtaran Mai, the tribal woman gang-raped in June 2002, was freed after the Pakistan Supreme Court intervened in her favour. The case raised protests and concern among civil societies across the world last year.
While Mukhtaran Mai was a victim of a family feud and an act in retaliation to the rape of a girl her brother Shakur was alleged to have committed, the mother-daughter duo earned the wrath of the Mirali tribesmen when it became known that Ghazala had passed her Master's in Education from Bahauddin Zahariya University on Aug 25.
The girl's father Mohammed Hussain, a retired army man belonging to village Chak Sher Khan near Kabirwala in Multan, was also beaten up.
As in Mukhtaran Mai's case, influential people are said to be involved in this case too. The newspaper report repeatedly hinted at the involvement of "a minister of state", but did not name him.
When informed by the villagers, the local police acted after 12 days, only to help the accused.
While three men managed to escape, the local villagers prevented the car carrying the two women from driving away.
It is said that among the three men overpowered the villagers included two bodyguards of the minister.
Kabirwala's police chief Daud Hussain has been quoted as denying the incident. The police reportedly clarified that the two women had run away from their home "on their own".
However, the newspaper said authorities in the local hospital confirmed that the two women had been raped.
After Mukhtaran Mai's case was taken up by human rights organisations last year, Canada offered to grant her citizenship.
Mukhtaran Mai's visit to the US coincided with that of President Pervez Musharraf. Hackled by the media on the issue, an irritated Musharraf condemned women from his country who complained of being raped, only to earn citizenship of other countries.
Mukhtaran Mai remains a Pakistani citizen, involved in social work in Pakistan and using her "celebrity" status to help needy organisations in her country.
Pakistan protecting Osama bin Laden
Everybody knows what is happening. Question is: how long will this be allowed to continue ?
Rediff reports:
Pakistan's the reason why Osama's not caught: Afghan official
September 11, 2006 09:32 IST
Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan and he has not been caught because Pakistan does not allow hot pursuit of terrorists, a senior Afghanistan official has said.
'I think the reason is political constraint in the region. I think there is enough military power and intelligence gathering in the region, but from the very beginning, from the days of Tora Bora, Pakistan has not allowed hot pursuit of terrorists in their territory,' Afghanistan's Ambassador to the United States Said Jawad said in a television interview.
'Having more than 30,000 international forces in Afghanistan and increasingly building the capability of Afghan intelligence forces, we are certain that he [bin Laden] is spending most of his time in Pakistan...' Jawad said.
'He might be able to slip into Afghanistan here and there but he is mainly spending most of his time in Pakistan... If he were in Afghanistan, there's no constraint whatsoever, political, military or intelligence-wise, to go after him, to find him and to bring him to justice,' he said.
Asked where Osama's two top deputies Ayman al Zawahiri and Mullah Omar were, the top Afghan diplomat said: 'There's been very recent reports about the fact that Mullah Omar is in Quetta, Pakistan. Zawahiri, I really don't know exactly, but he is spending a lot of time close to Osama bin Laden.'
'A lot of these people require connectivity to the outside world, which is not available in a cave in Afghanistan. And we also should consider the fact that a lot of the friends and associates of Osama bin Laden were found in major metropolitan centers, not necessary in caves or in the tribal areas, so the search should be expanded.' Jawad said.
Christian fundamentalists teaching superstitious garbage to innocent Indian school-kids
Imagine sending your kid to a school where all the teachers and staff from the Principal down to the doorman are all superstitious religious fanatics with no understanding of the scientific temparament; people looking for the slightest excuse to declare "miracles".
No need to imagine it. It is already happening. Christian fundamentalists are already teaching religious superstitious hogwash, Biblical fairy-tales and similar crap to innocent Indian school-kids.
It is indeed ironic that Indian Hindu parents who steer their kids away from reading the Bhagavad Gita, or Upanishads in order to uphold their "secular" credentials and stay away from excessive dabbling in Hindu heritage (presumably because it has so many evils like "Casteism") see no problems in sending their kids to be indoctrinated with Christian fairy-tales and unscientiific religious dogma, by people representing a culture that practised slavery for centuries destroying the lives of millions of people of Africa and wiped out entire cultures from the continents of North and South America to "spread the message of Jesus Christ".
And now these Christians have the gall to play the "civilized" side and lecture India on the Caste System.
And Indian Hindu parents send their innocent kids to be educated by these suerstitious morons that call themselves "Fathers" and "Mothers".
Note how the news-report (Rediff in this case) talks about the BJP protest in the headline and non-chalantly talks about the superstitious crap being taught to innocent Indian kids by the Christian fundamentalist teachers, as if nothing could be more normal.
All this stems from a misunderstanding of what secularism means. I am secular. That means that I treat people of all religions equally. It does not mean that I must keep quiet when ignorant superstitous Christian fundamentlist morons brain-wash innocent kids of my country with their Bblical unscientific "the world was created by God in six days" fairy-tales and dogmatic "the Chrsitan God is the only God and all others (pagans) are worshipping false Gods who will not be able to save their souls" crap.
The teachers of this school wre teaching innocent Indian school-kids that "Jesus Christ has descended into Mandal's body and is allowing him to perform miracles". Young kids trust teachers. If this is not an example of religious fundamentalists misusing that trust to teach Christian dogma to Hindu kids, then what is ?
This cannot be allowed. Schools are not a place for religious brain-washing of young innocent Indian Hindu kids by evangelist Christian fundamentlists posing as teachers, "Fathers" and "Mothers".
Secularism does not mean accepting garbage. Or accepting misconduct. Religous fundamentslists cannot be allowed to pose as teachers. Superstition and dogma cannot be allowed to be taught in school.
Help me stop this charade being done in the name of Secularism.
Rediff reports:
Lucknow: BJP activists attack convent
Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow | September 10, 2006 21:14 IST
At least 30 or 40 activists of the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party stormed into Lucknow's Loreto Convent school Sunday evening, resorting to vandalism and intimidating helpless nuns living on the campus.
Even though the violence lasted only about 15 minutes, window panes of offices and the school chapel were broken, flower pots were smashed and the activists threatened the nuns with dire consequences. They raised slogans against the 135-year old school for allowing a man to claim he had turned 'divine' as Lord Jesus had 'descended' into his body .
The Association of Catholic Educational Institutions has decided to keep all its schools closed on Monday as a mark of protest against the attack, association secretary Father Paul Rodrigues told mediapersons.
The incident took place in Lucknow protected VIP area, a stone's throw from the official residences of both the Uttar Pradesh Governor and the chief minister.
The attackers carried placards and posters, condemning the school and accused the principal of 'forcing' students to participate in religious rituals, allegedly with the intent of luring them into Christianity � a charge vociferously refuted by the school authorities, students and parents alike.
The nuns, who live on the campus without even a single security personnel, were taken by surprise when a group of 30 or 40 young men carrying BJP fags broke into the locked gates of the school and began damaging the property.
The institution's Sister Superior, Sister Tressia told mediapersons, "Initially I rushed out and appealed to them with folded hands not to indulge in violence, but then some of them attempted to charge at me, so I hurriedly rushed inside, bolted the door and then called up the police."
She said, "They then started smashing the glass panes on doors and windows with wooden rods and stones and also flung our flower-pots on to the window panes of the school chapel. Fortunately the police arrived on the scene following which they ran away and we were spared."
Reacting to controversy over a prayer meeting in which a special invitee of the school created a 'miraculous appearance' of Lord Jesus Christ on September 6, school principal Sister Tressia said, "There was nothing shady about that special assembly."
She said, "It was one of our spiritual assemblies where our aim is to let the children have an experience of God; and here was this man with divine powers, who was brought by a parish priest from West Bengal to provide that experience."
She clarified, "Participation in the assembly was absolutely optional and we had made it clear to all students and teachers that they were free to leave if they so desired."
However, she admitted, 'probably on account of the shock, one or two girls fainted, but they were revived soon and even their parents have no complaint on that count'.
She named the 'divine' person as Nobo Kumar Mandal.
"A rickshaw-puller until about seven years ago, Mandal acquired miraculous healing powers with which he not only cured his own kidney failure, but also thousands of people who visit his center in a rural pocket of Krishnanagar in West Bengal. He came here with Father Sebastian, a well known parish priest from Murshidabad," the Sister Superior disclosed.
"Since he was so widely known for his great powers, we thought our students too could share the experience," she said, while emphasising, "After all ,besides providing formal education and emotional development, our institution's objective is to also promote spiritual development of the students, which we are free to do in our own way. It is not binding on any student to follow our religious preaching."
Earlier in the day, when contacted over his mobile phone, Father Sebastian spoke to this reporter from Murshidabad. "Well, I fail to understand why you all are suspicious," he said.
Describing Mandal as 'divine' and the 'chosen one of the Lord', he said, "Mandal really has miraculous healing powers; you have to see to believe that Lord Jesus actually descends on him to bless those who seek his blessings."
No Freedom of Speech in India
India's Constitution grants Freedom of Speech and Expession as a Fundamental Right. However, the Congress seems to believe that the Freedom applies only as long as nobody says anything against ruling party icons like "Mahatma" Gandhi.
Instead of countering arguments with arguments, the Congress Government Haryana Chief Minister Bhupendra Singh Hooda has decided to use muscle instead to suppress logical arguments.
Hooda's Government has ordered the seizure of every copy of the book exposing flaws in "Mahatma" Gandhi's life and work.
Do you still believe that India does in fact allow Free Speech ? I don't.
Hindustan Times reports:
Haryana to seize anti-Gandhi book
Press Trust of India
Chandigarh, September 8, 2006
The Haryana government has ordered seizure of every copy of a book on Mahatma Gandhi with immediate effect as it has some alleged derogatory references to the father of the nation.
The decision to "forfeit" the book Mahatma Gandhi: A Curse for Bharat, written by Anand Parkash Madan and published in English and Hindi by Vikalp Prakashan was taken after carefully going through it and finding "objectionable and derogatory" remarks about Gandhi, an official spokesman said on Friday.
It was also found that the book "tends to promote feelings of enmity, hatred and ill-will between different communities", he said.
He said the action was taken under Section 95 (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (power to declare publications forfeited and to search warrants for it) and a case would soon be registered against the author.
In the book, the word 'Mahatma' is defaced with a red line cutting right through it to show Madan does not agree with the appellation given to Gandhi by Rabindernath Tagore.
Gandhi had been portrayed as "anti-Hindu" in the book and the government took the decision following some complaints, the spokesman said.
California schools maligning Hinduism and brain-washing kids with illegal anti-Hindu textbooks
Indian Leftists have maligned Hinduism in their anti-Hindu NCERT textbooks for several decades now. Anti-Hindu elements in the US are doing the same, so blatantly thay their anti-Hindu textbooks have been ruled illegal by American courts themselves.
Rediff reports:
Is Hinduism being correctly depicted in the US?
September 05, 2006
Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world. The vastness of the religion adds to the desire to learn more about it. However, there have been instances when Hinduism has been presented in a distorted manner, sometimes intentionally or otherwise out of ignorance.
For instance in the United States, sixth grade textbooks, which presented the debunked Aryan migration theory as fact, misrepresented caste as central to Hinduism and left the impression that Hinduism devalued the role of women, were approved despite having been reviewed.
Though Hindu American Foundation won a lawsuit in California on Monday against the State Board of Education in this regard, justice seemed to be delivered incomplete.
California Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette ruled that the textbook adoption process was 'flawed' and 'illegal,' but withheld an opinion on the violation of the Open Meeting Act, deciding that since the entire process was already 'invalid,' a specific ruling will be redundant.
Marlette also ruled that the "relief" claimed by HAF would be disruptive not only to those affected sixth graders, but every California public school student using any and every textbook adopted under the SBE's unlawful policies.
Do children need to learn such kind of distorted facts? Is Hinduism being correctly depicted in the US?
Ali Akbar's son claims to be Hindu
Ashish Debsharma retuns to the religion of his ancestors. Islamic fanatics will soon try to kill him.
Why ? Because the Koran specifically says that giving up Islam (apostasy) is punishable with death. The Koran also asks all Muslims to kill apostates.
That is why Ashish Debsharma is stressing that his family was never actually converted to Islam. He hopes that Islmaic fanatics will therefore not consider him an apostate in reality and will not come after his life.
Will Dhimmi India be able to protect him from Islamic fanatics ? Probably not. There is no vote bank benefit in doing so, is there ?
Times of India reports:
Ali Akbar's son claims to be Hindu
Priyanka Dasgupta
KOLKATA: Aasish Khan, the son of sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, has embraced Hinduism, sparking off a raging debate and heartache to the 84-year-old father who has told TOI his son was besmirching his illustrious family’s name.
Aasish, who has already changed his surname to Debsharma through affidavit on August 19, claims his family was never really Muslim. "We were originally Brahmins and used the surname Debsharma. My great-grandfather Sadananda Debsharma took the title of Khan, which is not a surname and is used by Hindus and Christians... due to compulsions. We never converted to Islam."
His dad is distraught. In an email to TOI from the US, where Ali Akbar has settled down, he said: "I do not support his (Aasish’s) choice. Unfortunately, many statements made by my son in the newspaper regarding the history of my family are incorrect. My family has been Muslims for many generations, and we will remain Muslims. It is a shame that he is trying to reinvent the history of our family and in turn hurting the past generation of our family."
Aasish's 'reinvention' is that his ancestors were Hindus. He claims his family even prayed to goddesses Kali and Saraswati. He said he was never asked to follow Islamic rituals or offer namaz and his grandfather had given Hindu names to him and his siblings — Dhyanesh, Pranesh and Amaresh.
"Staunch Muslims have opposed my decision," he said. "They did not realise we were never converted to Islam. I would like to make it clear that the only religion our family believes in is music," said the 60-something Aasish.
Ali Akbar Khan, who juggles his classes at Ali Akbar College of Music and three dialysis sessions a week with his rare concerts across the world, is hurt and the music fraternity stunned by Aasish’s claim.
The Ali Akbar family is not an ordinary family — his father Allaudin Khan is the founder of the Maihar gharana and his disciples, including Ravi Shankar, Nikhil Banerjee and Ali Akbar, have dominated the Hindustani classical music world for years.
Another Indian maid beaten up by Bahraini employer
The mistreatment of poor Indian women working as housemaids abroad is getting more and more frequent.
I had posted twice before about Indian women mistreated by employers abroad: the maid who committed suicide in Bahrain and the employer who raped a housemaid for a week in Singapore.
Now again there is a new horrific incident of torture of an Indian women by her Bahraini employer.
These incidents keep happening only because Indians and the Indian government do not take these seriously enough. Countries like Israel and USA go to war over the life of a single citizen. We passively watch our brothers and sisters killed off or brutally attacked. Is this an indication of selfishness, or a harmful by-product of Mohandas Gandhi's excessive emphasis on tolerance and non-violence ?
Anything in excess is bad. We Indians have developed too much tolerance. We must show some intolerance of these kinds of crime, if we want to survive.
India should put severe pressure on Bahrain to extradite the criminals who mistreated Indian citizens there. They must be brought to Justice soon and given a taste of Indian jails. Yes, Manmohan Singh and Sonia Nehru/Maino, please wake up and start paying attention. We are talking to you.
Times of India reports:
Indian maid beaten up by Bahraini sponsor
DUBAI: An Indian housemaid was allegedly beaten up by her Bahraini sponsor and a hospital there had to intervene to prevent the injured woman, who was vomiting blood, from being forcibly discharged.
Lateefa Beewi Maheen, 30, hailing from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, was said to be in a critical but stable condition at Bahrain's Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC), the Gulf Daily News reported.
The Indian housemaid said her Bahraini sponsor abused her repeatedly since she arrived in the kingdom two months back.
"If I tried to take some rest, I was beaten and pushed. In some cases, my head was also hit against the wall," she told the newspaper.
Maheen's sponsor is said to have panicked and sent her with a driver to the hospital.
The Indian housemaid claimed an "Arab man" visited her in the hospital and threatened to "hang" her if she accused her sponsor of any wrongdoing.
Doctors said Maheen suffered severe internal injuries, which caused her to vomit blood several times a day. They also said she is suffering from pain in the abdomen and wrists.
Maheen said she came to Bahrain to boost her family's income because her young son needed expensive medical treatment. According to her, she paid 166 Bahraini Dinar (BD) to an agent to come and work in Bahrain.
"I was promised a salary of BD 40 a month and a few days ago I was paid two months' wages," Maheen added.
Surya charitable and cultural association volunteer K.R. Nair visited Maheen at the hospital and promised to provide assistance.
Indian Embassy officials in Bahrain are aware of the case and are co-coordinating with Bahraini authorities. A formal complaint is to be lodged with the police.
"This is a matter of great concern," said Indian Ambassador to Bahrain, Balkrishna Shetty. "We will take immediate action and ensure all possible help is given to the housemaid," the ambassador said.
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