Monday, December 31, 2007
Happiness for Sale
A sale transaction requires consideration for exchange of products and services. The consideration in buying happiness is your effort. Happiness is on Sale, it is on sale, because the effort required is minimal against the gain. Though a lopsided transaction, the supply is plentiful and does not take away anything from anyone but enrich every one with a heart felt smile.
Remember the last time you helped someone? You got some one up when he or she fell and you were thanked profusely for that act of kindness, do you recall that joy? You were beaming and your fellow workers and friends wanted to know what it was; you humbly shared the small experience.
Do you recall the twinkle in your eyes and wanted to praise those two that made the national news recently? When a man fell on the tract in New York subway, the other man jumped to save his life risking his own. Then a Bangladeshi student stood up against the bullies who beat up the subway passengers who wished Happy Hanukkah to that bully.
Life becomes meaningful and powerful when you do things for others; it is the anecdote against sorrow that surrounds us from time to time. That is the wisdom in Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islam, Jain, Jewish, Native religions, Shinto, Sikh, Wicca, Zoroastrian and other faiths – living for the sake of others, a proven formula for happiness.
Way back in 1978, my Peugeot 504 failed me on a Saudi Freeway to Dhahran, I stood there in 116 degrees heat waving at every vehicle that drove on a full throttle going over 140 MPH. I was dying with thirst and blisters were all over my lips and my face, I looked like some one from the western movies. The drivers, who wanted to stop, could not do so within a walking range. After nearly five hours of eternity, a man finally stopped and drove his Toyota truck the full half mile in reverse. His Burqa Clad wife was with him on the passenger’s side and in the back were a couple of goats and sheep. I was imagining sitting with the goats and started feeling faintly, but he pulled his wife closer to him and asked me to hop in that little Toyota. I was too tired to worry where I was going. He gave me the life giving water and drove.
We barely communicated with my minimal Arabic and his English, we went to his home some where in the outer rim of the town of Abqaiq. His family brought in the tea and other refreshments followed by a huge dinner with several of his friends. He had one of his friends haul off my car and was getting it fixed; the fuel injection vehicles don’t work very well in that kind of heat. I had purchased that Car from Nick Gruev, an Albanian American friend out of Houston.
The Sheikh’s friends came were fixing the Hubbly Bubbly (Huqqa) and passing it between their friends, I was dreading to put that thing in my mouth should it come to me, sure enough it did and reluctantly I pretended puffing it. Around 8 PM, his mechanic friend drove up with my car.
As I was ready to leave, I thanked Shaikh Ahmed Al-Sabah profusely and pulled my wallet to pay, he pushed my hand and said “Aqhi, you are my guest and don’t even think of it.” I pleaded, it was the greatest favor a stranger has done to me and I asked, how I can pay.
He looked at me intently and asked, would you promise me something? In gratitude I said yes, but shuddered what now? He took time and looked at me again and said these life changing words to me “Next time, if you see some one needing help, would you stop and help?” I eagerly said Yes, satisfied; he asked again, are you sure? I gave an emphatic yes, to which he said, “Alhamdu Lillah (praise the lord) that is my reward.
I buy happiness at every nook and corner; it is very satisfying to see other people in their full human form when they give their beautiful smile. A genuine smile is the most beautiful thing on the earth, nothing compares to it.
Every day, you have those opportunities. Make an effort in doing things for others and see how easy it is to be happy.
Here are a few thoughts for you to ponder:
Push yourselves to be prejudice free against people from every meeting, incident, TV shows, and work or news items that you come across.
Find excuses to greet other people and wish them well, don’t worry what they think of you, just do it and see the response and counter response.
Work on bringing humility and fight off every thought and action that gives you the idea that your race, faith, nation, culture, language or life style is superior to others.
Commit to yourselves that your words and actions do not flare up conflicts, but mitigate them.
Commit yourselves that you are going to do your share of living for others, for starters one hour a week will enrich you with joy.
It does not take any money; it is your goodwill that brings you the joy. It is yours to keep and is on sale.
Best wishes for 2008
CommentstoMike@Gmail.com
© MIKE GHOUSE 2007- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker, Writer and a Moderator. He is president of the Foundation for Pluralism and is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing Pluralism, politics, Islam, Religion and civic issues. He is the founding president of World Muslim Congress with a simple theme: Good for Muslims and good for the world. His comments, news analysis, opinions and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed at his personal website www.MikeGhouse.net. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com or (214) 325-1916
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Zoroastrians big in spirit
Small in number but big in spirit,
Zoroastrians lay claim as the original greens
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/zoroastrians-small-in-number-but-big-in-spirit/2007/12/26/1198345081522.html
Barney Zwartz
December 27, 2007
IT IS one of the world's oldest major religions, and certainly the smallest, but according to its followers its impeccable "green" credentials make it the ideal religion for the 21st century.
About 300 young Zoroastrians — followers of the prophet Spitama Zarathushtra, who died about 1200BC — gather in Ballarat tomorrow for the fourth world youth congress, titled Back to the Future.
Zarathushtra's call to look after the environment 3200 years ago makes him the world's first ecologically conscious prophet, Zoroastrians say.
According to Bombay-based teacher Khojeste Mistree, Zoroastrians believe they are on earth to maximise general happiness and minimise pain by spreading harmony in the environment.
"This is what modern man calls ecology. We are life-affirming and are custodians of creation. For example, we celebrate the birthday of the waters (one of the religion's seven "creations")," Mr Mistree said in Melbourne yesterday.
"We are careful with water because it is the great purifier of the world. We worship wisdom, which is again very modern in a knowledge-based society."
Young delegates are coming from India, Iran, England, Pakistan, Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, the United States, New Zealand and around Australia. According to organiser Shirin Mistry, the week-long congress brings the Zoroastrian diaspora together to learn about their faith and community, have fun and see a slice of Australia.
Mrs Mistry said the congress was in Melbourne simply because her son, Shiraz, was asked to organise it at the last congress in Pune, India, in 2003. It has been partly funded by wealthy donors.
Today there are only 125,000 Zoroastrians worldwide, with about 3000 in Australia. Mr Mistree admits there is something of an ulterior motive in bringing together young people from such a small community.
"They become boyfriends and girlfriends, and we hope they will marry. We have to keep tabs on everyone: three people living in Oslo, seven in Mexico, two in Greenland."
Zoroastrianism dominated the area around Iran and Iraq for nearly 1000 years before it was displaced by Muslim invaders. Some followers fled to India, now its second stronghold, about AD936, and are known as Parsis.
Cyrus the Great, king of the Medes and Persians who overthrew the Babylonian empire in 539BC, was a Zoroastrian. He freed the exiled Jews to return to Jerusalem, and his edict on human rights, rediscovered in 1879, helped shape the UN declaration nearly 2500 years later. The religion is thought to have influenced Judaism and, through it, Christianity and Islam.
It had a purely oral tradition until about AD500, when the sacred poetry was committed to writing, and the religion was threatened when Alexander the Great conquered Persia and massacred Zoroastrian priests.
"The priests are living textbooks," Mrs Mistry said. "We still call Alexander the accursed, not the great. If a child won't go to sleep, the mother will say 'Alexander is coming to get you'."
Zoroastrianism was known in the ancient world partly for how it disposed of the dead. Believing that fire and earth are sacred and would be contaminated by corpses, followers placed the bodies on circular towers open to the sky, exposing them to the weather and carrion birds.
Zoroastrians lay claim as the original greens
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/zoroastrians-small-in-number-but-big-in-spirit/2007/12/26/1198345081522.html
Barney Zwartz
December 27, 2007
IT IS one of the world's oldest major religions, and certainly the smallest, but according to its followers its impeccable "green" credentials make it the ideal religion for the 21st century.
About 300 young Zoroastrians — followers of the prophet Spitama Zarathushtra, who died about 1200BC — gather in Ballarat tomorrow for the fourth world youth congress, titled Back to the Future.
Zarathushtra's call to look after the environment 3200 years ago makes him the world's first ecologically conscious prophet, Zoroastrians say.
According to Bombay-based teacher Khojeste Mistree, Zoroastrians believe they are on earth to maximise general happiness and minimise pain by spreading harmony in the environment.
"This is what modern man calls ecology. We are life-affirming and are custodians of creation. For example, we celebrate the birthday of the waters (one of the religion's seven "creations")," Mr Mistree said in Melbourne yesterday.
"We are careful with water because it is the great purifier of the world. We worship wisdom, which is again very modern in a knowledge-based society."
Young delegates are coming from India, Iran, England, Pakistan, Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, the United States, New Zealand and around Australia. According to organiser Shirin Mistry, the week-long congress brings the Zoroastrian diaspora together to learn about their faith and community, have fun and see a slice of Australia.
Mrs Mistry said the congress was in Melbourne simply because her son, Shiraz, was asked to organise it at the last congress in Pune, India, in 2003. It has been partly funded by wealthy donors.
Today there are only 125,000 Zoroastrians worldwide, with about 3000 in Australia. Mr Mistree admits there is something of an ulterior motive in bringing together young people from such a small community.
"They become boyfriends and girlfriends, and we hope they will marry. We have to keep tabs on everyone: three people living in Oslo, seven in Mexico, two in Greenland."
Zoroastrianism dominated the area around Iran and Iraq for nearly 1000 years before it was displaced by Muslim invaders. Some followers fled to India, now its second stronghold, about AD936, and are known as Parsis.
Cyrus the Great, king of the Medes and Persians who overthrew the Babylonian empire in 539BC, was a Zoroastrian. He freed the exiled Jews to return to Jerusalem, and his edict on human rights, rediscovered in 1879, helped shape the UN declaration nearly 2500 years later. The religion is thought to have influenced Judaism and, through it, Christianity and Islam.
It had a purely oral tradition until about AD500, when the sacred poetry was committed to writing, and the religion was threatened when Alexander the Great conquered Persia and massacred Zoroastrian priests.
"The priests are living textbooks," Mrs Mistry said. "We still call Alexander the accursed, not the great. If a child won't go to sleep, the mother will say 'Alexander is coming to get you'."
Zoroastrianism was known in the ancient world partly for how it disposed of the dead. Believing that fire and earth are sacred and would be contaminated by corpses, followers placed the bodies on circular towers open to the sky, exposing them to the weather and carrion birds.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Religious conflict in India
Religious conflict in Orissa, India
Mike Ghouse, December 26, 2007
Mike Ghouse, December 26, 2007
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Four major towns in the state of Orissa, India are under a curfew to check the communal tensions between the Christian and Hindu communities. Eleven Churches have been razed to ground following a reported attack on Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a political party leader. Shamefully this is a normal thing in India and it needs to be stopped before it escalates.
Religion is not the cause of the problems of the world. Religion emerged as a way to bring peace to an individual and what surrounds him (her). Most people get it and some don't. Those who get it, go about living their day to day life, where as those who don’t get it, resort to violence, using the very name of the religion that is to make them better humans.
Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, an individual and a leader, did not want to see any one to convert from Hinduism to other faiths, this happens on the eve of Christmas when Christians were in a celebratory mood.
Saraswati is one of those individual who did not get his religion. He was indeed motivated by fear that his people may switch alliances and cross over to the other group he perceived to be his enemies. The animal instinct within him wanted to pounce on any one who became an attractive nuisance to his people. That is the kind of fear taught in some of the centers in India and the only way they can reign in is to harass, growl and frighten the others, and certainly not treating others as equals provided in the nations constitution. One needs to grow up and let people eat, dress, and believe what they want without any fear.
The individuals who perhaps threatened or attacked him were not defending Christianity; they were simply warding off the Tiger's roar.
The gang who burnt the Churches was not inspired by Hinduism either, they were just ugly men who had nothing else do to, and were used by the KKK like political parties of India such as VHP, Bajrang Dal and others (nothing to do with Hinduism) to frighten other people to allay their own fears.
The best possible solution to put an end to the rogue elements is to rope in the individuals who were the causers of the disturbance and peace of the community, and punish them to the limits of the law.
I urge the public and the government to refrain from giving a religious label to these miscreants. By giving a label, we are slapping other fellow religionist who had nothing to do with this chaos and shying away from putting an end to this.
Hit the target boldly and not the periphery.
Religion is not the cause of the problems of the world. Religion emerged as a way to bring peace to an individual and what surrounds him (her). Most people get it and some don't. Those who get it, go about living their day to day life, where as those who don’t get it, resort to violence, using the very name of the religion that is to make them better humans.
Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, an individual and a leader, did not want to see any one to convert from Hinduism to other faiths, this happens on the eve of Christmas when Christians were in a celebratory mood.
Saraswati is one of those individual who did not get his religion. He was indeed motivated by fear that his people may switch alliances and cross over to the other group he perceived to be his enemies. The animal instinct within him wanted to pounce on any one who became an attractive nuisance to his people. That is the kind of fear taught in some of the centers in India and the only way they can reign in is to harass, growl and frighten the others, and certainly not treating others as equals provided in the nations constitution. One needs to grow up and let people eat, dress, and believe what they want without any fear.
The individuals who perhaps threatened or attacked him were not defending Christianity; they were simply warding off the Tiger's roar.
The gang who burnt the Churches was not inspired by Hinduism either, they were just ugly men who had nothing else do to, and were used by the KKK like political parties of India such as VHP, Bajrang Dal and others (nothing to do with Hinduism) to frighten other people to allay their own fears.
The best possible solution to put an end to the rogue elements is to rope in the individuals who were the causers of the disturbance and peace of the community, and punish them to the limits of the law.
I urge the public and the government to refrain from giving a religious label to these miscreants. By giving a label, we are slapping other fellow religionist who had nothing to do with this chaos and shying away from putting an end to this.
Hit the target boldly and not the periphery.
Reference: Laser Barking at Terrorists - http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2007/05/laser-barking-at-terrorists.html
To read comments: http://www.mikeghouse.net/Articles/Religious-violence-in-Orissa-India.asp
Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker, Writer and a Moderator. He is president of the Foundation for Pluralism and is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing Pluralism, politics, Islam, Religion and civic issues. He is the founding president of World Muslim Congress with a simple theme: Good for Muslims and good for the world. His comments, news analysis, opinions and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed at his personal website www.MikeGhouse.net. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com or (214) 325-1916
Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker, Writer and a Moderator. He is president of the Foundation for Pluralism and is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing Pluralism, politics, Islam, Religion and civic issues. He is the founding president of World Muslim Congress with a simple theme: Good for Muslims and good for the world. His comments, news analysis, opinions and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed at his personal website www.MikeGhouse.net. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com or (214) 325-1916
Hope for Pakistan
Hope for Pakistan
Mike Ghouse, December 27, 2007
Mike Ghouse, December 27, 2007
Much has been written about Benazir Bhutto, it is a severe blow to democracy in Pakistan.
She threatened the extremists, a dare move perhaps calculated to win the support of majority of moderates in Pakistan who want to live a normal life. They got to her before she could get them.
It was the battle of wills. She played the game boldly but undiplomatically. She had every thing to lose, whereas the extremists did not. Life did not mean much to them, it was not a good equation.
Now, is the time and the moral responsibility of the moderate majority to stand up, whether Ms. Bhutto would have made it or not is not the question, but she sacrificed her life to bring democracy back to her people. If they do not, those few extremists will bulldoze them, one leader at a time. Then it would be too late to wish otherwise.
The ‘Bush-man” Musharraf fell prey to the greed of power. His dreams of making Pakistan a moderate democratic republic simply vanished before the hunger for power.
Bhutto’s death gives ample reason to Musharraf to stay put. I will not be surprised to hear “I told you so”, “You did not understand my people” kind of rhetoric and assert “Pakistani people prefer to have the military rule” and “I am the one.” Pakistani people deserve their own government, and they are inherently democratic in their disposition.
At this time, the best course for the United States to take is not to rock the boat. Let the general have some breathing room, and listen to him and to the public without making aggressive self serving suggestions. Any criticism of his government may build public resentment and amounts to meddling in their affairs.
Stability of Pakistan is important to her people and people in the Subcontinent. Let Pakistan recover from this severe blow to their democratic process, and make sure there is a genuine welcome of our help, and offer it unconditionally.
Democracy is not a ‘ready made’ suit to fit in the moment you wear it. It is a process like planting the seeds, watching them germinate, checking for moisture, soil, sun and air, and caring it from bugs, fungal diseases and then protecting it from the birds. Then comes fertilizing, watering, pruning and chasing the birds or the monkeys part, it is a full blown process. You have nourish it and over a period of twenty years, it will be tree enough to serve the purpose for which it was gown; Shade.
One has to start breathing, drinking, sleeping and living democracy to fully realize its values. It took us two centuries to be one of the most mature democracies and we need to give others at least a generation and not order it to happen on our President’s watch.
Fundos (Fundamentalists) are a threat to the peaceful working of their society. They want others to believe and listen to them, without giving the other party the very same right. As citizens of the world, we need to put politics aside and at least try roping them into a dialogue. Looking back, had our administration not emboldened her with the confrontational path, she probably would have trekked the diplomatic path.
To understand the vibrancy of Pakistani populace, one must watch the Pakistan forums and talk shows- such as the much talked about “who wants to be the Prime Minister”. It is weeks of debate, give and take punches, and absorbing and living the values of inclusiveness in that society. The extremists also listen and watch the slow seeping in of democratic norms. It is an anecdote to terrorism.
Steven Bochco’s “LA Law” truly represented American mind, the audience was made to take different sides as the show moved forward and enabled the public to see how to deal with different social and cultural issues of the society. If the American entrepreneurs can fund such shows around the globe where people can think and ponder on both sides of the issue, we can see seeds of democracy germinating on the planet earth.
Pakistan is ripe for democracy; a majority of her people believes in it. We cannot “Bush out terrorism” with bombs, we can certainly erase it through dialogue, education and patience. We need a 20 year plan to change a whole new generation into thinking, believing, seeing, breathing and living democracy in their day to day life. It will take a generation to bring it about a sustainable democracy.
Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker, Writer and a Moderator. He is president of the Foundation for Pluralism and is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing Pluralism, politics, Islam, Religion and civic issues. He is the founding president of World Muslim Congress with a simple theme: Good for Muslims and good for the world. His comments, news analysis, opinions and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed at his personal website www.MikeGhouse.net. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com or (214) 325-1916
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Orissa : Religious conflict
Religious conflict in Orissa, India
Mike Ghouse, December 26, 2007
Mike Ghouse, December 26, 2007
Four major towns in the state of Orissa, India are under a curfew to check the communal tensions between the Christian and Hindu communities. Eleven Churches have been razed to ground following a reported attack on Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a political party leader. Shamefully this is a normal thing in India and it needs to be stopped before it escalates.
Religion is not the cause of the problems of the world. Religion emerged as a way to bring peace to an individual and what surrounds him (her). Most people get it and some don't. Those who get it, go about living their day to day life, where as those who don’t get it, resort to violence, using the very name of the religion that is to make them better humans.
Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, an individual and a leader, did not want to see any one to convert from Hinduism to other faiths, this happens on the eve of Christmas when Christians were in a celebratory mood.
Saraswati is one of those individual who did not get his religion. He was indeed motivated by fear that his people may switch alliances and cross over to the other group he perceived to be his enemies. The animal instinct within him wanted to pounce on any one who became an attractive nuisance to his people. That is the kind of fear taught in some of the centers in India and the only way they can reign in is to harass, growl and frighten the others, and certainly not treating others as equals provided in the nations constitution. One needs to grow up and let people eat, dress, and believe what they want without any fear.
The individuals who perhaps threatened or attacked him were not defending Christianity; they were simply warding off the Tiger's roar.
The gang who burnt the Churches was not inspired by Hinduism either, they were just ugly men who had nothing else do to, and were used by the KKK like political parties of India such as VHP, Bajrang Dal and others (nothing to do with Hinduism) to frighten other people to allay their own fears.
The best possible solution to put an end to the rogue elements is to rope in the individuals who were the causers of the disturbance and peace of the community, and punish them to the limits of the law.
I urge the public and the government to refrain from giving a religious label to these miscreants. By giving a label, we are slapping other fellow religionist who had nothing to do with this chaos and shying away from putting an end to this.
Hit the target boldly and not the periphery.
Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker and a Writer. He is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing interfaith, political, religious and civic issues. His comments, news analysis and columns can be found at his personal website www.MikeGhouse.net. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Pluralism – faith, nation
PLURALISM RELIGIOUS & POLITICAL
Four Good pieces on pluralism. Pluralism is simply developing an inclusive attitude towards fellow beings, religions, cultures, political parties...
Professor Nanji Speaks on Pluralism and its Contents
Drawing upon two parables in the Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’ (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity), Professor Nanji shared the group’s approach to social organisation. In the first story, a King, in order to educate his sons, creates a palace.The palace is adorned with various branches of knowledge available at that time - on the ceiling were representations of the cosmological and the astronomical sciences, on the four walls the different sciences, and in the courtyard the geography of the earth. Religion, i.e. din, in this model appeared as one dimension in the make-up of the world and a contributor to good governance, but was not necessarily perceived as an overarching dominant realm in society. It was, in fact, related to the other dimensions and informed them.
Who were the Indian Prophets?
If we can look at the religions from a point of view of distilled wisdom and think about how organizations function, invariably we come to the point that when anarchy prevails some one in the group speaks up and makes sense, and a consensus is built to move forward. As far as I know in both Bhagvad Gita and Qur'aan, the wisdom expressed is that when there is adharma - or people are not being righteous, then God says, some one will appear from among them to fix the problem and to every nation, every tribe God has sent messengers (shepherds?) to bring the message of goodness. It is not a surprise that the same wisdom sprouts in every corner of the world, whether connected or not.
Zimbabwe: Unity - Key Tenet of National Values
It is a good piece on pluralistic governance. Here are a few abstracts.
Zimbabwe is fortunate that from its birth in 1980 its Constitution has underscored the importance of political pluralism. However, it is abuse of a nation to exploit the democratic spirit to undermine national values and politically mislead and divide the nation. Political pluralism in the context of national values merely means differences in political approach to governance and not in national values.
The reason behind this is that politics organises the nation, and thus manages the economy by creating an enabling environment for the economy to prosper. The economy has its own dialectics; for economic production to take place the various industrial sectors have to satisfy labour, for without its satisfaction there is no dedication to work and consequently no meaningful production. It implies therefore that in order to achieve national harmony, tranquility and development, all the nation's departments should unite and work in sync.
The awareness by every individual member about the common characteristics (common ancestry as Africans, our clearly defined territory and importantly our common historical experiences -- especially of nearly a century of racially-rooted colonial oppression and our revolutionary resolve to challenge it and create an independent state) should generate the will to unite and work together for the sake of the nation. So when individual members, classes, ethnic groups, organisations, institutions, etc, work in antagonism, it implies that the mutual awareness and indeed the affirmation of these ties would have been abandoned and national unity crumbles.
Gujarat Elections 2007 :: Congratulations to Modi
As my commitment to pluralism gets stroNger every day, in the words of Ray Bradberry, all sorts of things happen, providence moves in and paves the way.The Gujarat Election and the victory of Modi has been a very patient process to me in the last few days. The haunting question remains, when will we shed the barriers and look to people as humans? What animal lives in us that we can shamelessly rejoice violating other people's rights? The answers have not been easy.
We have got to move forward with a corrective and comprehensive policy. Forgiving was the best possible option available to bring some sense back to the community. It is written below
Full articles below
Mike Ghouse
http://www.mikeghouse.net/
http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/
http://www.worldmuslimcongress.com/
http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=109142
Professor Nanji Speaks on Pluralism and its Contents
December 2007
The Director of the Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS), Professor Azim Nanji, spoke on ‘Pluralism and its contents’ at a seminar on 23 November 2007 at Aga Khan University’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC). The seminar was the last in the series ‘Possibility of Pluralism’, which discussed pluralism and its specific relevance to Muslim societies.
Other speakers in the last seminar included Professor Rajeev Bhargava, Senior Fellow and Director of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies; Louis Greenspan, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at McMaster University in Ontario and Professor Abdou Filali-Ansary, Director of AKU-ISMC.
In his talk, Professor Nanji provided an example of a group of scholars in tenth century Basra who, in his view, wrote about issues related to plurality of religious interpretations in their own context. The group, known as Ikhwan al-Safa’ (Brethren of Purity), had written a series of 52 epistles in which they explored arguments about what ought to be the foundations of a society that took knowledge seriously. He framed the question the Ikwan were engaging with as: “If a society is to start from the premise that knowledge should be a foundation, what should be the form of that knowledge?” Further, he noted that the group was also “interested in the fact that the Muslim world in the 10th century had become very cosmopolitan, after three centuries of expansion and growth and conversion.”
Drawing upon two parables in the Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’ (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity), Professor Nanji shared the group’s approach to social organisation. In the first story, a King, in order to educate his sons, creates a palace.The palace is adorned with various branches of knowledge available at that time - on the ceiling were representations of the cosmological and the astronomical sciences, on the four walls the different sciences, and in the courtyard the geography of the earth. Religion, i.e. din, in this model appeared as one dimension in the make-up of the world and a contributor to good governance, but was not necessarily perceived as an overarching dominant realm in society. It was, in fact, related to the other dimensions and informed them.
Professor Nanji referred to another story in the Rasa’il, which explored the problem of human existence in a diverse habitat that humans shared with other creatures. In this account, which occurred in the form of a debate between men and animals, the exchange involved each non-human species providing a case as to why humans should not be as privileged as they ordinarily were. Although humans were found guilty of many things, they were eventually recognised worthy of their position because of their two unique qualities: capabilities of self reflection and self-correction. In Professor Nanji’s view, through this story, the Ikhwan suggested that human beings must recognise that they share the planet with others and are accountable for the way in which they share the resources of the world, but also how they interact with other beings for the good of all.
Professor Nanji concluded by stressing the importance of creatively drawing upon Muslim, as well as human heritage in general, to find ways in which issues of human organisations have been approached. Some of these approaches, he believed, may illuminate and aid in resolving our current challenges. The appropriation of the Ikhwan, he suggested, was one example and must be seen as an invitation to continue with this process.
Who were the Indian Prophets?
Posted:
Could it be that Sri Ram, Sri Krishna, Gautama Buddha, Zoroaster and Confucius were Prophets of God? This is not a new question and has been asked many times before. As I argue further that while we cannot proclaim strictly based on the Quran and Hadees (as they have not been mentioned by name) yet based on these very sources we tend to move towards possibly accepting them as such.
There is a well-known Hadees that there have been 1,24,000 Prophets sent by God in the history of mankind. But in the Quran only 25 have been mentioned by name. When this is joined with the Quranic verse that ???to every nation We have sent Messengers" various interesting corollaries emerge. But before that let us go through a few verses of the Quran on this topic.
And there is a Guide for every people (13:8)
There is not a people to whom a warner has not been sent (35:25)
We sent not an apostle except (to teach) in the language of his (own) people, in order to make (things) clear to them. (14:4)
And, indeed We have sent Messengers before you; of some of them We have related to you their story and of some We have not related to you their story (40:78)
The Messenger believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, as do the men of faith. Each one (of them) believes in God, His angels, His books, and His apostles. "We make no distinction (they say) between one and another of His apostles. ( 2:285)
It is very clear from these that wherever there was human habitation Prophets were sent. Further it is very clear that obviously they spoke in the language of the people to whom they were sent. It is also clear that only a few have been told in the Quran and others have not been mentioned. It is but natural that the All Merciful God would endow every section of humanity with His Guidance.
The above understanding has been a classical understanding though not that well understood by the common people. The 25 Prophets mentioned by name in the Quran were all from the region of Middle East where the initial audience of Quran was present. They have been mentioned as part of moral stories that are around them in the Quran since the people there already had heard about many of these Prophets. But at the same time the Quran repeatedly mentioned that these are only some of the Prophets.
So what about the rest of the world? We know that in the Indian subcontinent and in China each have had around 20% of the human population for quite some time. Similarly there has been human habitation in the Far East, Africa, in Australia (through the aborogines), South America (Mayan and Incatha civilization), native Indians of North America, the ancient Romans and so on. Going by the Quranic verses it is quite apparent that Prophets of God would have been sent to all of these places. (See the last section of this post about the human journey through the ages as understood by the genographic project)
Again a Prophet appearing in India would have spoken Sanskrit, Pali, Bahmi, Telugu, Tamil and so on. In China he would have spoken Chinese. In Africa Swahili, Zulu, Malagasy, etc. In Korea or Japan it would have been Korean or Japanese and so on and so forth. The stupendous variety of the human disposition and celebration of the same is at various places in the Quran. The below verse clearly states that a multi-cultural world is a part of God???s plan.??
"O people! Behold, We have created you from a male and a female and have made you into nations and tribes to that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is all-knowing, all-aware." (49:13)
Similarly though there are only four divine books that have been mentioned by name in the Quran -Bible, Torah, Zuboor and Quran - there is a Hadees that there have been around 110 divine books in the history of mankind. The same point is corroborated by these Quranic verses??
Say: "We believe in God, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) prophets from their Lord: We make no difference between one and another of them: And we bow to God (in Islam)." (2:136)
Without doubt it is (announced) in the mystic books of former peoples. (26:196)
???For each period is a book (revealed). (13:38)
Based on all this understanding, from the Islamic viewpoint, there is absolutely no doubt that many Prophets came to India and some would have had books assigned to them. The point of contention can never be that whether any Prophets came to India. The point is only that who those Prophets were.
In a place like the Indian subcontinent, which has had around 20% of the world population for quite some time, there would definitely had been many Prophets. If there are 1,24,000 Prophets throughout history then definitely there would had been hundreds in the Indian subcontinent alone. The Hadees citing the number of Prophets is sometimes mentioned to be relatively weak but there is another Hadees in which the Prophet said that the club of Messengers is like a splendid palace. The palace was completely ready with only one brick missing and he came as the last brick which completed the palace. The analogy of the Prophet to the club of Messengers to a splendid palace is pretty apt as a palace would need thousands of brick to stand instead of just a handful.
Maulana Sayyid Sulaiman Nadwi, in his book Seeratun Nabi, wrote ???According to the teachings of the Prophet, it is necessary to believe that in countries such as China, Iran or India there have appeared Prophets before the advent of Prophet Muhammad. No Muslim can deny to the people in these lands, the truth of the faiths, ascribed to the mentors venerated by them" (emphasis mine). Shah Waliullah, the noted theologian from the subcontinent, had the opinion that the Quranic reference to the Sabaeen community was in fact a reference to the Hindus of Aryan origin.?? Also many Indian ulama in the past have accepted Hindus as the ???People of the Book???.
I am making an attempt to see the possible Prophethood of highly venerated figures in Hinduism. Some Muslims may ask how does it matter since by the logic of progressive revelation we are anyway following Islam and supersede the earlier revelations. The point is that whatever one may personally believe there is another point in the Quran where God says that ??? make no distinction between one and another of His apostles???. So whatever one may believe in from the Islamic perspective, it becomes important that we take care to refer the possible Prophets with respect and understand that the diversity of religious traditions around the world would have had divine origins.
This is important in having a better understanding, inter-faith dialogue and tolerant and respectful coexistence with various people across the globe. We do not agree on many things about Hazrat Isa (Jesus Christ) but we give him the highest level of respect. Similarly in the case of Hazrat Musa (Moses) we do not agree with the Jews on many things yet we accord him the highest respect. This facilitates relationship and co-existence with divergent religious viewpoints. Even if we disagree with others yet we respectfully agree to disagree.
Based on this if we try to understand the different religious traditions it is important to deconstruct a few things. We need to go beyond our fixation on languages and move towards a deeper meaning.
The classical Islamic understanding is that Islam was not ???founded" by Prophet Muhammad but instead revived by him for the last time with a new Law. In fact we believe that he proclaimed the Primordial Religion back out of the moral confusion that had crept everywhere. We believe that all the Prophets preached Islam and the followers were Muslim. There are two words here that need to be looked into. ???Islam" and ???Muslim". Both are Arabic words. ???Islam" means ???submission??? or ???peace??? and ???Muslim" means ???one who submits???. But now what would the name of this Primordial Religion had been when a Prophet was preaching in India or China or Africa or Korea? Not ???Islam" because that is the Arabic word and the Quran itself says that the Prophets preached in the language of the people. There should be some corresponding words in those languages.
Similarly as I have earlier argued, the name of God would not be Allah as that name of the Almighty was prevalent in the Middle East alone. He would be called by other names in the various languages that proclaim His Omnipotence and Beauty.
Prophet Muhammad said ???I came to clarify morality??? and the Quran asks him ???Say: ???I am no bringer of new-fangled doctrine among the apostles???" (46:9). Both point to the fact that the Prophet came to revive the same Primordial Religion but with a new Law.
With this understanding I make some attempts to try to see who could possibly had been the Prophets in India. My disclaimer is that I am just putting forward some observations for further thought. One of the Hadees of the Prophet is that there are three signs of Prophets; first they worked as shepherds in their childhood, second that they married (with perhaps the only exception of Jesus Christ/Hazrat Isa) and third that they used perfume. Their working as shepherds during their childhood was God???s way of building leadership capabilities for their later life role.
One of the names that come up immediately is of Sri Krishna. From the Hindu traditions we know that he worked as a shepherd where he would take care of the buffaloes. We also know that he had various marriages. On the third point I am not aware. Over and above this we know that there is the Holy Book of Hindus, the Bhagwat Gita that is linked to him. One may say that the Hindus consider him to be God incarnate so how could he be a Prophet. That point from the Muslim point of view does not take away anything as the Christians have a similar belief about Jesus Christ and yet we consider him as a Prophet and accord him the highest respect.
So is it that what I stated above really a new thought? Not exactly. When I was a kid, I heard a speech of the world renowned Nadwi Islamic scholar and a Padma Vibhushan awardee, Maulana Ali Miyan, in which he mentioned that Sri Krishna and Sri Ramchandra could have been Prophets of God but we cannot say for sure as they are not mentioned by name in the Quran but we should take their names with respect and there is a good possibility that they actually were Prophets.
Shaykh Faraz Rabbani, a Sunni Path scholar, wrote in the context of the possible prophethood of Sri Krishna, Gautam Buddha and Confucius ???It is very probable that many of the great religious figures of other traditions were true prophets". Mazhar Jan-i-Jana, an eighteenth century theologian and mystic, regarded both Sri Krishna and Sri Ram as Prophets of God and Vedas as divinely inspired. The same we can say of Maulana Hasrat Mohani???s thoughts (who was a Deobandi scholar and a member of India???s constituent assembly) whose annual Haj pilgrimage never completed until he visited Barsana in Brinda Ban for Radha???s darshan. He wrote various poetries in praise of Sri Krishna???s childhood. Also some ulama in the famous Firangi Mahal of Lucknow held Sri Krishna in great respect.
I found a Hadees but I am not sure of its authenticity, as I could not relate it to a well-known collection of Hadees. It claims that Prophet Muhammad said ???Kanna filhindhi nabiyyun asvadhul lavni ismuhoo Kahina" meaning ???A Prophet appeared in India. He was black in complexion. His name was Kahina". This is reported to be mentioned in the book 'Firdowsul Akbar' by Hazrat Thylami. If this is true, which I could not find a way of ascertaining, it quite clearly mentions about Sri Krishna who had a dark complexion and was in his childhood lovingly called kanha.
Similarly there would have been many more such personalities throughout the Indian landscape that will give similar indications. I read one paper, which argued that Prophet Nuh (Noah) was a Prophet in India. It is interesting to note here the similarity of his with Manu mentioned in Hindu traditions. The descriptions of the rain and the Great Flood described for Manu and Prophet Nuh are strikingly similar in their details. As so is the similarity in the names Nuh and Manu.
Some Muslim scholars have been of the view that the person mentioned as Dhul' Kifl in the Quran is actually a reference to Gautam Buddha as the word means 'of Kifl' and since the phonetic sound 'pa' is not part of Arabic language it is actually a reference to 'of Kapil' which is the shortened form of Kapilvastu. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was one of the prominent scholars who was of this view and he so mentioned in his Quranic commentary Tarjiman ul-Quran. Similarly many scholars have given reasons as to why Gautam Buddha's teaching??focussed on??personal behaviour instead of focussing on God.??
There is another name that I have often found linked together which again I am not sure of but just mentioning as something that I observed but I dont find more basis to it. It is the mention of Brahma with Abraham or Ibrahim. The more striking part is that Sri Brahma???s wife is Saraswati and Prophet Ibrahim???s wife was Sarah. If you look for the name Saraswati you would find that it is actually the join of Saras and wati where wati means woman. Though we know that Hazrat Ibrahim lived in the Middle East yet I mention here something which I observed striking.
I believe many of these thoughts that have been explored in quite detail in the past history of our land need to be highlighted to increase our understandings of each other. Islam has often been accused of not respecting diversity. Is the concept of plurality really alien to Islam? I leave with a few verses of the Quran as some food for thought. These are the normative verses of the Quran on plurality which are ignored by the extremists and the critics who both pick up very contextual and specific verses from the Quran and make an offensive attempt to use them in a normative discourse. I can hardly think of a text more than a millennium old, which would be so liberal in this thought at a time when the thought of racial supremacy was the norm.
Mankind was one single nation, and God sent messengers with glad tidings and warnings (2:213)
Unto every one of you We have appointed a [different] law and way of life. And if God had so willed, He could surely have made you all one single community: but [He willed it otherwise] in order to test you by means of what He has vouchsafed unto you. [Vie], then, with one another in doing good works. Unto God you all must return; and then He will make you truly understand all that on which you were wont to differ. (5:48)
If it had been your Lord's will, they all would have believed - all who are on earth. Will you, then, compel the people, against their will, to believe? (10:99)
For had God so willed, He could surely have made you all one single community; however, He lets go astray that wills [to go astray], and guides aright him that wills [to be guided]; and you will surely be called to account for all that you ever did! (16:93)
And had thy Sustainer so willed, He could surely have made all humanity one single community: but [he willed it otherwise, and so] they continue to hold divergent views. (11:118)
And do not abuse those whom they call upon besides God, lest exceeding the limits they should abuse God out of ignorance. Thus have We made fair seeming to every people their deeds; then to their Lord shall be their return, so He will inform them of what they did. (6:108)
1,24,000 Messengers - Making sense of the number
If we really believe that Reason and Revelation take us to the Ultimate Truth together then this rejoinder may help us further.
The human genographic project which is tracking the genetic footprint of human migration through history has thrown up some very interesting results. It shows that the humans lived first in Africa and started their migration from that abode some 60,000 years ago after already living in that region for more than 100,000 years. But then how did they move to such such wide-apart land masses as Americas and Australia which are separated by oceans. The answer is the continuous tectonic plate shft that is happening.
As the picture shows below, the land masses of Americas and Asia were joined together near Alaska and the Australian land mass was just 100 km away from today's Sumatra and that was intervened by various small islands. This as well as the lower sea levels around 50,000 years ago allowed the humans to move throughout the earth land mass leaving Antarctica. But after that these land masses broke and shifted away from each other.
(Source: https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html)
The first set of migrations happened on two paths taking humans across the Middle East and way upto Australia as early as around 55,000 years ago. When the sea levels rose and the land masses separated the Australian section of the humanity was separated altogether from the rest of the world upto modern times.?? The second migration happened around 35,000 years ago with the humans moving across to most of Europe and Asia and going as far as the cold areas of Siberia. The next significant achievement was the migration of humans from the Siberian area to the Alaskan area around 20,000 years ago which again got separated from the rest of the land humanity when the ice age receeded and the ocean levels rose.
These numbers may appear just numbers but to really fathom this extent just imagine that according to this study the last 2,000 years of human presence is just 1% of the total time humans have been on earth! These sections of humanity kept on moving searching for new lands with abundant hunting and food opportunities. At the same time they would have had their spiritual lives guided by various Great Souls. It takes some contemplation to understand the complexity of this journey of our ancestors who went bare foot (when horses were not yet domesticated) and took 40,000 years to cover an area which we can today in a flight of fifteen hours!
Ganesha On Indonesian Currency
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Earlier, during my unsatisfactory interview with the chief minister, Narendra Modi had said: "In Indonesia, which is a Muslim country, they have a picture of Ganesh on one of their currency notes. Why can't India's Muslims be more like that?" At the time I did not answer. But it struck me later that Hindus are a minority in Indonesia, just as Muslims are in India. If you were to follow Modi's line of thinking, the accurate parallel would be for India to put an Islamic symbol on one of its notes. [Edward Luce, In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India , page 256]
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Zimbabwe: Unity - Key Tenet of National Values
http://allafrica.com/stories/200712240545.html
Toyindepi M. Musiyiwa
Harare
IS IT not ironic that while we celebrate 20 years of national unity, disunity reigns in the key sectors of our nation? For almost a decade now the simmering tensions between Government on one hand and the opposition, labour and business on the other have fragmented the functioning of a nation as a unit exacerbating the economic and political problems in the country. In this article I intend to proffer the view that national unity, as it is aptly called, is not sectional (in terms of colour, tribe, ethnicity, gender, class, organisation, etc), but is national in tone.
As we encounter an intransigent economic situation, it is high time that Zimbabweans thought more in terms of national values than sectional interests, if normalcy is to be restored in our nation. Indeed while exactly two decades ago, Zanu-PF and PF-Zapu, the political parties which liberated this country from colonialism through an armed struggle, rightly decided to bury their differences and unite for the sake of the nation, in practice they largely dealt with the political and tribal aspects of national unity.
However, being the most sensitive and easily volatile department of a nation in many societies the world over, the political sphere needs to be always handled with shrewdness and acumen. At independence the drama of ethno-political consciousness was an overt threat to the newly born nation. Consequently, President Mugabe and the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo should be greatly commended for their political foresight in resolving one of the obstacles that could have permanently jeopardised the destiny of Zimbabwe in its infancy.
National unity is holistic as the nation itself. It transcends all sections of the nations in both their horizontal and vertical manifestations. It pervades all the political, religious, cultural, economic and social aspects of a nation. I will limit my discussion on unity to the political and economic departments of Zimbabwe since the other spheres seem not to pose serious problems to the nation at the moment. In any nation, political performance and economic performance have a dialectical relationship. Normally if a nation is politically stable, its economy develops. Similarly, if there is an economic crisis, the politics of the nation becomes turbulent.
The reason behind this is that politics organises the nation, and thus manages the economy by creating an enabling environment for the economy to prosper. The economy has its own dialectics; for economic production to take place the various industrial sectors have to satisfy labour, for without its satisfaction there is no dedication to work and consequently no meaningful production. It implies therefore that in order to achieve national harmony, tranquility and development, all the nation's departments should unite and work in sync.
They are all vital in the effective operations of a nation's political economy. But what makes the sectors of a nation work in sync?
The awareness by every individual member about the common characteristics (common ancestry as Africans, our clearly defined territory and importantly our common historical experiences -- especially of nearly a century of racially-rooted colonial oppression and our revolutionary resolve to challenge it and create an independent state) should generate the will to unite and work together for the sake of the nation. So when individual members, classes, ethnic groups, organisations, institutions, etc, work in antagonism, it implies that the mutual awareness and indeed the affirmation of these ties would have been abandoned and national unity crumbles.
As a social organisation a nation is one of the most difficult organisations to run. This is so by virtue of the fact that in most cases it comprises people from diverse backgrounds; cultural, ethnic, religious, class, political, racial and other affiliations and identities as is the case with Zimbabwe and indeed the majority of nations the world over.
Relevant Links
Southern Africa
Zimbabwe
But then, in spite of all these different identities in contradistinction to each other, members of a nation still need to live together and collaborate in pursuance of the meaning of their existence. They need security to protect themselves from threats to their existence. They yearn to live peacefully and enjoy life. To achieve these, the members of a nation have no choice but to forego some of their individual and sectional interests and prioritise national interests.
They have to commit themselves to national values first, and their personal and sectional values second, if the project called a nation is to work and guarantee their incessant quest for their nation's advancement. It is from a nation's values that its constitution is designed to provide a framework within which that nation, in all its various sectors and departments, would work. Thus the activities of every sector are always under the spotlight of national values.
Alternatively, every organisation in a nation justifies its existence and operations against national values. If that justification fails or is seen to be inimical to national values that organisation can only engender discord within a nation. In other words every sector, organisation or an individual member in a nation has a responsibility to work for the good of a nation and not otherwise. In this case a nation is analogous to a family or clan; its members (parents and children or clansmen and clanswomen) are expected to perform their tasks for the sanity, harmony and prosperity of the family.
Toyindepi M. Musiyiwa
Harare
IS IT not ironic that while we celebrate 20 years of national unity, disunity reigns in the key sectors of our nation? For almost a decade now the simmering tensions between Government on one hand and the opposition, labour and business on the other have fragmented the functioning of a nation as a unit exacerbating the economic and political problems in the country. In this article I intend to proffer the view that national unity, as it is aptly called, is not sectional (in terms of colour, tribe, ethnicity, gender, class, organisation, etc), but is national in tone.
As we encounter an intransigent economic situation, it is high time that Zimbabweans thought more in terms of national values than sectional interests, if normalcy is to be restored in our nation. Indeed while exactly two decades ago, Zanu-PF and PF-Zapu, the political parties which liberated this country from colonialism through an armed struggle, rightly decided to bury their differences and unite for the sake of the nation, in practice they largely dealt with the political and tribal aspects of national unity.
However, being the most sensitive and easily volatile department of a nation in many societies the world over, the political sphere needs to be always handled with shrewdness and acumen. At independence the drama of ethno-political consciousness was an overt threat to the newly born nation. Consequently, President Mugabe and the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo should be greatly commended for their political foresight in resolving one of the obstacles that could have permanently jeopardised the destiny of Zimbabwe in its infancy.
National unity is holistic as the nation itself. It transcends all sections of the nations in both their horizontal and vertical manifestations. It pervades all the political, religious, cultural, economic and social aspects of a nation. I will limit my discussion on unity to the political and economic departments of Zimbabwe since the other spheres seem not to pose serious problems to the nation at the moment. In any nation, political performance and economic performance have a dialectical relationship. Normally if a nation is politically stable, its economy develops. Similarly, if there is an economic crisis, the politics of the nation becomes turbulent.
The reason behind this is that politics organises the nation, and thus manages the economy by creating an enabling environment for the economy to prosper. The economy has its own dialectics; for economic production to take place the various industrial sectors have to satisfy labour, for without its satisfaction there is no dedication to work and consequently no meaningful production. It implies therefore that in order to achieve national harmony, tranquility and development, all the nation's departments should unite and work in sync.
They are all vital in the effective operations of a nation's political economy. But what makes the sectors of a nation work in sync?
The awareness by every individual member about the common characteristics (common ancestry as Africans, our clearly defined territory and importantly our common historical experiences -- especially of nearly a century of racially-rooted colonial oppression and our revolutionary resolve to challenge it and create an independent state) should generate the will to unite and work together for the sake of the nation. So when individual members, classes, ethnic groups, organisations, institutions, etc, work in antagonism, it implies that the mutual awareness and indeed the affirmation of these ties would have been abandoned and national unity crumbles.
As a social organisation a nation is one of the most difficult organisations to run. This is so by virtue of the fact that in most cases it comprises people from diverse backgrounds; cultural, ethnic, religious, class, political, racial and other affiliations and identities as is the case with Zimbabwe and indeed the majority of nations the world over.
Relevant Links
Southern Africa
Zimbabwe
But then, in spite of all these different identities in contradistinction to each other, members of a nation still need to live together and collaborate in pursuance of the meaning of their existence. They need security to protect themselves from threats to their existence. They yearn to live peacefully and enjoy life. To achieve these, the members of a nation have no choice but to forego some of their individual and sectional interests and prioritise national interests.
They have to commit themselves to national values first, and their personal and sectional values second, if the project called a nation is to work and guarantee their incessant quest for their nation's advancement. It is from a nation's values that its constitution is designed to provide a framework within which that nation, in all its various sectors and departments, would work. Thus the activities of every sector are always under the spotlight of national values.
Alternatively, every organisation in a nation justifies its existence and operations against national values. If that justification fails or is seen to be inimical to national values that organisation can only engender discord within a nation. In other words every sector, organisation or an individual member in a nation has a responsibility to work for the good of a nation and not otherwise. In this case a nation is analogous to a family or clan; its members (parents and children or clansmen and clanswomen) are expected to perform their tasks for the sanity, harmony and prosperity of the family.
It became a centripetal force that united Zimbabweans in the nationalist struggle in spite of their diverse ethnic, regional, class and cultural backgrounds. Had the land reform programme not been implemented it would have been difficult to talk about Zimbabwe as a complete nation; those who perished liberating it who have died in vain. Debates would be raging now whether it was necessary to fight for nationhood in the first place.
National values, as the case with Zimbabwe, are equally important during the fighting for and the aftermaths of the birth of a nation. The nation has to assert itself among other nations of the world by being able to coherently organise itself, deliver what it promised and continue to promise its ever-expectant members and more importantly defend the national independence and its gains.
This is where most Developing World nations have found themselves numb, jittery, and at crossroads and the unity they forged during the struggle to win independence put to the test.
As highlighted earlier, for a nation to achieve its goals and satisfy its citizens, its various sectors have to commit themselves to extremely high levels of unity, unity to which they are emotionally attached because it is being drawn from or in other words is actually part and parcel of the national will.
Thus whenever a nation is in crisis, due to internally or externally or both-induced factors, it becomes imperative to go back to the drawing board and read aloud what our values do say. Yes, by consensus we may alter them here and there to suit prevailing conditions and pressing issues at hand but their central message that we should be a united sovereign state, determining our own affairs and working together for the good of the nation are too sacred to be revised and shall (for any nation) remain infallible as long as the concept of nation remains sensible in matters of social organisation. The mutual awareness and affirmation of these values should generate the will that unites us in every sector for our national endeavours to succeed.
As we commemorate 20 years of national unity but in the context of economic and political challenges, there is need to reflect deeper and broader on our unity and ask ourselves whether we are genuinely united. For the past eight or so years the behaviour of some Zimbabweans shows that national values have been thrown into the dustbin. This is not the first time we had political squabbles between the ruling party and the opposition, but the way today's opposition played its political game and the consequent economic crisis, is a clear dramatisation of the lack of national unity and commitment to national values.
In theory opposition politics is quite necessary for the healthy operations of a nation because it destroys the myth that only one political party has the capacity to govern a country. As stated earlier a nation is the most complex and difficult social organisation to run. Thus when a party emerges and convinces the electorate that it can run the country and therefore achieve its goals better than the party in power, such a party is naturally welcome. Zimbabwe is fortunate that from its birth in 1980 its Constitution has underscored the importance of political pluralism.
However, it is abuse of a nation to exploit the democratic spirit to undermine national values and politically mislead and divide the nation. Political pluralism in the context of national values merely means differences in political approach to governance and not in national values. As emphasised before, democracy enhances and enriches the means by which a country governs itself, offering its citizens the opportunity to select from a list of parties the one they think is suited and capable of delivering the services, achieve the goals and maintain the interests of their nation. Therefore, the criterion by which the people measure the political genuineness of any party that emerges in their nation is to evaluate the party's temperament and commitment vis-Ã -vis national values and interests.
Earlier on I referred to the fact that running and maintaining a newly born nation has been quite challenging particularly in post-colonial Africa and indeed among most Developing World countries. This appears so because in these formerly brutally-colonised countries, national expectations are emotionally and extremely high. They greatly shape the national psyche, coming as they do from the original promises that fuelled the nationalist anti-colonial struggles.
Unfortunately and in most cases, because independence was only partially granted in the form of flag independence devoid of economic freedom, today most African nations are still struggling without or with little success to transform the socio-economic life of their citizens for the better.
Many African countries have been hoodwinked by their former colonial masters and today by global capitalism to leave the resources of their nations at the mercy of multinational companies and other capitalist institutions.
It happened in this country at independence and in the 1990s through the IMF-sponsored Economic Structural Adjustment Programme.
It is this firm grip on the resources of former colonies that the erstwhile colonial masters do not want to lose. Again unfortunately on our part western powers know that there are many of their sympathisers among us so eager to auction their national values at the western imperialist market.
After their pockets have been stuffed with dollars, euros and pounds, they are persuaded to form political parties which preach another gospel, intended to confuse, dilute, divert and thus trivialise our national values and pursuits. The gospel is a subtle one at the beginning, its falsehood decipherable only to a few while the rest are swayed and mesmerised by its high-sounding verses.
Eventually when it becomes reality that after all it was a counterfeit revolutionary gospel, they are disillusioned, exhausted and hopeless. Such is the unpredictable terrain of our revolution right from its origins in the 1950s, varipo vanoyambutsa dindingwe. Yes, they are right among us who stealthily go by night to remove the devil from the cross we thought we had nailed for good during the day.
This is the genesis of the current political polarisation and economic problems in Zimbabwe which has given rise to higgledy-piggledy behaviour in the various departments of the nation. The disunity between these sectors compels us to no other alternative but to invoke national values and demand patriotism from people in these sectors.
The divisions and squabbling between Government on one hand and the opposition, civic society, business and labour on the other are clearly not within the interests of Zimbabwe as a nation.
The latter's solidarity in pursuance of an externally-conceived regime change programme is a clear demonstration of a conscious disregard of national values. Its political agenda in many ways cuts across the grain of the nation's history of the struggle for nationhood and a negation of the gains independence has provided so far. In short its behaviour challenges national values.
Isn't the regular arbitrary increase in prices of all commodities and failure to produce even after accessing loans from Government through the Bacossi facility demonstrates business' refusal to unite with Government in addressing the current economic problems? The financial sector is also behaving as if there is no nation within which it operates.
The RBZ Governor's revelation that some bank employees are working in cahoots with cash barons and baronesses to fuel the parallel market and consequently depriving innocent citizens from freely accessing their hard-earned cash only reflects the level to which wayward behaviour has reached in this sector. While it is a key sector in the smooth function of the economy, it has unfortunately become a stubborn hindrance to the efforts to turn around the economy.
While indeed the opposition solidarity can justifiably be condemned for being a conduit of western imperialist forces, doesn't it boggle the mind to hear that some top Government officials are actively involved in unethical behaviour which results in the country losing hundreds of millions of US dollars annually? The nation is currently anxious to see the success of the land reform which has this year been blessed with good rains. Ours is an agriculturally driven economy and the reforms in agriculture are thus pivotal in reviving the whole economy.
But when some people purport to be championing the agrarian revolution when in reality they are diverting agricultural inputs (fuel, fertiliser, seed, chemicals, etc) to the parallel market, it is again shocking to say the least.
It raises fundamental questions about such people's commitment to the nation's current agricultural reforms in the first place, let alone national values. Are they not worse than the opposition when they externalise precious metals sold on the very western markets whose countries are championing regime change and have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe? It is hypocritical and reactionary behaviour par excellence.
They are undermining President Mugabe's anti-imperialist campaign in defence of Zimbabwe's sovereignty he has relentlessly and successfully waged both at home and at various fora abroad? Their tendencies are clearly destroying the nation's historical revolutionary unity. For how long shall they be left to sabotage the economy with impunity? When is their judgment day? Parallel marketeering has strongly gripped the hearts of many in this nation. But to demonstrate that we are a nation committed to its values, urgent measures must be taken to deal with this nefarious behaviour otherwise the current attempts to rectify the economy will come to naught.
The war against inflation cannot be won when business hoards and sells commodities on the black market. Neither can it be won when certain individuals hoard cash for profiteering purposes through black market transactions.
There is no commitment to national unity in that kind of behaviour. The quicker we realise that such actions only serve to destroy the institutions and systems of our own nation, the better. The faster we become conscious of the fact that such actions jeorpadise the future of Zimbabwe and the patriotism of its posterity, the better.
The behaviour shown by the sectors of our nation, some institutions, groups of people and individuals, show that there is no unity in the attempt to counteract the economic challenges bedevilling our beautiful nation.
Hence while we celebrate 20 years of the signing of the historic Unity Accord, it should not be seen only in political and tribal terms, but from a holistic perspective where it permeates every sphere and facet of our life as defined by our national values. We have no option but to unite in all sectors and sub-sectors by foregrounding and re-committing ourselves to national values and interests for the sake of the very nation we won through great human sacrifice, a nation whose failure to function only serves to plunge us into more catastrophes and embarrassment.
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Gujarat Elections 2007 :: Congratulations to Modi
Mike Ghouse, December 24, 2007
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Congratulations to Modi for winning the elections, he now has an opportunity to win the heart of every Gujarati regardless of his or her affiliation.
Before the elections, I wrote about forgiving as an act of kindness and praischit to ease every Gujarati into a moral comfort zone and look forward to bringing comprehensive progress; material, moral and spiritual to all its citizens
The Jain community sets an examples of practicing one of the most beautiful principles, “Michami Dukadam”, meaning forgiving and asking for forgiveness. This helps clean the slate of the mistakes one has made and help clean others slate, so every one can start the year with a clean heart. Why should one do that? Simply for purification of one’s heart and soul and live an enriched life. Nothing beats the feeling of being a good human being.
Hate, malice and anger eat away one’s peace of mind. It has to be brought to an end for living a serene life.
My appeal to every Gujarati is to pause and seriously consider the option of forgiveness. Let it not hinge on others doing it first or not doing at all, the forgiveness benefits the forgiver more than the forgived. Be selfish and reap the benefits of forgiveness and see your own demeanor become admirable.
Be good to yourselves and your soul.
I have selected a few pieces that extol him, as well as those turn the amber light on and those that and vindictive. In an open society, all the cards have to be put on the table to understand the full picture and play a decent game.
It's time to show large-heartedness, says Modi
Figuring out Gujarat
NRIs raise a toast to Modi's victory
I'm jewel in India's crown: Modi
Narendra Modi and Adolf Hitler
Modi's Victory: Portents for Indian Democracy
Time to build an inclusive Gujarat: British NRIs to Modi
If Modi wins on Sunday
Mike Ghouse
To read the articles: http://www.mikeghouse.net/Articles/Gujarat-Elections-2007-Congratulations-to-Modi.asp
Four Good pieces on pluralism. Pluralism is simply developing an inclusive attitude towards fellow beings, religions, cultures, political parties...
Professor Nanji Speaks on Pluralism and its Contents
Drawing upon two parables in the Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’ (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity), Professor Nanji shared the group’s approach to social organisation. In the first story, a King, in order to educate his sons, creates a palace.The palace is adorned with various branches of knowledge available at that time - on the ceiling were representations of the cosmological and the astronomical sciences, on the four walls the different sciences, and in the courtyard the geography of the earth. Religion, i.e. din, in this model appeared as one dimension in the make-up of the world and a contributor to good governance, but was not necessarily perceived as an overarching dominant realm in society. It was, in fact, related to the other dimensions and informed them.
Who were the Indian Prophets?
If we can look at the religions from a point of view of distilled wisdom and think about how organizations function, invariably we come to the point that when anarchy prevails some one in the group speaks up and makes sense, and a consensus is built to move forward. As far as I know in both Bhagvad Gita and Qur'aan, the wisdom expressed is that when there is adharma - or people are not being righteous, then God says, some one will appear from among them to fix the problem and to every nation, every tribe God has sent messengers (shepherds?) to bring the message of goodness. It is not a surprise that the same wisdom sprouts in every corner of the world, whether connected or not.
Zimbabwe: Unity - Key Tenet of National Values
It is a good piece on pluralistic governance. Here are a few abstracts.
Zimbabwe is fortunate that from its birth in 1980 its Constitution has underscored the importance of political pluralism. However, it is abuse of a nation to exploit the democratic spirit to undermine national values and politically mislead and divide the nation. Political pluralism in the context of national values merely means differences in political approach to governance and not in national values.
The reason behind this is that politics organises the nation, and thus manages the economy by creating an enabling environment for the economy to prosper. The economy has its own dialectics; for economic production to take place the various industrial sectors have to satisfy labour, for without its satisfaction there is no dedication to work and consequently no meaningful production. It implies therefore that in order to achieve national harmony, tranquility and development, all the nation's departments should unite and work in sync.
The awareness by every individual member about the common characteristics (common ancestry as Africans, our clearly defined territory and importantly our common historical experiences -- especially of nearly a century of racially-rooted colonial oppression and our revolutionary resolve to challenge it and create an independent state) should generate the will to unite and work together for the sake of the nation. So when individual members, classes, ethnic groups, organisations, institutions, etc, work in antagonism, it implies that the mutual awareness and indeed the affirmation of these ties would have been abandoned and national unity crumbles.
Gujarat Elections 2007 :: Congratulations to Modi
As my commitment to pluralism gets stroNger every day, in the words of Ray Bradberry, all sorts of things happen, providence moves in and paves the way.The Gujarat Election and the victory of Modi has been a very patient process to me in the last few days. The haunting question remains, when will we shed the barriers and look to people as humans? What animal lives in us that we can shamelessly rejoice violating other people's rights? The answers have not been easy.
We have got to move forward with a corrective and comprehensive policy. Forgiving was the best possible option available to bring some sense back to the community. It is written below
Full articles below
Mike Ghouse
http://www.mikeghouse.net/
http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/
http://www.worldmuslimcongress.com/
http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=109142
Professor Nanji Speaks on Pluralism and its Contents
December 2007
The Director of the Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS), Professor Azim Nanji, spoke on ‘Pluralism and its contents’ at a seminar on 23 November 2007 at Aga Khan University’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC). The seminar was the last in the series ‘Possibility of Pluralism’, which discussed pluralism and its specific relevance to Muslim societies.
Other speakers in the last seminar included Professor Rajeev Bhargava, Senior Fellow and Director of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies; Louis Greenspan, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at McMaster University in Ontario and Professor Abdou Filali-Ansary, Director of AKU-ISMC.
In his talk, Professor Nanji provided an example of a group of scholars in tenth century Basra who, in his view, wrote about issues related to plurality of religious interpretations in their own context. The group, known as Ikhwan al-Safa’ (Brethren of Purity), had written a series of 52 epistles in which they explored arguments about what ought to be the foundations of a society that took knowledge seriously. He framed the question the Ikwan were engaging with as: “If a society is to start from the premise that knowledge should be a foundation, what should be the form of that knowledge?” Further, he noted that the group was also “interested in the fact that the Muslim world in the 10th century had become very cosmopolitan, after three centuries of expansion and growth and conversion.”
Drawing upon two parables in the Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’ (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity), Professor Nanji shared the group’s approach to social organisation. In the first story, a King, in order to educate his sons, creates a palace.The palace is adorned with various branches of knowledge available at that time - on the ceiling were representations of the cosmological and the astronomical sciences, on the four walls the different sciences, and in the courtyard the geography of the earth. Religion, i.e. din, in this model appeared as one dimension in the make-up of the world and a contributor to good governance, but was not necessarily perceived as an overarching dominant realm in society. It was, in fact, related to the other dimensions and informed them.
Professor Nanji referred to another story in the Rasa’il, which explored the problem of human existence in a diverse habitat that humans shared with other creatures. In this account, which occurred in the form of a debate between men and animals, the exchange involved each non-human species providing a case as to why humans should not be as privileged as they ordinarily were. Although humans were found guilty of many things, they were eventually recognised worthy of their position because of their two unique qualities: capabilities of self reflection and self-correction. In Professor Nanji’s view, through this story, the Ikhwan suggested that human beings must recognise that they share the planet with others and are accountable for the way in which they share the resources of the world, but also how they interact with other beings for the good of all.
Professor Nanji concluded by stressing the importance of creatively drawing upon Muslim, as well as human heritage in general, to find ways in which issues of human organisations have been approached. Some of these approaches, he believed, may illuminate and aid in resolving our current challenges. The appropriation of the Ikhwan, he suggested, was one example and must be seen as an invitation to continue with this process.
Who were the Indian Prophets?
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Could it be that Sri Ram, Sri Krishna, Gautama Buddha, Zoroaster and Confucius were Prophets of God? This is not a new question and has been asked many times before. As I argue further that while we cannot proclaim strictly based on the Quran and Hadees (as they have not been mentioned by name) yet based on these very sources we tend to move towards possibly accepting them as such.
There is a well-known Hadees that there have been 1,24,000 Prophets sent by God in the history of mankind. But in the Quran only 25 have been mentioned by name. When this is joined with the Quranic verse that ???to every nation We have sent Messengers" various interesting corollaries emerge. But before that let us go through a few verses of the Quran on this topic.
And there is a Guide for every people (13:8)
There is not a people to whom a warner has not been sent (35:25)
We sent not an apostle except (to teach) in the language of his (own) people, in order to make (things) clear to them. (14:4)
And, indeed We have sent Messengers before you; of some of them We have related to you their story and of some We have not related to you their story (40:78)
The Messenger believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, as do the men of faith. Each one (of them) believes in God, His angels, His books, and His apostles. "We make no distinction (they say) between one and another of His apostles. ( 2:285)
It is very clear from these that wherever there was human habitation Prophets were sent. Further it is very clear that obviously they spoke in the language of the people to whom they were sent. It is also clear that only a few have been told in the Quran and others have not been mentioned. It is but natural that the All Merciful God would endow every section of humanity with His Guidance.
The above understanding has been a classical understanding though not that well understood by the common people. The 25 Prophets mentioned by name in the Quran were all from the region of Middle East where the initial audience of Quran was present. They have been mentioned as part of moral stories that are around them in the Quran since the people there already had heard about many of these Prophets. But at the same time the Quran repeatedly mentioned that these are only some of the Prophets.
So what about the rest of the world? We know that in the Indian subcontinent and in China each have had around 20% of the human population for quite some time. Similarly there has been human habitation in the Far East, Africa, in Australia (through the aborogines), South America (Mayan and Incatha civilization), native Indians of North America, the ancient Romans and so on. Going by the Quranic verses it is quite apparent that Prophets of God would have been sent to all of these places. (See the last section of this post about the human journey through the ages as understood by the genographic project)
Again a Prophet appearing in India would have spoken Sanskrit, Pali, Bahmi, Telugu, Tamil and so on. In China he would have spoken Chinese. In Africa Swahili, Zulu, Malagasy, etc. In Korea or Japan it would have been Korean or Japanese and so on and so forth. The stupendous variety of the human disposition and celebration of the same is at various places in the Quran. The below verse clearly states that a multi-cultural world is a part of God???s plan.??
"O people! Behold, We have created you from a male and a female and have made you into nations and tribes to that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is all-knowing, all-aware." (49:13)
Similarly though there are only four divine books that have been mentioned by name in the Quran -Bible, Torah, Zuboor and Quran - there is a Hadees that there have been around 110 divine books in the history of mankind. The same point is corroborated by these Quranic verses??
Say: "We believe in God, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) prophets from their Lord: We make no difference between one and another of them: And we bow to God (in Islam)." (2:136)
Without doubt it is (announced) in the mystic books of former peoples. (26:196)
???For each period is a book (revealed). (13:38)
Based on all this understanding, from the Islamic viewpoint, there is absolutely no doubt that many Prophets came to India and some would have had books assigned to them. The point of contention can never be that whether any Prophets came to India. The point is only that who those Prophets were.
In a place like the Indian subcontinent, which has had around 20% of the world population for quite some time, there would definitely had been many Prophets. If there are 1,24,000 Prophets throughout history then definitely there would had been hundreds in the Indian subcontinent alone. The Hadees citing the number of Prophets is sometimes mentioned to be relatively weak but there is another Hadees in which the Prophet said that the club of Messengers is like a splendid palace. The palace was completely ready with only one brick missing and he came as the last brick which completed the palace. The analogy of the Prophet to the club of Messengers to a splendid palace is pretty apt as a palace would need thousands of brick to stand instead of just a handful.
Maulana Sayyid Sulaiman Nadwi, in his book Seeratun Nabi, wrote ???According to the teachings of the Prophet, it is necessary to believe that in countries such as China, Iran or India there have appeared Prophets before the advent of Prophet Muhammad. No Muslim can deny to the people in these lands, the truth of the faiths, ascribed to the mentors venerated by them" (emphasis mine). Shah Waliullah, the noted theologian from the subcontinent, had the opinion that the Quranic reference to the Sabaeen community was in fact a reference to the Hindus of Aryan origin.?? Also many Indian ulama in the past have accepted Hindus as the ???People of the Book???.
I am making an attempt to see the possible Prophethood of highly venerated figures in Hinduism. Some Muslims may ask how does it matter since by the logic of progressive revelation we are anyway following Islam and supersede the earlier revelations. The point is that whatever one may personally believe there is another point in the Quran where God says that ??? make no distinction between one and another of His apostles???. So whatever one may believe in from the Islamic perspective, it becomes important that we take care to refer the possible Prophets with respect and understand that the diversity of religious traditions around the world would have had divine origins.
This is important in having a better understanding, inter-faith dialogue and tolerant and respectful coexistence with various people across the globe. We do not agree on many things about Hazrat Isa (Jesus Christ) but we give him the highest level of respect. Similarly in the case of Hazrat Musa (Moses) we do not agree with the Jews on many things yet we accord him the highest respect. This facilitates relationship and co-existence with divergent religious viewpoints. Even if we disagree with others yet we respectfully agree to disagree.
Based on this if we try to understand the different religious traditions it is important to deconstruct a few things. We need to go beyond our fixation on languages and move towards a deeper meaning.
The classical Islamic understanding is that Islam was not ???founded" by Prophet Muhammad but instead revived by him for the last time with a new Law. In fact we believe that he proclaimed the Primordial Religion back out of the moral confusion that had crept everywhere. We believe that all the Prophets preached Islam and the followers were Muslim. There are two words here that need to be looked into. ???Islam" and ???Muslim". Both are Arabic words. ???Islam" means ???submission??? or ???peace??? and ???Muslim" means ???one who submits???. But now what would the name of this Primordial Religion had been when a Prophet was preaching in India or China or Africa or Korea? Not ???Islam" because that is the Arabic word and the Quran itself says that the Prophets preached in the language of the people. There should be some corresponding words in those languages.
Similarly as I have earlier argued, the name of God would not be Allah as that name of the Almighty was prevalent in the Middle East alone. He would be called by other names in the various languages that proclaim His Omnipotence and Beauty.
Prophet Muhammad said ???I came to clarify morality??? and the Quran asks him ???Say: ???I am no bringer of new-fangled doctrine among the apostles???" (46:9). Both point to the fact that the Prophet came to revive the same Primordial Religion but with a new Law.
With this understanding I make some attempts to try to see who could possibly had been the Prophets in India. My disclaimer is that I am just putting forward some observations for further thought. One of the Hadees of the Prophet is that there are three signs of Prophets; first they worked as shepherds in their childhood, second that they married (with perhaps the only exception of Jesus Christ/Hazrat Isa) and third that they used perfume. Their working as shepherds during their childhood was God???s way of building leadership capabilities for their later life role.
One of the names that come up immediately is of Sri Krishna. From the Hindu traditions we know that he worked as a shepherd where he would take care of the buffaloes. We also know that he had various marriages. On the third point I am not aware. Over and above this we know that there is the Holy Book of Hindus, the Bhagwat Gita that is linked to him. One may say that the Hindus consider him to be God incarnate so how could he be a Prophet. That point from the Muslim point of view does not take away anything as the Christians have a similar belief about Jesus Christ and yet we consider him as a Prophet and accord him the highest respect.
So is it that what I stated above really a new thought? Not exactly. When I was a kid, I heard a speech of the world renowned Nadwi Islamic scholar and a Padma Vibhushan awardee, Maulana Ali Miyan, in which he mentioned that Sri Krishna and Sri Ramchandra could have been Prophets of God but we cannot say for sure as they are not mentioned by name in the Quran but we should take their names with respect and there is a good possibility that they actually were Prophets.
Shaykh Faraz Rabbani, a Sunni Path scholar, wrote in the context of the possible prophethood of Sri Krishna, Gautam Buddha and Confucius ???It is very probable that many of the great religious figures of other traditions were true prophets". Mazhar Jan-i-Jana, an eighteenth century theologian and mystic, regarded both Sri Krishna and Sri Ram as Prophets of God and Vedas as divinely inspired. The same we can say of Maulana Hasrat Mohani???s thoughts (who was a Deobandi scholar and a member of India???s constituent assembly) whose annual Haj pilgrimage never completed until he visited Barsana in Brinda Ban for Radha???s darshan. He wrote various poetries in praise of Sri Krishna???s childhood. Also some ulama in the famous Firangi Mahal of Lucknow held Sri Krishna in great respect.
I found a Hadees but I am not sure of its authenticity, as I could not relate it to a well-known collection of Hadees. It claims that Prophet Muhammad said ???Kanna filhindhi nabiyyun asvadhul lavni ismuhoo Kahina" meaning ???A Prophet appeared in India. He was black in complexion. His name was Kahina". This is reported to be mentioned in the book 'Firdowsul Akbar' by Hazrat Thylami. If this is true, which I could not find a way of ascertaining, it quite clearly mentions about Sri Krishna who had a dark complexion and was in his childhood lovingly called kanha.
Similarly there would have been many more such personalities throughout the Indian landscape that will give similar indications. I read one paper, which argued that Prophet Nuh (Noah) was a Prophet in India. It is interesting to note here the similarity of his with Manu mentioned in Hindu traditions. The descriptions of the rain and the Great Flood described for Manu and Prophet Nuh are strikingly similar in their details. As so is the similarity in the names Nuh and Manu.
Some Muslim scholars have been of the view that the person mentioned as Dhul' Kifl in the Quran is actually a reference to Gautam Buddha as the word means 'of Kifl' and since the phonetic sound 'pa' is not part of Arabic language it is actually a reference to 'of Kapil' which is the shortened form of Kapilvastu. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was one of the prominent scholars who was of this view and he so mentioned in his Quranic commentary Tarjiman ul-Quran. Similarly many scholars have given reasons as to why Gautam Buddha's teaching??focussed on??personal behaviour instead of focussing on God.??
There is another name that I have often found linked together which again I am not sure of but just mentioning as something that I observed but I dont find more basis to it. It is the mention of Brahma with Abraham or Ibrahim. The more striking part is that Sri Brahma???s wife is Saraswati and Prophet Ibrahim???s wife was Sarah. If you look for the name Saraswati you would find that it is actually the join of Saras and wati where wati means woman. Though we know that Hazrat Ibrahim lived in the Middle East yet I mention here something which I observed striking.
I believe many of these thoughts that have been explored in quite detail in the past history of our land need to be highlighted to increase our understandings of each other. Islam has often been accused of not respecting diversity. Is the concept of plurality really alien to Islam? I leave with a few verses of the Quran as some food for thought. These are the normative verses of the Quran on plurality which are ignored by the extremists and the critics who both pick up very contextual and specific verses from the Quran and make an offensive attempt to use them in a normative discourse. I can hardly think of a text more than a millennium old, which would be so liberal in this thought at a time when the thought of racial supremacy was the norm.
Mankind was one single nation, and God sent messengers with glad tidings and warnings (2:213)
Unto every one of you We have appointed a [different] law and way of life. And if God had so willed, He could surely have made you all one single community: but [He willed it otherwise] in order to test you by means of what He has vouchsafed unto you. [Vie], then, with one another in doing good works. Unto God you all must return; and then He will make you truly understand all that on which you were wont to differ. (5:48)
If it had been your Lord's will, they all would have believed - all who are on earth. Will you, then, compel the people, against their will, to believe? (10:99)
For had God so willed, He could surely have made you all one single community; however, He lets go astray that wills [to go astray], and guides aright him that wills [to be guided]; and you will surely be called to account for all that you ever did! (16:93)
And had thy Sustainer so willed, He could surely have made all humanity one single community: but [he willed it otherwise, and so] they continue to hold divergent views. (11:118)
And do not abuse those whom they call upon besides God, lest exceeding the limits they should abuse God out of ignorance. Thus have We made fair seeming to every people their deeds; then to their Lord shall be their return, so He will inform them of what they did. (6:108)
1,24,000 Messengers - Making sense of the number
If we really believe that Reason and Revelation take us to the Ultimate Truth together then this rejoinder may help us further.
The human genographic project which is tracking the genetic footprint of human migration through history has thrown up some very interesting results. It shows that the humans lived first in Africa and started their migration from that abode some 60,000 years ago after already living in that region for more than 100,000 years. But then how did they move to such such wide-apart land masses as Americas and Australia which are separated by oceans. The answer is the continuous tectonic plate shft that is happening.
As the picture shows below, the land masses of Americas and Asia were joined together near Alaska and the Australian land mass was just 100 km away from today's Sumatra and that was intervened by various small islands. This as well as the lower sea levels around 50,000 years ago allowed the humans to move throughout the earth land mass leaving Antarctica. But after that these land masses broke and shifted away from each other.
(Source: https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html)
The first set of migrations happened on two paths taking humans across the Middle East and way upto Australia as early as around 55,000 years ago. When the sea levels rose and the land masses separated the Australian section of the humanity was separated altogether from the rest of the world upto modern times.?? The second migration happened around 35,000 years ago with the humans moving across to most of Europe and Asia and going as far as the cold areas of Siberia. The next significant achievement was the migration of humans from the Siberian area to the Alaskan area around 20,000 years ago which again got separated from the rest of the land humanity when the ice age receeded and the ocean levels rose.
These numbers may appear just numbers but to really fathom this extent just imagine that according to this study the last 2,000 years of human presence is just 1% of the total time humans have been on earth! These sections of humanity kept on moving searching for new lands with abundant hunting and food opportunities. At the same time they would have had their spiritual lives guided by various Great Souls. It takes some contemplation to understand the complexity of this journey of our ancestors who went bare foot (when horses were not yet domesticated) and took 40,000 years to cover an area which we can today in a flight of fifteen hours!
Ganesha On Indonesian Currency
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Earlier, during my unsatisfactory interview with the chief minister, Narendra Modi had said: "In Indonesia, which is a Muslim country, they have a picture of Ganesh on one of their currency notes. Why can't India's Muslims be more like that?" At the time I did not answer. But it struck me later that Hindus are a minority in Indonesia, just as Muslims are in India. If you were to follow Modi's line of thinking, the accurate parallel would be for India to put an Islamic symbol on one of its notes. [Edward Luce, In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India , page 256]
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Zimbabwe: Unity - Key Tenet of National Values
http://allafrica.com/stories/200712240545.html
Toyindepi M. Musiyiwa
Harare
IS IT not ironic that while we celebrate 20 years of national unity, disunity reigns in the key sectors of our nation? For almost a decade now the simmering tensions between Government on one hand and the opposition, labour and business on the other have fragmented the functioning of a nation as a unit exacerbating the economic and political problems in the country. In this article I intend to proffer the view that national unity, as it is aptly called, is not sectional (in terms of colour, tribe, ethnicity, gender, class, organisation, etc), but is national in tone.
As we encounter an intransigent economic situation, it is high time that Zimbabweans thought more in terms of national values than sectional interests, if normalcy is to be restored in our nation. Indeed while exactly two decades ago, Zanu-PF and PF-Zapu, the political parties which liberated this country from colonialism through an armed struggle, rightly decided to bury their differences and unite for the sake of the nation, in practice they largely dealt with the political and tribal aspects of national unity.
However, being the most sensitive and easily volatile department of a nation in many societies the world over, the political sphere needs to be always handled with shrewdness and acumen. At independence the drama of ethno-political consciousness was an overt threat to the newly born nation. Consequently, President Mugabe and the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo should be greatly commended for their political foresight in resolving one of the obstacles that could have permanently jeopardised the destiny of Zimbabwe in its infancy.
National unity is holistic as the nation itself. It transcends all sections of the nations in both their horizontal and vertical manifestations. It pervades all the political, religious, cultural, economic and social aspects of a nation. I will limit my discussion on unity to the political and economic departments of Zimbabwe since the other spheres seem not to pose serious problems to the nation at the moment. In any nation, political performance and economic performance have a dialectical relationship. Normally if a nation is politically stable, its economy develops. Similarly, if there is an economic crisis, the politics of the nation becomes turbulent.
The reason behind this is that politics organises the nation, and thus manages the economy by creating an enabling environment for the economy to prosper. The economy has its own dialectics; for economic production to take place the various industrial sectors have to satisfy labour, for without its satisfaction there is no dedication to work and consequently no meaningful production. It implies therefore that in order to achieve national harmony, tranquility and development, all the nation's departments should unite and work in sync.
They are all vital in the effective operations of a nation's political economy. But what makes the sectors of a nation work in sync?
The awareness by every individual member about the common characteristics (common ancestry as Africans, our clearly defined territory and importantly our common historical experiences -- especially of nearly a century of racially-rooted colonial oppression and our revolutionary resolve to challenge it and create an independent state) should generate the will to unite and work together for the sake of the nation. So when individual members, classes, ethnic groups, organisations, institutions, etc, work in antagonism, it implies that the mutual awareness and indeed the affirmation of these ties would have been abandoned and national unity crumbles.
As a social organisation a nation is one of the most difficult organisations to run. This is so by virtue of the fact that in most cases it comprises people from diverse backgrounds; cultural, ethnic, religious, class, political, racial and other affiliations and identities as is the case with Zimbabwe and indeed the majority of nations the world over.
Relevant Links
Southern Africa
Zimbabwe
But then, in spite of all these different identities in contradistinction to each other, members of a nation still need to live together and collaborate in pursuance of the meaning of their existence. They need security to protect themselves from threats to their existence. They yearn to live peacefully and enjoy life. To achieve these, the members of a nation have no choice but to forego some of their individual and sectional interests and prioritise national interests.
They have to commit themselves to national values first, and their personal and sectional values second, if the project called a nation is to work and guarantee their incessant quest for their nation's advancement. It is from a nation's values that its constitution is designed to provide a framework within which that nation, in all its various sectors and departments, would work. Thus the activities of every sector are always under the spotlight of national values.
Alternatively, every organisation in a nation justifies its existence and operations against national values. If that justification fails or is seen to be inimical to national values that organisation can only engender discord within a nation. In other words every sector, organisation or an individual member in a nation has a responsibility to work for the good of a nation and not otherwise. In this case a nation is analogous to a family or clan; its members (parents and children or clansmen and clanswomen) are expected to perform their tasks for the sanity, harmony and prosperity of the family.
Toyindepi M. Musiyiwa
Harare
IS IT not ironic that while we celebrate 20 years of national unity, disunity reigns in the key sectors of our nation? For almost a decade now the simmering tensions between Government on one hand and the opposition, labour and business on the other have fragmented the functioning of a nation as a unit exacerbating the economic and political problems in the country. In this article I intend to proffer the view that national unity, as it is aptly called, is not sectional (in terms of colour, tribe, ethnicity, gender, class, organisation, etc), but is national in tone.
As we encounter an intransigent economic situation, it is high time that Zimbabweans thought more in terms of national values than sectional interests, if normalcy is to be restored in our nation. Indeed while exactly two decades ago, Zanu-PF and PF-Zapu, the political parties which liberated this country from colonialism through an armed struggle, rightly decided to bury their differences and unite for the sake of the nation, in practice they largely dealt with the political and tribal aspects of national unity.
However, being the most sensitive and easily volatile department of a nation in many societies the world over, the political sphere needs to be always handled with shrewdness and acumen. At independence the drama of ethno-political consciousness was an overt threat to the newly born nation. Consequently, President Mugabe and the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo should be greatly commended for their political foresight in resolving one of the obstacles that could have permanently jeopardised the destiny of Zimbabwe in its infancy.
National unity is holistic as the nation itself. It transcends all sections of the nations in both their horizontal and vertical manifestations. It pervades all the political, religious, cultural, economic and social aspects of a nation. I will limit my discussion on unity to the political and economic departments of Zimbabwe since the other spheres seem not to pose serious problems to the nation at the moment. In any nation, political performance and economic performance have a dialectical relationship. Normally if a nation is politically stable, its economy develops. Similarly, if there is an economic crisis, the politics of the nation becomes turbulent.
The reason behind this is that politics organises the nation, and thus manages the economy by creating an enabling environment for the economy to prosper. The economy has its own dialectics; for economic production to take place the various industrial sectors have to satisfy labour, for without its satisfaction there is no dedication to work and consequently no meaningful production. It implies therefore that in order to achieve national harmony, tranquility and development, all the nation's departments should unite and work in sync.
They are all vital in the effective operations of a nation's political economy. But what makes the sectors of a nation work in sync?
The awareness by every individual member about the common characteristics (common ancestry as Africans, our clearly defined territory and importantly our common historical experiences -- especially of nearly a century of racially-rooted colonial oppression and our revolutionary resolve to challenge it and create an independent state) should generate the will to unite and work together for the sake of the nation. So when individual members, classes, ethnic groups, organisations, institutions, etc, work in antagonism, it implies that the mutual awareness and indeed the affirmation of these ties would have been abandoned and national unity crumbles.
As a social organisation a nation is one of the most difficult organisations to run. This is so by virtue of the fact that in most cases it comprises people from diverse backgrounds; cultural, ethnic, religious, class, political, racial and other affiliations and identities as is the case with Zimbabwe and indeed the majority of nations the world over.
Relevant Links
Southern Africa
Zimbabwe
But then, in spite of all these different identities in contradistinction to each other, members of a nation still need to live together and collaborate in pursuance of the meaning of their existence. They need security to protect themselves from threats to their existence. They yearn to live peacefully and enjoy life. To achieve these, the members of a nation have no choice but to forego some of their individual and sectional interests and prioritise national interests.
They have to commit themselves to national values first, and their personal and sectional values second, if the project called a nation is to work and guarantee their incessant quest for their nation's advancement. It is from a nation's values that its constitution is designed to provide a framework within which that nation, in all its various sectors and departments, would work. Thus the activities of every sector are always under the spotlight of national values.
Alternatively, every organisation in a nation justifies its existence and operations against national values. If that justification fails or is seen to be inimical to national values that organisation can only engender discord within a nation. In other words every sector, organisation or an individual member in a nation has a responsibility to work for the good of a nation and not otherwise. In this case a nation is analogous to a family or clan; its members (parents and children or clansmen and clanswomen) are expected to perform their tasks for the sanity, harmony and prosperity of the family.
It became a centripetal force that united Zimbabweans in the nationalist struggle in spite of their diverse ethnic, regional, class and cultural backgrounds. Had the land reform programme not been implemented it would have been difficult to talk about Zimbabwe as a complete nation; those who perished liberating it who have died in vain. Debates would be raging now whether it was necessary to fight for nationhood in the first place.
National values, as the case with Zimbabwe, are equally important during the fighting for and the aftermaths of the birth of a nation. The nation has to assert itself among other nations of the world by being able to coherently organise itself, deliver what it promised and continue to promise its ever-expectant members and more importantly defend the national independence and its gains.
This is where most Developing World nations have found themselves numb, jittery, and at crossroads and the unity they forged during the struggle to win independence put to the test.
As highlighted earlier, for a nation to achieve its goals and satisfy its citizens, its various sectors have to commit themselves to extremely high levels of unity, unity to which they are emotionally attached because it is being drawn from or in other words is actually part and parcel of the national will.
Thus whenever a nation is in crisis, due to internally or externally or both-induced factors, it becomes imperative to go back to the drawing board and read aloud what our values do say. Yes, by consensus we may alter them here and there to suit prevailing conditions and pressing issues at hand but their central message that we should be a united sovereign state, determining our own affairs and working together for the good of the nation are too sacred to be revised and shall (for any nation) remain infallible as long as the concept of nation remains sensible in matters of social organisation. The mutual awareness and affirmation of these values should generate the will that unites us in every sector for our national endeavours to succeed.
As we commemorate 20 years of national unity but in the context of economic and political challenges, there is need to reflect deeper and broader on our unity and ask ourselves whether we are genuinely united. For the past eight or so years the behaviour of some Zimbabweans shows that national values have been thrown into the dustbin. This is not the first time we had political squabbles between the ruling party and the opposition, but the way today's opposition played its political game and the consequent economic crisis, is a clear dramatisation of the lack of national unity and commitment to national values.
In theory opposition politics is quite necessary for the healthy operations of a nation because it destroys the myth that only one political party has the capacity to govern a country. As stated earlier a nation is the most complex and difficult social organisation to run. Thus when a party emerges and convinces the electorate that it can run the country and therefore achieve its goals better than the party in power, such a party is naturally welcome. Zimbabwe is fortunate that from its birth in 1980 its Constitution has underscored the importance of political pluralism.
However, it is abuse of a nation to exploit the democratic spirit to undermine national values and politically mislead and divide the nation. Political pluralism in the context of national values merely means differences in political approach to governance and not in national values. As emphasised before, democracy enhances and enriches the means by which a country governs itself, offering its citizens the opportunity to select from a list of parties the one they think is suited and capable of delivering the services, achieve the goals and maintain the interests of their nation. Therefore, the criterion by which the people measure the political genuineness of any party that emerges in their nation is to evaluate the party's temperament and commitment vis-Ã -vis national values and interests.
Earlier on I referred to the fact that running and maintaining a newly born nation has been quite challenging particularly in post-colonial Africa and indeed among most Developing World countries. This appears so because in these formerly brutally-colonised countries, national expectations are emotionally and extremely high. They greatly shape the national psyche, coming as they do from the original promises that fuelled the nationalist anti-colonial struggles.
Unfortunately and in most cases, because independence was only partially granted in the form of flag independence devoid of economic freedom, today most African nations are still struggling without or with little success to transform the socio-economic life of their citizens for the better.
Many African countries have been hoodwinked by their former colonial masters and today by global capitalism to leave the resources of their nations at the mercy of multinational companies and other capitalist institutions.
It happened in this country at independence and in the 1990s through the IMF-sponsored Economic Structural Adjustment Programme.
It is this firm grip on the resources of former colonies that the erstwhile colonial masters do not want to lose. Again unfortunately on our part western powers know that there are many of their sympathisers among us so eager to auction their national values at the western imperialist market.
After their pockets have been stuffed with dollars, euros and pounds, they are persuaded to form political parties which preach another gospel, intended to confuse, dilute, divert and thus trivialise our national values and pursuits. The gospel is a subtle one at the beginning, its falsehood decipherable only to a few while the rest are swayed and mesmerised by its high-sounding verses.
Eventually when it becomes reality that after all it was a counterfeit revolutionary gospel, they are disillusioned, exhausted and hopeless. Such is the unpredictable terrain of our revolution right from its origins in the 1950s, varipo vanoyambutsa dindingwe. Yes, they are right among us who stealthily go by night to remove the devil from the cross we thought we had nailed for good during the day.
This is the genesis of the current political polarisation and economic problems in Zimbabwe which has given rise to higgledy-piggledy behaviour in the various departments of the nation. The disunity between these sectors compels us to no other alternative but to invoke national values and demand patriotism from people in these sectors.
The divisions and squabbling between Government on one hand and the opposition, civic society, business and labour on the other are clearly not within the interests of Zimbabwe as a nation.
The latter's solidarity in pursuance of an externally-conceived regime change programme is a clear demonstration of a conscious disregard of national values. Its political agenda in many ways cuts across the grain of the nation's history of the struggle for nationhood and a negation of the gains independence has provided so far. In short its behaviour challenges national values.
Isn't the regular arbitrary increase in prices of all commodities and failure to produce even after accessing loans from Government through the Bacossi facility demonstrates business' refusal to unite with Government in addressing the current economic problems? The financial sector is also behaving as if there is no nation within which it operates.
The RBZ Governor's revelation that some bank employees are working in cahoots with cash barons and baronesses to fuel the parallel market and consequently depriving innocent citizens from freely accessing their hard-earned cash only reflects the level to which wayward behaviour has reached in this sector. While it is a key sector in the smooth function of the economy, it has unfortunately become a stubborn hindrance to the efforts to turn around the economy.
While indeed the opposition solidarity can justifiably be condemned for being a conduit of western imperialist forces, doesn't it boggle the mind to hear that some top Government officials are actively involved in unethical behaviour which results in the country losing hundreds of millions of US dollars annually? The nation is currently anxious to see the success of the land reform which has this year been blessed with good rains. Ours is an agriculturally driven economy and the reforms in agriculture are thus pivotal in reviving the whole economy.
But when some people purport to be championing the agrarian revolution when in reality they are diverting agricultural inputs (fuel, fertiliser, seed, chemicals, etc) to the parallel market, it is again shocking to say the least.
It raises fundamental questions about such people's commitment to the nation's current agricultural reforms in the first place, let alone national values. Are they not worse than the opposition when they externalise precious metals sold on the very western markets whose countries are championing regime change and have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe? It is hypocritical and reactionary behaviour par excellence.
They are undermining President Mugabe's anti-imperialist campaign in defence of Zimbabwe's sovereignty he has relentlessly and successfully waged both at home and at various fora abroad? Their tendencies are clearly destroying the nation's historical revolutionary unity. For how long shall they be left to sabotage the economy with impunity? When is their judgment day? Parallel marketeering has strongly gripped the hearts of many in this nation. But to demonstrate that we are a nation committed to its values, urgent measures must be taken to deal with this nefarious behaviour otherwise the current attempts to rectify the economy will come to naught.
The war against inflation cannot be won when business hoards and sells commodities on the black market. Neither can it be won when certain individuals hoard cash for profiteering purposes through black market transactions.
There is no commitment to national unity in that kind of behaviour. The quicker we realise that such actions only serve to destroy the institutions and systems of our own nation, the better. The faster we become conscious of the fact that such actions jeorpadise the future of Zimbabwe and the patriotism of its posterity, the better.
The behaviour shown by the sectors of our nation, some institutions, groups of people and individuals, show that there is no unity in the attempt to counteract the economic challenges bedevilling our beautiful nation.
Hence while we celebrate 20 years of the signing of the historic Unity Accord, it should not be seen only in political and tribal terms, but from a holistic perspective where it permeates every sphere and facet of our life as defined by our national values. We have no option but to unite in all sectors and sub-sectors by foregrounding and re-committing ourselves to national values and interests for the sake of the very nation we won through great human sacrifice, a nation whose failure to function only serves to plunge us into more catastrophes and embarrassment.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gujarat Elections 2007 :: Congratulations to Modi
Mike Ghouse, December 24, 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Congratulations to Modi for winning the elections, he now has an opportunity to win the heart of every Gujarati regardless of his or her affiliation.
Before the elections, I wrote about forgiving as an act of kindness and praischit to ease every Gujarati into a moral comfort zone and look forward to bringing comprehensive progress; material, moral and spiritual to all its citizens
The Jain community sets an examples of practicing one of the most beautiful principles, “Michami Dukadam”, meaning forgiving and asking for forgiveness. This helps clean the slate of the mistakes one has made and help clean others slate, so every one can start the year with a clean heart. Why should one do that? Simply for purification of one’s heart and soul and live an enriched life. Nothing beats the feeling of being a good human being.
Hate, malice and anger eat away one’s peace of mind. It has to be brought to an end for living a serene life.
My appeal to every Gujarati is to pause and seriously consider the option of forgiveness. Let it not hinge on others doing it first or not doing at all, the forgiveness benefits the forgiver more than the forgived. Be selfish and reap the benefits of forgiveness and see your own demeanor become admirable.
Be good to yourselves and your soul.
I have selected a few pieces that extol him, as well as those turn the amber light on and those that and vindictive. In an open society, all the cards have to be put on the table to understand the full picture and play a decent game.
It's time to show large-heartedness, says Modi
Figuring out Gujarat
NRIs raise a toast to Modi's victory
I'm jewel in India's crown: Modi
Narendra Modi and Adolf Hitler
Modi's Victory: Portents for Indian Democracy
Time to build an inclusive Gujarat: British NRIs to Modi
If Modi wins on Sunday
Mike Ghouse
To read the articles: http://www.mikeghouse.net/Articles/Gujarat-Elections-2007-Congratulations-to-Modi.asp
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Gujarat Massacre & Justice
Gujarat Massacre & Justice
Mike Ghouse, October 22, 2007
Mike Ghouse, October 22, 2007
The blame should be placed squarely on the individuals, not on their family, not on their religion and not on their ethnicity or culture. Blaming a religion is a futile act, as you cannot punish an intangible, and the criminals go Scot free.
On February 27, 2002, in the State of Gujarat, India, a compartment of the train was set afire when the train stopped in the town of Godhra leaving 59 men and women burnt beyond recognition. It was alleged that the Muslims set the fire and poured the gasoline in the bogey carrying the 59 karsevaks (volunteers) returning from a pilgrimage to Ayodhya where a 15th century Mosque was razed to ground by the extremists claiming that it was built on a former temple.
Immediately following the Godhra incident, the State of Gujarat witnessed the ugliest of all genocides in human history butchering and burning pregnant women and children by the extremists killing nearly 1500 people and leaving thousands homeless. One of the instigators was a Medical doctor by the name of Dr. Parveen Togadia.
According to the Human rights activists and reports, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Narendra Modi was tacitly involved in the carnage. The Federal government run by the right wingers at that time, did not condemn this mayhem, instead the home minister gave a clean chit to the Chief Minister.
Justice is the driving machine of the world peace, whenever there is adharma, dharma (righteousness) counters back to bring an equilibrium to the society. Truth had to emerge one time or the other; you cannot commit a crime and remain quite forever. Justice has to be met. Hope has to be restored to the victims. When there is justice, people feel secure, knowing that no one is going to take advantage of them or vice-versa, it is one of the safest feelings one can have in a civilized nation and that assures sustainable peace and prosperity to one and all. The other choice is to live in fear, if you do the wrong to a people, your own psyche won’t let you live in peace, unless you do your pra-es-chit (repentance) or restore justice.
The collective conscience of India and the peace loving Hindu community was repulsed and outraged at this act of violence. Thanks to the Indian media for playing a fair role in reporting. Except the right wing newspapers, almost all the media was outraged.
Documentaries have been made and ample proof is available now.
On October 22nd, 2007, Tehelka, India’s leading investigative Magazine has captured the criminals on Camera, admitting their involvement in the genocide, and deliberate annihilation of Muslims. All the while police did nothing to stop the carnage. The Chief Minister apparently gave three days to the extremists to clean out the Muslims.
Parallels can be drawn between Hitler and Modi. Both of them had an Iron clad grip on some of their people, both of them brought economic prosperity while one was annihilating Jews, the other was tacitly letting Muslims be butchered. The ones who were/are reaping the benefits of the unprecedented economic prosperity considered both the men as their God given leaders; their word was the final word to them. However deep down, any soul should feel the intense pain and suffering of the victims, after all without such feeling, one cannot be called a human. Adharma is a bigger killer of a civil society than any weapons of mass destruction.
As a thinker, I have consistently maintained that the blame should be placed squarely on the individuals, not on their family, not on their religion and not on their ethnicity or culture. Blaming a religion is an useless act, as you cannot punish an intangible, and the criminal goes Scot free.
Blaming Hindus or Muslims will arouse the sentiments of a whole lot of people and nothing will get done. Just blame the criminals by their name, and punish them, very few will squeak. If a Mohamed Ali is punished, it is Mohamed Ali who is to be punished and not a Muslim that is punished. If a Parveen Modi is punished, it is Parveen Modi the individual and not a Hindu, the religion, and no Hindu should take an offense to that, nor a Muslim should be offended if Mohamed Ali is meted out the punishment allowable by the law. If we can get to this point and understand this principle, we can fight terrorism bravely and clean out the terrorists’ one at a time.
It is the duty of all Citizens, and it is in the interest of keeping peace and harmony to punish the criminals who set the fire to the train, and those who were responsible for the massacre. The Central Government should ruthlessly pursue and punish all criminals, it will build an atmosphere of justice and every Indian can feel that justice will be met for all the injustices.
Breaking News
• Tehelka investigation – open each item in the link to read:
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107gujrat_sec.asp
• http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071026/asp/nation/story_8474936.asp
• http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2003/05/18/stories/2003051802751000.htm
• Chronology of events : http://www.onlinevolunteers.org/gujarat/reports/pucl/vv_annexure2.pdf
Justice is the most critical aspect of human life, when it is not met in this life, we are assured, through our faith traditions, that it will be served, that is how the spiritual equilibrium is achieved. One set of faiths believe in life after death, where one is accountable for the deeds in the world and receives grace and blessings or punishment depending on how he or she lived the life. The other set of faiths believe that life is cyclical; one is born continuously through re-incarnation and birthing in lower forms of life as a payment for living the wrong life or will complete the life cycle and get the salvation for living the life of goodness. Either belief set has the same essence - behavior modification in this life and sure justice at the end.
It is in the interest of our nation and the psyche of Indians to bring justice, as it brings to rest all the un-rest, so peace and prosperity can take root. Every individual should feel a sense of comfort that no one will take undue advantage of them, justice will prevail. It is the most secure feeling the Government of India can offer her Citizens.
.
Link: http://mikeghouse.blogspot.com/2007/10/gujarat-massacre-justice.html
.
Comments: http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2836166316876981645&postID=2928599973738160325&isPopup=true
.
Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker, Writer and a Moderator. He is president of the www.FoundationforPluralism.com and is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing interfaith, political and civic issues. He is the founding president of the www.WorldMuslimCongress.com with a simple theme: "Good for Muslims and good for the world." His personal Website is www.MikeGhouse.net and his articles can be found on the Websites mentioned above and in his Blogs: http://MikeGhouseforAmerica.Blogspot.com and http://MikeGhouse.Sulekha.com Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com For a full bio: http://www.mikeghouse.net/ProfileMikeGhouse.asp
_______________________________________On February 27, 2002, in the State of Gujarat, India, a compartment of the train was set afire when the train stopped in the town of Godhra leaving 59 men and women burnt beyond recognition. It was alleged that the Muslims set the fire and poured the gasoline in the bogey carrying the 59 karsevaks (volunteers) returning from a pilgrimage to Ayodhya where a 15th century Mosque was razed to ground by the extremists claiming that it was built on a former temple.
Immediately following the Godhra incident, the State of Gujarat witnessed the ugliest of all genocides in human history butchering and burning pregnant women and children by the extremists killing nearly 1500 people and leaving thousands homeless. One of the instigators was a Medical doctor by the name of Dr. Parveen Togadia.
According to the Human rights activists and reports, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Narendra Modi was tacitly involved in the carnage. The Federal government run by the right wingers at that time, did not condemn this mayhem, instead the home minister gave a clean chit to the Chief Minister.
Justice is the driving machine of the world peace, whenever there is adharma, dharma (righteousness) counters back to bring an equilibrium to the society. Truth had to emerge one time or the other; you cannot commit a crime and remain quite forever. Justice has to be met. Hope has to be restored to the victims. When there is justice, people feel secure, knowing that no one is going to take advantage of them or vice-versa, it is one of the safest feelings one can have in a civilized nation and that assures sustainable peace and prosperity to one and all. The other choice is to live in fear, if you do the wrong to a people, your own psyche won’t let you live in peace, unless you do your pra-es-chit (repentance) or restore justice.
The collective conscience of India and the peace loving Hindu community was repulsed and outraged at this act of violence. Thanks to the Indian media for playing a fair role in reporting. Except the right wing newspapers, almost all the media was outraged.
Documentaries have been made and ample proof is available now.
On October 22nd, 2007, Tehelka, India’s leading investigative Magazine has captured the criminals on Camera, admitting their involvement in the genocide, and deliberate annihilation of Muslims. All the while police did nothing to stop the carnage. The Chief Minister apparently gave three days to the extremists to clean out the Muslims.
Parallels can be drawn between Hitler and Modi. Both of them had an Iron clad grip on some of their people, both of them brought economic prosperity while one was annihilating Jews, the other was tacitly letting Muslims be butchered. The ones who were/are reaping the benefits of the unprecedented economic prosperity considered both the men as their God given leaders; their word was the final word to them. However deep down, any soul should feel the intense pain and suffering of the victims, after all without such feeling, one cannot be called a human. Adharma is a bigger killer of a civil society than any weapons of mass destruction.
As a thinker, I have consistently maintained that the blame should be placed squarely on the individuals, not on their family, not on their religion and not on their ethnicity or culture. Blaming a religion is an useless act, as you cannot punish an intangible, and the criminal goes Scot free.
Blaming Hindus or Muslims will arouse the sentiments of a whole lot of people and nothing will get done. Just blame the criminals by their name, and punish them, very few will squeak. If a Mohamed Ali is punished, it is Mohamed Ali who is to be punished and not a Muslim that is punished. If a Parveen Modi is punished, it is Parveen Modi the individual and not a Hindu, the religion, and no Hindu should take an offense to that, nor a Muslim should be offended if Mohamed Ali is meted out the punishment allowable by the law. If we can get to this point and understand this principle, we can fight terrorism bravely and clean out the terrorists’ one at a time.
It is the duty of all Citizens, and it is in the interest of keeping peace and harmony to punish the criminals who set the fire to the train, and those who were responsible for the massacre. The Central Government should ruthlessly pursue and punish all criminals, it will build an atmosphere of justice and every Indian can feel that justice will be met for all the injustices.
Breaking News
• Tehelka investigation – open each item in the link to read:
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107gujrat_sec.asp
• http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071026/asp/nation/story_8474936.asp
• http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2003/05/18/stories/2003051802751000.htm
• Chronology of events : http://www.onlinevolunteers.org/gujarat/reports/pucl/vv_annexure2.pdf
Justice is the most critical aspect of human life, when it is not met in this life, we are assured, through our faith traditions, that it will be served, that is how the spiritual equilibrium is achieved. One set of faiths believe in life after death, where one is accountable for the deeds in the world and receives grace and blessings or punishment depending on how he or she lived the life. The other set of faiths believe that life is cyclical; one is born continuously through re-incarnation and birthing in lower forms of life as a payment for living the wrong life or will complete the life cycle and get the salvation for living the life of goodness. Either belief set has the same essence - behavior modification in this life and sure justice at the end.
It is in the interest of our nation and the psyche of Indians to bring justice, as it brings to rest all the un-rest, so peace and prosperity can take root. Every individual should feel a sense of comfort that no one will take undue advantage of them, justice will prevail. It is the most secure feeling the Government of India can offer her Citizens.
.
Link: http://mikeghouse.blogspot.com/2007/10/gujarat-massacre-justice.html
.
Comments: http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2836166316876981645&postID=2928599973738160325&isPopup=true
.
Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker, Writer and a Moderator. He is president of the www.FoundationforPluralism.com and is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing interfaith, political and civic issues. He is the founding president of the www.WorldMuslimCongress.com with a simple theme: "Good for Muslims and good for the world." His personal Website is www.MikeGhouse.net and his articles can be found on the Websites mentioned above and in his Blogs: http://MikeGhouseforAmerica.Blogspot.com and http://MikeGhouse.Sulekha.com Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com For a full bio: http://www.mikeghouse.net/ProfileMikeGhouse.asp
TV channels blacked out in Gujarat as riot sting played
By IBNlive.com
Friday October 26, 10:23 PM
Ahmedabad: For the Patel family based in Ahmedabad, it
turned out to be a futile attempt on Thursday evening.
They couldn't see their favourite news channels while
the rest of the country sat glued to their TV sets,
watching the Tehelka expose on the horrors of 2002
riots. For many Gujaratis, the anxiety actually turned
out to be killing.
"We wanted to watch the programme, but TV is off since
Thursday," said an Ahmedabad resident.
The Gujarat Government blacked out several TV channels
on Thursday night after the channels started beaming a
sting operation done by Tehelka that accused Chief
Minister Narendra Modi of inciting the 2002 Gujarat
riots.
Moments after the channels started beaming the expose,
the state government got into action mode. The
District Magistrate of Ahmedabad, Dhananjay Dwivedi �
who is also the district election officer � directed
all cable networks not to show channels like CNN-IBN,
IBN-7 and Aaj Tak � the channels that were showing the
expose.
An order issued by the Ahmedabad District Magistrate
and District Election Officer Dhananjay Dwivedi said:
"From 19:30 hours (IST), onwards, dated 25.10.07,
there are programmes like Tehelka-Aaj Tak Khulasa,
Operation Kalank and Gujarat ka Sach being telecast on
Aaj Tak and IBN7 depicting visuals and statements of
people pertaining to the 2002 communal riots. As per
Clause 5 of the Cable TV Network Regulation, 1995, no
entity can broadcast or re-broadcast any programme,
which is not as per programming code."
Subsequently, all these channels went off air in most
parts of Gujarat from 1930 hours (IST) on Thursday.
The administration claimed it's a violation of Clause
5 of Cable TV Network Regulation, which deals with
broadcasting programmes which could create communal
tension.
The state authorities accused the TV channels of
spreading �more communal discord� in the state than
the people who actually featured on the Tehelka tapes.
For instance, the language used by leaders like Babu
Bajrangi, Haresh Bhatt, Dhabal Patel and Madan Dhanraj
in the tapes could easily turn the situation far more
dangerous than what was being shown, they say.
The Central Election Commission, however, washed its
hands off the controversy. It said it didn't issue any
such orders. The clarification came in the wake of
large-scale complaints from viewers all over Gujarat
that they were not able to watch the programme.
The three channels have remained off-air when reports
last came in as the ban order has no time-frame as to
when the ban will be lifted.
_______________________________________
OUTRAGED INDIAN AMERICANS DEMAND THE DISMISSAL OF
GUJARAT STATE GOVERNMENT IN INDIA
For Immediate Release:
Friday, October 26, 2007: Several prominent
Indian organizations and individuals based in US
& Canada are calling for the immediate dismissal
of the state government in Gujarat, India
following an exposé by the Tehelka news magazine
in which many top Hindu nationalist figures
linked to the administration admitted to their
active role in orchestrating and perpetrating the
massacre and ethnic cleansing of Muslims in 2002
in Gujarat. The exposé reveals active
participation of key state institutions including
police forces and judiciary in the anti-minority
pogroms.
Several national and international human rights
organizations including Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch have maintained since 2002
that the Gujarat government led by the BJP Chief
Minister Narendra Modi orchestrated these
pogroms. Following widespread protests by many
Indian American organizations, Modi was denied
visa by the United States administration in 2005
on account of his human rights record.
The Tehelka tapes present incontestable evidence
of the involvement of state machinery in the
massacre. It captures several confessions
including that of
- The state prosecutor Arvind Pandya who
stated that the "mass killings of Muslims in
Gujarat should be celebrated every year as a
victory day" and that "Every judge was calling me
in his chamber and showing full sympathy for me -
giving full cooperation to me, but keeping some
distance- the judges were also guiding me as and
when required - how to put up a case and on which
date- because basically they are Hindus"
- Another confession came from Babu Bajrangi
who stated that "to get me out of jail, [Chief
Minister] Narendra Modi changed judges thrice".
- Yet another MLA acknowledged that Modi gave
him "three days to do whatever violence they
wanted".
In a further disturbing incident that reflects
upon the dictatorial nature of the presiding
administration in Gujarat, reports are pouring in
from the ground that state government is forcing
the TV operators to block/censor the telecast of
the exposé.
The following organizations and individuals
endorsing the above statement are calling upon
the government of India for:
1. The immediate dismissal of the Narendra
Modi administration and imposition of President's
rule in Gujarat.
2. The immediate arrest of the all criminals
who have confessed their crimes in the Tehelka
tapes.
3. The transfer of all legal cases pertaining
to the Gujarat pogroms of 2002 to a court outside
of Gujarat.
Endorsing Organizations:
1. AFMI: American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin
2. AIM: Association of Indian Muslims
3. Dharma Megha
4. FIACONA: Federation of Indian American
Christian Organizations of North America
5. FOSA: Friends of South Asia
6. GMAA: Gujarati Muslim Association of America
7. India Foundation
8. IACP: Indian American Coalition for Pluralism
9. IMC-USA: Indian Muslim Council – USA.
10. IMRC: Indian Muslim Relief & Charities
11. International Service Society
12. NRI-SAHI: Non Resident Indians for a Secular and Harmonious India.
13. SANSAD: South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy
14. Seva International
15. SHRI: Supporters of Human Rights in India
16. Vedanta Society of East Lansing
17. Washington Watch
Endorsing Individuals:
1. Abraham Mammen (President, FIACONA)
2. Dr. Angana Chatterji (California Institute of Integral Studies)
3. Biju Matthew (Associate Professor, Rider University)
4. Firoz Vohra (President GMAA)
5. George Abraham (National Coordinator, NRI-SAHI)
6. Ghazi Akailvi (Chairman, SHRI)
7. Prof. Hari Sharma (SANSAD)
8. K S Sripada Raju (Director, Washington Watch)
9. Kaleem Kawaja (AIM)
10. Khalid Azam (IMC-USA)
11. Manzoor Ghaori (IMRC)
12. Ms. Mayuri Poddar (Director, Vaishnava Center)
13. Najma Sultana (NRI-SAHI)
14. Nasir Chhipa (Washington DC)
15. Nilesh Modhwadia (New Jersey)
16. Raju Rajagopal
17. Rasheed Ahmed (President, IMC-USA)
18. Saeed Patel (IACP)
19. Dr. Shaik Ubaid (Founder President ImanNet)
20. Dr. Shakir Mukhi (AFMI)
21. Shrikumar Poddar (Director, International Service Society)
CONTACT:
1. Dr. Hyder Khan, Supporters of Human Rights in India: Tel: 612-889-7334
2. George Abraham, NRI-SAHI, Tel: 917-544-4137
3. Rasheed Ahmed, Indian Muslim Council-USA: Tel: 630-670-8875
4. Dr. Shaik Ubaid, Indian American Coalition for Pluralism: Tel: 516-567-0783
RELATED NEWS:
Washington Post: Hindus Detail Involvement in Deadly '02 Riots in India
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/25/AR2007102501829.html
Sify: News Channels Blacked Out After Tehelka exposé
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14550638
Gujarat 2002 - The Truth: In the words of men who did it
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107gujrat_sec.asp
'To Get Me Out On Bail, Narendrabhai Changed Judges Thrice'
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107To_Get.asp
'All The Cops Helped, Even Gave Us Cartridges'
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107All_The_Cops.asp
'It Should Be Something History Has Never Seen'
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107It_should_be_something.asp
'They Hacked Him Bit By Bit, Then Burnt Him Alive'
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107They_hacked.asp
'Explosives Experts Helped Make The Bombs'
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107ExplosivesExperts.asp
'KG Shah Is Our Man. Nanavati Is Only After Money'
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107KG.asp
'Muslims, They Don't Deserve To Live'
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107NarodaPatyaMassacre.asp
Open Case: Gaping Loopholes; Shut Case: Proof Of Subversion
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107Godhra.asp
--
Read my blog at http://antihistory.blogspot.com
_______________________________________
Tehelka Fallout
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/news/article_1368957.php/Tehelka_fallout_clamour_for_Modis_ouster_BJP_on_defensive%0A_Roundup_
Oct 26, 2007, 14:06 GMT
New Delhi, Oct 26 (IANS) The Tehelka expose into the Gujarat 2002 communal violence Friday saw strong demands for the ouster of Gujarat chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s poster boy Narendra Modi as well as for his arrest and a fresh Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the carnage.
The Congress party, which was cautious in its initial reaction fearing a Hindu polarisation in the election-bound Gujarat, Friday demanded Modi's resignation for his alleged role in 'sanctioning' the communal violence in the state.
'If the constitution of India is to be upheld, if we still call ourselves a civilised society, if the right to life has any meaning at all, if human rights are to be upheld, Narendra Modi should immediately step down from public office,' Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said.
An undercover operation conducted by Tehelka weekly caught Hindu activists, accused in the sectarian violence, as alleging that Modi 'sanctioned' the 2002 riots, in which more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.
'The BJP needs to come clean on this issue and explain its position to the nation,' the Congress party said.
The BJP put up a brave face to the charges, and declared that the expose would in no way affect its prospects in the state assembly elections due in December.
BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters in the national capital that the BJP has asked the Election Commission to check the attempts at aggravating communal polarisation in the state through the expose.
Among others who attacked Modi was Congress ally and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad. He demanded immediate arrest of Narendra Modi and BJP leader L.K. Advani for 'orchestrating the mass murder' in the state after the Godhra train inferno.
'The sting operation by Tehelka aptly christened 'Operation Kalank' (disgrace) has exposed Modi's deep involvement in the post-Godhra Gujarat riots. People now know the real faces involved in the crime against humanity,' Lalu Prasad told reporters in Patna.
He added: 'Since Modi enjoys the patronage Advani, the opposition leader in the Lok Sabha, the latter cannot escape culpability for the mass murder.'
However, the railway minister echoed the apprehensions of the Congress leaders, who said Modi might use the sting operation and its fallout to polarise the voters. He said the BJP could utilise the sting operation to once again whip up passions in the state with an eye to the elections.
Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary A.B. Bardhan wanted the Election Commission to stop Modi from contesting the state elections. 'The Election Commission should ensure that all those involved in the incidents should not be allowed to contest the elections,' he said.
The state goes to elections on Dec 11 and 16.
Both the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Congress pleaded to the Supreme Court to expedite the cases pending against the culprits in the Gujarat genocide.
'The Tehelka tapes should be taken as prime facie evidence and the Supreme Court and the central government should move expeditiously to see that all those guilty are brought to justice.
'The central government and the law enforcement agencies have a special responsibility in this regard,' the CPI-M politburo stressed.
In a statement, Congress leader and Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said: 'We hope and pray that the Supreme Court will decide on the long pending requests before it expeditiously, to meet the ends of justice and to uphold the majesty and supremacy of law.'
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking him to order a fresh Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the Gujarat violence.
'The manner in which the direct involvement of the Gujarat government and some close allies of the ruling BJP has been brought to light in the sting operation ... clearly shows how the massacre of members of a particular minority was undertaken with evident state patronage,' the chief minister noted.
BJP spokesperson Prasad questioned the timing of the operation, saying: 'Has Tehelka done any sting operation against any Congress government, whether at the state or central levels?'
He charged Tehelka with acquiring benefits during the Congress regime and said one of Tehelka's investors, Shankar Sharma, had got heavy tax relief.
He said a judicial process was already underway in Gujarat to punish those guilty of violence. 'Court trials are on and a commission of inquiry is trying to come out with the truth about what happened there.'
In Ahmedabad, the BJP maintained a cool facade with state party chief Purushottam Rupala saying the expose would not impact on the party during the elections.
'These issues were the same as those raised during the 2002 elections. The outcome of that poll showed that they did not cut any ice with the electorate. If they did not have any impact then, it can hardly have any effect five years later,' Rupala told IANS.
He said the sting had no 'evidentiary value' under the Indian laws. 'The various matters raised were already before different courts. The allegations now will certainly have no impact,' he said.
http://www.hindu.com/2007/10/27/stories/2007102761521600.htm
Collector acted on his own, no order from Gujarat poll panel’
Special Correspondent
Cable operators refuse to say whether there was any instruction
AHMEDABAD: No instruction has been issued by the State Election Commission to black out telecast of the Tehelka expose on the 2002 communal riots. It seemed that Ahmedabad Collector Dhananjay Dwivedi issued an official order, on his own, to cable television operators in his jurisdiction to black out the telecast, sources in the Chief Electoral Officer’s office said.
The Commission is reported to be enquiring from the Collectorate the reason for issuing the order, copies of which were also sent to the Principal Secretary, the Home Department, the Chief Electoral Officer, the Ahmedabad Police Commissioner and the Office of the Entertainment Tax Commissioner.
Consequently, almost all news channels, barring a few, which had picked up the Tehelka expose and had been running discussions and reactions on the programme telecast since Thursday evening, were blacked out by cable operators in Ahmedabad, while showing the entertainment, sports and other channels normally. A large majority of the viewers in the State, particularly in urban areas served by the cable television network, could not view the expose. For, most networks had gone off the air since Thursday evening, just as Aaj Tak and Headlines Today started showing the Tehelka expose.
“Technical problems”
When contacted, cable operators declined to confirm whether there was any instruction from the government to switch off the channels. They claimed that they could not telecast the channels due to some “technical problems,” but could not explain how the problems occurred simultaneously in different parts of the State.
Voluntary organisations working for protection of human rights, condemned the Ahmedabad Collector’s order. The Delhi-based non-governmental organisation, Act Now for Harmony and Democracy, criticised the “undemocratic decision of the Gujarat government” to stop telecast by the news channels showing the Tehelka expose.
There was no official reaction from the State government on the Tehelka expose and Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who was accused of direct involvement in the post-Godhra riots, remained incommunicado. The BJP and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders who were shown in the sting operation went underground. Some of them were reported to have gone out of the State.
While Congress leaders are worried that the timing of the expose could again polarise Hindu votes in favour of Mr. Modi, State BJP spokesman Vijay Rupani said it would have no impact on the December Assembly elections. Blaming the Congress for “manipulating” the sting operation, he said, “Let any Muslim say he had been harassed in Gujarat in the last five years.”
State Congress president Bharat Solanki, refusing to comment on the expose, said, “Let people decide.” However, some senior Congress leaders, on condition of anonymity, said the expose had come at a very inopportune time for the party and Mr. Modi would try to present it as a concerted effort by his critics to “defame Gujarat” all over the world.
The then Minister of State for Home, Gordhan Jhadafiya, named in the expose as having supported the rioters, has turned a dissident and is hobnobbing with the Congress.
Most of the leaders named belonged to the VHP, but the Congress would not be able to take advantage of their dissatisfaction with Mr. Modi, these leaders point out.
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