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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Dismantling Terrorism

http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2008/07/dismantling-terrorism.html
Dismantling Terrorism in India - It is about pluralistic governance

Contents:
  1. Article by Mike Ghouse

  2. Article by Ramesh Thakur

  3. Article to read: http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2008/03/laser-barking-at-terrorists.html

  4. Comments

Indian government must be applauded and appreciated for handling the terrorism wisely. Ramesh Thakur has rightly pointed out the example of Jaswant Singh, India’s foreign minister who escorted the terrorist to get release of the hostages; it must go down in the annals of history as act of wisdom. While India’s approach towards terrorism has contained terrorism, Bush’s mindless aggression has increased terrorism, and it must be condemned for its stupidity. By the way, it is not an American aggression, as the American public is not with the administration and it is the act of the few, just as terrorism was the act of the few. Unfortunately our laws prevent us to take Mr. Bush off the Presidency and save the nation from further ruin, there is no such thing as a no confidence move to get him off, as we do in Israel, India, UK and other democracies. .
I expect a few comments on this piece to be raging with anger from those few loud mouths like the Fox, the Neocons and their ilk, who equate patriotism with supporting the government blindly. Criticism of the government amounts to being unpatriotic. I welcome those comments though, as we move towards encouraging pluralistic societies, we have to put all the cards on the table to effectively deal with the problem. Thank God for Cindy Sheehan, Mike Moore and thousands like them, who have saved us from a greater disaster in Iraq, they have fulfilled the most patriotic duty as an American, to keep the government in chuck. We need to save America from yet again another disgraceful act against Iran.


If some one murders on the street, his ass must be hauled off to Jail and must be tried for his crimes, and not bomb the whole country. We have to isolate the criminals and not lump them with their community. India has done a lot of wise things that we can learn from, including handling of terrorism and containing the evil to the specific act and has not let it spread to the whole nation, nor has it blamed a religion for the acts of the individuals. It is a good example of not making a mess of the situation.

A snap shot of Iraq in 2001 which had nothing to do with terrorism or 9/11; Neither the Sunnis were killing the Shia’s or vice versa. Except the reign of Terror of Saddam, there was no terrorism in the public square. It was progressive secular society and look at today what is happening.

Our aggression has created over half a million widows, who have no one to support but live their livelihood through the flesh trade, as the only supporters their brothers, fathers or husbands are dead. Our aggression has created massive unemployment causing the youth to resort to vandalism and leading to the Shia Sunni rift, a new phenomenon in Iraq because of our aggression. Unless we admit we are the cause of evil in Iraq, we cannot bring a resolution to our collective guilt and liberation and peace to us and the Iraqis. Our presence has caused so much death and destruction. The world has to be repaired from these ventures. Every war, every evil in the world can always be traced to hate filled insecure individuals; religion is just an easy target.

As Ramesh Thakur has pointed out, there is a lot of anger festering in the youth whose parents were burned alive in front of them, or were made homeless for no fault of their own. It was again like an act of Bush, killing the whole township for the evil acts of the few. India has room to set things right and continue to express and act on its traditional wisdom. It needs to bring justice to the people who have suffered in Gujarat, both the victims and victimizers without regard to the religion they wear. Injustice causes the victims to fester and keeps the spark of the anger alive; it can be extinguished only by bringing justice to every Gujarati. Without justice every one remains tense and alert on their toes and live in paranoia. We have an opportunity to live in peace, it is in our interest as Indians, as Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Jews, Tribals and others to put things behind. It can be achieved by repentance, justice and forgiveness. We have to move from cautionary living to unguarded living.

We cannot have peace, by un-peacing others.

Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker and a Writer. He is president of the Foundation for Pluralism and is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing interfaith, political 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 and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed at his personal website http://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

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Here is a good article by Ramesh Thakur
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080728.wcomment0729/BNStory/specialComment/home/

RAMESH THAKUR
Special to Globe and Mail Update
July 28, 2008 at 11:27 PM EDT

Seventeen bomb blasts in a 10-kilometre radius in 70 minutes on Saturday in Ahmadabad. Nine blasts in Bangalore, outsourcing capital of the world, on Friday. A country on the edge of panic.
The world shares in Indians' pain, anger and determination to face down the terrorists, to not give them the triumph of being cowed or the satisfaction of fomenting communal hatred and bloodletting. For security from acts and the fear of terrorism is indeed indivisible, and the world is the battlefield.
We have been here before. In 1993, twin attacks on Bombay's financial centre and Air India building were dress rehearsals of a sort for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York. Then, the world ignored how India and Southwest Asia had joined the front line of global terrorism. No longer.

The most immediate tasks will be to help the victims, tighten security, plug the fatal intelligence gaps and prevent outbreaks of violence against Muslims.

Chances are high the perpetrators will turn out to have pan-Islamic links with the banned Students Islamic Movement of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh or similar groups. All the more reason to insist that not all Muslims are terrorists and not all terrorists are Muslim.

Before the Iraq war, the leading practitioners of suicide terrorism were Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers: Hindus. The most ruthless terrorism in 1980s India was perpetrated by Sikhs. Europe, including Britain, has had its share of Christian terrorists. If anything, India's 140 million Muslims are a salutary negation of the facile thesis about Islam's incompatibility with democracy.

In a billion-strong country with an 80-per-cent Hindu population, the Prime Minister and army chief are Sikhs, the previous president was a Muslim and the power behind the throne is a Catholic of Italian origin — profound testimony to the pluralism and accommodation of India's complex and adaptable power-sharing arrangements. Democratic politics, political freedoms, civil liberties and religious tolerance must be protected at all costs.

But India earned its reputation as a soft state that can be intimidated into meeting terrorists' demands. Jailed terror suspects are released in exchange for kidnapped kin of political leaders. In December, 1999, in a day that will live in infamy in the annals of international terrorism, foreign minister Jaswant Singh personally escorted three terrorists to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in order to secure the release of passengers from a hijacked Indian Airlines flight. One of the freed terrorists was later implicated in 9/11. In response to an attack on Parliament in December, 2001, India mobilized its defence forces for a year along the border with Pakistan at great expense, only to send them back to barracks with no actual action — war-mongering without war.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the anger and disdain of the people for the tough rhetoric followed by no action of successive governments of all parties.

To break out of this trap, India must eliminate the corruption and politicization of the police forces and their antiquated training and equipment, as well as criminalization of politics. The number of parliamentarians with pending criminal cases is alarming. Terrorism thrives and prospers in such conditions.

India habitually points the finger of criminality at Pakistan, whose offers to help with the investigations are repeatedly spurned. Some foreign footprint — training, financing, arming — is likely. But for a foreign government to be able to infiltrate groups of Indians and recruit them to the terrorist cause indicates failures of intelligence and interdiction, on the one hand, and disaffection among sections of the population, on the other.

The intelligence agencies function as autonomous fiefs with little oversight and virtually no accountability for failures and lapses. This is matched by the flaws of the criminal justice system, which is rudimentary and lamentable by the standards of mature democracies.

Justice has neither been done nor seen to be done with respect to the large-scale atrocities against Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. They spawned a crop of angry and twisted young men whose rage can be channelled into lethal terrorist violence.

India also needs to be tough on the causes of terrorism. Poverty is not a direct cause, but it is an incubator of terrorism and a root cause of corruption. New Delhi needs to implement reform in order to maintain rapid economic growth. It also needs to solve its long-running territorial conflicts — more than 90 per cent of suicide terrorists aim to compel military forces to withdraw from territory they consider an occupied homeland. India's terrorism problem is specific to Kashmir, not generic to Muslims.

External involvement in Kashmiri militancy is not absent, however. The world must coax or coerce regimes that are tolerant of export-only terrorist cells to confront the menace. One group's terrorist cannot be tolerated as another's freedom fighter.

The blowback phenomenon has returned to haunt the West, which supported jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan. It also consumed Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. Pakistan remains in danger of tearing itself apart from the inside because of armed elements espousing a variety of foreign extremist causes. These South Asian neighbours must pool resources to root out the tyranny of terrorism throughout the region.

Ramesh Thakur is distinguished fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and professor of political science at the University of Waterloo.

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18 comments:

  1. Dear Bala Krishnan,

    It is a breath of fresh air to read your comments.

    First of all, I do not have barriers between me and any one of the 7 billion of us, it is not just me, an overwhelming majority Hindus, Muslims, Christians and people of every faith do not let anything become a barrier.

    Each one of us in this bracket simply wants to focus on raising a good family, earning a living, having a shelter and food for the family. They care less about the deviants who are bend on declaring the other less than them that is not important to them.

    You may consider being friends with normal people who do not spew hate towards any one, and most of them are that way. You will see hope for mankind when you are with them. They can belong to any religion.

    I did not write the article as a Muslim, I wrote it as an Indian who cares about every one. You will not find any accusation or hate towards any Indian, it was the caring you find in it. A majority of the people are like me, reach out and they are every where.

    Now, coming to your suggestions, they are indeed valid. We need to form an organization of people who are not prejudiced towards any one and are committed to building peace and prosperity for every Indian, as we are in that context.

    10,000 Maulvi’s gathered a few months ago and condemned terrorism; the media did not give a life to that idea, shame on them. When bad things happen you cannot expect each one of the 140 (approx) million Muslims to issue a condemnation statement, they are busy with their life, similarly you will never see 800 Million Hindus condemn every bad act that is done in the name of Hinduism, it is just impossible. There is no doubt there are bad apples among Muslims, the truth is bad apples are in every group, no matter how you slice it.

    I suspect that there are at least 1400 Muslims in India ( 1/1000 ths of 1%) who are extremists, who are willing to kill others, you probably will find 8000 (1/1000th) of Hindus who would do the same. Read the extremists Hindu and Muslim News papers, you get that. Even on Sulekha, you will find people who think the solutions to our problems are eliminating those we differ with, instead of the idea of co-existing.

    The extremists on both sides are bent on revenge with each other; they are the ones we need to work with. We can call it Management by exception. We have two ways of handling it;

    1) Eliminate them. (LOL)

    2) Push them to the corner and let them dig in their heels.

    3) When you oppress some one, you create more bitterness, when you befriend the bad guys, you are killing the evil.

    4) Be with them and learn them with the time, the peripheral extremist are really not extremists, but frustrated ones.

    5) Much of the effort will be bringing the extremists in to the mainstream society; i.e., the society that gets along with all and does not mind if you eat Apple Pie when they are eating Peach Cobbler.

    6) Then you get to the hard core extremists, who can be thrown into Jail, sent to rehabilitation or whatever the law of land allows. That is the hallmark of a civil society.

    7) A civil society lives without fear, and they have done all the things to keep Justice above all. When people feel justice will be served, they will not fear the wrong doers and watch themselves out as well.

    Muslims are making a lot of progress, but when some of these idiots do evil things like these bombings, it sets everything back. Thanks to the wisdom of our GOI (I am not a government liking kind of guy – but will not hesitate praising when they do it right; it is issue by issue and not wholesale). They have not let it spread.

    What Muslims, Hindus and every Indian ought to consider doing is to be a part of the society. Could you safely say that among some 20 of your friends, at least 8 of them are Muslims? I can proudly say that and most of my Muslim friends (it is a huge number) can also proudly say that.

    The change comes with the efforts of every one. There are Hindus and Muslims (I did not mean to exclude any one) out there in India, who may not know anything about the other. Shame on them to make a comment about the other, without knowing them.

    Please feel free to join the Indian Muslims, Hindu, Christian, Jain, Sikh and other discussion groups. Be a part of it, you will change your perceptions. Indeed, you will find a few extremists (all faiths) in each group and there are some, thanks God, are all extremists. I belong to all of them, I care and I want to know where each one is coming from, so we can learn to deal with them.

    The most important thing is consciously developing a language of inclusion, in this particular note, you will rarely find me, as a Muslim to write negatively about any one, it is not just me, there a millions like me, you just have to want to know.

    It takes two to tango.

    Mike Ghouse

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  2. Dear Mike Ghouse,
    Well we have exhausted all the heat in the first round that you came about praising the mode of response of GOI in responding to terrorist attacks vs Bush's response for the attacks on 9/11 and there after. Now you only propose that the bad guys only indulge in this heinous crime and all of Islam should not be bracketed as those that are good and have nothing to do with terror should not be punished mindlessly. Well that is a reasonable statement by any yard stick and no one in his right sense dispute it.

    Coming to brass tacks,it is incumbent upon you to suggest the ways and means of differentiating between the good and the bad in the community and also advise the general public about the existence of such recalcitrant elements that are potentially dangerous so that next time an explosion takes place they can be hauled up to justice, leaving the other members of the religion attend to their namaz with out any hindrance. Further the community should insist that the Mullahs and Kazis confine their preachings that will enhance peace and tranquility in society rather than paint the followers of all the other religions as fodder for the swords of Islam. All doubtful elements must be vacated from the precincts of religious places, and no arms and ammunition should ever be stored in the seat of Allah.If you could show to the world that this will be done and a begining is already made,then dear Ghose you have propagated your faith beyond all borders.

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  3. Mike,
    Its just like closing our eyes ans saying the world is black... Just because u close ur eyes the world is not black, it is what it is... About terrorism in INdia, the less said is better and India dismantling terrorism is a joke. it seems ur blog is making fun of it

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  4. Enzo,

    We have to face things squarely. India has handled terrorism very well. If it had gone the route of Bush (Not American, but Bush), it would have made a far greater mess... The collective wisdom, as opposed to knee jerk reaction has curbed terrorism..

    Every person in the world must condemn terrorism without blinking an eye, but how we handle the terrorist criminals must be done judiciously. We have to Isolate the terrorists as individual criminals and punish them and not make it bigger and include others, who have nothing to do with what the bad guys do.

    We can go bombard the neighborhoods they live... and kill every one around them? or Just them? Justness is the only thing that sustains.

    All these different opinions help formulate ideas that would be practical and reckons different thoughts. Thanks for sharing your views.

    Mike Ghouse

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  5. joker-ref-the film dark knight ..go all of your exe. comm members of your group--and see this anti hate and anti self destruction movie '' infidels''' have made as a humble attempt to instill humaneness within ALL of us..as verses of koran and geeta or bible wants us all to understand Jihaad is fighting the hate and violence within us all..but what about some punishment and action to prevent repeat inhumane tragedies inflicted upon by islamic fanatics..theology is the only answer..heard about 60 girls schools being blasted by these fanatics in ther SWAT valley of Pakistan NWFP?? they are a threat to all fight them help us fight them..do not defend them ..open the blind fold of green power to ensure a great future for all muslims and all everywhere ..we need more honest attempts than this more action than plain rhetoric and self propaganda..please we all are going to slide down in the history as people who did not accept facts and act on it timely..

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  6. Dear Santhemant,

    No religion teaches one to do evil, not one. In fact religions is a gaurd for people to stick to the civic norms of the society. Almost every one gets it, but a few don't. Religion is designed to combat the evilness in humans. Most get it, a few dont.

    Isolating the bad guys from the masses and then punishing them will be more effective than aimlessly pointing the blame towards the universe. It has to be specific.

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  7. Facts are facts and interepretations vary. But, most commoners and the general population go by perception. These are the preception among the common Indians in India:

    - The government has done nothing.
    - Most people agree that not all muslims are terrorists.
    - Most people also agree that muslims dont criticize one of their own.
    - By not aggressively isolating and criticising the Jehadi segment the rest are passive supporters
    - Many Imams double talk the Koran and actively contribute to jehadism
    - Over the last 20 years, most terror acts in the world have been committed by Jehadists
    - Most muslims believe that their way is the only way and isolate themselves from the rest by their lifestyle and rigid views.
    - Muslims believe in standing for eachother around the world and demonstrate even when terrorists are arrested or punished
    - Muslims subjugate women and follow different rules for non-muslims
    - Indian muslims believe that 10s of thousands were killed in Gujarat - while actually the numbers are 750 muslims and 250 hindus were killed.
    - every terror acts are justified citing 2002 Gujarat Riots, while no muslim wants to recognize the 1000 year atrocities of muslims committed on the Indian Hindus.
    etc...etc..

    Note the above are all perceptions. Facts can be countered by other facts. But, perceptions, real or imaginary, once entrenched are much harder to change.

    What you have suggested in your blog runs counter to the prevailing perception and beliefs among the Indians, and hence not practical. The fact is religion and geo-politics are inter-twined in the Indian subcontinent and cannot be undone that easily.

    Uppili

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  8. Dear Uppili,

    Good points, let me add to your notes about perceptions;

    1. Muslims have repeatedly condemned terrorism, a few months ago about 10,000 clericks gathered and condemned terrorism of any form. It got published in TOI and other paper, but the publicity was not given to it... as the right wingers wanted to keep the perceptions alive. It is a fact of life and it is also the responsibility of every Indian, regardless of their faith to work for a workable society of co-existence. Terrorism is evil and every one must condemn it. When our news media is unbiased, you will see that all people are same.

    2. Arrogance has crept into every faith, whereas arrogance is the reason for the conflict. It is just not those few muslims who claim that, but you will find the right wingers in every faith.

    3. It is not Muslims who subjugate women, it is the insecure men and they are in every faith. Even in a society like America, an equal number women are murdered by their husbands/ partners as women burnt for dowry in India. It is not a function of Religion, it is the function of men. We need to be honest about every one, if others do it, can I honestly say, we don't?

    4. The figure of 2000 Muslims killed is not put out by Muslims, it is by the media and I have not heard more than 2500 before. about 250 Hindus were killed to. If we follow the Islamic idea of killing one person is like killing the whole humanity or the Hindu idea of Vasudeva Kutumbam, we whould not have any deaths. Neither people are following their faith. It is not the religion, it is the individuals.

    5. It is a shame a few Muslims support the terrorist, but the vast majority does not. Just as all the 1 billion Indians did not condemen Gujarat, but knew that it was not right. Majority remains silent.

    Well, it is always good to exchange.

    Thanks
    Mike

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  9. A terrorist has no religion, a person with religion does not committ the crimes against humanity. The killers are deviants, and you will find them in every category, be it religion, caste, language or other criteria. They find it easy to hide behind the name of a religion, any religion and some of the people are gullible enought to buy that... blame religion.

    Blaming religion is running away from facing the criminals. You cannot punish a religion, you can punish an individual and let's focus on who commits the crime and punish them as individuals, regardless of the mask they wear. Let's not buy into religion for it is a way to chicken out or gather more frustration within.

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  10. Mg [like all secular pimps and clowns] equates ppl of all religions as equally militant, equally violent, by saying 'you will find in every category' which is a blatantly hitlerian lie. Goebbels' has to learn from mg.

    What he fails to learn is that he is running away from facts, which prove all savage serial mass murders are b/c of islamic hate/greed drive down the ages. The kuran talks of either killing the infidel or extorting infidel tax from them.

    India was too pluralistic and too secular already before islamic savage invasion. It is the muslims who have ruined both the pluralism and its secularism.

    Everywhere, you will expect more of the islamic or christian communalists to be unworthy of being friends with; but you would have the same ratio with either Hindu or Buddhist friends.

    If mg is for pluralism and peace, he will arrange for compensation for the HIndu victims of millennium long islamic hate crimes. That is the test. I am sure he will fail the test.

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  11. Dear Seetha Raghavan,

    Finding the truth is your own responsibility. You do have a good heart and desires to find solutions and I hope you’d focus on solutions that are sustainable; it comes with Justice to one and all. Hate for Muslims, Christians or any one is not good for you, turn your capabilities into producing positive things for all humans – regardless of their religion.



    You have a right to your opinion and that opinion is devoid of solutions in it at this time. Kuran does not tell any one to kill just as Bhagvad Gita does not say any one to rape and burn them alive. Individuals do those evils and not the religion. I hope you earn your freedom by challenging ideas that cause you to hate others.

    Please read the thread, you will find plenty of answers.

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  12. Dear MG
    Pardon me if I have hurt YOU as i never even dream of insulting Islam the disciplined one teaching brother hood and more..and also not to YOU too..as You as you are on to some good work benefitting all in the long run..''Biased against muslims.''!!.our discussion to find and treat the disease of terrorism has crossed some limits and so you are hurt .the Australiam PM note was just to tell you how western view us all ....we in India eat drink and merry with muslims.I am a doc- I am a brahmin but I eat with muslims..one takes my kids to school..they are part of my living as decent Indians..They pray namaaz in my hospital without bias..even those coming from ''signal falia '' godhara who were supposed to have taken part -some- in sabarmati carnage..are my patients ..I treat all lovingly..i train muslim medical reps who need help ..BUT CAN WEA LL BE BLIND TO FACTS ..EVENTS UNFOLDING BEFORE US ALL..?? We here want that all those who killed muslims innocents in the riots should be booked so should the sabarmati murderrers..bomb blasters ..akshardham mandir attackers ..pakistan ISI helpers locals...we write about that..but we are not blind to problem in our own house if one of my children is misguided and doing harm then we have to act to bring him back to the fold ..how can you sitting in usa imagine our lives here..we want only one thing ..all of hinduism is multi panthic and we believe all paths lead to thee with some basic tenets..NOW THAT IS THE PROBLEM FOR SOME MUSLIMS..FOR US NAMAAZ TO NIRGUN NIRAKAAR ALLAH IS DIVINE AND DWAITA ..BUT MUSLIMS ARE HAVING PLANS TO PAINT AREAS GREEN AND WE SEE DAILY HOW !! You open any channel on our 200 channel TV religious discourses ,you will find so much variations of paths christians Q tV and all ..are free here not like a islamic state... but attend some friday prayers as we pass some by and we all are hurt at the venom spewed by some..and now with these blasts unneeded they have crossed all the limits so we just want all Indians to join hands and help catch them..WHO ARE WE TO JUDGE ALL BUT FACT IS THAT not a single bomber has been caught uptill now as all have local help to escape and hide..so are these few elements WHO BOMB AND THOSE WHO HIDE THEM NOT traitors to the nation..?? WHAT ARE YOUR CRITERIA TO LABEL ANY EVIL??
    BEST WISHES AGAIN ..
    HAS

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  13. Dear HAS,

    I express my gratitude to your open mindedness; it benefits the soul who is more than the others.

    Please visit the website www.Foundationforpluralism.com – There is not an event I do without including any faith. Indeed, when my wife passed away about two months ago, I paid a tribute to her volunteerism, just as you serve the mankind without distinction. A full video will be up in a few days, till then there are pictures of members from 10 faiths praying for the world of co-existence.

    http://picasaweb.google.com/MikeGhouse/TheSpiritOfVolunteerismATributeToNajmaGhouse/photo#s5221241041749706642 and the accompanying two articles borne out of my speech http://www.mikeghouse.net/Articles/One-God-What-does-it-mean.asp and http://www.mikeghouse.net/Articles/Life-is-a-poem-of-love.asp

    Now coming back to your question – I) Muslims want to paint the area green – it is not a religious requirement, it is more of a cultural practice, if that bothers you, they should not paint it, if does not what the heck? Conflicts can be handled with commonality of a public place. As a Muslim I have fought against the placement of Ten Commandments in Public Square here in Texas, and just today I have protested against banning to view atheists websites in UK. I will defend the rights of every human and you will find plenty of Hindus, Muslims and other subscribe to that thought process.

    Mosque is the place of God and no venom must be spewed out of there (check out: http://hatesermons.blogspot.com/2008/03/hate-sermons-from-pulpit.html). If it is happening, please send me the information about them with their emails or phone numbers of the people in management, I will call them or write to them. They are wrong and I will contact them.



    What is my criteria? Let it be an universal criteria that all of us subscribe to it: To be religious is to be a peacemaker, one who seeks to mitigate conflicts and nurtures goodwill for peaceful co-existence. God wants us to live in peace and harmony with his creation; that is indeed the purpose of religion, any religion.



    Any one who messes that balance is causing pain to others and must be treated as a criminal and the law of the land must be enforced. We have to have the guts to get each one of those individuals who have hurt other souls, be it pick pocket, murdering family members, rapists, murderers… Labeling religion becomes political, as the intent is not the crime but the religion.



    We cannot look for peace in another soul, when we don’t have it in our own soul. Peace begins with me, you and each one of us, our actions, our words guide us to find solutions rather than aggravating the situation.

    With the exception of the few, all Hindus, Muslims, Christians… are good people.

    Blessings
    Mike Ghouse

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  14. Dear Bala,



    I could not agree with you more either.



    Yes, the change is coming and has been witnessed in the last 40 some years I am aware of the world (I am 56). India is the most beautiful place on the earth, there are only two places I want to live – India and the USA and no place else.



    I am proud of my heritage - a multi-faith, multi-cultural, multi-regional and multi-linguistic society, where we have come to accept and respect every which way people have lived their lives. For over 5000 years, India has been a beacon of pluralism - it has embraced Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Baha’i and Zoroastrianism to include in the array of the indigenous religions; Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism.

    India led the way to the freedom movement, since 1947 every country has been liberated from colonialism. Indian democracy is a shining example to the world, where the people have peacefully transferred the powers. Indians are inherently secular and economically capitalistic. They believe in "live-and-let-live" life style, which is the essence of capitalism.

    Through the years we have expressed the highest degree of maturity on handling extreme situations; the more divergent opinions we hear, the larger our heart grows, the bigger our embrace would be and we can cushion more differences. Let’s continue to honor the concept that there is always another side to the story, as finding the truth is our own responsibility.



    I wrote about 10 pieces on Taslima Nasrin, two of them are here. The Govt of Andhra Pradesh should have sued those MLA’s (Ugly men who wore the Muslim badge) for threatening another human being.



    http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2007/03/fatwa-condemned-taslima.html

    http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2007/11/asylum-for-taslima-nasrin.html





    Somnath



    I have to dig out the article I have written on the issue. First of all what Ghazni did was for himself, he was a robber and a looter like all other kings (Hindu, Christian or Muslim Kings). The king of yore had no other business than annexing next door state, looting, robbing and plundering. Look at Alexander, idiot dies at 29 or 39... all his life, all he did was fight. The European kings were notorious for that. Ghazni was another plunderer. He did not do it for Islam, he did it to fill the treasury, if he had done it for Islam, and I don’t see an institution, hospital or some such place that helps the nation. Neither any of the Muslims have inherited his loot. On the one hand to call him a Muslim King is wrong and on the other, Muslims have nothing to do with his plunder. There is so much condemnation among Indian Muslims against this man, and I am sure there are some who may support him, just as not all Hindus agree on one thing, nor does Muslims or any one.



    One of the most beautiful sentences in these exchanges is your sentence “All old things will have to pass and a new beginning has to be made”. I agree with you, we cannot change what has happened; we can change what we want in the future. Peace is a pluralistic thing; no one can have it, unless every one has it.


    You are a blessing Bala,


    Mike

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  15. Thank you MG for accepting my apologies for hurting you and your peaceful humane sentiments..by my comments as a Indian hindu.. It has taken a burden off my soul .My condolances to your soul for loosing your wife a life partner ..i know what death is and what pain is as I try to deal with it daily to the best of my ability.May your good work for others give you peace and some balm to endure this terrible loss.my prayers for her soul too.May your types increase and we all have a humane way of even agrreeeing to disagree on theology ..but the common path of just and lawful humane existance ..would not it reamin same for us all and our generations ahead..reaping full benefits of our struggles and labour till now??I am perplexed as a medical man after bombers bombed even our hospitals with timing to kill those like us all who went to serve and help those in pain!! Only thing is that it is not wrong for us all to expect those Indians who take all the good from us and help identify those who are killers-living within us -openly planning executing mass mrders of innocents..not angry outbursts like in ariot and counter response but cold blooded mass killings!!
    What do you think of Jammu strike by hindus of kashmir who are shocked that their kashmiri muslim- valley brothers and the JK politicians government refuses them even an inch of land for two months along the yatra route of amarnath yatra to make some makesift tents etc!!??is it fair that when muslims are in majority as in JK or in pakistan they can treat minorities in such away?? After hounding out all the pundits from the valley by mass murders ,the people of the whole valley is against hindus now so openly !!Like Mecca is for Islam, kashmir is the ancient seat of kashmir shaivism- the hh''Allah'' like Godly image of the almighty which many of us devote to. It is an ancient yatra for a hindu to attain what a muslim attains as he she goes to a HAJJ !! Bitterness is increasing and self destructive trends need stopping on all sides for the good of ther next generations ..let us all join hands..as we join them-mind and soul- we pray as a hindu and when we open them to see ourselves and remember HIM we pary to the ALLAH..both communities need remebering this as they pary--do what others do and see the divinity increase within us all...
    Best wishes
    has

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  16. Dear Mr. Ghouse

    If you and Muslims like you really want to be part of Indian society in the true sense of the word and not the pc sense then you have to accept and respect the vision of those who framed the constitution. Our constitution takes inspiration from modern ideas of personal liberty, rationalism, humane laws among many other great concepts that make a progressive nation. Unfortunately those who want to enjoy the goodies that the constitution guarantees like right to vote, right to run for elections, etc. etc. do not come gratis. There is a price that has to be paid. That price is your socio-religio-cultural values or at least some of those that do not conform to the spirit of the constitution. The problem is you don't want to pay that price, but you want to enjoy all those goodies. I mean how can you openly practise gender discrimination if you talk about being a part of this society? How can you force governments to reverse court judgments?
    How can you swear by the MPL and in the next breath talk about being part of a modern, progressive society?

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  17. Erad,

    Our culture is made of diversity, our tradition has accepted every which way one lives; we are a beacon of co-existence in the world. We do have problems, these are the new problems that have made a print on our history, some of them are stains, and we have to live with them. The greater life has all the components to it, good, bad and ugly.

    I am dismayed at your words “... you really want to be part of Indian society”. I hope you were born and raised in India and if you were, you would know that every one of the 1.1 Billion inhabitants of that land are Indians and belong to the Indian society. No one has to look like you, talk like you, eat like you and behave like you. How many Indians should be like you?

    Do you live in India? Shame on us; that the evil of gender discrimination continues to persist. If you think it is Muslims, you do not live in this world. The problems is men; men wanting to control women. Hindus do, Muslims do, Christians do, Sikhs do… it is inhuman but human to evil. Go out on the street if you do live in India – asked 100 of each one of the Hindu, Muslim, … women, ask honest questions, let the sample be to find the truth and not to prove bias.

    India is a democracy, is it not? The Shahbano case you are referring to was wrong, but if the court makes that decision, that is part of the democracy. Why blame Muslims? There are a lot of things we have where Money, political figures or protests change the make of our administrations… Bofor scandal…Godhra, Gujarat… and everything you can imagine… justice is still not served. We have to look to India as one whole, Vasudeva Kutambam, if one part does not function well, other parts don’t either. We have to fix the larger problem.

    Let’s throw biases out of the window, if others don’t, at least you and I can do without keeping a score. Pahlay my, baad aap. Let it begin with me. Let my words and my actions contribute towards building bridges and hope yours too.

    Mike Ghouse

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  18. Dear HAS (Santhament)

    Thank you for your kind words, indeed, your words open the doors for communications and this is the right thing to do. To find solutions and not aggravate the conflicts.

    I was surprised about the Kashmiri Muslims not giving an inch to their Hindu brothers. We need to go beyond the politics and figure out the real reason, so we can find real and lasting solutions. Unfortunately, I have not done much reading on it, but on the surface it is wrong. The best way is to have a delegation of the Hindus and Muslims sit down in an open, non influential (money, politics…) environment and learn the fears and find a solution. In the interest of peace for us and for our kids, we need to find solutions and not flare it up big that it becomes deep seated resentment, which does not do any good to any one.

    Bad guys are not new to the World; they have been around from the times immemorial, in one form or the other. Lord Ram had to deal with Ravana, Lord Krishna had to deal with Adharmic society, which was Hindu at that time and Prophet Muhammad had to deal with the Adharmic people in his days… Mahatma Gandhi had to deal with Adharmic injustice by the King’s representatives, Moses had to deal with Adharmic Pharaohs who wanted every male baby killed to feel secure… The bad guys were Adharmic because – i) they did not get their own religion in their blood stream ii) perhaps those bad guys did not know how to express their problems and bring a solution to them.

    Those of us, who call ourselves civil, pluralistic, Hindus, Muslims or whatever, have to act in civil terms to bring about a resolution that is sustainable. If some one in your office goes against your plans, you hold him or her in grudge and are more than eager to turn that person's proposal down when you get a chance. Both of you get into that battle of revenge and showing the other…the power of the moment. That is waste of time and energy.

    Terrorism or any evil of the society must be handled to solve it for the long time, not for today, as it will resurface tomorrow.

    Mike Ghouse

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