Sikhs and Homeland Security

Sikhs Appeal to Department of Homeland Security

One of the most cherished values of our nation is "liberty and justice for all". Sometimes, we overlook what liberty really means and step on it occassionally. We hope Michael Chertoff will consider the new law that contradicts this principle and he will get the people involved in he decision, that which affects them.

Please read the petition below and sign your name to support, yet another appeal to repeal the law that undermines our liberty.

Mike Ghouse, President
Foundation For Pluralism & World Muslim Congress
2665 Villa Creek Dr, Suite 206
Dallas, TX 75234
http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/
________________________________________

Stop Religious Profiling in US Airports

Michael Chertoff
Secretary of Homeland Security
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D.C. 20528

Dear Secretary Chertoff,

We are writing to you because we are very concerned about a recent policy shift in screening procedures for the Sikh turban in United States airports. It is our understanding that on August 4, 2007, the Transportation Security Administration ("TSA") changed a longstanding policy on security screenings, recommending that passengers with turbans be pulled aside for secondary searches. This means that millions of Sikh travelers will be singled out based on their religious practice, violating the spirit of religious pluralism that is a founding principle of this country.

We request that you meet with representatives of the Sikh community and other concerned communities to resolve our concerns. We want to work with TSA to develop a policy that will balance the nation's security concerns with the civil rights of those who wear religious headdresses.

As you may be aware, Sikhs are required to wear turbans as an article of their faith. The turban, worn over unshorn hair, signifies a Sikhs' commitment to God, justice and to uphold the principles of her faith. Touching a Sikh's turban is a significant affront to her religious practice. In its new policy, the TSA equates searching turbans to searching a cowboy hat or a beret. This is unacceptable. A turban is a form of religious garb, not a fashion statement.

TSA officials have admitted that the new policy, which specifically cites turbans as an example of headwear that could be used to conceal "threat items," was not thoroughly researched. Nobody responsible for this policy thought it necessary to familiarize themselves with the turban, or even confirm that a "threat item" could indeed be hidden in a turban. Nevertheless, without consulting the concerned communities, and with minimal guidance offered to their TSA screeners, the TSA's new procedures were implemented nationwide.

The TSA has also kept the new screening procedures a secret. This leaves affected communities without a meaningful opportunity to comment upon the policy, or understand how their religious practice may be affected when flying. In addition, the policy on its face is vague and gives screeners unwarranted discretion to engage in possible religious profiling. According to over two dozen reports received by the Sikh Coalition so far, it is clear that TSA field officers nationwide are interpreting the new procedures broadly to target Sikh turbans. This religious profiling also puts an official stamp of approval on the public's stereotyping of Sikhs, Muslims, Arabs and South Asians as terrorists.

Again, we request that you take up this matter urgently, and meet with our community groups to resolve the concerns raised by this new policy. While we fully appreciate the Department of Homeland Security's need to protect our citizens, the practical implementation of this policy means that screeners are conducting religious profiling. We strongly encourage the TSA and the Department of Homeland Security to reconsider their implementation of these new procedures.

We thank you for your immediate consideration of this matter, and look forward to receiving your response.

Sincerely,

The Sikh Coalition, undersigned co-sponsors and concerned citizens worldwide

Please click the following link and do the needful:
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1607/t/380/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=304

Co-sponsors

Asian American Justice Center
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF)
Darbar-e-Khalsa
Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition
Guru Gobind Singh Foundation, Maryland
International Institute for Gurmat Studies
Legal Access Network for South Asians
Sikh Council on Religion and Education
South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow (SAALT)
World Muslim Congress
Foundation for Pluralism
___________________________________________

From: Neha Singh [mailto:]
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2007 1:29 PM
To: Amardeep Singh
Subject: Your Help is Needed: Sign on as a Co-Sponsor By Noon Sunday

Dear Friends,

We are writing to request that you sign on to the attached petition letter to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, expressing our opposition to the TSA’s new headwear screening policy that effectively requires TSA screeners to conduct mandatory secondary screenings of all religious turbans.

The TSA’s new procedures reflect a reversal of longstanding policy that allowed for religious turbans to be screened only if they indicated a potential threat. The new policy is unacceptable because

1) it specifically lists the turban as an example of headwear that can be subjected to secondary screening at the discretion of the screener;

2) the new procedure and guidance on how to implement them have been kept a secret;

3) the procedures (given the limited information on them released to the public) are disturbingly vague;

4) the new procedures were created without consulting any Sikhs or Sikh organizations.

Thank you to those of you who have already reached out for us. Please let me know as soon as possible, preferably by noon on Sunday, August 26, 2007, whether your organization will sign on to the petition as a co-sponsor. If you have any questions or comments, you can reach me at the number below

Please also send out the link to our petition to your respective email lists and/or relevant listservs. The petition is available online at

http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1607/t/380/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=304

If you’d like further information, please see the update and community advisory attached below.

Thank you all for your support at this difficult time.

Kind regards,

Neha Singh

Advocacy Director / Staff Attorney
The Sikh Coalition
40 Exchange Place, Suite 728
New York, NY 10005
Ph: 212.655.3095 (ext. 84)
Fax: 212.208.4611
www.sikhcoalition.org
To learn more about the Sikh Coalition, watch: http://alsolikelife.blip.tv/file/17779

Policy Update:

Here’s what we know about the TSA’s new screening procedures for religious headwear: Our meeting with TSA officials in Washington, D.C. yesterday was very troubling. We were told that the TSA’s new policy, intended to target “non-metallic threat items,” allows individual screeners to decide whether they believe someone’s headdress may be able to conceal such an item. That means that 43,000 individuals nationwide who are charged with our security, but have very little idea of what goes under a turban or how to pat it down, now have the right to freely profile everyone that walks through a metal detector with something on their head in US airports. Whether or not a metal detector sounds an alarm, we are told, is irrelevant. Individual TSOs have the right to pull aside anyone with headgear that they think is suspiciously spacious.

Even more outrageous is that the official guidelines accompanying the new policy explicitly cite Sikh turbans as an example of something that could hide a threat item. When asked, the Assistant General Manager of the TSA’s Office of Security Operations admitted that nobody in his office had actually checked whether something could be hidden inside a turban. By leaving community groups out of the decision-making process, the TSA chose to forego adequately researching their new policy. In addition, no cultural sensitivity training has been provided on the topic; no safeguards have been implemented to ensure that this policy achieves its purpose without infringing on anyone’s civil rights. Since the language of the policy is still a secret, we have no idea how broadly it will be interpreted, and whether it can also be expanded to include hijabs, skullcaps or other forms of religious headdress.

While the TSA went to great lengths to explain that the policy is not a mandatory pat-down, but allows for screener discretion, officials seemed oblivious to the fact that in practice, they had just given their employees the right to profile anyone they choose. According to dozens of reports received by our office, TSA officers around the country are implementing this as a mandatory turban pat-down procedure. Saying that religious turbans are an example of something that could contain a terrorist weapon also acts as an official stamp of approval on the turban = terrorist assumption that so many people already make about Sikhs. Not to mention the fact that non-metallic items can be hidden anywhere else on the body as well – your trouser pockets, under your t-shirts, or in your socks. Why then target people for wearing cloth on their heads instead of patting down anyone in a pair of pants?

I’ve also attached below a copy of the advisory we sent to community members yesterday, informing them of what we learned at the meeting.


From: The Sikh Coalition [mailto:updates@sikhcoalition.org]
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 8:36 PM
To: pritpal@sikhcoalition.org
Subject: TSA Confirms New Airport Turban Search Policy

http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2007/08/appeal-to-homeland-security.html

God's Warriors - You Tube

God's Warriors - You Tube Links

Below is the 'New York Times' review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/arts/television/21warr.html?ex=1345348800&en=947247068e448e68&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Television Review 'God's Warriors'
By NEIL GENZLINGER
Published: August 21, 2007

Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent, is more tour guide and history teacher than reporter in “CNN Presents: God’s Warriors,” and that makes this ambitious look at three flavors of religious fundamentalism less than it could be.

This three-part series, which begins tonight on CNN, is a fine primer on the emergence of strains of Judaism, Islam and Christianity that want to fuse politics and religion, and have shown a willingness to blow things up and kill people to do it. But too often Ms. Amanpour relies on talking heads rather than on actual representatives of these groups, and when she does get a live specimen she rarely bores in with hard, blunt questions. Maybe that’s by design; the point seems to be to describe rather than challenge. Still, given the waves these movements are making, it would be nice to hear their leaders talk about what specifically they have to offer the world.

Tonight’s opening installment, “God’s Jewish Warriors,” seems particularly timid, spending more time than necessary on clips of the Six-Day War and other familiar historical episodes. The warriors are Jews who have forcefully pushed settlements into areas even the Israeli government has placed off-limits, making political inroads at the same time. We’ve already heard quite a lot from these people; Ms. Amanpour’s most interesting contribution is a segment on the fund-raising in the United States that supports them.

“God’s Muslim Warriors,” tomorrow, is sharper, with Ms. Amanpour finally showing some aggressiveness, on the issue of women’s rights under radical Islam, brashly confronting leaders about things like stonings. But mostly she’s polite and lets her subjects stay in their comfort zones. The most compelling interview in the segment is not with a radical but with a former radical, Ed Husain. And it turns out he’s just hawking a book.

In Part 3, “God’s Christian Warriors,” on Thursday, the focus shifts to the United States and its electoral politics. The issues on these Christian warriors’ minds seem positively quaint next to the agendas of the people in Parts 1 and 2. The episode includes the final interview with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who died in May.

GOD’S WARRIORS

CNN, tonight at 9, midnight and 3 a.m., Eastern time; 6, 9 and midnight, Pacific time.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN chief international correspondent; Andy Segal, Jen Christensen and Steve Goldberg, contributors; Kathy Slobogin, managing editor; Mr. Segal, Michael Mocklar and Ken Shiffman, senior producers; Cliff Hackel and Dave Timko, directors, editors and producers; Brian Rokus, Ms. Christensen and Julie O’Neill, producers; Jody Gottlieb, executive director of CNN Productions

The following are youtube links to all parts of the program.

Jewish (10 parts)

Part # 1 http://youtube.com/watch?v=kkKhPLAyDsM
Part # 2 http://youtube.com/watch?v=g47YAGodTs0&mode=related&search=
Part # 3 http://youtube.com/watch?v=vN0S0FsE_Sw&mode=related&search=
Part # 4 http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZPa9Q6YN9HU&mode=related&search=
Part # 5 http://youtube.com/watch?v=r1QKb7Sp40o&mode=related&search=
Part # 6 http://youtube.com/watch?v=oAAmhFkZvkE&mode=related&search=
Part # 7 http://youtube.com/watch?v=j9HnqC541l0&mode=related&search=
Part # 8 http://youtube.com/watch?v=KdFir1MOVKg&mode=related&search=
Part # 9 http://youtube.com/watch?v=mIjUP7Xw_3Y&mode=related&search=
Part # 10 http://youtube.com/watch?v=EsgrG-84nBo&mode=related&search=


Muslims (11 parts)

Part # 1 http://youtube.com/watch?v=xh7WkyaeRBg
Part # 2 http://youtube.com/watch?v=snKtyovqWno&mode=related&search=
Part # 3 http://youtube.com/watch?v=NCEQLxKXUl0&mode=related&search=
Part # 4 http://youtube.com/watch?v=1Y0d4JfPQHU&mode=related&search=
Part # 5 http://youtube.com/watch?v=9mVwooXM9Iw&mode=related&search=
Part # 6 http://youtube.com/watch?v=29IdBQDmv00&mode=related&search=
Part # 7 http://youtube.com/watch?v=aJ5MlkInAtc&mode=related&search=
Part # 8 http://youtube.com/watch?v=2Lzy6pGkEqo&mode=related&search=
Part # 9 http://youtube.com/watch?v=KgCwH6VqmRU&mode=related&search=
Part # 10 http://youtube.com/watch?v=NBmmpM9t75w&mode=related&search=
Part # 11 http://youtube.com/watch?v=9igkCXGEFoI&mode=related&search=

Christians (11 parts)

Part # 1 http://youtube.com/watch?v=orG59apfX9I&mode=related&search=
Part # 2 http://youtube.com/watch?v=uZjFs7ybny4&mode=related&search=
Part # 3 http://youtube.com/watch?v=5IuGgfEqpIE&mode=related&search=
Part # 4 http://youtube.com/watch?v=Vc-jlPEP0Dg&mode=related&search=
Part # 5 http://youtube.com/watch?v=1mz3bUIlzOc&mode=related&search=
Part # 6 http://youtube.com/watch?v=lguc7MVV0C0&mode=related&search=
Part # 7 http://youtube.com/watch?v=xU_tHCclmb8&mode=related&search=
Part # 8 http://youtube.com/watch?v=iq3hJE2bBSg&mode=related&search=
Part # 9 http://youtube.com/watch?v=cNkAFOx5KUI&mode=related&search=
Part # 10 http://youtube.com/watch?v=FaDxUs4-52s&mode=related&search=
Part # 11 http://youtube.com/watch?v=bvgNOmI4Yqs&mode=related&search=

Congressman Tom Tancredo

Congressman Tom Tancredo
Mike Ghouse

Thanks to the laws of the United States of America, and our constitution that I regard as a sacred document for managing the affairs of the citizens. Had it not been for our laws, there was a possibility that Tom Tancredo could bomb other nations holy places for the mistakes some one else makes. Isn't that called barking at the wrong tree?

What would Pat Robertson do, if we did not have the laws of our nation in place? Murder Chavez? Condemn Ariel Sharon? Forcibly convert the Moslems (Muslims) and Hindoos (Hindus)?

Thanks God we live in America, and thanks God we have the best laws in the community of Nations. The following is a 6 minutes interview between Anderson cooper, Tom Tancredo and Edina Lekovic.

We the people of the United states of America ought to consider dumping elected officers who create chaos, panic and fear among people. We ought to dump any public officer who is a war monger and a causer deaths, hates and eventual genocide. We are a free nation, they have the right to say and do what they want as individuals, but not as representatives of the people when it comes to destruction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94nqB-7hNi8&mode=related&search=


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 interfaith, political and civic issues. He is the founding president of the World Muslim Congress 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. For a full bio: http://www.mikeghouse.net/ProfileMikeGhouse.asp . He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com

Mike Ghouse Office: 2665 Villa Creek Dr, Suite 206, Dallas, TX 75234 USA

Indian Muslims Visiting Israel

INDIAN MUSLIMS VISITING ISRAEL
Mike Ghouse, Dallas , Texas – August 15, 2007

On the occasion of India ’s 60th Independence Day, as an Indian American and a Muslim, I wholeheartedly welcome the Indian Muslims delegation in Israel. We cannot achieve peace without facing each other, talking with each other, shaking hands with each other and breaking the bread together. Another Indian legend Mother Teresa had said “if you want peace, talk with your enemies and not your friends” a good advice to Jews and Muslims alike.

We have to break the stereo types that we unintelligently ascribe to each other, in this particular situation “Muslims are out to get Israel and Jews are merciless “. It is as wrong as the flatness of the earth. The first step towards peace is cleaning up our minds towards each other.

The world’s dynamic equilibrium was going out of synch when fascism was taking root in the early nineties, the governments cradled in democracies were losing the essence of the idea of government of the people by the people, it was rather becoming “government of the oligarchs.” Thanks God, the changes are on the horizon, the unilateralists are fading and the silent majority is taking the steps to speak up.

The world peace is not someone else’s responsibility; no one can live safely if the world around him/her isn’t. It is each one’s responsibility to strive for a better world and a world of co-existence. We are encouraged with the bold steps by Hazrat Maulana Jameel Ahmed Ilyasi, who has led the delegation of Indian Muslims to Israel .

"We are coming with the message of peace and goodwill from Indian Muslims who believe in the Indian tradition of resolving issues through dialogue and peaceful means,” said Hazrat Maulana Jameel Ahmed Ilyasi and continued “Our visit to Israel will be historical in terms of developing a dialogue between Judaism and Islam in the Indian subcontinent, where more than 40 percent of the world Muslim population lives. Interaction with both Palestinian and Jewish sisters and brothers and their religious leadership will lay a solid foundation for future engagement," Maulana llyasi said .

The American Jewish Committee reported that when the Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger visited India and met with the Muslim leaders, a joint declaration was made by the parties “that while relations between Muslims and Jews have deteriorated in the course of the last century as a result of political factors, “It is high time for the religious leaders of both sides to engage in dialogue and use their collective influence to stop the bloodshed of innocent civilians. Rather, we need to condemn killings, reject extremism, and the misuse of religion for acts of violence. Suicide is a forbidden act in Islam and therefore suicidal attacks can not find sanction.”

True leadership is recognition of what will work, and leading the people, despite the hurdles, to the right end goal. Truth ultimately triumphs, as we call it Satyameva Jayate in Sanskrit, Gandhi believed in it and led the nation to freedom from the greatest empire on the earth, despite every possible hurdle you can imagine. His commitment was un-wavering and many finally saw the light, at the end.

It is all about good will and a genuine desire for peace. We hope this step encourages other groups to take similar steps and Israel to reciprocate the goodwill with a firm commitment like Gandhi’s.

Each day, we have to wrap up with a question "What have I contributed to peace in me and around me?". If the answer is positive, then you'd sleep well.

Mike Ghouseis a Speaker, Thinker, Writer and a Moderator. He is president of theFoundation 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 the World Muslim Congress 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 . He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town

Muslims demand an apology

Muslims demand an apology from MIM.
Let not this behavior go unaccounted.
Mike Ghouse, August 10, 2007

“We were all set to kill her”, said Majidullah Khan about Taslima Nasrin. It is an atrocious condemnable statement. it is time to reflect and figure out how to prevent this from happening now and in future.

The incident happened in Hyderabad, India on August 9th. The Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (MIM) has warned that it will not allow Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin to go back alive if she dared to come back to the city while the Majlis Bachao Tehreek claimed that their plan to kill her was foiled by the MIM attack.

"We are very proud of our MLAs and activists who assaulted her," said MIM leader and Member of the State Legislature Akbaruddin Owaisi. "We will implement the fatwa issued against Taslima if she comes to the city again."

Killing or threatening to kill is a crime in India, punishable by a life sentence to life itself. The above named men in their misplaced fervor claim to represent Islam while Islam forbids killing an individual. Qur’aan 5:32, “Because of this did We ordain unto the children of Israel that if anyone slays a human being-unless it be [in punishment] for murder or for spreading corruption on earth-it shall be as though he had slain all mankind; whereas, if anyone saves a life, it shall be as though he had saved the lives of all mankind.”

As Muslims of India and the Muslims around the globe, we urge Mr. Owaisi and Mr. Farhat apologize to not only Ms Nasrin but the Muslims of the world for the audacity of insulting them by speaking in their behalf without their permission. These misguided individuals should be indicted for threatening to kill, under the Indian penal code.

As Muslims of India and Muslims around the globe, we urge Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy and Home Minister K. Janardhana Reddy to ask the MLA to resign from the Legislature for violating the spirit and the word of the constitution of the Republic of India.

Taslima Nasrin is a rebellious writer and raises her voice when something appears unjust to her. We do not condone many of her provocative statements. However much we may disagree with her; her right to speak must be defended. We are a democracy and in a true functioning democracy, criticism ought to be cherished, as it keeps the leaders on their toes. Islam has a built-in system to incorporate new ideas through discussion and consensus called Ijtihad. She is in essence calling for Ijtihad, whether some consider her to be a Muslim or not, does not matter, the issues do matter.

Hecklers, all over the world are unwelcome, however, the test of decency and civilization is to allow free speech. Often they indulge in cat calls of stupidest statements, no matter what race, nation, or status they have including some presidents, but occasionally they do bring in important points to the dialogue, where many voices are not being heard.

When the Movie, ‘Passion of the Christ” was released, members of the Jewish community were wary of the release, fearing an increase in anti-Semitism. A Danish newspaper printed cartoons that were disparaging of the Prophet Muhammad, causing a disruptive few to create havoc around the globe in the name of Islam. When the movie Water was released, Deepa Mehta was castigated by many Hindus for the portrayal of widowed girls being forced into prostitution, the cast and crew was vandalized by a few in the name of Hinduism. President Carter released a book about the apartheid treatment of Palestinians (both Christian and Muslim Palestinians) in Israel, he is being harassed, even in the model American democracy, a few are intolerant.

US Congressman Tancredo called for Nuking Mecca, The Rev. Pat Robertson called for assassination of Hugo Chavez the President of Venezuela because he is a severe critic of Bush Policies. Intolerance is on the rise all over the world, Muslims have their own share, no single group has monopoly on intolerance. No society or a culture is ever perfect.

These are the dynamic values constantly changing with interaction within and without the various societies and sub-cultures. Screaming at Taslima, Deepa, Mel, President Carter or Tancredo will not make the problem go away. The right of free speech protects all of us, but it is not free speech to incite murder to suppress free speech.

There are a lot of injustices in the world; Free speech allows us to have our say to struggle against the perceived injustices. Justice is the key to peace for a nation or a community, without which peace is in peril.

Whether it is coming from Salahuddin Owaisi, Bal Thackeray or any one else, they should be answerable in the court of justice, file a law suit for a public threat or disturbing the peace. Let's take a principled stand on all the issues; if it is good for one, it has got to be good for others. Let justice be the corner stone of our democracy.

Solution:

File a law suit against Mr. Owaisi and Mr. Farhat for inciting and threatening to kill another human being. Let’s put the blame squarely on the wrong doer and not his family, town, culture or his religion. If we make the mistake of giving them a religious label, that in itself is inciting hatred. The mistakes were made by those men and not their religion.

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 interfaith, political and civic issues. He is the founding president of the World Muslim Congress 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 . He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town

Continuous Updates below:

Indian penal code that they can be charged - August 11, 2007
Islam does not condone gangsters - August 10, 2007
Taslima and her technicolor boat - August 11, 2007
Muslim intellectuals condemn -August 10, 2007
Attacks on Taslima Reprehensible - August 10, 2007
They could have killed her - August 10, 2007

---------------------------------------------

INDIAN PENAL CODES

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Hasni, thanks for the forward about today - Indeed, we have the penal codes to sack the members of MIM and clear the branding of Muslims or Islam with such acts of individuals.

TIMES OF INDIA


Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen's fresh threat on Friday that it would "not spare" Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen the next time she visited Hyderabad compounded the crime its MLAs and activists had committed when they attacked her at a book release function. They can be prosecuted under following provisions of IPC: -

Section 503 defining criminal intimidation. "Whoever threatens another with any injury to his person ... with intent to cause alarm to that person or to cause that person to do any act ... or to omit to do any act ... as the means of avoiding the execution of such threats, commits criminal intimidation." -

Section 506 penalising criminal intimidation: "Whoever commits the offence of criminal intimidation shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years ...; and if the threat be to cause death or grievous hurt ..., shall be punished with imprisonment ... which may extend to seven years." -

Section 350 defining criminal force: "Whoever intentionally uses force to any person, without that person's consent, in order to the committing of any offence, or intending by the use of such force to cause, or knowing it to be likely that by the use of such force he will cause injury, fear or annoyance to the person to whom the force is used, is said to use criminal force to that other." -

Section 351 defining assault: "Whoever makes any gesture, or any preparation intending or knowing it to be likely that such gesture or preparation will cause any person present to apprehend that he who makes that gesture or preparation is about to use criminal force to that person, is said to commit an assault." -

Section 352 penalising assault or criminal force: "Whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any person ... shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months ..."

Section 355: "Whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any person, intending thereby to dishonour that person ... shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years ..." -

Section 120B penalising criminal conspiracy to commit any illegal act. The offender will be punished as if he had abetted that crime. -

Section 153A: "Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representation, promotes or attempts to promote on grounds of religion .., disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious ... groups ... shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three years."

------------------------------------------------------
Islam does not condone Gangsters
Mirza A. Beg, Friday, August 10, 2007


The attack of Tasleema Nasreen in Haydrabad, India and threatening her life is one more example of the impotent rage by religious bigots, because they find themselves incapable of living the ideals of their religion, and meeting the intellectual challenges.

I have not read the writings of Tasleema Nasreen, a citizen who has been chased from her native Bangladesh, currently living in India. Therefore I have no opinion on her writings. For the sake of discussion let us assume that what her detractors say is correct about her writing. It should not be difficult to prove her wrong by writing rebuttals, most of all by living the humane tenets of Islam. They do not seem to have faith in their own capabilities, or the greatness and grandeur of Islam to with stand small pin-pricks.

They find the low road of violence easy to take. It is uncivilized and un-Islamic, behavior, of brawn over brain. Intimidation and extortion are the only values they understand and practice. They neither read nor understand the humane attitude of the Prophet Muhammad, who did not attack those who insulted him, and there were many in Mecca at the time, who did. He returned the insults with visits to the sick with kind words. When he returned triumphant to Mecca, he did not punish any one who had not been guilty of cruel violence.

They obviously are in violation of the Indian penal code for attack on Ms. Nasreen and threatening her life, but emotionally they have insulted Islam much more than the detractors of Islam or Ms. Nasreen ever could, because they sully the name of Islam by acting in its name.

It is unfortunate that while India is making great strides towards modernity, many in the provincial legislators are criminals or support criminal behavior. Bal Thakary in the name of Hinduism has held the whole state of Maharashtra and its great city Mumbai ( Bombay) hostage as his fiefdom and has engineered riots where hundreds of people have been killed. Modi, who is still the chief minister of Gujarat has used the levers of power to kill and deprive minorities of their constitutionally guaranteed rights.

With this backdrop when three Muslim legislators from Hydrabad condone threats on the life of a woman whom they accuses of insulting Islam or Yaqub Qureshi from UP feign to put up a bounty for the killing of Danish editorial Cartoonist, the Indian government and the legal system finds itself hamstrung and fears accusations of the persecution of minorities.

These people are not only insult to their own religions they are an insult to the rule of law under the elegantly designed Indian constitution. They exploit the raw baser emotions of the populace for self aggrandizement. Tolerance of opinions is the hallmark of civilization and great religions. By not bringing such criminals to the bar of justice, not only the religions are insulted, but most of all it injures the Indian Republic and the rule of law. The country as a whole and the weaker sections of the society eventually pay grim price.

I urge the Government of India and the state governments to bring the legislators from Hydrabad and all others who indulge in patently illegal and unconstitutional activities to the bar of justice.

---------------------------------------------
Taslima and her technicolor boat
By Farzana Versey


Well, here is a interestingly balanced piece on Taslima Nasrin.

Let's keep the two issues separate... One was about the reactions of those few Muslims invoking the name of Islam for their bad acts and the other one is completely a different issue - it is Taslima Nasrin herself.

The first one' action do not sound like the acts of Islam; the Prophet prayed for goodwill of those miscreants who threw stones on him.

The MIM people used the name of Islam as though all Muslims had approved and given them the right to speak for Islam, and as though that fatwa against Taslima is endorsed by Muslims around the world.

Who can speak for Islam? No one is and paradoxically each one is. We are individually judged for our acts and we should individually bear the responsibility. However, this MIM act implicates Muslims and Islam, and each one of us is responsible to untangle Islam and Muslims from these individual acts. It is quite a difficult topic and all of us have to work on it. No easy answer.

Mike Ghouse

On the Heels of Sir Salman
Taslima and Her Technicolor Boat
By FARZANA VERSEY


Taslima Nasreen, like many contemporary Muslim writers, is trying to portray the victim of religion. The best manner in which to do so since Sir Salman (before he was knighted) showed the way is through the dark Islamic tunnel. Let the pot sizzle with some concern for the backward Muslim world. Take large doses of the Quran, the veil, the Prophet and carefully carve it into little bits for easy consumption.


The problem is that Muslims are a bunch of fools. They imagine that most of these books will have an impact. They don’t. On Thursday, a group of activists from the Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) barged into her press conference and apparently roughed her up. Television channels showed us this unruly mob get into a scuffle and throw bouquets of flowers still covered in cellophane. Taslima in her blue saree stood aside. No channel showed us what transpired before.


As always, they brought in a ‘conservative’ and he naturally said what conservatives do: she deserves it for constantly maligning the religion and the Prophet. The television anchor smiled and turned to the ‘liberal’ in the studio. This liberal has suddenly discovered she is a Muslim and the usual stuff about freedom of expression was dished out.


I don’t think Taslima or anyone should be physically attacked. What no one has bothered to find out, though, is that the organization that was involved is not a sanctioned Muslim outfit; not many Indian Muslims outside the city of Hyderabad have even heard about it. But, what is the message being sent out to the world? That not only are Muslims a bunch of uncouth fellows, they also beat up women. I can imagine the Western world nodding in agreement and saying, “We told you so.”


When Taslima Nasreen was not allowed to return to Bangladesh for fear for her life, she went to the West for a while. She could not adjust there, so she found solace in India. India that has been busy shunting out Bangladeshi immigrants became her temporary home. She did not have a word to say about the migrants who were being denied citizenship rights even though they have lived in India for 30 years or more.


If Taslima is all about this major literary voice being stilled, why is it that very little analysis is being done of her writings? Why is she always in the news for a perspective other than one of literary or ethical significance? Even when she wrote an autobiographical account in which several writers and political figures were mentioned, not for their role in damaging society but for sleeping with her, she was harping on freedom of speech. How different is this attitude from one of those Hollywood satellite social climbers that claim their pound of tabloid mileage and money based entirely on having had a close encounter with a celebrity? She has imprisoned her own mind and then goes out crying for escape.


Give her complete freedom and she won’t know what to do with it. She has nothing much going for her. Lajja revealed what one always suspected since that day in July 1993 when a fatwa demanding her head was pronounced in Bangladesh – that she was wallowing in quasi-historical truths to suit her convenience. She had ended her 13-day saga with false hope, “Let us go away…to India,” she made her character Sudhomoy Dutta, the sturdy secularist and patriot, say.


Does she imagine that India is some sort of Utopia? A few months ago, she had been ranting against Pakistan’s “tyrannical” yoke, quite forgetting that she lived in a different country. Of course, since she wants to make India her home, this is the best she could do. She felt that all talk of pan-Islamic or Muslim unity was essentially a myth, and nothing had shattered it more convincingly than the breakaway of East Pakistan from its parent unit in the west.

If there is no unity in the Islamic world – and most of us have been long saying so – then on what basis does she paint the whole Islamic world with the same brush? There are pockets of fanatics and she has had to deal with some. I have to belabor the point that a fatwa is an opinion by an individual or a group; it is not a sanctioned edict. If it were so, then all those who have fatwas on their heads would have been killed by now and not managed to write their life stories or create magic realism in Manhattan.


The only reason Taslima prefers India, specifically Kolkata, is the language. This is ironical. East Pakistan moved out of the ‘tyranny’ of West Pakistan largely due to the language issue. Now, she is speaking out against parochialism and perpetrating it herself.


What is she trying to prove? Her ‘humanitarianism’, which hangs round her neck like an albatross, weighty, but drawing sufficient attention to her prized position? Or is she just another writer with perfect timing and a sharp marketing sense? Take the reference to a sentence in her first book: “Most of Suranjan’s friends were Muslim. None of them thought he was Hindu.” What does this mean? Was she trying to say that a religious person could not have friends from another community? Is faith designed to make you inhuman? Then Marxists should be the most human and humane people on earth, and she herself would have written about communal harmony in the purest sense instead of sprinkling stereotypes from Bollywood movies.


If she scratched herself, she would be faced with a truth she refuses to acknowledge: She is so insecure that she feels the need to deny her antecedents. Were it restricted to a personal position it would have been all right, but she uses characters insidiously to make generalizations only in order to anoint herself as a progressive.


Shrewdly, she has selected a time when Islamic or fringe Muslim societies are going through a phase when the red alert sounds every time their names get mentioned. She has a nice bandwagon to ride on.


Farzana Versey is a Mumbai-based writer-columnist.


---------------------------------------------------------------------
Muslim Intellectual Forum condemns attack on Taslima Nasreen
Statement:


We the Muslim Intellectual Forum categorically condemn the dastardly attack on Taslima Nasreen by three MLA's of the Muslim Ittehadul Muslimeen(MiM) at a Press Conference in Hyderabad. It is an attack on the basic democratic and secular foundations of the Indian
nation.

Interestingly this attack was not led by any conservative Muslim organization, but was the handiwork of legislative members sworn to uphold the Indian constitution. Therefore this attack reeks of political motivations, both on part of the MiM and its ally the ruling Congress-I.

Apart from the fact that Taslima Nasreen's writing continues to hurt the sentiments of a vast cross-section of Muslims, but yet in a secular democracy and a free society, we need to tolerate dissent and the freedom of conscience.

A problem also lies wherein Tasleema does not understand the difference between the ethos of Bangladesh and India. Yes, in India we do have a problem of communal
carnages and the fact that Mulsims are the victims of discrimination which has now been validated by the findings of the Sacchar Committee Report. But our culture and ethos is based on the foundations of a unique secularism, based on the concept of "Sarva
Dharma Samabhava", unparallel in the world and which is evolving as we speak. This concept could provide a globalised world with certain key answers that it is
desperately seeking.

Hindus and Muslims along with their compatriots from other religions enjoy, experience, and live in a vibrant multi-religio-cultural milieu, which is very different from Taslima's experiences in Bangladesh. If Taslima's intention is to genuinely contribute to the cause of reform, she is going about it in the wrong way. She cannot achieve this by constantly
berating Muslims, their beloved Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) and Islam and calling for changes in the text of the Holy Quran itself. This only reveals her utter ignorance of historical processes and the role of religion as a social force of progress in the human
quest for an egalitarian society. Little does she know that the seeds of democratic
reform are enshrined in three key Islamic tenets of Shura, Ijma and Ijtihad and she would be well advised to study these revolutionary concepts.

Also the fact lies that the issue of Taslima Nasreen is being cynically manipulated with a view to further demonise the Muslim community. It is apparent that Taslima is beholden to the Government as she is desperate for residentship, but all the Government is
willing to give her are 6 month visa extensions. Even at the time of her last extension, as one would recall, her article which was highly derogatory of the Prophet Muhammad ( p.b.u.h.), appeared in the Outlook magazine and created a national uproar.

So the government is playing its old cynical game of pandering to the communal fringes and stoking the embers so as to unsettle society. The three MLA's of the MIM who attacked Taslima in the full glare of the national media, would not have done so without the support of their party as well as the tacit backing of the their ally the Congress-I. It was on the basis of these guarantees that these MLA's were later let of lightly by the local police.

This is on the similar lines that the West, especially Britain and Blair, used the issue of Salman Rushdie to demonise Muslims and Islam. There to certain Muslims were politically illiterate enough to fall for the obvious traps.

At the time when there is a national consensus that, there has to be a national effort to draw out Muslims from the socio-economic backwardness as well as a similar support for justice for the victims of the Mumbai carnage of 1992-93, it is imperative that Muslims focus their energies on issues of national consequence.

The Muslim community would be best advised to see through the manipulative designs and ignore such minor and insignificant issues. The only democratic and civilised way to deal with Taslima is to either ignore her or answer her with the pen, violence is not an
option even to be considered. This has been the tradition and spirit of Islam. Also the democratically and politically illiterate Muslim extremist fringe would be best advised to study the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) himself and learn the basic lessons of universal peace, respect and compassion.

Recent history has shown, that a few more attacks on Taslima Nasreen will mean that she will be nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature, if not win it! So we humbly request you to heed our advice.

Warm Regards
In Solidarity

Feroze Mithiborwala
(Convenor)
Asif Khan
Hanif Lakdawala
Afaque Azad
Arif Kapadia
Irfan Mulla


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attack on Taslima Nasreen : Most reprehensible
By Dr.M.K. Sherwani, LL.D Posted August 10th, 2007



The brutal attack on Taslima Nasreen in Hyderabad once again brings to the forefront the perverted, outrageous and misconceived religious frenzy of those Muslims who lack total sensitivity to the problems confronting the community. It reflects the mental bankruptcy of those who think that the resplendent horizons of Islam can be blurred by the rubbish writings and silly utterances of the non-entities like Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen.

The worst part of this gory incident is that the mob was led by three legislators of Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen whose President Mr. Salahuddin Owaisi has praised chivalry of his party men in attacking a woman. Mr. Owaisi is a type of politician, who once, while addressing a Muslim convention in Lucknow after the demolition of Babri Mosque, in his emotional outburst, declared that the Constitution of India must be thrown into Gomti ( a river which passes through Lucknow). His statement was met with strong protest from the Muslim audience and he had to leave the dais.

Further, the contention that the government of India has hurt the religious susceptibilities of Muslims by granting visa to her has no basis.

India, despite all its infirmities, inequities, conspicuous discriminations and constantly serious erosion of its secular values, remains a pluralistic and vibrant society. The vast multitudes of Hindus and Muslims believe in a peaceful coexistence and multi-cultural ethos which have not lost their significance even after the fascist forces have been making unrelenting endeavor over the last more than five decades. And, no doubt, if there is any Fundamental Right in the Indian Constitution which is equally available to all, then certainly it is the ‘FREEDOM OF SPEECH’. To buttress my viewpoint, let me quote the concluding observation by a renowned journalist Mr. Ziyaul Haque, while writing in 2000 the review of my book ‘Secular Horror – A Real Story of Fifteen years ordeal with Indian secularism’( the book is the story of my prosecution for fifteen years at Tees Hazari Court New Delhi under section 124a(sedition) on the basis of one article ‘Secularism vis-à-vis Hindu Chauvinism’ published in Radiance Viewsweekly, Delhi in 1984)

“......... Sherwani is a fire-brand, which is evident from the periodic resolutions of the All-India Muslim Forum, of which he is the president. The forum is headquartered in Lucknow. His booklet in verse, Iblees and Maulanas is a biting satire on the state of affairs in Muslim religious life.

At the end, one is tempted to ask a question: Suppose Sherwani was caught in Islamic horror, rather than its secular variant, would he have survived to narrate his experience? To be precise, had he been accused by Iran’s mullahs or Afghanistan’s Taliban for sedition, would he have lived to recount the episode? No prize for guessing.”


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
'They could have even killed Taslima', say journalists
Posted August 10th, 2007 by Tarique



By IANS

Hyderabad : If Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen escaped unhurt in Thursday's attack by Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) legislators and cadre at the press club here, it was thanks to the journalists present.

The journalists acted as a shield to save Taslima, who was targeted by MIM activists at a book release function.

Only six media persons, mostly photographers, were covering the function as the organisers had invited only a handful of people to the function and Taslima's visit was also kept under warps.

"The legislators and those accompanying them were ferocious. Had we not intervened things would have gone out of control," Ravikanth Reddy, correspondent The Hindu, told newspersons.

Reddy, also secretary of the Hyderabad Press Club, was attending a meeting of the club office bearers in the boardroom at the time when three MIM legislators along with a few supporters barged into the hall where the function was on.

"For half hour no policeman reached the place and it was very difficult to control the legislators and their supporters who were throwing everything they could lay their hands on," Reddy told IANS.

Some missiles hit the journalists and a couple of writers and other participants who stood between Taslima and the attackers.

Innaiah Narisetti of the Centre of Inquiry, the organisers of the book release function, bled after the attack along with K.V.S. Giri, a photographer of Deccan Chronicle.

"It is because of the presence of journalists that the legislators were a bit restrained but the mood of the others was nasty. One of them was shouting 'Kill her'," said Reddy, who had tried to pacify the legislators.

"I told them not to resort to such activities in the Press Club. We have let out the premises to an organisation and it was our responsibility to ensure that no harm was caused to the participants of the function," he said.

"Though we managed to push the legislators and some others out of the meeting hall and escorted Taslima to the store room, another group of people arrived and they were more aggressive," recalled H. Satish, photographer of The Hindu.

"Taslima requested us to call the police, and I told her that the police will be reaching in a few minutes," he said.

"Anything could have happened in those 30 minutes. Fortunately the crowd was not armed. We don't know but they could have even killed her," he said.

"She came behind me to protect herself. She was really scared," said K.V.S. Giri, who received minor injuries in the scuffle. "The attackers threw books kept on the dais at her and some hit me."

Innaiah Narisetti, who saved Taslima from several missiles, termed the attack as "shameful".

"It is shameful on the part of our legislators to resort to such use of abusive language and physically attack her. They took oath on the constitution of India but their behaviour was shocking," said the intellectual.

"The attack on a woman writer is shocking but I think this will not deter her from writing for the rights of women," said V. Komala, whose Telugu translations of Taslima's book "Shodh" and Jung Chang's bestseller "Wild Swans" were released by the novelist at the function.

Meanwhile, journalists took out a rally and demanded stern action against those involved in the attack on Taslima.

The three legislators and some others arrested by the police were granted bail late Thursday by a court.

Good for nothing majority

Good for nothing silent majority
Mike Ghouse, July 28, 2007

Edmund Burke, a philosopher from the 17th Century had said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” And a similar message was communicated by spiritual leaders of all faiths through out the course of human history.

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." -- Albert Einstein.

Evil exists in the world because of good people. The good people’s silence, silently gives a tacit approval to the bad guys to continue to do bad things. I believe Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi had expressed similar sentiments.

Indeed, the problem is not with the evil men, it is with us. I’m least worried about what bad people can do than what good people don’t. The majority of Americans do not want war, yet the few are carrying it out. We silently sat by and let 3,500 of our sons and daughters and some 650000 Iraqis slaughtered.

If we can recall our class room scenario, our work place, or our extended family, there was always a tyrant, who got away bullying every one. No one dared him or said anything to him, due to fear or not having the stomach to stand up to him or her. Had you stopped that tyrant in the tract, things would have stopped long ago, but no one dared it and simply endured it for a long time. As a larger society, we are allowing those tyrants to go on terrorizing all of us. You and I regardless of our faiths face the same evil.

That brings us to Terrorism, go ahead and make my day, call it Muslim terrorism and beam me up.

Did you know that a Muslim is more vulnerable to terrorism than a Christian, Jew or a Hindu?

A Muslim get the shaft three different ways; i) the bullying fear from the extremists Muslims, Christians, Jews and Hindus, ii) the idiotic media and iii) and the denigration of his/her religion where as the others get only one way.

Silent no more, speak up is our mission, not just for Muslims, but for all. The peaceful majority sounds like good for nothing crowd. We believe they will wake when pushed to the corner. As we Americans spoke up during the last days of Vietnam, then we spoke up on Tuesday, November 7th 2006 and we still have not taken actions to the death and destructions we are causing in Iraq, we will, and the Muslims will do their chore as well.

Everyday, I go through many articles and at least 80% of them border on finger pointing and blaming the others with no particular goal to pursue a solution.

One of the biggest mistakes we make is to give a religious label to the bad people. It is a shame to call those bad boys Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Christian or otherwise. It is our gutlessness to face the evil that prevents us from facing the problem squarely. If we can recall a dialogue with our mother, father, uncle or some one powerful over us. We find that when we disagreed with them we whispered it quietly or even mumbled; we did not want a fight. However when they screamed “What did you say?” We shuddered and quietly denied saying any such thing, or depending on the strength of the voice of the opposite person, we even slighted our response and said "oh nothing" or something irrelevant… we did not want to invoke the wrath of the tyrant facing us.

When Osama Bin Laden brought hell on all of us, what did our president do? He did not face the tyrant squarely… like many, he found it convenient to blame Muslims and Islam, just like you may act when you face a real tyrant (family or community) and start blaming the world when you could not laser bark at the bad dog any more.

If a TV anchor blames you for the wrongs you do, most people would let you handle it on your own terms, but when he suggests that those ‘people’ are messing our nation”. I can guarantee that all of us would be offended and are less likely to listen to the anchor. By calling Muslims the terrorists, they have invariably barked at the wrong tree and they continue to do so.

99% of terrorists are Muslims! When you watch some of the Neocon websites, CNN and Fox network: Every kidnapping and every individual vandalism done by the Muslims is jumped at; rightfully so. Indeed all of us should jump at it. But when similar crimes are happening in the same breath, they are reported as a regular crime that is wrong by any sense of morality.

Thanks God the V-tech crazy was not a Muslim, if it was, the bad guys would have feasted on it for months, it feeds them and they are eager to be the first. The TV, Radio and the papers would have stretched the food for months.

In your city there is a murder and rape every day, like Iraq, why don’t we call them Christian terrorists or if it is in India call it Hindu Terrorism or other one, then why call Muslim Terrorism for similar crimes on the street?

No terrorists should be given respect by adding a religion to his crime. Any one who commits a crime, disturbs the peace, should be punished for his acts. Religion should not be a factor at all, if we do that, we find excuses not to take the action. We should get the individual criminal for his act and punish according to the law. Let law be not taken any any one's hands including the Chief Executive. Let us not give an opportunity to any one to become terrorist in reverse.

What if we do not point the gun, and just shoot what surounds that criminal? What is the difference between them and us. It is this dual sense of morality that we need to avoid. Mother Teresa's wisdom is eternal "if you want to make peace, You don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

In the fight between the good and the bad, the average man gets killed. We should care for human life, whether we are Muslims, Hindus, Christians or Zoroastrians. All evil must be condemned whether it is my brother or any one. If each one of us adopts the posture of a just position – we can find peace, peace comes through you in your language. Each one of us has to find solutions.

Let’s take a principle stand and call the evil for simply what it is; Evil. Let’s use the same yardstick to judge all criminals.Each one of us should focus on building peace, hate and blame does not take any one anywhere, the first casualty is ones own peace and then others’. One cannot point fingers at other others to be peaceful while he himself is not.

Peace begins with a dialogue as does the war.

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 TV networks discussing interfaith, political and civic issues. He founded the World Muslim Congress 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 . He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town.
_________________________________________

Additional Notes - unrelated unconnected.

A majority of Muslims - 99-9/10ths are moderate Muslims who believe in getting along with others and taking care of their family. Only 1/10ths of 1% - 1/100ths of 1% tend to be on the wrong end of the life. By the way, this formula applies to all people be it religious, ethnic, racial or any other uniqueness. What those two brothers did was rare, shocking and disgusting. Muslims are on a watch out for some one like this.

I hope we take part in building our nation as Indians and not have the divisiveness get to us. For a discussion group of Indians, giving a communal tone is not kosher. It is neither Hindu nor Muslim, it is just Indian. Even if it were Hindu or Muslim, it should not be based on hate towards each other. If others do it, that is their choice, we don't have to follow them. This group will remain for Indians who want to understand the differences and work on finding solutions. You are welcome to write.

No religion is bad, individuals are. The acts of crime are committed by individuals using all sorts of excuses, blaming the religion is shying away from facing the wrong doers. Take any situation going back some 2000 years, you will always find that insecure men and greedy kings have used the poor people to go kill and get killed to consolidate their empires. They have always used the common man to their advantage and have sat behind the throne in the safety zone, they never risked their lives.

Very few leaders have actually led the wars, you can see Lord Krishna, Prophet Muhammad and Mahatma Gandhi and other great leaders actually participating in the wars or movements standing up to evils of the society. They did not send some one else to go die for them. Please take the time to attend interfaith meetings including the ones by the Foundation for Pluralism. They are open meetings, open questions and open learning. You may enjoy employing your mind to the full capacity, as finding the truth is one's own responsibility, once you find the truth, you will find relief, mukti, moksha and salvation. There is plenty of reading material out there, as much as the hate material. May you find Mukti and become a source of light and goodness for the humankind.

Every one of us has a responsibility to make the world a better place to live. Peace begins with each one of us, you or I will never see peace if we are a product of hate. If we re-act with malice, it multiplies and swallows us into it.We have to get the freedom from hate, not because God wants it, and not because it is some noble thing to do, but because it brings peace to oneself and because it benefit you and it is a necessity, once you have it, you will find peace in you and that translates to peace to your family and friends and whatever surrounds you. Hate is engaging and enslaving, it is to our individual benefit we have to free ourselves from hate, try it, you'll love it and you'll change the world for better.

Religion was issued to humans to make them better beings, some get it and some don't. Parents teach children to be good kids, some do and some don't. The Civic laws are made for the safety of the Citizens, some follow some don't. It does not make the Civic laws wrong, it does not make the parent wrong if the kid turns out to be a bully and does not make the religion bad if one does not follow it.

We have to punish the individual who does wrong, we have accountability then. Blaming the elusive is wrong, it shows our inability to solve the problem, then we need extra dose of religion, so we can get it. The wisdom of religion is to make us all better humans, if we don't get it that is our problem, not religion's. If we punish the individual, then it is accounted for. Hating a religion is like shooting the gun without aim. Let's get to think and find ways - annihilation is not the answer, co-existence is. But before that, our mind needs to be in peace. Peace emits peace.

May the creator bless us with peace, tranquility and free us from hate and malice.

_________________________________________

PEACEFUL MAJORITY
Aurthor unknown
http://www.freedom.org/news/200707/17/strider.phtml
July 17, 2007

I used to know a man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II. He was a German Jew. They owned a number of large industries and estates. I asked him how many German people were true Nazis, and the answer he gave has stuck with me and guided my attitude toward fanaticism ever since.

"Very few people were true Nazis," he said, "but many enjoyed the return of German pride; and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us; and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp, and the Allies destroyed my factories."
We are told again and again, by "experts" and "talking heads" that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace.

Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam, at this moment in history, as the Nazis did, in their time in history.

It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa, and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals.
The hard quantifiable fact is that the" peaceful majority" is the "silent majority," and it is cowed and extraneous.

History
Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.

China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

The average Japanese individual, prior to World War 2, was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across Southeast Asia in an orgy of killing, that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians - most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.

And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were "peace loving?"

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points:

Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.
Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awake one day, and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.

Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others, have died - because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.

As for us who watch, it all unfold; we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

Lastly, I wish to add: At the risk of offending someone, I sincerely think that anyone who rejects this as just another political rant, or doubts the seriousness of this issue, or just deletes it without sending it on, is part of the problem.

Unityday USA - 911

UNITY DAY USA - A 911 MEMORIALTHEME: ONE NATION UNDER GOD

Please allow me to greet you in all the possible greetings that I know of; AllaAbho, Budha Namo, Namaste, Salaam o Alaikum, Jai Jinendra, Shalom Alechum, SatsriAkaal, Hamazor Hama Ashobed and peace upon be you*.

Unity Day USA is about coming together as Americans and expressing our innate desire to rededicate our pledge: "One nation under god with liberty and justice for all."

Unity Day USA was born to express that each one of the 297,018,658 of us are part of the mosaic that is America. Peace and prosperity for every American is our vision. In order to achieve that, we need to remain connected to one another, we need to come together as one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all. This event is a fulfillment of that vision.

Our 2007 theme is One Nation under God. Our religious prayer leaders will seek guidance from scriptures of their respective faiths. Our Civil servants and leaders will echo the same sentiment and suggest ways in which we as individuals can work towards a cohesive and thriving community.

Unity Day USA is about coming together as Americans to appreciate, respect and honor the God-given uniqueness of each one of the 297,018,658 of us, plus any new additions to this number since it is written.

Unity Day USA is indeed born out of the great tragedy and enormous suffering on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, and since then we have come together annually to pledge to continue to foster the idea of one America.

Unity Day USA is to be held on Sunday before September 11 of each year, as suggested by Congressman Pete Sessions, Kenny Marchant and Ralph Hall in a luncheon meeting in Dallas. Congressman Sessions office is planning to get Unity Day USA proclaimed as National Day along with Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi who has shown the same interest.

We the people of the United States of America; of every faith, race, ethnicity, culture and background, gather to pray for peace, unity and security of our nation and the world.

As Americans we uphold, protect, defend and celebrate the values enshrined in our constitution. All our faiths reinforces the creed of "One Nation under God, with liberty and justice for all."

Dear God, accept our prayers in whichever name we call upon you, we love to call you Ahura Mazda, Allah, Jehovah, Brahma, Wahe Guru, Mahavira, Buddha, Jesus Christ and with every name that humans address you.

* Greetings, if your traditional greeting is not in the list, it is because you did not send it to us.** We are embracing every American, faith or no faith including Atheist, Wicca and other traditions. If there are other ways of invoking the creator God, please send your format. No matter what we call, it is the same creator.

Dear God, with your blessings, we proceed with the program.

God bless the USA

Mike Ghouse (214) 325-1916
Email: MikeGhouse@aol.com
www.foundationforpluralism.com/
www.worldmuslimcongress.com/

We are looking for volunteers and sponsors, please feel free to contact: Unityday911@gmail.com
2007 PROGRAM OUTLINE
(Planning to accommodate members in other cities who have indicated an interest in repeating this format, under the same name)

• American National Anthem
• Pledge of Allegiance
• Statement of Purpose
• Acknowledgement of Sponsors
• Acknowledgment of Dignitaries
• Civic Leaders
• Spiritual Leaders
• Recognitions
• Conclusion
• Refreshments

Key Note Speakers:

Daisy Khan ( to be confirmed)
In the works

Civic Leadership: (List: 2005 & 2006) http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Images_UnityDay/UnityDay_Past_HonoredGuests.asp

We plan to invite guests from across the Dallas/ Fort Worth Metroplex to share their vision of One Nation. Senators, Congressman (both National and State) will be invited along with Mayors, Council persons, Commissioners and others

Spiritual Leadership: (List: 2005 & 2006)http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Images_UnityDay/UnityDay_Past_SpiritualLeaders.asp

We are inviting a representative leader for each faith including Atheists, Wicca and the Native American groups. All denominations within each faith will come together and say their prayers. We hope to represent every American in the prayers.

Participating Organizations: (List: 2005 & 2006) http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Images_UnityDay/UnityDay_PastOrganizations.asp

We have had support from nearly 90 organizations in the past two years, and we hope to continue to gain their support for the event. All it takes for the name of your organization to be included is, to bring 5 members of your organization to the event.

Sponsors:(2005 & 2006)
We are seeking sponsors and underwriters for the event. The budget is small, but the purpose is great!

Services:

Photography: Bombay Photography - Aftab Lakhani
Videography: Bombay Photography - Aftab Lakhani
Decorators:
Volunteers:
Refreshments:
Community Leadership:

Our goal is to have a representation of every race, ethnicity and nationality. No American resident will be left behind. Our volunteers will aspire to reach every one.
Comments from the community: (2005 & 2006)

A variety of comments have been received and placed together, you are welcome to share yours.

Press: (2005 & 2006) http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Images_UnityDay/UnityDay_Past_Press.asp

We are grateful for the support by Dallas Morning News, Plano Star Couriers, Frisco Paper, WBAP 820, KRLD 1080, AM1150, CBS TV 11, NBC TV 5, Telemundo 27 and other News and community outlets.

http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_253232024.html
Photographs: Can be viewed as slide show.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MikeGhouse/UnityDayUSA2006_Album02
http://picasaweb.google.com/MikeGhouse/UnityDayUSA_2005

Interfaith Prayers at Women's peace conference by Aftab Lakhani - Password: Peace http://bombayphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/3208375/5/176976296#176976296

Pictures ; http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/UnitydayUSA_2007.asp

A Woman President for India

A Woman President for India


Dr. Pratibha Patil may win the election on July 19th and become the first woman President of India on the 60th anniversary of independence. However, the question at large is - what does it take to find at least 5 competitive candidates? We are a billion plus people and yet, we have not developed our institutions to produce 5 competitive candidates?

Why did we not look into others from the field of Science, Agriculture, Medical and Law professions? Dr. Kalam made a massive difference to the Presidency because he was not a darn political candidate, he was a scientist and was conditioned to thinking in terms of goals, means and achievement.

India should never make the decision based on how the candidate appears on the stage with XYZ, it should be based on what that person can contribute towards taking the nation forward with cohesiveness.


You are invited to share your comments at the end of this article by New York Times.

Mike Ghouse
http://www.mikeghouse.net/
http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/
http://www.worldmuslimcongress.com/

Indians Question Fitness of Presidential Pick http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/world/asia/17cnd-india.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

By AMELIA GENTLEMAN
Published: July 17, 2007

NEW DELHI, July 17 — India’s first female president is likely to be voted into office on Thursday, but this milestone event has been overshadowed in recent weeks by an unusually savage debate over whether she is fit to become head of state.

When the leader of the governing Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, announced in June that Pratibha Patil, 72, was her party’s official choice for the post, she added that to have a woman president would be a matter of “great pride” and a “historic moment in the 60th year of our republic.”

But Gandhi’s attempt to promote this as a triumph for gender equality has won Ms. Patil little support.

Instead, the pre-election campaigning has been dominated by a series of vitriolic attacks on Ms. Patil’s credentials.

The opposition has alleged, among other things, that she shielded her brother in a murder investigation, protected her husband in a suicide scandal, and was herself involved in numerous financial irregularities.

And then there are Ms. Patil’s own peculiar statements — most notably, her revelation that she had heard the voice of a dead guru predicting she would rise to power.

National and local elected lawmakers will vote in a secret ballot for the new president, a figurehead role that is meant to be broadly apolitical and ceremonial.

If, as expected, voting follows party lines, Ms. Patil is assured of an easy victory over the only other candidate who is standing, the country’s current vice president, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, 83, who is affiliated to the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP.

Initially, Ms. Patil’s nomination was widely greeted with bemusement.

Despite 45 years in politics, she remained largely an unknown, far from being a household name. An old ally of the late prime minister Indira Gandhi, and a loyal long-term supporter of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, Ms. Patil enjoys good relations with Indira’s daughter-in-law, Sonia. But beyond this intimate circle, Ms. Patil’s enthusiastic backers have been few.

Congress party officials were unable to disguise the fact that she was a compromise choice, selected by the leadership as a last-ditch suggestion, after half a dozen other, more high-profile names, were rejected by the government’s coalition allies as unacceptable.

After her nomination, Ms. Patil’s journey from obscurity was swift and rude. The opposition BJP issued a booklet titled “Does This Tainted Person Deserve to Become the President of India?”. As journalists shook more apparent skeletons from the closet, a website was set up by party supporters (knowpratibhapatil.com) to accommodate the full range of accusations.

Even neutral or usually pro-Congress commentators have been startled by a number of Ms. Patil’s own pronouncements.

On hearing of her nomination, Ms. Patil remarked on live television that she knew she was destined for higher things because she had had a “divine premonition.” A dead religious leader, Baba Lekhraj, had recently spoken to her through “the body” one of his living disciples, she said, and he had informed her that “great responsibility” would be handed to her.

“The future president of India speaks to dead people,” wrote Tavleen Singh, a columnist in the Indian Express, a daily national newspaper. “This is almost worse than her shady past.”

Ms. Patil’s support for forced sterilizations to curb population growth in the 1980s has also attracted negative comment and her recent suggestion that Indian women originally veiled their heads to shield themselves from marauding Muslim invaders has outraged Muslim leaders.

The weekly news magazine India Today featured her on its cover, with the headline “Embarrassing Choice.” Inside, reporters detailed how a bank she set up to empower women in the 1970s was liquidated two decades later amid allegations from the bank’s workers union that Ms. Patil had loaned large sums to her own relatives — men as well as women — which were never returned.

The magazine also described how her brother was caught up in a murder investigation, hinted at family involvement in the misappropriation of tsunami relief funds, and gave details of how her husband was accused of involvement in the suicide of a school teacher. Legal proceedings are under way in both the suicide and murder cases.

T.N. Ninan, editor of the Business Standard, a national newspaper, called in a recent column for the Congress party to withdraw her nomination. “The whole country now knows that she is not a suitable candidate for being made head of state,” he wrote. ”For five long years, she will be a national embarrassment in a way that no president so far has been. And if the courts move against her close relatives in ongoing cases, her position will become untenable.”

At first, Ms. Patil fought back, declaring that the charges were politically motivated and “false, baseless and malicious”.

More recently, she has remained silent, allowing a team of Congress party officials to mount what the news media here have described as a “Save Pratibha” campaign.

Parliamentary affairs minister P.R. Dasmunsi, who has spearheaded her defense, said he was “too busy” to comment when contacted by telephone today, but he has repeatedly told the Indian media that the allegations are “nonsense.”

The director of the Delhi-based Center for Policy Alternatives, Mohan Guruswamy, said the Congress Party had mounted a dubious defense of its candidate over the collapse of her bank.

“Their argument is that there is not a single cooperative bank in India which has not been similarly defrauded, so why blame her alone,” he said.

This was not a line of argument likely to be widely accepted, he added.

“The office of president has previously been held by people of reasonable eminence and stature,” he said. “The office is invested with a moral authority. Here we have taken a provincial politician and catapulted her into the highest office of the country. She is a small-time crook, a political hanger on, with no constituency. Whether she will be able to fulfill her role is a matter of debate now.”

Votes will be counted on July 21 and the new president will start work on July 25.

Understanding Judaism

Understanding Judaism

Dallas, Texas: - Sunday, July 1, 2007. The Foundation for Pluralism is committed to promoting understanding between peoples of different religious affiliations. “We believe knowledge leads to understanding and understanding to acceptance and appreciation of another point of view”.

The Foundation for Pluralism has taken the initiative to present all religions in its programs. The goal is to bring people of different faiths together and provide a platform for them to share about their beliefs, their systems and rituals, while expanding the knowledge zone of each group.

We hope each one of us would walk out with an open mind and an open heart towards our fellow beings. It is difficult to shed the prejudices, but once we do, there is genuine freedom (Mukti, Moksha, Salvation, and Nirvana.) in it.

Judaism: Everything you wanted to know about the Judaism, you can learn about it in this workshop. As with all faiths, non-Clarity, myths and mis-information are part of Judaism as well. Please come prepared with questions, we would like you to walk out of the workshop with a greater understanding of Judaism.

Dr. Howard Cohen is a student of his own tradition and history, a student of the early

Church, how it emerged from and related to its Jewish background, and the history that surrounded the writing of the Gospels. Dr. Cohen has been studying history and religion at SMU’s department of religion and Perkins for over 30 years, and has been teaching Judaism to Christians and Christianity to Jews since 1975.

Pluralism Workshop: - What is Pluralism? What is a pluralistic attitude? Learn its application at work place, home, social situations and other circumstance. It is about co-existence ** (Questions to ponder - listed below)

Details:

1. When: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM Sunday, July 22, 2007 – Wisdom of Judaism


2. Time: 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM – Wisdom of Pluralism


3. Where: Crowne Plaza Hotel, 14315 Midway Road, Addison, TX 75001


4. Directions: Click Map : From LBJ, north on Midway, after Spring Valley on the left.


5. Confirmation: ConfirmAttendance@gmail.com


6. Schedule for the year:

http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Calendar.asp

POINTS TO PONDER

1. Is attempting to undermine the divinity of other faiths amount to arrogance? Does that appeal to God?


2. Is blaming a religion, nation, race, or ethnicity for the acts of individuals’ amount to deception?


3. Is holding greed, anger, hate, or malice in our hearts depleting our freedom?


4. Is ridiculing a person amount to ridiculing the creator?


5. Is judging others without knowing them personally amount to _________ (fill in Please)?


6. Is God free or some group owns him/her? Are we not limiting its _________ (fill in Please)?


7. Does God make deals behind our back and favor some? Could God do such a thing?

In affairs of the world, religion appears to be a source of the problem; it certainly is not. You can always trace the wars, genocides, oppression and other atrocities to evil insecure stupid men. Please remember, the purpose of religion was to fix the evils of humankind and it continues to do so while some men still don’t get it. Thanks God, the world is a better place today because of the Religion and spirituality, without which there would be chaos. Every Religion is on the same side, that of goodness for humankind. Finding the truth is one’s own responsibility. Truth brings salvation.

If beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, then faith is in the heart of the believer. Let every one find peace his/her own way – Mike Ghouse

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, discussing interfaith, political and civic issues. He founded the World Muslim Congress 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 . He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town.

Foundation for Pluralism Studies in Religious Pluralism and Pluralistic societies
Workshops Lectures Research Forums Discussions
2665 Villa Creek Drive, Suite 206, Dallas, TX 75234
Website: www.FoundationforPluralism.com email: info@foundationforpluralism.com
Contact: Mike Ghouse (214) 325-1916