The Deoband Declaration on Terrorism: Why Now?

Hindus in India forget their castes only at the time of riots.India is now indirectly ruled by the Muslims.Their tactical voting n huge multiplication in population resulting in huge vote bank selects the party in power .Its only a matter of time before they directly rule India.

I believe there's a general sentiment among India's Muslims to want the Union to work. What other choice is there? This is also what gives the Congress its strenght. They know(always have known) we have no other option but to coexist peacefully.
And, any good action should be commended, regardless of the motive.

saharanpuri:

I don't think that any Indian Muslim is thinking of flying green flag atop the red fort. All they want is to able to exercise the rights guaranteed to them in the Indian constitution; nothing more, nothing less.

Bloc voting is not limited to muslims, various castes and other groups do it as well. Even in the US democratic primaries, blacks are voting en bloc for obama and hispanics for Hilary. It's all part of democracy.

Look#2:

Indian Muslims do have choices and they are exercising it, this is why the Congress is worried. In the post-babri masjid period, Muslims have been voting strategically on a constituency basis to vote for the Candidate with the best chance of defeating the BJP candidate. This will continue. The best Congress can hope for is for Muslims to vote for it when the choice is between non-bjp candidates.

yar sahranpuri most indian muslims want to live and let live...they are mostly trying to get better just like most hindus or sikhs or jains. there is no plan of red fort etc. incidentlly are you in paper trade (being sahranpuri an all..).. i personally know a lot of indian muslims and while they are indeed struggling withe the affliction of religion (just like hindoos or jains or sikhs) they are thinking folks . some even do yoga and meditation..go figure.

IMO at this point in time indian non-muslims and indian muslims do not have differing aspirations.

Nicely written yet speculative commentary. The conference only restates the position of Islamic rulings and thoughts of those concerned on the issue of terrorism, for the general understanding of specially those who are not literate on the position of Islamic rulings that discourage violence and violent acts committed in the name of Islam and commonly observed in today's world while blamed on the faith of Islam and it's followers in a stereotype effort.

I think there has always been a divergence of views between Debandis in India and Deobandi-offshoots in Pakistan. I remember in 2001 prior to 911, when the leader of Indian Deoband Maulana Marghoob visited Pakistan for a Deobandi conference, he openly criticized the Taleban for destroying Buddha carvings in Bamian. This criticism was not welcomed by Maulana Fazlur Rahmman of JUI in Pakistan. The Indian Muslims at the time were cognizant of the fact that they could not criticize the destruction of Babri Masjid while at the same time turn a blind eye to the destruction of Buddha statues. Don't forget that Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani of Deoband and the pre-independence JUI-Hind were supporters of a united India and collaborated with Congress rather than the Muslim League. The Muslim League was mainly supported by secular Muslims in its quest for Pakistan. About the only notable Maulana that openly supported Pakistan Muslim League was Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani who became the leader of JUI-Pakistan. He was clearly a small minority among the Indian ulema. The Indian ulema have always been pro-united India and continue to believe in peaceful co-existence with non-Muslims as taught by Islam.
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

Re: # 1
It is not such. India is now ruled by regional sentiments. Moslems are getting more than what they deserve. But that is viotebank politics, which we call democracy. In states like Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttaranchal, Nagaland, Mijoram etc... moslem presence is very less. Why BJP is not able to hold power there. Key to success is good governance. BJP is good on paper, when comes to administration, they have failed to bring radical changes in cow belt states like Rajasthan, MP, UP. If BJP was not able to consolidate so called Hindutwa vote bank in cow belt, it is due to V P Sing. The OBJ vote, which was with BJP is taken away by parties like Laloo and Mulayam.
Coming back to the topics, Deobands etc...should have been banned in India. Why this mediaval barbarism, in the heart of India? Nehru & Congress fresh from the shock it has received during partition (I think most of the Congress leaders have not expected such level of violence), had tried to pacify remaining part of moslems with this kind of carrot.

Muslim population increase may not be a planned activity. How a muslim family in Karala related to a muslim family in Bihar? The population increase is largely due to backwardness in mentality. Whatever rise of islam ocurred in India and Bangladesh, started in middle of 80s, largely due to middle east petro dollar. The process had started in Pakistan long back, and so, they are suffering little earlier. Bangladesh and India is the next Pakistan. Crude oil has touched 100US$. Do you think huge profit from the rising price is used to sponsor reserch projects in Stanford, MIT? Nope.

Whether DM agrees or not, Islam was never a peaceful theology. The history of Persia, Sindh etc...tells different story. Now, the peaceful islam is invention of Nehru and it's followers in post independent India. Noted Bengali authors tells different story (Banking Chatterjee, Rabindranath Tagore). Some people try to brush aside these people, as they have received enough patronage from British rulers, that they may distort history. But, how can you explain the animosity of Gujjus against moslems? Marathis against moslems? Problems in Karnataka? I know large amount of folk stories in Karnataka, which is totally opposite to what History book in India teaches. Most of our books largely concentrate on British period and try to paint that period in negative way. In practice, we follow the rule and institutes created by British people. Furthermore, I can see evidence of islamic barbarism in Hampi, Thirupati etc...

jang#5

"IMO at this point in time indian non-muslims and indian muslims do not have differing aspirations"

Could agree with you as far as domestic issues are concerned. Not too sure about foreign policy issues.

izuber$7:

Speculative, yes. But would you call it reasonable speculation?

RiazHaq#7:

Thanks for pointing out to the difference between the Pak and Indian deobandis. In addition to the old deobandi-nationalist muslim relationship, the two outfits are facing two different situations and have therefore to adjust their positions accordingly. At the same conference in Pakistan, I recall that the Indian deobandis prevented the passage of a resolution on kashmir.

nkg#8:

In what sense are the muslims getting more than their share in India? Certainly not a greater share in the army, police, bureaucracy or economic pie in general,

#9,10:
Why should deobandis be banned and not other religious organizations? If you are suggesting that India should have not been a secular country, that would be a separate issue.

I never said that Islam is a peaceful ideology. Would you say that Hinduism is a peaceful ideology?

Dost mittar an interesting article and interesting observations.

What I find interesting (similar to your observation) in the declarations is that the typical islamic/muslim rationalisation for terror has been toned down. But the collective heads have not been removed from the sand - (your para immediately after the quote from the declaration).

The mullahs and the ulema et al are a worried lot in India. They are finding that their flock is slowly flying the coop, and spreading their wings (as jang has put it rather nicely in #5). Also these same mullahs ulema and moolies and maalis are seeing what #1 says and they want to be in the driving seat. That is why they have changed tune, just enuf to keep their home flock happy, and just enuf not to worry their ummahite hommies from arby (that is why no condemnation of the attack on the sovereign parliament).

The sooner these mullahs et al are put in collars and sent to a remote inaccessible hermitage the better it is for all concerned.

Re: # 14
I have doubt about the term Hinduism ...
Coming to Deoband...What output India is getting from this? It was the institution, which has fought for Khilafat movement. Have ever Congress thought about the dangerous consequence of this?

Muslims are enjoying more freedom than minorities in muslim countries. They have right to establish their own academic institutions and formulate their sylabus. The fund flow is also not monitored. Furthermore,Govt, sponsors this mediaval middle east stuff in many of the states. Have the state tried to idenify why? Is it our basic culture, which needs to be preserved? No. I feel, Govt. should do that for tribals like Bheel, Kole, Santhals, Garo etc... people. Instead, they are more concerned about moslems. May be large vote bank. When, a separate country is created in the name of this culture, what for we need to keep this useless stuff? Why Govt. has to waste money on Urdoo, when Sanskrit needs more patronage (this language has given us the identity in literature. The first language with grammer. Earliest epic created using the literature. If China, Israel can promote their language, why not us) ? If you are talking about the same rhetoric (moslems are under represented in IAS,IPS, IITs etc...), I have the same answer for this. There is no historic evidence of systemic oppression on moslems. If you are fit for the job, prove it. Every institution is ready to pick the best person for the job. Furthermore, a separate country is created for moslems. Why we need to provide separate privilege as minority to these people? Isn't this sounds rediculous? In fact, Patel was firmly against it. Actual ethnic minorities like Anglo Indians, Persians, Jews never complain about discrimnation or special law to protect their cultural identity.