The Mahatma’s Progeny
Farzana Versey April 4, 2002
#889 Posted by pmishra2 on April 25, 2002 2:17:43 pm
progressive (:-] #909
Sir,
I am so happy you posted articles by David Duke,
famous racist and anti-semite, explaining how debased and backwards we indians are. The article by the christian missionary fanatics about all the disgusting aspects of indian culture also filled me with shame and concern.
Please hurry up and post some materials from your great leader Adolf Hitler about the backward and repellent indians. This will truly convince everyone of the wisdom of your message. I am sure this will be no inconvenience to you, as you must keep a copy of Mein Kampf close by for everyday reference.
respectfully,
your great fan from bevakoof-istan.
Sir,
I am so happy you posted articles by David Duke,
famous racist and anti-semite, explaining how debased and backwards we indians are. The article by the christian missionary fanatics about all the disgusting aspects of indian culture also filled me with shame and concern.
Please hurry up and post some materials from your great leader Adolf Hitler about the backward and repellent indians. This will truly convince everyone of the wisdom of your message. I am sure this will be no inconvenience to you, as you must keep a copy of Mein Kampf close by for everyday reference.
respectfully,
your great fan from bevakoof-istan.
reply to this interact
write a new interact
add to favorites
flag objectionable content
#888 Posted by tvarad on April 25, 2002 2:17:43 pm
RE: Reply #: 910 ylh
``It seems that `TNT` continues to live in the heart of India:
Indian cleric warns of civil war
NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- The chief cleric of India`s biggest mosque says that civil war could erupt if what he called genocide against Muslims in the western state of Gujarat did not end.``
Actually people like Bukhari who speak in tongues similar to Jinnah are the true enemies of Muslims. In the last 50 years neither he nor his father or any of the other so called Muslim leaders did diddly squat to better the miserable lot of Indian Muslims. But it doesn`t take half a second to rant and rave about U.S. actions in Afghanistan earlier and now Gujarat. This guy is supposed to be an Imam and was using four letter words against Shabana Azmi! So much for the mercy and compassion in Islam that he ``preaches``.
If this guy had so much clout over Muslims to start a civil war over Gujarat (which is quite far-fetched), think of the immense prestige he would have brought to the Muslims of India and also the admiration of a nation that he would have earned if he had put it to positive use in solving the Kashmir problem on India`s behalf which has been festering over 50 years. It just proves the siege mentality of the Muslim leaders that I have been talking about.
``It seems that `TNT` continues to live in the heart of India:
Indian cleric warns of civil war
NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- The chief cleric of India`s biggest mosque says that civil war could erupt if what he called genocide against Muslims in the western state of Gujarat did not end.``
Actually people like Bukhari who speak in tongues similar to Jinnah are the true enemies of Muslims. In the last 50 years neither he nor his father or any of the other so called Muslim leaders did diddly squat to better the miserable lot of Indian Muslims. But it doesn`t take half a second to rant and rave about U.S. actions in Afghanistan earlier and now Gujarat. This guy is supposed to be an Imam and was using four letter words against Shabana Azmi! So much for the mercy and compassion in Islam that he ``preaches``.
If this guy had so much clout over Muslims to start a civil war over Gujarat (which is quite far-fetched), think of the immense prestige he would have brought to the Muslims of India and also the admiration of a nation that he would have earned if he had put it to positive use in solving the Kashmir problem on India`s behalf which has been festering over 50 years. It just proves the siege mentality of the Muslim leaders that I have been talking about.
#887 Posted by InYourFace on April 25, 2002 2:17:43 pm
It is very important for Indians and Indian muslims to talk about ``Godhra``.
Talking doesn`t neccessarily mean that you are condoning the riots.
PS. I am a die-hard liberal.
Talking doesn`t neccessarily mean that you are condoning the riots.
PS. I am a die-hard liberal.
#886 Posted by semipreciousme on April 25, 2002 2:17:43 pm
Lajwanti:
“Behain, I am advice you, SHOOT! SHOOT!”
Behain, I am tell you, I am love the way you thinking!
#885 Posted by Prem on April 25, 2002 2:17:43 pm
re: rsridhar # 913
Doctor Sridhar, have you seen that movie called ``Jane Bhi Do Yaaron`` starring Naseeruddin, Om Puri, Satish Shah and Neena Gupta?
On matters of Gandhi/Jinnah, IMHO that is what we need to say. What difference does it make to us what kind of a deal Jinnah gave to Bengalis? Similarly, what difference do the amusing postings we see here on Gandhi make to anybody on earth?
Unless, of course, you are trying to deliberately provoke people :)
Doctor Sridhar, have you seen that movie called ``Jane Bhi Do Yaaron`` starring Naseeruddin, Om Puri, Satish Shah and Neena Gupta?
On matters of Gandhi/Jinnah, IMHO that is what we need to say. What difference does it make to us what kind of a deal Jinnah gave to Bengalis? Similarly, what difference do the amusing postings we see here on Gandhi make to anybody on earth?
Unless, of course, you are trying to deliberately provoke people :)
#884 Posted by Urstruly on April 25, 2002 1:25:51 pm
tvarad
I fail to make a connection between my post 902 that you addressed and your post. I wonder why you addressed me specifically when we are putting forth two different topics.
I fail to make a connection between my post 902 that you addressed and your post. I wonder why you addressed me specifically when we are putting forth two different topics.
#883 Posted by sadna on April 25, 2002 10:49:41 am
harimau #911
Its one of the major grouses of Hindutva-vadis, which their opponents find hard to answer, but its my conviction that a major difference between the constructive use the Tirupati temple trust finds for its money and the military-politico-religious purpose many mosques in Pakistan put THEIR money into lies in the difference in their administration as decreed by law.
By the Indian Constitution, temples in India have to be administered by public trusts and cannot be privately administered if their intake is beyond some threshold amount, am I right?
This issue is before the Supreme Court currently, which is examining the `minority`/`majority` definitions and it REALLY scares me the Court will declare this provision about temples `discriminatory` against the majority, a provision I believe has done more than Mr Nehru and the Congress party in preventing a widespread politicisation of Hinduism.
I believe the way to remove `discrimination` is to put even minority institutions under public trusteeship, it will help nonHindus too. It will save the Akali Dal from getting decrees from the SGPC, for example, and churches from spelling out political agendas in the NE.
Its one of the major grouses of Hindutva-vadis, which their opponents find hard to answer, but its my conviction that a major difference between the constructive use the Tirupati temple trust finds for its money and the military-politico-religious purpose many mosques in Pakistan put THEIR money into lies in the difference in their administration as decreed by law.
By the Indian Constitution, temples in India have to be administered by public trusts and cannot be privately administered if their intake is beyond some threshold amount, am I right?
This issue is before the Supreme Court currently, which is examining the `minority`/`majority` definitions and it REALLY scares me the Court will declare this provision about temples `discriminatory` against the majority, a provision I believe has done more than Mr Nehru and the Congress party in preventing a widespread politicisation of Hinduism.
I believe the way to remove `discrimination` is to put even minority institutions under public trusteeship, it will help nonHindus too. It will save the Akali Dal from getting decrees from the SGPC, for example, and churches from spelling out political agendas in the NE.
#882 Posted by sadna on April 25, 2002 10:00:29 am
uqab #907
I don`t understand your abusive terminology, see, even to curse Hindu/Indians you have to know something about them.
This simple suggestion may be beyond your comprehension, but perhaps it will sink in someday : (excerpt from #904, http://meadev.nic.in/govt/rakeshsood-stanforduniv-jan2002.htm)
``..If Pakistan has to maintain itself as the second largest economy in South Asia, it will need to undertake a significant social transformation, turning away from feudalism and orthodoxy and authoritarianism, accepting ideas rather than ideologies. ..``
I don`t understand your abusive terminology, see, even to curse Hindu/Indians you have to know something about them.
This simple suggestion may be beyond your comprehension, but perhaps it will sink in someday : (excerpt from #904, http://meadev.nic.in/govt/rakeshsood-stanforduniv-jan2002.htm)
``..If Pakistan has to maintain itself as the second largest economy in South Asia, it will need to undertake a significant social transformation, turning away from feudalism and orthodoxy and authoritarianism, accepting ideas rather than ideologies. ..``
#881 Posted by rsridhar on April 25, 2002 1:12:38 am
re: Jinnah and Bengali nationalism
This article studies in detail Jinnah`s role in sowing seeds of Bengali nationalism. Jinnah comes out as a clever manipulator. Url:
http://www.virtualbangladesh.com/commentary/jinnah.html
Some excerpts:
1. ``Although the overwhelming number of Muslim population in Bengal had supported the Muslim League`s demand for Pakistan, the central leadership of All-India Muslim League (AIML) was disproportionately skewed in favor of non-Bengali leaders of different provinces. Jinnah had effectively used most of the popular leaders of Bengal for the purpose mobilizing support in favor of his ``Two-Nation Theory`` and the demand for separate homeland for the Muslims of India.``
2. ``Yet, Jinnah had preferred to promote and project the non-Bengali loyalists, rightists and collaborationists in the leadership roles at both AIML and Bengal Provincial Muslim League (BPML). It was by his deliberate anti-Bengali design that most of the celebrated and popular Muslim League leaders of Bengal were either banished or marginalized immediately before or after the creation of Pakistan. Instead of fostering and nurturing charismatic and independent-minded Bengali leaders, Jinnah handpicked those leaders of Bengal to assume the leadership roles in East Bengal (now Bangladesh) who were certified as anti-Bangalee and spineless loyalists or collaborationists. Thus the dice of Pakistan`s anti-Bengali design was cast even before Pakistan`s independence was achieved.``
3. ``Khalid Bin Syeed, one of the most distinguished scholars on Pakistan Movement, succinctly refuted the myth about Jinnah`s organizational capabilities and perceptions of alleged mal-administration of congress: ``It was only after the Lahore Resolution was passed and the demand for a Muslim state came to the forefront that Muslims in their thousands flocked to the Muslim League. Thus, neither Jinnah`s organizing ability nor the alleged Congress misrule by themselves could have transformed the [Muslim] League into a mighty force. The demand for Pakistan…., this stimulant which put life and vigor into the Muslim League`` Khalid Bin Syeed, Pakistan: The Formative Years, London: Oxford University press, 1968, p. 179).``
4. ``Although his support for Pakistan Movement was genuine, Fazlul Huq did not tolerate Jinnah`s unfair interference in Bengal politics. Instead of taking dictates from Jinnah or Liaquat Ali Khan, Fazlul Huq had resigned from the Muslim League for which he had to be in political exile for more than 10 years. Aimed at the collapse of Huq`s Ministry in Bengal, Jinnah, with his ruthless brilliance, personally saw to it that Muslim League support is withdrawn from KPP-Muslim League coalition Government. The collapse of KPP-ML coalition Ministry had devastating effect on the Bengali Muslims. Fazlul Huq was forced to form a coalition Government with Shyma Prashad Mukherji (known as Shayma-Huq Ministry). Yet, M.A. Jinnah could care less. His sole goal was to send Fazlul Huq to political wilderness in an era when the demand for Pakistan caught up the imagination of 33 million Bengali Muslims. Jinnah was personally involved in spreading blatant falsehoods and inaccuracies about Fazlul Huq throughout Bengal. He was called ``traitor.`` It is interesting to note that Fazlul Huq had been vilified by both progressive faction (led by Shaheed Suhrawardy and Abul Hashim) and rightist faction (led by Maulana Akram Khan and Nazimuddin) of Bengal Provincial Muslim League! Aimed at demeaning and discrediting Fazlul Huq, the leaders of Bengal Muslim League had addressed several hundred public meetings in most of the districts in Bengal. Nothwithstanding his enormous popularity, Sher-e-Bangla was not invincible. Muslim League`s defamatory propaganda had worked. Fazlul Huq`s Ministry had collapsed in 1943.``
5. ``The most relevant fact is that M. A. Jinnah had decided to nurture and sponsor the conservative elements in the party. Aimed at packing the East Pakistan Muslim League with Jinnah loyalists, it was the deliberate policy of Jinnah to either ignore or malign the progressive members of the Bengal Muslim League. For example, the followers of both Suhrawardy and Hashim were taunted or humiliated by Jinnah loyalists and collaborationists even before the establishment of Pakistan. Instead of recognizing Shaheed Suhrawardhy`s popularity, organizational skills and crucial contribution to Pakistan movement at a critical juncture, the centralized All-India Muslim League leadership had consciously lent its support to Khawaja Nazimuddin`s bid to become the leader of Muslim League legislators in Bengal on August 5, 1947 (only 9 days before Pakistan was born!). With the selection of a reactionary, conservative and discredited leader of BPML for assuming the role of Chief Minister of East Bengal (East Pakistan) over a progressive and dynamic leader of Suhrawardy`s caliber and stature, M.A. Jinnah had in effect sealed off the political fate of H.S. Suhrawardy and his followers in East Bengal (East Pakistan).``
6. ``The ruling coterie of Pakistan had realized it quite early that the die-hard loyalists needed to be promoted and installed in East Bengal Muslim League establishment. Aimed at humiliating and demonizing the most popular and celebrated Muslim League leaders of East Bengal (East Pakistan), the ruling coterie of Pakistan adopted a deliberate policy of filling the East Bengal (East Pakistan) Branch of Muslim League with the collaborationist, reactionary and anti-Bangalee leaders. At the behest of both Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan, Choudury Khaliquzzaman, the Chief of Organizer of the All-Pakistan Muslim League, had literally leased the party in East Bengal to Khawaja Nazimuddin and Maulana Akram Khan. They, in turn, sponsored those Bengali leaders who were loyal to them. Neither Nazimuddin nor Akram Khan had any mass support or charisma. Nor did they have any extraordinary organizational capabilities.``
7. ``Both Jinnah and Liaquat totally ignored the fact that fifty six percent of the total population of Pakistan were from East Bengal. The discriminatory policy of the Central Government of Pakistan against East Bengal started manifesting only after few months of independence. To the chagrin of East Bengal, the Central Government of Pakistan had become the exclusive domain of West Pakistanis. The representation of Bangalees in various services including Military and Civil Service under the Central Government was negligible. West Pakistanis deputed from the Central Government had filled most of the crucial administrative positions including the position of Chief Secretary in the Government of East Bengal. The exports and imports were central subjects to be dominated by West Pakistanis. The trade, commerce, banking, industries and other public or private sector enterprises were totally controlled by West Pakistanis. The allocation of annual expenditures for development of East Bengal was negligible in comparison with West Pakistan even though East Bengal was assessed for greater amount of revenues. Most of the foreign earnings were generated from East Pakistan exports. Yet, foreign exchange allocation for East Bengal government was almost nil. Since the Federal capital was located in Karachi, the federal expenditures had no beneficial effects on the economy of East Bengal.``
8. ``The typical anti-Bangalee attitude of Jinnah and Liaquat Government was manifested in Prime Minister Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan`s arrogant response to a Bangalee leader`s question on Provincial autonomy for East Bengal (at the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on March 2, 1948): ``Today in Pakistan there is no difference between the Central Government and Provincial Government. The central Government is composed of the provinces. …. We must kill this provincialism for all times.``
9. ``The beginning of the end of Pakistan in East Bengal had started as early as in 1948 when the Muslim League Government at both the Center and East Bengal were pushing for Urdu to be the ``only`` State Language of Pakistan.. The language issue started mobilizing the people of East Bengal even before the year 1947 was out. Neither Jinnah nor Liaquat Ali Khan was willing to recognize that Urdu, an alien language to Bangalees, could never be imposed on East Bengal. They never recognized the fact that the then Chief Minister of East Bengal, Khawaza Nazimuddin, was aggravating and alienating the Bangalee population when he started aggressive campaign in favor of Urdu to be the State language of Pakistan. Jinnah`s ``Urdu, and Urdu alone shall be the State Language of Pakistan`` speeches in Dacca (on March 21, 1948 at Race Course Maidan, and on March 24, 1948 at the Special Convocation Ceremony of Dacca University) had been instantly criticized by the most articulate segments of Bangalees.``
10. ``Jinnah`s shameless advocacy for Urdu to be the only State language of Pakistan clearly demonstrated his contempt for Bangalees and utter disregard for democratic principle of majority rule. In fact, his outlandish anti-Bengali language speeches in Dacca had sparked the first phase of language movement in 1948.``
All in all, an illuminating article about Jinnah`s manipulative and ruthless policies against Bengali muslims that seem to have set the stage for later problems. If this man had lived for even 10 more years, Pakistan (or what remains of it today) would have ceased to exist by now.
Sridhar
This article studies in detail Jinnah`s role in sowing seeds of Bengali nationalism. Jinnah comes out as a clever manipulator. Url:
http://www.virtualbangladesh.com/commentary/jinnah.html
Some excerpts:
1. ``Although the overwhelming number of Muslim population in Bengal had supported the Muslim League`s demand for Pakistan, the central leadership of All-India Muslim League (AIML) was disproportionately skewed in favor of non-Bengali leaders of different provinces. Jinnah had effectively used most of the popular leaders of Bengal for the purpose mobilizing support in favor of his ``Two-Nation Theory`` and the demand for separate homeland for the Muslims of India.``
2. ``Yet, Jinnah had preferred to promote and project the non-Bengali loyalists, rightists and collaborationists in the leadership roles at both AIML and Bengal Provincial Muslim League (BPML). It was by his deliberate anti-Bengali design that most of the celebrated and popular Muslim League leaders of Bengal were either banished or marginalized immediately before or after the creation of Pakistan. Instead of fostering and nurturing charismatic and independent-minded Bengali leaders, Jinnah handpicked those leaders of Bengal to assume the leadership roles in East Bengal (now Bangladesh) who were certified as anti-Bangalee and spineless loyalists or collaborationists. Thus the dice of Pakistan`s anti-Bengali design was cast even before Pakistan`s independence was achieved.``
3. ``Khalid Bin Syeed, one of the most distinguished scholars on Pakistan Movement, succinctly refuted the myth about Jinnah`s organizational capabilities and perceptions of alleged mal-administration of congress: ``It was only after the Lahore Resolution was passed and the demand for a Muslim state came to the forefront that Muslims in their thousands flocked to the Muslim League. Thus, neither Jinnah`s organizing ability nor the alleged Congress misrule by themselves could have transformed the [Muslim] League into a mighty force. The demand for Pakistan…., this stimulant which put life and vigor into the Muslim League`` Khalid Bin Syeed, Pakistan: The Formative Years, London: Oxford University press, 1968, p. 179).``
4. ``Although his support for Pakistan Movement was genuine, Fazlul Huq did not tolerate Jinnah`s unfair interference in Bengal politics. Instead of taking dictates from Jinnah or Liaquat Ali Khan, Fazlul Huq had resigned from the Muslim League for which he had to be in political exile for more than 10 years. Aimed at the collapse of Huq`s Ministry in Bengal, Jinnah, with his ruthless brilliance, personally saw to it that Muslim League support is withdrawn from KPP-Muslim League coalition Government. The collapse of KPP-ML coalition Ministry had devastating effect on the Bengali Muslims. Fazlul Huq was forced to form a coalition Government with Shyma Prashad Mukherji (known as Shayma-Huq Ministry). Yet, M.A. Jinnah could care less. His sole goal was to send Fazlul Huq to political wilderness in an era when the demand for Pakistan caught up the imagination of 33 million Bengali Muslims. Jinnah was personally involved in spreading blatant falsehoods and inaccuracies about Fazlul Huq throughout Bengal. He was called ``traitor.`` It is interesting to note that Fazlul Huq had been vilified by both progressive faction (led by Shaheed Suhrawardy and Abul Hashim) and rightist faction (led by Maulana Akram Khan and Nazimuddin) of Bengal Provincial Muslim League! Aimed at demeaning and discrediting Fazlul Huq, the leaders of Bengal Muslim League had addressed several hundred public meetings in most of the districts in Bengal. Nothwithstanding his enormous popularity, Sher-e-Bangla was not invincible. Muslim League`s defamatory propaganda had worked. Fazlul Huq`s Ministry had collapsed in 1943.``
5. ``The most relevant fact is that M. A. Jinnah had decided to nurture and sponsor the conservative elements in the party. Aimed at packing the East Pakistan Muslim League with Jinnah loyalists, it was the deliberate policy of Jinnah to either ignore or malign the progressive members of the Bengal Muslim League. For example, the followers of both Suhrawardy and Hashim were taunted or humiliated by Jinnah loyalists and collaborationists even before the establishment of Pakistan. Instead of recognizing Shaheed Suhrawardhy`s popularity, organizational skills and crucial contribution to Pakistan movement at a critical juncture, the centralized All-India Muslim League leadership had consciously lent its support to Khawaja Nazimuddin`s bid to become the leader of Muslim League legislators in Bengal on August 5, 1947 (only 9 days before Pakistan was born!). With the selection of a reactionary, conservative and discredited leader of BPML for assuming the role of Chief Minister of East Bengal (East Pakistan) over a progressive and dynamic leader of Suhrawardy`s caliber and stature, M.A. Jinnah had in effect sealed off the political fate of H.S. Suhrawardy and his followers in East Bengal (East Pakistan).``
6. ``The ruling coterie of Pakistan had realized it quite early that the die-hard loyalists needed to be promoted and installed in East Bengal Muslim League establishment. Aimed at humiliating and demonizing the most popular and celebrated Muslim League leaders of East Bengal (East Pakistan), the ruling coterie of Pakistan adopted a deliberate policy of filling the East Bengal (East Pakistan) Branch of Muslim League with the collaborationist, reactionary and anti-Bangalee leaders. At the behest of both Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan, Choudury Khaliquzzaman, the Chief of Organizer of the All-Pakistan Muslim League, had literally leased the party in East Bengal to Khawaja Nazimuddin and Maulana Akram Khan. They, in turn, sponsored those Bengali leaders who were loyal to them. Neither Nazimuddin nor Akram Khan had any mass support or charisma. Nor did they have any extraordinary organizational capabilities.``
7. ``Both Jinnah and Liaquat totally ignored the fact that fifty six percent of the total population of Pakistan were from East Bengal. The discriminatory policy of the Central Government of Pakistan against East Bengal started manifesting only after few months of independence. To the chagrin of East Bengal, the Central Government of Pakistan had become the exclusive domain of West Pakistanis. The representation of Bangalees in various services including Military and Civil Service under the Central Government was negligible. West Pakistanis deputed from the Central Government had filled most of the crucial administrative positions including the position of Chief Secretary in the Government of East Bengal. The exports and imports were central subjects to be dominated by West Pakistanis. The trade, commerce, banking, industries and other public or private sector enterprises were totally controlled by West Pakistanis. The allocation of annual expenditures for development of East Bengal was negligible in comparison with West Pakistan even though East Bengal was assessed for greater amount of revenues. Most of the foreign earnings were generated from East Pakistan exports. Yet, foreign exchange allocation for East Bengal government was almost nil. Since the Federal capital was located in Karachi, the federal expenditures had no beneficial effects on the economy of East Bengal.``
8. ``The typical anti-Bangalee attitude of Jinnah and Liaquat Government was manifested in Prime Minister Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan`s arrogant response to a Bangalee leader`s question on Provincial autonomy for East Bengal (at the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on March 2, 1948): ``Today in Pakistan there is no difference between the Central Government and Provincial Government. The central Government is composed of the provinces. …. We must kill this provincialism for all times.``
9. ``The beginning of the end of Pakistan in East Bengal had started as early as in 1948 when the Muslim League Government at both the Center and East Bengal were pushing for Urdu to be the ``only`` State Language of Pakistan.. The language issue started mobilizing the people of East Bengal even before the year 1947 was out. Neither Jinnah nor Liaquat Ali Khan was willing to recognize that Urdu, an alien language to Bangalees, could never be imposed on East Bengal. They never recognized the fact that the then Chief Minister of East Bengal, Khawaza Nazimuddin, was aggravating and alienating the Bangalee population when he started aggressive campaign in favor of Urdu to be the State language of Pakistan. Jinnah`s ``Urdu, and Urdu alone shall be the State Language of Pakistan`` speeches in Dacca (on March 21, 1948 at Race Course Maidan, and on March 24, 1948 at the Special Convocation Ceremony of Dacca University) had been instantly criticized by the most articulate segments of Bangalees.``
10. ``Jinnah`s shameless advocacy for Urdu to be the only State language of Pakistan clearly demonstrated his contempt for Bangalees and utter disregard for democratic principle of majority rule. In fact, his outlandish anti-Bengali language speeches in Dacca had sparked the first phase of language movement in 1948.``
All in all, an illuminating article about Jinnah`s manipulative and ruthless policies against Bengali muslims that seem to have set the stage for later problems. If this man had lived for even 10 more years, Pakistan (or what remains of it today) would have ceased to exist by now.
Sridhar
#880 Posted by rsridhar on April 25, 2002 1:12:38 am
re: Jinnah and Bengali nationalism
This article studies in detail Jinnah`s role in sowing seeds of Bengali nationalism. Jinnah comes out as a clever manipulator. Url:
http://www.virtualbangladesh.com/commentary/jinnah.html
Some excerpts:
1. ``Although the overwhelming number of Muslim population in Bengal had supported the Muslim League`s demand for Pakistan, the central leadership of All-India Muslim League (AIML) was disproportionately skewed in favor of non-Bengali leaders of different provinces. Jinnah had effectively used most of the popular leaders of Bengal for the purpose mobilizing support in favor of his ``Two-Nation Theory`` and the demand for separate homeland for the Muslims of India.``
2. ``Yet, Jinnah had preferred to promote and project the non-Bengali loyalists, rightists and collaborationists in the leadership roles at both AIML and Bengal Provincial Muslim League (BPML). It was by his deliberate anti-Bengali design that most of the celebrated and popular Muslim League leaders of Bengal were either banished or marginalized immediately before or after the creation of Pakistan. Instead of fostering and nurturing charismatic and independent-minded Bengali leaders, Jinnah handpicked those leaders of Bengal to assume the leadership roles in East Bengal (now Bangladesh) who were certified as anti-Bangalee and spineless loyalists or collaborationists. Thus the dice of Pakistan`s anti-Bengali design was cast even before Pakistan`s independence was achieved.``
3. ``Khalid Bin Syeed, one of the most distinguished scholars on Pakistan Movement, succinctly refuted the myth about Jinnah`s organizational capabilities and perceptions of alleged mal-administration of congress: ``It was only after the Lahore Resolution was passed and the demand for a Muslim state came to the forefront that Muslims in their thousands flocked to the Muslim League. Thus, neither Jinnah`s organizing ability nor the alleged Congress misrule by themselves could have transformed the [Muslim] League into a mighty force. The demand for Pakistan…., this stimulant which put life and vigor into the Muslim League`` Khalid Bin Syeed, Pakistan: The Formative Years, London: Oxford University press, 1968, p. 179).``
4. ``Although his support for Pakistan Movement was genuine, Fazlul Huq did not tolerate Jinnah`s unfair interference in Bengal politics. Instead of taking dictates from Jinnah or Liaquat Ali Khan, Fazlul Huq had resigned from the Muslim League for which he had to be in political exile for more than 10 years. Aimed at the collapse of Huq`s Ministry in Bengal, Jinnah, with his ruthless brilliance, personally saw to it that Muslim League support is withdrawn from KPP-Muslim League coalition Government. The collapse of KPP-ML coalition Ministry had devastating effect on the Bengali Muslims. Fazlul Huq was forced to form a coalition Government with Shyma Prashad Mukherji (known as Shayma-Huq Ministry). Yet, M.A. Jinnah could care less. His sole goal was to send Fazlul Huq to political wilderness in an era when the demand for Pakistan caught up the imagination of 33 million Bengali Muslims. Jinnah was personally involved in spreading blatant falsehoods and inaccuracies about Fazlul Huq throughout Bengal. He was called ``traitor.`` It is interesting to note that Fazlul Huq had been vilified by both progressive faction (led by Shaheed Suhrawardy and Abul Hashim) and rightist faction (led by Maulana Akram Khan and Nazimuddin) of Bengal Provincial Muslim League! Aimed at demeaning and discrediting Fazlul Huq, the leaders of Bengal Muslim League had addressed several hundred public meetings in most of the districts in Bengal. Nothwithstanding his enormous popularity, Sher-e-Bangla was not invincible. Muslim League`s defamatory propaganda had worked. Fazlul Huq`s Ministry had collapsed in 1943.``
5. ``The most relevant fact is that M. A. Jinnah had decided to nurture and sponsor the conservative elements in the party. Aimed at packing the East Pakistan Muslim League with Jinnah loyalists, it was the deliberate policy of Jinnah to either ignore or malign the progressive members of the Bengal Muslim League. For example, the followers of both Suhrawardy and Hashim were taunted or humiliated by Jinnah loyalists and collaborationists even before the establishment of Pakistan. Instead of recognizing Shaheed Suhrawardhy`s popularity, organizational skills and crucial contribution to Pakistan movement at a critical juncture, the centralized All-India Muslim League leadership had consciously lent its support to Khawaja Nazimuddin`s bid to become the leader of Muslim League legislators in Bengal on August 5, 1947 (only 9 days before Pakistan was born!). With the selection of a reactionary, conservative and discredited leader of BPML for assuming the role of Chief Minister of East Bengal (East Pakistan) over a progressive and dynamic leader of Suhrawardy`s caliber and stature, M.A. Jinnah had in effect sealed off the political fate of H.S. Suhrawardy and his followers in East Bengal (East Pakistan).``
6. ``The ruling coterie of Pakistan had realized it quite early that the die-hard loyalists needed to be promoted and installed in East Bengal Muslim League establishment. Aimed at humiliating and demonizing the most popular and celebrated Muslim League leaders of East Bengal (East Pakistan), the ruling coterie of Pakistan adopted a deliberate policy of filling the East Bengal (East Pakistan) Branch of Muslim League with the collaborationist, reactionary and anti-Bangalee leaders. At the behest of both Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan, Choudury Khaliquzzaman, the Chief of Organizer of the All-Pakistan Muslim League, had literally leased the party in East Bengal to Khawaja Nazimuddin and Maulana Akram Khan. They, in turn, sponsored those Bengali leaders who were loyal to them. Neither Nazimuddin nor Akram Khan had any mass support or charisma. Nor did they have any extraordinary organizational capabilities.``
7. ``Both Jinnah and Liaquat totally ignored the fact that fifty six percent of the total population of Pakistan were from East Bengal. The discriminatory policy of the Central Government of Pakistan against East Bengal started manifesting only after few months of independence. To the chagrin of East Bengal, the Central Government of Pakistan had become the exclusive domain of West Pakistanis. The representation of Bangalees in various services including Military and Civil Service under the Central Government was negligible. West Pakistanis deputed from the Central Government had filled most of the crucial administrative positions including the position of Chief Secretary in the Government of East Bengal. The exports and imports were central subjects to be dominated by West Pakistanis. The trade, commerce, banking, industries and other public or private sector enterprises were totally controlled by West Pakistanis. The allocation of annual expenditures for development of East Bengal was negligible in comparison with West Pakistan even though East Bengal was assessed for greater amount of revenues. Most of the foreign earnings were generated from East Pakistan exports. Yet, foreign exchange allocation for East Bengal government was almost nil. Since the Federal capital was located in Karachi, the federal expenditures had no beneficial effects on the economy of East Bengal.``
8. ``The typical anti-Bangalee attitude of Jinnah and Liaquat Government was manifested in Prime Minister Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan`s arrogant response to a Bangalee leader`s question on Provincial autonomy for East Bengal (at the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on March 2, 1948): ``Today in Pakistan there is no difference between the Central Government and Provincial Government. The central Government is composed of the provinces. …. We must kill this provincialism for all times.``
9. ``The beginning of the end of Pakistan in East Bengal had started as early as in 1948 when the Muslim League Government at both the Center and East Bengal were pushing for Urdu to be the ``only`` State Language of Pakistan.. The language issue started mobilizing the people of East Bengal even before the year 1947 was out. Neither Jinnah nor Liaquat Ali Khan was willing to recognize that Urdu, an alien language to Bangalees, could never be imposed on East Bengal. They never recognized the fact that the then Chief Minister of East Bengal, Khawaza Nazimuddin, was aggravating and alienating the Bangalee population when he started aggressive campaign in favor of Urdu to be the State language of Pakistan. Jinnah`s ``Urdu, and Urdu alone shall be the State Language of Pakistan`` speeches in Dacca (on March 21, 1948 at Race Course Maidan, and on March 24, 1948 at the Special Convocation Ceremony of Dacca University) had been instantly criticized by the most articulate segments of Bangalees.``
10. ``Jinnah`s shameless advocacy for Urdu to be the only State language of Pakistan clearly demonstrated his contempt for Bangalees and utter disregard for democratic principle of majority rule. In fact, his outlandish anti-Bengali language speeches in Dacca had sparked the first phase of language movement in 1948.``
All in all, an illuminating article about Jinnah`s manipulative and ruthless policies against Bengali muslims that seem to have set the stage for later problems. If this man had lived for even 10 more years, Pakistan (or what remains of it today) would have ceased to exist by now.
Sridhar
This article studies in detail Jinnah`s role in sowing seeds of Bengali nationalism. Jinnah comes out as a clever manipulator. Url:
http://www.virtualbangladesh.com/commentary/jinnah.html
Some excerpts:
1. ``Although the overwhelming number of Muslim population in Bengal had supported the Muslim League`s demand for Pakistan, the central leadership of All-India Muslim League (AIML) was disproportionately skewed in favor of non-Bengali leaders of different provinces. Jinnah had effectively used most of the popular leaders of Bengal for the purpose mobilizing support in favor of his ``Two-Nation Theory`` and the demand for separate homeland for the Muslims of India.``
2. ``Yet, Jinnah had preferred to promote and project the non-Bengali loyalists, rightists and collaborationists in the leadership roles at both AIML and Bengal Provincial Muslim League (BPML). It was by his deliberate anti-Bengali design that most of the celebrated and popular Muslim League leaders of Bengal were either banished or marginalized immediately before or after the creation of Pakistan. Instead of fostering and nurturing charismatic and independent-minded Bengali leaders, Jinnah handpicked those leaders of Bengal to assume the leadership roles in East Bengal (now Bangladesh) who were certified as anti-Bangalee and spineless loyalists or collaborationists. Thus the dice of Pakistan`s anti-Bengali design was cast even before Pakistan`s independence was achieved.``
3. ``Khalid Bin Syeed, one of the most distinguished scholars on Pakistan Movement, succinctly refuted the myth about Jinnah`s organizational capabilities and perceptions of alleged mal-administration of congress: ``It was only after the Lahore Resolution was passed and the demand for a Muslim state came to the forefront that Muslims in their thousands flocked to the Muslim League. Thus, neither Jinnah`s organizing ability nor the alleged Congress misrule by themselves could have transformed the [Muslim] League into a mighty force. The demand for Pakistan…., this stimulant which put life and vigor into the Muslim League`` Khalid Bin Syeed, Pakistan: The Formative Years, London: Oxford University press, 1968, p. 179).``
4. ``Although his support for Pakistan Movement was genuine, Fazlul Huq did not tolerate Jinnah`s unfair interference in Bengal politics. Instead of taking dictates from Jinnah or Liaquat Ali Khan, Fazlul Huq had resigned from the Muslim League for which he had to be in political exile for more than 10 years. Aimed at the collapse of Huq`s Ministry in Bengal, Jinnah, with his ruthless brilliance, personally saw to it that Muslim League support is withdrawn from KPP-Muslim League coalition Government. The collapse of KPP-ML coalition Ministry had devastating effect on the Bengali Muslims. Fazlul Huq was forced to form a coalition Government with Shyma Prashad Mukherji (known as Shayma-Huq Ministry). Yet, M.A. Jinnah could care less. His sole goal was to send Fazlul Huq to political wilderness in an era when the demand for Pakistan caught up the imagination of 33 million Bengali Muslims. Jinnah was personally involved in spreading blatant falsehoods and inaccuracies about Fazlul Huq throughout Bengal. He was called ``traitor.`` It is interesting to note that Fazlul Huq had been vilified by both progressive faction (led by Shaheed Suhrawardy and Abul Hashim) and rightist faction (led by Maulana Akram Khan and Nazimuddin) of Bengal Provincial Muslim League! Aimed at demeaning and discrediting Fazlul Huq, the leaders of Bengal Muslim League had addressed several hundred public meetings in most of the districts in Bengal. Nothwithstanding his enormous popularity, Sher-e-Bangla was not invincible. Muslim League`s defamatory propaganda had worked. Fazlul Huq`s Ministry had collapsed in 1943.``
5. ``The most relevant fact is that M. A. Jinnah had decided to nurture and sponsor the conservative elements in the party. Aimed at packing the East Pakistan Muslim League with Jinnah loyalists, it was the deliberate policy of Jinnah to either ignore or malign the progressive members of the Bengal Muslim League. For example, the followers of both Suhrawardy and Hashim were taunted or humiliated by Jinnah loyalists and collaborationists even before the establishment of Pakistan. Instead of recognizing Shaheed Suhrawardhy`s popularity, organizational skills and crucial contribution to Pakistan movement at a critical juncture, the centralized All-India Muslim League leadership had consciously lent its support to Khawaja Nazimuddin`s bid to become the leader of Muslim League legislators in Bengal on August 5, 1947 (only 9 days before Pakistan was born!). With the selection of a reactionary, conservative and discredited leader of BPML for assuming the role of Chief Minister of East Bengal (East Pakistan) over a progressive and dynamic leader of Suhrawardy`s caliber and stature, M.A. Jinnah had in effect sealed off the political fate of H.S. Suhrawardy and his followers in East Bengal (East Pakistan).``
6. ``The ruling coterie of Pakistan had realized it quite early that the die-hard loyalists needed to be promoted and installed in East Bengal Muslim League establishment. Aimed at humiliating and demonizing the most popular and celebrated Muslim League leaders of East Bengal (East Pakistan), the ruling coterie of Pakistan adopted a deliberate policy of filling the East Bengal (East Pakistan) Branch of Muslim League with the collaborationist, reactionary and anti-Bangalee leaders. At the behest of both Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan, Choudury Khaliquzzaman, the Chief of Organizer of the All-Pakistan Muslim League, had literally leased the party in East Bengal to Khawaja Nazimuddin and Maulana Akram Khan. They, in turn, sponsored those Bengali leaders who were loyal to them. Neither Nazimuddin nor Akram Khan had any mass support or charisma. Nor did they have any extraordinary organizational capabilities.``
7. ``Both Jinnah and Liaquat totally ignored the fact that fifty six percent of the total population of Pakistan were from East Bengal. The discriminatory policy of the Central Government of Pakistan against East Bengal started manifesting only after few months of independence. To the chagrin of East Bengal, the Central Government of Pakistan had become the exclusive domain of West Pakistanis. The representation of Bangalees in various services including Military and Civil Service under the Central Government was negligible. West Pakistanis deputed from the Central Government had filled most of the crucial administrative positions including the position of Chief Secretary in the Government of East Bengal. The exports and imports were central subjects to be dominated by West Pakistanis. The trade, commerce, banking, industries and other public or private sector enterprises were totally controlled by West Pakistanis. The allocation of annual expenditures for development of East Bengal was negligible in comparison with West Pakistan even though East Bengal was assessed for greater amount of revenues. Most of the foreign earnings were generated from East Pakistan exports. Yet, foreign exchange allocation for East Bengal government was almost nil. Since the Federal capital was located in Karachi, the federal expenditures had no beneficial effects on the economy of East Bengal.``
8. ``The typical anti-Bangalee attitude of Jinnah and Liaquat Government was manifested in Prime Minister Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan`s arrogant response to a Bangalee leader`s question on Provincial autonomy for East Bengal (at the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on March 2, 1948): ``Today in Pakistan there is no difference between the Central Government and Provincial Government. The central Government is composed of the provinces. …. We must kill this provincialism for all times.``
9. ``The beginning of the end of Pakistan in East Bengal had started as early as in 1948 when the Muslim League Government at both the Center and East Bengal were pushing for Urdu to be the ``only`` State Language of Pakistan.. The language issue started mobilizing the people of East Bengal even before the year 1947 was out. Neither Jinnah nor Liaquat Ali Khan was willing to recognize that Urdu, an alien language to Bangalees, could never be imposed on East Bengal. They never recognized the fact that the then Chief Minister of East Bengal, Khawaza Nazimuddin, was aggravating and alienating the Bangalee population when he started aggressive campaign in favor of Urdu to be the State language of Pakistan. Jinnah`s ``Urdu, and Urdu alone shall be the State Language of Pakistan`` speeches in Dacca (on March 21, 1948 at Race Course Maidan, and on March 24, 1948 at the Special Convocation Ceremony of Dacca University) had been instantly criticized by the most articulate segments of Bangalees.``
10. ``Jinnah`s shameless advocacy for Urdu to be the only State language of Pakistan clearly demonstrated his contempt for Bangalees and utter disregard for democratic principle of majority rule. In fact, his outlandish anti-Bengali language speeches in Dacca had sparked the first phase of language movement in 1948.``
All in all, an illuminating article about Jinnah`s manipulative and ruthless policies against Bengali muslims that seem to have set the stage for later problems. If this man had lived for even 10 more years, Pakistan (or what remains of it today) would have ceased to exist by now.
Sridhar
#879 Posted by harimau on April 25, 2002 1:12:38 am
No matter what Yasser Latif Hamdani says, there IS a difference between the two countries created in the subcontinent in 1947.
The Venkateswara (Balaji) Temple in Tirupati uses the very large voluntary donations it gets to operate the Sri Venkateswara University which offers graduate programs in a variety of subjects. It operates a medical college which sets aside some 20 seats a years for Non-Resident Indians so that students of Indian extraction from the US and Europe can come to India for their MBBS degree. No matter how you view Gandhi, this is Gandhi`s legacy of doing good.
On the other hand, we have Pakistani madrassahs recruiting Omar Saaed Sheikh from London School of Economics to study terrorism, kidnapping and murder. No matter how you view Jinnah, this is the legacy that Pakistan has inherited.
Yasser, dear boy, here is something more for you to reflect on. From BBC:
Learning in India`s Silicon Valley
Disadvantaged children are keen to learn computing
By Habib Beary
BBC correspondent in Bangalore
A unique grassroots literacy programme in Bangalore in southern India is bringing hope to thousands of the city`s poorest children.
It draws children from many of the slums dotting Bangalore, often described as India`s technology hub, and aims at enrolling every underprivileged child in the city by 2003.
As many as 1,500 volunteer teachers have fanned out across 300 slums in the city to further the agenda of universal primary education.
An education department survey says Bangalore, despite its hi-tech image, has over 100,000 children out of school.
`It`s so nice to learn`
The programme was launched by the Akshara Foundation two years ago in a partnership between some of the city`s leading software companies and the government.
Games make learning fun for these pupils
``We would like to see that every child in Bangalore is in school and learning by next year,`` said Rohini Nilekani, the force behind Akshara, which means letters.
One among the fortunate children is 12-year-old Akeefa Samreen, who studies at one of the schools located at a sprawling Muslim-dominated slum in the eastern part of the city.
``It`s so nice to be here. We learn but at the same time there is so much of joy and laughter.
``But for such a programme, I don`t think my parents would have sent me to school,`` he adds.
Women driven
Women volunteers form a majority of the teaching staff who have high school grades.
Bangalore`s IT firms are giving something back
``Akshara is a success story of enrolment, but equally heartening has been the social empowerment we have seen among our young women volunteers,`` says Ms Nilekani.
``We try to make learning interesting and fun. I am so happy to be of some help to these children,`` says teacher Roohinaaz.
``There is a spark in every child`s eyes no matter how poor they are. What is required is help and motivation,`` adds Roohinaaz, who along with other volunteers is learning computer skills.
Later, they will pass on the skills to their students.
The programmes initiated by Akshara include preparing three to five-year-olds for formal schooling and a course aimed at school drop outs between the ages of six and 12.
Parents pay a token fee of five rupees per month or whatever they can afford.
In contrast, Bangalore`s private schools charge between 300 to 1000 rupees a month.
Giving something back
Some of the city`s leading software companies, which have helped turn the city into the infotech hub of India, are backing Akshara.
``The success of this programme is mainly because of contributions from the software industry,`` says Chief Operating Officer of Akshara Lieutenant Colonel Murthy Rajan, a retired Indian Army officer.
``Everybody wants to give back something to society.``
``Without such private initiatives, we cannot achieve the goal of universal education in the country,`` adds Abraham Ebenezer, Principal of Bishop Cotton Boys School, one of Bangalore`s leading educational institutions.
The Venkateswara (Balaji) Temple in Tirupati uses the very large voluntary donations it gets to operate the Sri Venkateswara University which offers graduate programs in a variety of subjects. It operates a medical college which sets aside some 20 seats a years for Non-Resident Indians so that students of Indian extraction from the US and Europe can come to India for their MBBS degree. No matter how you view Gandhi, this is Gandhi`s legacy of doing good.
On the other hand, we have Pakistani madrassahs recruiting Omar Saaed Sheikh from London School of Economics to study terrorism, kidnapping and murder. No matter how you view Jinnah, this is the legacy that Pakistan has inherited.
Yasser, dear boy, here is something more for you to reflect on. From BBC:
Learning in India`s Silicon Valley
Disadvantaged children are keen to learn computing
By Habib Beary
BBC correspondent in Bangalore
A unique grassroots literacy programme in Bangalore in southern India is bringing hope to thousands of the city`s poorest children.
It draws children from many of the slums dotting Bangalore, often described as India`s technology hub, and aims at enrolling every underprivileged child in the city by 2003.
As many as 1,500 volunteer teachers have fanned out across 300 slums in the city to further the agenda of universal primary education.
An education department survey says Bangalore, despite its hi-tech image, has over 100,000 children out of school.
`It`s so nice to learn`
The programme was launched by the Akshara Foundation two years ago in a partnership between some of the city`s leading software companies and the government.
Games make learning fun for these pupils
``We would like to see that every child in Bangalore is in school and learning by next year,`` said Rohini Nilekani, the force behind Akshara, which means letters.
One among the fortunate children is 12-year-old Akeefa Samreen, who studies at one of the schools located at a sprawling Muslim-dominated slum in the eastern part of the city.
``It`s so nice to be here. We learn but at the same time there is so much of joy and laughter.
``But for such a programme, I don`t think my parents would have sent me to school,`` he adds.
Women driven
Women volunteers form a majority of the teaching staff who have high school grades.
Bangalore`s IT firms are giving something back
``Akshara is a success story of enrolment, but equally heartening has been the social empowerment we have seen among our young women volunteers,`` says Ms Nilekani.
``We try to make learning interesting and fun. I am so happy to be of some help to these children,`` says teacher Roohinaaz.
``There is a spark in every child`s eyes no matter how poor they are. What is required is help and motivation,`` adds Roohinaaz, who along with other volunteers is learning computer skills.
Later, they will pass on the skills to their students.
The programmes initiated by Akshara include preparing three to five-year-olds for formal schooling and a course aimed at school drop outs between the ages of six and 12.
Parents pay a token fee of five rupees per month or whatever they can afford.
In contrast, Bangalore`s private schools charge between 300 to 1000 rupees a month.
Giving something back
Some of the city`s leading software companies, which have helped turn the city into the infotech hub of India, are backing Akshara.
``The success of this programme is mainly because of contributions from the software industry,`` says Chief Operating Officer of Akshara Lieutenant Colonel Murthy Rajan, a retired Indian Army officer.
``Everybody wants to give back something to society.``
``Without such private initiatives, we cannot achieve the goal of universal education in the country,`` adds Abraham Ebenezer, Principal of Bishop Cotton Boys School, one of Bangalore`s leading educational institutions.
#878 Posted by ylh on April 25, 2002 1:12:38 am
It seems that `TNT` continues to live in the heart of India:
Indian cleric warns of civil war
April 19, 2002 Posted: 8:47 PM HKT (1247 GMT)
Bukhari
NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- The chief cleric of India`s biggest mosque says that civil war could erupt if what he called genocide against Muslims in the western state of Gujarat did not end.
Syed Ahmed Bukhari, in a fiery speech after Friday prayers at New Delhi`s historic Jama Masjid, said Muslims would have to ``think out ways for our self-protection`` in the wake of India`s worst religious bloodletting in a decade.
More than 750 people, most from the minority Muslim population, have died in reprisal killings and clashes since a Muslim mob burnt alive 59 Hindus in a train in late February.
As he spoke, a crowd of Muslims torched an effigy of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at the gates to the sprawling mosque in Delhi`s teeming old quarter after beating the cloth figure with sticks. ``Shame on Modi,`` they cried.
Bukhari`s warning came as opposition parties and coalition allies kept up the heat in parliament on the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition to dismiss Modi, accusing him of turning a blind eye to the killings of Muslims.
``Remove Modi, save the nation,`` lawmakers bellowed as India`s famously unruly parliament adjourned in uproar for a fifth day after the government again rejected calls for his dismissal.
Charges denied
CNN NewsPass VIDEO
Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee`s support of Gujarat administrator Narendra Modi may cause a governmental crisis. CNN`s Satinder Bindra reports (April 17)
Play video
IN-DEPTH
India`s religious strife
RESOURCES
Gallery: Aftermath of religious strife
Modi has denied charges that his administration and state police looked the other way while Hindu gangs went on a rampage, killing Muslims and looting and burning Muslim property.
Since the violence in Gujarat broke out, the BJP has increasingly adopted a new strident Hindu tone, prompting critics to say the party was returning to its Hindu revivalist roots.
Last weekend, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, long seen as a moderate among hardliners, surprised many when he accused Muslims of wanting ``to spread terror in the name of religion.``
``What has happened in Gujarat over the last 51 days is nothing but genocide ... stop it now,`` said Bukhari. ``There will be a civil war in this country. We will also show our strength. India will be broken into pieces.``
While violence has waned in Gujarat, the state has witnessed sporadic religious clashes and killings over the past few weeks.
Reliant on support
The embattled BJP depends on the support of 20 smaller and mostly secular parties to keep its coalition in power and none so far has threatened to withdraw from the government.
More than 800 people are thought to have been killed as violence swept Gujarat
Party leaders including Vajpayee and the head of the opposition Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, attended a meeting to break the logjam over opposition demands for Modi`s dismissal.
But Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan said ``sharp differences`` surfaced at the meeting.
BJP spokesman V.K. Malhotra said Vajpayee challenged the opposition to move a no-confidence motion in the government.
The opposition pushed for a censure motion.
Political analysts say the government believes it would be more likely to rally support for a no-confidence motion while the opposition believes it could get support from some of the coalition`s allies for a censure resolution on Gujarat.
If it were to lose a censure motion, the 30-month-old coalition would not have to resign but would lose the moral authority to govern, constitutional experts say.
Copyright 2002 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
#877 Posted by progressive on April 25, 2002 1:12:38 am
900
``I will use the paper on which this article by Velu-whoever was published to wipe my A$$ after i have emptied by bowel. That is how much this article is worth. An article by a biased Dalit! Can you not get anything better?
Sridhar``
The paper may be difficult to find.Please use your monitor instead---REPEATEDLY,while it is on!
``I will use the paper on which this article by Velu-whoever was published to wipe my A$$ after i have emptied by bowel. That is how much this article is worth. An article by a biased Dalit! Can you not get anything better?
Sridhar``
The paper may be difficult to find.Please use your monitor instead---REPEATEDLY,while it is on!
#876 Posted by tvarad on April 25, 2002 1:12:38 am
RE: Reply #: 902 Urstruly
The real reason for the attacks on Gandhi, most of which are based on personal biases rather than on historical facts, is because these people know that it is Gandhi`s India and what better way to bring down India than to pick apart Gandhi`s ideals. Indian independence was gained at the same intellectual level as the British, no mean feat since the latter had a head start of 1000 years in thought through the renaissance, age of enlightenment and reason, and the industrial age. This higher thought is what holds India together which is why so many concerted attacks are made against the man who embodies it by vested interests.
Contrast this to Jinnah`s Pakistan which was built on a narrow agenda of irreconcileable belief systems. This ideology didn`t even outlast him by 25 years and crashed on the graves of a 1.5 million Bangladeshis.
It is also ironic to find Pakistanis picking on his work with the Dalits given that huge swaths of land in Pakistan are even today owned by feudal landlords, including the people on them! As they say, physician heal thyself.
The real reason for the attacks on Gandhi, most of which are based on personal biases rather than on historical facts, is because these people know that it is Gandhi`s India and what better way to bring down India than to pick apart Gandhi`s ideals. Indian independence was gained at the same intellectual level as the British, no mean feat since the latter had a head start of 1000 years in thought through the renaissance, age of enlightenment and reason, and the industrial age. This higher thought is what holds India together which is why so many concerted attacks are made against the man who embodies it by vested interests.
Contrast this to Jinnah`s Pakistan which was built on a narrow agenda of irreconcileable belief systems. This ideology didn`t even outlast him by 25 years and crashed on the graves of a 1.5 million Bangladeshis.
It is also ironic to find Pakistanis picking on his work with the Dalits given that huge swaths of land in Pakistan are even today owned by feudal landlords, including the people on them! As they say, physician heal thyself.
#875 Posted by tvarad on April 25, 2002 1:12:38 am
RE: Reply #: 894 ylh
``If the Cosmpolitan Jinnah`s conception of a Modern educated urbanite Muslim polity was religious tribalism, what does one call a half naked fakir running around chanting raghpati radhav raja ram, and sleeping naked with his grandnieces?``
The RSS/VHP movement is also led by ``modern, educated and urbanite Hindu polity`` and they exhibit the same kind of intolerance that Jinnah and his Muslim League practised.
It would take me but a few sentences to get personal on Jinnah or any of your other beliefs but as I have said, other than such silly statements, personal attacks on anyone who disagrees with you and pages of irrelevant verbiage you have no other argument.
``If the Cosmpolitan Jinnah`s conception of a Modern educated urbanite Muslim polity was religious tribalism, what does one call a half naked fakir running around chanting raghpati radhav raja ram, and sleeping naked with his grandnieces?``
The RSS/VHP movement is also led by ``modern, educated and urbanite Hindu polity`` and they exhibit the same kind of intolerance that Jinnah and his Muslim League practised.
It would take me but a few sentences to get personal on Jinnah or any of your other beliefs but as I have said, other than such silly statements, personal attacks on anyone who disagrees with you and pages of irrelevant verbiage you have no other argument.
#874 Posted by cutandpaste on April 25, 2002 1:12:38 am
How in a Little British Town Jihad Found Young Converts
Wed Apr 24, 8:55 AM ET
By AMY WALDMAN The New York Times
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nyt/20020424/wl_nyt/how_in_a_little_british_town_jihad_found_young_converts
TIPTON, England The young men lived within a few blocks of one another in a Muslim pocket in this small town near Birmingham. They were out of school and often on the streets, in the occasional fight, sometime smokers of marijuana. They were, in the slang of the British Midlands, ``dossers`` slackers, layabouts.
So when they renounced the street for Islam, gave up their bad habits for prayer, their parents immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh were pleased. Neighbors were bemused: the drifters had found faith.
Last fall, four young men announced that they were leaving for Pakistan for a computer course, a holiday, an arranged marriage then disappeared. Their families had no word until January, when the Foreign Office called. Three of them Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Ruhal Ahmed had been captured with the Taliban in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and taken to Camp X-Ray in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The fourth, Munir Ali, believed to have accompanied them into Afghanistan, is missing.
No one knows precisely what drove them to Afghanistan whether they went to take up arms or offer aid. What is clear is that in Tipton, as across Britain, the seeds were there: a Muslim generation uncertain of its identity and prospects, angry at the treatment of Muslims the world over, and prey to recruitment, by individual journeymen and potent imagery, to militant Islam.
The ``Tipton Taliban`` were just four young men in a corner of one small town in England. But their story is a window into the psychic journey being taken in immigrant communities across Western Europe as young Muslims are swept up by an orthodox, and often politicized, form of Islam far removed from the ``Friday Prayers`` version of their elders.
Some of the youths are stagnant or unemployed, others breezily successful. Either way, in a poignant kink in the immigrant arc, they have often deemed immaterial all the material comforts their parents emigrated for.
Today, the Taliban are fallen and Al Qaeda is, at least temporarily, in some disarray. The world`s attention has shifted to another group of angry young Muslims the Palestinians battling Israel. Still, here in Britain, what one jihad champion calls the ``nexus of politics and religion and frustration`` remains unbroken. If anything, it has been fortified by events in the Middle East.
These young men were ripe for being swept up. They lived a small-town ennui that could make trouble attractive because at least it made them feel alive. Asif Iqbal, 20, was hyper and excitable. He liked to test the limits. He had left school at 16, run with a wild crowd for a while, and blown a chance at college.
He lived with both his Pakistani-born parents but often seemed on his own. His father, 68 and retired, was busy with leisure pursuits. His mother was uneducated and mentally a bit unwell. ``He had no one to give him advice,`` a friend said.
He worked the night shift at an office postal service and spent most of his free time in the street, other than a Sunday afternoon soccer game. In 1999, he and a friend, also now in Camp X-Ray, had fought with other Asian youths in a nearby town, hurting one so badly he was left scarred.
A Refuge for Muslim Activists
When he turned toward Islam, then, Asif Iqbal did not do so in half-measures. What began as a mild curiosity soon became aggressive, even confrontational.
His path was already a well-trodden one. Britain has during the last two decades become a refuge unmatched in Europe for Muslim activists, scholars and clerics fleeing repressive governments in the Arab world or North Africa, and thus a center of Islamist influence.
Richard Reid, who tried to detonate a shoe-bomb on a trans-Atlantic flight, came to radical Islam at London`s mosques; so did Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Djamel Beghal, accused of plotting an attack on the American Embassy in Paris, sought spiritual tutelage there. Ahmed Omar Sheikh, who is on trial in Pakistan accused of the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, grew up in Britain, the child of prosperous Pakistani parents.
In all, no one knows how many of the newly radicalized have actually taken the journey from Britain to jihad. But over the last decade, members of the jihad movement say, hundreds have gone for training or fighting in Bosnia, Chechnya (news - web sites) and Afghanistan. A document found by New York Times reporters at a Kabul house used by the Islamic militant group Harkat ul-Mujahedeen lists nine trainees, identified by code name, from Britain.
Since Sept. 11, the presence of so many radicals, and a number of tantalizing, if ambiguous, terrorist links, have prompted other European nations to accuse Britain of being soft on terrorism.
Stung by the criticism and fearful that Britain will become a target for supporting America`s war on terror, the government is using tough, even draconian, new laws to crack down on extremism. It is also trying to better understand why young men like Mr. Iqbal turn to militancy.
The young men of Tipton are out of British hands, for now. Whether they will be tried here or in America, or simply go free, is unclear. For now, they pass their days in sunbaked cages in Camp X-Ray, far from the Midlands drizzle.
At Ease in Neither Land
Their families and friends have mostly put forward the same defense: the boys were too Westernized for fundamentalism to creep in. They were irreligious; they had to be prodded to mosque. They drank. They smoked. They went clubbing and chased girls.
Asif Iqbal preferred snooker and soccer to politics, his father told one newspaper. Shafiq Rasul`s brothers said he wore Armani, as if that alone was impregnable armor against extremism.
It is a disorienting image: Muslim immigrant parents defending their children on grounds of decadence.
But it hints at the forces pulling at this immigrant second generation, the first to be British raised. Their parents had brought their home country to their host country and so lived comfortably in both. Their sons seemed at ease in neither.
Aziz ul-Hak, 22, was Asif Iqbal`s best friend, and if, like most people here, he isn`t terribly forthcoming about what happened, he is willing to talk a bit about his own ``stressful`` in-between life.
He speaks Bengali with his father and Birmingham English with his mates. His uniform is Nikes and a baseball cap, his wife a Bangladeshi his father picked. He does not feel particularly British, but in Bangladesh that`s all he feels a rich Briton ripe for ripping off.
His father came from Bangladesh in 1963, part of a great migration of former imperial subjects from the Indian subcontinent invited to toil in Britain`s factories. Many came here to the West Midlands, creating in Victoria Park Estate in Tipton a community that feels like a sari beneath a drab, gray English coat.
In Truth, a Place Apart
It is just six or so streets of linked plain prewar houses in neat uninterrupted rows. But behind the doors, the South Asian village culture survives, in the handmade chapatis, the parentally arranged marriages and the mildly intoxicating Bangladeshi leaf stored in a basket by the register at the Pakeeza grocery store.
All this has made for the appearance of quirky cultural fusion. Pep`s Park Lane Chippy serves curry sauce as well as fish and chips. Bollywood and Hollywood share space at the video store. Young Muslims study at the Roman Catholic school.
But, in truth, the Park Estate is a place apart, a lace-curtained ghetto surrounded by the whites who make up 86 percent of Tipton`s 50,000 residents. Around Tipton, young Asian men who wear Moschino jeans and gold earrings in one ear also hear themselves referred to as ``Pakis.``
It cannot help that the entire economic basis of this world has fallen away. The factories are mostly closed now. Aziz ul-Hak thinks himself lucky to work at a food shop, since in Tipton many young Muslims do not work at all. More graduate to prison than university.
``The main thing with our teenagers is a drug problem, not a religious problem,`` says Bashrhan Khan, 34.
Similar social strains among young South Asians prompted riots in some British towns last summer. Tipton`s afflictions have been milder, but jarring nonetheless. A few years ago, gangs of young whites came through the Park Estate yanking off Muslim women`s head scarfs.
The Pull Between Cultures
The Asians settled the score, sometimes violently, but felt personally betrayed by onetime schoolmates. Two years ago, the right-wing British National Party, whose Web site now features a ``Campaign Against Islam,`` won 24 percent of the vote in a local election.
This was the circumscribed stage on which the young men who disappeared were playing out their lives. They had left school at 16 and were living at home, two on the same street.
Ruhal Ahmed, 20, was a takeaway worker and skilled kickboxer who felt the pull between cultures more acutely than most. A Bengali, he had fallen in love with a local Pakistani girl. In Tipton, this was not done. Parents picked partners back home. The Park Estate was too small to be disrupted by love.
Shafiq Rasul, 24, was 6 foot 2 and model-handsome, by his brothers` reckoning. His father had come from India 35 years ago to work in a factory, and died four years ago. The son`s purpose seemed less clear: shy Shafiq had dropped out of college or ``taken some time off,`` and was working part time at an electronics store.
Munir Ali, 21, now missing, was also Bengali. Sweet and simple, he had struggled to find work, relying, as many young people here do, on temporary jobs. Before he left, he wasn`t working at all.
As he searched for his place, his older sister had found hers unusual in a culture where women rarely work outside the home. She had won election to the local council, the first Asian woman to do so.
After the news broke about her missing brother, she issued a statement: ``We have grown up in Britain in a Western society. All members of our family share and respect British values.``
Those values, like freedom of speech and human rights, have drawn Islamic dissidents seeking haven from repression at home. Some have used Britain as a base for influencing their home countries` politics, through writing, lobbying or fund-raising.
But others are steadily kneading the identity crises of Britain`s young South Asians, as well as converts like Richard Reid. These purveyors of radicalism single out moderate mosques, prisons and universities. Their foil is the West its actions, its policies, even the very freedoms they use to malign it.
On a Wednesday night in Luton, just north of London, 20 or so brown young men crowd into the Islamic Educational Center to hear the Syrian-born Sheik Omar Bakri Muhammad. Sons of Pakistani or Bangladeshi immigrants, most wear Western dress.
``They want to keep calling us Pakis, bloody Arabs, brown Kaffirs,`` Mr. Bakri says.
He caresses a bushy beard and conjures an imaginary character to dramatize a favorite theme: the futility of assimilation. ``Abu Jabar changes his name to Bobby. He changes all his clothes. He dances. He raves with them. They still call him Paki.``
Bobby asks, ``For God`s sake who do I belong to?``
Mr. Bakri answers: ``You belong to the Muslim umma, brothers. Come on in.``
Mr. Bakri heads Al Muhajiroun, or The Emigrants, which he calls an Islamic ideological party. Some say he is all bombast and bluff, others that he manipulates young men into jihad. Whatever the truth, he indisputably transforms anomic young Muslims into Islamists.
Conjuring Up the Caliphate
His followers see recreating the caliphate the era of Islam`s ascendancy after the death of Muhammad in the eighth century as the answer to Muslims`, and the world`s, problems. They often sound like nothing so much as young Marxists of another era.
Islam ``will guarantee every single individual the bare necessities of food, clothing, shelter,`` says Muhammed Ali, a 21-year-old information technology specialist of slight build and febrile mien.
In Britain, as everywhere, Islam has ribboned into countless sects and schools that often spend as much time attacking one another as attracting fresh recruits.
The Birmingham Central Mosque is crowded with young people raised as indifferent Muslims who have now turned to a Taliban-style Islam that provides a way of life as much as a religion. The women cover not just their heads, but their faces; the long-bearded men no longer allow their children to be photographed.
At the same time, many well-educated young Muslims have joined Hizb ut-Tahrir, a movement brought to England in the 1980`s by Middle Eastern students. Its followers, who wear Western dress and often work in high-tech jobs, use anti-American propaganda to rally support for a pan-Islamic state.
``Your Muslim brothers are suffering,`` they whisper to potential recruits.
The goal of the radicals, of whatever stripe, is to make Islam a political force. To do this, they employ a potent mix of vivid imagery, Koranic scholarship, hard facts and soft-boiled conspiracy theories the Jews attacked the World Trade Center to discredit Osama bin Laden (news - web sites); the C.I.A. did it to give America a way into Central Asia; Mr. bin Laden is an American agent meant to discredit Islam.
All of this is passed along a Muslim information loop, a daisy chain of Web sites and word of mouth. Azzam.com, for example, features pictures of Iraqi babies malnourished because of American sanctions or videos of graphic slaughter by and of Muslims in Chechnya.
Imran Khan, 32, who publishes and sells pro-jihad literature, says that jihad recruitment is ``more promising in smaller towns than larger towns.``
``In smaller towns,`` he said, ``there`s nothing happening.``
The Tales They Told
In the small town of Tipton, Shafiq Rasul told his family he was going to take a computer course in Pakistan. Asif Iqbal was going to carry out an arranged marriage, and Ruhal Ahmed was going to watch, or going on holiday, or making a religious pilgrimage no one, anymore, seems sure.
As these stories have fallen away, parents and friends say the young men must have been brainwashed. They describe jihad recruiters and fiery visiting sheiks; Muslim door-to-door preachers and extremist mosques that influenced the young men. None of their theories are provable, but all are plausible.
With three mosques in four square blocks, the Park Estate was ripe for revival. Islam here has been parsed by denomination, language and culture all the divisions of the subcontinent. That variety well suited the Tipton youths` meanderings through faith.
When they first turned to Islam, over idle talk at a local pool hall, their guides were moderates with mystical leanings. They borrowed tapes of Hamza Yusuf, a moderate American convert who has achieved a mass following in Britain and the United States. Their families immediately noticed a change. Asif`s father was happy, he told friends his son had become a good religious boy.
But, friends say, the boys soon migrated to an Islam of a more puritanical bent. They became judgmental, telling friends that they would see after they died how bad their clubbing and pubbing was.
They became convinced of their rightness. Asif once threw a punch because he could not win a theological argument in front of a group of friends. They argued against citations from classical scholars by saying they could interpret the Koran themselves they didn`t need scholars.
They challenged moderates in town to debate visitors like Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born, Saudi-educated preacher who came to Tipton for two visits. He talked of the obligation to jihad, of Muslims killed in Bosnia.
A World of Conspiracies
Mr. Faisal sketched a world of conspiracies, of cabals of Jews and Freemasons plotting to take over the world. It was more exciting than Bollywood and Hollywood combined. It was real.
On some of his tapes, he speaks of why Muslims can never have peace with the ``filthy Jews,`` and of Muslims` right to kill a Hindu if they encounter one in the road. In February, those tapes got him arrested and charged with ``solicitation to murder,`` a charge he has said he will answer by showing that everything he said exists in the Koran.
Asif and his friends were briefly taken with Mr. Faisal, but then moved on. They learned about Hizb ut-Tahrir, and attended lectures given by a recruiter for Al Muhajiroun. They argued that the Palestinians` conflict with Israel justified jihad.
Then came Sept. 11. Muslims in Tipton, like those across Britain, were outraged by America`s bombing of Afghanistan. Still, that the young men undertook their pilgrimage without parental permission shocked this tradition-bound community almost as much as their going at all.
``They were supposed to ask their mother three times and their father once,`` one young woman said.
But the literature of jihad has an answer to that. ``Join the Caravan,`` considered a ``classic`` treatise of the Afghan jihad movement, states, ``When Jihad becomes Fard Ain`` an individual obligation ``no permission of parents is required.``
All the young men needed was someone to make the argument that jihad had become Fard Ain. In Tipton and beyond, there was no shortage of people to make it.
Wed Apr 24, 8:55 AM ET
By AMY WALDMAN The New York Times
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nyt/20020424/wl_nyt/how_in_a_little_british_town_jihad_found_young_converts
TIPTON, England The young men lived within a few blocks of one another in a Muslim pocket in this small town near Birmingham. They were out of school and often on the streets, in the occasional fight, sometime smokers of marijuana. They were, in the slang of the British Midlands, ``dossers`` slackers, layabouts.
So when they renounced the street for Islam, gave up their bad habits for prayer, their parents immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh were pleased. Neighbors were bemused: the drifters had found faith.
Last fall, four young men announced that they were leaving for Pakistan for a computer course, a holiday, an arranged marriage then disappeared. Their families had no word until January, when the Foreign Office called. Three of them Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Ruhal Ahmed had been captured with the Taliban in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and taken to Camp X-Ray in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The fourth, Munir Ali, believed to have accompanied them into Afghanistan, is missing.
No one knows precisely what drove them to Afghanistan whether they went to take up arms or offer aid. What is clear is that in Tipton, as across Britain, the seeds were there: a Muslim generation uncertain of its identity and prospects, angry at the treatment of Muslims the world over, and prey to recruitment, by individual journeymen and potent imagery, to militant Islam.
The ``Tipton Taliban`` were just four young men in a corner of one small town in England. But their story is a window into the psychic journey being taken in immigrant communities across Western Europe as young Muslims are swept up by an orthodox, and often politicized, form of Islam far removed from the ``Friday Prayers`` version of their elders.
Some of the youths are stagnant or unemployed, others breezily successful. Either way, in a poignant kink in the immigrant arc, they have often deemed immaterial all the material comforts their parents emigrated for.
Today, the Taliban are fallen and Al Qaeda is, at least temporarily, in some disarray. The world`s attention has shifted to another group of angry young Muslims the Palestinians battling Israel. Still, here in Britain, what one jihad champion calls the ``nexus of politics and religion and frustration`` remains unbroken. If anything, it has been fortified by events in the Middle East.
These young men were ripe for being swept up. They lived a small-town ennui that could make trouble attractive because at least it made them feel alive. Asif Iqbal, 20, was hyper and excitable. He liked to test the limits. He had left school at 16, run with a wild crowd for a while, and blown a chance at college.
He lived with both his Pakistani-born parents but often seemed on his own. His father, 68 and retired, was busy with leisure pursuits. His mother was uneducated and mentally a bit unwell. ``He had no one to give him advice,`` a friend said.
He worked the night shift at an office postal service and spent most of his free time in the street, other than a Sunday afternoon soccer game. In 1999, he and a friend, also now in Camp X-Ray, had fought with other Asian youths in a nearby town, hurting one so badly he was left scarred.
A Refuge for Muslim Activists
When he turned toward Islam, then, Asif Iqbal did not do so in half-measures. What began as a mild curiosity soon became aggressive, even confrontational.
His path was already a well-trodden one. Britain has during the last two decades become a refuge unmatched in Europe for Muslim activists, scholars and clerics fleeing repressive governments in the Arab world or North Africa, and thus a center of Islamist influence.
Richard Reid, who tried to detonate a shoe-bomb on a trans-Atlantic flight, came to radical Islam at London`s mosques; so did Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Djamel Beghal, accused of plotting an attack on the American Embassy in Paris, sought spiritual tutelage there. Ahmed Omar Sheikh, who is on trial in Pakistan accused of the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, grew up in Britain, the child of prosperous Pakistani parents.
In all, no one knows how many of the newly radicalized have actually taken the journey from Britain to jihad. But over the last decade, members of the jihad movement say, hundreds have gone for training or fighting in Bosnia, Chechnya (news - web sites) and Afghanistan. A document found by New York Times reporters at a Kabul house used by the Islamic militant group Harkat ul-Mujahedeen lists nine trainees, identified by code name, from Britain.
Since Sept. 11, the presence of so many radicals, and a number of tantalizing, if ambiguous, terrorist links, have prompted other European nations to accuse Britain of being soft on terrorism.
Stung by the criticism and fearful that Britain will become a target for supporting America`s war on terror, the government is using tough, even draconian, new laws to crack down on extremism. It is also trying to better understand why young men like Mr. Iqbal turn to militancy.
The young men of Tipton are out of British hands, for now. Whether they will be tried here or in America, or simply go free, is unclear. For now, they pass their days in sunbaked cages in Camp X-Ray, far from the Midlands drizzle.
At Ease in Neither Land
Their families and friends have mostly put forward the same defense: the boys were too Westernized for fundamentalism to creep in. They were irreligious; they had to be prodded to mosque. They drank. They smoked. They went clubbing and chased girls.
Asif Iqbal preferred snooker and soccer to politics, his father told one newspaper. Shafiq Rasul`s brothers said he wore Armani, as if that alone was impregnable armor against extremism.
It is a disorienting image: Muslim immigrant parents defending their children on grounds of decadence.
But it hints at the forces pulling at this immigrant second generation, the first to be British raised. Their parents had brought their home country to their host country and so lived comfortably in both. Their sons seemed at ease in neither.
Aziz ul-Hak, 22, was Asif Iqbal`s best friend, and if, like most people here, he isn`t terribly forthcoming about what happened, he is willing to talk a bit about his own ``stressful`` in-between life.
He speaks Bengali with his father and Birmingham English with his mates. His uniform is Nikes and a baseball cap, his wife a Bangladeshi his father picked. He does not feel particularly British, but in Bangladesh that`s all he feels a rich Briton ripe for ripping off.
His father came from Bangladesh in 1963, part of a great migration of former imperial subjects from the Indian subcontinent invited to toil in Britain`s factories. Many came here to the West Midlands, creating in Victoria Park Estate in Tipton a community that feels like a sari beneath a drab, gray English coat.
In Truth, a Place Apart
It is just six or so streets of linked plain prewar houses in neat uninterrupted rows. But behind the doors, the South Asian village culture survives, in the handmade chapatis, the parentally arranged marriages and the mildly intoxicating Bangladeshi leaf stored in a basket by the register at the Pakeeza grocery store.
All this has made for the appearance of quirky cultural fusion. Pep`s Park Lane Chippy serves curry sauce as well as fish and chips. Bollywood and Hollywood share space at the video store. Young Muslims study at the Roman Catholic school.
But, in truth, the Park Estate is a place apart, a lace-curtained ghetto surrounded by the whites who make up 86 percent of Tipton`s 50,000 residents. Around Tipton, young Asian men who wear Moschino jeans and gold earrings in one ear also hear themselves referred to as ``Pakis.``
It cannot help that the entire economic basis of this world has fallen away. The factories are mostly closed now. Aziz ul-Hak thinks himself lucky to work at a food shop, since in Tipton many young Muslims do not work at all. More graduate to prison than university.
``The main thing with our teenagers is a drug problem, not a religious problem,`` says Bashrhan Khan, 34.
Similar social strains among young South Asians prompted riots in some British towns last summer. Tipton`s afflictions have been milder, but jarring nonetheless. A few years ago, gangs of young whites came through the Park Estate yanking off Muslim women`s head scarfs.
The Pull Between Cultures
The Asians settled the score, sometimes violently, but felt personally betrayed by onetime schoolmates. Two years ago, the right-wing British National Party, whose Web site now features a ``Campaign Against Islam,`` won 24 percent of the vote in a local election.
This was the circumscribed stage on which the young men who disappeared were playing out their lives. They had left school at 16 and were living at home, two on the same street.
Ruhal Ahmed, 20, was a takeaway worker and skilled kickboxer who felt the pull between cultures more acutely than most. A Bengali, he had fallen in love with a local Pakistani girl. In Tipton, this was not done. Parents picked partners back home. The Park Estate was too small to be disrupted by love.
Shafiq Rasul, 24, was 6 foot 2 and model-handsome, by his brothers` reckoning. His father had come from India 35 years ago to work in a factory, and died four years ago. The son`s purpose seemed less clear: shy Shafiq had dropped out of college or ``taken some time off,`` and was working part time at an electronics store.
Munir Ali, 21, now missing, was also Bengali. Sweet and simple, he had struggled to find work, relying, as many young people here do, on temporary jobs. Before he left, he wasn`t working at all.
As he searched for his place, his older sister had found hers unusual in a culture where women rarely work outside the home. She had won election to the local council, the first Asian woman to do so.
After the news broke about her missing brother, she issued a statement: ``We have grown up in Britain in a Western society. All members of our family share and respect British values.``
Those values, like freedom of speech and human rights, have drawn Islamic dissidents seeking haven from repression at home. Some have used Britain as a base for influencing their home countries` politics, through writing, lobbying or fund-raising.
But others are steadily kneading the identity crises of Britain`s young South Asians, as well as converts like Richard Reid. These purveyors of radicalism single out moderate mosques, prisons and universities. Their foil is the West its actions, its policies, even the very freedoms they use to malign it.
On a Wednesday night in Luton, just north of London, 20 or so brown young men crowd into the Islamic Educational Center to hear the Syrian-born Sheik Omar Bakri Muhammad. Sons of Pakistani or Bangladeshi immigrants, most wear Western dress.
``They want to keep calling us Pakis, bloody Arabs, brown Kaffirs,`` Mr. Bakri says.
He caresses a bushy beard and conjures an imaginary character to dramatize a favorite theme: the futility of assimilation. ``Abu Jabar changes his name to Bobby. He changes all his clothes. He dances. He raves with them. They still call him Paki.``
Bobby asks, ``For God`s sake who do I belong to?``
Mr. Bakri answers: ``You belong to the Muslim umma, brothers. Come on in.``
Mr. Bakri heads Al Muhajiroun, or The Emigrants, which he calls an Islamic ideological party. Some say he is all bombast and bluff, others that he manipulates young men into jihad. Whatever the truth, he indisputably transforms anomic young Muslims into Islamists.
Conjuring Up the Caliphate
His followers see recreating the caliphate the era of Islam`s ascendancy after the death of Muhammad in the eighth century as the answer to Muslims`, and the world`s, problems. They often sound like nothing so much as young Marxists of another era.
Islam ``will guarantee every single individual the bare necessities of food, clothing, shelter,`` says Muhammed Ali, a 21-year-old information technology specialist of slight build and febrile mien.
In Britain, as everywhere, Islam has ribboned into countless sects and schools that often spend as much time attacking one another as attracting fresh recruits.
The Birmingham Central Mosque is crowded with young people raised as indifferent Muslims who have now turned to a Taliban-style Islam that provides a way of life as much as a religion. The women cover not just their heads, but their faces; the long-bearded men no longer allow their children to be photographed.
At the same time, many well-educated young Muslims have joined Hizb ut-Tahrir, a movement brought to England in the 1980`s by Middle Eastern students. Its followers, who wear Western dress and often work in high-tech jobs, use anti-American propaganda to rally support for a pan-Islamic state.
``Your Muslim brothers are suffering,`` they whisper to potential recruits.
The goal of the radicals, of whatever stripe, is to make Islam a political force. To do this, they employ a potent mix of vivid imagery, Koranic scholarship, hard facts and soft-boiled conspiracy theories the Jews attacked the World Trade Center to discredit Osama bin Laden (news - web sites); the C.I.A. did it to give America a way into Central Asia; Mr. bin Laden is an American agent meant to discredit Islam.
All of this is passed along a Muslim information loop, a daisy chain of Web sites and word of mouth. Azzam.com, for example, features pictures of Iraqi babies malnourished because of American sanctions or videos of graphic slaughter by and of Muslims in Chechnya.
Imran Khan, 32, who publishes and sells pro-jihad literature, says that jihad recruitment is ``more promising in smaller towns than larger towns.``
``In smaller towns,`` he said, ``there`s nothing happening.``
The Tales They Told
In the small town of Tipton, Shafiq Rasul told his family he was going to take a computer course in Pakistan. Asif Iqbal was going to carry out an arranged marriage, and Ruhal Ahmed was going to watch, or going on holiday, or making a religious pilgrimage no one, anymore, seems sure.
As these stories have fallen away, parents and friends say the young men must have been brainwashed. They describe jihad recruiters and fiery visiting sheiks; Muslim door-to-door preachers and extremist mosques that influenced the young men. None of their theories are provable, but all are plausible.
With three mosques in four square blocks, the Park Estate was ripe for revival. Islam here has been parsed by denomination, language and culture all the divisions of the subcontinent. That variety well suited the Tipton youths` meanderings through faith.
When they first turned to Islam, over idle talk at a local pool hall, their guides were moderates with mystical leanings. They borrowed tapes of Hamza Yusuf, a moderate American convert who has achieved a mass following in Britain and the United States. Their families immediately noticed a change. Asif`s father was happy, he told friends his son had become a good religious boy.
But, friends say, the boys soon migrated to an Islam of a more puritanical bent. They became judgmental, telling friends that they would see after they died how bad their clubbing and pubbing was.
They became convinced of their rightness. Asif once threw a punch because he could not win a theological argument in front of a group of friends. They argued against citations from classical scholars by saying they could interpret the Koran themselves they didn`t need scholars.
They challenged moderates in town to debate visitors like Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born, Saudi-educated preacher who came to Tipton for two visits. He talked of the obligation to jihad, of Muslims killed in Bosnia.
A World of Conspiracies
Mr. Faisal sketched a world of conspiracies, of cabals of Jews and Freemasons plotting to take over the world. It was more exciting than Bollywood and Hollywood combined. It was real.
On some of his tapes, he speaks of why Muslims can never have peace with the ``filthy Jews,`` and of Muslims` right to kill a Hindu if they encounter one in the road. In February, those tapes got him arrested and charged with ``solicitation to murder,`` a charge he has said he will answer by showing that everything he said exists in the Koran.
Asif and his friends were briefly taken with Mr. Faisal, but then moved on. They learned about Hizb ut-Tahrir, and attended lectures given by a recruiter for Al Muhajiroun. They argued that the Palestinians` conflict with Israel justified jihad.
Then came Sept. 11. Muslims in Tipton, like those across Britain, were outraged by America`s bombing of Afghanistan. Still, that the young men undertook their pilgrimage without parental permission shocked this tradition-bound community almost as much as their going at all.
``They were supposed to ask their mother three times and their father once,`` one young woman said.
But the literature of jihad has an answer to that. ``Join the Caravan,`` considered a ``classic`` treatise of the Afghan jihad movement, states, ``When Jihad becomes Fard Ain`` an individual obligation ``no permission of parents is required.``
All the young men needed was someone to make the argument that jihad had become Fard Ain. In Tipton and beyond, there was no shortage of people to make it.