How to protest against the dirty film on the Prophet of Islam?

"I don't want to hear it"
I screamed when my friend started to describe what he has seen in the blasphemous film.
I had to repeat the same when another friend started to do the same.
I had to advice another friend who had posted the link to the dirty film to remove the link.
....

For me the best way to tackle the sinister designs of USA and Israel is to completely ignore the film. Don't talk about the dirty film. Don't hear about the dirty film.
Be calm. Register your anguish and agony to the Americans. Let the Americans know that we are hurt - deeply hurt - by the calculated, cunning and evil move by some of their co-citizens.

And the best way to counter this menace is to introduce the life and message of Prophet of Islam to others. That is the need of the hour.
Here is the best way to respond to the nefarious designs of USA and Israel. I have been avoiding coco-cola and pepsi cola for the past twelve years. Do it if you can.

Jamaat chief condemns the dirty film on the Prophet of Islam

Jamaat chief urges the Indian Government to block the URL of the dirty picture denigrating the Prophet of Islam

Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Tamil Nadu chief A Shabbir Ahmed has strongly condemned the heinous, most outrageous and abominable video film denigrating the last Prophet of Islam. He expressed his agony and anguish over the sinister motives of the film maker. Inspite of the fact that the Prophet of Islam is revered and respected by billions of Muslims worldwide, the film maker has ventured to make such an ugly film on him. This betrays his evil intentions, he said. He urged the US government to take action against the film maker and all those involved in the dirty film and put all of them behind the bars.

The Jamaat leader appealed to the Indian government to block the dirty picture from the internet, before it spreads like wild fire and inflames passions. This would go a long way to maintain communal harmony, he said. He further demanded a complete ban of the dirty film. He has appealed all the peace loving, like minded and noble hearted souls to join together to curb this menace. He appealed them to urge the Indian Government to take effective steps in this regard.

The Jamaat leader lauded the Muslim community world wide for their more mature, peaceful protests against the dirty film. There may have been some stray incidents of violence in Libya and some other places, but, the protests have by and large been entirely peaceful. He urged the Muslim community to maintain the trend and express their distress and pain to the American community in a peaceful and disciplined manner. He also underlined the importance of conveying the true message of the Prophet of Islam to the world community.

இறைத்தூதரைக் இழிவுபடுத்தி அமெரிக்காவில் எடுக்கப்பட்டிருக்கின்ற கேவலமான வெறுக்கத்தக்க, அருவருப்பான திரைப்படத்தை தமிழக ஜமாஅத்தே இஸ்லாமி ஹிந்த் தலைவர் ஏ. ஷப்பீர் அஹ்மத் கடுமையாகக் கண்டித்துள்ளார்.

 ஏ. ஷப்பீர் அஹ்மத் வெளியிட்டுள்ள பத்திரிகை அறிக்கை பின்வருமாறு:  

உலகம் முழுவதும் கோடிக்கணக்கான முஸ்லிம்களால் உயிரினும் மேலாய் மதிக்கப்படுகின்ற ஒப்பற்ற தலைவர்தாம் அண்ணல் நபிகளார்(ஸல்) என்பது எல்லோரும் அறிந்த ஒன்று. இது தெரிந்த நிலையிலும் அமெரிக்க படத் தயாரிப்-பாளர் அண்ணல் நபிகளாரை இழிவுபடுத்துகின்ற விதத்தில் கேடுகெட்ட படத்தைத் தயாரித்திருக்கின்றார். இது அவருடைய தீய நோக்கத்தை வெளிப்படுத்துகின்றது என்றும் ஷப்பீர் அஹ்மத் தெரிவித்தார்.

இந்த கேடுகெட்ட படத்தைத் தயாரித்த தயாரிப்பாளர் மீதும் அவருக்குத் துணை நின்ற பிறர் மீதும் அவருக்குப் பின்புலத்தில் இயங்குகின்றவர்கள் மீதும் கடும் நடவடிக்கை எடுக்கும் படியும் படத்தயாரிப்பில் ஈடுபட்ட அனைவரையும் கைது செய்து சிறையில் அடைக்கும்படியும் அவர் அமெரிக்க அரசாங்கத்தைக் கேட்டுக்-கொண்டார்.

இந்தக் கேடுகெட்ட படம் இணையத்தின் ஊடே காட்டுத் தீ போல் பரவி மக்களின் உணர்வுகளைக் கிளர்ந்தெழச் செய்து பெரும் பாதிப்பை ஏற்படுத்து-வதற்குள்ளாக இதனை வெளியிட்டுள்ள இணையத்தளங்கள் அனைத்தையும் முடக்கிவிடுமாறு ஜமாஅத் தலைவர் இந்திய அரசைக் கேட்டுக்கொண்டுள்ளார். நாட்டில் சமூக நல்லிணக்கம் செழித்தோங்குவதற்கு அரசின் இந்த நடவடிக்கை பெரிதும் துணை நிற்கும் என்றும் அவர் கருத்து தெரிவித்தார்.

அது மட்டுமல்லாமல் இந்தக் கேடுகெட்ட படத்தை முற்றாக, முழுவதுமாகத் தடை செய்யும்படியும் அவர் இந்திய அரசைக் கேட்டுக்கொண்டுள்ளார். இந்த விஷயத்தில் தக்க நடவடிக்கை எடுக்கும்படி ஒன்றுபட்டு ஒருமித்த குரலில் விண்ணப்பிக்குமாறு அவர் நாட்டின் அனைத்துத் தரப்பு மக்களையும் சமூக ஆர்வலர்களையும் அமைதியை விரும்புகின்ற நல்லுள்ளங்களையும் கேட்டுக் கொண்டுள்ளார்.

இந்தக் கேடுகெட்ட படத்திற்கு எதிராக அமைதியான முறையில் உலகம் முழுவதும் எதிர்ப்பும் கண்டனமும் தெரிவித்து வருகின்ற உலக முஸ்லிம்களை அவர் பாராட்டினார். லிபியா உள்ளிட்ட சில இடங்களில் நடந்த சிற்சில வன் நிகழ்வுகளைத் தவிர்த்துவிட்டுப் பார்த்தால் உலகம் முழுவதும் அமைதியான முறையில்தான் ஆர்ப்பாட்டங்களும் கண்டன ஊர்வலங்களும் நடந்துள்ளன. அமைதியான முறையில் எதிர்ப்பைத் தெரிவிக்கின்ற தங்களின் இந்த வழிமுறை-யைத் தொடருமாறு அவர் முஸ்லிம்களைக் கேட்டுக்கொண்டார். அதே சமயம் அண்ணல் நபிகளாரின் ஆளுமையை உலக மக்களுக்கு அறிமுகப்படுத்த வேண்டிய அவசியத்தையும் அவர் வலியுறுத்தினார்.

More. Here

"Educated people are more communal" : Nazrul Islam, Author and Police Officer

When I first came to college in the town of Behrampur, I saw that the educated people were more communal in their mindset than the simple people in my native village of Basantapur in Murshidabad district. People in the village were religious, no doubt, but were more tolerant of other religions and lived peacefully with other communities.I began to question religion, education, and started studying the different faiths, which resulted in the book “Banglay Hindu-Musalman Samparka” (Hindu-Muslim Relations in Bengal). 

Nazrul Islam in conversation with Anuradha Sharma. Here

India's 'silent' Prime Minister becomes a tragic figure

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's image has slowly given way to a dithering, ineffectual bureaucrat presiding over a deeply corrupt government.

The story of Singh’s dramatic fall from grace in his second term in office and the slow but steady tarnishing of his reputation has played out in parallel with his country’s decline on his watch. As India’s economy has slowed and as its reputation for rampant corruption has reasserted itself, the idea that the country was on an inexorable road to becoming a global power has increasingly come into question.

“More and more, he has become a tragic figure in our history,” said political historian Ramachandra Guha, describing a man fatally handicapped by his “timidity, complacency and intellectual dishonesty.”

Damaging to his reputation is the accusation that he looked the other way and remained silent as his cabinet colleagues filled their own pockets.

In the process, he transformed himself from an object of respect to one of ridicule and endured the worst period in his life, said Sanjaya Baru, Singh’s media adviser during his first term.

Attendees at meetings and conferences were jokingly urged to put their phones into “Manmohan Singh mode,” while one joke cited a dentist urging the seated prime minister, “At least in my clinic, please open your mouth.”

Simon Denyer in The Washington Post. Here

The Rise and fall of Manmohan Singh

The leader of a party allied with the Congress described to me a meeting with Manmohan Singh in December 2005, two months after the release of the UN report investigating abuses in the Iraq Oil-for-Food programme. The report had implicated Natwar Singh, then the minister of external affairs, and he was forced to resign as a result, but it had also named Reliance Petroleum Limited as a beneficiary in the oil-for-food scam. The party leader said he had raised the issue with the prime minister, saying, “Sir, the report mentions not just Natwar, it also prominently mentions Reliance. Why are you not taking any action against Reliance?”

“With a sigh,” the party leader recounted, “Manmohan Singh said to us, ‘After all, what can I do? It is India’s largest corporate.’”  

Vinod K Jose in The Caravan Here and Here 

Narendra Modi, Manmohan Singh and Sheikh Saadi

 

It is related that, whilst some game was being roasted for Nushirvan the just during a hunting party, no salt could be found. Accordingly a boy was sent to an adjoining village to bring some. Nushirvan said: 'Pay for the salt lest it should become a custom and the village be ruined.' Having been asked what harm could arise from such a trifling demand, Nushirvan replied: 'The foundation of oppression was small in the world but whoever came augmented it so that it reached its present magnitude.'  
If the king eats one apple from the garden of a subject
His slaves will pull him up the tree from the roots.

For five eggs which the sultan allows to be taken by force
The people belonging to his army will put a thousand
fowls on the spit.

A tyrant does not remain in the world
But the curse on him abides for ever.

Sheikh Sa'di in The Gulistan of Sa'adi. More Here and Here

The acquittal of Faheem Ansari and some questions

The trial court in Ahmedabad created history of sorts by convicting a senior BJP leader and former minister in the Narendra Modi government, Mayaben Kodnani, and a former Bajrang Dal convener Babu Bajrangi along with 30 others for the massacre of innocent Muslims in Naroda Patiya. This is the first case in which political leaders, if one can call them that, have been found guilty. The tears streaming down the faces of the survivors of this terrible terrible massacre was indication of the suffering and trauma they have gone through in all these years.

The Supreme Court, while convicting Kasab, acquitted two Indian Muslims, Farheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, who had been accused by the Mumbai investigators of being co-conspirators. The lower courts had acquitted them, but clearly the authorities had gone in appeal to the apex court that has upheld the acquittal. Significantly, except for a few newspapers no one even bothered to speak of this important acquittal, and even the sections of the media that reported the facts did not dwell on the trauma that the two men and their families must have gone through.

Who is going to compensate them? Rehabilitate them and their families? There isn’t even a hint of an apology from the state government and all those responsible for keeping two innocent men in jail for a crime they clearly had no part in. In fact more and more reports from Maharashtra suggest that such arrests have become a common practice with the police and the politicians totally unaccountable for the numbers of innocent people they arrest, torture and jail without any proof whatsoever. So while the nation exults over the death sentence for Kasab, it should also pause to pay some thought to the two innocent men whose lives have been ruined in the process.

The second case of Naroda Patiya also has an untold story, of the 97 victims who were brutally raped and killed by a 5,000 strong mob on February 28,2002 of whom 32 have been convicted by the courts. But what about the rest? Where are they? Why have they not been arrested? This along with the trauma and the suffering of the victims is a story that needs to be tracked down, and told. For, while justice has been dispensed, the country needs to assess whether it has been enough, whether there are several loose ends that need to be tied so that the secular and just foundations of India are not just strengthened, but protected against future assault.

The investigating authorities seem to be falling short in more ways than one. Innocent persons are arrested, tortured, jailed and released only after the court’s intervene. Guilty persons are able to evade the investigators and walk free as the investigating agencies fail to collect sufficient proof, or at times, even find the accused even though they are giving interviews to the media. The point here is that while the higher judiciary at least is trying to do its job with a modicum of responsibility and honesty, politicization and corruption has hit the police and the investigating agencies to a point where fiction often replaces facts.

Seema Mustafa in DNA. Here