Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

India-Pakistan

'Om' and 'Allah' are the same: Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind chief triggers controversy

2023-02-13

[OneIndia] On Friday, Jamaat Ulama-e-Hind

...the Deobandi caliphatist group also spelt Jamiat Ulema e Hind...

president Mahmood Madani said India belongs to him as much as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat.

Days after targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying India belongs to him as much as the PM, Jamaat Ulema-e-Hind chief Mahmood Madani on Sunday triggered a controversy why equating Om with Allah.

According to him, 'Om', the prime symbol of Hinduism, and 'Allah', the term for God by Moslems, are the same.

Until they get in a snit, when only Moslems will be allowed to say Allah again. That’s what happened in Malaysia a few years ago.

Addressing a gathering at the three-day plenary session of Jamaat Ulama-e-Hind at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, he said, "I asked dharma guru when there was no one, neither Shri Ram, nor Brahma, then whom did they use to worship? Some people told me that they used to worship Om. Then I told them that Om is called Allah by us, Ishwar by you (Hindus), Khuda by Farsi (Persian) speaking people and God by English speaking people,"

That there is what they call dawa (outreach) — the stage before the unbelievers accept Islam (surrender). It’s utter nonsense, of course, if one looks at how each of those personages is defined, but Allah is pleased to describe himself as the Lord of Lies, among other unexpected descriptors.

After the address of Jamaat Ulema-e-Hind chief Maulana Syed Arshad Madani, Acharya Lokesh Muni (Jain Muni) present on the stage expressed displeasure over his remarks and said, "We do not agree with his (Arshad Madani) statement. We just agree to live in harmony with each other."

Jamaat Ulama-e-Hind is a century-old organization and works for the protection of the civil, religious, cultural and educational rights of Moslems. Jamaat claims to be the largest organization of Moslems and socio-political and religious issues of Moslems remain on its agenda. The Jamaat believes in the Deobandi ideology of Islam, PTI reported.

That’s like Salafism, but based in India instead of Arabia.

Speaking at the inaugural plenary session of Jamaat Ulama-e-Hind at Ramlila Maidan in the national capital, Maulana Madani said, "India is our country. This country belongs to Mahmood Madani as much as it belongs to Narendra Modi and Mohan Bhagwat. Neither Mahmood is an inch ahead of them nor are they one inch ahead of Mahmood."

He claimed that Islam is the oldest religion in this country.

Another lie, but do go on.

"This land is the first homeland of Moslems. Saying that Islam is a religion that came from outside is totally wrong and baseless.

Islam is the oldest religion among all religions.

You may make that claim for Heaven, but on Earth it is over 2000 years younger than Judaism, 700 years younger than Christianity, and several thousand years younger than generic paganism.

India is the best country for Hindi Moslems," Madani said.

The Jamaat Ulama-e-Hind chief stated that they are against forced religious conversions and alleged that today people who are converting their religion voluntarily are also being sent to jail on false charges.

He said, "We are against religious conversion driven forcibly. Freedom of religion is a fundamental right. We are also against conversion by force, fraud and greed. There are many examples of agencies targeting the Moslem community, such as the ban on Namaz, police action on them, and bulldozer action."

Link

India-Pakistan

Pakistan castigates India over ‘arbitrary arrests’ of Islamic scholars in occupied Kashmir

2022-09-19

[Dawn] Pakistain has strongly condemned the "arbitrary arrests and illegal detention" of prominent Islamic scholars and five members of the disputed territory’s Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
party in Indian-occupied Kashmir
Kashmir

...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there....
, according to a blurb issued by the Foreign Office (FO) on Sunday.

State-run APP reported that since Thursday, India has arrested several prominent Islamic scholars, including Maulana Sarjan Barkati, Maulana Abdul Rasheed Dawoodi, Maulana Mushtaq Ahmed Veeri and Abdul Majeed Dar Almadni, and booked them under the Public Safety Act (PSA) in Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu.

The draconian PSA allows detention without charges for up to two years.

"This all is aimed to force Kashmiris to forsake their demand for freedom," APP quoted Mahmood Ahmad Sagar, convener of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference Azad Kashmir chapter, as saying.

The FO said that such "deplorable actions" only days ahead of the United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
General Assembly sessions were a manifestation of "India’s growing intransigence and utter disregard of human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
and fundamental freedoms".

"These arrests have marked a new low in the Indian occupation forces’ blatant and continued onslaught on the human rights of the innocent Kashmiris. The illegal detention of the Kashmiri Islamic scholars ... is yet another Indian attempt to rob the Kashmiri people of their distinct religious and cultural identity," the FO said in its statement.

It said that arrests under the draconian PSA were a "deplorable preemptive step" by Indian authorities planning to "illegally occupy" religiously significant waqf board properties.

"Apprehensive of widespread protests and unrest in the face of such a malicious move, these scholars have not only been unjustifiably arrested but shifted from [Indian-occupied] Kashmir to a prison in the Hindu-majority Jammu.

"These politically motivated arrests are clearly meant to stifle the voice of the Moslems of IoK and further marginalise them," the FO said.

It added that Pakistain called for the immediate release of the scholars and other illegally detained Kashmiri prisoners.

"We also urge the international community to take note of the dangerously growing trajectory of Islamophobia
...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do...
in India, instigated at the behest of the BJP-RSS (Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) nexus, that is aimed at suppressing the Moslems of India, denying them space to freely practice their faith and attacking their places of worship," the FO further said.

Earlier this month, ~~Amnesia~~ Amnesty International had expressed grave concern over the intensified repression of rights in IoK in the last three years.

In a report titled, "’We are being punished by the law’: Three years since of abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir", the human rights watchdog observed that in recent years, civil society members, journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders in the region had faced relentless interrogations, arbitrary travel bans, revolving door detentions, and repressive media policies.

Link

India-Pakistan

Pakistan condemns burning, vandalisation of Muslims' houses by 'Hindu zealots' in India's Rajasthan

2022-04-07

[Dawn] Pakistain strongly condemned on Tuesday the "senseless vandalisation and burning of more than 40 houses of" the Moslem community in the Karauli area of India's Rajasthan state by "Hindu zealots" during recent communal festivities, a statement issued by the Foreign Office said.

According to Indian publication The Wire, the festivities broke out on April 2 "after stones were pelted at a cycle of violence rally taken out to celebrate the Hindu new year, prompting authorities to clamp a curfew, suspend the internet and deploy 600 police personnel".

Around 35 people were maimed in the violence and 46 people were initially taken into custody by police for interrogation, a report by NDTV said, adding that a case was registered against 13 people. Later, the report said, police arrested another 33 people for violating the curfew order.

The reports said houses and shops were set on fire during the episode but did not confirm the number of properties that were damaged.

However,
women are made to be loved, not understood...
in its condemnation, Pakistain said over 40 properties belonging to the Moslem community were set ablaze and vandalised by "radical Hindu zealots belonging to the BJP-RSS (Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) dispensation with the connivance of local security authorities" during the festivities.

"Equally alarming is the apathy of state machinery which wantonly looked the other way and failed in its basic duty of protecting the lives and properties of its citizens," the statement said, adding that regretfully, minorities in India, especially Moslems continued to live under fear and intimidation.

"The BJP-RSS combine has enabled [the] perpetration of senseless violence against minorities as part of its ’Hindutva’ agenda marked by hate and majoritarianism," the statement read.

It added that recent history was replete with traumatic instances that reflected the current Indian regime’s deep-seated animosity against Moslems in the country.

"Deafening silence of the BJP leadership and absence of discernible action against ’Hindutva’ proponents must ring alarm bells across the international community. Rather than relenting in their hostilities against Moslems, the BJP-RSS activists have intensified the atrocities" the statement said.

In this connection, the FO cited the example of Yati Narsinghan, an infamous Haridwar priest, once again "brazenly" calling upon Hindus on April 3 to take up arms against Moslems.

"Pakistain calls upon the international community to take immediate notice of the worrying level of Islamophobia

...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do...
in India and prevail upon Indian authorities to prevent systematic human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
violations against minorities, particularly Moslems, and take effective steps to ensure the safety, security and well-being of all minorities in India," the statement read.

Link

India-Pakistan

Arrested Khalistani sympathiser was tasked by ISI to oversee killing of RSS leaders

2021-01-01

[OneIndia] The Special Cell of the Delhi Police netted a big fish who was involved in the killing of a Shaurya Chakra awardee and was also plotting the killing of several RSS

...Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation...

leaders.

On being deported, the police arrested Sukhmeet Singh alias Sukh Bikriwal at the Delhi airport. A narco since 2012, Bikriwal is a Khalistan sympathiser and was working at the behest of the ISI.

Sources tell OneIndia that he was asked to draw up a plot to target RSS leaders in Punjab. It may be recalled that the National Investigation Agency had filed a chargesheet against 11 persons in connection with the murder of Brig (retd) Jagdish Kumar Gajnega, the vice chief of the RSS in the state of Punjab.

He was rubbed out by two cycle of violence borne persons at the Red Thingy Market area in Jalandhar.

During the investigation, it was found that the killing of Brig. (Retd.) Jagdish Kumar Gagneja was part of Trans-national conspiracy hatched by the big shotship of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF).

It was found that the conspiracy had its foot-prints in several countries including, Pakistain, UK, Australia, La Belle France, Italia and the UAE.

The source cited above said that the ISI wanted to carry out a spate of killings of Hindu leaders and Bikriwal was assigned the task to oversee the operation.

Earlier this year, The Delhi Police had arrested a five member group of Lions of Islam following an exchange of fire in the Shakapur area of Delhi.

While two belong to Punjab, the others are from Kashmir
Kashmir

...the Sikh nationalists...

who are sponsored by the ISI, Pakistain.

Any port in a storm, I suppose, but that’s a particularly rickety one.

They had killed Singh on the orders of the ISI backed Khalistan leaders. Singh, it may be recalled was killed at his home town in Tarn Taran's Bhikiwind by two unidentified bikers on October 16.

Link

India-Pakistan

Kashmir requires immediate intervention of UN, world powers: PM Imran

2019-09-14

[DAWN] Prime Minister Imran Khan
...aka The Great Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree...
has asked Russia and other world powers to play their role to resolve the issue of Kashmir
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there....
, saying he fears that the situation in the occupied territory could soon spiral out of control.

"Eight million people are currently under siege in Kashmir and there is no news coming out of there," the premier said while speaking to Paula Slier of Russia's Kremlin-backed international broadcaster RT in Islamabad.

"Some 4,000 people have been picked [by Indian forces] in Kashmir, with a curfew imposed there. We fear that an unprecedented oppression is taking place there," he said during the interview published on Friday.

Prime Minister Imran said that India annexed Indian Kashmire unilaterally. "This situation naturally cannot be accepted by the people of the valley."

It seems, he added, that the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party]-led government has decided to use sheer force to subdue and oppress the people of Kashmir and intimidate them to accept the former’s illegal move.

To a question, the premier said he doesn’t think that the world has reacted as it should have. "The response of the international community is not what we expected," he maintained.

"The UN has the responsibility to act now," he said. "The US, La Belle France, Germany, Russia and other countries should step forward to play their role."

India, he added, has been taken over by a "fascist
fascist

...anybody you disagree with, damn them...
, racist government" and by the turban ideology of the hardline organization RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh).

Link

India-Pakistan

'Muslim Pakistan Prime Minister Compares India Prime Minister To Nazis, Hitler

2019-08-14

[DailyWire] Imran Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan, took to Twitter early Sunday morning

Oh noze! He’s a tweeting twit — whatever will India do now?

to compare India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, and his policies to those of Hitler and the Nazis.
But no mention Santa or Jethro Tull
"The curfew, crackdown & impending genocide of Kashmiris in [India-occupied Kashmir] is unfolding exactly acc to RSS ideology inspired by Nazi ideology," Khan tweeted, referring to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh right-wing political organization. "Attempt is to change demography of Kashmir through ethnic cleansing. Question is: Will the world watch & appease as they did Hitler at Munich?"

I am afraid this RSS ideology of Hindu Supremacy, like the Nazi Aryan Supremacy, will not stop in IOK; instead it will lead to suppression of Muslims in India & eventually lead to targeting of Pakistan. The Hindu Supremacists version of Hitler's Lebensraum.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) August 11, 2019

Indian-controlled Kashmir, one of the world's most sensitive regions, remains in lockdown amid a communications blackout, with landline connections, internet and mobile coverage all suspended. Tens of thousands of additional Indian troops have also been deployed into the already heavily militarized region to head off unrest after the government in New Delhi moved to scrap the region's special status.

Politicians have reportedly been detained, journalists restricted in their reporting and human rights groups have warned of potential abuses due to the lack of international oversight enabled by the communications blackout.

The region previously had autonomy, but that was revoked earlier this month.

Khan's office told CNN that he has been contacting world leader's in an attempt to return Jammu and Kashmir's autonomy. His foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, told the outlet he would press the issue at the United Nations Security Council.
Weird it has been Islamists that seek to carry out the Final Solution to completion.

Link

India-Pakistan

What lies beneath India’s ‘sudden’ cancellation of talks with Pakistan?

2018-10-12

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] New Delhi’s sudden cancellation of a scheduled meeting between the Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistain on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York is still an unsolved mystery intriguing diplomats and analysts alike.

Last month India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson, Raveesh Kumar, announced with a flourish that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj would hold talks with her Pak counterpart, Makhdoom Shah

Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi, in New York "next week", but within 24 hours India called off the bilateral meeting without a valid explanation for the change of heart.

The buzz in India is that US President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
exerted pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to agree to a Pak proposal to resume talks resulting in the announcement. But Mohan Bhagwat, chief of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ‐ the mother of all Hindu right-wing bodies including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ‐ ordered Modi to cancel the talks.

Apparently, Bhagwat conveyed to Modi ‐ who is himself an RSS member like his cabinet colleagues ‐ that resumption of peace dialogue with Pakistain at this juncture wouldn’t go down well with the BJP’s core constituency ahead of crucial assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, not to speak of the 2019 general elections. And Modi fell in line.

If the talks had not been cancelled, it would have been the first face-to-face meeting between the Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistain since December 2015.

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
Diplomats and commentators refuse to buy New Delhi’s official explanation that the talks were cancelled because of the killing of an Indian security personnel and a Pak stamp honoring separatist Burhan Wani as both the "deeply disturbing developments" took place before the talks were announced.

The harsh language of the Ministry of External Affairs statement, replete with inaccuracies, while calling off the meeting ‐ "the evil agenda of Pakistain stands exposed" and the "true face" of Imran Khan

... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems...
has been "revealed to the world" ‐ also raised eyebrows.

The statement claimed that Khan had been in office "for a few months" when in fact it had only been a month. Sharat Sabharwal, India’s former High Commissioner in Pakistain, virtually said that MEA run by Indian Foreign Service (IFS) had been completely bypassed in the announcement and cancellation of talks between the two foreign ministers.

Election-oriented statements
"IFS does not draft such election-oriented statements or take such hasty flip flop decisions. Seems like the handiwork of ’muscular’ thinking. More ’brawn’ than ’brain’!", said an outspoken Sabharwal.

Sabharwal seemed to hint that Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor, known for his hawkish views on Pakistain, had drafted the statement released by MEA announcing cancellation of talks instead of career diplomats who are more circumspect.

ALSO READ: New book says India’s Modi gunning for Pakistain but subservient to China, the US

India’s "muscular" statement gave Khan an opportunity to attack Modi personally. Said Khan: "All my life I have come across small men occupying big offices who do not have the vision to see the larger picture", while Pak commentator Zarrar Khurho said that the "language used in the Indian cancellation is nothing short of a Bollywood script or a Star Plus drama".

Jyoti Malhotra, Editor National Affairs & Strategic Affairs of The Print website in New Delhi, told Al Arabiya English that the cancellation of talks by India "demonstrated insecurity".

"The Indian government put out several reasons for the confirmation and cancellation of talks with Pakistain within a span of 24 hours. But the truth is that it demonstrates a certain insecurity for a country that wants to project itself as a regional power. And the tragedy is that ordinary people of the two countries will suffer from the lack of contact," she said.

Link

-Short Attention Span Theater-

Cow urine to be promoted as health drink in India’s Uttar Pradesh

2018-02-12

[Dhaka Tribune] The Uttar Pradesh government’s ayurvedic pharmacy at Pilibhit in India has proposed to collect, process and sell packaged bottles of cow urine.

Dr Prakash Chandra Saxena, principal and superintendent of Government Ayurveda College and Hospital in Pilibhit, said: "Not just for medicinal purpose, we will promote cow urine as a health-giving drink. We have prepared a plan and will discuss it with Ayurveda department in Lucknow for approval," reports the Times of India.

He further added: "Drinking 10ml to 20ml cow urine daily will act as a preventive against seasonal diseases, like fever, cough and stomach-related ailments. Daily consumption of cow urine will also help increase people’s immunity. Our aim is to make cow urine easily available to common public."

"At a later stage, we may plan to prepare medicines using cow urine for other diseases, including cancer and skin-related problems. As ayurvedic medicines have no side-effects, its demand is increasing in the country," said Dr Naresh Chandra Gangwar, in-charge of the pharmacy.

In July 2017, the centre set up a 19-member panel, including three members linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishva Hindu Gay Pareehad (VHP), to carry out, according to an inter-departmental circular and members of the panel, scientifically validated research on cow derivatives including urine, and their benefits.

The department of science and technology, department of bio-technology, and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of the Ministry of Science and Technology in collaboration with IIT-Delhi initiated the national program called Scientific Validation and Research on Panchagavya (SVAROP).

The Adityanath government has also cleared setting up 1000-capacity gaushalas (cow-shelters) in seven districts of the state and 16 urban locations in the first phase of the project.

Link

India-Pakistan

Indian police ask interfaith couples: Is it love or terror?

2017-11-27

[Ynet] India's Supreme Court will begin hearing a case on Monday that prosecutors say shows how Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
sympathisers are using "Love Jihad" marrying Hindu women and converting them to Islam to win recruits and spread their message.

Over the past 28 months, the National Investigation Agency has picked up dozens of interfaith couples in the southern state of Kerala to question them about their marriages. The women ‐ all Hindus who married Moslem men were asked "extremely personal" questions during the interrogations, two coppers from the agency said: "Did you sleep with your husband before getting married? Did he blackmail you before you converted to Islam?" They were looking for cases of "Love Jihad," a term publicized by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and other hardline Hindu groups soon after they helped propel Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power in 2014. It refers to what these groups say is an Islamist campaign to convert Hindu women through seduction and marriage.

Police investigations at the time found no evidence of any organized strategy, and the claim was widely ridiculed. But since then, the NIA began focusing on Kerala - a southern state along the Arabian Sea with strong economic links to the Middle East. It investigated 89 cases of "Love Jihad" and found nine to be alliances planned by people linked to the Islamic State, two NIA sources said, requesting anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Muslims do this to Coptic girls in Egypt, too, though without it being reported that they are connected to jihadi groups. And there has been the occasional report of the same behaviour in England...
The Jerusalem Post adds:

The NIA’s nine "Love Jihad" cases were based on complaints lodged by the parents of the Hindu girls and all were found to have links with IS, the NIA police sources said.

Across India, over 270 men and 20 women have been tossed in the calaboose
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
for working directly or indirectly with the IS, according to data at the federal Home Ministry. But Kerala was the only state where the NIA found a direct link between cases of "Love Jihad" and the IS, the NIA sources said.

The agency says it has uncovered attempts by IS sympathizers to possibly send the women in "Love Jihad" marriages off to marry or stay with fighters from the holy warrior group, the NIA sources said.

Link

-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

India's push to save its cows starves Bangladesh of beef

2015-07-05

[IN.REUTERS] Some 30,000 Indian soldiers guarding the border with Bangladesh have a new mandate under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government this year - stop cattle from crossing illegally into the Moslem-majority neighbour.

Roughly every other night, troops armed with bamboo sticks and ropes wade through jute and paddy fields and swim across ponds to chase ageing bovines, and smugglers, headed for markets in Bangladesh.

The crackdown is one of the clearest signs yet of how Indian policies, increasingly influenced by Hindu nationalist ideology, are having an economic impact on neighbouring countries as well as the sizeable Moslem minority at home.

About 2 million head of cattle are smuggled into Bangladesh annually from India. The $600 million-a-year trade has flourished over the past four decades and is considered legal by Dhaka.

Modi's government, which came to power with the help of the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), wants to put an end to it.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh travelled this spring to the frontier with Bangladesh, calling on the Border Security Force (BSF) to halt cattle smuggling completely so that the "people of Bangladesh give up eating beef", media reported at the time.

"Killing or smuggling a cow is equivalent to raping a Hindu girl or destroying a Hindu temple," said Jishnu Basu, an RSS front man in West Bengal, which shares a 2,216 km (1,375 miles) border with Bangladesh.

Link

India-Pakistan

RSS converts 350 Muslims to Hinduism, say papers

2014-12-11

[DAWN] A row has broken out over the reported conversion of over 350 Moslems to Hinduism in Agra by Hindu right wing organizations Bajrang Dal and Dharm Jagran Manch, newspapers said on Wednesday. They said the two organizations are also being accused of luring people with the promise of monetary benefits.

Oh this is going to twist some turbans...

The conversions are said to have taken place on Monday at Madhunagar slum area in Agra where the two Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliates organised a "Purkhon ki ghar vapsi" (homecoming for ancestors).

The programme saw around 60 Moslem families being converted amid chanting of hymns. The organisers now plan to hold a month-long training session for these "converts" on Hindu rituals and culture.

Sources say the "converts," mostly hailing from Bihar and West Bengal, were promised BPL (below poverty line) and Aadhaar cards, besides free housing plots. But programme coordinator Ajju Chauhan reportedly claimed the conversion was voluntary. However,
today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday...
a couple of people later told mediapersons that the organisers had promised monetary and other benefits under government-sponsored schemes.

"We will look into the entire programme and order a detailed probe if needed," said Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajender Choudhary.

Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati said the incident was the handiwork of communal forces who were trying to vitiate the peace in the state. She demanded strict action against such organizations.

On the other hand, BJP MP Vinay Katiyar said there should be no objection to the programme as those who converted were originally Hindus and it was like homecoming for them.

This Christmas, according to reports, the RSS plans to convert at least 4,000 Christian and 1,000 Moslem families into Hinduism under what it calls the 'Ghar Wapsi' (returning home) programme.

Organisers claim the event in Aligarh will be one of the biggest ever conversion programmes.

It has chosen the city, Aligarh, and the day, Dec 25, carefully. "Aligarh was chosen because it's time we wrest the Hindu city from Moslems. It is a city of brave Rajputs and their temples on whose remains Moslem institutions have been established," RSS regional pracharak Rajeshwar Singh reportedly said.

Christmas was chosen as the day for conversion because the event is a "shakti pariksha" (test of strength) for both religions, said Mr Singh. "If their religion is better, they can stop them. It is a test for both of us. If they come to us on Christmas, it is the biggest rejection of the faith."

Link

India-Pakistan

'Kiss of Love' protests rattle Modi's conservative India

2014-11-11

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A mass-kissing campaign against moral policing in a city in Kerala has swept the country, advertised via Facebook, as urban youngsters challenge a deeply conservative society.

Dozens of 'Kiss of Love' activists stole kisses and blocked traffic near a metro station in New Delhi at the weekend, outnumbering a handful of right-wing protesters who see such public displays as a threat to Indian culture.

"It's not about just kissing," said 26-year-old research scholar Pankhuri Zaheer, one of the organisers. "It's about ... inter-caste marriages, inter-religious marriages, live-in relationships."

Minor scuffles broke out between the rival groups as the police steered the rally away from the Delhi office of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a radical group considered the ideological parent of Bharatiya Janata Party.

The 'Kiss of Love' activists shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and affiliated Hindu groups seen as self-appointed moral guardians forcing traditional mores on people with a Western outlook.

Police foiled the initial Nov. 2 protest in Kerala by stopping participants reaching the venue. But the Facebook 'Kiss of Love' community page got over 110,000 likes and sparked similar demonstrations in cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

In Kolkata, about 100 university students marched last week, carrying posters saying: "Right to love is our democratic right." Another protest is planned in Kerala early next month.

Link

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