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Radical Islam and internal security
<!--QuoteBegin-thayilv+Jan 30 2009, 06:39 PM-->QUOTE(thayilv @ Jan 30 2009, 06:39 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Did anyone else notice the flag in the background towards the right?
[right][snapback]94037[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Maybe they're the nationalist islamists (islamiterrorists) one hears so much about? "Nationalist Indian muslims" <- you can identify them as separate from the islamic terrorists because the 'nationalist' muslims carry the Indian flag upside down. Presumably that's how they show respect. <i>Islamic</i> respect. The regular terrorist kind burns the Indian flag or something even more respectful like burning Hindus.

More at http://haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?P...121&SKIN=B
<b>Azamgarh Jihadi's denigrates National Flag in National Capital - Media silent as usual!</b>

<!--QuoteBegin-Bodhi+Jan 30 2009, 08:46 AM-->QUOTE(Bodhi @ Jan 30 2009, 08:46 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->At least 40 people 32 Hindus and eight Christians were converted here in December 2008 alone, intelligence sources said.  Family sources said the student contacted her mother over the phone on Sunday, but there was no information about her whereabouts. Police, however, said the student was in love with a Muslim man and wanted to marry him.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Girl's 'disappearance' from Mangalore

<b>Hindu (and christian) women seduced, converted, and then turned into Jehadists.</b>
[right][snapback]94028[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->More on that:
http://haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?P...044&SKIN=C
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Dear Parents, Watch out for Jihadi Romeo's</b>
19/01/2009 03:46:47  HK

Kozhikode : Intelligence agencies intensified the search for the missing Hindu girl who got converted into Islam. The girl who hails from Moovattupuzha in Ernakulam was one among few who fell into the trap of Jihadi’s .

The Jihadi modus operandi to lure girls towards Islam is by falling in love with Hindu and Christian girls and there after convincing them about the importance of getting converted into Islam , if they want to lead a life together.

The girls in most cases bought up in a Secular way of life are too naïve to understand the true nature of Islam and the motives of these Jihadi Romeo’s. After convincing them about the need of conversion, these girls are handed over to Mullahs in the Kozhikode conversion centre.

From there they are completely brainwashed and in most cases these girls are recruited for terrorist activities or projected as a showpiece in Islamic seminars. These girls are used also in later stage to convince other girls to follow the path of Islam. By the time they realize their folly it will be too late.

This gang of Jihadi Romeos most often target Hindu and Christian girls who are studying outside Kerala, Mangalore is one of the haven of these gang. The above mentioned girl was studying Nursing in Mangalore when she fell into this trap. Now no one knows where she is and intelligence agencies suspect that she might be recruited for some terrorist mission.

More than 1000 teenage boys and girls were converted in Kozhikode and Ponnani Islamic conversion centres. When the girl was in this conversion entre, her Family members tried to escape her but to the authorities haven’t allowed them to talk to her. And by time Police is involved the girl was moved to some other safe hide out.

Many parents who lost their daughters and sons in this trap prefers to stay silent and more over they never gets any sort of help from the society in such matters. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Beats me what Hindu girls see in islamic men. Islamaniac men look so... so... Never mind. There's little I can say to cure people of their bad taste.
  Reply
<!--QuoteBegin-thayilv+Jan 30 2009, 06:39 PM-->QUOTE(thayilv @ Jan 30 2009, 06:39 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Did anyone else notice the flag in the background towards the right?
[right][snapback]94037[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Iraq flag or India's upside down. Muslim up , Hindus down. They are telling truth UPA had made Hindus 3rd class citizens of India.
  Reply
<!--QuoteBegin-Husky+Jan 30 2009, 07:38 PM-->QUOTE(Husky @ Jan 30 2009, 07:38 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Beats me what Hindu girls see in islamic men. Islamaniac men look so... so... Never mind. There's little I can say to cure people of their bad taste.
[right][snapback]94039[/snapback][/right]
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Many many "Hindu girls" (and boys) have hardly any Hinduness lift in them. Other than a Hindu name, they are already desert-cult brainwashed thru the NGUPAM (Nehru-Gandhi-UPA-media; rhymes with Anupam).
  Reply
Not necessarily politicized or brainwashed by news media other than mesmerized by shirtless Khans and instructed by stupid schools and parents.
  Reply
[QUOTE]UOTE(thayilv @ Jan 30 2009, 06:39 PM)
Did anyone else notice the flag in the background towards the right?
*


Iraq flag or India's upside down. Muslim up , Hindus down. They are telling truth UPA had made Hindus 3rd class citizens of India.[QUOTE]

They are waving the Indian flag which is a violation of the flag code. It's an affront to the flag to hold it upside down.

I can't believe that they (protesters) didnt know the difference.
  Reply
not the national flag, but their party flag. there is no dharma chakra.

but ideologically it does mean what Mudy mentioned. transition from saffron to green.

similar to the transition of flag from Bharatiya Jansangh to BJP. While Mookerjee had chosen a rectangular saffron flag with a lamp, Advani Ji and Vajpayee Ji added a green vertical stripe to it when BJP was formed, signifying the ideological shift.
  Reply

csoldier123 (1 week ago) Show Hide
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If iran had not been islamic, how advanced this nation would had been, with the invasion of islam the persian empire lost all its glory and culture, under the shah women enjoyed much freedom and mullahs took away all that, it is really sad how such a great nation had been brought to such a stage by this cruel and primitive religion of islam. You dance beautifully girl. Keep it up.
  Reply
<b>Indian among Al Qaeda suspects arrested in Spain</b>
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Violent Muslim mob attacks Saraswati idol immersion, pelt stones at police and set ablaze tractors in Gopalganj, Bihar</b>
Posted by jagoindia on February 6, 2009
According to the police, some miscreants set ablaze a tractor and pelted stones at the police escorting the immersion procession, which led to the clash.

The mob also opened fire at the police team escorting the procession, police said.

<b>Tension gripped a village in Bihar’s Gopalganj district Thursday, a day after a clash between two communities over idol immersion</b>, a police official said.

<b>Nearly a dozen people, including policemen, were injured Wednesday afternoon in a clash between two communities over idol immersion at Pathan Toli near Vishnipur village. A police sub-inspector died of a heart attack immediately after the scuffle</b>.

‘There is still tension in the village but things are under control as several security personnel have been deployed. Senior district officials are there and are trying to defuse the situation,’ said Kesharichand, officer incharge of Sidhawalia police station under which the site of the clash falls.

According to the police, some miscreants set ablaze a tractor and pelted stones at the police escorting the immersion procession, which led to the clash.

However, the Times of India as usual attempts to hid and muddle the facts. As if we Indians don’t know between Ram and Rahim, who is the persistently violent, intolerant one.

But here is a give away<i>,”The mob also opened fire at the police team escorting the procession, police said.”  Is it any wonder the Muslims are treated as terrorists and  violent by the police</i>.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Nine arrested in connection with Bangalore blasts</b>
link
PTI | Bangalore
Nearly six months after serial bomb blasts rocked the IT city killing one and injuring eight, nine persons belonging to a radical group in Kerala have been arrested in connection with the case.

<b>Abdul Sattar, Abdul Jabbar, Sarfudin, Sakariya from Mallapuram, Kerala and Mujeeb, Faizal, Abdul Jaleel, Manaf of Kannur, and Badruddin from Ernakulum </b>have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the July 2008 blasts, DGP Ajai Kumar Singh said.

<b>Four others involved in the blasts were killed in an encounter with the Indian army in Jammu and Kashmir while they were attempting to crossover to Pakistan between October 4 and 7. They were identified as Abdul Raheem, son-in-law of Sattar, Mohammad Fyas, Fayis and Mohammad Yasin from Kerala</b>, he said.

Police, however, did not reveal the name of the group they belonged to. Police also did not divulge anything regarding its association to any militant outfits like Lakshar-e-Toiba.

The module was "radicalised by general feeling of perceived injustice to Muslims in India due to Babri Masjid demolition and Godhra incident and Gujarat riots," the police officer said. <b>They decided (to trigger blasts) on Bangalore due to the iconic status it acquired after the IT boom and the economic prosperity and that it was BJP-ruled, they said.</b> <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
  Reply
http://haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?P...196&SKIN=B
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Ongoing Sexual Jihad - One more Hindu girl ended her life</b>
11/02/2009 14:46:09  HK

Mangalore: When the pseudo feminists and a section of media decries about the need and importance of Valentine’s day and Pub culture in Indian Society, Hindu girls are ending their life due to rape and torture by Jihadi Romeos.

16 year old Aswini Kulal is the recent victim of Sexual Jihad against Kafirs. <b>Aswini Kulal who was raped by Abdul Salam ended her life on a piece of rope.</b> Police arrested 26 year old Abdul Salam in connection with the suicide of this School girl.

Aswini was lured by Abdul Salam a typical Jihadi Romeo and raped her by taking her into his hideout in a hill top near Venoor.   

<b>Three school girls consumed poison and ended their life in Alappuzha, Those responsible in that case were also Muslim youth.</b> National Medias which were in Mangalore before time during pub attack is no where in scene now in Mangalore to report the sad plight of this girl. Minister Renuka Choudhary who sprouted up as the saviour of liberal women’s right since two weeks back too is mum about th eongoing sexual Jihad in the country.

<b>The surge of Jihadi Romeos in Mangalore and near by areas is not isolated incidents (As our Secular Pandits wish to believe) but bitter truth.</b> We urge the secular parents once again to enlighten their daughters about these monsters lurking behind. Lofty ideals of secularism will not help to soothe the grief of your daughter who find solace in a piece of rope or a spoon of poison. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Don't die. Live.
  Reply
http://haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?P...200&SKIN=B
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Editor and Publisher arrested for Insulting Muslims!-Vanguards of freedom of expression remain silent</b>
11/02/2009 15:37:17 

Kolkata : The Editor and publisher of The Statesman – English Daily from Kolkata was arrested  on Wednesday for hurting the religious sentiments of Muslim community.

Ravindra Kumar, editor of The Statesman, and Anand Sinha, its printer and publisher, were arrested from their residence on Wednesday morning on a specific complaint made by one Mohd Shahid at the Bowbazar police station .

<b>The article titled 'Why should I respect these oppressive religions?,' by Johann Hari, also published in The Independent, was carried on The Statesman edition dated February 5.</b>

Click here to Read this must read Article which boldly exposes the Islamic Tyranny
Why should I respect these oppressive religions?
(^ Independent UK version)

Interestingly, No Vanguards of liberty and freedom of expression came forward yet to defend and support this Editor and Publisher, Not even that Medias who vehemently supported M F Hussein and perverts like him.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Does the Statesman not lean left - as in really Left? Or am I confusing it with some other Bengali paper?
  Reply
http://madrasareforms.blogspot.com/2009/01...countering.html

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MADRASA REFORMS IN INDIA

Welcome to my Blog! This blog aims at broadening the scope of debates on madrasas in India by focussing, in particular, on the voices of those Indian ulema who see reforms (variously defined) as essential to enable madrasas to more effectively serve their purpose as centres of Islamic learning and instruction.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Maulana Waris Mazhari: Countering Pakistani Terrorists' Anti-India Propaganda on Ghazwat ul-Hind
For almost two decades now, self-styled jihadist outfits based in Pakistan have been engaged in a war against India in Kashmir . This war of theirs has no sanction in Islam, which does not allow for proxy war, and that too one declared by non-state actors. It is an explicit violation of all Islamic principles. These outfits, which have considerable support inside Pakistan , see the conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir as a religious struggle, and they wrongly describe it as a jihad. They regard their role in Kashmir as but the first step in a grand, though completely fanciful, plan to annex India into Pakistan and convert it into what they style as dar ul-islam, the Abode of Islam. But what they finally dream of establishing, or so they boast, is Muslim hegemony throughout the entire world.

I have used the term ‘hegemony’ here deliberately, for radical Muslim groups in Pakistan and in the Arab world have been indelibly influenced and shaped by the hegemonic designs of European colonialism in the past and Western imperialism today, and, in some senses, are a reaction to this hegemonic project. They seek to counter Western political supremacy and replace it by what they conceive of as Islamic political supremacy. In my view, this approach is in sharp contradistinction to Islamic teachings. The term ghalba-e islam, the establishment of the supremacy of Islam, used in the context of the Quran and the sayings of the Prophet (Hadith), refers not to any political project of Muslim domination, but, rather, to the establishment of the superiority of Islam’s ideological and spiritual message. This, in fact, was the basic crux of the mission of the Prophet Muhammad. However, the term has been distorted at the hands of the self-styled jihadists, who present it as a project to establish Muslim or Islamic political domination over the entire world.

Today, as the case of the Pakistani self-styled jihadists so tragically illustrates, many of those who claim to be struggling in the cause of Islam themselves work against Islamic teachings by deliberately or otherwise misinterpreting them. This is the case with their misuse of the term jihad in the context of Kashmir in order to win mass support for themselves. Needless to add, this is a major cause for growing anti-Islamic sentiments among many non-Muslims.

The dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir has been lingering for more than half a century. A major hurdle in the resolution of this conflict are the self-styled jihadists based in Pakistan , who insist that the conflict over Kashmir is an Islamic jihad and that, therefore, war is the only solution. They claim that participation in this so-called jihad has become a farz-e ayn, a duty binding on all Muslims, and some of them, most prominently the dreaded Lashkar-e Tayyeba, even go so far as to claim that the war in Kashmir is nothing but the ghazwat ul-hind, the ‘war against India’ which is mentioned in a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. By this they want to suggest that waging war against India is an Islamic duty, something prophesied by the Prophet Muhammad himself.

What is the actual meaning and implication of the statement attributed to the Prophet regarding the ghazwat ul-hind, which the Pakistan-based self-styled jihadists regularly refer to, and grossly misinterpret, in order to whip up anti-Indian sentiments and seek what they wrongly claim is Islamic sanction for their deadly terror attacks against India, in Kashmir and beyond? Before I discuss that, I must point out that the statement attributed to the Prophet regarding the ghazwat ul-hind is found in only one of the sihah sitta, the six collections of Hadith reports of the Sunni Muslims—in the collection by al-Nasai. This statement was narrated by Abu Hurairah, a companion of the Prophet. According to him, the Prophet prophesied a battle against India . If he (Abu Hurairah) got the chance to participate in this battle, Abu Hurairah said, he would do so, sacrificing his wealth and life. If he died in this battle, he said, he would be counted among the exalted martyrs. According to another narration, related by the Prophet’s freed slave Thoban, the Prophet once declared that there were two groups among the Muslims whom God had saved from the fires of Hell. The first would be a group that invaded India . The other group would be those Muslims who accompanied Jesus (after he returned to the world). A similar narration is contained in the collections of Hadith by Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Bayhaqi and Tabrani.

Because this hadith about the ghazwat ul-hind mentions India , and is marshaled by self-styled Pakistan-based jihadists active in Kashmir, it marks the Kashmir conflict out as clearly distinct from other conflicts elsewhere in the world between Muslims and others. These self-styled jihadists regularly invoke this hadith, trapping people in their net by claiming that if they were to die fighting the Indians in Kashmir they would be saved from hell and would earn a place in heaven. This claim, false though it is, is regularly and constantly repeated, as is evident from a host of Pakistani websites and periodicals.

Let me quote a revealing instance in this regard. Recently, I came across the August 2003 issue of ‘Muhaddith’, an Urdu magazine published from Lahore , Pakistan . It contains a 20-page article on the ghazwat ul-hind, written by a certain Dr. Asmatullah, Assistant Professor at the Islamic Research Academy of the International Islamic University, Islamabad . The article represents a pathetic effort to project the ongoing conflict in Kashmir as precisely the same ghazwat ul-hind that the Prophet is said to have predicted. And it is on the basis of this reported hadith of the Prophet that ultra-radical Islamists in Pakistan talk about unleashing a so-called jihad, extending out of Kashmir and to consume the whole of India . This is no longer limited to just fiery rhetoric alone, but, in fact, is also now accompanied by deadly terror attacks in different parts of India, which Pakistan-based radicals wrongly style as a jihad or even as the ghawzat ul-hind reportedly prophesied by the Prophet. It is striking to note in this connection that in the above-mentioned article, the editors of ‘Muhadith’ disagree with the views of the author, expressing their differences in the form of a footnote. Yet, this counter-view, as expressed by the editors of the magazine, is hardly ever discussed or even referred to in Pakistani so-called jihadist literature, indicating, therefore, that the rhetoric of the self-styled jihadists is based less on proper scholarly analysis of the Islamic textual tradition than on strident, heated emotionalism and a deep-rooted hatred and feeling of revenge. This applies not just in the Pakistani case. Rather, is a phenomenon common to almost all so-called jihadist movements throughout the rest of the world.

The Pakistani self-styled jihadists, it would appear, have made the hadith about the ghazwat ul-hind into a plaything in their hands in order to entrap innocent people. It is quite possible that the Pakistani youth who were involved in the recent deadly terrorist attack on Mumbai were fed on this sort of poisonous propaganda and led into believing that they might go straight to heaven if they waged war against India . In India , the banned Students Islamic Movement of India appeared to have backed the same wholly erroneous and unwarranted interpretation of the hadith about the ghazwat ul-hind, following in the footsteps of Pakistani radical groups. Mercifully, as far as I know, no other Indian Muslim group or scholar worthy of mention has adopted the ‘Pakistani interpretation’ of this particular hadith report.

Tragically, the concept of jihad has been subjected to considerable abuse and made to serve extremist ends by self-styled jihadists. This started in the very first century of Islam itself, when intra-Muslim wars were sought to be christened by competing groups as jihads. And because of the distorted understanding of jihad championed by many Muslims themselves, they labeled any and every controversy and conflict with non-Muslims, even if it had nothing at all to do with religion but everything to do with politics, as a jihad, as the case of Kashmir well exemplifies. Another facet of the distorted understanding of jihad by some Muslims are suicide-bombings, in which innocent civilians are killed. Yet another is proxy war by non-state actors, such as armed self-styled jihadist groups, which actually has no legitimacy in Islam at all.

Coming back to the question of the hadith about the ghazwat ul-hind, some aspects of the report deserve particular scrutiny. Firstly, as mentioned earlier, this report is mentioned only in the collection of al-Nasai from among the six collections of Hadith which most Sunnis regard, to varying degrees, as canonical. However, considering the merits or rewards of the ghazwat ul-hind that it talks about, it ought, one might think, to have been narrated by many more companions of the Prophet. But that, as it curiously happens, is not the case.

Secondly, and this follows from above, it is possible that this hadith report is not genuine and that it might have been manufactured in the period of the Ummayad Caliphs to suit and justify their own political purposes and expansionist deigns. On the other hand, if this hadith report is indeed genuine—which it might well be—in my view, the battle against India that it predicted was fulfilled in the early Islamic period itself, and is not something that will happen in the future. This, in fact, is the opinion of the majority of the ulema, qualified Islamic scholars. And this view accords with reason as well. It is quite likely that the ghazwat ul-hind that this report predicted took the form of the attack by an Arab Muslim force on Thana and Bharuch, in coastal western India , in the 15th year or the Islamic calendar in the reign of the Caliph Umar. Equally possibly, it could have been fulfilled in the form of the missionary efforts of some of the Prophet’s companions soon after, in the reign of the Caliphs Uthman and Ali, in Sindh and Gujarat . Some other ulema consider this hadith to have been fulfilled in the form of the attack and occupation of Sindh by Arab Muslims led by Muhammad bin Qasim in the 93rd year of the Islamic calendar, which then facilitated the spread of Islam in the country. This might well be the case, for the hadith report about the ghazwat ul-hind contained in the Masnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, a well-known collection of Hadith narratives attributed to the Prophet, mentions that the Muslim army that would attack India would be sent in the direction of Sindh and Hind.

Thirdly, this hadith mentions only a single or particular battle (ghazwa), and not a series of continuing battles, unlike what the author of the article in the ‘Muhaddith’, referred to above, echoing the arguments of Pakistani self-styled jihadists, claims.

Fourthly, it must be remembered that it would have been very easy for Muslim conquerors of India in the past, men like Mahmud of Ghazni, Shihabuddin Ghori, Timur, Nadir Shah and so on, to present the hadith about the ghazwat ul-hind and wield it as a weapon to justify their attacks on the country. The corrupt ulema associated with their courts could well have suggested this to them had they wished. However, no such mention is made about this in history books. In the eighteenth century, the well-known Islamic scholar Shah Waliullah of Delhi invited the Afghan warlord Ahmad Shah Abdali to invade India and dispel the Marathas, which he accepted, but yet Shah Waliullah, too, did not use this hadith as a pretext for this.

It is also pertinent to examine how some well-known contemporary Indian ulema look at this hadith report. Maulana Abdul Hamid Numani, a leading figure of the Jamiat ul-Ulema-i Hind, opines that this hadith was fulfilled at the time of the ‘Four Righteous Caliphs’ of the Sunnis, soon after the demise of the Prophet Muhammad, when several companions of the Prophet came to India, mainly in order to spread Islam. Mufti Sajid Qasmi, who teaches at the Dar ul-Uloom in Deoband, is also of the same opinion, although he believes that it might also refer to the invasion of Sindh by the Arabs under Muhammad bin Qasim in the eighth century. On the other hand, Maulana Mufti Mushtaq Tijarvi of the Jamaat-i Islami Hind believes that it is possible that this hadith report is not genuine at all and that it might have been fabricated at the time of Muhammad bin Qasim’s invasion of Sindh in order to justify it.

Whatever the case might be, the misuse by radical groups of this hadith report to spearhead war in Kashmir in the name of so-called jihad and to foment conflict between India and Pakistan is tragic, to say the least. It is nothing sort of a crime against God and the Prophet. In their worldviews and in their actions as well, the self-styled jihadist outfits seem to have gone the way of the Khawarij, a group that emerged in the early period of Islam and who were rejected by other Muslims. The Khawarij believed that they alone were Muslims and that all others, including those who called themselves Muslims, were infidels and fit to be killed. With reference to the Khawarij, the Prophet predicted that they would depart from Islam in the same way as an arrow flies out of a bow. About the Khawarij the Caliph Ali mentioned that they take the word of truth and turn it into falsehood (kalimatu haqqin urida beha al-batil). This he said in the context of the Khawarij misinterpreting the Quran and claiming that Ali and his followers were infidels who deserved to be killed.

It is imperative, and extremely urgent, for Muslim scholars, particularly the ulema, to take strict notice of, and stridently oppose the radical self-styled jihadists, who are distorting and misunderstandings Islamic teachings, following in the footsteps of the Khawarij of the past, and spreading death and destruction in the name of Islam. Jihad, properly understood, is a struggle to put an end to strife and conflict, not to create or foment it, as is being done today. The general public, particularly Muslims themselves, should be made aware of the dangerous deviation of the self-styled jihadists and the horrendous implications of their acts and views. In this regard, a major responsibility rests with the ulema of India and Pakistan . These days, ulema groups in India are very actively involved in organizing conferences and holding rallies seeking to defend themselves and Islam from the charges terrorism leveled against them. This is a very welcome thing. However, they must also stridently speak out against and clearly and unambiguously expose and denounce the self-styled soldiers of Islam who are promoting terrorism in the name of Islam. At the same time, it is also urgent to promote re-thinking of some medieval notions of jihad, such as that of offensive jihad, which does not actually have any Islamic legitimacy. This is essential for Muslims to live in today’s times and to come to terms with democracy and pluralism. Simply verbally defending Muslims and Islam from the charges of terrorism is, clearly, not enough. Nor is it adequate to simply condemn terrorism in very general terms. The truth is, and this cannot be disputed, that today there is also a pressing need to unleash a ‘jihad’ against the self-styled jihadist outfits themselves. And in this jihad, undoubtedly, the ulema and Muslim intellectuals have a central role to play and a major responsibility to shoulder.


Maulana Waris Mazhari, a graduate of the Dar ul-Uloom at Deoband, is the editor of the Delhi-based ‘Tarjuman Dar ul-Uloom’, the official organ of the Deoband Graduates’ Association. He can be contacted on w.mazhari@gmail.com
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* ▼ 2009 (2)
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+ Maulana Waris Mazhari: Countering Pakistani Terror...
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* ► 2008 (93)
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+ The Importance of Shia-Sunni Dialogue
+ Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani on Madrasa Reform...
+ Maulana Waris Mazhari: Tackling Terrorism
+ India’s First-Ever Training Centre for Madrasa Tea...
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+ Islamophobia In the West: How Muslims Should Respo...
+ Waris Mazhari: Islamic Politics, Muslim Militancy ...
+ Maulana Waris Mazhari: Muslims and the West
+ Waris Mazhari: The Indian Muslim Dilemma--Need for...
+ Bishruddin Sharqi on Islam, Peace and Dialogue
+ Zafarul Islam Khan on Indian Muslims, Media and Te...
o ► October (8)
+ Jamaat-e Islami Hind Amir on Terrorism in India
+ Struggling Against Sectarianism: Shia-Sunni Ecumen...
+ The Madrasa Curriculum and System and Modern Deman...
+ Waris Mazhari: Madrasas and Allegations of Extremi...
+ Waris Mazhari: Madrasas and Sectarian Conflict
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+ The Western Intellectual and Cultural Challenge an...
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+ The System of Training in Madrasas: Some Aspects i...
+ New Book: On Madrasa Reforms in India
+ Book Review: Islam in Post-Modern World
+ Madrasas and the Importance of Education in Islam
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+ Madrasas: Reforms a Must (By Ghitreef Shahbaz Nadw...
+ Research and Scholarship in Madrasas: Some Reflect...
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+ The Sufi Maulvi of Gandoh
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+ Hindu-Muslim Unity: A Leading Deobandi Maulvi’s Hi...
+ Nadwi on Maududi: A Traditionalist Maulvi’s Critiq...
+ Unveiling the Hidden History of Women Ulema
+ Muslim Education: Lessons From Kerala
+ Indian Muslim Educational Reform: Halting Efforts
+ New Texts for Madrasas: Kerala Muslim Group’s Expe...
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+ Pakistani Madrasas: Interview with a Pakistani Deo...
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+ Indian Ulema Against Terrorism
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+ Book Review: On South Asian Madrasas and 'Terroris...
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Y. Sikand
I am a freelance writer, working out of Bangalore and Delhi. I write mainly on issues related to Indian Muslims and inter-community relations.

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Yoginder Sikand

* Yoginder Sikand

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Yoginder sikand dalit convert to islam, writes for counter currents. rabid anti hindu.
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Hindu

The Sufi with the Kalashnikov

Praveen Swami

Abdul Jabbar’s bizarre journey from a roadside restaurant to a Lashkar terror camp casts new light on the jihad in India.

More likely than not, Abdul Jabbar would have encountered the poetry of 13th century mystic poet Ibn al-Arabi in the Sufi order which shaped his life. “I profess the religion of love,” al-Arabi wrote, “and wherever its caravan turns along the way, that is the way the faith I keep.”

Jabbar’s own journey led him from a small north Kerala town, through a roadside restaurant, secret circle of Sufis, and an Islamist terror cell to a Lashkar-e-Taiba terror unit in the mountains of Jammu and Kashmir — a Kalashnikov in his hands.

For chroniclers of India’s jihadist movement, his bizarre story has particular significance. Most members of the Indian Mujahideen’s networks were drawn from groups like the Students Islamic Movement of India or neoconservative religious orders. But Jabbar and the group of Kerala jihadists he was a part of emerged from the Noorisha tariqah — a prominent Sufi order of the Chishti-Qadri tradition, famous for its emphasis on openness and love.

Born in May 1973 into a working class family from northern Kerala’s Puruthur town, Jabbar dropped out of school in the fifth grade. At just 13 years of age, he began work as a parantha cook at a roadside hotel. His father, Kunzhi Bavanu, still runs a small tea stall in Puruthur; one brother, Abdul Samad, is a fitter, while the other, Abdul Hakeem, an autorickshaw driver.

Back in the late 1980s, the Malappuram region was in the midst of a small-scale communal war which pitted the cadre of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the charismatic Islamist leader Abdul Nasser Maudhany’s Islamic Sevak Sangh against each other. Jabbar was among hundreds of angry young men who found meaning in Maudhany’s inflammatory polemic, and went on to become a vice-president of his party’s Malappuram unit.

In 1998, Maudhany was arrested on charges of providing logistical support to the serial bombings in Coimbatore — of which he was only recently acquitted. Pursued by the police, many of his supporters fled Kerala. During his time underground, Jabbar came into close contact with Maudhany’s followers linked to the Noorisha order: Kannur resident Abdul Sattar and his long-standing associate Tadiyantavide Nasir.

Like Jabbar, Sattar and Nasir had cut their political teeth in Malappuram’s street wars. Police investigators believe that the men, who are alleged to have been involved in an abortive plot to assassinate the former Kerala Chief Minister, E.K. Nayanar, executed the July 2008 serial bombings in Bangalore, and supplied components for the improvised explosive devices used by top terror operative Riyaz Bhatkal for the Indian Mujahideen’s murderous attacks in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

Nasir, using the alias Haji Omar, had established himself as an ustad — or instructor — of students at the Noorisha order’s headquarters in Hyderabad. The Jamia Arifiya Nooriya seminary sprawls across a 40-acre campus, housing a free school and the al-Arif Unani General Hospital. Thousands of people attend the order’s 40-day Chilla, a spiritual course intended to help adherents overcome physical and material desire.

Made up in the main of Kerala residents, the Noorisha order is among the inheritors of a unique tradition of Islam. Folk tradition in Kerala has it that king Cheraman Perumal Bhaskara Ravi Varma, on witnessing a miraculous split-moon in the skies, travelled to Saudi Arabia where he was converted to Islam by Prophet Mohammad himself. In some tellings of this legend, Varma took on the name Tajuddin and married the sister of the king of Jeddah.

After Varma’s death, the story goes, a spice trader named Malik bin-Dinar returned to Kondangaloor, bearing a letter from Verma which led to a local temple being converted into a mosque dedicated to the king’s memory. The Cheraman Jama Masjid, reputed to be over 1,370 years old, still stands — in the Hindu tradition, facing east.

Nasir had little time for the Noorisha order’s spiritual legacy — or its syncretic concerns. He argued that the rise of the Hindu right, and worldwide atrocities on Muslims, made armed jihad a religious imperative. Most clerics at the Jamia Arifiya Nooriya found Nasir’s position unacceptable — but he had the support of Abdul Kader, an influential Noorisha ustad known among the order as Abdu Ustad. 1960-born Kader, police sources say, first started visiting the Noorisha seminary in 1996, for treatment of a psychiatric disorder. Later, he gave his daughter in marriage to Sattar.

Sattar, in turn, helped draw Jabbar into the jihadist circle among the Noorisha. Married twice — first to Zeenath Ibrahim, by whom he has a 12-year-old son, and then Ramola Mohammad, who gave him two more sons, two-year-old Salahuddin and six-year-old Mukhtar — Jabbar was beset by financial and legal problems. Zeenath had filed a criminal complaint against Jabbar for dowry harassment, and moved the court for maintenance. Sattar arranged for Jabbar to marry again, this time his sister-in-law, Nasia Moinuddin, to help him rebuild his life in Hyderabad. Jabbar was to have two daughters with Moinuddin: Aasiya, who is now three and Zainabi, who was born last year. Sattar also helped Jabbar find work — and arranged for him to take on Kader as his spiritual mentor.

Behind the façade of this new life, Jabbar continued to pursue his old jihadist path. He was among five Noorisha-linked men from Kerala who joined a ten-man Lahskar unit in the mountains above Kupwara, along the Line of Control, on the morning of September 16, 2008. In the next few weeks, the men were put through gruelling combat-fitness drills, and taught to use assault weapons and explosives. Long before their training ended, though, the Jammu and Kashmir Police, backed by Indian Army troops, arrived to put their skills to the test. Four of the men Jabbar travelled with were killed. He hid out in the forests all night, before beginning his journey home — where the police were waiting.

“Those who distort the meaning of jihad,” the supreme leader of the Noorisha order, Sayyid Muhammad Arifuddin Jeelani, said in a recent interview, “will certainly go to hell.”

For the most part, public commentary on Islamist terrorism in India has cast Sufi Islam as inherently opposed to jihadist violence. In part because the aesthetic of ascetic spiritual traditions — Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jewish and even Christian — has become fashionable among metropolitan liberals, Sufi practices have been cast as inherently hostile to the Islamist project.

But like other religious systems, Sufi mysticism can — witness the recent fighting in Iraq, Central Asia and Pakistan — provide legitimacy to violence. In the dying decades of the Mughal empire, the influential Sufi mystic, Shah Waliullah, called on the warlord, Ahmad Shah Abdali, to wage war against the Jats and the Marathas, arguing that it was “predestined that unbelievers should be reduced to a state of humiliation.” Sayyid Ahmad — whose failed 1831 jihad against Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s empire inspired the founding of the Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadis from which the Lashkar draws its ideological legitimacy — was also a mystic.

Hassan al-Banna, the founder of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood — the seed from which much of the modern jihadist movement was born — was profoundly influenced by the work of 12th century mystic Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali. Although al-Banna rejected al-Ghazali’s theological convictions, scholars have noted that elements of the practices of the Sufi brotherhoods continue to suffuse organisations such as the al-Qaeda — practices like the swearing of a bayat, or oath, to its sheikh, Osama bin-Laden

Pakistan has seen Sufi orders adopt jihadist tactics to counter their neoconservative theological rivals. In 1997, Sufi leader Allama Pir Mohammad Saeed Ahmad Mujadidi set up the Sunni Jihad Council to fight in Jammu and Kashmir. Speaking to the Gujranwala-based magazine Dawat-e-Tanzim ul-Islam in March 1999, SJC military commander Saeed Raza Bukhari said that the decision was taken because “certain people have used jihad to propagate their false creeds in Kashmir.”

In India, members of the mystic Deendar Anjuman order executed a series of 12 bombings in 2000. Deendar founder Siddiq Husain — who outraged conservatives by claiming to be the incarnation of the Lingayat-caste saint
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Note that Sikand carefully avoids the Quran when discussing "offensive jihad". Without even going into the controversy about authenticity of Hadiths, there are quite categorical statements in the Quran itself.

Qur’an 4:95 “Not equal are those believers who sit at home and receive no injurious hurt, and those who strive hard, fighting Jihad in Allah’s Cause with their wealth and lives. Allah has granted a rank higher to those who strive hard, fighting Jihad with their wealth and bodies to those who sit. Allah prefers Jihadists who strive hard and fight above those who sit
home. He has distinguished his fighters with a huge reward.” Here fighting and receiving physical injury is explicitly mentioned in connection with jihad and is recommended.

Qur’an 33:22 “Among the Believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah and have gone out for Jihad (holy fighting). Some have completed their vow to extreme and have been martyred fighting and dying in His Cause, and some are waiting, prepared for
death in battle.”

Here Jihad is declared to be a covenant with Allah and it also refers to physical struggle and possibility of physical death in connection with Jihad which clearly points out that this fighting is not an abstract or spiritual struggle without any physical component.

Nowhere in the Quran and the principal Hadiths being referred to here is the context of “Jihad” mentiond or used in a peaceful sense.

Qur’an 9:111 “Allah has purchased the believers, their lives and their goods. For them is Paradise. They fight in Allah’s Cause, and they slay and are slain; they kill and are killed.”[ Jihad is duty for a Muslim as his life has been purchased by Allah ]

Qur’an 47:4 “So, when you clash with the unbelieving Infidels in battle (fighting Jihad in Allah’s Cause), smite their necks until you overpower them, killing and wounding many of them. At length, when you have thoroughly subdued them, bind them firmly, making (them) captives. Thereafter either generosity or ransom (them based upon what benefits Islam) until the war lays down its burdens. Thus are you commanded by Allah to continue carrying out Jihad against the unbelieving infidels until they submit to Islam.” [ All out warfare or total war as Jihad should be undertaken to subjugate non-believers]

Qur’an 9:91 “There is no blame on those who are old, weak, ill, or who find no resources to spend (on Jihad, holy fighting), if they are sincere (in duty) to Allah and His Messenger.” [All Muslims having resources or fighting strength should undertake Jihad, andonly the destitute and infirm are exempt from this duty]

Qur’an 9:122 “It is not proper for the Believers to all go forth together to fight Jihad. A troop from every expedition should remain behind when others go to war.”

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Nothing new: communists are cowards. And their cadres make cannon-fodder for islam.

For the instance below, the reds are going about with their tear begging bowls. How very sad that I have nothing to contribute.

http://haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?P...251&SKIN=K
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Jihadi Violence, Loot and Arson in Ponnani</b>
22/02/2009 15:01:51  HK

Ponnani: When the CPM leadership are indulged in unholy nexus with Jihadi Terrorist organisation NDF, their <b>cadres are chased like mad dogs in Muslim dominated district Malappuram by NDF terrorists.</b>

<b>In Ponnani, clash between CPM activists and NDF terrorists went uncontrollable in which the Jihadi’s are engaged in widespread violence and looting</b> reminding the days of 1921 riots.

In Velliyangode village near Ponnani, the terrorists destroyed 6 Houses and 3 vehicles were gutted in fire following looting and arson of <b>armed Jihadis. Victims include both Hindus and Muslims of CPM.</b>
(There are no Hindus in the CPM. The minute a Hindu joins communiterrorism is when your ancestors and Gods leave you, and you cease to be a Hindu. The minute you return to Hindu Dharma completely forsaking the terrorist ideology of christoislamicommunazism is when your Gods and ancestors take you back.)

As per initial reports Jihadis attacked women and Children in Houses and looted 1.32 Kilo gold (165 pavan) and 2,80,000 worth Rupees. Petrol bombs were widely used by armed Jihadis.
(Am sorry to hear about the kids, who are obviously too young to have chosen CPM. Their evil communist parents of the CPM are the ones who got them into this mess. The kids should abandon their parents and go and live with their Hindu grandparents.)

Whenever NDF terrorists attack CPM leadership immediately intervene and pacifies the activist to follow the path of Gandhi , Not because of appreciating the lofty ideals but because of the fear of loosing Jihadi support in next elections.
(Oh I like this. The CPM and christogovt of India always sells Hindus' lives for islamic interests. But the deal is finally sweet when the CPM betrays their own blind followers as well. "For the People". Yeah right. Hahahaha. Communism is a running joke.)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
COMMENTS:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>M Balachandran 22/02/2009 21:01:39  Friendly Match</b>
This is only a Friendly Match between friends.

<b>Ganesh 22/02/2009 20:37:45  savage dhimmis</b>
There is an old saying that goes,'no dog will bite if you hit him with a bone'.This aptly describes the CPM /NDF relation today.These savage CPM cadres are made to kneel before the jihadis by their own leadership.Dont expect any form of defence from the state leadership or even the PB.These leaders had mourned the death of Saddam who had made mincemeat of the leftists in Iraq during his tyranny.The Taliban in Afganistan had anhilated the remaining leftists there after driving out the Soviets.Yet the Nayanar govt took out a procession to oppose the US intervention in Afganistan to crush the Taliban.So these are part of the party constitution that they must get beaten by the jihadis and yet grovel before them. They have no dearth of brainless cadres in the frontline.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->It is within Hindu Dharma's power to defeat islamism. Christocommunism can't ever, since it's pure cowardice. Christos crusade about every few centuries (Crusades in the Holy Land, War on Terror), but it becomes at best an equal-equal match that decides little beyond hiking up the number of dead.
In contrast, Hindus are not cowards. (Pseculars <i>are</i> dhimmis, but I tend not to count them as Hindus generally).
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<b>Issue fatwa declaring India friend of Islam: VHP</b>
23 Feb 2009, 0100 hrs IST, TNN


NEW DELHI: It may be a poll-related gimmick but it's a clever one. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has sent a letter to 13 prominent Muslim
organisations in India with a curious request — that they declare, in a fatwa, India to be a "friend" of Islam, or a Dar-ul-Aman, therefore making jihad against India and Indians invalid.

The Dharm Raksha Manch, a congregation of Hindu leaders, also asked the Muslim leadership to declare that Hindus were not "kafirs" and therefore should not be targets of jihad. The letter has been sent to the All India Milli Council, Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband, Tablighi Jamaat, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and All India Organisation of Imams of Mosques among others.

The letter asks the ulema to "issue a fatwa declaring that India was not Dar-ul-Harb", i.e. a country against which Muslims must launch a religious war, rather "India was Dar-ul-Aman, a land of peace where all Muslims can practise and propagate their religion uninterrupted".

Many Islamic fundamentalist writers have declared that India ceased to be a Dar-ul-Islam after the British left and Pakistan was carved out. The VHP is cleverly not asking the ulema to declare India to be Dar-ul-Islam, but a third variety, Dar-ul-Aman or land of peace. The VHP's new tack, many say, is intimately tied to the elections and is probably an attempt to cash in on the prevailing anger in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.

Certainly, the Laskhar-e-Taiba, in its writing and speeches by Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, has declared on numerous occasions that its goal was to reclaim the Islamic lands of India — apart from Kashmir, this would include Hyderabad, Junagadh etc. This was the inspiration behind the name Deccan Mujahideen, a front for LeT. India, according to many Islamist leaders, is a legitimate jihadi target.

In their vitriolic emails, the Indian Mujahideen, which claimed responsibility for the Delhi and Ahmedabad blasts, had also used the reference of scriptures to justify attacks against Indians.

Ashok Singhal, head of the VHP, said the letter had asked Muslim scholars to clear misconceptions. "The Dharm Raksha Manch is particularly concerned that Islamic scriptures have served as the inspiration behind these attacks, and concerned that the same might occur again in the future," he said.

"We are expecting the said organisations to respond to this appeal in a positive manner. We firmly believe that till the time Islamic leaders do not condemn religion inspired violence, terrorism in this country will not come to an end," Singhal said. "If Islam is a religion of peace, as they propagate, then we expect them to issue a fatwa clearing these views," he added.


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<b>Standing up to Islamofascism</b>
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Vijayvaani

Which one is hate and which one is love, Dilip Kumar Mudaliar@A R Rahman?
S V Badri
25 Feb 2009


This is not to belittle the genius and success of A R Rahman. This is just to connect his recent statement at the Oscars to his background, and to reveal the unknown face Rahman was so clever as to keep under wraps. This is to bring to surface the second Rahman – one who took to hating his natal religion the moment he took to Islam.


To the entire world, he is humility personified. He is pious, religious, genius, the very best. So be it.


His second Oscar acceptance speech gave him away. It allowed us a sneak preview of the core of Rahman:
“All my life I had a choice of hate or love. I chose love, and I’m here”


To understand the statement, one must dig into his early life. It shows deeply hidden hatred for Hindus and Hindu Dharma, ever since he converted to Islam. Even I, who had seen him work from very close quarters on two projects in his pre-Roja days, was bowled over by his simplicity and humility. He nurtured this fine art for years to win over many of his producers and the public.


The early days of A.S. Dilip Kumar


He was born as A.S. Dilip Kumar to R.K. Sekhar and Kasturi (now Kareena Begum) in a Tamil Mudaliar family, the second of three children. His sisters are Kanchana (Rehana after conversion, which resulted in divorce from her staunch Hindu husband), and Fathima.


Kanchana’s son, G.V. Prakash, who has shot to fame as a music director having already scored music to many films starting with Veyyil and Rajnikant’s Kuchelan, is also a staunch Hindu like his father. G.V. Prakash was the synthesizer player for Chettinad Vidyashram’s music troupe as a nine-year-old when my son, Aditya Kasyap, then in class XI, was the music club secretary and lead singer.


R.K. Sekhar (Dilip aka Rehman’s father) was an immensely talented musician, with no real breaks in the film field. He was more a conductor of orchestra for Salil Chowdhary and Devarajan in Malayalam filmdom (Mollywood). Yet his father’s passion for music was so embedded in Dilip’s genes that when he was just four-years-old, he started playing the harmonium. Later he learnt piano under the famous Dhanraj Master. His father gifted him a Synthesizer bought on a trip to Singapore, and this instrument so fascinated young Dilip that it became the source of sounds that would change the Indian film music world later.


In an interview, he says: “My father passed away when I was 9 years old. My mother used to narrate many tales about my father which used to make me very happy. My father was regarded to be highly knowledgeable in music by many people. I still listen to many of the old songs tuned by him. I think that it’s his enormous knowledge of music that has come down to me by the grace of God.”


Sekhar died ironically on the day of the release of his first film. Young Dilip had tagged along with his mother, hopping from one hospital to other, including CMC, Vellore, and to Bible-toting pastors and Sheik Abdul Qadir Jeelani (Pir Qadri), but it was too late…


He became an atheist. When 11 years old, he joined as keyboard player in Illayaraja’s troupe, struggled hard and slowly made a name with his popular jingles. His loss of faith in God continued through his teens when in 1988 one sister fell seriously ill. Medicines, havans and Bible-reading pastors failed to revive her. The family finally tried the same Pir Qadri, whom they called very late in the case of Sekhar. Dilip’s sister made a miraculous recovery. This was attributed to the Pir and Dilip slowly came under his influence. Gradually, the entire family converted to Islam; Kanchana even accepted divorce as the price of conversion.


Thus A.S. Dilip Kumar became Allah Rakha Rahman. Today, Rahman says “Islam has given me peace. As Dilip I had an inferiority complex. As A.R. Rahman I feel like I have been born again” [http://members.tripod.com/gopalhome/arrbio.html]


Asked what prompted him to convert to Islam, he said: “I remember my father suffering. He was taken to eight to nine hospitals, including the CMC hospital in Vellore and the Vijaya hospital in Madras. I saw him suffering physical pain... I remember the Christian priests who would read from the Bible beside his hospital bed... I remember the pujas and the yagnas performed by the pundits... by the time the Muslim pirs came it was too late. He had already left us. After my father passed away, for some years when I was a teenager, I believed there was no God. But there was a feeling of restlessness within me. I realised that there can be no life without a force governing us... without one God. And I found what I was looking for in Islam. I would go with my mother to dargahs. And Pirsaab Karim Mullashah Qadri would advise us. When we shifted to this house, we resolved to stick to the faith.”


The family’s penchant to check with astrologers did not desert them even after converting to Islam; an astrologer chose Dilip’s Islamic name! He gave him the name Abdul Rahman, but insisted that he should have two initials, so he became Abdul Rahman Rahman. Later, Naushad turned ‘A.R.’ to Allah Rakha, and Dilip Kumar became Allah Rakha Rahman.


It is reputed that G. Venkateshwaran of GV Films and his brother Mani Ratnam had some misunderstanding with Illayaraja, and that is how Rahman was picked for Roja; the rest is history.


A Roja becomes a slumdog - Hate vs. Love


“All my life I had a choice of hate or love. I chose love, and I’m here.”


Was the Oscar stage was so intoxicating that the truth had to come out? Dilip alias Rahman must explain what ‘hate’ is and what ‘love’ is. Does he mean that Hindu Dharma is ‘hate’ and that is why he deserted it; that Islam is ‘love’ and that is why he embraced it? Could he achieve these musical heights in any of the known Islamic paradises now blooming in the neighbourhood? Above all, is not this music itself the gift of Hindu Bharat?


A colleague and Rahman apologist mumbled that the musical wonder actually meant ‘Wahabi Islam’ when he spoke about ‘hate,’ and that ‘love’ referred to Sufi Islam – I am too old for such stories. If that is indeed what Rahman meant, then that is what he should have said – that too at a moment when he had the whole world’s attention, and adulation.


Tail Piece


It is pertinent to recall that in the immediate aftermath of Partition, the Peshawar-born and immensely talented Yusuf Khan took the film name Dilip Kumar to deflect possible non-acceptance by a Hindu audience. In the same era, however, Waheeda Rahman boldly stuck to her maiden name, and proved that Hindu Bharat was above petty prejudice and openly nurtured talent.


Certainly Dilip-Rahman deserves his success. But I am disappointed with his ‘hate’ versus ‘love’ acceptance speech. This was actually the moment for him to say Vande Mataram.
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