08-15-2006, 10:40 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->'All Asians are not terrorists'
RASHMEE ROSHAN LALL
[ 15 Aug, 2006 0312hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
LONDON: Nearly 100 hours after the world?s worst terrorist plot since 9/11, Britain?s harried Hindus and Sikhs are almost fit to burst with a cache of dangerously incendiary questions, many are calling with alliterative analytical insight ?the troubling 10?.
The Troubling 10 include these three divisive, if legitimate, questions:
1. Is it not unfair that British Hindus and Sikhs be subject to racial profiling by UK police and security services just because 23 alleged terrorists, mostly Pakistani Muslims, have been arrested in the alleged conspiracy to detonate liquid bombs on trans-Atlantic airliners flying from Heathrow?
2. What training will the British authorities now provide airport security and police to prevent Hindus and Sikhs facing the stigma that comes from being brown and British?
3. Why are British police not providing high-visibility security to Hindu temples and Sikh gurdwaras amid growing fears of a backlash by white vigilante youths, who may be unaware that UK Hindus and Sikhs are not part of the Muslim community and have no part in Thursday?s alleged conspiracy?
The three questions, posed by Ramesh Kallidai, secretary-general of the umbrella Hindu Forum of Britain, on phone to TOI on Monday, are increasingly seen to be at the heart of officially multi-cultural Britain's raging headache over categorising and containing its huge multi-national, multi-religious brown community that has so far been lumped with the omnibus label ?British Asian?.
Kallidai is emphatic that UK?s Hindus and Sikhs, collectively estimated at more than one-million, are "deeply resentful" in the aftermath of Black Thursday.
Accordingly, the Hindu Forum and Sikh organisations, including the politically-savvy Sikh Federation, have been conducting regular meetings with London?s Metropolitan Police.
In a sign that Britain?s Hindus are increasingly fearful about the risk because of their skin colour, the Hindu Forum has detailed the head of its security committee, Arjun Vekaria, to liaise with senior police officer David Mortimer.
The aim, say Hindu and Sikh leaders, is to put a credible distance between their communities and Muslims. They say they are increasingly frustrated by the police?s lackadaisical response to high-profile policing of their temples and community centres.
Pundits and policy-makers say the Hindu and Sikh resentment portends yet another fragmentation of Britain?s already chequered, fractured and divided ?multi-cultural? society.
But Kallidai is emphatic it is right for Hindus and Sikhs to firmly part ways from the Muslims, in a portentous development 33 days after Britain?s Hindus launched their first official attempt to lobby the government for separate categorisation.
He is blunt about British police?s allegedly woeful failure to address Hindu and Sikh frustrations. "Soon after the terror plot was foiled, the police mounted a security detail at mosques, but not at Hindu temples and gurdwaras. Why was this the case? Are we not at risk as well, perhaps more so and for no fault of our own?
"We cannot bear to hear that British Asians are of terrorist persuasion," he declared, "it is not Asians, it is Muslims. How many Hindu and Sikh terrorists have been unmasked since 9/11?"
As the anguished questions are fired back and forth, British Hindu leaders pose the last and most telling of The Troublesome 10: The white community is now asking for white mothers to be spared the checking of baby milk at airports because it is Asians who are suspect.
Well, we repeat, it isn?t Asians but Muslims. Why are Hindu and Sikh mothers not spared baby milk checks as well? Tell us what we should do to emphasise we are not part of the group of brown British terror suspects?
But for this, as for other questions, there may be no answer.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/artic...894124.cms<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
RASHMEE ROSHAN LALL
[ 15 Aug, 2006 0312hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
LONDON: Nearly 100 hours after the world?s worst terrorist plot since 9/11, Britain?s harried Hindus and Sikhs are almost fit to burst with a cache of dangerously incendiary questions, many are calling with alliterative analytical insight ?the troubling 10?.
The Troubling 10 include these three divisive, if legitimate, questions:
1. Is it not unfair that British Hindus and Sikhs be subject to racial profiling by UK police and security services just because 23 alleged terrorists, mostly Pakistani Muslims, have been arrested in the alleged conspiracy to detonate liquid bombs on trans-Atlantic airliners flying from Heathrow?
2. What training will the British authorities now provide airport security and police to prevent Hindus and Sikhs facing the stigma that comes from being brown and British?
3. Why are British police not providing high-visibility security to Hindu temples and Sikh gurdwaras amid growing fears of a backlash by white vigilante youths, who may be unaware that UK Hindus and Sikhs are not part of the Muslim community and have no part in Thursday?s alleged conspiracy?
The three questions, posed by Ramesh Kallidai, secretary-general of the umbrella Hindu Forum of Britain, on phone to TOI on Monday, are increasingly seen to be at the heart of officially multi-cultural Britain's raging headache over categorising and containing its huge multi-national, multi-religious brown community that has so far been lumped with the omnibus label ?British Asian?.
Kallidai is emphatic that UK?s Hindus and Sikhs, collectively estimated at more than one-million, are "deeply resentful" in the aftermath of Black Thursday.
Accordingly, the Hindu Forum and Sikh organisations, including the politically-savvy Sikh Federation, have been conducting regular meetings with London?s Metropolitan Police.
In a sign that Britain?s Hindus are increasingly fearful about the risk because of their skin colour, the Hindu Forum has detailed the head of its security committee, Arjun Vekaria, to liaise with senior police officer David Mortimer.
The aim, say Hindu and Sikh leaders, is to put a credible distance between their communities and Muslims. They say they are increasingly frustrated by the police?s lackadaisical response to high-profile policing of their temples and community centres.
Pundits and policy-makers say the Hindu and Sikh resentment portends yet another fragmentation of Britain?s already chequered, fractured and divided ?multi-cultural? society.
But Kallidai is emphatic it is right for Hindus and Sikhs to firmly part ways from the Muslims, in a portentous development 33 days after Britain?s Hindus launched their first official attempt to lobby the government for separate categorisation.
He is blunt about British police?s allegedly woeful failure to address Hindu and Sikh frustrations. "Soon after the terror plot was foiled, the police mounted a security detail at mosques, but not at Hindu temples and gurdwaras. Why was this the case? Are we not at risk as well, perhaps more so and for no fault of our own?
"We cannot bear to hear that British Asians are of terrorist persuasion," he declared, "it is not Asians, it is Muslims. How many Hindu and Sikh terrorists have been unmasked since 9/11?"
As the anguished questions are fired back and forth, British Hindu leaders pose the last and most telling of The Troublesome 10: The white community is now asking for white mothers to be spared the checking of baby milk at airports because it is Asians who are suspect.
Well, we repeat, it isn?t Asians but Muslims. Why are Hindu and Sikh mothers not spared baby milk checks as well? Tell us what we should do to emphasise we are not part of the group of brown British terror suspects?
But for this, as for other questions, there may be no answer.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/artic...894124.cms<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->