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Dr.B.R.Ambedkar

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Fwd: Pakistan’s pandering to Islamic Extremism: Wikileaks revelations of a global cover-up, NewAgeIslam.com - 22 Feb, 2011



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <NewAgeIslam_Newsletter@newageislam.com>
Date: Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 5:38 PM
Subject: Pakistan's pandering to Islamic Extremism: Wikileaks revelations of a global cover-up, NewAgeIslam.com - 22 Feb, 2011
To: sultan.shahin@gmail.com





Hello Friends


WELCOME TO NewAgeIslam.com Newsletter 22 Feb, 2011

For latest postings on the website, please click here: http://www.NewAgeIslam.com

Links to some fresh and selected articles that are still being debated are being given below.

If you find this newsletter useful, please forward it to your friends and encourage them to join this mailing list.

www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamNewsLetter.aspx

Your Support Is Absolutely Vital For Our Survival and Growth.

Regards,
Sultan Shahin,
Editor and Publisher, NewAgeIslam.com

Pakistan's pandering to Islamic Extremism: Wikileaks revelations of a global cover-up

...if it weren't for nuclear weapons, Pakistan would be the Congo...

US State Department note published by Wikileaks

For far too long, Western powers – vigorously led by the US – have been party to a comprehensive cover-up, a pretence that has sought to minimize Pakistan's role in the active sponsorship and export of terrorism, and an effort to distract international attention from the country's failing institutions, to emphasise, instead, its acts of purported 'cooperation' with global counter-terrorism efforts.

This farce, and elements of the international community's real appraisal of Pakistan and the many players in the country, lay fully exposed with the Wikileaks disclosure of US diplomatic correspondence and confidential assessments in 2010. These have fully confirmed the continuing complicity of the Pakistani establishment in terrorism in the South Asian region and beyond; the corruption and mendacity of its various institutions of Government; the country's hurtling trajectory towards state failure; and the inescapable truth of the realities SAIR has repeatedly emphasized in the past. -- Ajai Sahni and Tushar Ranjan Mohanty


Continue Reading...
http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4165


Appeal for Justice to Asia Bibi and Mercy to mankind in Pakistan

To:  The People, Ulema and Government of Pakistan

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is a mercy to mankind, he is indeed a blessing to the humanity and rightfully known as Rahmutul Aalameen. There are innumerable examples of forbearance, forgiveness and kindness of the prophet (pbuh) towards those who insulted and even tried to harm him.

One of the most famous stories, often repeated is about an old lady who threw trash on the prophet every time he passed in front of her door. One day, the trash was not thrown. Concerned, he asked the neighbors and found that she was sick. He knocked on her door to and offered help. Overwhelmed with kindness and love, she chose to become a Muslim.

Once on way to the city of Taif, the Prophet was pelted with rocks by miscreants, his associates wanted to retaliate, even the arch angel Gabriel offered to help bring relief to the situation. The prophet said no, instead he asked God to forgive them, because he was the last messenger. If they are destroyed to whom would he preach? He hoped that if not them, their progeny at will accept the God-sent message to mankind. -- Mike Mohamed Ghouse, Dr John Dayal, and others

Photo: Asia Bibi


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4167


On the Dawoodi Bohra Reformist Struggle: Interview with Abid Adeeb

The Dawoodi Bohras, ethnic Gujaratis, are a roughly million strong group of the Mustalian branch of the Ismaili Shia Muslims. They are controlled by an elaborate hierarchy of priests, headed by the dai-e mutlaq, who claims to be the representative of the 21st imam of the community, who is believed to have gone into seclusion or ghayba in the eleventh century. Faced with stern Sunni opposition, the 24th dai of the community shifted to Gujarat in the twelfth century. The present dai, Syedna Burhanuddin, is the 52nd dai of the community, and this year he will celebrate his 100th birthday.

For several years, a number of Bohras have been speaking out against the corruption and oppressive practices of Burhanuddin, also accusing him of levying a number of taxes on the community and various other un-Islamic practices. The Bohra reformist struggle was launched in Udaipur in the 1970s, and today has spread to different parts of the world where Bohras live. Last week, some three thousand Bohras gathered at Udaipur to participate in the 14th World Dawoodi Bohra Conference in order to galvanise the movement against the Syedna's oppression.

In this interview given to Yoginder Sikand for NewAgeIslam.com, the chief organiser of the conference, Abid Adeeb, President of the Dawoodi Bohra Jamaat of Udaipur, and Vice-President of the Central Board of the Dawoodi Bohra Community, the international federation of reformist Bohras, speaks about the ongoing movement against the Syedna's oppression that, lamentably, has received little media attention.


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4166


Jamaat-e-Islami as the Welfare Party of India: Can it make any difference?

Jamaat's political move has baffled many political analysts as it has been known for its rigid outlook and a purely Islamic ideology that does not comform to the socialist and democratic set up of the country. In order to adjust to the political conditions and atmosphere of the country, they have made some short term compromises. But can a desired social and political  change be brought about with a short term initiative. It reflects a 'let's see' approach. 'If it does not work here, we shall go back' seems to be the motto of the Jamaat Islami. -- Dr Irfan Waheed, NewAgeIslam.com


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4163


The Uyghur Issue in the Context of China's Democratization Process

The World Uyghur Congress with the co-operation of the Australian Uyghur Association, the East Turkestan Australian Association and the Victoria Uyghur Association will hold a democracy-training workshop entitled "The Uyghur Issue in the Context of China's Democratisation Process" in Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne, Australia from March 21 to 28, 2011.  The workshop is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for Democracy Foundation (NED). Prominent Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer, thrice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, will be attending the workshop. – World Uyghur Congress


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4164


Demolish Kafir/ Mushrik/ Munafiq-manufacturing factories, says Sultan Shahin, defending New Age Islam against Talibani onslaught

….As a community we are more reactionary and obscurantist than positive and progressive. We live in fear and denial. There is nothing wrong with us Muslims; it's all the result of Jewish conspiracy, Hindu conspiracy, Western imperialist conspiracy, etc. etc. We love living in the past, in the land of pointlessness. So our discussions too are not so much about issues of today as about the bygone past. We revel in discussing ad infinitum the dirty politics of seventh century Arabia and taking sides with one or the other party. We have no present and no plans for the future. As a community, that is. Some individuals, of course, do have plans for themselves as well as for the community and a vision of regeneration for Islam and the Muslim community. But they are reviled for thinking of this word rather than the other world where 72 houris are waiting for them in a land of milk and honey and of course, plenty of liquor. (In the case of poor women, of course, only their husbands, if any, would be waiting there, and yet some of them become suicide bombers, for some reason.) – Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4144


Egypt uprising is 1989 of Arab world

In 1989 the collapse of the old order started in the 'satellite' countries, not in the Russian heart of the Soviet Empire, just as the current revolt against the Arab status quo began in Tunisia and is now inching towards the centre

It was the Egyptian Army's statement that brought it all back: "To the great people of Egypt, your armed forces, acknowledging the legitimate rights of the people... have not and will not use force against the Egyptian people." In other words, go ahead and overthrow President Hosni Mubarak. It's all right with us.

The risks for the Arab world are comparable: Short-term economic decline, civil war, and the rise of new authoritarian regimes, probably fuelled by Islamist ideas. Nothing's perfect. But what we are now witnessing in Tunisia and Egypt, and may also see elsewhere, is a great liberation not just from dictatorship, but from decades of corruption and despair. That's worth a lot. -- Gwynne Dyer


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4159


Deoband: War of the Mullahs

From what these Deobandi Maulvis are alleging about the men behind the anti-Vastanvi campaign—fellow Deobandi Maulvis, led by the Madni gang that has monopolized the Deoband Madrasa for decades—one thing is clear: that for many mullahs, religion and religious institutions are simply tools to feather their own nests and to whip up the support of the credulous by projecting themselves as pious defenders of the faith. As rival factions of the Deobandi mullah community continue to battle each other, the sordid role of the 'secular' Congress Party in backing the most obscurantist sections of the mullahs, as represented by the Madni clique, is also becoming increasingly evident.  Needless to say, in this symbiotic nexus, the common Muslims, sacrificial victims of the machinations of political parties and the mullahs, have everything to lose, even the faint glimmer of hope for educational empowerment that Vastanvi's appointment had appeared to promise. -- Yoginder Sikand, NewAgeIslam.com
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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4136


Growing Islamophobia: Missing Introspection

Do We Muslims Too Owe Some Responsibility? And What Can We Do About It? Asks Sultan Shahin

 

Editor, NewAgeIslam.com, Sultan Shahin's oral statement to the Thirteenth session of UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 16 March, 2010:

 

I would like to confine myself to reflecting on the problems of religious minorities, particularly Muslim minorities who are facing xenophobia and related forms of intolerance today in an atmosphere of widespread Islamophobia. We Muslims are also complaining of an attempt to encourage Islamophobia. The French ban on veils and Swiss ban on minarets has further vitiated the atmosphere. We do not know for sure how much of this is deliberate as a sort of anti-Islam crusade as we Muslims allege and how much is a paranoid reaction to growing radicalism, extremism and exclusivism in Islamic societies.

But I find a note of introspection on the part of us Muslims and Muslim governments completely missing in the continuing debate. I intend to do precisely that today. While we Muslims demand, and rightly so, the freedom to freely practise and propagate our religion in the non-Muslim majority countries, we do not seem to worry about the plight of religious minorities living in Muslim-majority lands.

Contribution of Petrodollar Islam

That Muslim societies in general have radicalised over the last decades cannot be denied. This has been a direct result of tens of billions of petrodollars having been spent in promoting a rigid, obscurantist, desiccated version of Islam, shorn of all its beauty and bounty. Preachers of what I can only call "petrodollar Islam" have gone around the world asking Muslims to develop a separate identity that distinguishes them not only in the practice of Islamic prayer rituals but also looks and apparel. The phenomenal rise in Muslim women wearing hijab and an assortment of veils or men growing what is called an Islamic beard is no accident.

Discrimination against religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries has grown. Anti-blasphemy laws, for instance, have been routinely used to harass and commit acts of violence against religious minorities. The Report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Asma Jahangir, mentioned the case of Christians and the minority Muslim sect of Ahmadis who are continually harassed on baseless allegations of blasphemy in Pakistan despite the government's stated commitment to fulfil its international obligations. -- Sultan Shahin


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4149


On Clerics' advice to Muslims: Stay away from yoga camps

Ever since I read about some Mullahs asking Muslims in India and Malaysia to stay away from yoga camps, I was wondering what could be so threatening about Yoga. Is our faith so brittle that we would cease to remain Muslim if we just learn to do yogic exercises, now recommended by doctors, particularly cardiologists and surgeons after heart by-pass surgery or to those with high blood pressure? In fact Yoga is useful to patients of an assortment of illnesses, and also as a preventive health-care technique. If practiced regularly yogic meditational techniques can lead to beautiful and extremely rewarding spiritual experiences too. -- Sultan Shahin, Editor, NewAgeIslam.com


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4108


Peaceful Islam is genuine Islam, the mainstream Islam: Sultan Shahin tells the UNHRC

Agenda Item 8, General Debate on Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action

Geneva: 24 September 2010: The 9th anniversary of the horror of 9/11 was observed recently in the midst of bitter controversies sparked by the proposed mosque near the ground zero site and the threats to burn the Quran. The debate surrounding these issues has further intensified the religious intolerance, and xenophobia facing the Muslim minorities in some quarters in the West today.  But I think, we Muslims too have not helped our cause by reacting with a wild and generalised condemnation of the West, using expressions like "sanctimonious arrogance of the West," as the ambassador of an important Muslim country did in an informal meeting in this building a few days ago.

There is only one way to both protect world peace and defend Muslims' rights: let the silent majority of peaceful Muslims assert their choice. Peaceful Islam is genuine Islam, the mainstream Islam, as I shall demonstrate, and if we are to oppose the regrettable anti Muslim hysteria triggered in some Western circles, it is our prime task, as Muslims, not to fuel these fears further.

A phenomenal rise in Islamophobia now bordering on anti-Muslim frenzy in some quarters has alarmed the civil society in the West as much as in the Muslim communities around the world. From US President Barack Obama and other Western leader  to numerous social activists and media analysts have said repeatedly that the perpetrators of 9/11 were terrorists and the West is at war with the followers of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, not with Islam or Muslims in general. But the fear of Islam is nevertheless steadily growing, although the world has to fear not Islam, but those who distort Islam just to find something "holy" in their monstrous deeds. ….

I would like to take this opportunity to urge fellow Muslims around the world to:

a)      Declare repeatedly that Peaceful Islam is genuine Islam, the mainstream Islam. Denounce Osama bin Laden and A-Qaeda terrorists and ask our ulema (religious scholars) to declare these agents of Satan to be beyond the pale of Islam.

b)      Loudly and repeatedly reject the jihadist ideology of Islam-supremacism as incompatible with the teachings of Islam. The Holy Quran asks us repeatedly to respect all previous prophets of God, all 124,000 of them, equally as Prophet Mohammad.

c)      Stop blaming the entire West for provocations of a few right wingers who have a vested interest in fanning the fear of Islam, as they once had in promoting the fear of Catholicism or Judaism. Instead, appreciate those who are making admirable efforts to fight the growing Islamophobia and now even Quranophobia. 

d)     Promote debate within the community to establish the Quranic ideal that even the killing of one innocent person amounts to killing the entire humanity and that the so-called offensive Jihad being propagated by some ulema is just not a part of Islam.

e)      Declare repeatedly the situational nature of the verses that constitute the holy Quran and that instructions that came 1400 years ago for a specific situation are no longer relevant as injunctions from God to be followed in the here and now.

f)       Fight our own victim mentality. Start taking responsibility for our actions.

--- Sultan Shahin, Editor, New Age Islam


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=3466


Islam and the rights of the minorities

There is a famous incident involving the governor of the province of Syria Hadhrat Umer (R.A.). The second caliph Hadhrat Umar(R.A.) had appointed Hadhrat Umer the governor of the province of Syria as he was a very pious and God fearing man. After his appointment, Hadhrat Umar did not get any information about him for as long as three years. He apprehended that Hadhrat Umer had become corrupt and plundered public money. So Hadhrat Umar (R.A.) asked him to come back. He came back on foot not using any conveyance in the capacity of a governor. Hadhrat Umar enquired about him and found that he had been doing his duties as a governor perfectly well under the sharia. Upon asked about his experience in Syria, he said, " I performed my duties according to the injunctions of the Holy Quran and the Prophet (PBUH). But I have only one regret. Due to my arrogance as a governor, I once cursed a Jew." -- Maulana Aslam Qadri, NewAgeIslam.com


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4143


Rebooting Islam: Let us at least resolve the issue - Who is a Muslim?

Islam is of course, a universal Deen, for all people in every corner of the world and for all times to come; but in order to fulfil its destiny it has to keep reinventing itself in every new age; it has to be rethought and reinterpreted in the light of the orthodox Islamic principles of Ijtihad, the gates of which were opened for us by Allah and the Prophet (Peace be upon him) and no Muslim has the right to close them down. –- Sultan Shahin, Editor, NewAgeIslam.com


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4118


Pakistan: The Ghairat Brigades and the Truth

As is the Ghairat Brigades' (and their handmaiden's) wont, truth has nothing to do with anything so long as their needs are served — in this case to fan the flames of anti-Americanism come hell or high water. As just one example, there is no longer any mention on any of the channels or newspapers about the first reports describing the two men as armed robbers who had, just prior to being shot, robbed mobile telephones from two people in the same area....

Let the law take its course but let us at least accept that we live off America. Let us accept the fact that it has come to our aid whenever we have been in trouble, whether helping in the aftermath of the Cargill adventure or sending its helicopters to fly hundreds of sorties helping in relief efforts after our devastating earthquake and floods. -- Kamran Shafi

 
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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4134


Sindhi versus Pakistani nationalism

The two best books written on Sindh in the last few years have been the works of two writers who are 'Sindhi by option' and not by accident. I think this term — Sindhi by option — needs to be explained because it puts the political, social and economic role of the post-partition migrants in Sindh into perspective. both books have been written by Marxist democrats, Syed Mazhar Jamil and Tanvir Tahir Ahmed. In their younger days, they had been at the forefront of the workers, democracy and provincial rights movement. Syed Mazhar Jamil wrote Jaded Sindhi Adab, which was published in 2004. It is a History of Sindhi literature. Mazhar Jamil's researched work on Sindhi literature, which is in Urdu, has been accepted by most leading Sindhi writers as one of the best contributions. And the research dissertation of Tanvir Ahmed Tahir, Political Dynamics of Sindh, 1947-1977, , for which he was conferred a doctorate. As a true Marxist, Tanvir first dilated on the theory of ethnicity as it puts the political dynamics of Sindh in the right perspective in Pakistan-- Babar Ayaz


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4133


New Age Islam Battles Fundamentalists in Cyberspace

Sultan Shahin sees New Age Islam as part of a global effort by believers to reclaim Islam from the religious right, and address the questions and conflicts which confront believers in the twenty-first century. "Islam," he argues, "is a spiritual experience; a system of beliefs through which believers seek to live a meaningful life. For the Islamists, though, religion is primarily a tool through which they seek power. In practice, they worship power, not Allah."

In a recent essay, Shahin argued that the Islam of the neo-fundamentalists was in fact a "a completely new religion" theologically founded "on a wilful misinterpretation of the Islamic concept of jihad."

Electronic journals like New Age Islam reach out to a small, but influential, section of India's Muslims: an emerging class of Muslim professionals and entrepreneurs who are finding that the traditionalist practices of the parents offer few solutions to the struggles of life. Islamists have been adroit at capitalising on their anxieties. Many of India's jihadists — among them, the leadership of the Indian Mujahideen — came from urban middle class backgrounds and had received a privileged elite education.

Shahin says he hopes New Age Islam will give this new class a progressive voice. "When the media or the government wants to understand what Muslims think about something," he says "they'll always turn to some cleric or the other, not Wipro's Azim Premji or Himalaya Heath Care's Meraj Manal or the eminent physicist Israr Ahmed. We need a wider Muslim engagement with public life."

Shahin's own understanding of Islam was forged in both India and the West—much like the young audience New Age Islam addresses. -- Praveen Swami, The Hindu, New Delhi


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4121


Syed Shahabuddin on his life and politics

Syed Shahabuddin, a former member of the Indian Foreign Service, is one of the most articulate Muslim politicians of independent India. He bears a lot of responsibility for the Hindu backlash (which, in turn, has fanned Muslim fundamentalism, leading to militant postures in certain quarters) as a response to the Shah Bano case and the Babri Masjid movement. Syed Shahabuddin, whose organization of these two movements met with an unprecedented response from Muslims, finds himself isolated today. This certainly merits a serious study of contemporary Indian Muslim Politics. Syed Shahabuddin was till recently the President of the All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, which split into two factions sometime back. He now exercises control over the AIMMM faction, which he claims is the umbrella organization of all Muslim political parties and active groups. Despite this claim of support and popularity, he has failed to make it to Parliament for a good 12 years now. This situation is also a reflection and a sad commentary on contemporary Muslim politics.

 Earlier, Syed Shahabuddin had a 20-year long stint in Parliament, getting elected from Kishanganj in Bihar, which is a Muslim-majority constituency, but remains extremely backward, pointing to lack of nurture by him. So, the backwardness of Muslims has been used by Shahabuddin only to reinforce his atavistic politics. After the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 and his failure at the hustings, Syed Shahabuddin has raised innumerable controversies. -- This freewheeling exclusive interview by Ather Farouqui poses all those questions which were never asked of him earlier and should facilitate historians in the future in understanding the dynamics of society which help breed his kind of personalities.


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4127


The story behind Aziz Burney's unconditional apology to the RSS

Aziz Burney's 'defeat' does not augur well for the Urdu media. It has vindicated the charge that Urdu media has a paranoid psyche and hallucinates the ghost of conspiracy in every affair and does not have faith in the government, the security agencies and the army. Indeed, even a casual reading of practically any Urdu newspaper creates the impression that Indian Muslims are in a state of Jihad against their own country. Rashtriya Sahara had ostensibly emerged as a strong voice of the minorities as it had seemingly carried extensive research and investigations into stories of the victims of terrorism, riots and social oppression of every kind. However, in its defence and praise of Karkare and his two colleagues who were killed during the Mumbai attacks, the daily went much beyond journalistic boundaries and, in the usual way the Urdu Press functions, wrote something it could not back with solid evidence and proof, also without bothering if it was damaging national interest. -- New Age Islam Edit Desk


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4113


Fatwa ka Bazar : Barelvi Mullah says Every Pakistani is KAFIR

Barelvi Mullah says Every Pakistani is KAFIR

Fatwa ka Bazar by M.A.N.

 Maulana Tariq Jameel firing on Shia and Deobandi "beghairat, " "sab se ganda hai phir bhi sunni kahklata hai.". "Sahaba-e-Huzoor Salam are kafir "(Nauzbillah). "Shia and Deobandi are both kafir. But the bigger Kafir is Deobandi, Shia at least proclaims he is not ahle sunnat, whereas Deobandis claim tobe ahle-sunnat."

Bara Kafir Deobandi hai. Wajibul Qatal (fit to be killed) hai, Aur is mein shak karne wala bhi wajibul qatal hai. (Deobandi is the bigger kafir and any one who doubts that is also kafir and  fit to be killed like the Deobandis.)

---

Maulana Tahirul Qadri firing on Deobandis: sab kafir hain. Wahhabis are Murtad, kafir, kuttay, dogs,  terrorist, lanati, Yazidi, kerbala kay terrorist, Muslim mamalik kay badshah dallay, brokers and prostitutes. Listen to  Moulvi Syed Irfan Shah Ashadi.


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4101


The ideology of extremism is the problem; Islam emphatically is not: David Cameron

There is so much muddled thinking about this whole issue. On the one hand, those on the hard right ignore this distinction between Islam and Islamist extremism, and just say that Islam and the West are irreconcilable — that there is a clash of civilizations. So, it follows: We should cut ourselves off from this religion, whether that is through forced repatriation, favoured by some fascists, or the banning of new mosques, as is suggested in some parts of Europe. These people fuel Islamophobia, and I completely reject their argument. If they want an example of how Western values and Islam can be entirely compatible, they should look at what's happened in the past few weeks on the streets of Tunisia and Cairo: Hundreds of thousands of people demanding the universal right to free elections and democracy.

The point is this: The ideology of extremism is the problem; Islam emphatically is not. Picking a fight with the latter will do nothing to help us to confront the former. On the other hand, there are those on the soft left who also ignore this distinction. They lump all Muslims together, compiling a list of grievances, and argue that if only Governments addressed these grievances, the terrorism would stop….

Internet chatrooms are virtual meeting places where attitudes are shared, strengthened and validated. In some mosques, preachers of hate can sow misinformation about the plight of Muslims elsewhere. In our communities, groups and organizations led by young, dynamic leaders promote separatism by encouraging Muslims to define themselves solely in terms of their religion. All these interactions can engender a sense of community, a substitute for what the wider society has failed to supply. Now, you might say, as long as they're not hurting anyone, what is the problem with all this? …

So, let me end with this. This terrorism is completely indiscriminate and has been thrust upon us. It cannot be ignored or contained; we have to confront it with confidence — confront the ideology that drives it by defeating the ideas that warp so many young minds at their root, and confront the issues of identity that sustain it by standing for a much broader and generous vision of citizenship in our countries. Now, none of this will be easy. We will need stamina, patience and endurance, and it won't happen at all if we act alone. This ideology crosses not just our continent but all continents, and we are all in this together. At stake are not just lives, it is our way of life. That is why this is a challenge we cannot avoid; it is one we must rise to and overcome. -- Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking at the Munich Security Conference, setting out his view on radicalization and Islamic extremism.


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4098


Bihar: Hindus too study in Islamic madrasas

Madrasas in many rural areas in Bihar have been rendering eduational services to the Hindu community as well because many villages do not have Hindi medium high schools. The students particularly girls have to discontinue their studies due to lack of Hindi medium schools in their villages or towns. Not only that, many Hindu students, after passing out from these madrasas got the job of Urdu teachers in madrasas and Urdu schools. Thus these madrasas are not only promoting communal harmony and a love for the language but also providing bread and butter to the Hindus and the Muslims alike.  In 2010, about 100 Hindu students passed Madrasa Board Examination. Their parents far from being apprehensive of their sons and daughters studying in madrasas appreciated madrasa education saying that the students in madrasas were more disciplined. -- Md Ekram Siddiquee, NewAgeIslam.com


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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=4120


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