imra-usa.org

Yes, Virginia, there are Jewish terrorists in the world – Jews are not perfect and when some of them act like vicious thugs, destroying mosques and attacking innocent Muslims, then they deserve our condemnation. All decent Jews will demand that their government punish them for their wickedness.

Consider the following:

Family Security Matters, 22 Dec 2011,
Tag Mehir, The Israeli Jewish Terrorist Organization

Tag Mehir graffiti at a burned-out
mosque in Burka, this month.

By Nancy Hartevelt Kobrin, PhD

As an Israeli Jewish psychoanalyst with a doctorate on Islam, I feel I have a moral responsibility and obligation to denounce the recent upsurge in Israeli Jewish violence committed by Tag Mehir (lit. Price Tag) against Israeli Muslims and especially the torching of their mosques and the destruction of their property. This has motivated me to share some thoughts and observations and hopefully a few possible solutions.

…

I have written extensively on Islam and its use by some Muslims as having a propensity toward violence, domination focusing on female submission and abuse of women by male dominated shame honor based societies. Now I have the unpleasant duty to take a stance against my own people, or are they my own? These recent Jewish terrorists who destroyed and burnt innocent Muslims’ mosques terrorizing the Islamic community and their families in no way represent Jewish causes. Their acts of violence have nothing to do with fighting for a cause. This was clearly an act of aggression by a group of brainwashed manipulated youths whose rabbis incited them to act out of rage impulsively.

Muslim apologists will point to these very few evil Jewish anomalies and scream, “See, Jews also commit violence in the name of their religion.”

However, there is a difference. If somehow tomorrow a strange virus destroyed every single Jewish and Muslim terrorist, the world would still be facing a threat from Muslims but not Jews. A reader of the Family Security Matters article left this comment:

It’s sad but true that retro Judaism is as bad as retro Islam in its stern moral code and male chauvinism. The difference is that Jehovah only wants Jews to live under his stern laws, not everybody, and wants Jews to enact those laws only inside their communities, not throughout the world, and only commanded Jews to wage what could be called jihad to win the future Israel, not a jihad from pole to pole like Allah commands Muslims to do.

I do not excuse Jewish terrorism but I do want to put things in perspective: more people die from bee stings each year ¹ than have died at the hands of Jewish terrorists ² in the past 50 years. If only we could say the same about Muslim terrorists.

Let’s return for a moment to the idea of a world free of both Jewish and Muslim terrorists. I have written before that the danger to the civilized world is not from Islamic terrorists but from moderate Muslims. The US government has stopped more than a hundred plots by Islamic extremists, so we have a mechanism to remove that threat against our way of life. What we do not have is a mechanism to remove that other threat to our way of life, the moderate Muslim.

That seemingly nice Muslim co-worker, friend, associate, cab driver, deli-clerk who doesn’t blow up schools or hospitals but who wants us to

(1):

ABC News, 23 Jul 2009,
When One Bee Sting is Your Last

According to government statistics, about 3.3 percent of adults will experience anaphylaxis after an insect sting and there are 40 to as many as 100 deaths annually from insect-sting-related anaphylaxis.

(2):

Wikipedia, Jewish religious terrorism

A number of violent acts by Jews have been described as terrorism and attributed to religious motivations:

Yaakov Teitel an American-born Israeli, was arrested and indicted for several acts of domestic terror, namely a pipe bomb attack against leftist intellectual Zeev Sternhell, the murders of a Palestinian taxi driver and a West Bank shepherd in 1997, and sending a booby-trapped package to the home of a Messianic Jewish family in Ariel.

Eden Natan-Zada killed four Israeli Arab civilians on August 4, 2005.

Baruch Goldstein an American-born Israeli physician, perpetrated the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in the city of Hebron, in which he shot and killed 29 Muslim worshipers inside the Ibrahimi Mosque (within the Cave of the Patriarchs), and wounded another 125 victims.

Yigal Amir’s assassination of Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995 has been described as terrorism with a religious motivation.

[edited by Bernie for brevity]

Planck’s Constant

First I’d like to start out by thanking Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, and asking that peace and blessing be descended upon the Seal of the Prophets, Father of Qasim, Muhammad, and upon the pristine People of his Household.

I should start a radio interview like that next time, for fun.  I say “Good Morning” and I get questions about what “shari’a law” has to say about cutting off people’s noses when you don’t like what they say (actual question once not long ago), it would be interesting to see the reaction in this case.

What spurred these musings was a program yesterday on the local NPR radio station here in Pittsburgh, on a national show called The Takeaway, where the question was posed as to America’s likely reaction if Denver Broncos quarterback star Tim Tebow was a committed Muslim as he is a committed evangelist.  For those who don’t know, he routinely opens interviews by thanking his lord and savior Jesus Christ, and is known for this kneeling prayerful stance he takes quite often after scoring a touchdown and the like.  He’s also led his team to an improbable six wins in a row, one more improbable than the last, causing some fascination among evangelists.  (Though careful, my friends in faith, careful.  We were told by the imam at our mosque growing up that Muhammad Ali had two angels fighting with him.  You can imagine our reaction as little children when Ali lost to Larry Holmes, it was as if the devil himself had come to kill the Prophet.  I love Ali, but surely one’s faith must run deeper than the performance of any mortal on a sporting field).  

In any event, I was amused by the program, asking a question that anyone with sense would know the answer to, though it did to me raise the matter that should cause the most consternation.  Taken as a bare and naked expressions of faith, it is difficult to see the problem with what Tebow might do.  I don’t agree with Frank Bruni who I think said what Tebow does isn’t as bad as others have done, Michael Vick and Ben Roethlisburger among them.  True, but irrelevant.  They did what they did, everyone regarded it as bad, and if they hadn’t expressed contrition they wouldn’t be revered.  The revernce is on the basis of their having moved beyond it, that’s the assumption.  By contrast, Tebow isn’t exactly contrite.  But then it is fair to ask why should he be, being a person of faith is not bad, any other person of faith me included would agree.

And as a committed believer in the First Amendment, I don’t think there is any possible way one could sensibly legally restrict what a private individual wishes to say when given a forum on national television. To do so would be to grant the state authority over particular expressions that should trouble anyone.

Yet if we concede no legal issue is raised, and we concede that in the end he isn’t seeking to alienate, only to testify, are we done?  To me, no, because all of that ignores the deeper concern.  As one commentator put it, “America isn’t ready” for a Muslim who would do the same thing.  First, we once were (I could love Ali in the 70′s at least), and are no longer, which suggests serious slipping, a problem on its own.  Though Ali compared to Tebow is positively ecumenical come to think of it.   Second, I hate that phrasing, though it demonstrates something as well.  Like “America isn’t ready for a woman president”, this is supposed to be the nice way to put “there’s a lot of bigots in our country and those jackasses would never vote for a woman for no reason than their own bigotry.”  That you cannot say this in this fashion, as it is considered rude, demonstrates some level of license for sexism, or Islamophobia, as the case may be.  It is legitimate not to be “ready” for something (I’m not ready for lunch, for example, as it’s only 9:30 in the morning), it is not legitimate to be a racist, sexist or bigot .  So we put it the former way, which to my mind legitimizes it.

So because of such lack of readiness, in a world in which a television show about Muslims being normal Muslims is considered offensive because the Muslims don’t actually speak about jihad at the coffee shop (we don’t, we truly honestly don’t.  We talk about college football), you can imagine the reaction if a player began every interview as I started this post.  I just don’t think it would be an option for a player wishing to remain in the league. The distraction for a team would be so immense I cannot imagine it could work. The only choice for a Muslim player would be not to hide their faith so much as make absolutely no issue of it at any time during actual playing, interviewing, etc.  They could do interviews with magazines for the faith community (Olajuan did that as a committed Muslim) and of course participate and lend their name to faith activities elsewhere (again, Olajuan did that) but the times I remember him talking about his religion are when it was brought up, in particular in defense, as in “do you stand when the national anthem is played?”  (The answer was yes.)  And that’s pre 9/11 and Victory Mosques and Obama is a Muslim and all the rest of it that’s only gotten worse with time.  

Now to me those rules are fine, and defensible, when applied to everyone.  I am perfectly comfortable knowing I do not and should not open a Contracts class by offering all praise to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, and peace and blessings to Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets and Apostles.  My class isn’t Muslim, it’s a liberal society, faith is faith and Contracts is Contracts.  Likewise, I know when I sit in a Contracts class, I am not going to be subject to someone else opening by thanking their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  These are rules I not only live by but internalize as normatively proper as an American.  Naturally, in a religious sermon, the matter is altogether different but I fervently believe religion has no place in my Contracts class.  

My concern, as a Muslim, is that when particular public displays of faith are rendered normatively acceptable (they are and must be clearly legally protected, again that’s obvious), and when the faiths of some may be professed while the faiths of others may not be so professed unless one wants to become a social pariah, that necessarily will lead to alienation and frustration on the part of excluded communities, and the only normatively proper way to handle this would be to ask all to limit particularist expressions of faith in settings where general audiences are targeted, because the field isn’t exactly level and otherwise the airwaves will be filled solely with appeals solely to Christianity, and that, to me, is decidedly illiberal.  

So yes, in the end, I’d like to see Tim Tebow tone it down.  

HAH  
  

 
Islamic Law In Our Times

Warrior’s Return
Mohammed RACIM
Photo Credit: Algeria Embassy K.Lumpur

Whenever I write that Islam now, today, in our present age, at the current time, is a cruel, The Most Offensive Muslim Jokes Ever:

hdsghds (from Melbourne, Australia): “these fail so much.”

Tom (from London, UK): “Yeah, just like the notion that Islam is a Religion of Peace. Fail.”

Omar (from Hicksville, NY): “Just like the notion that most white people aren’t racist. Fail“

I left Omar this reply:

Omar, what do whites and racism have to do with the fact that Islam is a religion of war? Is that how you justify the fact that Islam is a violent, savage, barbaric cult, by throwing up a non sequitur? And anyway, 100% of white people in the world do not go around muttering, “We’re not racists, we’re not racists …” However Muslims all over the world do go around insisting that Islam is a religion of peace, which is clearly, obviously, absolutely a lie.

And so it goes. If I report on some current Islamic massacre, Muslims will offer as rebuttal a Christian savagery that occurred in the year 1520. Just face it, Ahmed, your religion as it is practiced today is just so 632 A.D. Muslims need a reformation to become civilized. Pointing at past Christian and Jewish barbarities doesn’t excuse current Islamic ones.

Planck’s Constant

(Parliamentary candidate Nada Abo El-Maty, 48, of the largest Salafi party Al-Nour, greets supporters outside a polling station during the parliamentary elections in Cairo November 28, 2011. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)

Egypt’s ultra-conservative Islamist Salafis said they will not water down their views to ally with the more moderate Muslim Brotherhood, after a first-round vote put the two rival groups on track to dominate parliament.

The army is in charge for now but the election, the first since Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February, will give the new parliament a strong claim to a role in how Egypt is governed.

The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s best-organized political force, which was banned but partly tolerated under Mubarak, is on course to win the election. The Salafis, who follow an even stricter interpretation of Islam, have emerged from the margins to push liberals into third place.

Analysts say the Brotherhood has a pragmatic streak that makes it an unlikely ally for Salafis who only recently ventured from preaching into politics and whose strict ideology offers little scope for compromise.

Salafi al-Nour party leader Emad Abdel Ghaffour made it clear he would not play second fiddle to the Brotherhood.

“We hate being followers,” Ghaffour told Reuters in an interview. “They always say we take positions according to the Brotherhood but we have our own vision… There might be a consensus but … we will remain independent.”

Read the full story by Tamim Elyan and Muhammad al-Yamani here.
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FaithWorld

(The Conference of the Muslim Brotherhood in Benghazi November 17, 2011. REUTERS/Esam Al-Fetori)

The Muslim Brotherhood has held its first public conference on Libyan soil  after being banned for decades, and used the platform to set a moderate tone, calling for a broad national reconstruction effort.

As Libya emerges from a bloody civil war, many observers believe the next elections could pit religious political groups against secular parties, with better-organized Islamists such as the Brotherhood having a tactical advantage.

Speaking nine months to the day after the start of the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi that eventually ended his 42-year rule, Libyan Muslim Brotherhood leader Suleiman Abdelkader praised the rebellion on Thursday and called on Libya’s factions to unite.

“Rebuilding Libya is not a task for one group or one party but for everyone, based on their ability,” Abdelkader told the meeting of about 700 people at a wedding hall in Benghazi, the eastern city where the revolt against Gaddafi began.

His remarks appeared to be an expression of support for the idea of a technocratic interim government, which Abdurrahim El-Keib, the prime minister designate, is trying to assemble by a Tuesday deadline.

Abdelkader would not, however, be drawn on whether the Brotherhood wanted one of its members to be part of the interim cabinet, which is due to organize elections in June to a constituent assembly.

“Maybe some (members) will join based on their qualifications and ability. But for this time period we will not join as a party,” he told Reuters after his speech.

The slickly organized event was heavy in revolutionary references, with the stage draped in the new national colors and speeches given by guest speakers from Tunisian moderate Islamist party Ennahda and Syria’s banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Read the full story here.

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FaithWorld

Photo Credit: James Neeley

A Hindu, a Jew and a Muslim are all walking through the country and stop at a farmer’s house to see if they could sleep there for the night.

The farmer informed them that he had only one spare room, and that it had only two twin beds. They were welcome to it, but one of them had to sleep in the horse barn.

After much discussion, the Hindu volunteered to go to the barn. A few moments later, there was a knock on the bedroom door. It was the Hindu – he told the Jew and the Muslim that the filth and the stench of horse manure was more than he could bear and he could not possibly sleep in the barn with the horses.

Annoyed, the Jew volunteered to sleep in the barn. But not a few minutes later there was a knock on the door. It was the Jew – he said that the filth and the stench of horse manure was more than he could bear and he could not possibly sleep in the barn with the horses.

Finally the Muslim said that he would go to the barn. A few moments later there was a knock on the door. It was the horses.

Planck’s Constant

(A concert-goer walks past a demonstration protesting U.S. glam rocker Adam Lambert's concert outside its venue in Kuala Lumpur October 14, 2010. Lambert said his Malaysian concert on Thursday would reflect his sexuality despite Islamist anger over his show, which has been accused of promoting "gay culture." REUTERS/Bazuki Muhammad)

Two Malaysian states are set to change their Islamic laws to punish Muslims who engage in homosexuality, raising the prospect of gay Muslims being punished twice and stoking concerns about rising intolerance toward same-gender relationships. Homosexuality is punishable by law in Malaysia by caning and up to 20 years in jail, but the legal amendments planned by Pahang and Malacca religious authorities would give the state governments additional ammunition.

If the proposed changes came into force, a Muslim homosexual could be punished under both federal and state religious charges, meaning that jail terms could run consecutively and result in longer time. Analysts said the proposed amendments hinted at an increasing intolerance toward homosexuality and could erode support for the government among the majority ethnic Malays, who are Muslims by birth.

“The irony of the situation is that the overwhelming majority of gay people in this country are Malays,” said James Chin, a political analyst at Monash University in Malaysia. “When they have these laws to target non-mainstream sexual minorities, they are actually targeting their own people.”

Malacca’s chief minister, Mohd Ali Rustam, said the state would review its Islamic law provisions to allow Muslim gays and lesbians to be tried in court and punished by a jail term or a fine to deter homosexuality.

“So many people like to promote human rights, even up to the point they want to allow lesbian activities and homosexuality,” Ali told Reuters. “In Islam, we cannot do all this. It is against Islamic law,” he said, adding that Muslim homosexuals would also be required to attend counseling.

Ali, who is also Malacca Islamic Religious Department chairman, said the proposed penalties would also apply to those who supported homosexuality even if they did not practice it. “We want to put it in the enactment so that we can enforce it and bring them to our sharia (Islamic law) court. Then we can charge them for promoting or supporting these illegal activities.”

Read the full story here.

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FaithWorld

It is time again to offend hundreds of millions of followers of the most barbaric cult in the world. Here for your reading pleasure are 13 jokes sure to offend most Muslim Arabs.

Jokes which reflect real world events are followed by a link to my article on the matter in brackets.

1. A sex therapist is travelling through the Middle East getting data on goat-sex.

   First he visits Mahmud, an Iraqi goat herder on the outskirts of Baghdad. “Tell me” he says, “What method do you use for goat sex?” Mahmud replies, “Well I trap her head in a fig bush then attack from behind”.

   Next, the therapist goes to Egypt and visits Amar who works on the banks of the Nile, and asks him the same question. “Well” says Amar, I push her into the mud and when her back legs are stuck strong I grab her from behind and give it to her real good.”

   Finally he Visits Abdul in the Gaza strip and again asks the same question. Abdul answers, “”I stick her left front leg over my right shoulder and her right front leg over my left shoulder and as she stands on her back legs facing me …”

   “Hold on” interrupts the researcher, “this is unusual”. “Unusual?” asks Abdul, “In what way?”

   “Well,” says the researcher, “all the other Arabs take the goat from behind, none of them face the sheep”

   “What”! exclaims Abdul, “No kissing?”

   [How to get a Muslim`s goat - sex with animals]

---

2. I had a upsetting phone call in work: my mother phoned me and said there were Muslims in our family tree. I went straight home and I’m glad I did – they looked so good hanging from there.

---

3. Q: What do you call a Muslim woman on birth-control?
   A: Making the world safer.

---

4. Q: An Egyptian, A Syrian, and an Iraqi jump off a bridge, who hits the ground first?
   A: Who gives a shit?

---

5. 70% of Palestinian males say they enjoy sex in the shower; the other 30% haven’t been to prison yet.

   [Muslims in UK Prisons]

---

6. Ahmed’s wife, unhappy with his mood swings, bought him one of those mood rings so she could monitor his mood.

   She discovered that when Ahmed is in a good mood, it turns green and, when he’s in a bad mood, it leaves a big f*cking red mark on her forehead.

   [Is wife beating really allowed in Islam?]

---

7. An Arab woman walks into a London shop and buys 1 egg, 1 bottle of milk and 1 sausage, the shopkeeper asks – “You’re single, aren’t you?”

   “Yes,” she replies, “how could you tell?”

   “You’re an ugly c*nt!”

---

8. I bought a Saudi woman’s diary on e-bay:

   Monday – stayed in
   Tuesday – stayed in
   Wednesday – stayed in
   Thursday – stayed in
   Friday – stayed in
   Saturday – stayed in
   Sunday – stayed in

---

9. Q: Which sexual position produces the ugliest children?
   A: Ask Helen Thomas’ parents.

   [Helen Thomas is an Idiot]

---

10. I shit myself last night at the airport – a frigging Palestinian rushed in screaming “Allah Allah Allah Allah …. allava coke and a bag of nuts please,” the stuttering bastard.

---

11. An Englishman, Frenchman, American and a Saudi on a plane going to the U.N. in New York when all of a sudden there’s engine trouble!

    The pilot says over the P.A. system that there’s only one parachute onboard.

    The Englishman, ever the gentleman steps up, opens the door, shouts “GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!” And jumps.

    The Frenchman, always the effin copycat steps up, goes to the door and shouts “VIVE LA FRANCE” and jumps into the abyss.

    The yank then steps up, looks out the door at the two bodies gathering speed toward the ground, takes a step back then shouts “REMEMBER 9/11″ and throws the Arab out the door!

---

12. Q. How long does it take an Arab woman to take out the trash?
    A. Nine months.

---

13. A young Arab asks his father “What is this weird hat that we are wearing?”

    “Why, it’s a ‘chechia’ because in the desert it protects our heads from the sun,” says the father.

    Then asks the son “And what is this type of clothing that we are wearing?”

    The father is Obliged to reply: “It’s a ‘djbellah’ because in the desert it is very hot and it protects your body!”

    The boy gets even more curious: “And what are these ugly shoes that we have on our feet?”

    Again the father lovingly explains: “These are ‘babouches,’ which keep us from burning our feet when in the desert!”

    Finally the son says, “Tell me Abba?”

    “Yes my son?”

    “Why the f*ck are we living in Detroit and still wearing all this shit?”

---

This has been a Thursday 13 post [# 66] and is updated on some Thursdays.

Planck’s Constant

Join Hillsdale College online, Friday, October 7, for a free webcast featuring Andrew McCarthy speaking about the global threat of the Muslim Brotherhood. Click here to register.

Members of the Muslim Brotherhood operate on a global scale and seek through the primacy of sharia law the supremacy of the Islamic State. McCarthy will discuss how it has shown itself to be successful in the West and how it can be combated.

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute. For 18 years, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the South District of New York, and from 1993-95 he led the terrorism prosecution against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and 11 others in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a plot to bomb New York City landmarks. Following the 9/11 attacks, he supervised the Justice Department’s command post near Ground Zero. He has also served as a Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and an adjunct professor at Fordham University’s School of Law and New York Law School. Mr. McCarthy writes widely for newspapers and journals and is the author of two books: Grand Jihad and Willful Blindness.

Citizen Warrior

By Mahtab Alam

“Serial Bomb Blasts in Delhi. Where are you, Are you safe?” read a text message on my Mobile, by Sonali Garg, a friend of mine from Delhi.

It was late in the evening of September 13^th, 2008. “Oh My God! That’s really horrible. I am fine though and in Bihar. Hope you, your family members are all right,” I replied before forwarding this message to other friends in Delhi.

During those days, I was in Bihar, surveying the aftermath of the flood that had struck the Kosi region of the state in the second week of August that same year. Village after village had vanished in the flood. It was reportedly the worst flood ever seen by the people of that area. Most of them were left with no other alternative but to shift to the rehabilitation camps.

On 13^th September 2008, the sun went down to serial bomb blasts in Delhi, killing 26 persons and injuring many more. In all, five bomb blasts within the time span of 30 minutes created havoc amongst the Delhiites. I heaved a sigh of relief as all the messages I received in reply to my forwarded message were positive.

My friends were all fine. The last reply I received was around midnight by a senior colleague of mine, A R Agwan, a former assistant Professor of Environment Sciences with whom I had conducted many workshops for Human Rights’ Activists in different parts of India, saying that he was all right and had been sleeping, thus the delay in replying. 

Do we want fear or hope in these eyes!

Still shaken by the news, I tried moving on with my work, thinking that the worst was over. But I was to be proved wrong. Around noon the next day, I received a frantic call from the Secretary of the Association for the Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), a Delhi based civil rights’ group I was working with then as a Coordinator.

He sounded tense and the poor network added to the problem. All I was able to make out, in interrupted tones, was that the situation in Delhi, especially Jamia Nagar, a Muslim populated area of South Delhi, was very bad. A pall of fear pervaded all in the area. The police had been randomly picking up Muslims from the area. I was asked to come to Delhi as soon as I possibly could.

Not satisfied with the details, I tried ringing A R Agwan, as he was based in that area. I grew worried when around twenty calls made to his mobile through the day went unanswered. Knowing him, it was quite unusual of him to react in this manner. Immediately after Iftar (since it was the month of Ramadhan), I proceeded to the nearest Cyber Cafe to book my ticket for Delhi.

An e-mail I received struck me numb with horror and rendered me incapable of any action for a few minutes. It was hard to believe that A R Agwan was under arrest! He had been picked up by Delhi Police’s Special Cell, equivalent to the Anti-Terror Squad or Special Task Force of other states.

A R Agwan, is a prominent social activist and has been attached with many social and human rights’ group. With a clear record, and an even clearer conscience, his arrerst sent shockwaves in the community. The leaders of the Muslim community were completely outraged by the arrest. His neighbours did not know how to react.

Anxiety, Fear, Paranoia…

Enquiries to other activists of the situation revealed that apart from Agwan, three other people had been detained from the area. After much pressure from community leaders, social and religious organizations, Agwan was released, along with Adnan Fahad, a DTP operator in his late twenties, who was also into some small Publishing business.

They were arrested around 11 AM in the morning and freed in the late evening around 7:30 P M.  Illegal detention would have been prolonged hadn’t the community leaders and activists pressurized the Delhi police for their release. On 17^th September, immediately after coming back to Delhi, I went to meet Agwan. He was still recovering from the shock, having been forcibly subjected to the worst hours of his life. He completely failed to understand why he had been picked up.

“They asked me about my whereabouts on the day of the blasts, my activity in the evening that day. I told them I was at home meeting two non-muslim friends from Hyderabad. They had come over to discussing the opening up of an NGO. Then they questioned me about the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and its people. 

We are also like you, Does topi make us different!

They pressed me to give names of some SIMI people in my locality, and I told them that I didn’t know anything, but they kept insisting”. 

The interrogators also asked him about Abul Bashar, a Madarsa graduate, who was arrested from Azamgarh the month before and was later projected as the mastermind of the Ahmedabad serial blasts. “I told them I knew not more about Abul Bashar than what had appeared in the media”, Agwan recalled.

Not content with this response, they further alleged that Bashar had his cell number and that he had stayed at his home. Agwan flatly denied the charges. “But they did not believe me and wanted to put words in my mouth.  They just wanted me to confess to something with which I had absolutely no connection”.

“It was like there was no rule of law and the Police had become a Law unto themselves,” he told me, still unable to reconcile himself to what he had undergone. “When they realized that it would be too difficult to further my custody, as pressure was mounting from different sections of society to release me, they offered to drop me to my home. I refused to go with them.” “I told them that I was afraid that they would take me to some other place and torture me severely so that I confess to their charges, as had been done to hundreds of Muslims across the country”. “I asked them to ask my family to come and collect me”.

The fear that Agwan underwent reminded me of the stories that I had heard at the Impendent People’s Tribunal on the ‘Atrocities Committed against Minorities (read Muslims) in the Name of Fighting Terrorism’ at Hyderabad in August the same year (2008). We were told spine chilling stories of arbitrary detention and torture by the victims of ‘war on terror’, families of the accused who were in jails and human rights activists across the country barring Kashmir and North-eastern states of India.

The common complaints were that they were punched, kicked, beaten very badly. In order to humiliate them so that they break down, the interrogators made them stand for long hours and hung them upside down. In custody, they were denied all basic amenities and were forced to drink water from the toilets. Moreover, they were subjected to electric shocks by the police officials and made to repeat what the police were saying.

One of them recounted,”The interrogators repeatedly used name calling, sexually profane abusive language with me. The torture continued from about midnight/one o’clock until morning.” In most of the cases, the first question that they were asked was, “Why have you people become anti-nationals? You all are bloody Pakistanis.”

And the torture wasn’t limited to those arrested. The police made sure to use every trick to make those arrested confess to their will. The family members too were subject to similar torture. The police ensured that the most inhuman torture was meted out to them. Ataur Rahman, in his mid-sixties, lived in Mumbai with his family which included an engineer son who was an accused in the July 2006 Mumbai blasts.

Prove your patriotism every moment

At the tribunal, he had told us, “My house was raided in the night and I was taken to an unknown destination. After keeping me in illegal custody for several days, I was formally shown to be arrested on July 27, 2006, and an FIR was lodged against me.  Me, my wife, my daughter and daughter-in-law were paraded before my arrested sons while being abused by the police officers continuously. My sons and I were beaten up in front of each other.

The women of the family were called up by the ATS daily and were asked to drop their burqah (veil) before my arrested sons. Adding to their humiliation, my sons were abused in front of the women folk. An officer beat me up and threatened me that the women of my family were outside and they would be stripped naked if I did not remove my clothes before my children and other police officers. They brought in other arrested accused and I was stripped naked in their presence…”

The witch hunting of Muslims only intensified after the blasts on September 13^th, which was followed by the infamous ‘encounter’ at Batla House of Jamia Nagar area of South Delhi. On September 23^rd, a meeting had been organized in Delhi to discuss the police excess and the communal witch hunt, which was attended by well known lawyers, activists, journalists, academicians and community leaders.

When Cops Go On A Witchhunt

While the meeting continued, we received the disturbing news of the picking up of a 17 year old boy, Saqib. The men who had taken the boy were unknown and hence we decided to lodge a complaint with the local police station. Initially reluctant to entertain us, the presence of senior lawyers, Jamia teachers and journalists pressured them into register our complaint. We were later informed that the Delhi Police special cell had picked him up for questioning. When Supreme Court lawyer Colin Gonzalves and the boy’s relatives approached the Special Cell, they had another surprise in store.

The cops said -”hand over his brother and take him!” Saqib’s is not a unique case. People are picked up indiscriminately everyday and are harassed, some of them reportedly brutally tortured. Like Saqib, there are some victims in the area, but most of them prefer to remain quiet to avoid further harassment. Moreover, they fear about who would employ or give a house on rent to a ‘suspected person’.

Today, even after three years of the Delhi bomb blasts and the Batla House ‘encounter’, the residents live in fear. A situation has been created wherein every Muslim is seen as a terror suspect, if not a terrorist. The infamous SMS which reads thus, “Every Muslim is not a terrorist, but all terrorists are Muslims,” had first made several rounds after July 2006 Blasts in Mumbai.

This has always been believed as nothing but the gospel truth. The implicit message among a major section of the public is that every Muslim is a potential terrorist, regardless of whether he is a believer, an agnostic or an atheist.  Take the case of Shaina K K, a journalist and a declared agnostic, while receiving an award recently had to comment with the following words, “See, I happen to be a Muslim, but I am not a terrorist”.

The clarification was given because of the feeling that if one belonged to the minority community, they would but be profiled. Shahina has a personal experience of it, so she would know. She has been falsely framed for ‘intimidating’ witnesses in the Abdul Nasir Madani case. Her only ‘crime’ was that she investigated the case of Kerala People’s Democratic Party (PDP)  leader Abdul Nasir Madani, who is an accused in the infamous Bangalore blasts case, and asked the question, “Why is this man is still in Prison,” in the form of an article which appeared in Tehelka, based on the facts.

Madani had already spent 10 years in prison as an under-trail in the Coimbatore blast case of 1997 and who was later acquitted in 2007. It was only last month that Shahina managed to get an anticipatory bail, which put an end to her ‘underground’ life. Another Muslim journalist from Bangalore, working with a leading news-weekly was grilled several times in the same case.

In fact, this writer also had a similar personal experience but thankfully, to a lesser degree of threat to his life during a fact finding visit of Giridih Jail in the state of Jharkhand, in July 2008. I was branded a Maoist along with two other friends, and illegally detained for five hours by Giridih Superintendent of Police, Murari Lal Meena who is now being promoted to the rank of DIG, Special Branch of the Jharkhand Police.

Later I was informed by the PUCL Secretary of Jharkhand, Shashi Bhusan Pathak, who was the local organiser of the visit and had contacted officials concerned for our release, that Mr. Meena had told him, “Since the guy (meaning me) comes from a frontier area of Bihar which borders Nepal and has studied at Jamia Millia Islamia New Delhi, he is a Pucca Aatankwadi (Hardcore Terrorist)!”  He had also threatened to put us behind bars in the same prison without any hope of being bailed out for at least a year.

Implicating the Innocents

In the month of July this year, just a few days before the recent Mumbai blast, a Muslim photo-journalist of Mid Group, Sayed Sameer Abedi, was detained for taking innocuous photographs of a traffic junction and an airplane. He was threatened, roughed up and even called a terrorist because of his Muslim name.

Indian Muslims against Terrorism

According to a report in Mid Day, at the police station, when Sub-Inspector Ashok Parthi, the investigating officer in his case, asked him about the incident and he explained everything, emphasizing that he had done no wrong, he was told by the inspector, “Don’t talk too much, just shut up and listen to what we are saying. Your name is Sayed, you could be a terrorist and a Pakistani”.

The inspector also told him that he (the inspector) was asked by the seniors to inform the Special Branch and file all kinds of charges, including those of terrorism, against him (Sayed).

Unfortunately this is not limited to police and security agencies. The common men also somehow believe that Muslims are responsible for the all the terror strikes. They are the real culprits! This is not a new phenomenon.

In fact, it is deepening day by day. In 2001, I was on my way to Patna by train. I noticed an old man consistently asking a bearded Muslim youth in his teens for an English magazine that the youth was reading with much concentration. He politely asked the old man to wait till he finished reading the article. Unmoved by the politeness and angered at this rebuttal, he abused the youth by calling him and other Muslims terrorists, who were destroying India’s sanctity after having destroyed America.

He further voiced his prejudice by commenting that all Muslims belong to Pakistan and should leave for that place. I was a kid of fifteen and didn’t want to be identified as a Muslim, so thought it unwise to comment. Moreover, the matter had subsided when the youth gave over the magazine to the old man (which the old returned proclaiming unashamedly that he wasn’t literate in English).

I took this to be a matter in isolation, and tried not to give much attention. However, at home, I was faced with questions of a similar nature from a non-Muslim friend who enquired me about my whereabouts. He was surprised on hearing that I was studying at Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi, which he had thought to be a madarsa. Quelling his doubts, I told him it was just like any other University (Delhi University as example).     

I still face this question, time and again. It is almost like under living under constant suspicion. Thanks to our media and security agencies, which leave no stone unturned to prove this wrong despite the fact that over the years, it has been proved that Muslims have no monopoly over terrorism. In the last three years, I often ask myself the ask question, ‘Am I Safe?’ To be frank and honest, I doubt it.

The Climate Of Fear

I am not confident about whether I am safe or not.  However, my biggest worry is that the ordinary Muslim youth, who doesn’t have the network of people like Agwan or me, as they are in real danger. After every blast every Muslim youth fears that he could be next. They can be, in fact, are, easily picked up, tortured, packed and thrown into jails, sometimes even killed in cold blood.

In India today, to be a Muslim is to be encounter-able, to be constantly suspected of being a terrorist, to be illegally detainable and severely tortured, to have the possibility of being killed without being questioned, no matter whether one is a believer, agnostic or an atheist. Recent communal witch hunt in the wake of Mumbai blasts only proves that. And if that is not the case, why hasn’t a single non Muslim person, as named voluntarily by Swami Aseemanad, in his confession, detailing role of Hidutva outfits in several blasts?

Why have two of the prime accused, belonging to Hindutva outfits, of Malegaon blasts been granted bail while bails of the Muslims accused in the same case are refused time and again. How long will the Muslims of India have to bear the Burden of being a Muslim? People have started considering this (sense of insecurity) as a part and parcel of their lives.

I still have no answer to the question, ‘Will this never end?’ , once asked by a teacher of mine, when I informed her about the illegal detention of Mohammed Arshad, an Engineering student from Azamgarh who was later released. I can only wish my answer would soon turn affirmative!

[Mahtab Alam is a Civil Rights’ Activist and Independent Journalist based in Delhi. He can be contacted at activist dot journalist at gmail.com]          

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