|
|
|
 |
|
Ishrat's
sister Musarrat sharing her family's experience on the first day
of conefernce.
|
|
 |
|
The price
of being kin of 'A Terrorist':
When the nation woke up to June 16
morning in 2004, they were greeted by screaming media headlines and
photos of four 'Deadly Terrorists' and 'LeT operatives' lying dead
on Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway. One of them was Ishrat Jahan - an
undergraduate girl student of Khalsa college....
Read Full
|
|
|
New Delhi:
Muslim image created by Bollywood films and media is such that
either a Muslim would be Mafia Don or would be shown sacrificing his
life for the majority’s Hindu Hero. But seldom a Muslim who is a
professional and educated or a Muslim who does not want to live in
slums is shown, said Sohail Hasmi, Javed Naqvi, Shesh Narayan and
Mohammed Shoaib.
The trio was discussing the issue
related to the Identity of the Muslims in India on the second day of
the national meet in New Delhi on October 5.
The three-day National Conference on
‘What it means to be a Muslim in India’ has been organized by
ANHAD – a Delhi based NGO working for harmony and democracy.
“There is this stereotypical image of
the Muslim with beard, skull cap and shorter Pyjama who is a
Jihadi or a terrorist. Such a situation has arisen where Muslims
have to depend on secular Hindus to put forward their concerns. It’s
like to survive on the mercy of the majority secular voices. At the
same time, there is also a challenge of modernisation before the
Muslims”, they observed.
Taking the debate even further,
speakers also expressed concern to the fact that there is bias in
the reporting of the incidents vis-à-vis Muslims and Hindus if the
incidents happen to be similar. “While the Muslim accused and
victims would be addressed with certain kind of derogatory
connotation; the identity of Hindu the accused and victims would
always be concealed”, they observed and added, “Media portrays the
glamorised image of Jihad.”
Joining the discussion there were
other speakers who put forth their experiences on various issues
concerning the Muslims in India. The issues that were taken on the
second day were related to the identity of Muslims, hate campaigns
against Muslims, appropriation of the religious and cultural spaces
of the Muslims, negative and stereotypical images of Muslims created
by the media, discrimination against the Muslims by the law
enforcement agencies like the police and the judiciary, systematic
appropriation of Wakf property and Qabristans, failure of the state
to contain the organisations playing the communal hate card,
impunity and failures to implement enquiry reports and to punish
those guilty of communal crimes.
Besides these, the other issues were
rise and infiltration of communal crimes, attempt to ignore the
large scale terror links of the Sangh, cow slaughter as an excuse to
attack, discrimination during relief, rehabilitation, natural
calamities, emergence and the role of new age gurus, systematic
attack to break the economic backbone of the community.
“There are cases depicting that the
lands of quabristan were either encroached or if the Muslim
community demanded land for Quabristan then no concern was paid by
the administration. At some places in Gujarat and Goa, people
demanding land for quabristan were even forced to evict the place of
their residence”, speakers observed during the conference.
“In the name of cow slaughter, many
Muslims were put into the jail in various parts of India like in
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan Madhya Pradesh, Uttar
Pradesh to name a few. Issue of cow slaughter has been used to fan
the communal fire between the Hindus and Muslims”, they added.
The ghettoisation and economic
marginalization of the Muslim population were also the issues that
were vehemently raised during the conference. “Attempts have been
made by the government agencies to shatter the economic ties of the
Muslims, and also to keep the Muslims backward in education. The
educational institutions from the Muslims majority areas are shifted
to the other far away places. Due to that education of the Muslim
Girls is significantly affected adversely”, speakers observed.
An activist from Bangalore put his
concern about the hate campaign which is on rise in the state
capital. “Moral policing is used to control democratic, public and
cultural spaces. Girls and boys from the different communities are
not allowed to interact. Orders of the State human rights Commission
to contain such fundamentalist forces also has been overlooked by
the law enforcing agencies in Karnataka. Along with that there are
the attempts by Bajarang Dal and Rama Sene like organisations to
replicate ‘the successful communal stories’ in Karnataka”, the
activist observed.
On continuing communal violence in the country, noted lawyer Vrinda
Grover said, “There is no provision of prosecution of the police
officials if they are involved in perpetuating the communal
violence. System provides a blanket to the errant officials.”
She emphasised that the definition of
the communal violence has to be broadened to include persecution in
the name of terrorism and encounters.
|
Interfaith dialogue to strengthen the world peace and stability, Al-Turki
Skilled Hands converting couplets 
"
Young Achiever - Misbah Ahmed: 
Comment on this article