Two Faces of India

The people who write these columns have never seen India, I mean poor India. There are literally 100's of million mal nourished Hindus in the countryside including tribal people and people of lower castes. But you will hardly ever see a mal nourished muslim in India. To say that muslims should share "BOOM" of India is so false, because it has already happened. They may not have high positions but they are traders. One can say they are still poor, but so are the hundreds of millions of Hindus. India is a very poor country. indeed. What Indian Muslims lack is the political clout because they alwys supported Congress party and they take them for granted as a vote bank by giving them marginal support when country's anger turns against terrorists. Unfortunately some young muslims are lured by Pakistan to do terror in India by giving them easy money, training ,arms and bombs to cause havoc all over India. This causes so much ill will against the Muslim community. There are few things Indian Muslim community can do is like policing trouble makers in their community..

Whilst it is an ideal situation to reach out to more people to solve the root cause of all issues, let us not forget one very important point. It is not only the Muslim community India which finds a large section of it left out of the economic boom. A very high percentage of all Indians (particularly from rural areas) - INDIANS (not Hindu, not Muslims, not Christians) have been marginalized in this boom. This is not the problem of corporate India but the creation of political India - whose aim is to keep such people behind so that they can be votebanks. Unless holistic education & development takes place, we'll keep providing causes for brainwashing and insane acts.

One thing that this shouldn't hide is the overwhelming connection of people of a particular faith (Islam) with terrorism. There are terrorists and extremists within every religion but the reality today speaks for itself on where most of them belong. I think religions also need to intrinsically look within themselves to see what they are teaching their folks. Whilst religion by itself is not bad, saying that my religion is the best and only way is just absolutely absurd. Those religions that proselytize and try to expand by coercion are at the root of this matter. We all need to look broaden our vision beyond narrow identities.

Am proud to say that I feel am first a human being, then an Indian, then a Hindu & all other identities come later. If this message can be conveyed in religious schools, we would be in for a better world.

The immediate solution is to make the message loud and clear that people who commit such barbaric acts and people who help them openly/covertly in name of religion/human rights are equally culpable as no situation is worth taking a human life other than protection of other innocent lives. These people should be punished and made examples as deterrents for people who want to follow this route.

Comments: Posted by Rufusinamman

Sameer! You write well but sorry about the analysis. Giving this outrageous and horrendous attack a sectarian flavor is unjustifiable. We are talking here of an institution of ???Terrorism??? which needs to be dealt vehemently irrespective of any caste or creed. It is mockery to say we react modestly and meekly to a catastrophic situation like this though it may be in name of God. It appears to be a very convenient way of giving it a name of ???Jihad??? or ???Khuda Kay Liye???.
All said and done but there is no question of bringing the muslim minority issue here or involving any religious sect at the cost of innocent lives we have lost in the combat for no fault of theirs???. Would like to add that I belong to no group or organization but just a reader with a passion to review and express my reaction to the article.
It takes me back to the response to 9/11 in the United States when the entire world became object of ridicule travelling to the U.S. I remember when one time passing through the security out of the 100???s of passengers just an old man of seventy and me were held back for investigation and treated with remorse just because the detectors beeped. It became a joke as just then a group of young men passed through the security effortlessly and later were found to be hijacking a plane???.. so, in this hi-tech world who blames whom has become the order of the day. Now we will have a hype of the security and every possible means to frisk and suspect all but the institution of terrorism appears to be one step ahead to shake us all and hope we can fight the challenge.

Thank you for this voice of reason in the midst of the jungle of thoughtless comment we have been hearing here in India. Among the forces of divisevness you have forgotten the most important one - the attempt by the Hindu fundamentalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, to push its one-point agenda of making Hindus feel that Muslims are in some way more privileged and consequently must be brought down a peg or two. As someone born and brought up in Bombay I know that the first time I realised anti-Muslim sentiment (though I am neither Hindu nor Muslim) was at the time the BJP began dominating the political discourse, and vandalised the Babri Masjid. For that act and for the two riots against the Muslim community that followed, one in Bombay and one In Gujarat, not a single person has been sentenced. To gain political power by deliberately fostering hatred against a community is despicable. Whether this has anything to do with the terror attacks India has been subjected to we will know when we CORRECTLY identify those responsible for the attacks and then use that knowledge in a constructive way to end them. Unfortunately the tendency in our country is to let problems fester and grow (insurgency in the north-east, the Naxals in central states, J&K) instead of getting to the root of the problem and solving it.

Unless the new generation muslims will learn that 21st century is different, that you will have to co exist with other cultures and you cannot be the masters all the time, the world is in for a bleak future. Try to understand that when billions of people belonging to various religions coexists, there will be problems and the way out of it is not going on rampage, killing innocent civilians and crying foul at the other religions when they try to respond with force.

Muslims should start adopting birth control, there by escaping ghetto poverty. Having 5 wives and 20 kids means more mouths to feed and fewer resources for rest of the world. Don???t be under the illusion that you will be able to rule the earth by out populating others. Please try to understand that Kafirs have equal right to live in this earth and earth wont be a better place unless you guys become receptive to modern ideas instead of endlessly listening to sermons from mosques.

I wont be surprised if muslims in USA will demand secession of Dearbon, citing discrimination by federal govt after breeding to a critical population mass in another 10- 15 yrs. You can call me a hater, but after co existing with muslims for 50 years in India, I am sure that a substantial majority of muslims will place their religion over their home country. Something is certainly rotten with the Islamic ideology, period.

To all the pakistani folks here.. why dont you contribute your money for betterment of your country instead of Kashmiri terrorists. Tomorrow they may visit your house , will rape your sisters and stuff grenades in your mouth. I guess, you will be eulogizing them and trying to justify their behaviour when that happens. For pakis, there are 2 kind of terrorists- good terrorists who kill Indians and bad ones who bombs Marriot. Moron pakistanis,wake up before the chickens will come home to roost. Stop being mouthpieces for jewish/hindu/ christian conspiracy theories !

india israel and america seem to be cornering pakistan into a unilateral conspiracy of 183 dead as if all the millions who died in iraq under american occupation were of no import as they were muslims ,

it gives the impression muslim lives are expendable if the terrorists are america or israel and india

india has been involved in state sponsored terrorism in KASHMIR ,WHERE THE INDIAN ARMY HAS COMMITTED NUMEROUS ACTS OF TERRORISM ,

yet 183 deaths of people which have not even been investigated yet are being made into a case against the kashmiri muslims who have been murdered and raped for 60 years by india

is there any decency in these claims when kashmir is being totally ignored with a population of 12 million muslims while 120 people are suddenly the focus of iattention

a truly pathetic human catastrophe where most probably the whole conspiracy was hatched by india and israrel with the blessing of bush administration

Sameer, I am suspecting your wrote this article to save Fareed's rear from getting smacked. His article implied that somehow if the local muslims did it, then it was understandable. You are doing the same. Either way, it is disgusting to preach the lies about India. Blacks in USA were in the same boat. Now they are venturing out of their own little self imposed limited enclosures, and they are doing well. Those who want to brood over the past history, will be passed over.

First, Muslims themselves treat their own very badlly. Example: woman not allowed to get education even though it is free. That is close ot 50% of the mulsim population. They have no basic social freedom as men do. They are baby machines, and property of man. The uneducated women raising kids. What do you expect? Second, the mullahs have convinced them with the help of crack claims of koran that paradise is around the corned if they memorize that book with no particular economic value over learning math, science or anything professional. Third, the mullahs are preaching as if the muslims are a separate superior class of people who are heir apparent of caliphate, and that is promised in koran. All they have to do is memorize koran, keep on beleiving that one day caliphate will be re established, and all the hindus will be wiped out. Under that illusion, they keep on making babies by treating their women like baby factories. India has done more than any country for muslims, including subsidizing haj. I do not get subsidy for making my yatra to holy places. I have muslim relatives, have higher degrees and technical education. They are enlightened, and do not give a crap about superiority or caliphate or any of that nonsense. They are engineers, doctors, CAs and entrepreneurs. They are in India, and scattered all over the world. They never complain about muslims left behind. In fact, they brought to my notice how many indians are left behind by pointing finger at the slums of hindus. So, when you write about muslims left behind, do not make it sound like there is some kind of grand design by India or Hindus to make sure muslims left behind. It is by their own choice. It is not just muslims. It is christians, hindus, budhhists, jains, and any other religion you can think of. Not everyone in any community is born to be rich, unless he or she makes an effort.

sameer is spot on muslims are not just treated badly they are burnt alive in gujrat as shown in a moment of rare truth even by bollywood in the movie -DEV

AS for paki army -i think the wog army has killed more then 200000 kashmiri inoocents in kashmir in last 20 years

so you got 12 indian punjabis and postured them as pakis to pretend it was an indian 9/11

shame on india for this clumsy pseudo conspiracy and do not try wolf like the lying little boy

check your own house before pointing fingers and what is all this fuss about 200 dead -are they anymore precious then the 200 who died in marriott in islamabad which could easily have been the work of indian and israeli intelligence with the blessings of america

Muslims are treated badly in India? Sameera you are not making sense. What has terrorists supoorted by paki army killing innocents got to do with muslims treated badly?

actually it is american ass which has got kicked by the chinese and russians in iraq and afghanistan and your ass can join that august club too with your credit crunch munch brunch in tow
i think the only terrorists in the world today are the obvious ones who have been responsible for killing millions of innocent civilians in afghanistan and iraq and will be remembered in history like the nazi regime and the inquisition ,not to mention the followers and imitators of modernist mongol hordes of the barbaric halaku khan ,any guesse who we are talking about

Kiyamat,
India had won three times in the past , even when US was your ALLY,,,,Lets see who wins this time when US is NDIA'a ALLY..LOLLLL...you make me LAUGH admist this horrendous article and postings...BAGEL BALLERINA..YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO DO BALLE IF YOU KEEP ON EATING BAGELS...LMAOOOOOOO...........

Kiyamat,
India had won three times in the past , even when US was your ALLY,,,,Lets see who wins this time when US is NDIA'a ALLY..LOLLLL...you make me LAUGH admist this horrendous article and postings...BAGEL BALLERINA..YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO DO BALLE IF YOU KEEP ON EATING BAGELS...LMAOOOOOOO...........

Where did these armchair Indian warriors get the idea that the indian military is so powerful and Pakistan's so weak that India can punish Pakistan? I suppose it must be from the same politicians that they want to lynch for cheating them so far. I think India is totally deluded in thinking that it will not pay a terrible price for going to war with present day Pakistan. In fact in Pakistan there is talk of actually taking over and ruling India again for another 700years

are these people for real

blame the indian muslims for burning themselves live in gujrat and tearing their own historic monuments down in india while the authorities watch the barbaric spectacle on television and state media

next thing i expect to hear in this place is the same rhetoric against muslims that led to the frenzy of the concetration camps in the nazi regime against jews -but i think there will be a slight but major obstacle in the path as it seems the villainous muslims have no intention of being gassed or slaughtered without putting up a fight and that is a major flaw that seems to be obscuring the wise vision of the ennobled self proclaimed democratic society
roll on the drums the mohawks are marching and whom do they see but the redcoats
fascists do not grow on trees but are born in western democratic society as witnessed in the last century too,


just like the nazis did the jews -next thing will be like