This Fire Needs to Be Put Out

Fareed,
I remember visiting the Gateway of India as a student on a field trip, we stood there watching the Taj with awe. Since then I have lived in many countries, I lived in Kano and there met muslims from different countries, africa, south, middle eastern muslims, wahabbi's,sunni's and shia's, we broke bread had conversations and talked religion, they trying to convince me that I could be a good muslim and I tried to convince them to become christians, we never had any ill fellings when neither succeeded in convincing the other to change their faith. I read the Koran, the Hadith's and learnt that of Islam as it was originally conceptualised and was impressed, sadly watching muslims around the world made me adhere stongly to my christian faith and values. The failure of rich muslim nations in the middle east to take care of the jamaat ( the muslims) in palestine, in jordan, in lebanon, in egypt, in north african muslim nations.
I noticed the same kind of corruption in Nigeria where affluent muslims like Isiaka Rabiu, the Dantata's take money from Saudi Arabia and set up maddrassa's where the d'alibi (students of the koran) were taught to hate the Harnna(kafir's) all non muslims are kafir, these students roamed the streets on thursday and friday soliciting alms, they would wash the coins saying that they were collected from kafirs and had to be purified. The poinft I am making is that in every muslim country there exists a marginalised group of the poorest muslims, who have no access to education. (only koranic education taught by an underpaid imam who get paid from the zakat his mosque collects so he teaches these children hate, spews hate on fridays after the afternoon prayer) There are riot in Nigeria every few years becasue a Imam urged the worshippers to go out and attack non believers. The problem is like any country the poor are used by polticians and religious leaders to fan hatred. So before you go about pointing that muslims in India are disenfranchised, marginalised, take a look at how Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, and other hotbeds of hatred managed to create a perfect brreding ground for hatred.
I end with what I told my Nigerian friend Alhaji Usman "If Allah hates the unbelievers(kafirs) and does not want them to exist he does not need men to do this for him all he has to say is " cease to exist " and there will not be a kafir in the world, until them we occupy Allah's, God's world and have every right to exist as anyone else, and the hatred shown to me is hatred shown to G_D. Please appeal to all the Jahils and those still living in the Jahilya, that even though enlightenment has come to them, they rob others of G_d's light through their actions.
man to do the

This is biased article! I donno why editors choose a muslim who leans towards supporting islamic terrorism to write this article. Can the author justify the killing of innocent people? Will he call this a freedom fight as they did in 9/11? Pathetic Logics

The hugely popular Bollywood film revived the Gandhian philosophy of offering the other cheek when slapped. And ofcourse flowers became a hot business to be in. This is different. This is war - and given the week kneed meek response, the perpretrators of this war become bolder with each outing. So bold as to sail across in dinghies, walk ashore, cross the street and hold the entire nation to ransom. The answer is simple - after sanitizing the hotels of the exremists India needs to do the same within its neighbouring countries.

No need to make excuses for Islamic radicals who came to kill and were filled with hate. The Moslem moderates around the world must speak out against this strange "us vs. them" mentality amongst some moslems..They want to blame everyone else for their woes and take their cue from intolerant Wahabi Saudis and other evil doers.

India sent a so called peace keeping force by first violating international law by dropping food by planes. Then Rajiv Gandhi gave the President of Sri Lanka an ultimatum. Either let us come in as a "peacekeeper" or we will invade. So it was a forced invitation. then the tigers turned on the hand that fed them. Killed Rajiv Gandhi and also killed President Premedasa and almost killed President Chandrika. If not for the Mumbai atttacks Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu was demanding that the Central Government of India again interfere in Sri Lanka. We are very sorry for the lost of innocent lives in India. But Congress- I wants Tamil Nadu support to win elections. Yes in recent times Indian Central Govt has stopped supporting Tigers. Also it is sad to see the so called "black cats" taking so long to deploy and it smells if utter incompetence in India's military apparatus. It took 10 hours for them to respond? Come on now no wonder the Pakistan base terrorists had such a freehand. Arms and explosives still flow from Hindu Tamil Nadu via fishermen and Vaiko openly support the Tigers.

Fareed, as a Sri Lankan, I can only feel sorry for Indians. But there is sense of Karma, because Indians armed, trained and financed the Tamil Tigers who also use terrorism in Sri Lanka. South Indian Hindus support the Tigers still. Tigers would not exist if India did not create them as part of the Indira and Rajiv Gandhi Doctrine. You are typical of Indians who glibly cry about Moslem Terror but ignore that the FBI has called the Tigers the most deadly terrorist separatist outfit in the world and India created it and hence India created 25 years of misery for Sri Lanka. Tigers killed top leaders in SL and India and even to this date India runs inteference. As someone who lost many relatives and friends to Tiger terror, I do not have sympathy for India's dirty games either.

wow.... I didn't knew newsweek has this many INDIAN haters...I need to keep a close eye on this gross misrepresentation of INDIA from newsweek...This what happens when weathly muslims from pakistan and all the oil money start going to controlling US press.All wealthy hindus doesn't even care about this injustice to INDIA. They need to start paying these money grubbing US press as well if they want to print any TRUE facts about INDIA..

By the way FAREED I never went to the Taj hotel because I was never that wealthy. My family and my uncles worked VERY hard to get us we are right now...they didn't go to complain at their temples and blow up people.

And now I realize I must work very hard to make name for myself and curb this injustice against HINDUS FOR LAST 1000 YEARS BY MUSLIMS FOR INVADING and OPPRESSING INDIA , THAN CHRISTIAN OPPRESSION. AND NOW MUSLIM TERRORIST ATTACKS AGAIN.

To continue the comment below. Its about time we the Indian take control of our own life and go into Pakistan and Pakistan controlled kashmir and destroy the training camps and madrasas that breed this hate and destruction of non muslims. Its freakin stupid.Every religion has the same values yet a few muslims have been allowed to preach hate and kill in the name of there religion and the majority of the peaceful people do not speak up.
We need to go into Pakistan,that is the only way. All they do is give lip service. They have not helped the U.S. capture any high level Queda members in all these years.We need to do this ourselves.No one is going to help India.We need to solve this problem once and for all. Let the army go in and take care of this. We also need to replace all these corrupt politicians in India. They are morons and I wish that they had been killed in the attack not the innocent and brave people.

Mr. Fareed,
The underlying cause is the Pakistani's government continuation of active support and training of the Islaimic radical elements.
The US made the mistake of going into Afghanistan and Iraq instead of attacking the mountainhead from where the rivers of terrorism flow.
It is now time for the coalition of free countries to get together and militarily wipe out this mountainhead of radicalism if the scourge is to be removed. Platitudes and talk of economic equality and opportunities can be meaningful only after Pakistan government can cleanse itself of the ISI influence and rides itself of political interference and control by its Army.

Why is it that every time there is a terrorist attack there is always talk of muslim opression and how they are fighting for survival? It is an insult to the people who were killed to say that these terrorists are fighting Indian opression. What opression? I am sick and tired of every muslim always bringing this b.s. excuse up.They live better lives in India then a non muslim in a islamic country.Its time India and teh world deal with pakistan problem.tha

lolook at

Mr.Fareed,
One is always surprised by the claim that somehow Indian Muslims are under-represented. This argument is completely fallacious for 2 reasons.
1. In 1947, some Muslims felt they would be under-represented in the new India - and created a new country for themselves, Pakistan. Some Muslims chose to remain in India. They therefore, cannot raise the old claim again. If however, they choose to leave India and settle in Pakistan, one has no choice but to let them go. Many of the majority community may feel hurt or feel slighted, but this is a pain best borne in private.

2. When we say 'under-represented', we need to ask, compared to what? How well are the Indian sub-continent muslims (i.e. the non-Arab Muslims) represented in the Arab states, Saudi Arabia for instance? This in fact, would be the 'ideal' proportion. If the Indian Muslims form only 1% of the Saudi Arabian Police, the proportion of Muslims in the Indian Police Force cannot be greater than 1%. I call this proportion the 'ideal' proportion, because Saudi Arabia is a theocratic Islamic state where non-Muslims do not compete with Muslims for jobs and such. India on the other hand is a secular state, where Muslims and non-Muslims compete for the same jobs. Thus the proportion in India would always be less than the Islamic ideal. Nothing wrong there, its a mathematical certainty.

The same argument holds true for rights.

It would seem that Indian Muslims are vastly over-represented in all services. Also, they get far more rights than what they would get if they were in Saudi Arabia. They get the right to own property and the right to vote, is it not?

So, what is the gripe about? I would really love to hear your argument.

General populace in India is contributing to the inefficient, corrupt, self centered body politics, for the last 60 years. Muslims (while noting outstanding exceptions like Dr. Abdul Kalam) unfortunately participate in that process and conveniently play the religion card and wallow in it. Religion is abused to perpetrate all kinds of atrocities. The one religion that has risen above this and has done a lot for common person in the main street in India is Christianity. Mother Teresa, a wonderful college and a hospital (St. Joseph's) in my home town Bengaluru come to my mind. My point is that religion can be used for the greater good and progress in society. Fundamentalists and extremists seem to conveniently ignore that facet of religion. Instead they and the politicians (of course, this is not sweeping generalization and there are exceptions) spend money and effort breeding hatred because it serves their Narcissistic desires and greed.
However, democracy in India has also done well for the population some times because of the politicians (let???s not forget that Pundit Nehru started, for example, the magnificent Indian Institute of Technology) and sometimes despite the politics (Mr. M.N. Narayana Murthy of Infosys). Pakistan, on the other hand, has not been so lucky for many reasons including one of the reasons that afflicts majority of Moslems in India ??? the tendency to wallow in religion. Moslems I know and admire in India and abroad have broken through that stereotype and they are so much better off for it.
In the wake of Terror in Mumbai, my hope is that general population in India and politicians wake up to the new global reality and rise above politics of personal gain and focus on politics for public good.
Jakeram

General populace in India is contributing to the inefficient, corrupt, self centered body politics, for the last 60 years. Muslims (while noting outstanding exceptions like Dr. Abdul Kalam) unfortunately participate in that process and conveniently play the religion card and wallow in it. Religion is abused to perpetrate all kinds of atrocities. The one religion that has risen above this and has done a lot for common person in the main street in India is Christianity. Mother Teresa, a wonderful college and a hospital (St. Joseph's) in my home town Bengaluru come to my mind. My point is that religion can be used for the greater good and progress in society. Fundamentalists and extremists seem to conveniently ignore that facet of religion. Instead they and the politicians (of course, this is not sweeping generalization and there are exceptions) spend money and effort breeding hatred because it serves their Narcissistic desires and greed.
However, democracy in India has also done well for the population some times because of the politicians (let???s not forget that Pundit Nehru started, for example, the magnificent Indian Institute of Technology) and sometimes despite the politics (Mr. M.N. Narayana Murthy of Infosys). Pakistan, on the other hand, has not been so lucky for many reasons including one of the reasons that afflicts majority of Moslems in India ??? the tendency to wallow in religion. I personally know and admire many Moslems in India and abroad who have broken through that stereotype and are so much better off for it.
In the wake of Terror in Mumbai, my hope is that general population in India and politicians wake up to the new global reality and rise above politics of personal gain and focus on politics for public good.
J. Ramaswamy

Muslims left behind in the economic boom is their own fault as is of those Hindus left behind. Let us examine the progress of the Indians in this country, muslims and hindus. Unlike blacks, we decided to propel ourselves forward by fully exploiting the system and the opportunities of this country. Same about the Indians in India. I know an untouchable who started his own company with the help of the small scale government org, and is now responbible for the maintenence of several buildings in New Delhi. He took the risk, and got on the right path. I know of a muslim who got technical training and got his optician business going in Vadodara. He did not wait. He in turn has helped Hindus and muslims to start satellite business. I am not buying into your illogical argument that muslims are left behind. Besides, since the childhood days, the muslims are brainwashed to believe the virtues of Caliphate, the era of conquest, suffering, mayhem and cruelty. Some muslims like Osama fantasize going back to those days. They will sympathize with Pakistan wihtou knowing what a broken state that is.

Yeah right! Zakaria should postpone his visit by at least a year or two because that's how long it'll take to bring the Taj Mahal Hotel back to life. It was not a brick-and-mortar edifice but a heritage building with extensive woodwork, and only national archaeologists can help restore the place.

But I agree with his statements. It's hard to paint things in black and white - a lot Muslims are loyal to the Indian state. But it remains that large numbers of Muslims are sympathetic towards Pakistan. When I was in school, aged 12, I had a junior, a Muslim child who always spoke about Pakistan's armed forces as if he was talking about his own country. Right through my childhood and college days I've met Muslim boys who blatantly declared they were willing to take up jihad if their religion was threatened.

India should sanitise Muslim neighbourhoods countrywide like they did in Punjab. Punjab was a hotbed of terrorism in the 1980s but even these ferocious people were tamed by a show-no-mercy policy that targetted terrorists and their families. If they kidnapped a cop, they were told that their mother was being held in the police station. These so-called ferocious terror mongers were reduced to whimpering mass of hair when they heard their mother was a hostage with a police force known for its raw brutality. Yes, Amnesty won't approve of it but hey, THERE IS NO TERRORISM IN PUNJAB TODAY.

Unless Fareed and the Muslim intelligentsia stop the whining while explaining the problem and then using "BUT" to rationalize the islamic terrorists actions, (as Tom Friedman has pointed out in his book lexus and olive tree) , there will never be a Middle class Muslim Society anywhere. In India there are not just Hindus, Muslim, Chrisians. THere are umpteen groups which are not represented but part of society , but do not go on to kill innocent people. Mr. Fareed, you should be ashamed. As one with Indian background in USA, I was proud of you till you showed your true colors.

Unless Fareed and the Muslim intelligentsia stop the whining while explaining the problem and then using "BUT" to rationalize the islamic terrorists actions, (as Tom Friedman has pointed out in his book lexus and olive tree) , there will never be a Middle class Muslim Society anywhere. In India there are not just Hindus, Muslim, Chrisians. THere are umpteen groups which are not represented but part of society , but do not go on to kill innocent people. Mr. Fareed, you should be ashamed. As one with Indian background in USA, I was proud of you till you showed your true colors.