cHindu celebrates Pak banning computers

cHindu celebrates the 1 day anniversary of Pakistan banning computers. The ban extends to sites like Facebook and Youtube.

Social networking website Facebook has been blocked in Pakistan for the rest of the month following a court order in the wake of protests over an ‘Everybody Draw Mohammad Day' contest.

Paki-lover SV said, no one should bother about Facebook as long as cHindu's website is available.

From Praveen Swami, with hate

The Hindu : Opinion / Leader Page Articles : To Bangalore, with hate

In 2002, a drunken New Year's fight in the beach village of Marad sparked off violence that lasted a year, claiming thirteen lives. Hundreds of Muslim families fled the area.

Praveen Swami has given a nice little twist to the Marad massacre to put the blame on Hindus and claim Muslim victimhood as the cause of jihadi terrorism. But the real culprits in Marad massacre are Cong govt and Muslim league. You can read a more detailed report at the below link from Indian Express.
indianexpress.com :: Kerala sits on riot report indicting Cong govt, Muslim League

Marad erupted again, much more violently, at sunset on May 2, 2003. Armed men chopped and hacked eight Hindu fishermen to death on the beach. One assailant was reportedly hacked by mistake in the melee. The killers then escaped into the local Juma Masjid.

The commission’s report notes the submission of then Kozhikode Police Commissioner T K Vinod Kumar that hundreds of local Muslim women converged on the mosque to prevent the police from entering it to catch the killers.

The link between Nazar and Marad is too weak and is just a wild speculation. But what prompted Nasir to seek jihad in 1991? "Er, he was planning ahead for retaliating against the Babri demolition", Praveen Swami would say is my guess.

For all the technological investments in intelligence made since the November 2008 carnage in Mumbai, the attacks in Pune and Bangalore have made clear that the police are yet to penetrate the jihadist cells responsible for the terror offensive from 2005 onwards — a failure that bodes ill for the future.

It is the same guy, Praveen Swami, who was saying that the police should spend their time investigating Hindutva terror groups. May be, this idiot thinks that the police can penetrate jihadist cells by investigating Hindutva terror groups. Such is the twisted logic of secularism.

Swami's Thesis on the Jaipur Blasts

Praveen Swami's write-up today on the Jaipur blasts has a disturbing ending. He says that the much publicized email is more than just a claim to responsibility.

It would be misleading, though, to understand the e-mail only as a claim of responsibility. Like a similar document issued by the Indian Mujahideen after the bombings of three trial-court buildings in Uttar Pradesh last year, the e-mail is — despite its crude style and poor spelling — a political manifesto.

Perhaps he is right but if reading the rest of the article, I get the impression that this manifesto is no different from the dozens of others published by various jihadi outfits. The recital of all the muslim grievances, real and imagined is the hallmark of all of these 'manifestos'. The last paragraph was what set off this post because Swami's conclusions are erroneous and worrying.

Finding the author of the e-mail, though, is less important than addressing the issues it has raised — and ensuring the Islamist jihad does not gain legitimacy because of the Indian state’s failures.

Wrong. Finding the author is important because if it is authentic as he says it is likely to be, the investigating agencies are likely to obtain valuable clues to solve the crime. And it is utterly naive to think that these issues he has raised can be addressed to the satisfaction of him or others like him who are drawn to this pernicious ideology. The reason the author of the email raises them may well be that he believes that while being sufficiently inflammatory, the Indian state has no satisfactory answers to them. Let us look at the evidence first.

At its outset, the e-mail links the attacks in Jaipur to the broader global jihad, warning the “USA and [Great] Britain in particular that [that] we Muslims are one across the globe.”

...Citing from the Koran and the Hadith, or traditions of the Prophet, the Indian Mujahideen argues its actions have theological legitimacy. Scriptural calls for forgiveness relied on by the Deoband clerics, it says, are only relevant after a decisive military victory. Dialogue, it continues, is futile: “there is no existence of compromise between a believer and a non-believer.”

...Islamic law, the e-mail asserts, allows the use of collective retaliation against civilians if they are infidels. Given that “a single [Muslim] home is attacked by thousands of [Hindu] terrorists, [a] single woman is raped by hundreds of men,” it becomes legitimate for “the mujahideen to go to any extent or use anything to crush the dignity and power of the enemy.”

The email seeks to link this attack to the global Islamic jihad. It insists that there can be no dialogue or compromise with the non-believer. And it asserts that Islamic law allows collective retaliation against civilians if they are infidels. Are any of these issues that can be addressed? Does Swami seriously expect India to capitulate or even negotiate with the enemy in the face of such demands? What is he smoking? All the examples of outrages against muslims it cites are past events that cannot be undone which simply goes to show that these organizations believe in and are determined to carry out such attacks anyway and are simply using all these incidents of communal violence to support their thesis. Organizations like HuJI and LeT existed long before the Gujarat violence and if not for this episode, they and others like them will find some other incident to take its place. While a faithful fulfilment of the state's obligations to do justice to all sections may help stem recruitment to such organizations, to believe that it can actually address such self-justificatory nihilistic baloney solely or even primarily through that means is to engage in self-deception. A global problem today, jihadi terrorism requires an aggressive attempt to combat religious bigotry and to closely monitor such tendencies through an elaborate and comprehensive intelligence network. Read B.Raman's column following the Jaipur blasts that points out some of the problems with our current set-up.

Slap in the face of ELM

http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/24/stories/2008022450190100.htm

It is fashionable for India's spineless ELM to "invent" " facts" justifying Islamic extremism. Till 2002 , every terrorist act was attributed to Babri Masjid - never mind the fact that the masjid came down in 1992 but Kashmiri terrorism started at least 3 years earlier. From 2002, Akshardam, Malgaon, varanasi, Parliament attack, IISc attack, Mumbai 7/11,Delhi Diwali Bombs, Samajhuta, Hyderabad Mecca Masjid bombs and the n- J&K terror strikes are all because of Gujarat! Not content with this, the ELM blames the "alleged" marginalization and neglect of the minorities , lack of employment and educational opportunities as the prime reasons for the "frustrated" (and innocent?) youth to turn to terrorism. By some strange logic, the Dalit and other socially backward youth - who too "allegedly" face similar hardships - never manage to get hooked to terrorism. It is only the poor and innocent minority youth. But will education and employment solve the problem and wean away Muslim youth from terrorism?

People like Yahya Iyash Kamkuttdy give the answer. An REC Calicut graduate, Yahya graduated with distinction in Engineering and was employed with GE. Why did he take to terrorism? What effect did education and employment have on his psyche? It has only made him plan heinous crimes with greater sophistication. What about the Glasgow bomber who was a doctor? Several of those arrested on terrorism charges hold post graduate degrees. Who is the ELM trying to cheat by suggesting education and employment?

Even if one were to accept the ELM's reasoning, how does it explain the spread of Islamic extremism from New York to Bali? It is an indisputable fact that this hydra-headed monster is a global phenomenon. Does the ELM say that in each of these countries the Muslims are marginalized? Isn't it ironic that people who float such senseless ideas are called "intellectuals" ? If Muslims are up in arms in every region of the world then there certainly is a problem that prevents them from co-habiting peacefully. Their retrograde customs, treatment of women, intolerance and their inclination to live in ghettos could be factors that prevent them from living in harmony with people from other faiths. Add to this a vicious propaganda of marginalization and the pseudo secular political class that merrily divides people for votes, you have the spark necessary to set the house on fire.

It is high time that the ELM stopped pandering to minority interests and start treating issues objectively. Every religion -not just Islam- has some historical reason or the other to be rebellious. Can everyone take to arms?By refusing to accept that certain Islamic elements are being unreasonable and unjust , the ELM is only running away from the problem. If it does not have the guts to take the bull by its horns, it may jolly well shut up and leave the job to more competent entities while it continues to lick the shoes of jihadis. By sympathizing and justifying extremism, the ELM is making this world more dangerous.