Council of Indian Muslims (UK)

M Ghazali Khan

Everyone has been taken by surprise by the unexpectedly impressive victory of Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party’s (Baja’s) poor show in recent parliamentary elections. These results have particularly been welcomed by religious minorities, specially the Muslims.

Aditya Mukherjee and Mridula Mukherjee

“Wherever they went, they had a sword in their hand. Their army went like a storm in all the four directions. Any country that came their way was destroyed. Houses of prayers and universities were destroyed. Libraries were burnt religious books were destroyed. Mothers and sisters were humiliated. Mercy and justice were unknown to them.”

Following wide press coverage of CIM Chairman Munaf Zeena’s letter to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and our press release on this issue, Ms Kate Dobbin of Dow Jones & Company has phoned Mr Zeena and informed him that the India Summit has been postponed. She has also sent an email that we are producing below.

Recounting untold history
By
M. Burhanuddin Qasmi

The First united War of India's Independence or the Indian Rebellion of 1857, as in the British records, also known as the Sepoy Rebellion, the Indian Mutiny, and the Sepoy Mutiny was a prolonged period of armed uprisings in different parts of India against British occupation. Small precursors of brewing discontent, as was the plan, involving incidences of arson in cantonment areas began to manifest themselves in January 1857. Later, a large-scale rebellion broke out in May that year and turned into what must be called a full-fledged war of independence in the country. This war brought about the end of the British East India Company's rule in India, and led to fidgety direct rule by the British government (British Raj) of much of the Indian subcontinent for the next 90 years.

By Arundhati Roy

The Mumbai attacks have been dubbed 'India's 9/11', and there are calls for a 9/11-style response, including an attack on Pakistan. Instead, the country must fight terrorism with justice, or face civil war

M Ghazali Khan

Reports of police torture of Malegaon blast accused are shameful. The notice issued by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to Maharashtra's director general of police and the chief secretary over the alleged torture of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur is a good beginning to bring law enforcement agencies to sanity. This probably is the first time in Indian history when any governmental/semi-governmental body has taken notice of police’s hitherto unchallenged and unlimited powers that have tacitly been approved and accepted by the society. Ironic, though it is that it took some members of the majority community to be arrested and tortured in police custody to give a wakeup call to the society.

By Mohammed Siddique, TwoCircles.net

Hyderabad: At first glance one can think of him as a college student, or a smart marketing executive or perhaps a call center worker. But Imran Khan today is none of them. His calm demeanor and occasional smiles are just a façade behind which he tries to hide his internal turmoil and agony caused by the events of last 16 months.

By Iqbal A Ansari

The political class in India and the governments have been treating terrorism as the major threat to the nation, whereas 'communal riots' are events causing some disturbance, which can be taken in national strides, especially as its victims are mostly minorities, i.e. "the other". Classifying and labeling of incidents of mass violence into ‘communal’ and 'terrorist' and unlawful use of force by the state being treated as mere 'excesses' has caused serious distortion in the attitudes of the public, and the policy-makers in India, which unless corrected, will continue to impair the capability of the state and society to effectively deal with all varieties of violence whose victims are innocents. It is well that the Administrative Reforms Commission's fifth report on Public Order as well as the Apex Court's observations twice in the course of hearing of cases of Gujarat carnage 2002 has characterized communal violence as a greater threat to the state and society than terrorism. Even more important is the linkage between them as definitively established by Justice Srikrishna Commission for the Mumbai serial blasts of March 1993 and by Justice Gokula Krishna for the Coimbatore blasts of 1998.The learned trial judge of Coimbatore blasts took cognizance of the targeted killings of Muslims by the police during the 'riots' in 1997, which made sections of angry, frustrated Muslim youth feel desperate, who having lost hope in the system, took recourse to terrorism.

By Razi Raziuddin

Scrutinizing and analyzing all the stories of the recent past regarding the bomb blasts and the police actions, an "image of perception" seems to be in the making in the psyche of ordinary and common Indians, that out there in the vastness of our Indian landscape (few or many) Muslims have embraced terrorism disturbing and destroying the peace and progress of India. From what we have witnessed it can be justifiably argued that the custodians of law and security agencies, under the rule of secular NDA government have been in the forefront in "implanting" this perception into the minds of Indian citizenry. The majority of mainstream and vernacular Indian media also appears to be hand in glove in radiating this perception.

By Md Mudassir Alam

THE CIVILISED society across the world hates terrorists for their misdeeds. Of course, the terrorists deserve severe punishment and need to be wiped away from the world. But sadly at present, the whole world is battling with the menace of terrorism. India too has become a hub of terrorist outfits and recently they attacked in the heart of the country - Delhi.