Security was tight at the entrance to Gate No. 7 of the Jama Masjid in Old Delhi, a 17th century mosque built by Mughal kings, and the venue on Tuesday for a gathering of Muslim leaders from across the country to debate the persecution of Muslims.
Police shooed away fruit vendors and cycle rickshaws spilling over from the crowded market nearby, while others stood around the metal detectors at the entrance while their colleagues cased out the giant white shamiana inside with sniffer dogs under the slowly revolving ceiling fans.
A full half hour after the scheduled time, when only the first few rows of seats were occupied, Maulana Naksh Bandi of the Jama Masjid began the proceedings, inviting various leaders to the dais, and declaring in Urdu: “there is no law, there is no justice for us. It is the rule of the jungle.”
Pausing to take a call on his mobile, and to recognise leaders who slowly filed in, some helped by their assistants, the Maulana said that staying silent would only lead to a more terrible future for Muslims in the country.
Bombings by suspected Islamist militants have killed hundreds of people in recent months, and Muslim leaders accuse the police of indiscriminate arrests of young Muslim men who have been labelled as terrorists and paraded before the media.
Next came Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari, influential leader of the Jama Masjid mosque, the largest in north India, who said Muslims needed to draw up a blueprint to deal with the circumstances, with even such practical solutions as legal help
for those being held by the police.
His speech, also in Urdu, was by turn fiery and angry, and at all times impassioned, its rhythym broken only by latecomers whom he acknowledged, and frequent shouts of “Allah-O-Akbar” (God is Great) among the audience who now filled all the seats.
I was struck by the anger felt among the listeners, the quieter ones of whom nodded in assent and said “beshak” (certainly); it was another sign of how communal politics was growing in India and of how Muslims are fighting to be heard.
As the sun travelled higher, glasses of cold water were passed around, but there was no cooling the Maulana, who accused the major political parties of trying to curry favour with the Muslims ahead of the 2009 election.
But Muslim leaders including the Maulana were equally political, said Seema Desai, an analyst at consultancy Eurasia Group in London: “Muslim leaders will be heard more than might have been the case in the run up to the national elections,” she said.
“But as long as Indian political parties think along communal lines its hard to see how long lasting solutions will be found.”
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Oh yes, Muslims and Hindus will keep fighting as usual, while the xians will quitely pump in billions and convert anybody who is willing to see his soul (either by greed or by misery). So stop acting like fools. All indians are brothers and should respect each other instead of trying to outgun each other…
Hope I wish if tihs was as simple as said….
- Posted by IndianMan….just went through the thread….so much of venom?why are we again falling in the same trap…..Do you all again want a partition of the country?
- Posted by salmanThis is totally gross..Muslim leaders should condemn the actions by the young muslims and should abide by the rules..They are more than welcome to leave the country if they do not want to contribute positively to the economy and the country..These leaders should be put behind the bars for the rest of the life for the inflamed speeches..They should realise that India is the greatest country on the earth and they are lucky to be alive in the country because of the religious tolerance of the hinduism but time taking it granted has gone..Wake up and work
- Posted by ak@rashmi
Well said Rashmi. Ditto my point.
@Syed Mansoor
You just showed how a typical muslims reacts, they point at bajrang dal and say hey they do it too you know.
Grow up. Terrorism is not an Indian thing. Every murderer should be hanged including bajrang dal activists.
Muslims need to do some sould searching indeed, not jst indian muslims but muslims everywhere.
Following religion by the book is distancing them from society.
- Posted by AHello Brothers,
- Posted by MuizullaThis is indeed a very serious and introspecting times as 20 years earlier there were wars,communal clashes prejudices and all hating stuff in all communities and nations, irrespective of religion.Those SIMI,RSS and VHP etc were all there.None of these groups were newly erupted.But in all why Violence at these scales.Murdering,plundering etc.Do lately humans have turned more cannibals.Bosnia,Iraq,Afghanistan,LTTE,B Odoland,ULFA,Kasmir,Kurds,chechenya,Irel ands Gujrat all these are latest 21st century Clashes,where people are more educated more advance.The Problem is every nation is led by Not STATSEMEN,LEADERS OR VISIONARIES but buNch of Plundering thugs whoe are selfish amassing wealth and leaving the societies to fight each other to distract.ISLAMIC Terrorism isnt any concept or Ideology.NO muslim Nation in past ever exercised it for any means.These are all Latest creation of REAL people WHO infact ACTUALLY CONTROL WORLD POLITICS.Taliban and AL-Qaeda are also not self erupted and not a Mainsteram ideologies and will not be succesful in future.
ALL EDUCATED WISE AND INTELLIGENT PEOPLE ARE JUST BUSY LEAVING THERE LIVES FOR THEIR OWN,IN COSY HOMES SATISFIED leaving thugs and illiterates to Plunder society only complaining we dont have control on time……..too late.
muiz
Well said Kabir. Thanks for highlighting the truth about the larger muslim community.
Muslims first job is towards their religion and claim that this country is not doing anything for their well being, before saying anything like that I would like to ask them to retrospect and think what their community has done very big to this country.
Coming to the “Hindustan” argument, yes Pakistan,Afganistan, Bangladesh were once part of the Hindustan. Muslim grow in numbers (at least 10 kids per couple)concentrated in one particular place and then fight for seperate country through Jihad (Terrorism). Thts how Pakistan and Banglasdesh is formed.Presently the virus is spread to Kashmir…then west bengal and UP….I think in the next 100 years India will be a Islamic country ruled by terrorists ( Like taliban and take this country back to 500 years.
Jai Hind.
- Posted by HariMuslims have been suppressed everywhere in world for so many years by others religions. It is now time for all Muslims to come out and conquer the world. Islam is the only true religion. Allah is the only God and Muhammad (Pbuh) is His prophet.
- Posted by Chengeez KhanTo the guy saying India is the name not Hindustan.. are you high? Hindustan was the original name (afaik, came from some arabian word).. and technically, even that wasn’t the name. There is no name for India so you can’t even call it India then. Genius.
As for those calling reuters to censor.. great job. Tells you how scared the people talking about ‘peace and love’ in this country are of truth. Hindus will sacrifice everything they have, even right to free speech and let these lunatics talk of freedom and ‘their’ right to free speech while we’re at it.
Yes reuters should moderate and block all comments they don’t want to hear, just like Times of India and the Hindu papers do on their site. Leaves a great impression.
- Posted by Nikhil SharmaIndia does not belong to Hindu, Muslim or Christian.
- Posted by IndianIt belongs to people who are born in this country.
The name of this country is India and not Hindustan, Pakistan or Kabaristan.
All religious fanatics please leave our country. We want to live in peace.
In case you don’t have any other place to live, then shut your mouth and live in peace and harmony.
Having gone through various comments, I am sad to see that communal hatred has burnt deep bruises into our psychology. As someone has rightly pointed, this is NOT a forum to abuse each other(and Reuters should moderate strictly). These are NOT times for making each other feel excluded or unwanted.
- Posted by Chaitanya SomanA third party (non-Indian) reading this blog will definitely feel it easy to take undue advantage of this situation (what we popularly term as “the foreign hand”).
Brothers, these are not times to inflict pain on each other (And I point a finger to all of us, irrespective of our faith). These are difficult times for our nation where we MUST unite and we MUST progress. I appeal to all real leaders - political, religious or otherwise to sit together and formulate a strategy for the social, economical and theological prosperity of our rich culture that has been famous for inviting and welcoming alternate thought process, alternate faiths, alternate paths to reach a common goal since the past 5000 years. Lets not be bogged down by religion, region, race, cast, faith, beliefs, orientations. Lets ALL come together and keep only one goal in mind - “Progress, Prosperity, Growth, Stability, Unity, Diversity, Respect, Tolerance, for each and every INDIAN”.
This is what the delhi bomber Zia-ur Rehman said …
“If Allah wants, I’ll bomb the market where my mother buys vegetables. She will be sent to paradise.”
“Whatever knowledge I have about Islam, I have no regrets about what I did.”
“My father told me I’m not his son. He doesn’t understand jihad for Allah, and nothing else matters to me.”
Some innocent man there
- Posted by RajeevRef:/indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.ph p?option=com_content&Itemid=1&task=view& id=16662§ionid=30&issueid=74&page=ar chieve
Where ever they are minority, they talk of persecution and scream equal rights and democracy! They then breed like sheeps and try to control the country! Terrorism are then publicly denied but endorsed in private! What about the Hindu minorities in J&K? What abt the Hindu minorities in Malaysia? Hypocritical dogs!
- Posted by WeArEiNdIaNsThe fact of life is that there are good and bad people on both sides.
- Posted by MkThe Indians have to understand that both the communities will have to live together. Peacefully or otherwise the choice is theirs.
Hindus will have to forget the wrong doings of the Past, such as Aurenzeb and help the Muslim community to join the main stream.
Muslim have to try hard to do so, they should mix with people and not live in so called Muslim areas, should mix with Hindus in festival, like Holi and Dewali.
I had a good Muslim friend, Engineer by profession, we always shared his joy on Id, but on Holy or Diwali, he along with his family will shift to some Muslim family and aviod these festivals. These acts creates a bad taste and many ordinary people will nor be able to tolerate this.
The politicians and religious leaders are and will always be there to exploit the people, it is us who have to bridge the wall by sharing each other joys and sorrows.
The religion should be confined to the 4 walls of the hose and should not come to streets. Respect others religion as you do for your own.
Om,
Probably you should stop driving too. The oil you put in your car is most likely coming from muslims.
Have fun.
Vipul
- Posted by VipulRaghav, how ignorant you can be mate?
If Muslims go to Pakistan/Bangladesh, why not all the Hindus go to Nepal or Sri Lanka and all the Christians can be sent to Vatican right?
Indians have the right to remain in India. And Indians like you should be jailed for passing comments like you just did.
- Posted by RanjitMushtaq Mahomed wrote “Do not display your ignorance by suggesting that the Mogul Emperors were propagating Islam by fire and sword, this is the western myth.”
What a joke.Mushtaq pretends that he didnt know that mughals massacred hindus by millions.Anybody who read the mughal’s own records like akbarnama ,babarnama will know this.
This is the problem with muslims.Never a muslim will agree that their religion is the reason for this terrorism and antinational acts.
Another muslim in this forum “Syed Mansoor” says muslim terrorists were caught swiftly.
This is a lie.
The terrorist group SIMI aka indian mujahideen were at large for 4 years after comitting bomb blastsstarting with mumabi.
But for the apprehension of abu basheer in ahmedabad blasts case recently the police were groping in the dark about the identity of terrorist group.
Again this same person is swift to make allegation of rapes in orissa without the conclusion of trial.
- Posted by rajeevThe famous jhabua nuns rape case which roiled the world media was proven to be the handiwork of christian tribals but the damage was done and many websites still continue to report this on hindu organisations.