Why are Indian students being targeted in Australia?

January 31st, 2010

Why are Indian students being targeted in Australia?
By Lohit Shandilya

I have lived in Melbourne for over seven years and there is no doubt that the situation has changed for Indians here. Denying racism in Australia is like denying casteism and dowry in India. But there is more to this issue then just blaming the Australian government.
I would like to define the term which has been used again and again, “Indian students”. Who are these students and how are so many of them here all of a sudden? When we talk of overseas students, what comes to mind are students of engineering, bio-physics, medicine, MBA, PhD or some research work.

But this is not the case here. Unlike in the US or Britain, the majority of Indian students in Australia are enrolled in vocational courses in hospitality, cookery, hair design etc. I am sure this comes as a surprise to many, as it did to India’s foreign minister on his recent visit.

International students are worth $13 billion to the Australian economy each year. After coal and iron ore, education is the country’s third biggest industry.

But Australia was not a popular destination for Indian students until education here was linked to permanent residency.

Most come here to get residency and the easiest way to do so is by enrolling as a student in some course. There has been a significant increase in the number of vocational colleges and students, especially Indian students whose number grew a whooping 161 percent in 2006 and 94 percent in 2008.

Indians were 31 percent of the new admissions in Australian universities in 2008, according to the umbrella body Australian Education International.

There are people who lure students into this immigration racket via the vocational colleges. These agents promise them permanent residency and provide them admission in the cookery institutions run mostly by Indian or other Asians. They also provide them services of migration agent or lawyers, again mostly Indians.

These institutions are like cattle markets. In a class meant for 100 there are intakes of 500 students. Recently quite a few of these privately run institutes have been shut down by the government. There have been many cases where false documents were provided to get admission and later residency.

As a result, visa applications from India are now scrutinised more rigorously by immigration authorities, who have rejected 33.2 percent of the 21,120 student visa applications from India between July 1 and Oct 31, 2009, a considerable rise from 6.5 percent in the same period in 2008.

Most of the Indian students in these vocational courses come from villages and small towns, having taken large loans for the purpose and hoping to recoup the money by earning in Australia after gaining permanent residence rights.

From day one they start looking for work. They work as taxis drivers, in laundries, as security guards, petrol pump attendants and in call centres. Most of them are night jobs.

The desperate Indian students get the worst shifts and in shady locations. Being new in Australia, they don’t know which suburbs to avoid. While going for the night shifts they catch the last train, bus or tram. And they become easy targets. Muggers know Indians, being new to the country, are less likely to resist.

Also, a lot of Indian students don’t retaliate due to the fear that a police case might hamper their chance to get residency.

Friday and Saturday nights the crowds on the streets are high on alcohol and drugs and not at all friendly crowd. The Indian students have to deal with them in convenience stores, as security guards and taxi drivers.

There are also groups of teenagers of local and different ethnicity roaming the streets with pack mentality. They are always in good numbers and look for easy targets and assault innocent victims for sheer fun and to prove their machismo to their peers.

Even the cops stay away from them. There have been instances of abuse and assault on cops too. Indian students are among their easiest targets. The recent attack in Melbourne on the eve of Australia Day Jan 26 was by a group of four-six Asian teenagers.

So we can see the chain reaction: - billion dollar education business - mushroom growth in shady vocational training institutes to make quick bucks - poor loan-burdened Indian students desperate for work picking up risky jobs - easy targets.

The world is no different from a class room. The more you cry, the more you are bullied. Now it has become a fashion to assault Indian students. The more we react the more we become the victim. For the locals, bashing an Indian make them overnight sensations and they enjoy all the publicity and hype in the media. Even if they are arrested and charged the damage is already done.

But I am hopeful things will change, once the immigration slows down.

(31-01-2010- Lohit Shandilya can be contacted at lohitsinghster@gmail.com)

Controversy over Padma Bhushan

January 26th, 2010

US-based NRI hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal on Tuesday remained unfazed over BJP’s demand to the government that the Padma Bhushan awarded to him be taken back in the wake of his controversial financial dealings.
Chatwal, who was earlier chargesheeted by the CBI for an alleged $9 million fraud case connected with the State Bank of India, said he was thrilled and “grateful” to the Indian Government that after such a long time they have really recognised his services towards strengthening Indo-US ties.

“I have really no idea about BJP’s objection. I love my country and have been working for the past 30 years. I don’t care for the parties. They will come and go,” said Chatwal, considered close to former US President Bill Clinton and his wife and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

BJP’s Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde had written a letter to the President and Prime Minister expressing disapproval over the government’s decision to bestow the third highest civilian honour on Chatwal.

Munde alleged that due to Chatwal’s controversial financial dealings he did not deserve the honour and it should be taken back.

In the wake of the BJP demand, Congress said the Home Ministry decides the awards and they might have their reasons for it. Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed however said that in general the party wants these awards to be given to people who enhance its prestige and not to those with a taint.

Chatwal said he was grateful to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who has recognised “my efforts and services for this award.”

Chatwal is one of the 13 Non-resident Indians to be given Padma awards on the occasion of the Republic Day. He had recently announced that his Hampshire Hotels chain would set up 25 hotels in India by 2011.
see also:
http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/jan/25/sant-chatwal-rubbishes-concerns-against-him.htm

So many awards; more shame for US Malayalees

January 22nd, 2010

Why is this craze for giving and receiving awards among American Malayalees?
It has become like a virus in the community.
If you want to promote your friends, the best way is to declare an award.
Peter Neendoor in an article laughed at these calling for a ‘Kozhi Thooval Award.”
Unlike in earlier times, even in Kerala’s villages there are facilities to conduct a mini convention and awards event. So it is not a very expensive thing too.
How to stop this mania?

A year after, what do you think of Obama?

January 20th, 2010

A year after Barack Obama made history as America’ s first black president, US voters are less optimistic about his ability to succeed and no longer favour keeping the Democrats in control of Congress, according to a new poll.
The trends shown by the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll point to an increasingly difficult political climate for Obama as he hopes to push his domestic agenda beyond health care and to preserve his party’s majorities in the House and Senate.

The survey results show that Obama’s personal popularity remains high across a large swath of the electorate, but they also chronicle a decline in the high support for his agenda that Democrats enjoyed when he was sworn into office a year ago, the Wall Street Journal said.

Nationally, voters now are evenly split over which party they hope will run Capitol Hill after the November elections-the first time Democrats haven’t had the edge on that question since December 2003.

Moreover, Republicans are far more excited than Democrats to turn out and vote in November: 55 percent of Republican voters said they were “very interested” in the election, compared with 38 percent of Democrats.

The new poll shows, for the first time, a majority of voters disapprove of the job he is doing on health care.

Three-quarters said they liked Obama. But just 22 percent said they were “optimistic and confident” about his presidency-a 10-point decline from a year ago. By comparison, 27 percent were “pessimistic and worried” about his presidency, compared with just 9 percent a year ago, when many hoped he would lead the nation into an economic recovery.

Overall, 48 percent said they approved of the job Obama is doing, while 43 percent disapproved-about the same as last month but down sharply from approval ratings in the 60 percent range in his early months in office.

Perhaps most troubling for Obama and the Democrats is that independents are souring on them. That bloc backed Democrats in 2006 and 2008. Now, by a nearly 2 to 1 margin, independents said they would prefer Republicans to control Congress after November.

Still, distaste for Democrats isn’t translating into more love for the Republicans. Just 30 percent of voters felt positively about the Republican Party, compared with 39 percent for the Democratic Party.

Church portals open for Ayyappa devotees

January 15th, 2010

Church portals open for Ayyappa devotees
Alappuzha: A 16th century Catholic Church built by Portuguese missionaries in a coastal hamlet near here stands out as a model of religious harmony with a tradition of hosting Hindu pilgrims returning after worshipping Lord Ayyappa at the famous Sabarimala temple.
It has for long been a custom for the St Andrew’s Church at Arthunkal in Alappuzha District to receive the pilgrims, who take out their string of beads worn as part of the ritual during the period of vow preceding the trip to the hill shrine by paying respect before the idol of Saint Sebasitan.
During November-January, when the Mandala and Makaravilakku season of the Sabarimala temple takes place, devotees visit the sea-side church.
Traditionally, the pilgrims wear a ‘mala’ (string of beads) to mark their devotion and period ‘vrata’ or renunciation of wordly pleasures. Many visit the church to take out the ‘mala’ marking the end of their ‘vrata’. After removing the ‘mala’, the devotees take a bath in a tank in the church premises or a dip in the sea. The church also serves meal or snacks to the
pilgrims and arrange for lodging for those wishing to stay for a day or two.
Legend has it that one of the early priests of the church was a friend of Lord Ayyappa, the adopted son of the King of a small principality called Pandalam, now in Pathanamthitta District, Church Vicar Fr Pius Arattukulam said.
The visit of the pilgrims commemorates the bond between Lord Ayyappa and the priest, Fr Pius said. According to Parish records, the Church was built by the Portuguese missionaries, who came to Kerala in the 16th century following the arrival of famed explorer Vasco da Gama at Kozhikode on the Malabar coast in 1498. When the missionaries came to parts of Travancore they happened to meet a large number of St Thomas Christians.
Syrian Christians in Kerala claim they are descendants of the families converted by St Thomas the Apostle, who landed at Crangannore (now Kodungallur) in AD 52 to preach the Gospel. Though they had been following the faith for generations, they were not under the control of Vatican and its hierarchical structure till medieval period.
However, the Portuguese missionaries, mostly Jesuits, brought large sections of them under the Catholic structure and as part of the process built churches and sent priests to look after the spiritual needs of the community. As part of this process, a Jesuit priest, Manuel Texeira visited Arthunkal in 1579 AD and appointed Fr Gasper Pius as the vicar of the community in 1581. Members of the community, well-integrated in the social fabric, gained permission from Muthedath Raja to build a church with thatched roof and wood.
“It is said that the Raja visited the church on completion of the construction and asked the priest to retain it always as a House of God.
Since then, people professing all faiths used to visit the church to pay homage to St. Andrew, the patron of the parish.
“These historical facts and legends associated with the church show that religious harmony of the place could be traced back to centuries,” Fr Pius said.
After the death of the first priest, a new vicar named Fr Jacomo Fenicio, also a Jesuit, became the vicar of the church in 1584, to whom the legend linking Sabarimala and Arthunkal Church has been attributed.
“He was loved greatly by the local people and they believed that he had some holy powers to heal diseases. He was called Arthunkal Veluthachan (fair-skinned father) and he installed a statue of St. Sebastian in the Church”.
According to church lore, Fr Fenicio was a friend of Ayyappa. So devotees started visiting Arthunkal also after paying homage to Ayyappa. “There are records to prove that Fr Fenicio had deep interest in Hindu culture, rituals and martial arts like Kalarippayattu. He had also penned a book on those subjects in Latin. Though much of the rituals had been given up over the centuries, the spiritual bond between Sabarimala and Arthunkal Church is still preserved.
“The church authorities have not faced any objection even from the most conservative sections of the parish for giving space to the Hindu devotees.
The coastal hamlet is still a shining example of religious harmony in all its meaning. There is even a practice of organising joint cultural fests by the church and nearby temples in the locality,” Fr Pius said.

Our new generation: what happened?

January 13th, 2010

Drugs, gangs and bad friends. Some of uour youngsters have fallen to such vices. They drop out from school and become a headache to family.
How to prevent such things? What went wrong?
Write your comemnts and suggestions.

Marxists and god in Kerala

January 10th, 2010

Is it true that Kerala Marxists do not allow those practising religion in their fold?
Marx said religion is the opium of the mass. He also advocated rationalism rather than beliefs in religion.
But in Kerala, most Marxists go to church, temple or masjid and actively particiape in the activities.
Nobody objected to that.
But suddenly Abdullakutty and KS Manoj ex MP say that religion is not allowed in CPM. How far true is this?
When they joined CPM, they knew at least the basics of Marxism. Then why is the new revelation?

The Zachariah incident: shameful

January 10th, 2010

Writer theatened by CPI-M youth activists
Payyannur (Kerala), Jan 10 (IANS) Writer and journalist Paul Zachariah was Saturday night allegedly threatened by activists of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) - the youth wing of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) - after he made critical remarks against it at a function.
Zachariah told IANS that he was here to take part in a book release function and in his speech had mentioned the manner in which the DYFI activists had trapped Congress leader Rajmohan Unnithan with a woman activist.

“The meeting got over around 6.30 p.m and I had reached the hotel where I was staying. And around 8 p.m, along with few other friends of mine, I was about to get into a car to go to the railway station when a group of DYFI activists surrounded us and started abusing us,” he said.

According to the writer, they took away the car key and pushed him around, threatening him that if he ever dared to step into Payyannur again, he would not go back alive.

“I kept quiet and after showering us with abuses and heckling us, they left,” he added.

Zachariah is considered one of the state’s best known fiction writer and is recipient of several awards. He worked as a journalist in Delhi in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Speaking to a TV channel later, he said that he does not intend to file a complaint because he sees “no point in it”.

“One thing what we all learned is the real face of the DYFI. It has become more clear what they are and what stuff they are made of,” Zachariah, who is now a popular columnist, added.

Babu Suseelan on Muslim fundamentalists

January 9th, 2010

CAN MUSLIM FUNDAMENTALISTS BE MORAL?
by Dr. Babu Suseelan

All of us know daily occurrences of Jihadi terrorism, Islamic homicide bombing, beheading of innocent kafirs, and organized, repetitive, regular and predictable slaughter of Muslims by Shias and Sunnis in the name of Allah. In recent months we have seen Islamic bloodshed, mass murder, beheading, and homicide bombing in all countries with substantial number of Muslims. We have seen Muslims on a murder march shouting Allah Akbar in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Georgia, India, Philippians, Sudan and Chechnya. These are not a phenomena defined by the news media. Our judgments of reality based on daily occurrences tell us more about Islamic terrorism. Indeed, we take these destructive events for granted.
Beneath all the pictures and the prose on Jihadi terrorism, and Islamic violence, we are still struggling to understand what is going on in the name of Islam. With all the freedom to discuss the subject of Jihadi terrorism, intellectuals on the far left and on the far right (anti-Zionists) are holding on to vague ideas about why Muslims resort to terrorism. They are ready to parade and promote bogus theories of economic deprivation, lack of education, and political interferences. Bogus intellectuals, Marxist Academicians and mindless media pundits resist incorporating a truly accurate understanding of the root cause of Jihadi terrorism. They merely transform their distortions and false myths into a new set of myths and willingly accept distorted perceptions in place of reality. They are rewarded by Islamo fascists in ways which they never quite understand. It is with Islamic false propaganda in which they place their confidence about the root cause of Islamic terrorism. Their faulty perception and irrational analysis are not sufficient to answer the public questions, doubts and fears on immoral acts and destructive acts of Muslim fundamentalists.
The general public must first be redirected from their eagerness to believe in such bogus theories, phony perceptions, and irrational analysis or they will stumble from one set of vulnerability to another set of immoral acts of Islamic fundamentalists.
ISLAMIC MORALITY
Islam has a unique world view. Islamic closed paradigm constitutes cultural patterns, beliefs, moral values, and social norms shared by the people of Arabia during the sixth century. For centuries, rigid, authoritarian and dualistic Islamic world views have been shaping Islamic behavior. The Islamic closed channel thinking is reflected in varied Islamic expressions as morality, social relationships, interpersonal communication as well as their ethical acts.
Muslims have a sense of togetherness and a common identity. They have a conviction that they form a special group, as well as a sense of moral obligations and a set of beliefs in the Koran that holds that Islam is the only truth and non-believers are kaffirs. Practically all Islamists share the view that Allah is the best superior being, the one those non-Muslims should follow. Faith in Allah usually accompanied by the belief in subjugation of non-Muslims is natural, morally right and it is in the best interest of Islam to convert all infidels.
The Koran and the Hadith are two great driving forces in Islam both individually and socially. Islam provides a referent for the explanation of many events including ethical decision making, rituals, and socially unacceptable acts including oppression of women, hostility against kafirs, honor killing, and Jihadi terrorism. It constitutes a system parallel to and in many ways opposed to ethical philosophy, and rational-humanistic systems.
For a Muslim, his life centers upon Allah and all his actions bear identifiable relations to Allah. As such, Islam forbids critical thinking, moral reasoning, and freedom of the will for Muslims. Equal status for women, self-examination and the expansion of ethical reasoning are not allowed. Islam do not allow introspection, creative imagination, aesthetic creation, humor and artistic expression or search for the expressions of the infinite. Muslims are not allowed the possibility of intellectual and emotional satisfaction through ethical and spiritual life outside of Islam. Islamic institutions assume important role to keep a firm hand over its non-rationality and direct its forces to restrict individual moral initiatives.
Islamic fundamentalists consider Islam is a complete ideology related to all aspects of human nature concentrated on teleology, ethics, psychology and human behavior of all humans for all the time.
Islamic moral principles are a one-sided mechanistic, reductionist, non-compromising, and closed. The closed, rigid, pre-determined and non-compromising Islamic paradigm and moral directives tend to place Muslims in oppositional position in relation to non-Muslims. The reductionist Islamic morality carries the assumption that moral principles of non-Muslims are inferior and should be rejected.
For Muslims, moral directives of the Koran and Hadith are the expression of ethics in operation. Muslims decide plan of action on the basis of Islamic values. Muslims believe that only knowledge of the Koran and Hadith can help individual Muslims solve conflicts between social and moral norms that create ethical dilemmas.
Islamic law reflects the will of Allah rather than the will of the moral majority or the will of a human law maker. Allah’s will reflect in Islamic law and it covers all areas of life including moral behavior. In an Islamic context, there is no such thing as a separate secular or moral authority and moral principles. Muslims believe and follow shariah. Islamic shariah means submission. Shariah seeks to establish that Allah is the divine law giver and no other law or moral principle may exist but Allah’s law and moral directives.
Islamic shariah includes both ethics and law. The Islamic law does not allow behavior norms based on individual conscience. The doctrine of shariah and jihad are fundamental because these are based on clear and authentic verses in the Koran and Sunna and it is considered pivotal for Muslims until all infidels are converted and Dar-Ul-Islam is established.
Muslims decide their plan of action on the basis of Islamic values and morality. Islam impels all Muslims emotionally to perform human acts directed towards Allah. Historically, there has been a very close connection between Islam and morality. Muslims consider duties which are primarily directed towards Allah and actions towards fellow believers and non-believers are commanded by Allah. Immoral acts are practiced as moral duty such as slaughtering animals during Hajj, honor killing, Jihad war, beheading, limb amputation, stoning kafirs to death, Islamic feasting during Ramadan, oppression of women, child marriage and polygamy. These Islamic moral duties and rituals often lead to abnormal perversions and socially disastrous consequences.
Islamic religious practices frequently conflict with moral codes of many societies. Islam prohibits a Muslim living in a non-Islamic society to take moral action that may conflict with Islamic guidelines. Islam indoctrinates Muslims against the theoretical study of ethics, right civil conduct and moral action.
Muslim fundamentalists feel that there is nothing immoral about following the dictates of Allah or any immorality in forcefully converting infidels or issuing a fatwa against a kafir writing a book critical of Islam. Islamo fascists have no moral qualm in beheading an innocent non-Muslim journalist or hijacking a passenger plane in the name of Allah. Islamic fundamentalists committing immoral and heinous crimes against humanity should always weigh whether an action is morally right or wrong before the action is taken. Their commitment and love for Islamic guidelines cannot make a wrong action morally right. Even if Muslims are compelled to follow Islamic ethics that guide their actions, the difficulty remains regarding the need to compromise between their conflicting Islamic values to those of non-Muslims. Islamic fundamentalists should realize that knowledge of the Koran and the Hadith is insufficient in itself for knowing how to behave ethically. In this context, one is reminded of Kant who said that “morality….in no way needs religion for its support.” For Muslims, knowledge of ethics is needed for better moral action, not blind faith in Allah.
CAN A MUSLIM FUNDAMENTALIST BE MORAL?
In view of the differences between Islam and morality, the question may be asked; can a Muslim fundamentalist be moral? A Muslim can be moral without Islam. A Muslim can do moral acts without emulating life style of Mohammed or his non-compromising preaching. They should follow the voices of conscience and strive for morality, ethical action, and harmony.
Morality implies adherence to social norms, laws, and civilized practices rather than blind obedience to invisible Allah. Muslims who are obligated to Allah should not obscure their obligations to morality and commitment to great intrinsic value of humans. Islam rejects ethical principles and moral practices of non Muslims. Muslims seek answers by looking to and rediscovering irrational, outdated and illogical ideas and expressions from the past. Islam rejects differing world views, ethical philosophy and refuses to recognizes changes in moral perspectives which emphasize the interrelatedness of individuals and community and their mutual responsibility for one another.
The binary thinking and closed Islamic morality carries the assumption that non-Muslims are unethical, immoral and inferior and should be oppressed and forced to assume an Islamic identity. Non-Muslims are subjected to inhuman behavior as parts of a systematic destruction of kafirs. Islamic religious leaders promoting violence and terrorism against infidels express little shame, guilt, remorse, empathy or ethical concern. Jihadi criminals minimize or deny injuring victims by terrorism. They maintain feelings of uniqueness, tough mindedness by refusing to consider the feelings of non-Muslims. Muslims consider immoral acts and violence against infidels as not unethical but an opportunity to provide true Islamic awareness and a phase of Islamic identity development.
Do Muslims enjoy freedom? Freedom presupposes choice. If there is no choice, there is no freedom. Freedom is also not absolute. Ethics and moral action can exist only if freedom of choice exists. A Muslim or a non-Muslim can be moral if only he/she is free. Moral action is possible only if the freedom of the will and freedom of choice exist. In Islam, will of Allah is final and dominant. Islam has forbidden freedom of choice, critical thinking, rational evaluation, and moral decision making if it conflicts with predetermined directives of the Koran.
Philosophically, Muslims are unfree since they are imprisoned in the closed, non-compromising, authoritarian and reductionist Islamic dogma. Freedom also involves the capacity and opportunity to make moral decisions. Muslims are unfree because they are prevented or prohibited from doing conscientious moral actions if it conflicts with Allah’s will. Islam imposes inner limitations and Islamic religious leaders restrain them with external limitations. All these Islamic inner and outer restrictions prevent Muslims from doing conscientious acts consistent with social morality and ethical norms.
Islam teaches preconceived morality and fixed ideas about human relations and ethical behavior. Discrimination, prejudice, physical violence, and unethical behavior towards infidels are built often wittingly, into the very structure and form of Islamic society. Muslims tend to ignore unchanging Islamic values making them unfree and in moral blindness. They wish to remain ignorant of certain concepts and directives in the Koran that make them unable to make a moral choice without Islamic restraints.
Moral choice is possible only when one faces normal, better, acceptable and universally acclaimed alternatives. When the better alternatives are good, preferable and available, fundamentalist Muslims choose freedom from choice. Escape from freedom and freedom from choice enables Muslims to lesser, harmful and dangerous Islamic choices. They rejoice their unfreedom when compelled to act on Islamic directives which are morally wrong and universally condemned.
It is time for Muslims and non-Muslims to ask the following questions:
Does Islam assist Muslims in transforming themselves and the Islamic society so that Muslims can welcome universal morality, preserve freedom, and promote ethical conduct, peace and harmony?
Can Muslims generally pursuing situational ethics transcend the limited interests of the Islamic community?
Both the Koran and Hadith are deficient and inadequate to serve as appropriate theories of ethics for practicing Muslims faced with ethical problems and moral dilemmas. Both deal with judgments in concrete situations based on subjective perceptions of Mohamed. Mohamed made decisions dependent on specific situation at hand. Mohamed’s situational ethics was based on the uniqueness of each situation for the advantage of Muslims. Muslims consider Mohamed’s situational ethics is guided by Allah and is universal and non flexible. Islamic situational ethics prohibits Muslims from recognizing the existence of moral values and freedom of choice to take decision according to one’s conscience.

Muslims can be moral if they abandon their stubborn assumptions and question their absolute and monolithic norms.
Muslims need to follow the rules of civic law and universally accepted moral principles. Ethical decisions cannot be solely based on Islamic values the guidelines of the Koran. In conclusion, the question still remains: Why Muslims are afraid of freedom? Why are they unwilling to explore their moral decision-making processes?
And now US Global War on Jihadi Terrorism
What is wrong in profilining, searching, identifying, detaining, prosecuting and containing potential terrorists? We have to bear these intrusion for the safety and security and protection of our life. The root cause of these intrusion is Jihadis determined to blow up planes and kill innocent passengers in the name of Allah.
Meaningless and absurd thunder of the leftists, phony secularists and anti zionists and their lies are only to encourage Jihadis and their inscrutable ways. The hard left is worried about recent body scan, body search, and profiling introduced by law enforcement agencies. But they have maintained their silence on inscrutable ways of jihadi terrorists. Liberals have nothing to say about jihadis who advocate and use violence and terrorism to get what they wanted. Buring schools, buses, trains and hijacking planes were evidence that could generate the kind of action responsible government should take.

The time has come to insist that government officials put every law into action before jihadis do any more damage to our present life and future liberties.
What the phony liberals with their small-minds are trying to do is to bind us to inaction. Those who love freedom should work together and bear all burden to prevent Jihadis to exploit our freedom to make us unfree.
————————
From: ANIL K SARKAR MD
Subject: Moral Clarity
Old Testament or not, the Jews had no right to go to Palestine to kill the Palestinians and drive 750,000 from their homes to create Israel. God cannot promise His land to the Jews by denying His Palestinian children their homes and subject them to be killed. What type of God is this God of the Jews? It was an International Crime and nothing can be said to justify it. We had conflict with the Muslim world and may be conflict between the Muslim and non-Muslim world would come, but Israel and the Jews brought in this Islamic Terrorism, 9/11 and nobody knows when the nuclear catastrophe will come. The Jews took over the USA and made it its colony and the Americans their obedient SERVANTS.

Nobody in the USA would dare to utter a word against Israel and US foreign policy is made in Israel and the US Congress is only a sub-committee of the Knesset, as said by Mr. Paul Findley, an Ex-Congressman from Illinois. History will tell us that the Jews had been a CURSE to the world. I gave the only achievable solution, and if Mr. Netanyahu would accept it, Terrorism would stop today. Wait for more terrorism, you have not seen what are to come. I am the only friend the Jews could have and with my suggestions, SECURITY of Israel and peace would be assured and the Palestinians would be with us as friends. Want to know about it? Contact me.

Dr. Anil K. Sarkar
January 5th, 2010

Communalization of Malayalam media

December 25th, 2009

New Delhi: A group of concerned citizens yesterday expressed deep concern over rapid communalization of the mainstream Malayalam media in the recent time, citing news reports on Soofiya Madani, “Love Jihad,” Beemapally police firing and “Dalit terrorism.” They urged them to fulfill their role to check excesses by the state, and not to work as agent of communal forces.
Addressing a press conference at Indian Women’s Press Corps in New Delhi the intellectuals expressed concern over the mainstream Malayalam media reportage of the anticipatory bail hearing of Soofiya Madani in the Kerala High Court in connection with her alleged involvement in a conspiracy that led to the burning of a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus at Kalamassery, Kochi in September 2005. “Many of these reports bordered on pronouncing her guilt with complete disregard for judicial processes and the rule of the law.”
This kind of reportage can be understood only in the backdrop of a disturbing new trend in the Kerala media and civil society vis-à-vis representation of issues and concerns affecting religious and caste minorities, they said.
Dr John Dayal, Christian leader and Member, National Integration Council, noted Malayalam poet K Sachidanand, Professor Ramakrishnan of Jawahalal Nehru University and human rights activist Bobby Kunhu were addressing the press.
“Apart from vitiating the communal harmony of the state, this trend also encroaches upon the fundamental rights of people to fair trial, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of association, freedom to practice and preach a religion and right to equality regardless of caste and religion
along with other fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution of India,” they said in a statement.
They also expressed concern on media report on “Love Jihad,” Beemapally police firing and “Dalit terrorism.”
On “Love Jihad” they said: It was two cases of inter-religious love affairs that the media took up and blew out of proportion to create the bogey of “Love Jihad.” In both these cases, what was involved was love and attraction between Hindu women and Muslim men, which led to marriage and the
conversion of the Hindu women into Islam. Following this the mainstream media in Kerala went on a rampage, claiming that thousands of women were being lured into converting to Islam by Muslim boys who were doing this as part of “Love Jihad.” This led to Justice K T Sankaran’s remarks on “Love Jihad” and directions to the police to conduct investigations on it.
“This campaign not only vilifies women as being incapable of decision-making, but also portrays young men of the Muslim community as members of “Love Jihad” without any proper investigation or proof for doing the same. This regressive campaign was not stopped even after the Kerala
> police clarified that such a phenomenon does not exist. It has come to a temporary end only after another judge of the Kerala High Court put a stop to all investigations on the issue, saying that one could not target any particular community and that “inter-religious marriages are common in
our society and cannot be seen as a crime.”
The local media had earlier showed its biased attitude in Beemapally police firing case.
On May 17, 2009 six Muslim men from a fishing community were killed and 47 others injured (27 of them had bullet injuries) in a police firing in Beemapally. “But most of the Malayalam media observed silence on the incident while rights groups brought out the fact that it was extremely unjust and criminalized violence by the police and government suspended some police officers.”
Likewise the Kerala media created a bogey of “Dalit terrorism” after a murder in Varkala.
The Malayalam media coined the term of “Dalit terrorism” following the murder of a middle-aged man in Varkala regardless of the identities of the victim and the offender. They said the offenders were activists of a dalit organization then they published unsubstantiated reports about the existence of a dalit terror network. “This legitimized large scale prosecution of the organization’s activists and violent attacks on them by members of Shiv Sena.”
“All this shows the impunity with which the Malayalam media is treating issues related to caste and religious minorities. It easily communalizes every issue related to the Muslim community and works to spread hate and suspicion about them. Similarly, it also misrepresents caste issues and works to reiterate existing prejudices,” the intellectuals said.
Interacting with pressmen, Dr John Dayal said: Malayalam media resisted the might of Emergency in 1970s but today it has slipped into communalization. Minority communities are getting negative coverage in Malayalam media. He condemned media propaganda on “Love Jihad.” “Allegation that youth of a particular community are luring girls of another community defies known logic,” Dr Dayal said.
K Sachidanand, famour Malayalam poet and writer, termed communalization of the local media as crisis of faith. “Malayalam media is facing crisis of faith in secular ethics and principles. The Malayalam community is traditionally secular and believes in communal harmony but the media today is vitiating
that atmosphere,” he said. He expressed concern on sudden rise in sensationalization and communal reporting in Malayalam media.
“Bearing Muslim name has become a problem in the country. By branding an individual or community a terrorist, authorities are taking away all their human rights,” he said warning that “deliberate attempts to distort facts in communal news reports will destroy communal harmony.”
Prof. Ramakrishnan of JNU said: By such reporting they are creating a situation wherein Muslim youth can’t talk to Hindu/Christian girls. This will destroy communal harmony.