'Hindu girl forced to convert to Islam, held in Pakistani madrassa',

Islamic World News

'Hindu girl forced to convert to Islam, held in Pakistani madrassa'

ISLAMABAD: A Hindu girl from Punjab province was kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam and is currently being held in a madrassa, leading Pakistani rights activist Ansar Burney said today.

Burney said his rights organisation, the Ansar Burney Trust International, had learnt that 15-year-old Gajri, the daughter of Mengha Ram, was abducted by a Muslim neighbour from her home at Katchi Mandi, Liaquatpur, in Rahim Yar Khan district on December 21, 2009.

Gajri's parents later found out that she was being held captive in a madrassa or seminary in southern Punjab and that she had been married and converted to Islam, Burney said.

The local administration is "refusing to respond to the abduction" of the girl, who is not being allowed to leave the madrassa or to speak to her parents, he told PTI.

Burney, a former human rights minister, condemned the forceful conversion of the Hindu girl and demanded her immediate release.

"Pakistan is a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which oblige authorities to protect religious minorities under international law," he said.

According to Ansar Burney Trust, on 21 December 2009 Gajri disappeared from the home of her Hindu parents in in southern Punjab.

On December 26 last year, the local police station in Gajri’s hometown received a letter with an affidavit from madrassa that said she had "embraced Islam and had married her neighbour Mohammad Salim", Burney said.

http://newageislam.com/-hindu-girl-forced-to-convert-to-islam,-held-in-pakistani-madrassa-/islamic-world-news/d/2773

India’s Composite Culture: Emerging threats, The War within Islam, NewAgeIslam.com

The War within Islam

India’s Composite Culture: Emerging threats

What Muslims Need To Do To Neutralise Them

By Sultan Shahin

“Principles that we practise in our day-today life constitute the philosophy of nature and is likely to be a more acceptable religious philosophy of the enlightened future generation. Except in the religious ideology brought by Muhammad, I do not see this aspect effectively and practically implemented and well entrenched. It is my humble assertion that, though Hindu Vedic philosophies are immensely beautiful, without the day-today practical applications and approaches of Islam, they (Vedic principles) may not adequately serve the humanity.”

One of the greatest Islamic scholars and mystics, Ibn Arabi, affirms in his masterpiece al-Fusoos his belief in the unity of all religions: "Beware of restricting yourself to one particular religion and disbelieving in everything else, so that great good would be missed by you, indeed you would miss attainment of knowledge of the affair in the form he is following. Rather be ready to accept all forms of belief. This is because Allah is higher and greater than to be comprehended by one belief to the exclusion of others. Rather all are correct, and everyone who is correct receives award, and everyone who is rewarded is fortunate, and everyone who is fortunate is one with Whom He is pleased."

It is hardly surprising in this backdrop that many Sufi saints in India, among them prominent names like Mazhar Jan-i-Janan accepted Hazrat Ram and Hazrat Krishna as Prophets of God as Allah has stated in the Qur'an that He has sent prophets to all nations in all ages who preached to their ummah in the local languages. Allama Iqbal, as is well-known, called Hazrat Ram Imamul Hind. No wonder students of comparative religion have discovered passages in Hindu and Islamic literature corresponding to each other almost word for word.

http://newageislam.com/india's-composite-culture--emerging-threats/the-war-within-islam/d/2545

Shah Rukh Khan sees no reason to apologise, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Shah Rukh Khan sees no reason to apologise

Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan has stood firm over expressing his disappointment that no Pakistan cricketers were picked for the 2010 Indian Premier League.

Khan owns IPL cricket team Kolkata Knight Riders and his comments angered Hindu hardline party Shiv Sena.

The party subsequently tried to disrupt showings of the actor's new film My Name is Khan in Mumbai (Bombay).

"I have no idea what I am supposed to apologise for," said Khan. His film is due for global release on 12 February.

"If I am in wrong I would like to apologise but someone needs to explain to me what is wrong," he told reporters in London.

"So many people's futures rely on (My Name is Khan). I just request everybody to leave the film alone and deal with what I have said as an individual."

Effigies of Khan have been burned in India and he has apologised to those associated with the making of My Name is Khan.

"I won't comment on this on a larger scale because it's not nice for a Hindi film hero who is thought of as a hero to say this, but it scares me to say anything now because the stakes are very high," he added.

"I am sorry to director Karan Johar and actress Kajol. I'm also immensely sorry to all the other business partners that - because of what I say and believe in - the film and their work is going to be affected. I have no idea how to change that."

http://newageislam.com/shah-rukh-khan-sees-no-reason-to-apologise-/islamic-world-news/d/2448

The outrageous murder of Sikhs by the Taliban, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

The outrageous murder of Sikhs by the Taliban

Tormented by Taliban

Let’s bring home persecuted Hindus, Sikhs

The beheading of two Sikhs by the Taliban in Pakistan’s tribal badlands is no doubt a ghastly crime which has understandably shocked the people of India. But it would be instructive to ask ourselves whether we expected the abductors of the hapless Sikhs to behave any better. Indeed, no purpose is served by expressing shock and revulsion at the Taliban’s gross display of inhuman cruelty; that’s what the adherents of Islamism are trained to do and that’s what jihadis indulge in for pleasure. It would be deceitful to suggest that the Sikhs were murdered because their families failed to pay the ‘ransom’ that had been demanded by their abductors. The abduction of these Sikhs (and at least four others who are believed to be still in the custody of the Taliban) was not what is usually referred to as kidnapping for ransom by criminals looking for easy money. What the Taliban had demanded — and continues to demand — from the Sikh community, which is a designated minority in Islamic Pakistan, is jizya, or survival tax (call it protection money if you wish) that non-believers must pay to stay alive in an Islamic caliphate. Since the Taliban’s ideology of hate extols the ‘virtues’ of puritanical Islam, it is only to be expected that they — as also the Islamic orthodoxy — should believe in the Quranic concept of dhimmitude and the right to treat dhimmis in the most appalling manner. We only need to recall the plight of the few remaining Sikhs in Afghanistan and the misery that is inflicted on Hindus in Pakistan. For further evidence we could look at Bangladesh where the Jamaat-e-Islami and its diabolical front organisations have targeted Hindus for atrocities committed in the name of Islam: The homes of Hindus have been looted, Hindu temples have been desecrated, Hindu women have been raped and Hindu men killed in cold blood, most noticeably when the BNP-Jamaat alliance was in power. The efforts of the Awami League Government to reverse the tide of Islamism are no doubt showing results, but a lot more needs to be done to restore a sense of security among Hindus and, in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Buddhists.

http://newageislam.com/the-outrageous-murder-of-sikhs-by-the-taliban-/current-affairs/d/2493

Sangh Pariwar demolished Sanatana Dharma, not just the Babri mosque, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

Sangh Pariwar demolished Sanatana Dharma, not just the Babri mosque

Listen to the Gita

R B Sreekumar

8 December 2009

Confirmation of the culpability of the sangh parivar, particularly its nucleus, the RSS, in the sacrilegious crime and national shame of demolishing the Babri masjid by Justice Liberhan, may or may not result in the prosecution and punishment of the actual perpetrators of the crime. The mosque's destruction, nevertheless, has inflicted unprecedented and unredeemable ignominy on the heritage of our motherland and the well-known syncretic ethos of Sanatana Dharma - popularly called Hinduism.

No jail term for the sangh parivar leaders would restore the image of syncretism and equal respect for all religions that ensured the embracing of all victims of religious prosecution - from Jews to Parsis, Ahmedias and Bahais. The sangh parivar has subverted the Indian ethos of tolerance.

Do the Hindu scriptures sanction the demolition of religious shrines of other faiths? The answer is a big ''no''. The conceptual and philosophical framework of Hinduism is enshrined in three treatises - the Brahmasutras, Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. Equal adoration of all varieties of divinity and paths towards God and the recognition of the right to salvation/liberation that all living beings have - including plants and animals - are deemed to be the most ennobling and elevating features of Hinduism. Ill will towards even non-believers is not permitted.

http://newageislam.com/sangh-pariwar-demolished-sanatana-dharma,-not-just-the-babri-mosque/current-affairs/d/2202

Minaret Less Mosques – Ban OR the Beginning of a Renaissance, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Minaret Less Mosques – Ban OR the Beginning of a Renaissance

By Syed B. Soharwardy

www.iscc.ca

Al Madinah Calgary Islamic Centre was established in 2005. It is located in a shopping mall. We purchased two shops and converted them into a mosque. If the sign outside the mosque is removed, no one would even know that this is a place of worship for Muslims. In less than five years our congregation grew from 27 people to almost 2000 people. We have more than 200 girls and boys learning Qur’an and Islamic teachings. In less than five years 23 non-Muslim Calgarians embraced Islam at the Al Madinah Islamic Centre. Every year hundreds of Calgarians; Christians, Jews, Atheists, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and others visit the Al Madinah Centre and take part in the Interfaith Dialogues. 99% of those who attend the interfaith activities at the Al Madinah Centre change their attitude about Islam and Muslims. Their misconceptions and misunderstandings about Islam are removed. They appreciate that someone has helped them in removing those fears and distrust of Muslims that the media tries to build every day. In Ramadan, every year for one month, more than 200 Muslims and non-Muslims eat together at the sunset time at the Al Madinah Mosque.

http://newageislam.com/minaret-less-mosques-%E2%80%93-ban-or-the-beginning-of-a-renaissance-/islam-and-the-west/d/2295

Indonesian lessons for secular India: insidious impact of Saudi-exported Wahhabism, The War within Islam, NewAgeIslam.com

The War within Islam

Indonesian lessons for secular India: insidious impact of Saudi-exported Wahhabism

By Sadanand Dhume

22 November 2009

If you had to pick the place in the Muslim world least susceptible to any kind of religious extremism, it would be hard to find a better candidate than Indonesia. The world's most populous Muslim country is on Islam's eastern edge, separated from the faith's Arabian birthplace by space and time. Islam washed up in the archipelago in the 12th century, took root in the 15th and became dominant as late as the 17th. For the most part, it arrived through trade rather than conquest, by Indian dhow rather than Arab charger. It was preceded by more than a millennium of Hinduism and Buddhism, whose achievements included Borobudur, a massive 9th-century Buddhist stupa.

As the anthropologist Clifford Geertz wrote in comparing Indonesia to Morocco: "In Indonesia Islam did not construct a civilization, it appropriated one."

In India, a strain of Islamic orthodoxy was sometimes in open conflict with Hinduism. But in Indonesia, the new faith sat comfortably atop a Hindu-Buddhist past. Like most Indians, and unlike the Arabs, most Indonesians continued to believe that there are many paths to God. Indeed, until recently, Indonesian Islam - steeped in a culture of music and mysticism - was synonymous with tolerance. By and large, the one-in-eight Indonesians who are Christian, Buddhist, Hindu or Animist, rarely faced discrimination, much less religious violence.

http://newageislam.com/indonesian-lessons-for-secular-india--insidious-impact-of-saudi-exported-wahhabism/the-war-within-islam/d/2123

Swami Vivekananda And Sri Aurobindo's Contribution Towards Regeneration of India, Islam and Pluralism, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Pluralism

Swami Vivekananda And Sri Aurobindo's Contribution Towards Regeneration of India

THE INDIAN MINDSCAPE:

Swami Vivekananda And Sri Aurobindo's Contribution Towards

Regeneration of India

By JAGMOHAN

Such stirring declarations, made by Swami Vivekananda, during his extensive tours in the country, generated a wave of self-confidence in the nation and also a will to stand up and be counted. An intellectual and spiritual environment conducive to the growth of the freedom movement was created.

Being a cultured savant par excellence, Swami Vivekananda did not denounce the western civilisation or the Indian baiters like Macaulay but showed them the deep chinks in their civilisational armoury: “You, Christians, who are fond of sending out Christian missionaries to save the souls of heathens, why do you not try to save their bodies from starvation. It is an insult to a starving man to offer him religion.”

At the same time in a dignified tone and tenor, Swami Vivekananda brought home to the outside world how superior was the pattern of Indian thought and how unique was the Hindu religion. In his famous address to the Chicago World Parliament of Religions, delivered in September 1893, he expounded the essence of Indian civilisation and culture with unmatched eloquence and clarity: “I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance... The Hindus regard all religions as so many attempts of the human soul to realise the Almighty, determined by the conditions of its birth and association and each of these marked a stage of progress. Every other religion lays down certain fixed dogmas and tries to force society to adopt them. It places before society only one coat which must fit Jack and John and Henry, all alike. If it does not fit John or Henry, he must go without a coat to cover his body”.

The impact of his speech was tremendous. Indian civilisation and culture was placed on the highest pedestal. So too was the prestige of Indians. This is evident from a comment in the American press: “We send missionaries to Vivekananda’s people. It would be more fitting that they should send missionaries to us.” Later, reflecting upon Swami Vivekananda’s visit to America, Sri Aurobindo observed: “It was the first visible sign that India was awake, and she was awake not only to survive but also to conquer.”

http://newageislam.com/swami-vivekananda-and-sri-aurobindo-s-contribution-towards-regeneration-of-india--/islam-and-pluralism/d/1132