Drama at Deoband: Spurious claims of Indian Muslim leadership, The War within Islam, NewAgeIslam.com

The War within Islam

Drama at Deoband: Spurious claims of Indian Muslim leadership

By Yoginder Sikand, TwoCircles.net

9 November 2009

Last week, tens of thousands of men—this was a strictly all-male gathering—descended on the town of Deoband in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district to attend the 30th annual convention of the Jamiat Ulema-I-Hind, a leading body of Muslim clerics of the ultra-conservative Deobandi sect. Sources claimed that the gathering numbered over five hundred thousand, brought in from across India. Impassable crowds clogged the narrow, dusty pathways leading to the venue of the rally, and so, although I had travelled all the way from Bangalore to report on the event, I had to content myself by listening to the speeches relayed by loudspeakers while sitting a mile away, in the portals of the Darul Uloom, possibly the world’s largest madrasa and the nerve-centre of the Deobandi movement.

The event commenced with a maulvi reciting an Urdu poem extolling the sacrifices of the ulema of the Jamiat in India’s freedom struggle. ‘Were it not for us’, he burst forth, ‘you’—by which he probably meant the Hindus of India—‘would still be labouring under the yoke of the British.’ ‘We stiffly opposed the creation of Pakistan. We have sacrificed our lives for the country. We condemn all forms of terror. We love our India, whether or not you believe this’, he went on. The men sitting around me—dressed, like the rest of the crowd, in white kurta-pyjama, and sporting unkempt beards and white skull-caps—enthusiastically shook their heads in agreement. Like the maulvi-poet, they laboured under the burden of being forced to prove their patriotism, their anti-Pakistani credentials, and their opposition to terrorism—an unenviable predicament they were compelled to share with the rest of their co-religionists at a time of heightened Islamophobia the world over.

http://newageislam.com/drama-at-deoband--spurious-claims-of-indian-muslim-leadership/the-war-within-islam/d/2079

Arif Mohammed Khan defines terrorism, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Arif Mohammed Khan defines terrorism

While objecting to the Kashmir visit of Israeli General, you have said that "it only shows the utter bankruptcy of Manmohan Singh and Sonia Congress's internal policies vis-à-vis Muslims of Kashmir as well as mainland India". It is undoubtedly right of any and every individual Indian citizen to disagree with or oppose any decision of the government, but who has given you the authority to speak on behalf of Muslims of Kashmir and rest of India particularly when you are using the language of terror and violence.

The history shows that the Indian Muslims have already suffered enough at the hands of self appointed busybodies masquerading as champions of their interests. Kindly stop it. You can hold out violent threats or even make them a reality by shedding the blood of the innocent but do it as an individual and the law can take care of that but don't do so while pretending to be speaking on behalf of the Muslims of India. Make no mistake we are living in 21stcentury and no civilized people will ever allow their policies and actions to be influenced by such threats or actions.

http://newageislam.com/arif-mohammed-khan-defines-terrorism/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/736

Terrorism is no crime; it is an act of war, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Terrorism is no crime; it is an act of war

By Arif Mohammed Khan

We must also disabuse ourselves of the notion that all these terror problems have arisen as a result of the so-called unresolved Kashmir dispute. More than Kashmir, it was the creation of Bangladesh in 1971 and the surrender of more than 90,000 Pakistani soldiers that rankles the mind of the Pakistani military establishment. They hold us responsible for their dismemberment and humiliation and feel that but for India's intervention they could have ruthlessly suppressed the Bangladeshi disaffection and aspirations.

At the same time they are conscious of the result of three conventional wars and do not have the bile for another direct encounter. On the other hand, they can take satisfaction that by the stratagem of proxy wars in the guise of terrorism, they have been able to inflict greater damage on India. According to this strategy the action is directed at destroying India from within, which means using Indians to carry out the operations without risking their own blood and infrastructure.

http://newageislam.com/terrorism-is-no-crime;-it-is-an-act-of-war--/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/788

Trading with Hizbullah: Israel has had to free a killer feted as a hero in Lebanon, Barry Rubin, NewAgeIsla.com

Islam and the West

Trading with Hizbullah: Israel has had to free a killer feted as a hero in Lebanon

By Barry Rubin

Suddenly, memory transports me to a balcony in Beirut. The year is 1974 and I am looking out over the city next to my professor, the late Hisham Sharabi. With his sad face and sadder voice, Sharabi -- a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause -- told me that the terrorism used against Israel was shameful and some day Arabs should and would speak out against it.

He himself never did so in the 30 years remaining to him. I don't doubt his sincerity, only his priorities and the system imprisoning his spirit though he lived physically outside of it.

But what about those who are free, both inside and outside? Will the media and intellectuals understand not just that "terrorism is bad" as such but comprehend a massive cultural-political system that dare not break from it in a meaningful way, and draw appropriate conclusions?

On the contrary, they -- many don't but too many do -- often extol, sympathise, or apologise for it. I'm reading the great Shai Agnon's novel Shira, set in the 1930s. A Hebrew University professor who fled Germany has an article accepted by a European journal. Despite intense anti-Semitism, often supported by European scholars, Agnon concludes, "Scholarship has its own dominion, which villainous hands fail to rock." Alas, how hollow that rings today,

http://newageislam.com/trading-with-hizbullah--israel-has-had-to-free-a-killer-feted-as-a-hero-in-lebanon/islam-and-the-west/d/190

Globalists Create Wahhabi Terrorism To Destroy Islam, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Globalists Create Wahhabi Terrorism To Destroy Islam

by David Livingstone

Abdul Wahhab was the instrument by which the British were able to insinuate this vile idea into the Muslims of the Arabian Peninsula . Basically, Wahhab contrived the idea that, simply by the trivial act of offering prayers to saints, that their Turkish brethren had forfeited their faith, and therefore, that it was permitted to kill all who refused to adhere to his reforms, and enslave their women and children. But, that included the entire Muslim world, except for his small misguided band of followers.

But the Wahabbi movement was insignificant without the allegiance of the Saudi family, who, despite claims otherwise, were descended from Jewish merchant from Iraq . http://www.fortunecity.com/boozers/bridge/632/history.html Orthodox jurists of the time branded the Wahhabis as heretics and condemned their fanaticism and intolerance. Nevertheless, the Wahhabis then demonstrated their contempt for their pretended faith by indiscriminately slaughtering Muslims and non-Muslims alike. The Wahhabis then set about destroying all the holy tombs and burial grounds. They stole the Prophet’s treasure, which included holy books, works of art and innumerable priceless gifts sent to the city during the previous thousand years. The leather and gilt bindings of the Islamic holy books they had destroyed were used to make sandals for the Wahhabi criminals.

The Ottoman Sultan brought an end to the first Wahhabi rebellion in 1818, but the sect revived under the leadership of the Saudi Faysal I. The movement was then somewhat restored until once again destroyed at the end of the nineteenth century.

http://newageislam.com/radical-islamism-and-jihad/david-livingstone/globalists-create-wahhabi-terrorism-to-destroy-islam/d/7236

The Anti Terror Fatwa: But Who Is Listening?

By Salil Kader

This public denouncement of terrorism as anti-Islamic, coming soon after the February 2008 Deoband conference where a similar stand was taken sans the fatwa, also answers a question raised often from various quarters: ‘Why don’t Muslims condemn terrorism or do Muslims ever condemn terrorism?’ Though this question has been answered effectively several times at different fora, it somehow keeps coming back for revalidation. Probably those asking such questions never wait to listen to the answers and quickly pronounce the whole Muslim community guilty of not condemning acts of violence being carried out in the name of Islam.