Indian PM asks Saudi king to help stop Pak terror,

Islamic World News

Indian PM asks Saudi king to help stop Pak terror

NEW DELHI: India has asked Saudi Arabia to persuade Pakistan to stop using terrorism as an instrument to promote its objectives, in a significant move seen as aimed at leveraging the uneasiness of the crucial Islamic country over the growing collaboration between Pakistan-backed terror groups working against India and Al Qaida that has vowed to dislodge the rulers in the oil-rich kingdom.

This was disclosed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday when he said he had asked Saudi Arabia, a staunch backer of Pakistan on a whole range of issues including J&K, to use its clout with the rulers in Islamabad to get them to stop using terrorism to extract concessions from India.

Referring to his conversation with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Sunday, Singh said, "I explained to him (the Saudi ruler) the role that terrorism -- aided, abetted and inspired by Pakistan -- is playing in our country. And I did not ask him to do anything other than to use his good offices to persuade Pakistan to desist from this path."

Singh's remarks do not mark a break from the country's opposition to third party mediation. Yet, they take on significance because it is the first time that India has asked the Saudis, who have consistently championed Pakistan's cause in the Organisation of Islamic Countries and other international fora, to use their "good offices" with Islamabad.

http://newageislam.com/indian-pm-asks-saudi-king-to-help-stop-pak-terror/islamic-world-news/d/2528

Hindutva terror probe haunts Pune investigation, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Hindutva terror probe haunts Pune investigation

Praveen Swami

Investigators focus on jihadist groups, but some fear Hindutva group may have carried out German Bakery bombing

Key suspects in Abhinav Bharat’s terror campaign have never been held, hence controversy

Signs are investigation into German Bakery blast will take time

PUNE: Back in November 2008, as Lieutenant-Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit walked into a Nashik court to face trial for his alleged role in the bombing of a Malegaon mosque, Hindutva activists showered the rogue military officer with rose petals.

Last week’s bombing of the German Bakery in Pune has brought the ugly story of Abhinav Bharat — the Hindutva terrorist group Purohit helped found — back from the obscurity to which it was consigned by the Mumbai carnage, which took place just days after the trial in Nashik began.

In private, Hindus sympathetic to the ultra-right have been saying the bombings demonstrate the moral legitimacy of Purohit and his Hindutva terror project. Even as the police detained more than two dozen young Muslim men for questioning, some community leaders have been arguing that the bakery attack could just have easily been carried out by a Hindutva group.

Part of the reason for the controversy is that key suspects involved in Abhinav Bharat’s terror campaign have never been held. Jatin Chatterjee — better known by his alias Swami Asimanand — is thought to be hiding out in Gujarat’s Adivasi tracts, where he runs a Hindu proselytisation organisation. Ramnarayan Kalsangra, Abhinav Bharat’s key bomb-maker, is also a fugitive.

http://newageislam.com/hindutva-terror-probe-haunts-pune-investigation/war-on-terror/d/2482

Minister admits Islamic extremists who believe in jihad and sharia law have infiltrated the Labour Party, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Minister admits Islamic extremists who believe in jihad and sharia law have infiltrated the Labour Party

The Labour Party has been inflitrated by Islamic fundamentalists, a Government Minister admitted today.

Members of the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) which believes in Britain should develop sharia law have placed sympathisers in elected office and local branches of parties, an investigation revealed.

The covert campaign is part of an attempt at 'mass mobilisation' of voters by the group, which believes in jihad.

Jim Fitzpatrick, the Environment Minister, told the Sunday Telegraph the IFE had become a secret party within Labour.

He said: 'They are acting almost as an entryist organisation, placing people within the political parties, recruiting members to those political parties, trying to get individuals selected and elected so they can exercise political influence and power, whether it’s at local government level or national level.'

'They are completely at odds with Labour’s programme, with our support for secularism.'

Mr Fitzpatrick, the MP for Poplar and Canning Town, said the IFE had infiltrated and 'corrupted' his party in east London in the same way that the far-Left Militant Tendency did in the 1980s.

Leaked Labour lists show a 110 per cent rise in party membership in one constituency in two years.

A six-month investigation into the IFE and its political activities revealed it had 'consolidated' its influence at the London borough council of Tower Hamlets, which has a budget estimated at£1bn.

Other recordings by undercover reporters include leaders of the group saying they opposed democracy and supported sharia law.

http://newageislam.com/minister-admits-islamic-extremists-who-believe-in-jihad-and-sharia-law-have-infiltrated-the-labour-party/islamic-world-news/d/2518

In Kashmir, the price of peace isn’t right, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

In Kashmir, the price of peace isn’t right

By Praveen Swami

Nov 06, 2009

More than three years ago, Kashmiri secessionist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq made a dramatic admission of failure. “Our fight on the political, diplomatic and military fronts […has] not achieved anything other than creating more graveyards,” the Srinagar cleric said during a speech at a January 20, 2006 dinner hosted by the former Pakistan-administered Kashmir Prime Minister, Sardar Attique Khan.

Late last month, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram told journalists that he was committed to breaking the deadlock that has led to so many graves being dug since that historic speech. “We will consult every shade of political opinion,” he promised, “but it will be done quietly, far away from the glare of the media.”

Off-screen, as it were, the dialogue process is progressing. In September, highly-placed Jammu and Kashmir government sources have told The Hindu, the Minister met Mirwaiz Farooq face to face in New Delhi before the cleric left for an Organisation of the Islamic Conference meeting in New York. Neither Mr. Chidambaram nor Mirwaiz Farooq will confirm that he met the other, but authoritative sources said the two men discussed the prospects of the Hurriyat Conference bringing to the table a clear manifesto for talks. Mr. Chidambaram’s quiet diplomacy is not, as many media accounts have suggested, a radical departure from the past.

In November 2005, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Mohammad Yasin Malik was escorted by Intelligence Bureau personnel to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — part of a process of high-level contact that paved the way for talks between the Hurriyat and the Centre the following year. Later, in January 2006, National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan met Farooq Kathwari, a United States-based ethnic Kashmiri magnate with high-level links in Pakistan. Mirwaiz Farooq also arranged a meeting in December 2006 with N.N. Vohra, New Delhi’s former interlocutor on Jammu and Kashmir and now Governor.

http://newageislam.com/in-kashmir,-the-price-of-peace-isn%E2%80%99t-right/current-affairs/d/2059

Afghanistan: A case for more schools, not troops, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Afghanistan: A case for more schools, not troops

By Nicholas D. Kristof

October 30th, 2009

Dispatching more troops to Afghanistan would be a monumental bet and probably a bad one, most likely a waste of lives and resources that might simply empower the Taliban. In particular, one of the most compelling arguments against more troops rests on this stunning trade-off: For the cost of a single additional soldier stationed in Afghanistan for one year, we could build roughly 20 schools there.

It’s hard to do the calculation precisely, but for the cost of 40,000 troops over a few years — well, we could just about turn every Afghan into a Ph.D.

The hawks respond: It’s naive to think that you can sprinkle a bit of education on a war-torn society. It’s impossible to build schools now because the Taliban will blow them up.

In fact, it’s still quite possible to operate schools in Afghanistan — particularly when there’s a strong “buy-in” from the local community.

Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, has now built 39 schools in Afghanistan and 92 in Pakistan — and not one has been burned down or closed. The aid organisation CARE has 295 schools educating 50,000 girls in Afghanistan, and not a single one has been closed or burned by the Taliban. The Afghan Institute of Learning, another aid group, has 32 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with none closed by the Taliban (although local communities have temporarily suspended three for security reasons). In short, there is still vast scope for greater investment in education, health and agriculture in Afghanistan. These are extraordinarily cheap and have a better record at stabilising societies than military solutions, which, in fact, have a pretty dismal record.

http://newageislam.com/afghanistan--a-case-for-more-schools,-not-troops/war-on-terror/d/2093

The Rabubiy'ah Order: Its Aim and Scope by Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez, Books and Documents, NewAgeIslam.com

Books and Documents

The Rabubiy'ah Order: Its Aim and Scope by Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez

Chapter 13: Islam A Challenge to Religion

Capitalism is the oldest of economic systems. In course of time it was invested with an air of sanctity. People believed that it was the only system which was suited to "human nature. They could not imagine that society could prosper and flourish under any other type of economic organisation. The industrial and commercial revolutions gave it a powerful impetus and it reached its peak in the nineteenth century. When Capitalism was carried to the extreme, its defects became obvious and could no longer be ignored. No doubt, Capitalism has certain merits and, in the earlier stages of social evolution, it helped man to create civilisation and achieve a higher standard of life. It calls forth some of the best qualities in man, such as initiative, ingenuity, imagination and a capacity for hard work. But its weakness, which washes away all its good points, is that it overemphasises one factor of production, namely capital—nay, it gives all credit to it-—and fails to do justice to the other equally—rather more—important factor, namely labour. The result is that the bulk of the wealth produced goes to the man who contributes capital and the labourer has to be content with a mere pittance. Capital tends to accumulate in the bands of the few while poverty is the lot of the labourers who constitute the bulk of the population. This unequal distribution of the national wealth, a necessary consequence of Capitalism, is tolerated for a time, but, sooner or later, it generates class struggle and paves the way to the dissolution of society. Capitalism is based on two assumptions. The first assumption is that man has an inviolable right to the property that he has acquired.

http://newageislam.com/the-rabubiy-ah-order--its-aim-and-scope-by-allama-ghulam-ahmad-parwez/books-and-documents/d/1806

It’s not enough for Muslims to be revolted by terror, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

It’s not enough for Muslims to be revolted by terror

By Sultan Al Qassemi

November 29. 2008

The situation of the UAE is unique: its ties with India go back hundreds of years, and it is a country where the peaceful Indian community constitutes a majority of the foreign residents. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference, an association of 56 Islamic states, also condemned the terror attacks stating that “these acts of violence contradict all human values and can be justified by nothing”. Nothing is the key word here.

Since the evil attacks of September 11, moderate Muslims dread the news of yet another “holy attack” in which the name of their religion – which means peace – is used as an excuse for bloodthirsty savagery. In fact there is an unannounced air of relief among Muslims whenever perpetrators of violent attacks turn out to be from non-Islamic fundamentalist backgrounds. Such was the case during the Virginia Tech university massacre in April 2007 in which 32 mostly students were killed by a South Korean.

We like to remind others that like Rashid al Owais, Muslims are victims of terror, too. We also are mindful of other notorious non-Islamic groups that perpetuate violence, including Eta in Spain and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. The latter are responsible for up to 60,000 deaths and more than 200 suicide attacks, one of which took the life of Rajiv Gandhi, the then prime minister of India.

http://newageislam.com/it%E2%80%99s-not-enough-for-muslims-to-be-revolted-by-terror--/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/1037

Look who hijacked Jamia, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Look who hijacked Jamia

By Arif Mohammed Khan Posted: Oct 01, 2008 at 0033 hrs IST

During the war in Afghanistan, public expressions of solidarity with Osama bin Laden were made and posters in his support were pasted in the area by some self-appointed champions of Muslim interests. This was done despite the knowledge that Osama and Al-Qaeda were directly involved in Terror activities in Kashmir. I remember having met many Muslims from Jamia Nagar who expressed their utter indignation over the episode and felt sorry for not being able to oppose these undesirable activities.

In 1990, Prof Mushirul Haq, the vice chancellor of Kashmir University, was killed by terrorists in Srinagar. Since he was an old teacher of Jamia, his burial took place inside the campus. As an academician I had held him in great esteem and during the Shah Bano controversy had sought his opinion on several occasions. I went to attend his last rites and walked almost a kilometre with the funeral procession. After reaching the burial ground suddenly the lights went out and in that darkness I was attacked with an iron rod, causing head injury. Later, inquiries revealed that the students who had organised the blackout and attack belonged to the Jamaat-e-Islami. It is important to recall that the banned organisation, SIMI, was mostly manned by young activists inspired by philosophies like that of the Jamaat-e-Islami.

The other organisation with headquarters in this area is Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat. On the slightest provocation they would call for a boycott of celebrations of Independence Day or Republic Day giving rise to communal tension. It is true that on every occasion they had withdrawn the calls, but that did not help in lessening the tension.

http://newageislam.com/look-who-hijacked-jamia/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/833

To counter Simi, involve Muslims in war on terror, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

To counter Simi, involve Muslims in war on terror

By Joginder Singh

September 10, 2008

Simi (Students’ Islamic Movement of India), now a banned organisation, is a Muslim fundamentalist organisation which was founded in 1977. Its ostensible purpose was to "to educate and enlighten Muslim youth in India". Simi, in its publications, lists as its objectives the propagation of Islam and jihad for the cause of Islam. It claims in its literature that it wants to convert India into an Islamic land.

A recent study by two scholars from Oxford University says this is only part of a larger international trend. They have found that over the years, those with engineering degrees are over-represented in Islamic terror organisation. One of the 10 suspects arrested for his role in the Ahmedabad serial blasts holds a diploma in human rights from the M.S. University in Baroda. In the Jaipur blasts (May 2008), a medical student was reportedly involved. In the Bengaluru blasts (2005), the mastermind was an engineer, according to the investigating agencies.

Indonesia’s democratic miracle and its role as a beacon of freedom and hope in the Islamic world, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Indonesia’s democratic miracle and its role as a beacon of freedom and hope in the Islamic world

By Kishore Mahbubani

Thursday, September 18, 2008

There is also a strong Indonesian tradition of resolving disagreements through “musyawarah dan mufakat” (consultation and consensus). Of course, this tradition has not always prevented violence, most notoriously in the killings that followed the 1966 coup against President Sukarno. And ten years ago, during the financial crisis, violent anti-Chinese riots erupted again, causing many Chinese to flee the country.

Today, however, many of those Chinese have returned. In a remarkable development, Chinese language and culture, which had been suppressed for decades, is allowed free expression. By contrast, imagine Turkey, a more advanced member state of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, allowing free expression of Kurdish language and culture.

Indonesia’s record looks even more remarkable when compared to the United States. Americans explain their country’s democratic backsliding by pointing to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But Indonesia was attacked, too, with the bombing in Bali coming little more than a year later, on October 12, 2002. Despite this, Indonesia has consolidated its democracy. Indeed, in 2005 Freedom House declared that Indonesia had moved from “partly free” to “free”.

http://newageislam.com/indonesia%E2%80%99s-democratic-miracle-and-its-role-as-a-beacon-of-freedom-and-hope-in-the-islamic-world/islam-and-the-west/d/747

Plight of a Hindu family in Pakistan: Conversion losses, Islam and Human Rights, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Human Rights

Plight of a Hindu family in Pakistan: Conversion losses

By Irfan Husain

After searching frantically for the girls, they went to the local police station where the SHO put them off without registering a case. A couple of days later, they met the deputy superintendent of police for Clifton. This proved to be the only bright spot in the entire tragic episode, for DSP Raza Shah went out of his way to help. He forced his subordinates to file an FIR, and his intervention was invaluable in ensuring the safety of the parents. And just for the record, the MQM ‘sector-in- charge’ also lent them his organisation’s support.

On October 22, a police FIR for kidnapping was duly prepared, naming three young men from the neighbourhood as the principal suspects. Immediately, Sanno and his wife started getting threats from their neighbours. Earlier they had never had any problems, although they were the only Hindu family in a predominantly Muslim locality. But now, the same people were pressuring them to remove the names of the local boys from the FIR.

http://newageislam.com/plight-of-a-hindu-family-in-pakistan--conversion-losses--/islam-and-human-rights/d/793

Kashmir defines Indian identity, Islam and Pluralism, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Pluralism

Kashmir defines Indian identity

By Subramanian Swamy

The Pakistan army today, according to all informed sources available to me, has a majority of captains and colonels who owe allegiance to the Taliban and Islamist fundamentalism. In another five years, these middle ranks will reach, through normal promotions, the corps commander level. We know that the government in Pakistan has always been controlled by the seven corps commanders of the army. Therefore a Taliban government in Pakistan five years hence seems a highly probable outcome. Jihad, that is, war against India will be the logical consequence of that outcome.

Since the Hurriyat in Kashmir is an organisation that cannot go against Pakistan, India has about five years to prepare for a decisive and defining struggle with Pakistan. We must prepare to win it to avoid the balkanisation of India. We therefore should refute those Indian columnists, academics, and politicians who crave or preen themselves on being popular in Pakistan, by sounding reasonable and secular on the issue of Kashmir.

http://newageislam.com/kashmir-defines-indian-identity--/islam-and-pluralism/d/806

Ulema ask US to accept failure in Afghanistan, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Ulema ask US to accept failure in Afghanistan

The first demand is to announce US failure in Afghanistan; the second is to withdraw US and allied forces from Afghanistan and the third is to compensate the Afghan government for killing of thousands of people and damaging their houses and property.

“Let the Afghans be free and give them an opportunity to rebuild their country,” the Ittehad Ulema-e-Afghanistan said, adding that after US forces’ arrival and attacks in Afghanistan, the situation became from bad to worse.

It further said that jihad had become obligatory for all the Muslims whether men or women as the non-Muslims were trying to occupy Afghanistan and use it for their bad designs in the region.

The organisation said that atrocities have doubled after the US invasion on Afghanistan and vowed that through jihad they will free their nationals from the US and allied forces’ atrocities.

Source: Daily Times, Pakistan

http://newageislam.com/ulema-ask-us-to-accept-failure-in-afghanistan/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/390

Pak turmoil helps Al Qaeda tighten grip, train cadre, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Pak turmoil helps Al Qaeda tighten grip, train cadre

S Rajagopalan

"There are probably dozens of operatives the organisation has identified for operations. They speak Western languages; they have Western travel documents and experienced living and acting in the West," he said. According to him, the recruits were taken to sanctuaries in the tribal tracts of northwest Pakistan for training and indoctrinating and, in some cases, redeploying them. He reckons that most of the recruits are probably still in Pakistan "or to some extent in Europe".

On the whole, Gistaro believes that the Al Qaeda now has many of the operational and organisational advantages it once enjoyed across the border in Afghanistan, albeit on a smaller and less secure scale.

As for the probability of an attack on the US homeland, he admitted that the intelligence agencies were not aware of any specific, credible al-Qaeda plot. "But we do receive a steady stream of threat reporting from sources of varying creditability, which the US intelligence community is investigating aggressively," he said.

http://newageislam.com/pak-turmoil-helps-al-qaeda-tighten-grip,-train-cadre/war-on-terror/d/556

Message from the Bengaluru blasts, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Message from the Bengaluru blasts

By B. Raman

July 25, 2008

While timers were used to activate the improvised explosive devices, the explosive material used does not appear to have been of a sophisticated kind. Ammonium nitrate, mixed with a booster, was the preferred explosive in previous terrorist incidents, but one does not know whether ammonium nitrate was used in the Bengaluru blasts too.

Some TV reports speak of the possible use of gelatin sticks. If so, these blasts would resemble, from the point of view of the composition of the IEDs, the serial blasts in Coimbatore carried out by Al Ummah, a Muslim extremist organisation of South India, in February 1998 to protest against the alleged police excesses against Muslim youth after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Investigation into the Coimbatore blasts showed that Muslim youth had fabricated the IEDs with the help of explosive material stolen from the quarries of south India.

http://newageislam.com/message-from-the-bengaluru-blasts/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/308