New Age Islam Reflects The Strength Of The Islam That Is Universal, Letter to the Editor, NewAgeIslam.com

Letter to the Editor

New Age Islam Reflects The Strength Of The Islam That Is Universal

Dear sir,

I congratulate you on your effort to show the strength of the Islam that is universal, as opposed to a parochial one imagined by Hindus, Christians, and especially by many Muslims themselves. I think we all must educate ourselves - members of all faiths - on how we build a shared future for all of us. We must change our minds to get rid of irrational fear, to work together with all our fellow Indians to build a new India.

May your message spread among our countrymen!!!

http://newageislam.com/new-age-islam-reflects-the-strength-of-the-islam-that-is-universal/letter-to-the-editor/d/2171

India: Babri mosque demolition report debated in parliament, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

India: Babri mosque demolition report debated in parliament

Terming the Liberhan Commission report as "only a half-truth", Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday said that veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee was also responsible for the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992.

"Why was Atalji arrested (after the Dec 6, 1992 razing) if he was innocent? He was involved in all the meetings (leading up to the demolition). He staged protests at our home and office. How can you say that Atalji was not responsible for it. He has incited the feelings of people. He is not well and I expect him to get well soon. But as far as Ayodhya is concerned he was responsible," Mulayam Singh told the Lok Sabha.

The Liberhan Commission report, submitted in parliament Nov 24, had indicted Vajpayee along with senior BJP leader L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi for the demolition. The BJP had expressed shock at the indictment of Vajpayee.

"Right from the BJP to Shiv Sena, everybody was involved in that (demolition). This (Liberhan report) is only a half-truth. Was Shankersinh Vaghela not involved in it? Was Sanjay Nirupam not there? Everybody was there," he added.

"Had action been taken, the mosque would have been saved and communal harmony in the country would have remained intact," the Samajwadi Party chief said, adding: "The incident shattered national integration and fomented mutual distrust among Hindus and Muslims. This is dangerous."

Mulayam Singh also defended the firing on Kar Sevaks (Hindus who gathered for the Ram temple movement) in 1990 when he was Uttar Pradesh chief minister.

http://newageislam.com/india--babri-mosque-demolition-report-debated-in-parliament/current-affairs/d/2198

Muslims must denounce terrorists’ use of aggressive Quranic verses: Hindu forum, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Muslims must denounce terrorists’ use of aggressive Quranic verses: Hindu forum

“The terrorists’ claim is this: The Hindus are kafirs; the holy Quran commands the faithful to kill them; whatever they do constitutes religious war, jihad. So they are only obeying the command of Allah as proclaimed in their holy war. The Dharma Raksha Manch is extremely concerned at the religious motivation for terror. We are also concerned that the terrorists’ view of the Islamic holy text has the potential to motivate many fellow Muslims not only to support their acts but also turn them into terrorists. Despite this explicit and brazen invocation of the Islamic text for violence, the Islamic religious institutions have kept total silence on terrorists claim that their holy book commands them to kill non-believers. Instead, there is an attempt by some to explain away the phenomenon of terror as due to illiteracy, unemployment and other socio-economic causes.

“The Dharma Raksha Manch is of the firm opinion that Islamic theological institutions and their leaders owe it to their faith and its adherents to come forward and comprehensively deny, with an appropriate fatwa, as per Islamic tradition, the claims of the terrorists. But regrettably there is no such thought or move by Islamic religious leaders even though most of them have expressed themselves against terror and asserted that Islam is a religion of peace.”

http://newageislam.com/muslims-must-denounce-terrorists%E2%80%99-use-of-aggressive-quranic-verses--hindu-forum--/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/1189

Unity among Muslims and Dr. Zakir Naik’s Evil: A Point of View, The War within Islam, NewAgeIslam.com

The War within Islam

Unity among Muslims and Dr. Zakir Naik’s Evil: A Point of View

By Dr. Maulana Abbas Ali Naqvi

Presently, a conducive environment for Muslim unity is being prepared. At this crucial time, considering it the need of the hour, the broad-minded Khadim-e-Harmain Shareefain, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia has also taken initiative for this noble cause by organizing an international conference for unity among different “Maslaks”. The destabilizing forces have also become active to please their Jewish masters.

Such positive initiations had been taken in the past also but these attempts could not bear much fruits. The most important step in this regard was taken by Ayatollah Khomeini, a phenomenal personality of the 20th century. He had succeeded to a great extent in bringing the Muslims of the world at a single platform. Many Shia Fuqahas and religious leaders emphasized the need of unity in the past also but the greatest shortcoming was that it was initiated by the minority sect of Shias. If the minority says to the majority, “You are my brother”, it never has the same value as the majority saying to the minority, “You are my brother”.

If the Muslims of India say, “The Hindus are our brother”, it may be considered as a weakness, even if it is said with true love and compassion because the emotion of fear may be the stimulus behind it. On the other hand if the same dictum “You are my brother” is articulated by the Hindus, it will be considered to have some good intention and motivation behind it.

http://newageislam.com/unity-among-muslims-and-dr.-zakir-naik%E2%80%99s-evil--a-point-of-view/the-war-within-islam/d/1077

Geelani and his ilk misleading Kashmiris: The only kafirs in Islam today are those who call others kafir, Islamic Ideology, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Ideology

Geelani and his ilk misleading Kashmiris: The only kafirs in Islam today are those who call others kafir

By Sultan Shahin

Asian Affairs, London, September 2008

While there are Muslims, for instance, who would insist on treating Hindus as kafir (infidel), there are others who would insist that they should actually be treated as Ahl-e-Kitab, people bearing revealed books, a people who have a special place in Islamic theology and practice. It is one of the most serious and often-expressed grievances of Hindus that Muslims consider them kafir and it therefore becomes the religious duty of Muslims to either convert Hindus or kill them.

Disregarding the advice of some ulema (scholars) of his time, the first Arab to conquer parts of India, Sind and Multan made a good beginning, giving Hindus the same status as Ahl-e-Kitab, people with whom Muslims are supposed to have good social relations, including marital ones. But the question of the place of Hindus in Islamic theology has persisted since then. There are Muslims who have no reservations whatsoever in considering Hindus as Ahl-e-Kitab. In fact, anyone with any sense would see at a mere glance that Hindu scriptures are divine in origin. The question whether Sri Krishna, for instance, is an avatar (incarnation) of God or a messenger of God is merely an issue of semantics, though, of course, there are complex ideological debates over the issue. The important thing is that the message is certainly divine.

http://newageislam.com/geelani-and-his-ilk-misleading-kashmiris--the-only-kafirs-in-islam-today-are-those-who-call-others-kafir-/islamic-ideology/d/700

Kashmir: Ah, good old tolerance!,

Islam and Pluralism

Kashmir: Ah, good old tolerance!

By Shyam Kaul

Sultan Zainul Abidin Bud Shah (1420-70) is indisputably acknowledged as the real model of religious tolerance and harmony. Jonaraja and his contemporary, Srivara, record, that among the host of measures the Sultan took to alleviate the plight and sufferings of the Hindus, ruthlessly persecuted during the preceding regime, was the building of two temples near Ishbar and grant of rent free lands for their maintenance. Bud Shah made strict rules against cow slaughter and abstained from eating meat on holy Hindu festivals. He ordered the rebuilding of a number of temples, destroyed during the earlier regime. He forbade killing of fish in several springs, sacred for Hindus, a practice which, more or less, continues till this day. Jonaraja records that Bud Shah paid a visit to the "sacred site" of Amarnath while he was the Sultan.

In deference to the religious faith of his Hindu subjects, Bud Shah's noble deeds of rebuilding destroyed temples and building new ones, and granting rent free land to them, inevitably and instantly brings one closer to the turbulent scenario today here at home.

http://newageislam.com/kashmir--ah,-good-old-tolerance!/islam-and-pluralism/d/618

Al-Qaida tape urges Muslims to kill Saudi king, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Al-Qaida tape urges Muslims to kill Saudi king

29 July 2008, A P

CAIRO: An al-Qaida commander who escaped from a US prison has posted a web video urging Muslims to kill the Saudi king for leading an interfaith conference in Madrid earlier this month.

Abu Yahia al-Libi, who escaped from Afghanistan's Bagram prison in 2005, says "bringing religions together...means renouncing Islam."

Saudi King Abdullah sponsored the dialogue among Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists and encouraged all faiths to turn away from extremism.

But al-Libi says "equating Islam with other religions is a betrayal of Islam." He calls for "the speedy killing of this tyrant."

http://newageislam.com/al-qaida-tape-urges-muslims-to-kill-saudi-king/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/348