Lucknow: Deobandi and Barelvi Sunni sects battle over religious sites, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Lucknow: Deobandi and Barelvi Sunni sects battle over religious sites

Lucknow: The age-old animosity between Deobandi and Barelvi schools of thought among Sunni Muslims resurfaced in Uttar Pradesh with moderate Barelvis serving an ultimatum to hardline Deobandis to give up control over Muslim religious places during a Sunni conference.

The fight is over control of over a lakh madrassas, dargahs, graveyards and other monuments. Under the control of the Sunni Waqf board, these properties in UP alone are worth at least Rs 10,000 crore. The figure would be substantially higher if properties in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab, West Bengal, Bihar, MP and Chhattisgarh were to be included.

A demand to free all ‘idaaras’ (religious places) from ‘wahabis’ — read Deobandis — was raised at the conference hosted by All-India Ulema Mashaikh Board in Moradabad last Sunday. ‘13% minority hijacking all bodies’

Lucknow: Animosity between Deobandi and Barelvi schools of thought among Sunni Muslims resurfaced in UP with moderate Barelvis serving an ultimatum to hardline Deobandis to give up control over Muslim religious places during a Sunni conference.

General secretary of the board, Maulana Syed Mohammad Ashraf Kichowchhwi, accused the ‘‘13% minuscule, manipulative minority with hijacking all minorities bodies in UP and the national level’’.

Talking to TOI, Maulana Kichowchhwi said this was a fight between moderates and hardliners. ‘‘Since the latter do not have faith in patron saints of ‘dargah’ or ‘mazar’ and have condemned the practice, logically they must not be considered for management of Ajmer Sharif or Deva Sharif. The government must ensure that the chairperson and members of the Sunni Waqf Board come from among 80% of the population of moderate Muslims who follow the Sufi tradition,’’ he said. The Sunni Conference, a Deobandi cleric said, could be just a pressure tactic to influence the Mayawati government.

http://newageislam.com/lucknow--deobandi-and-barelvi-sunni-sects-battle-over-religious-sites/islamic-world-news/d/2338

Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan policy: Brazen smash and grab, organised ethnic cleansing, Islam and Politics, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Politics

Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan policy: Brazen smash and grab, organised ethnic cleansing

Evolution of Pakistan’s Northern Areas policy

B Raman

September 18, 2009

n September 7, 2009, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari signed what is called the ‘Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order 2009’, purporting to introduce administrative, political, financial and judicial reforms in the Northern Areas of Jammu & Kashmir, which has been under Pakistani occupation since 1947-48. The order re-names the Northern Areas as Gilgit-Baltistan, thereby seeking to obliterate the linkage of the area with Jammu & Kashmir.

Addressing a Press conference the same day, president of Gilgit-Baltistan branch of the Pakistan People’s Party, Syed Mehdi Shah, said that Mr Zardari had instructed the authorities concerned to prepare a comprehensive plan to accelerate economic development in Gilgit-Baltistan. He claimed that the Zardari Government had given internal freedom and all financial, democratic, administrative, judicial, political and developmental powers to the Legislative Assembly of Gilgit-Baltistan. He said that a Gilgit-Baltistan Council, to be headed by the Prime Minister, would be set up and that Mr Zardari had ordered early initiation of a Gilgit-Skardu road project, the establishment of regional branches of the National Bank of Pakistan, the National Database and Registration Authority and the House Building Finance Corporation in the area.

Explaining the changes sought to be introduced by the Government in the status of the area to the media, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani stated as follows on August 29, 2009:

http://newageislam.com/pakistan%E2%80%99s-gilgit-baltistan-policy--brazen-smash-and-grab,-organised-ethnic-cleansing/islam-and-politics/d/1761

Islam 'recognizes homosexuality', Islam and Human Rights, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Human Rights

Islam 'recognizes homosexuality'

By Abdul Khalik

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Indonesia

28 March 2008

Homosexuals and homosexuality are natural and created by God, thus permissible within Islam, a discussion concluded here Thursday.

Moderate Muslim scholars said there were no reasons to reject homosexuals under Islam, and that the condemnation of homosexuals and homosexuality by mainstream Ulema and many other Muslims was based on narrow-minded interpretations of Islamic teachings.

Siti Musdah Mulia of the Indonesia Conference of Religions and Peace cited the Koran's al-Hujurat (49:3) that one of the blessings for human beings was that all men and women are equal, regardless of ethnicity, wealth, social positions or even sexual orientation.

"There is no difference between lesbians and non-lesbians. In the eyes of God, people are valued based on their piety," she told the discussion organized by non-governmental organization Arus Pelangi.

"And talking about piety is God's prerogative to judge," she added.

"The essence of the religion (Islam) is to humanize humans, respect and dignify them."

Musdah said homosexuality was from God and should be considered natural, adding it was not pushed only by passion.

http://newageislam.com/islam--recognizes-homosexuality---/islam-and-human-rights/d/1518

Will 2009 BE KASHMIR’S YEAR OF DELIVERANCE?, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

Will 2009 BE KASHMIR’S YEAR OF DELIVERANCE?

Politics at the crossroads of past and present

Praveen Swami

Both the Congress and National Conference fought the 1983 elections on communal lines. In alliance with Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq — father of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman, Umar Farooq — Dr. Abdullah gave his campaign an expressly Islamic colour. In one pamphlet, the National Conference equated the Congress with Maharaja Hari Singh, who had “enslaved the Kashmiris.” Prime Minister Indira Gandhi used identical tactics to push forward the Congress’ pursuit of power. She campaigned against the Resettlement Act, which would have allowed Muslim Partition refugees to return to Jammu and Kashmir and reclaim their properties. As the author and journalist Tavleen Singh has noted, Mrs. Gandhi sought to persuade Jammu voters that they “were really a part of Hindu India and had, therefore, been neglected by Muslim Kashmir.”

Inflammatory tactics paid off: the National Conference won 46 seats, all in Muslim-majority constituencies, while the Congress picked up 23. However, the Congress continued on with a campaign designed to annihilate Abdullah. His alliance with Mirwaiz Farooq — who was, ironically enough, to die at the hands of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen assassin —was characterised as anti-national. Sikh religious camps held in Jammu and Kashmir were described as state-sponsored training centres for Khalistan terrorists. Much of the propaganda was deceitful — the Congress itself, after all, had sought an alliance with the Mirwaiz — but it prepared the ground for the dismissal of the Abdullah government in July 1984, months after he sponsored a national opposition conclave in Srinagar.

http://newageislam.com/will-2009-be-kashmir%E2%80%99s-year-of-deliverance?--/current-affairs/d/1089

End of the Kashmir Jihad: Kashmir results cut across communal fault lines, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

End of the Kashmir Jihad: Kashmir results cut across communal fault lines

End of the Kashmir Jihad

Aakar Patel

December 30, 2008

Elections are the solution. Secular democracy is the only goal: It is what Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah wanted. Kashmiris already have that.

When elections were announced on October 19, Kashmir’s leaders thought they would fail, given the heat generated over the failed transfer of land to the Amarnath Shrine, and the Hurriyat Conference’s boycott.

Few believed the elections would be this successful: The highest polling at 69 per cent, the lowest at 55 per cent.

The communist Yusuf Tarigami said “elections were no solution to the Kashmir problem”.

The secular Yasin Malik said his group, the JKLF, would campaign actively “to boycott the elections (which) was every Kashmiri’s right".

Sheikh Abdullah’s grandson Omar said his party, the National Conference, would contest, but he worried that “turnout would be low”.

Hurriyat spokesman Abdul Ghani Bhat said elections were a non-issue and, “whether or not they were held, would cause the Hurriyat no consternation.” The Jamaat-e-Islami’s Syed Ali Shah Geelani said that “so-called elections were no solution.” JKDFP’s Shabbir Shah promised a “total boycott”.

http://newageislam.com/end-of-the-kashmir-jihad--kashmir-results-cut-across-communal-fault-lines--/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/1081

Azadi to terrorise India, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

Azadi to terrorise India

By Wilson John

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the key proponent of azadi, is a Pakistani stooge and has been playing the Islamabad tune for quite some time despite his secessionist rhetoric, which should have put any ordinary Indian behind bars without bail under the National Security Act. He wants Kashmir to become another 'federally administered' colony of Pakistan like FATA or Pak-Occupied Kashmir where people do not even have the fundamental right of expression -- if someone dares to do so, as Mr Geelani and his acolytes indulge in with abundance on this side, they would be summarily shot or stand trial for treason.

So should be the case of All-Party Hurriyat Conference leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, former Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front leader Yasin Malik and Shabbir Shah who have been misleading the people over the issue of Sri Amarnath Shrine Board land allotment and inciting them to protest and indulge in violence against India. Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik and Shabbir Shah have been quick to scamper on to the Geelani bandwagon but espouse a different agenda of independence. As in the past, they are leading the gullible people of Kashmir on a path of violence, instigated by forces which are inimical to India.

http://newageislam.com/azadi-to-terrorise-india/current-affairs/d/680

India: Moderate Muslims to raise their voice, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

India: Moderate Muslims to raise their voice

By A. M. Jigeesh in New Delhi

As part of this initiative, one of the world’s largest Muslim prayer conferences on Lailat- ul- qadr in the month of Ramadan ( the 27th night in Ramadan, considered to be the holiest) will be aimed at resolving and taking a pledge against terrorism. A call will also be made for preserving the traditional values of Islam.

About eight lakh believers are supposed to attend the Ma’din prayer conference, which is organised every year at Swalath Nagar in Malappuram district in Kerala. The prayer congregation is considered the third largest meet to be held in the month of Ramzan, after Mecca and Medina.

http://newageislam.com/india--moderate-muslims-to-raise-their-voice/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/742

Saudi Arabia: ‘A Real Hero of the Nation’, Islamic Society, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Society

Saudi Arabia: ‘A Real Hero of the Nation’

By Ghazanfar Ali Khan

Addressing a crowded press conference at the Disabled Children’s Society (DCS) hall, Prince Sultan, who is also the chairman of the DCS’ board of trustees, said, “We can’t understand the courage of this man, who climbed the highest peak.”

Prince Sultan, who has the distinction to be the first Arab and Muslim astronaut to go into space, also presented Al-Zuman a gift.

The press conference was attended by Bandar ibn Osman Al-Saleh, member of the DCS board of trustees, Awad Al-Ghamdi, DCS secretary-general, Sultan Al-Bazie, chief executive officer of Attariq Communications, and Abdulmohsen Al-Yahya, general manager of Kudu fast food chain. Attariq Communications and Kudu were the main sponsors of Al-Zuman’s expedition.

After the conference, Al-Zuman, a PR strategist and graduate of Oregon State University who works for Attaiq Communications, toured DCS facilities and met children there.

http://newageislam.com/saudi-arabia--%E2%80%98a-real-hero-of-the-nation%E2%80%99/islamic-society/d/92