India fights Terrorism with display of Composite Culture, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

India fights Terrorism with display of Composite Culture

Combating purist and exclusivist ideologies that breed self-righteous, fundamentalist and ultimately terrorist bloodletting of Taliban and other varieties is the need of the hour, not just in India and its neighbourhood but everywhere in the world.

And the response to this virus of extreme violence lies in the composite culture which is the heritage of India, one of the oldest practitioners of unity in diversity.

The call for a balanced approach to life in our highly terror-prone world came at a seminar on Terrorism and the response of composite culture organised by urdutahzeen.net on Sunday at Mumbai’s Taj Palace Hotel, the site of 26/11 massacre just over a year ago.

“We are living in glass houses and there is no need to demolish any mosque or temple because God belongs to all whether we call him Ram or Rahim. The Gita and Quran have the same message,” said the opening speaker, Dr. P.S. Pasricha, former DGP, Mumbai, Maharastra.

Organised by Urdutahzeeb.net of London based NRI Ajit Singh, the event was marked by highly emotional, thought provoking and divergent opinions both from the invited panel of speakers and the floor.

Pasricha set the ball rolling by reminding that we all live in glass houses and demolishing a Babri Masjid or a temple or pursuing the Khalistani agenda in the name of religion are anathema to all true faiths. What is needed is not to force somebody to change his or her religion but to change one’s own way of thinking to realize that we share the same sun, rain and the air we breathe and indeed are all part of each other.

http://newageislam.com/india-fights-terrorism-with-display-of-composite-culture/war-on-terror/d/2541

A Muslim's Hindu daughters By Jyoti Punwani

Rehmatullah is 60-something, has a red beard and always wears a namazi's cap. He was an accused in the infamous Hari Masjid case, where, says the Srikrishna Commission Report, policemen led by sub-inspector Nikhil Kapse barged into a small mosque in Wadala and shot at the namazi's, killing four, during the post-Babri Masjid Mumbai riots. It was a Sunday in January 1993. Rehmatullah, who stays close to the mosque, had gone there for the afternoon namaz. His most vivid memory of that bloody afternoon is a newly married young man being shot dead inside the masjid; Rehmatullah carried his body outside.

http://www.newageislam.com/a-muslim-s-hindu-daughters/islamic-society/d/61