Indian Muslims – Page 17

Meerut women says family got money from Hindu leaders and forced her to make false accusations

October 14, 2014 by Nasheman

Vineet Aggarwal a BJP leader caught in camera while giving money to victim’s mother.

Lucknow: In a fresh and dramatic twist to the ‘Love Jihad’ case involving a girl in Meerut, the victim Monday alleged that she was forced by her family to make false accusations that she was first gang raped by Muslim men and then forcibly converted to Islam.

The girl from Khakhrauda made the statement before a magistrate, making it a legally binding document.

Officials said she had approached the Senior Superintendent of Police of Meerut Saturday claiming that her parents were beating her after money stopped coming from certain Hindu leaders.

This, she told the district police chief, had been happening over the past one month until she fled the house for fear of being killed. She has also lodged a complaint with the police alleging a threat to her life from her family.

A teacher by profession, she had earlier alleged that she was gang raped by Muslim youth and then forced to convert to Islam. In a U-turn now she has denied this and has in the written statement claimed that certain Hindu groups and leaders had coerced her family into making these allegations.

Reacting to the developments, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which had raked up the Love Jihad issue during the state assembly by-polls, said the whole issue was now turning murkier and demanded a CBI probe.

“A CBI probe will clear the matter,” Laxmikant Bajpayi, state BJP president, told IANS.

Other political parties, including the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP), however slammed the BJP for raking up a non-issue and alleged the party’s complicity in the whole matter. “The BJP owes an explanation to the people on why it raked up the matter which was unsubstantiated,” said Rajendra Chowdhary, state cabinet minister and party spokesman.

Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Pramod Tiwari has sought a detailed probe into the whole episode and said the role of everyone should be scrutinised.

(IANS)

Note: The Nasheman Urdu Weekly, in its 17th August issue, had stated that the women’s contradictory statements, proves that her alleged forceful conversion to Islam, and her alleged gangrape by Muslim men, are erroneous. Our Weekly had also quoted a local Moulana, who had said that the women had converted to Islam on her own will, and had also produced a document to the local magistrate.

PUCL blames Police for Vadodara riots, says attacks were by the “police and not by any community”

October 14, 2014 by Nasheman

New Delhi: A report submitted to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), by People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has blamed the police for acting in a high-handed manner during the communal violence, which took place when the Navratri celebrations were on in Gujarat in September. Basing themselves on interaction with people of several localities, the fact-finding team said the attacks were by the “police and not by any community”. Quoting individuals, the PUCL said, “There was no trouble in the Yakutpura area”, yet the “police entered in Minar Masjid falia, Patel falia-1 and Patel falia-2 and suddenly started breaking vehicles.”

The report said, the cops “damaged each and every vehicle that was parked in these areas.” About 70 vehicles, “including, bikes, cars, auto rickshaws were damaged by them. Police damaged vehicles, cars, auto rickshaws window panes and doors of many houses”, it pointed out, adding, “They also beat some women with lathis. They were very abusive using the worst form of sexually explicit abuses. When women questioned why they were indulging in violence on this scale, they pulled their dupattas and almost choked one of them. They did not spare even children; a boy from 10th standard returning from tuition classes was beaten up.”

“They even beat up animals in their frenzy”, the report said, adding, “As per the complaint of the women they were just standing outside their houses, and police came forward to beat them up.” And “when they went to police station to lodge an FIR against this violence, they were viciously abused and driven out of the police station being threatened that that they are terrorists and they will be prosecuted under law.” Later, some 40 to 50 young men were “picked up from their homes and locked up.”

The team met Commissioner of Police Mr Radhakrishnan, who “accepted that the crime branch police was at fault in attacking the citizens and would take appropriate action”, the report said, but was in the denial mode when it requested him to formulate a citizen-police joint committee for spreading awareness and reducing communal tension, which he declined and told us to act ourselves in our own localities. “He said that here was almost no violence”, the report added.

In yet another area, Taiwada, near Sat Daragah Area, the team found residents complaining how in Sat (Sevan) Dargah, Taiwada area, on 28th early morning at 1.00 am, “a few policemen came and took a round.” At 2:15 am, 30-35 cops came “with people in civil dress and slippers, some of whom had handkerchiefs on their faces, with steel pipes and started breaking the doors and picking up 5-6 boys after beating them with pipes and rods.”

Ashiyana Abdul Latif told the team that in the absence of her husband, Abdul Latif, as he was on night duty, “the steel bars of windows of his house were broken with instruments brought for the purpose and plain clothes policemen entered the house. Then they put on the light and broke the doors. They pushed Ashiana against the fridge. They then went to the other room where their son Abdul Raheman (Aged 19) was sleeping, caught him by his private parts and dragged him out.”

Further: “When his sister cried to them to leave her brother, they turned their attention to the girls and tried to pull them even while the mother was trying to protect them. They beat the mother and the girls and tore the clothes of the daughter Amrin (aged 22). They told the mother to give them the both girls if they wanted the boy free. The mother was beaten on the head near her eyes with a lathi, and the girls were also beaten with lathis. Amrin who is also a nurse in a state of shock, trauma and has started getting fits.”

The report said, “Her situation worsened and became unconscious so she was admitted in the Sayaji General Hospital in the morning of September 28, 2014. In the hospital she mentioned about assault by police as reason for her injuries and mental shock and also registered her complaint in the Police Station of the General Hospital”, the report said, adding, yet “the doctor mentions assault by ‘opposing party’ in her case paper and she is not sure what police has mentioned in the FIR/Register.”

The cops, said the report, also “broke doors of the house of Tahirabanu and beat her boy who is student in first year of college and took him. He had his examinations from October 7. Police entered the house of Kulsumbibi Adbdulrahim Pulaowala (aged about 50) and beat her on thighs and broke the cupboard and broke fixtures and glass all over the house. She was so much afraid that did not go to hospital to get treatment. Only with support from human right activists she was taken to hospital only on September 29.”

In Fatehpura, Koyali Falia and Ranavas, the report said, “The trouble started on September 25 when a mob came to attack the tuition class located near their area. Along with the tuition class the houses and vehicles of other Hindu residents were also attacked. Shop keepers were forced to close their shops. Auto rickshaws, hand carts (laris), etc. were damaged. The trouble continued over the next few days. Several innocent boys were picked up by police.”

The report concluded, the factors which contributed to this new wave of communal violence in the city of Vadodara was “growing influence of BJP and right wing Hindu groups over police and administration”, nexus between “police , politicians and criminals”, and “ascendance of powerful builder lobbies and the related issues around land and attempts to displace people from poor bastis.”

The PUCL’s fact-finding team, which visited the affected areas, consisted of Ashok Gupta, Reshma Vohra, Kamal Thakar, Tapan Dasgupta, Yusuf Shaikh, Shaukat Indori, Trupti Shah, Hamida Chandol, Sabiha Hakim, Naginbhai Patel and Hardik Rana. A copy of the report, submitted to the NHRC, was also submitted to Gujarat home department and the DIG, Gujarat.

Download the full report here.

Meerut woman denies rape, forceful conversion, says she eloped

October 13, 2014 by Nasheman

Meerut: The young woman from Meerut, who in August claimed she was abducted, gang-raped and forcefully converted to Islam, has retracted her earlier statement, telling police that she had in fact eloped with the accused.

The 22-year-old Hindu woman approached the police complaining of a threat from her family, and in a written statement, denied rape or conversion. She told police that she had gone with the Muslim man out of her own will.

In August, after the woman’s complaint, the accused along with seven others were arrested. The BJP workers in the state, including Yogi Adityanath, the BJP’s bypoll campaign in-charge in the State, had branded the incident as “love jihad”.

Right-wing Hindu groups launched an elaborate campaign in the State against “love jihad” in which they claimed Muslim men lured Hindu girls, tricked them into marriage and forced them to accept Islam.

Police said the woman left her home on Sunday due to the alleged threats and reached a women’s police station.

She was presented before a magistrate and is currently staying in Meerut Nari Niketan, Meerut Rural SP was quoted as telling The Hindu.

The accused Muslim man, Kaleem, and eight others were arrested after the woman had alleged on August 3 that she had been abducted, gang-raped and forcibly converted to Islam.

All India Dawah Centres Association (AIDCA) launched in Mumbai

October 11, 2014 by Nasheman

At the launch of “All India Dawah Centres Association” on 10th Oct 2014, at Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh. From left: Imran Shaikh, Ashraf Mohamedy, Umar Shariff, Adv. Faiz Syed, Ashraf Motlekar, Mohsin Khan.

Mumbai: The All India Dawah Centres Association (AIDCA), an association of various Islamic organisations, from across the country was launched today in Mumbai, with the goal of “standing up for the rights and security of the Islamic organisations and its members”.

Addressing the press here at the Marathi Patrakar Sangh on the occasion of its launch, AIDCA’s goals and objectives were elaborated to the Media.

Mr. Umar Shariff, the Program Manager of AIDCA, expounded about working with people across the country, to work on social welfare activities.

Mr. Shariff said that, AIDCA was established this year, in the month of August, soon after the second summit which was attended by the members of 70 Islamic organisations from states across India. AIDCA, he said was setup with the intention of uniting the Ulama (Muslim scholars), and community leaders to unitedly address issues concerning the community in the country.

“AIDCA would stand up for the victimised members of the Muslim community, who are picked up by the intelligence and authorities on the basis of suspicion alone. We would engage through all legal actions that are necessary to contest the actions of the authorities who take undue advantage of the much vulnerable Muslim community of India. All our endeavour would be within the framework of the constitution of India,” said Mr. Shariff, who is the president of Discover Islam Education Trust (DIET), an educational institute, which operates a school under its aegis in Bangalore.

On being asked about whether AIDCA would work with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he replied that it would work with him in all the good work the PM does in the country, like ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ campaign. He said the Association would work not only with minorities but even with the majority community, to remove “misconceptions about Islam and Muslims from the minds of the people.”

Mr. Ashfaq Motlekar, the National Correspondent of AIDCA spoke of conducting regular training programs for the youth to train them in equipping themselves with the knowledge of law to pursue their legal rights when they are violated.

One such “Legal Aid Workshop” is to be organized on Saturday, wherein experts from legal fields are to conduct workshop at the city’s Best Western Hotel Sahil, said Mr. Ashraf Mohamedy, the National Spokesperson of AIDCA. “Participants from all over India are expected to benefit from the same,” he added.

The Members of the Representative Council of AIDCA are: Ashraf Mohamedy, Idafa, Mumbai, Ashfaq Motlekar, Mumbai, Zaid Patel, IIC, Mumbai, Imran Khalil, Al Birr, Mumbai, Dawood Vaid, Burooj Realization, Mumbai, Umar Shariff, DIET, Karnataka, Moinudeen, Gujarat, Adv. Faiz Syed, Aurangabad, Alam, Kolkata, Mohsin Khan, Mumbai and Mujeebur Rahmaan, Tamil Nadu.

The coordination office of the Association is located at Al Birr Foundation, Mumbai.

Boy set ablaze by army men in Hyderabad dies

October 9, 2014 by Nasheman

Hyderabad: An 11-year-old boy, who was set ablaze by unidentified military men, died at a hospital here Thursday, police said.

Sheikh Mustafauddin, who was found with critical burn injuries at garrison area in Mehdipatnam in the heart of the city Wednesday, died at DRDO Apollo Hospital.

The body was shifted to government-run Osmania General Hospital for autopsy. Police have tightened security around the military area to prevent any untoward incident.

The boy, a student of a madarsa, told a magistrate in his dying declaration that some army men poured kerosene over him and set him ablaze.

A resident of Siddiq Nagar, Sheikh was called inside the garrison area by two military men. They allegedly beat him and later set him ablaze. He sustained 90 percent burns and was found lying near the main gate of the garrison.

A case of attempt to murder was registered against unidentified military men at Humayunagar police station. It will now be turned into a murder case.

Police formed a special team to conduct the investigation. Hyderabad police commissioner Mahender Reddy said the guilty will not be spared.

The incident led to tension in the area as people came out on streets to stage a protest against the military personnel. Police used baton charge the protestors to disperse them.

The army authorities have denied involvement of any military man in the incident.

“On investigation, it is found that this allegation is absolutely false and no army personnel is involved in this incident. The army condemns this act. All necessary assistance is being provided to the police authorities to carry out a detailed investigation to arrive at the truth,” said a statement from the army authorities.

(IANS)

Popular Front of India condemns airing of RSS chief’s speech on Doordarshan

October 4, 2014 by Nasheman

Bangalore: Popular Front of India (PFI) today joined the chorus of individuals and organisations to condemn the telecast of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s annual address on Doordarshan. It called, the airing of the speech, a “dishonorable day” to the country.

Referring to RSS, as a “fascist” organization, it alleged that the Modi government is “controlled by the RSS and the government is trying all tactics to promote the ideology of RSS.”

PFI further alleged the speech was broadcasted only to present RSS and its chief as the leader of all Hindus, who they say, has always tried to position itself as the symbol and representative of Hinduism.

“Since the day of assuming power the Modi government has failed to deliver its promises of being a government for all Indians. The propagation of RSS and its leaders from the platform of government owned channel shatters the tall claims made by prime minister to protect pluralism during his Independence Day speech,” PFI said.

“We ask the government to stop promoting the Sangh ideology and understand its responsibility and prove itself to be unbiased government,” O.M.A Salaam, General Secretary of Popular Front of India demanded.

Muslim bodies condemn Markandey Katju’s remarks on Muslim Personal Law

October 4, 2014 by Nasheman

New Delhi: The country’s largest Muslim socio-religious organization, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) has condemned Press Council of India chief Markandey Katju’s statement on Sharia Law, which he termed as barbaric and degrading for women in his recent blog post.

Eliciting his views on Muslim Personal Law, Mr. Katju had written that, “at least 60% Muslims oppose the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat). About 50% Muslims are women. Almost all of them are opposed to shariat.” He advocated for a Uniform Civil Code in the country.

JIH said Mr. Katju’s statement is unjustified, improper and emotive and asked him as to how Uniform Civil Code could be just for a multi-religion and multi-culture country like India of over one billion people.

Opining that most Muslims oppose the Sharia law, Mr. Katju asked “can any just, modern minded and fair person support such a barbaric law which prescribes stoning to death ( as was done recently in Somalia ) for adultery, or cutting off a thief’s limbs ? I refuse to believe that there are no just, modern minded and fair males in the Muslim community ( even if they be in the minority ).”

In a media statement on Thursday, Mr. Nusrat Ali, Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, said that some statements of former Supreme Court judge Katju are “indeed useful, reasonable and moderate.” But it seems that “from his days in judiciary, he has held one-sided, illogical and unjustified viewpoint about Muslim Personal Law.”

“He has once again expressed this view and thus has not only hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community and millions of other fellow countrymen but also raked up an impracticable, useless and unnecessary debate,” said Ali.

The Jamaat leader further said that Mr. Katju has described the Muslim Personal Law as barbaric and backward. This is completely against facts. By making such statement, he seems to have fallen prey to the conspiracy for distorting the history of Islam. Personalities of his stature should save themselves from the conspiracy.

The Jamaat has challenged Mr. Katju to analyse just last one year’s data about crimes against women like brutalities, domestic violence, murder, rape and sexual harassment etc. and he “will surely know the truth that Muslim women are least affected and they are happily living under Muslim Personal Law.”

“Yet, if some Muslim women have faced violence and injustice it is not because of Muslim Personal Law but the weaknesses of the Muslim society. A responsible person and expert like Mr. Katju should understand the difference,” said Jamaat leader.

Mr. Umar Shariff, president of Discover Islam Education Trust (DIET) and spokesperson for the Bangalore based human rights group, Mission Possible for Justice and Rights (MPJR) asked, “If ‘Muslim Personal Law’ is termed as ‘barbaric’ by Justice Markandey Katju, then we conclude that he has violated the Indian Constitution by attacking the sentiments of the religious values of one section of India’s populace. Since he is supposed to be a learned man of the Indian Law, could he very well tell us the article under which we can file a case against him?”

Responding to criticism against his remarks, Mr. Katju said, “some people have sought to infer from my recent criticism of Muslim Personal Law that I am against Muslims or Islam. This is totally incorrect. Many of my best friends are Muslims, and I respect all religions including Islam, as I have repeatedly said. I am totally secular.”

Vadodara’s BJP leader Manish Wagh arrested in connection with burning of Hindu houses

October 2, 2014 by Nasheman

A member of Rapid Action Force fires a tear gas shell to disperse a mob in Vadodara (Photo: Reuters)

Vadodara: Navgujarat Samay which is Times Of India group’s Gujarati daily has reported in its October 1st issue that Manish Wagh, BJP Baroda’s Ward Pramukh (Chief), has been arrested in connection with burning of several houses of Hindu families in the Navapura area of Baroda. Along with Manish Wagh, 36 other officer bearers of BJP were also arrested in this connection. It is also reported that besides the aforementioned arrests, a few Muslim rioters were also arrested.

It is also reported that Manish Wagh’s arrest has led to several doubts regarding the entire modus-operandi of Baroda riots.

The four days of violence that continued unabated here last week was allegedly triggered by an image posted on Facebook. Muslim groups said the image was offensive to Islam. However, according to some media reports, prior events, marked by inflammatory statements in the run-up to the Navaratri festival, prepared the ground for a volatile communal situation.

Residents of Yakutpura – one of the worst affected neighbourhoods in the city — have alleged police complicity in the violence. In the Taiwada area, where the police conducted raids at night, residents claimed that a team of police personnel arrived with nearly 30 men in plain clothes, whose faces were covered with a cloth. They accused the police of assaulting women and setting a motorbike on fire.

Throughout September, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad gave several statements in the media saying that Muslims would not be allowed at ‘Garba’ events. The Hindutva outfit planned to launch a campaign against ‘love jihad’ and beef consumption during Navaratri.

The violence which has left with the stabbing of two, and loss of properties of many others, coincides with Mr. Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States. In his first ever international interview since assuming office, Modi, when questioned about the patriotism of Indian Muslims, told that, “Indian Muslims will live for India and die for India.” However, since assuming office, he has done nothing with regards to containing the raging communal violence in the country, perpetrated by elements part of and affiliated to his party.

With inputs from Truth of Gujarat and The Hindu.

U.S citizens court indicts Modi for Gujarat Pogrom

October 1, 2014 by Nasheman

The Citizens’ Court in session at Lafayette Park in front of the White House, Washington DC.

– by Kaleem Kawaja

Washington, D.C: The US-based Sikh Foundation for Justice (SFJ) in coordination with the American Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (AGPC), Tuesday held a citizens’ court in Lafayette Park, a small park in front of the White House to indict PM Narendra Modi for the human rights violations in 2002 in Gujarat. The hour-long trial was conducted following US legal procedures. SFJ organized a grand jury of 24 citizens comprising of people of various colors, white, black and Indian etc.

The proceedings began at 1:30 PM on Tuesday (Sept 30) when PM Modi was actually in the White House building, that is right in front of the citizens’ court and ended at 2:30 PM.

The prosecutor read out the charges against Modi and said that the charge sheet was handed over to an official of the Indian embassy in Washington DC a few days ago, and that Mr Modi has been given an opportunity to defend himself. But he has chosen not to attend even though right at this time he is in the White House building, just a couple of hundred yards away. The charges included abetting murder of more than 2000 Muslims, raping of a large number of Muslim women, destruction of their houses in February and March 2002.

The charge sheet filed in the Citizens’ court listed crimes of genocide; first degree murders; rapes and sexual assaults; torture; tempering with the witnesses, victims and informants; and obstruction of criminal investigations. The woman judge then turned the matter over to the grand jury and asked them to give their opinion by writing on pieces of paper in front of them.

The judge then polled the grand jury members and with their concurrence announced that Mr Modi has been indicted of all the charges leveled against him by the prosecutor.

The judge was a white American woman lawyer. An effigy of Mr Modi stood in the dock on the left side of the bench. The prosecutor was an Indian-American lawyer. The court was set up in the Lafayette park and it looked like a proper trial. The audience of about one thousand people consisting of men and women of all races and colors, but mostly Sikhs, stood behind the prosecutor’s desk in the park. Lots of TV cameras and media people were in attendance.

Explaining the reasons for the convening Citizens’ Court, attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal adviser to SFJ stated that starting from 1984 political leaders in India have a long history of organizing massacres of religious minorities with impunity.

Pannun said that on the one hand, the Citizens’ Court indicted Indian judicial system for its failure to convict a known human rights violator and on the other hand, it highlighted the plight and concerns of religious minorities in India, particularly victims of 2002 Muslims massacre.

Kaleem Kawaja, is an Indian Muslim scientist and community activist. He lives in the US.

Eleven Congresspersons urge Obama to discuss protection of religious minorities with PM Modi

September 30, 2014 by Nasheman

Increase in violence against Christians and Muslims cited as concern, while Congressional panel holds a briefing on 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom.

Washington D.C: Coalition Against Genocide (CAG), a broad alliance dedicated to justice and accountability for the Gujarat pogroms of 2002 and to defending India’s secular tradition, has welcomed a letter to President Obama by eleven members of Congress, urging him to discuss “religions inclusion and the protection of religious minorities in India,” during his meeting with Prime Minister Modi on Monday, September 28.

The letter draws the President’s attention to the fact that “there has been an increase in violence against Muslims and Christians in the first hundred days of Prime Minister Modi’s term,” and that such violence “echoes the deadly 2002 riots in Gujarat, which happened while Prime Minister Modi was chief minister of the region.”

In a separate development, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission will hold a briefing on the 1984 anti-Sikh massacres in Delhi, in which over 3,000 Sikhs were killed and thousands more injured. Titled “Thirty Years of Impunity: The November 1984 anti-Sikh Pogroms in India,” the hearing will be held onSeptember 30, 2014, and will discuss “India’s failure to prosecute the architects of the pogroms.”

The lawmakers’ letter to President Obama also comes on the heels of massive protests outside Madison Square Garden organized by the Alliance for Justice and Accountability, during Mr. Modi’s speech to Indian Americans. These developments reflect continued concerns in the US and across the world, about the state of human rights and religious freedom in India.

In addition to the 11 member letter by Congress released today, Congressman Mike Honda had earlier written to Secretary of State John Kerry, urging him to support the inclusion of human rights and religious freedom in the US-India Strategic Dialogues where Mr. Modi is to meet with the President today. Quoting the US Commission for International Religious Freedom 2014 Annual Report, Rep. Honda had noted the increase in religiously motivated violence in India. Acknowledging that some positive steps had been taken towards religious minorities, the letter noted that “periodic outbreaks of large-scale communal violence continue to threaten the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable religious minorities in India; especially impacting women and girls.”

“All of us who cherish India’s traditionally inclusive society, understand the level of concern about the threats to secularism and pluralism in India, ” said Dr. Raja Swamy, a CAG spokesperson. “The first 100 days of Mr. Modi’s tenure as PM have shown that such concern is justified and has gained added urgency, ” added Dr. Swamy.

Reflecting the growing intolerance, both in India as well as the diaspora, reports indicate veteran journalist Rajdeep Sardesai was assaulted by a mob of Modi supporters outside Madison Square Garden on Sunday, September 28. The provocation was Mr. Sardesai’s willingness to pay attention to a protester who wished to express his views, and clarify reasons for protesting.

“India can be a strong democracy only when dissent is given its space, and the freedom of the press is respected,” said Dr. Shaik Ubaid, another CAG spokesperson.

CAG appeals to President Obama to respond to the concerns expressed by the eleven Congresspersons as well as Rep. Honda, and to accept their recommendation on his imminent meeting with PM Modi. Without international attention on the growing intolerance in India, millions of Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Dalits and other minorities will continue to see a steady erosion of their religious freedom and civil liberties.

CAG is a broad-based coalition representing a diverse cross section of the religious and political spectrum of the Indian diaspora, including Hindu and other faith-based organizations. The coalition is committed to democracy, pluralism and to the preservation of the idea of India.