Muslims are not the Enemies but Polluted MCAUMNOISM is a National Disgrace

"...in the hands of politicians, grand designs achieve nothing but new forms of the old misery..."

The violence that ensued, said Ambiga, only happened after police decided to fire teargas on protesters.MCA's hollow pledge to prevent Selangor from being turned into an Islamic paradise is the final card in a losing streak that would no doubt see the DAP reigning supreme as far as the Chinese vote is concerned in the next general election.MCA isin suicidal mode with father and son spewing nonsense Thanks to these two nincompoops Pakatan has profited which can be translated into precious votes! In throwing brickbats and the kitchen sink at Pakatan, MCA has revealed its political bankruptcy with its negative politics. It is unable to offer Malaysians any hope for a future. It is sounding more like a party in the government opposition than a component of a purported ruling coalition. Chua SL and son are oblivious that, in sniping at Pakatan, they rile the electorate who are determined to vote for change, with their cheap shots and insults. The MCA father and son team have set up the party to be skinned alive at the coming polls. That's how out of touch MCA is!You could not make it up. An 11-year old Christian girl in Pakistan with Down's Syndrome is in police custody, and could face the death penalty, for allegedly burning pages from the Quran.

The girl, who has been identified as Rifta Masih, was arrested on blasphemy charges and is being held in Islamabad pending a court appearance later this month. She was detained by police after an angry mob turned up at her family's single-roomed home in a poor district on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital.

"About 500-600 people had gathered outside her house in Islamabad, and they were very emotional, angry, and they might have harmed her if we had not quickly reacted," Pakistani police officer Zabi Ullah told reporters.

"Harmed her"? Really? I mean, really? What on Allah's earth is wrong with so many self-professed Muslims in the self-styled Islamic Republic of Pakistan? Have they taken leave of their morals as well as their senses? It beggars belief that they should want to hurt or attack a child in the name of a religion based on mercy, compassion and justice.

Some defenders of Pakistan's notorious blasphemy laws - under which anyone found guilty of insulting the Quran or Prophet Muhammad can be sentenced to death - have been keen to highlight the growing number of press reports that suggest Masih may be 16, rather than 11, and may not have Down's Syndrome.

To which the only appropriate response is: so what?

Whether she is 11 or 16, mentally able or mentally retarded is, frankly, irrelevant. For a start, a child is a child and should be treated as such. Pakistani authorities have legal as well as moral obligations. Second, even if this girl did set fire to pages from the Quran - and there is, incidentally, not a single eyewitness to this alleged 'crime' - to sentence her to death for doing so would be, to put it mildly, a grossly disproportionate 'penalty'.

Personally, I've never quite understood why so many of my co-religionists are so keen to kill or maim those who 'insult' Islam, Prophet Muhammad or the Quran. What is behind such rage and, dare I add, insecurity? Is their God so weak, so sensitive, so precious, that He cannot withstand any rejection?

Mine, for the record, isn't. As the Pakistani writer and singer Fifi Haroon noted on Twitter: "You think God needs little old you to protect him from an 11-year-old girl with Down's Syndrome? Think again."

It is worth pointing out that there is a misguided assumption among some Muslims that Pakistani-style blasphemy laws are divinely-mandated. They aren't. They were instituted by Pakistani dictator General Zia ul Haq in the 1980s, says leading Pakistani human-rights lawyer Asma Jahangir, "as a pretext for waging war in Afghanistan and adopting an aggressive stance towards India. By advancing a more orthodox version of Islam, he was able to hold on to a repressive regime and quell any opposition".

Here is the reality: the books of Islamic tradition are replete with stories of how Prophet Muhammad was verbally and physically abused by his idol-worshipping enemies in Mecca. They threw animal intestines and excrement on him; on one famous occasion, a group of homeless children threw stones and rocks at him. Yet he did not have them killed, tortured or detained. The founder of the Islamic faith, it seems, had a much thicker skin than many of its 21st Century adherents.

So far, in Pakistan, no one has yet been executed for blasphemy but, as the Guardian's Jon Boone observes, "long prison terms are common - one Christian couple was sentenced to 25 years in 2010 after being accused of touching the Qur'an with unwashed hands".

Christians have long been a target of Pakistan's ultra-conservative Islamic religious parties and movements. The blasphemy laws, in particular, are used again to criminalise Pakistani Christians on the flimsiest of pretexts; Rifta Masih, perhaps, is just the latest victim.

Of course, some of my co-religionists will soon claim that this latest story is all a Western media conspiracy - against Islam, against Muslims, against poor Pakistan. If only. Listen toJahangir, who says those accused of blasphemy are "almost always helpless in the face of intimidation and a frightened or biased judiciary... Pakistan's future remains uncertain and its will to fight against rising religious intolerance is waning."

Listen to Zora Yusuf, head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, who says the law "has been exploited by individuals to settle personal scores, to grab land, to violate the rights of non-Muslims, to basically harass them."

Masih's arrest even provoked Imran Khan, the country's most high-profile politician, to tweet:

"Shameful! Sending an 11yr old girl to prison is against the very spirit of Islam which is all about being Just and Compassionate."

He added:

"Poor child is already suffering from Down's Syndrome. State should care for its children not torment them. We demand her immed release."

Khan is to be commended for his public condemnation of Masih's arrest. It is a bold (dangerous?) move in a land where politicians - such as the Punjab governor Salman Taseer - have been shot dead for speaking out against the barbaric blasphemy laws.

I, for one, am fed up with politicians, mullahs and mobs using my religion to further their own vicious and sectarian agendas. So here's my own very simple message to the bigots, fanatics and reactionaries of the Islamic world: whatever intellectual or theological disagreements we may have with them, the fact is that Christians (and, for that matter, Jews) are our brethren; the Quran respectfully refers to them as the "People of the Book". Nor should we extend our tolerance, compassion and solidarity only to members of Abrahamic faiths while demonising and discriminating against everyone else. Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists - all of them are also our brethren. Don't believe me? Listen to the verdict of Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib, the great Muslim caliph and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad: "Remember that people are of two kinds; they are either your brothers in religion or your brothers in mankind."

The imprisonment of this Christian child isn't only about Pakistan or Pakistanis. Those of us who claim to be members of a global Muslim ummah cannot be silent when such flagrant human-rights abuses are committed in the name of Islam and in the world's second-biggest Muslim-majority nation. Denial is not an option, nor is turning a blind eye. We have to speak out against hate, intolerance and the bullying of non-Muslim minorities - otherwise we risk becoming complicit in such crimes. "Not in my name" has to be more than just an anti-war slogan.

 The Najib administration has underestimated “right-thinking” Malaysians by continuing to play the race and religious card, electoral reforms champion Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan told Bloomberg in an interview published today ― suggesting the move may backfire on the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition in national polls due soon.

The decorated lawyer-activist has repeatedly been “demonised” by right-wing Malay groups and BN lawmakers ― especially from Malay party Umno ― in the last two years since helming civil rights movement Bersih and pushing the government to clean up the electoral rolls perceived as tainted.

“They underestimate right-thinking Malaysians,” she told the business wire in an interview published today.

“We don’t like bullying,” she added.

The 55-year-old former Malaysian Bar president has also received death threats for standing up for marginalised women whose husbands convert to Islam in Muslim-dominant Malaysia and was even accused of treason ― a law that carries the death penalty ― by an Umno lawmaker in Parliament, for pushing Bersih’s agenda for clean elections.

The Home Ministry declared Bersih an illegal organisation ahead of its planned July 9 rally in the national capital last year, while members of Perkasa, a pro-government, self-styled Malay rights group, had openly burnt her portraits and denounced her in leaflets printed with the words “Awas!!! Ambiga, wanita Hindu yang merbahaya (Caution!!! Ambiga, a dangerous Hindu woman).”

The mother-of-two told Bloomberg she believes her “demonisation” has intensified because government supporters want to undermine Bersih’s credibility.

“I’m a minority in every sense of the word and I think they thought it would be easy to do,” said the Indian Hindu woman.

Her harassment continued this year after Bersih’s April 28 rally in the capital city, with Malay veterans from the armed forces holding a “butt exercise” in front of her home while several Malay traders set up shop along the road to her home and offered the devout Hindu free beef burgers.

Hindus regard the cow as a sacred animal and eschew eating beef.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was reported to have warned that the next elections will be about race as Malaysians become more racial, has also weighed in against Ambiga, Bloomberg reported.

“She seems to have some grudge against the government,” the country’s longest-serving PM was quoted as saying in the Bloomberg report.

As the window for the 13th general election ― which must be called by April next year ― narrows, Umno leaders and the mainstream media have warned the country may see a repeat of the May 13, 1969 racial riots that broke out in the capital city.

Bloomberg reported Ambiga saying she did not believe Malaysia, which saw racial clashes and the suspension of Parliament when the ruling party lost support in the 1969 election, will experience political violence.

“If enough people want change, there’s very little anyone can do to stop it,” she told the business news agency.

“Malaysians are generally peace-loving ― we are nowhere near what was happening in the Middle East, Tunisia and Egypt. We are at the right point in time for positive change, and if we are going to bring change, we only want to do it by clean and fair elections,” she was reported adding.

Ambiga also told Bloomberg she planned to quit her Bersih co-chair post after the next elections to focus on her legal work, including speaking up for women’s rights.

“The ordinary Malaysian is beginning to realise that it is not acceptable to play up religion and race in politics. There is a real maturing,” she told Bloomberg.

But some researchers have blamed the Umno-led counter-procession that began at the residence of then Selangor mentri besar Datuk Harun Idris for the violence.A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general publi

“Bersih condemns any act of violence by any quarters. I would say the 250,000 people yesterday came in peace and did not come for violence.

“All purported acts of violence only took place after teargas was fired. Until then, we had full control of the situation before it all went awry,” she said.

Soiled Dick Licky give up your position in MCA (Must Come Again) lah and lick me. Remember the old times? This time we change hotels so it’s harder to take pictures of us. And don’t worry about hudud, my darling. The DAP has strong principles and an equal voice in Pakatan, unlike your spineless party, my darling. Always sucking up to Najis. The only thing you should be sucking is between my legs, darling.

least DAP, have the same strength in PAKATAN where else MCA got to wag its tales to big brother UMNO, for the little crumbs they beg for, these little mca fellas will not and cannot do much for the communities they claim to represent, they threatened to have no representation in the government if they fail to achieve more seats next seat, again so what?, even if they win more seat, they still needs to wag their tails to big brothers in Umno.meaning, hands & legs of the government, have no respect for MCA. One example, in December 2006, one of my relatives went to Selangor Education office in Shah Alam, applied for transfer of school for his son, submitted all the relevent documents together with a support letter from the previous MP for PJ Utara, Chew Mei Fun. The senior officer then, refused to open and read the support letter from MP Chew Mei Fun and told my relative that “tak payah baca lah. Kalau surat dari Hishamiddin (the former Education Minister), baru bolih. Ini surat lu mahu kah tak mahu. kalau tak mahu, saya buang”. Image, how these government altitude towards an elected MP from the ruling party.Is India the target of a 'psy-jihad', by way of an e-war waged against it by hostile forces, many - if not most - of whom are located in Pakistan? Very likely.

Doctored images of death and destruction in China, Myanmar and elsewhere spread on various cyber sites have been circulated and passed off as documentary evidence of Muslims killed in the Assam violence. The result has been a vicious backlash against people from all the north-eastern states in the cities of Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, in turn leading to an internal exodus which evokes the spectre of Partition. Even as the government has taken steps to quell fears and stem the spread of subversive mobile messages and images, security analysts have raised a warning that the country must prepare to guard itself against a new form of terrorism, a new form of psy-war, or psychological-war, which uses fear and disinformation as its weapons in its assault on the integrity of India with the objective of the ultimate balkanisation of the country.

While Islamabad has denied involvement in this new offensive against India, New Delhi must certainly further pursue the matter which constitutes a clear and present danger to the unity of the Republic. But Pakistan - or any other external source - is only one of the fronts on which this battle must be fought. The other, even more dangerous frontline, is within.

The question that needs to be asked today is this: Could the alarm and panic that spread like bush fire among migrants from the north-east - many of whom are not Assamese and have no links with that state - if all north-easterners have not long felt that they are socially and otherwise discriminated against in day-to-day life by so-called 'mainstream' India which treats them like second-class citizens of a lesser Republic?

Almost all people from the north-eastern states - particularly the womenfolk - who have come to work or study in other parts of India can recount instances of racial and ethnic profiling that they face on a daily basis and which taken together constitute a narrative of narrow-minded, ignorant bigotry that gives the lie to that old mantra of national integration on which the Union of India, the very idea of India, is based: that in our diversity lies our unity. It would seem that the very opposite is true; that in our diversity lies a dangerous disunity.

People from the north-east are routinely described by other Indians as 'chinky-looking', and hence 'alien' in appearance. They are often asked if they eat dogs. North-eastern women are deemed to be sexually promiscuous - because of their so-called 'westernised' ways, which often include the ability to speak English well - and are subject to physical and verbal harassment by landlords, co-workers and neighbours.

This persistent and pernicious discrimination inevitably engenders a sense of separateness, fertile ground for the sowing of the seeds of poisonous propaganda. In a twist of tragic irony, the people who in the current situation have been exploited to spread panic are another discriminated against minority: Indian Muslims, who only too often are branded as 'Pakistanis' by only too many of their fellow citizens who belong to the majority community.

While we defend ourselves against the psy-war being waged on us from outside, let's also guard against the war waged on us from within by our two greatest enemies: the twin demons of Prejudice and Intolerance.

You don’t have to be a Sangh Parivar adherent to recognize that there is considerable migration of Bangladeshi migrants into India. Whoever does not agree is living in denial. True this migration is due to economic reasons: Bangladeshis come into India to look for economic opportunities. They do not move into India to alter the demographic profile in India. They do not migrate to become the vote banks of politicians and political parties. The migration is not only into Assam that has been in the news due to ethnic clashes in Kokrajhar in the Bodo autonomous area. There is greater migration into West Bengal (which has a 2216 km border with Bangladesh compared to a mere 262 km border with Assam; Tripura has 856 km, Meghalaya 442 km and Mizoram 318 km).

Nobody has statistics of this migration, although it can be safely asserted that the numbers who come are down from what their numbers were in the 1980s and 1990s. Economic growth in Bangladesh has had an impact: discovery of gas, successful dissemination of micro finance and development of the cotton textile industry that has led to boom in exports of textiles have created opportunities in that country. Remittances from Bangladeshis abroad have also significantly increased. Bangladesh is no longer a ‘basket case’ as it was in the first two decades after it became independent in 1971.  The development has been uneven: concentrated more in big cities like Dhaka and Chittagong.  This means that a significant number still live under poverty and look for means of livelihood.  These are the guys looking for opportunities.

Bounded on three sides by India, this is the only country they can escape to seek their fortunes. A long porous border of 4095 km, allows easy migration. The border is porous because of the topography of the region – the border cuts through rivers, villages, agricultural fields and sometimes even houses and ponds. (This only demonstrates the sheer  callousness with how the border was marked by Radcliffe and his team, at the time of partition of India in 1947.) The population pressure ensures that land right till the border is cultivated.  Such a porous border is difficult to guard and more so because the villages on the border on both sides are tied together in economic relations. Smuggling is rampant and an informal cattle trade is flourishing. Corrupt BSF officials posted to man the borders contribute to make the process a tad easier: they are reputed to allow the movement of humans for a price. This makes migration even simpler. The total number of migrants from Bangladesh in the last three decades is unavailable( of course different people quote different figures but I am refraining from quoting them, because we don’t know how authentic they are). We also do not know how many of the migrants remained in the districts through which they entered India. With paucity of data it is impossible to profile them – especially as many of them have become Indian citizens by securing false ration cards and voter IDs. This has, of course, been possible due to help from politicians playing their vote bank politics. So there is no chance of catching them and deporting them, as strident elements from the right wing have been demanding. What is not practical is not possible.

So there is no point in talking about what has happened. Instead of focusing on that the effort should be on stemming this flow of illegal migrants. The easiest way is to give shoot at sight orders to the BSF. Anyone crossing the border will be just shot dead.This will immediately stop migration, no question. Not a single Bangladeshi will venture to cross the borders. But there is a moral question involved here. Pursuing this policy might have international repercussions and international human rights agencies might see red. Within India also it will raise hackles in some quarters.  However some reports say that BSF had been following this policy but last year while in Dhaka for talks, then home minister P Chidambaram said that orders were given to BSF and this had percolated down the line that there would be no shoot at sight.

There is no doubt that the borders have to be strengthened. Efforts at this have been futile even though an Indo- Bangladesh border road and fencing project has been in the works since the mid -1980s. Even a quarter century later the project is yet to be completed.  At first the progress was stymied by problems of land acquisitions. Then there was the usual problem of shoddy work. So much that by early 2001 it was discovered that at least half of the fencing that had been erected had been destroyed. Officially, of course, this was attributed to adverse climate conditions like floods (these factors too must have contributed to the problem). Meanwhile there is another project to be taken up: floodlighting of the borders.

Some analysts argue that if illegal immigration cannot be halted then part of it could be legalized by issuing work permits to a specified number of those coming year. Those with work permits will not be enrolled as voters. This will suit the immigrants too because none of them come into become voters, they merely come to look for opportunities for employment. The guys who enroll them as voters are the self- serving neta class. I do not know whether this policy can be successfully implemented but may be worth a try. But one thing is sure, if there is no illegal immigration from the western borders into India, the same must be ensured in the eastern sector. There is no need to become emotional about this and argue that the folks who live on this side of the border are the same as those on the other side. Yes, culturally they may be, but there are international borders and those on the other side of the border are foreigners.  Foreigners are foreigners, though they may be close to us in many aspects. We owe it to our nation to keep foreigners 

The Election Year Outsourcing that No One’s Talking About

 mam Khalid Latif is blogging his reflections during the month of Ramadan, featured daily on HuffPost Religion. For a complete record of his previous posts, click over to the Islamic Center at New York University or visit hisauthor page, and to follow along with the rest of his reflections, sign up for an author e-mail alert above, visit his Facebook page or follow him on Twitter.

Late last night, I received a text message from my friend Lena Albibi.

"Someone threw a firebomb at my sister-in-law's parent's house last night. FBI is investigating now. So scary. I'm so shocked. Please make du'aa."

We've seen close to a dozen attacks on different houses of worship in the last couple of weeks. This includes a shooting spree by a man with ties to a White Supremacist group that left six congregants of a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin dead and others wounded. It also includes mosques in California, Oklahoma, Illinois, and Joplin, Missouri where the entire building was burned to the ground. The only distinctive factor about the attack on the home in Florida is it is a private residence. The ignorance and bigotry that motivated the attack is still shared.

In response to the firebomb that was thrown at her parents' home in Panama City, Florida early yesterday morning, Ayesha Albibi had this to say:

"It's unfortunate that we live in a land and country based on diversity and freedom yet hate is being spread daily. My parent's house was attacked last night with a fire bomb with the intent to harm us. This country is also based on perseverance and we will persevere and fight against hate. Please pray for my family and end the hatred all over the world."

It would be foolish to think that there are no ties between the irresponsible statements coming out of politician's mouths around Muslims and Islam and the attacks that we are seeing. The Bachmanns and Walshes of the world make comments that incite hatred and justify bigoted actions against innocent people. Condemnation comes from different places, but in a world that is bombarded by information overload, a sound byte or an op-ed by itself isn't going to be what changes the tide on this. What will change things is people of good conscience speaking up and out against what they know is wrong through both word and action.

For Muslims living in the United States, we as a collective have to see the importance of building coalitions with those outside of our communities so that people can learn who our leaders are and we can begin to have our voices heard. It really seems like we are disillusioned to the realities that our people are facing and where we currently reside on the power spectrum, both in this country and in much of the world. It's time to stop building mosque after mosque and start putting money into institutions and organizations, and not simply individuals, that are effectively working on behalf of us.

Civic engagement on a local level is just as important as it is on a national level, if not more so. If you are a college student, start working in your local government offices. Build strong relationships with the city that you are a part. What benefit is there in having a dinner that you end up paying for with a city official who doesn't advocate on your behalf when the time comes? Civic engagement is not just hosting a voter registration drive around election time. Involvement in what we define as "Muslim issues" only isn't going to really get us where we need to be either. Our idea of civic involvement and responsibility needs to expand beyond that myopic view and not only stepping up to ask for our rights but stepping up to do our duty and also advocate on behalf of others for their rights. Build a longer-term strategy that understands where we are today is not where we should be five years from now, and engage people who know how to build and implement that strategy, whether they are Muslim or not.

Racism is racism, clear and simple. For those who say these attacks from the last two weeks and many other violent actions have nothing to do with race, understand that Islam as a faith has been racialized for quite some time. It's placed in the minds of many as being from someplace else, miles away and made for the past. Attackers of peaceful places of worship can't even distinguish that not all people whose skin is brown practice the same religion. That idea to me is foolish enough to be racist.