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Commentary by Buut Shikan

Hindu Crimes in the Words of a Famous Indian Woman
Bombing In Bombay Jewelry District Kills 52, injures 150: India Blames Lashkare Taiba
Understanding India's Roots of Hatred and Violence: Mass Rape of Muslim Women in Gujrat
Desecration of Mosques, Destruction of Oldest Mosque, Genocide in Kashmir

Death and destruction of anyone is ugly and repulsive. Pakistan has condemned the bombing in Mumbai (previously known as Bombay). A Pakistani American group has condemned the bombing. An Indian American Muslim group has condemned the bombing. India claims that a jihad group fighting in Kashmir, Lashkare Taiba, is responsible, although no evidence is available. Once the condemnations have been issued, an effort is needed to try and understand the causes of violence. Why are the usually timid Muslims of India resorting to "terrorism?"

Since India came under Brahmin Hindu rule in 1947, the KKK-type racist religion of the rulers has led to horrific atrocities, largely against Muslims but also against Sikhs, Dalits (India's Black people), Christians, peasants in the northeast, and women in general. NO ONE HAS BEEN ABLE TO RETALIATE AGAINST THE BRAHMINS other than a few attempts by the Sikhs, including the murder of Indira Gandhi, and a suicide attack by a Tamil woman.

Kashmiris have been fighting back but Kashmir is not part of India. Within India itself, Muslims have been victimized, terrorized, slaughtered and subjugated in ways unthinkable in any other part of the world. Muslim response has been pathetic. Upper class Muslims [sort of like the Bush-worshiping Muslims in America] have gone down on their knees before the Brahmins, some even marrying their daughters to Hindus, visiting Hindu idols and claiming that Hinduism and Islam are not very different and India must come first [sort of like America's flag waving mosque builders].

The idea that Muslims can blow up rich Hindu jewelry sellers and try to terrorize upper class Hindus indicates that even the lowliest of the low, India's Muslims, are no longer willing to die without resistance. The HORRORS IN GUJRAT [March 2002] need to be looked at to understand the emergence of "terrorism" in India. Instead of quoting from a Muslim or Islamic source, let us look at a Hindu critic of India, a well-known woman who writes with great passion and is certainly no friend of the "jihadists."

ARUNDHATI ROY in her book WAR TALK (published 2003) writes of the genocide committed by Hindus in Gujarat against totally helpless and unarmed Muslims, thoroughly documenting each of her statements in end notes. Here is an excerpt:

"Officially the number of dead is eight hundred. Independent reports put the figure as high as two thousand. More than one hundred and fifty thousand people, driven from their homes, now live in refugee camps. Women were stripped, gang-raped; parents were bludgeoned to death in front of their children. Two hundreds and forty dargahs and one hundred and eighty masjids were destroyed. In Ahmedabad, the tomb of Wali Gujarati, the founder of the modern Urdu poem, was demolished and paved over in the course of a night... Arsonists burned and looted shops, homes, hotels, textile mills, buses, and private cars...." (P.19-20)

[Ed. Note: DARGAHs are the tombs of sufi saints who preached peace and amity between Hindus and Muslims.]

Ms. Roy documents a few of the cases of GANG RAPE of MUSLIM WOMEN:

"Doctors conducted post-mortems on a number of women who had been gang raped, many of whom had been burnt subsequently. A woman from Kheda district who was gang raped had her head shaved and 'Om' cut into her head with a knife by the rapists. She died after a few days in the hospital. There were other instances of 'Om' engraved with a knife on women's backs and buttocks." [p.117]

[The expression 'Om' is part of Hindu prayers, somewhat like the Muslims saying "salam."]

Can the jewelers in Mumbai who have now been blown up be blamed for the massacre and the rapes? According to Ms. Roy, the entire Hindu population of Gujarat was involved in the atrocities. [The mass support for the killings is comparable to the mass support for lynchings of Black men in America.] All aspects of the Hindu establishment got involved. "Middle-class people participated in the looting." The poorer people, Dalits and Adivasis, were brought in buses and trucks to loot the Muslims' goods. There was police protection for the looters, even covering fire from the police when some Muslims fought back. It went right to the top. Ms. Roy writes: "While Gujarat burned, our Prime Minister was on MTV promoting his new poems." (P.21)

The Hindus used an alleged attack on a train which was set on fire to signal the coordinated attacks on the Muslims. They claim that the Muslims set the train on fire. Ms. Roy points out that there is, even now, ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE that the Muslims set the train on fire. In fact there is some evidence that the fire was set from within the train

The bombings in Mumbai show that someone is trying to get even. Violence begets violence.
IS THERE A SOLUTION TO INDIA'S DEEP ROOTS OF HATRED?

The way out is always: JUSTICE.

The ringleaders of the rapists should be put on trial and executed.

The Muslim mosque, Babri masjid, in Ayodhya, should be restored.

India should end its occupation of Kashmir.

The roots of violence will be cut once the victimized communities feel that due process of law is available and they are equal citizens of India.
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The HINDUS SHOULD REMEMBER that Islam came to India when a Hindu despot, Raja Dahir, captured a Muslim woman traveling on a ship off the Indian coastline to the Hajj in Makka. Her appeal for help reached Damascus and a 17 year old fighter, Muhammad ibn Qasim, set out with a small group of volunteers to free the woman. He met Raja Dahir on the battlefield and routed the Hindu army. The rest is history.

Unless the women of Gujarat get justice and the Hindu rapists are strung up, is it realistic to hope for peace?
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2003-08-30 Sat 17:48ct