Muslim women being trained for terror acts in India: Army

Women being trained for terror acts in India: Army

April 14, 2009 13:29 IST

Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor on Tuesday said that women were being “trained” on the other side of the Line of Control to infiltrate into India for terror acts.

“We have information that women are being trained on the other side to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir ,” the Army Chief said, when asked about the possibility of involvement of women handlers in the Pulwama encounter that ended with the killing of two.

“It is possible that women may be involved in giving directions to the terrorists,” he added.

Kapoor said that Army was “fully prepared” if there was any information about the infiltration of women in the country.

On the issue of infiltration of Taliban in India, Kapoor said, “As far as the Indian Army  is concerned, we have had no trace of Taliban.”

The Army Chief said the force would continue to “neutralise” elements trying to disturb peace and security in the country.

“Whether it is LeT, JeM or HUJI militant or Taliban, whosoever tries to disturb peace and stability of the region, he will be dealt with in the same fashion and will be neutralised,” he said.

Kapoor said the Army had “foreseen” the rise in the infiltration of militants and was prepared to tackle it.

“We had already foreseen all this happening and we were quite well prepared for it and that is why our troops were there on the Line of Control and deployed in three tiers to be able to check infiltration,” he said.

Kapoor said the Army had expected “calibration” in infiltration around the election time.

“We did expect that there would be a certain amount of calibration from the other side to push in infiltrators because of elections, which is what they are trying,” he said.

Muslim standard of living in Gujarat best in India

Guj Muslims are educated, economically sound: Modi
17 Apr 2009, 2142 hrs IST, Harish Joshi, TNN

BHARUCH: Reacting to Manmohan Singh’s statement about Muslims in  Gujarat being financially backward, Chief Minister Narendra Modi said, “It is very unfortunate that our so-called learned Prime Minister has not referred to his own government-appointed Sacchar Committee Report. He was addressing an election rally in Bharuch on Friday.

Modi said a study was conducted by a committee about the status of minorities in various states and the same report of UPA government stated that Muslims’ saving and per capita income in Gujarat is much higher than the national average. He added Muslims’ education level is higher than other states, even employment to Muslims in state government establishments are higher than other states.

Modi added, “Congress is playing vote politics, whereas we, in Gujarat, talk about equality and progress to all. They cannot see progress of Gujarat and hence, they make statements to misguide the people of this country. Now it is enough, Gujarat is blamed too much for no reason.”

“During my tenure as chief minister, I never uttered a single word which divides caste and community but they are the people who have not left any effort to blame me,” Modi said.

It was the fourth public really Modi addressed here on Friday.

Pious Saudis engage in temporary marriages with Indonesian women

Temporary marriages with Indonesian women on rise
P.K. Abdul Ghafour | Arab News

JEDDAH: A large number of Saudis are engaging in temporary marriages with Indonesian women with the intention of divorcing them.

“Such marriages are likely to increase if Islamic scholars fail to give a clear ruling prohibiting them,” said Khaled Al-Arrak, director of Saudi affairs at the Saudi Embassy in Jakarta.

He said most Saudis were engaged in such marriages without realizing their consequences. “Some poor Indonesians marry off their girls to Saudis hoping it would put an end to their poverty and miseries. If the Council of Senior Islamic Scholars does not ban this type of marriages, things will go out of control,” Al-Arrak warned.

There are so many offices in Indonesia that facilitate such marriages, Al-Watan Arabic daily said. The marriage takes place in the presence of witnesses and a man posing as the father of the bride.

These women do not know that their marriages would end within a few days and that they would have to bear children of people who would abandon them.

Last year, the Saudi Embassy in Jakarta received 82 calls regarding children of Saudis who had married Indonesian women and then abandoned them. “We have received 18 such calls from abandoned Indonesian wives of Saudis and their children this year so far,” Al-Arrak said.

The Saudi Embassy official said that the cases registered with the embassy accounted for only 20 percent of such marriages that have actually taken place.

Aysha Noor, 22, an Indonesian woman from Sikka Bhumi, 160 km east of Jakarta, said her parents married her to a young Saudi man when she was 16, thinking it would be a blessing for the family and end their poverty.

“We in Indonesia consider people of Makkah and Madinah as blessed ones. The man gave me a dowry of six million Indonesian rupiahs (SR2,024). The dowry helped us to solve some of our economic problems. My family did not know that the man was intending to have a temporary marriage.”

She adds: “After a few days he paid us the remaining amount of three million rupiahs (SR1,011) and left the country.” Noor said she later had a similar marriage with another Saudi before finding a job at a nightclub as a singer and dancer.

There are many women in Indonesia who have similar stories to tell. Some of them find it difficult to look after their children from Saudi husbands. The Saudi Embassy in Jakarta registers such Saudi children and helps them travel to the Kingdom to recognize their fathers but many refuse to accept them.

The embassy also receives visa requests for marriages, particularly for people of special needs and elderly who want to marry Indonesian women. These marriages often fail because the Saudi society treats them as maids and they cannot merge with the society primarily because of language barrier. Such marriages cost between SR5,000 and SR10,000.

S.P. Dharmakirty, consul for information at the Indonesian Consulate in Jeddah, confirmed that temporary marriages involving Saudis were taking place in his country.

“Indonesian authorities have taken appropriate measures to curb this practice,” he told Arab News, adding that some people involved in such illegal marriages have been detained.

The consul also pointed out that the marriage of some Indonesian women with elderly and handicapped Saudis was not legal.

“We face many problems because such marriages are not registered and the women coming from Indonesia use visa for maids to come to the Kingdom,” he said. “Some of them later come to consulate to seek advice,” he added.

India, the Most Pro-Israel Country

India, the Most Pro-Israel Country
by Daniel Pipes
April 3, 2009

A study undertaken on behalf of Israel’s foreign ministry by an international market research company found that India is the most pro-Israel country in the world, beating out the United States by two percentage points.

The study, undertaken as part of the “Branding Israel” project, looked at what it calls the world’s 13 most important countries and included 5,215 interviewees. Asked a series of questions, participants graded their sympathy for Israel on a 1-to-10 scale. Some results, given in terms of percentage expressing sympathy to the Jewish State:

58% India
56% United States
52% Russia
52% Mexico
50% China
34% Great Britain
27% France
23% Spain

Comment: The Indian statistic is not the only striking one – note the continent of the countries clustered at the bottom and how much lower their numbers than those of Russia and China. Just as the U.S government should rethink its military alliances, so might Israelis take a fresh look at the globe. (April 3, 2009)

UAE Royal Sheikh in Torture Tape: Victim Whipped, Beaten, Electrocuted

video link

ABC News Exclusive: Torture Tape Implicates UAE Royal Sheikh

Police in Uniform Join In as Victim Is Whipped, Beaten, Electrocuted, Run Over by SUV

By VIC WALTER, REHAB EL-BURI, ANGELA HILL and BRIAN ROSS
April 22, 2009

A video tape smuggled out of the United Arab Emirates shows a member of the country’s royal family mercilessly torturing a man with whips, electric cattle prods and wooden planks with protruding nails.

An investigation into a savage torture by a royal family member of a close ally.A man in a UAE police uniform is seen on the tape tying the victim’s arms and legs, and later holding him down as the Sheikh pours salt on the man’s wounds and then drives over him with his Mercedes SUV.

In a statement to ABC News, the UAE Ministry of the Interior said it had reviewed the tape and acknowledged the involvement of Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, brother of the country’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed.

“The incidents depicted in the video tapes were not part of a pattern of behavior,” the Interior Ministry’s statement declared.

The Minister of the Interior is also one of Sheikh Issa’s brother.

The government statement said its review found “all rules, policies and procedures were followed correctly by the Police Department.”

Dr Zakir Naik – Anatomy of a pig – must read

Dr. Zakir Naik – Anatomy of a pig
Sanjay Khanna, http://www.faithfreedom.org

Self proclaimed Islamic scholar and student of comparative religions Dr. Zakir Naik is a familiar name to Muslims and non Muslims alike, albeit for different reasons. While Muslims marvel at his “knowledge” and “wisdom”, others make good use of him for laughter therapy. Below are some of the grandiose statements made by this so called “scholar” and my unbiased attempt to dissect them. I do not know much about the Koran except for what I have read on this site and for this reason I chose to stick with the socio economic ideas of this man in an attempt to read his mind.

Dr. Naik – If two sisters were walking on the street, one in hijab and the other wearing a mini skirt, men would invariably eve tease the one wearing the skirt. So hijab protects the Muslim women from men and rape.

Reply – Don’t all countries have laws that protect women? It’s a different matter that laws in Islamic countries are heavily biased against women to the extent that they require more than one witness ( four in some countries) to prove a case against a man.. In the civilized world of non Muslims, you cannot touch a woman even if she is in a bikini on the beach. This statement of Dr. Naik exposes the hypocrisy, double standards and status of women in Islamic countries. If you go by the way women are treated in Islamic societies, women there should be wearing the hijab to protect themselves from fellow Muslims!

Dr. Naik – The west talks of women’s liberation when in fact it exploits them. You find pictures of scantily dressed girls in ads to sell everything including cars.

Reply – True, but that in itself is a testimony to gender equality in the west. Nobody forces a girl to model and nobody has the right to object either. It is entirely up to the individual.

Dr. Naik – the western media exaggerates news of a 60 year old Arab marrying a 16 year old girl but plays it down when a 60 year old man in America rapes a 10 year old girl.

Reply – What exactly are you trying to compare here Dr. Naik? Rape is a crime and rape of a minor is a crime that is unpardonable and unacceptable in any civilized society. It is punishable under the law. But marriages like the one mentioned by our “scholar” is nothing but legally sanctioned rape of a minor. And this type of rape has the blessings of the Sharia in all Islamic countries. Let us also not forget that victims of this kind of rape are girls from poor families that are sexually exploited by rich Muslims in the garb of marriage and “helping” the family. I suppose Dr. Naik would call this Zakaat!

Dr. Naik – People in the west eat pork and hence behave like pigs. Pigs are the only animals in the world that invite their friends to have sex with their partners. Westerners also do the same.

Reply – If eating pork makes you behave like a pig, Dr. Zakir Naik has just dropped a bombshell on the Islamic world by indirectly suggesting that prophet Muhammad was also a pork eater. In fact if Muhammad was born in America in this day and age, he would have been a successful pimp in Las Vegas . Dr. Naik should know that barring a few species that mate for life all animals are promiscuous for the simple reason that their sole purpose is to procreate and not propagate Islam. And to think that this man claims the Koran to be scientific!

Dr. Naik – “I have given lectures in many parts of the world. Many big people come to hear me. Wherever I go, presidents, prime ministers want to meet me. They all tell me you are so knowledgeable and told us so many things that we didn’t know before. We wish you would come more often”

Reply – When he said – presidents and prime ministers – did he mean the president of Iraq ? Prime minister of Malaysia ? Sultan of Brunei ? Are there non Muslim nations also on that list? Whatever that is, this only proves that Dr. Naik is an attention seeker and the above statement is anything but scholarly. I have a feeling that this man has had a troubled childhood. He used to stammer and it is very possible that his peers in school and college poked fun at him. Girls would have avoided him altogether. Deprived of a regular social life, he may have become a bookworm which explains his ability to memorize verses from the Koran and other religious texts. It is a well known fact that people who are scorned by society find a way of hitting back with a vengeance and Dr. Naik has found a convenient tool in Islam. Add to it his failed medical practice and the reasons for his hatred towards society are not too hard to find.

Dr. Naik – Muslims should not work in banks as giving/ accepting interest is haraam in Islam.

Reply – How would you define interest? Isn’t a Muslim shopkeeper also earning interest on his investment? Is it haraam if banks do the same? Do gulf nations sell oil on a no profit basis? Don’t they earn interest on their investment? This is just one of the many absurdities in the Koran. Muhammad made taking of interest haraam to get rid of his debtors and Muslims blindly follow the same.

Dr. Naik – Muslims should not work in alcohol bars and airlines because they serve liquor.

Reply – With the high rate of illiteracy among Muslims, thanks to their madarassas, do they really have a choice when it comes to jobs? As far as airlines are concerned, I agree. Muslims cannot work in airlines, they are only allowed to hijack and bomb aircrafts!

Dr. Naik – Muslim girls can become gynecologists so that they will deal only with women but they should not take up other specialties as that will bring them into contact with men.

Reply – This is shocking coming from someone who claims to be a medical doctor himself. Does he think lady doctors have sex with patients in their consultation chambers? How much absurdity can these stupid, dumb Muslims really digest before they actually hit the loo?

Dr. Naik – Muslim girls can work provided they don’t mix with boys. There has to be a separate area for them. They can talk to men only if it’s official and necessary.

Reply – I can understand a highly qualified and proven individual making such demands from his employer but coming from illiterate Muslims, isn’t this worth a laugh? It’s like a driver in Florida asking his boss for an apartment on south beach with a car and an annual vacation in Switzerland as perks!!!

Dr. Naik – The education system in India should be changed. Many girls lose their virginity by the time they leave school.

Reply – This statement takes the cake. It’s a well known fact that school girls in Muslim countries are not safe and governments keep changing school uniforms to cover little girls to the extent that they don’t look like kids anymore but more like emperor penguins in the Antarctic. And all this to protect the little children from Muslim pedophiles who love kids as much as their holy prophet did. As far as the education system is concerned, Indian schools follow the British system and is rated as among the best in the world. Indian schools teach the basic tenets of all religions, unlike schools in the middle east and other Muslim countries where pages from text books that refer to other religions are torn off by the government. What impression would that create on the mind of a child? Dr. Zakir Naik has been educated in Christian and Hindu institutions in India . By attacking these religions now, he is simply doing what all Muslims do best – spit into the very hand that has fed you. It’s hardly surprising that Hindus in India do not trust Muslims at all and they never will.

After reading this I could forgive you for thinking that Dr. Zakir Naik may have been circumcised between the ears instead of the thighs. Muslims are the only community that can be taken for a ride by such psychopaths. There are a lot more absurdities that this man preaches like halal entertainment (Islamic cartoons and movies), Sharia etc but it is my belief that the above examples would be sufficient to discount the man and throw him into the nearest thrash bin.

Hyderabad police mole supplying information to Asaduddin Owaisi, president of Majlis Ittehadul-e-Muslimeen (MIM)

Probe on to unmask MIM mole among cops

Vikram Sharma, 22 Apr 2009
HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad City police has undertaken an investigation it, perhaps, had never taken up before — catching a mole in its own ranks.

It all started with the Majlis Ittehadul-e-Muslimeen (MIM) ‘managing’ to obtain a copy of a circular issued by DGP AK Mohanty through its ‘trusted’ men in the police department.

In the circular, the DGP had warned that there were intelligence inputs to suggest that the MIM might try to create trouble, especially in Yakutpura, Chaderghat, Bahadurpura and other areas.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner B Prasada Rao ordered a probe into the leak on Monday. Interestingly, the possibility of the circular being leaked out from his own office in Basheerbagh is not being ruled out! On the other hand, though the probe was ordered only on Monday, the MIM has already come to know of that too! ‘‘It is very difficult to say who could have leaked it but a probe is on,’’ Prasada Rao told Express. He said the copy of the circular was also forwarded to some inspectors. ‘‘Once we verify it, we will come to know who it was,’’ he said. Top sources disclosed to Express that the circular issued to Prasada Rao was in turn sent to all zonal DCPs, Joint Commissioners and Additional Commissioners.

The circular then reached MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi who raised a hue and cry over it, wondering why was his party alone singled out as a trouble-maker. Sources said while various sections in the Commissioner’s office and those offices down below (one Additional Commissioner and two Joint Commissioners also work in the five-floor complex) are under the scanner, the sleuths are looking at the possible role of camp clerks (CC) working under all the officers. Discreet enquiries are also being made in the police headquarters at Lakdi- Ka-Pool from where the circular was actually sent to Prasada Rao. In fact, telephone records of the staff, including police officials of different ranks, are being scrutinised.

This is not the first time that the senior Owaisi has managed to get an internal circular. Soon after the bomb blast at the Mecca Masjid in May 2007, Owaisi obtained a secret report prepared by the then south zone DCP M Kantha Rao on the possible suspects.

It’s the terrorism, stupid; not India: US to Pakistan

It’s the terrorism, stupid; not India: US message to Pak
24 Apr 2009, 0424 hrs IST, Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN

WASHINGTON: The United States will institute benchmarks that Pakistan will have to meet, including scaling down its confrontational posture against  India, if Islamabad is to earn the massive foreign aid Washington and its partners are lining up, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton indicated on Thursday.

The benchmarks will include moving troops from its border with India to its insurgency stricken areas to fight its homegrown terrorism problem, Clinton suggested, following up on the broad US prescription and advice to Pakistan that its grave domestic situation, and not India, constituted the biggest danger to its existence.

Clinton provided the assurances about benchmarks at the urging of some lawmakers, but said she would prefer they remain an executive decision rather than legislative so that the administration would not be paralyzed. Some of the benchmarks would be classified, but the administration would share them with Congress.

“You know, on a simple measure, is the Pakistani military still amassing hundreds of thousands of troops on the Indian border, or have they begun to move those toward these insurgent areas?” Clinton explained at a Congressional hearing, citing the example of one such benchmark. “What kind of kinetic action are they taking? How much? Is there increasing up-tempo or not? Is it sporadic, so they start in and then they move back?”

“I agree with you completely that we need the internal benchmarks,” she told an anxious lawmaker, adding the approach would be across the government. “The intelligence community will have certain measurements; the Defense Department will; we (the State Department) will look as well.”

The Pakistani government — and some of its supporters like Senator John Kerry — has opposed legislative benchmarks, especially those which condition US aid to Pakistan ending its sponsorship of terrorism against India, saying they are humiliating. But lawmakers on the House side are against giving Pakistan a free ride given what they say is its history of double-dealing.

“I’ve been around this place 40 years. My experience with Pakistan during all that time is that it has always been Pakistan, which means it’s a country of dealmakers, but they don’t keep the deals,” said Congressman David Obey. “I have absolutely no confidence in the ability of the existing Pakistani government to do one blessed thing.”

Other members also complained about Pakistan’s double-dealing – paying lip service to fighting terrorism while cutting deals with extremists. “How do we succeed in Pakistan if the Pakistanis themselves are either unwilling or incapable of making the tough choices and taking the tough action needed to confront the insurgency?” asked one Congressman.

Following up on President Obama’s assurance that there will be no blank checks for Pakistan, Secretary Clinton also re-iterated what has become a virtual mantra in Washington in recent weeks: Repeated advice to Pakistan that it is not India, but Islamabad’s own home-grown terrorism that posed an existential threat to it.

In an indication that US aid to Pakistan will be contingent on its India policy, even if it is not incorporated into legislation, Clinton said US officials have been “spending countless hours in really painful, specific conversations,” to convince Pakistan of the changed situation. Pakistan was slow to understand this, she suggested.

“Changing paradigms and mindsets is not easy,” Clinton told anxious lawmakers, adding, “I want to underscore the feeling we get, which is that if you have been locked in a mortal contest with someone you think is your principal — in fact, only — real enemy, and all of a sudden circumstances change, it just takes some time.”

Similar policy prescriptions and sentiments (It’s not India, it’s home-grown extremists) were expressed at a Harvard lecture earlier this week by General David Petraeus, chief of the US Central Command with oversight of Pakistan and the middle-east, indicating that US interlocutors are all reading from the same page.

“The existential threat” facing Pakistan “is internal extremists and not India,” Petraeus said in the speech at the Kennedy School of Government, adding such an idea was “intellectually dislocating” for the institutions of Pakistan fostered on decades of projecting confrontation against India.

Over at the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Pakistan crisis was taking a lot of President Obama’s time. Defense Secretary Robert Gates too chipped in, asking Islamabad to recognize the danger and take action.

On her part, Clinton told lawmakers there is a growing understanding of the changed circumstances within the Pakistani leadership.

“Now, there are no promises. They have to do it (act against extremists),” she warned.

Muslim-run schools in UP fraudulently converting into madrasas to benefit from the Union government scheme

UP schools converting to madrassas: Report
Press Trust of India

Monday, April 20, 2009, (New Delhi)The Centre has sought a status report from the Uttar Pradesh government on media reports that several private schools in the state have converted into madrassas in the last two months to avail of special benefits.

Taking cognisance of reports that scores of private schools converted into madrassas, the Ministry of HRD has asked the state government to conduct an enquiry and submit a report, stating the factual position.

According to reports, schools have been converted with the aim to get benefit from the Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madarassa (SPQEM), launched by the Union government in February this year.

In the letter to the state government, the ministry said they should find out the affiliations and standing of the schools which have been reportedly converted.

“The state government has been asked to state the action taken by it in curbing the trend, if such conversion is happening,” a senior ministry official said in New Delhi.

Reports said most of these schools are run by Muslims and do not have more than one year of standing. However, as per norms madrassas, which have been in existence at least for three years and registered under central or state government Acts or Madrassa Board or with WAKF Boards or NIOS shall be eligible to apply for assistance under this programme.

“Ultimately the state government will recommend the madrassas for consideration under the scheme. So they should be careful while recommending the madrassas,” the official said.
Reports said the schools which have been converted were formal schools and were following syllabus and textbooks of the state education board.

At present, about 3000 madrassas from Uttar Pradesh are getting funding from the government under several schemes, including Madrassa Modernisation Programme.

The government launched the SPQEM scheme in February which aims at improving quality education in madrassas by introducing modern subjects and providing vocational training to students.

The scheme will provide funds to madrassas and maktabs to introduce modern subjects like Science, Mathematics, Social Studies, Hindi and English in their curriculum. The scheme envisages an expenditure of about Rs 325 crore in the Xith Plan.

The financial assistance will be given yearly under the scheme through the state governments/Union Territory Administrations in whose jurisdiction the institution is situated.

Azad’s brother in BJP justifies Babri Masjid demolition

Azad’s brother in BJP justifies Babri Masjid demolition
12 Apr 2009, IANS

JAMMU: Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s younger brother Ghulam Ali Azad, who recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Sunday justified  the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid, saying no mosque ever existed in Ayodhya.

Ali Azad lambasted the Congress for accusing BJP senior leader LK Advani of being involved in the demolition of the 16th century mosque.

“There never was a mosque, nor it exists today nor it will ever,” Ali Azad told reporters.

The mosque was constructed by first Mughal emperor Babur in Ayodhya in the 16th century. On Dec 6, 1992, it was destroyed by Hindu extremists who believe that Babur destroyed an existing temple at the site, built to commemorate the birthplace of Rama.

The demolition triggered widespread communal unrest in the entire country.

Babur, Ali Azad said, was an “invader. We cannot glorify him as a leader of Muslims in any sense of the word.”

The brother of the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said Congress leaders were working against one another.

He said he had joined the BJP because it was a party of principles and an ideology rooted in keeping the nation together.

Hours after his younger brother’s outburst, Ghulam Nabi Azad said that he had nothing to do with what Ali Azad had said.

“I disown him (Ali Azad). I have no dealing with him,” Azad told a local TV channel.