Green Energy
from ACT:
A Tale of Two Partitions: India 1947 and Palestine 1948
by Norman Berdichevsky
A few academics and editorial writers claiming to be scholars and quite a few liberal pundits/observers, have argued that some blame for the recent atrocious acts of terror in Mumbai should be put on India’s Hindus by stressing that the terrorist group of “disaffected Muslims” carrying out the outrage of random murder of civilians was “probably funded from outside India.” They believe as Fareed Zakaria stated in Newsweek, that Indian Hindus “had it coming” because “One of the untold stories of India is that the Muslim population has not shared in the boom the country has enjoyed over the last 10 years. There is still a lot of institutional discrimination, and many remain persecuted.”
This view is not just wrong and short-sighted, it is symptomatic of why India has become a major target for terrorism that enjoys widespread support not only in Pakistan but in the wider Muslim world. Hatred of India stems from a psychological need to link India and Israel as guilty in the “injustice” Muslims believe they have suffered and to deflect blame and muddy the waters by shifting responsibility for the Partition of India in 1947 to the Hindus and conjuring up the vision that the Jews and Zionism did precisely this in Palestine in 1948. Nothing is further from the truth. In the case of Pakistan, Muslims were responsible for demanding partition and unleashing a civil war, driving millions of people from their homes, destroying the vision of a non-sectarian united India, and creating a new nationality based on religion – precisely the grievances often raised against the Jews and Zionism. Unlike the Jews and their millennial long religious heritage, a national existence for 1,500 years predating Islam, Hebrew language and experiences in the Diaspora to unite them, the new “nation” of Pakistan was forged by welding together disjointed territories, diverse peoples and languages, without any prior existence as a national entity. While the same may be said of India, the vision forged by its nationalist leaders rested on the very diversity of its people imbued with the idea of an all embracing “Mother India” and the democratic and legal foundations of the state inherited from British rule.
The Muslim demands for a separate state in Pakistan and the area of Bengal (The former Pakistani region of Bangladesh, now an independent state) led to the greatest movement of refugees in the 20th century and three major wars since independence. These demands foster hopes of an eventual secession of Kashmir from India. It was Mahatma Gandhi along with the leadership of the Congress Party (largely Hindu) and precious few Muslim moderates who preached in vain for cooperation between the two communities and an independent, unified and secular state of India.
They were eventually spurned by extremists who could not accept anything less than domination of a part of the country with Muslim majorities to replace British colonialism. This was in keeping with the same line of reasoning that determined the adamant refusal of the Arabs in Palestine to accept the very idea of partition, becoming a minority in a Jewish state or even tolerating a Jewish minority with national rights in a unified Palestine and the implicit threat that Muslims might come under the domination of non-Muslims. In the case of Palestine the idea that the despised Jews might do the same was even more repugnant than that the Hindus would do so in an undivided India.
India had for centuries assimilated numerous invaders but marauders carrying the banners of Islam from the West and North brought with them their new aggressive faith. By 711 they reached the mouth of the Indus and due to their greater mobility and the weakening divisions of Hindu caste society, soon gained ascendancy over large parts of the Northwest. For more than seven centuries the growing extent of Muslim rule in India was accompanied by the threat of the sword – “convert or die” and millions of Hindus were slaughtered in what was a war of religious fanaticism that makes the Thirty Years War between Catholics and Protestants in Europe look like the minor squabble of a debating society. Today’s supporters of multiculturalism prefer to overlook this atrocious record of religious extremism and ignore the expansion of Islam and its record of intolerance towards subject peoples.
Efforts by the later enlightened “Mughal” (from the Arabic word for Mongol) rulers of Afghan-Persian and Turkish origin for a brief time (1524-1707) reached a temporary stage of accommodation between the two faiths and their adherents, ending for a time the humiliating second class status of Hindu subjects and the wholesale destruction of Hindu idols and temples. Under Shah Jahan, the summit of Mughall power, the Taj Mahal was constructed but his rule marked a return to demands for manifest Islamic superiority that would not disappear bur grow in intensity under the British “raj.”
The answer to why India has become a prime target of Islamic extremism is not ambiguous. The roots of the answer go back more than a thousand years. It is therefore a mistake to look at what happened in Mumbai from the standpoint of the problem over Kashmir or the exact partition lines between India and Pakistan dating from 1947, or the grievances of some Muslims on account of prejudice. The terrorist attacks on India are part of the world-wide movement inspired by Jihad against all unbelievers, and primarily where these infidels hold sway over Muslims.
The atrocious short-sightedness of Western advocates of multiculturalism and a “one-world” philosophy who have been scornful of American self-defense measures following the attacks of 9/11 will not, as the Negro spiritual so poignantly intones “WILL NOT BE MOVED” by repeated atrocities committed by a plethora of groups, all describing themselves with the Arabic words of JIHAD (holy war and its practitioners, the “JiHaDists” from the root JiHaD – Holy War, and Fedayeen from the Arabic word for those who commit “self sacrifice” (martyrdom).
ALL OF IT . . .
- Muslim Vs. Hindu Honor Killings
The essay by Phillis Chesler and Nathan Bloom is HERE. Excerpt: Although the overwhelming majority of honor killings worldwide occur within Muslim communities, one would not know this by reading the mainstream media. Fearful of being labeled "Islamophobic,"...
- Great Moments In The History Of Pacifism, In Which Gandhi Says Muslims May Live According To Their Religious Dictates, But Christians And Jews May Not
Watch, as Gandhi justifies Islamic conquest of Jerusalem, but denies Jews the same dedication to their religious beliefs. Let me be clear that, in showing this to you, I am not justifying Holy War on the part of the Jews. I am simply saying, Gandhi believed...
- Is Obama Attempting To Promote Islam In India?
The nation of Pakistan exists solely because Muslims in India could not get along with Hindus, Sikhs and people of other religions. So, they had to have their own country, and Britain gave it to them. If you ever wonder whether Muslims can learn to get...
- End The Occupation!
The occupation of indigenous peoples by invaders from outside, whether physical or cultural, is the root cause of all political hatred and violence in our world today. In order to secure just and lasting peace for the peoples of the world, it is necessary...
- Gandhara, A Photo Essay
The kingdom of Gandhara was located in what is now the north of Pakistan, but then an inseparable part of India, for Pakistan was created in 1947 as a state specially for the Muslims of India (but, unlike another state whose nation, in contrast to the...
Green Energy
"in both cases, Muslims were the principal instigators of war and killing - naturally, this has been denied over the years"
from ACT:
A Tale of Two Partitions: India 1947 and Palestine 1948
by Norman Berdichevsky
A few academics and editorial writers claiming to be scholars and quite a few liberal pundits/observers, have argued that some blame for the recent atrocious acts of terror in Mumbai should be put on India’s Hindus by stressing that the terrorist group of “disaffected Muslims” carrying out the outrage of random murder of civilians was “probably funded from outside India.” They believe as Fareed Zakaria stated in Newsweek, that Indian Hindus “had it coming” because “One of the untold stories of India is that the Muslim population has not shared in the boom the country has enjoyed over the last 10 years. There is still a lot of institutional discrimination, and many remain persecuted.”
This view is not just wrong and short-sighted, it is symptomatic of why India has become a major target for terrorism that enjoys widespread support not only in Pakistan but in the wider Muslim world. Hatred of India stems from a psychological need to link India and Israel as guilty in the “injustice” Muslims believe they have suffered and to deflect blame and muddy the waters by shifting responsibility for the Partition of India in 1947 to the Hindus and conjuring up the vision that the Jews and Zionism did precisely this in Palestine in 1948. Nothing is further from the truth. In the case of Pakistan, Muslims were responsible for demanding partition and unleashing a civil war, driving millions of people from their homes, destroying the vision of a non-sectarian united India, and creating a new nationality based on religion – precisely the grievances often raised against the Jews and Zionism. Unlike the Jews and their millennial long religious heritage, a national existence for 1,500 years predating Islam, Hebrew language and experiences in the Diaspora to unite them, the new “nation” of Pakistan was forged by welding together disjointed territories, diverse peoples and languages, without any prior existence as a national entity. While the same may be said of India, the vision forged by its nationalist leaders rested on the very diversity of its people imbued with the idea of an all embracing “Mother India” and the democratic and legal foundations of the state inherited from British rule.
The Muslim demands for a separate state in Pakistan and the area of Bengal (The former Pakistani region of Bangladesh, now an independent state) led to the greatest movement of refugees in the 20th century and three major wars since independence. These demands foster hopes of an eventual secession of Kashmir from India. It was Mahatma Gandhi along with the leadership of the Congress Party (largely Hindu) and precious few Muslim moderates who preached in vain for cooperation between the two communities and an independent, unified and secular state of India.
They were eventually spurned by extremists who could not accept anything less than domination of a part of the country with Muslim majorities to replace British colonialism. This was in keeping with the same line of reasoning that determined the adamant refusal of the Arabs in Palestine to accept the very idea of partition, becoming a minority in a Jewish state or even tolerating a Jewish minority with national rights in a unified Palestine and the implicit threat that Muslims might come under the domination of non-Muslims. In the case of Palestine the idea that the despised Jews might do the same was even more repugnant than that the Hindus would do so in an undivided India.
India had for centuries assimilated numerous invaders but marauders carrying the banners of Islam from the West and North brought with them their new aggressive faith. By 711 they reached the mouth of the Indus and due to their greater mobility and the weakening divisions of Hindu caste society, soon gained ascendancy over large parts of the Northwest. For more than seven centuries the growing extent of Muslim rule in India was accompanied by the threat of the sword – “convert or die” and millions of Hindus were slaughtered in what was a war of religious fanaticism that makes the Thirty Years War between Catholics and Protestants in Europe look like the minor squabble of a debating society. Today’s supporters of multiculturalism prefer to overlook this atrocious record of religious extremism and ignore the expansion of Islam and its record of intolerance towards subject peoples.
Efforts by the later enlightened “Mughal” (from the Arabic word for Mongol) rulers of Afghan-Persian and Turkish origin for a brief time (1524-1707) reached a temporary stage of accommodation between the two faiths and their adherents, ending for a time the humiliating second class status of Hindu subjects and the wholesale destruction of Hindu idols and temples. Under Shah Jahan, the summit of Mughall power, the Taj Mahal was constructed but his rule marked a return to demands for manifest Islamic superiority that would not disappear bur grow in intensity under the British “raj.”
The answer to why India has become a prime target of Islamic extremism is not ambiguous. The roots of the answer go back more than a thousand years. It is therefore a mistake to look at what happened in Mumbai from the standpoint of the problem over Kashmir or the exact partition lines between India and Pakistan dating from 1947, or the grievances of some Muslims on account of prejudice. The terrorist attacks on India are part of the world-wide movement inspired by Jihad against all unbelievers, and primarily where these infidels hold sway over Muslims.
The atrocious short-sightedness of Western advocates of multiculturalism and a “one-world” philosophy who have been scornful of American self-defense measures following the attacks of 9/11 will not, as the Negro spiritual so poignantly intones “WILL NOT BE MOVED” by repeated atrocities committed by a plethora of groups, all describing themselves with the Arabic words of JIHAD (holy war and its practitioners, the “JiHaDists” from the root JiHaD – Holy War, and Fedayeen from the Arabic word for those who commit “self sacrifice” (martyrdom).
ALL OF IT . . .
- Muslim Vs. Hindu Honor Killings
The essay by Phillis Chesler and Nathan Bloom is HERE. Excerpt: Although the overwhelming majority of honor killings worldwide occur within Muslim communities, one would not know this by reading the mainstream media. Fearful of being labeled "Islamophobic,"...
- Great Moments In The History Of Pacifism, In Which Gandhi Says Muslims May Live According To Their Religious Dictates, But Christians And Jews May Not
Watch, as Gandhi justifies Islamic conquest of Jerusalem, but denies Jews the same dedication to their religious beliefs. Let me be clear that, in showing this to you, I am not justifying Holy War on the part of the Jews. I am simply saying, Gandhi believed...
- Is Obama Attempting To Promote Islam In India?
The nation of Pakistan exists solely because Muslims in India could not get along with Hindus, Sikhs and people of other religions. So, they had to have their own country, and Britain gave it to them. If you ever wonder whether Muslims can learn to get...
- End The Occupation!
The occupation of indigenous peoples by invaders from outside, whether physical or cultural, is the root cause of all political hatred and violence in our world today. In order to secure just and lasting peace for the peoples of the world, it is necessary...
- Gandhara, A Photo Essay
The kingdom of Gandhara was located in what is now the north of Pakistan, but then an inseparable part of India, for Pakistan was created in 1947 as a state specially for the Muslims of India (but, unlike another state whose nation, in contrast to the...