FAKE SAVIORS OF HINDUISM AT THE WORLD HINDU CONGRESS IN CHICAGO

RSS Chief, Mohan Bhagwat inaugurates the 2nd World Hindu Congress, 2018 by lighting the traditional lamp in Chicago. Also seen in the picture, Ashwin Adhin (2nd from right), Vice President of Surinam                                                                                   Photo / Jay Mandal-On Assignment

By Mike Ghouse

“These guys are frightening some of the innocent and ignorant Hindus to believe that “Hinduism is in danger” and posing themselves as the freaking saviors. Hinduism does not need these men to save it. It is a 5000-year-old robust religion and will always be there like all other religions.”

The World Hindu Congress held a conference in Chicago in the first week of September 2018, and it was attended by about 3000 Hindus from around the world. Unfortunately, many speakers fouled. Here is an accounting of the two who were divisive and sowed the seeds of ill-will between Indian communities.

Every faith group holds similar conferences. As Americans, we have an opportunity to guide these conferences towards the goal of civility and pluralistic societies, that is, “Respecting the otherness of others.” When we do that, conflicts fade, and solutions emerge.

Each one of us must work towards building cohesive societies where we can live without apprehensions and tensions. No matter what religion you belong to, you must put in that effort.

This conference listed over 100 speakers including the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh Chief Mohan Bhagwat and Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu.  Can we expect them to talk about the idea of living your life and letting others live theirs? I hope so, but their history points to the opposite. They want to ‘dictate’ what you eat, wear or believe.

Almost all speakers at the event were hell-bent on breaking India to pieces by placing wedges between fellow Indians, at this time, I am familiar with two of the most virulent speakers, and they are Rajiv Malhotra and Dilip Amin.

We unequivocally condemn their false preaching, but spare them, for they know not.

Malhotra panders to the base instincts of humans, some of whom have fallen for him. A few weeks ago, he sent a message urging Hindus to contribute to help Hindus only in the Kerala flood disaster and not Christians and Muslims.   Instead of criticizing him for his egregious tweet, a small percent of Hindus has showered him with glory. I am not sure if these Indian Americans have imbibed the American values of caring for fellow humans – which is the value in all religions.

Malhotra is not only wrong but advocating evil acts in the Indian society, dividing it further, causing everyone to live in the hell of tensions.

These guys are frightening some of the innocent and ignorant Hindus to believe that “Hinduism is in danger” and posing themselves as the freaking saviors. Hinduism does not need these men to save it. It is a 5000-year-old robust religion and will always be there like all other religions.

The other guy speaking at the World Hindu Congress in Chicago is Dilip Amin, whose poster heads as “Interfaith Marriages – Silent Holocaust of Hindus.” On his website, he has placed a few good token messages of interfaith marriages, but his goal seems to frighten Hindus to prevent their daughters from marrying Muslims or Christians.

“Every faith group holds similar conferences. As Americans, we have an opportunity to guide these conferences towards the goal of civility and pluralistic societies, that is, “Respecting the otherness of others.” When we do that, conflicts fade, and solutions emerge.”

Amin rightfully claims that 38% of Hindus marry outside their faith and alludes that Hinduism is losing out to Muslims and Christians. Dumbly, he also quotes a similar figure of Muslims and Christians marrying outside their faiths as if they are not losing their flock.

On his website, he points out that these marriages ultimately will not pan out as one 18 years-married Hindu man says, we are divorcing, she calls me a Kafir. This is the dumbest idea he is selling in Chicago. When people go through a divorce, they resort to saying anything that pisses off the other. It has nothing to do with religion; it is all about personal conflicts. When a Hindu woman and man go through a divorce, they label some other reason for their divorce including an abusive, violent relationship, but when there is a religion, they make a scapegoat of religion.  There is no need to blame the faith for the acts of individuals.

Over the last seven years, I have officiated nearly 75 interfaith weddings of all combinations. Hindu-Muslim, Muslim-Jain, Hindu-Atheist, Christian-Muslim, Jewish-Muslim and other combinations. The only divorce thus far has been between a Jewish-Christian couple – not because of their religion, but because of the differences in raising their combined children.

They come to me because I do not require conversions and deliver the sermon in both their religious traditions. Only two people have converted thus far out of their free will, which is a part of the pre-wedding counseling. More at Interfaith Marriages http://interfaithmarriages.org/

Those who convert, do feel comfortable sacrificing their belief for the love they have for the other, and to live with least conflicts and more harmony. Why should it matter to you or me? Do we own them and their souls?

“There are millions of Dalit Hindus who live in utter humility and are humiliated on a daily basis. Let these fake saviors of Hinduism give them dignity, treat them as equals, consider them as Brahmins. If not, let them find dignity in other faiths. To a majority of Hindus, Hinduism is an open universal tradition that has a large umbrella to give its beneficence to all faiths. Hinduism is not a dogmatic religion.”

Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews or others are individuals who have the freedom to fall in love with anyone and marry anyone for their good. Who are you to dictate who marries whom? American born kids will laugh at these ridiculous attempts to save Hinduism.

One of the members of RSS writes, “Take particular note of World Vision – the worst of the whole bunch bent on harvesting the Lost (Hindu) souls in India via any means – deception, disguise in helping victims. Majority of Christian NGOs are not much better. The Muslims Charities only help fellow Muslims.”

This man is very short-sighted and ill-informed. If everyone in the society starts caring for their own, we will have a disaster on hand. During the Gujarat Earthquake, Tsunami, Kerala Floods and other disasters, Indians have come together for each other. Americans have gone all over the world to serve fellow humans. That’s the right thing to do.

These men also need to know that Saint Mother Teresa saved so many souls and brought dignity to them; the Catholic Charities have helped so many Dalits that the upper Caste Hindus refuse to even go near. Islamic Relief has gone and helped people regardless of their religion in every corner of the world and the majority of Hindus have done the same and will continue to serve and care for fellow beings.

If American Christian Charities had taken the same stinky attitude and not sent shiploads of wheat and corn to non-Christians during the famine in the late sixties, India would have suffered a major crisis, that includes extremist Hindus like the men quoted above.

There are millions of Dalit Hindus who live in utter humility and are humiliated on a daily basis. Let these fake saviors of Hinduism give them dignity, treat them as equals, consider them as Brahmins. If not, let them find dignity in other faiths. To a majority of Hindus, Hinduism is an open universal tradition that has a large umbrella to give its beneficence to all faiths. Hinduism is not a dogmatic religion.

Didn’t some of these guys come to America for making money? So, what if Dalits convert to Christianity for money and uplifting their own lives.

Hinduism is not in danger, these guys are making it appear  so, so that they can cash in on the fears of innocent and honest Hindus. I appeal to every Indian not to support divisive individuals or organizations.

We all have to work towards creating better societies.

(The author is the Executive Director of the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.  More about him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeghouse/)

American Muslims raise $30,000 to help repair black churches destroyed by fire

American Muslims raise $30,000 to help repair black churches destroyed by fire

By Andrew Buncombe

The Independent, 8 July 2015

When Faatimah Knight reached out to her Muslim friends and acquaintances to try and help black churches that had been destroyed by fire, she had no idea how much they could collect. Today, they have managed to raise just under $30,000 – money that will be used to help up to seven churches that were destroyed in the American south in the aftermath of the Charleston shooting and the campaign against the Confederate flag.

'We have been overwhelmed by how generous people have been,' Ms Knight, 23, told The Independent. 'We will stop it today…We will figure out how to distribute the money.'The fire at Charlotte's Briar Creek Road Baptist Church.

Ms Knight's campaign – carried out as Muslims around the world marked the festival of Ramadan - followed a smaller, more modest enterprise she had set in motion in the days after the shooting dead of nine people at Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17. She and some friends wanted to gather $500 to send flowers; they ended up raising $900.

And when she and the same friends read about the series of churches that were burned down and the probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, they similarly wanted to act. At least three of the fires were said to have been arson - with fears they may have been destroyed by people disgruntled by moves against the Confederate flag.

A number of Muslim organisations have responded to her call, including the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative, the Arab American Association of New York and Ummah Wide, but she said people of other faiths had also donated.

'It's Ramadan and we are experiencing first-hand the beauty and sanctity of our mosques during this holy month,' says a message posted on the launchgood.com website. A church in South Carolina burns after a fire breaks out on June 30, 2015

'ALL houses of worship are sanctuaries, a place where all should feel safe, a place we can seek refuge when the world is too much to bear.'

Ms Knight, a Masters student at the Chicago Theological Seminary, said of her acquaintances some people had questioned the campaign and asked why she was raising money for Christian houses of worship, as opposed to a Muslim cause. But most were supportive.

She said Islam taught of the need to protect the weak and vulnerable. She said while the black Christian communities of the South might not be weak, they were vulnerable.

'I'm a black person and I do identify with the wider black community at that level,' she said. 'Historically, the black community has been vulnerable.'

She added: 'Traditionally, when we have been on our best behaviour, we have created space for other faiths, and let people worship as they see fit.'

What Malcolm X Taught Me About Muslim America

What Malcolm X Taught Me About Muslim America

By Yasmine Flodin-Ali

Religion & Politics, 22 May 2018

I fell in love with Malcolm when I was fifteen. He was eloquent, handsome and, most importantly, revolutionary. Among a litany of emotionally stunted fictional white men, the Caulfields and Gatsbys of the standard high school English syllabus, the central character in The Autobiography of Malcolm X stood apart. As the only Muslim in my English class, I was quietly convinced that I understood Malcolm in a way that no one else could.

As I approached Malcolm’s birthday this month on May 19, I reflected on why I was so quick to identify with his story as a teenager. I have not spent time in prison, I did not have an impoverished childhood, and I will never know the struggle of being African American in the United States. I remember being intrigued that his was not the Islam I saw caricatured by the media as I came of age post-9/11, nor was it the Islam of the foreign-born imams who I struggled to follow on the rare occasion that my dad took us to a mosque. To me, Malcolm X’s Islam was the unapologetic Islam of the streets. I was drawn to Malcolm because he was cool.

I was born to a second-generation Swedish American Lutheran mother and an immigrant Muslim Pakistani father. My mother did not want to convert, a decision my father respected, but she agreed to raise us as Muslims. Growing up in Brooklyn in what was then a black majority neighbourhood, Islam acted as a passport of sorts—linking my visually out-of-place family to the Senegalese restaurant owner, the African American pharmacist who always closed forjummah (Friday prayers), and the Yemeni bodega owner. The local mosque issued the athan(call to prayer) four times a day, skipping only the predawn prayer out of respect for sleeping neighbours. Years later I was surprised by the controversy that followed Duke University’s attempt to issue the call to prayer from the campus’s chapel. Our neighbourhood was by no means Muslim majority, but the significant Muslim presence made it clear that being Muslim was respected.

Post-Trump Islam is becoming an increasingly racialized category in the United States. “Punish a Muslim Day” took place this past April. The day originated in England with a widely circulated letter whose authorship remains unknown, which called for various attacks against Muslims including throwing acid on people’s faces and bombing mosques. A Pakistani American man tweeted in response:

On #PunishAMuslimDay. I don’t want to give such a vile idea the Twitter oxygen it craves. Just remember what our hero, martyr, and walī, Malcolm X said: “Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.”

Clearly, I am not alone in my reverence for Malcolm X. My Facebook newsfeed is flooded every February on the commemoration of his assassination with images of Malcolm posted by South Asian Americans with captions like, “May Allah bless our hero.” (Full disclosure: I may have also posted an Instagram or two.) Young South Asian Muslims who embrace Malcolm as a walī, or saint-like figure, claim his narrative of counterculture and resistance as their own. This narrative is appealing because it is both authentically American and stands in rebellious contrast to the assimilationist aspirations of an older generation of South Asians.

Muslims are the most racially diverse religious group in America. According to the Pew Research Center, 41 percent of Muslims are white. (Pew follows the Census Bureau in coding Arabs and Persians as white, a categorization contested by many who argue that they are not perceived as white in America.) About 28 percent of Muslim Americans are Asians, a category predominantly made up of South Asian immigrants and their descendants from countries such as Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. And, 20 percent of Muslim Americans are black, a category that includes African Americans, as well as recent African immigrants and their descendants from countries such as Senegal, Ghana, and Nigeria.

The average American thinks of Muslims as a brown mass, lumping together South Asians and Arabs, and ignoring black Muslims. The racialization of Islam has obscured both the diversity of Muslim America, and the tensions that accompany that diversity. These tensions, ranging from serious to light-hearted, played out in my own childhood experience. Back in Brooklyn, the Senegalese might look down upon the African American Muslims and incorrectly assume that they were recent converts. When my grandmother visited from Pakistan and prayed in the Shi’a manner to which she was accustomed, a board member from our local Sunni mosque brusquely suggested that we shift to a Shi’a establishment; we never went back again. My father had heard Arab men refer to each as habibi, or “dear.” In a cross-cultural faux pas, he used it trying to be friendly, but our Palestinian grocer did not take the term of endearment kindly.

Beyond my neighbourhood, discrimination against black Muslims is rampant in Muslim American spaces. I was shocked to hear a Pakistani American classmate in my undergraduate Muslim Student Association refer to a Muslim international student from West Africa as a “black monkey” in Urdu. More than once I have heard my uncle’s wax angrily and poetically about their treatment in this country, only to slip in a veiled racist remark about African Americans a few moments later.

On a structural level, and looking specifically at South Asians, white converts and South Asians are vastly overrepresented among the leadership of prominent Muslim American institutions such as the Islamic Society of North America. In her book American Muslim Women, sociologist Jamillah Karim demonstrates the ways in which racially segregated divisions in housing between South Asians and African Americans in Chicago and Atlanta influence the racial demographics of mosques in those cities. Following the patterns of the neighbourhoods they serve, mosques are often divided along racial lines, although it’s worth noting that American mosques are typically more racially integrated than American churches.

What is the source of South Asian racism against black Muslims? As a result of the history of race in the United States and the ongoing prevalence of a black-white racial binary in which whiteness is associated with goodness, the process of immigrants assimilating and aspiring to the American dream of a secure middle-class life often ends up translating into aspiring to whiteness. South Asian American communities are no exception. Furthermore, colourism is a huge issue in South Asia, where whiteness is often equated with beauty.

In light of this history, is it a revolutionary act for young South Asians to embrace Malcolm X? It can be, but unfortunately, this embrace often falls into the trap of removing Malcolm from his historical context and flattening his legacy. For example, Malcolm’s continued focused commitment to black liberation post-hajj is often muted in South Asian-sanctified visions of Malcolm. The same Muslims who sanctify Malcolm X often dismiss African American Muslims, associating them with the Nation of Islam (NOI). There has been a lot of debate in the press recently about Louis Farrakhan, the current leader of the Nation of Islam, and his anti-Semitic remarks.

Farrakhan’s remarks should be analyzed and held up to scrutiny, but it’s also important not to overstate his influence. The Pew Research Center points out: “Perhaps the best-known group of black Muslims in the U.S. is the Nation of Islam.” But today only 3 percent of black Muslims are part of the Nation of Islam. The vast majority of the NOI’s former adherents followed Warith Deen Mohammed’s leadership and converted to Sunni Islam in the late 1970s.

It should come as no surprise that Muslims Americans have a race problem; after all, what is more authentically American than non-black people profiting from aesthetic expressions of blackness while ignoring actual black communities? In Muslim Cool: Race, Religion, and Hip Hop in the United States, Su’ad Abdul Khabeer describes the aura of cool that has come to be associated with black Muslims, especially as expressed through hip hop culture. Many young Muslims of all ethnicities draw from Muslim cool, and Khabeer details the irony of upper-class Pakistani American kids in the southern suburbs of Chicago flaunting hip-hop culture and benefiting from the aesthetics of black Muslim cool, while having no connection whatsoever to the actual black Muslims living mere miles away.

South Asians are not unique in their reinvention of Malcolm as a saint; in fact, they are building upon a much longer history of commodifying Malcolm which Manning Marble, the formidable historian and expert on Malcolm, details in his article, “Rediscovering Malcolm: A Historian’s Adventure in Living History.” The hip-hop generation first revived Malcolm’s legacy in the 1980s. Artists such as Tupac Shakur and Public Enemy referenced Malcolm and even sampled excerpts from his speeches. In 1992, the year I was born, Spike Lee released the film “X.” In the 1990s President Bill Clinton, whose policies on crime increased mass incarceration at an unprecedented rate, was spotted wearing a Malcolm X t-shirt while jogging outside the White House. Most ironically of all, the United States government, which had the FBI patently ignore and even encourage death threats against Malcolm while infiltrating every organization that he founded or was associated with, issued a postage stamp of Malcom in 1999.

Movements such as the Nation of Islam are often portrayed as historically disconnected from other forms of Islamic expression in the United States, when in fact Malcolm X was an international Muslim American spokesperson during his lifetime, and the NOI provided Malcolm a platform for the majority of his career. The politics of the Nation shifted with time, but it was responsible for introducing thousands of Americans to Islam. Until recently, scholars across many academic fields have contributed to the erasure of black Muslims by frequently relegating the Black Muslim American experience to a quirky sociological footnote. The field of American Islam is growing, but many university departments across the country are still structured to view Islam as the province of the exotic orient and not as part of American life. Even ethnographic work on American Muslims tends to focus on immigrant, mosque-affiliated American Muslims. There is nothing wrong with these portrayals, but their ubiquity gives a very limited picture of Muslim America’s diversity.

In Muslims and the Making of America, Amir Hussain, a theological studies professor at Loyola Marymount, gives ample examples of Black Muslim luminaries, including of course, Malcolm X. The short text is clearly meant to be accessible and shift public perceptions of Islam, which is a noble goal. But I was troubled to read this line in the introduction: “We were here before America was America, arriving in slave ships bound for the colonies.” Who is we? Hussain is a Pakistani American man raised in Canada. His ancestors were not forcibly taken on slave ships to the United States, and his everyday lived experiences are not the same as someone who is perceived by society as a black American.

I have no doubt that Hussain’s invocation of “we” came from a place of goodwill and a desire to shed light on the diversity of Muslim Americans stories. However, there is a difference between standing in solidarity and learning from someone’s liberation struggle and appropriating that struggle. Fighting Islamophobia should not come at the cost of ignoring discrimination within our communities.

In the face of rising anti-Muslim sentiments, South Asians and Muslims of all backgrounds can learn from Malcolm X and draw upon his message of self-love and communal self-determinism. But for non-black Muslims to truly honour Malcolm, they must also call out racism internal to Muslim American communities and be honest that the cool that Malcolm demonstrated was a response to the circumstances that he faced, and those circumstances are not ours.

Yasmine Flodin-Ali is a Ph.D. student in Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studies issues of race and gender in contemporary Muslim American communities.

https://religionandpolitics.org/2018/05/22/what-malcolm-x-taught-me-about-muslim-america/

Assam citizenship list: Names missing in NRC final draft, 40 lakh ask what next

Assam citizenship list: Names missing in NRC final draft, 40 lakh ask what next 

Muhammed Mainuddin, shows his name on a sheet collected from the National Register of Citizens draft center in Mayoung, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) east of Guwahati, Monday, July 30, 2018. (AP Photo)

On her way to work this morning, Rabiya Begum, who usually stops for her daily paan-tamul (betel nut and leaf) fill at the corner shop near her house, met a group of people who were in deep conservation. “Did you hear all the Bangladeshis have been taken away in cars. We just saw it on the news. They will probably be killed,” said one. Begum, who lives in the Muslim-dominated Idgah path in Guwahati’s Noonmati area, ignored them and carried on to work anyway. “I told them not to believe these rumours and that it is all rubbish,” says Begum, who is employed as domestic help in the city.

Simultaneous to such conversations happening in various pockets of Assam, the second and final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was released by Registrar General Sailesh and NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela at a press conference in Guwahati amidst tight security on Monday morning. Three years in the making, the gargantuan exercise, monitored closely by the Supreme Court, to determine the rightful, legal citizen of Assam, declared 2,89,83,677 out of 3,29,91,384 applicants as eligible for citizenship. The numbers not included amount to 40,07,707. For now, their fate hangs in the balance.

Begum hasn’t checked hers yet. She says she will “probably do it tomorrow.” “I am not worried, I have submitted all the documents,” she says, adding that her name appeared in the first draft. On January 1, 2018, when the first draft was published, Begum’s daughter’s names did not find a mention. “But there is no reason for them not to be included in the second list,” she says.

READ | Assam NRC list: No person will be referred to Foreigners’ Tribunal or sent to detention centre based on final draft

In fact, there are a quite a few people in Assam who admit that they will check their names “later in the day”, or “probably the next day” because “there is little chance” their names will not find a mention.

However, not all are as unperturbed as Begum is. Many like Farhad Bhuyan of Barpeta’s Bohori town was there to check his name early this morning at the NRC Seva Kendra (NSK). Barpeta is one of the three sensitive districts (apart from Dhubri and Goalpara), where security has been beefed up, owing to the presence of large number of Muslims in the area. Bhuyan was shocked when he found that he was the only member in his family of four, whose name did not find a mention in the list. “When the first draft was published in January, none of us were there. Apparently, it was a problem with the way my father’s name had been spelt. I was then called for a re-verification process where I submitted all the necessary documents and even got three senior citizen witnesses to prove my father’s identity. Even the officials told me that I should not worry. And yet today, my name is not there,” he says. While Bhuyan is certain that it is a technical glitch that has prevented his name from appearing in the list, he is still worried. “My family came to Assam in the 1800s. I know I am an Indian citizen, but what if another ‘technical’ glitch happen. I won’t even know what to do,” he says.

Nagaon: People wait to check their names on the final draft of the state’s National Register of Citizens after it was released, at NRC Seva Kendra in Nagaon on Monday, July 30, 2018. (PTI Photo)

For people like Bhuyan, and for the 40 lakh people whose names are not in the list, there is a provision to make objections and claims to contest their exclusion. On August 7, those excluded will receive a notification as to why their names are not a part of the list, after which they can file claims and objections. The process of filing claims will start on August 30 and will go on for two months and it is on that basis that the final NRC list will be published. There is no official confirmation of that date. “This is my only hope now,” says Bhuyan.

While both the state and the central government have reiterated that there should be no fear and panic considering this is still a “draft” list, the anxieties still run deep. “It is the poor and illiterate people who I am afraid for as many do not know about this re-verification provision. The moment they find out that their names have not been included, they fear detention camps,” says Bhuyan. Salman, another resident from Barpeta whose mother’s name did not find a place in the list, adds, “I have tried to explain to my mother time and again that there will be a form which will come to us on August 7, and we will find out why her name was not there but she still remains apprehensive.”

While many people have found their name on the list, there are spelling errors and other kinds of slips. “Sometimes a man’s photo has appeared against a woman’s name. Or some surnames have been bungled up. At times, only the middle and last name have been published. If someone is from Daulatpur village, it shows up as Dahrampur,” says Salman.

In the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley, many rushed to the nearest NSKs when they found that their name did not appear. Sumit Debnath, a Silchar-based teacher’s family has been entirely left out but for one member: his wife. “At 10.15 am, I found out online that our names are not there, I rushed to the centre. They told me there were technical errors. Now tell me will the ordinary public understand technical errors?” he asks.

Guwahati: Maya Devi Sonar (left) and Malati Thapa, residents of Hatigaon, show documents outside the National Register of Citizens (NRC) Seva Kendra claiming that their and their family members’ names were not included in the final draft of the state’s NRC, in Guwahati on Monday, July 30, 2018. (PTI Photo)

Similarly, Mumbai-based Tamal Kumar Saha, whose family lives in Silchar, is thoroughly confused. In their family of four, only one person’s name has appeared on the list. “If my brother’s name came out, why did my parents’ not? Isn’t my brother identity based on my father’s legacy documents?” he says, adding that his father and brother rushed to the NSK but found no good answers. “My family migrated in 1962. This is mental harassment. I am not even in Assam right now, and I am wondering how I can fix this,” says Saha, who took to Twitter, like thousands of others, to express displeasure about the exercise.

However, a good chunk too, have full faith in the process despite their names not appearing in the list. Vishal More, whose family has been living in Bokahat for “hundreds of years”, says “My brother’s name did not come out. We believe we might have submitted a wrong document. We have ample time now. And the local NSKs are always ready to help,” he says adding that the exercise is a necessary step for the betterment of the state. “The 40 lakh people who have not found their names should trust the claims and objection process,” he says.

In Guwahati, too, there are many who are “satisfied” with the process. In fact, there are many quarters of the Assamese society, who are relieved that the process has finally come to an end — this fight for the protection of indigenous Assamese identity goes back to the Assam Agitation of 1979. Since then there has been numerous attempts to identify the “illegal immigrant.”

“This morning, my brother-in-law sent me a photo of all our names on the list,” says Kulkul Rahman, a Hindu who married into a Muslim family, “We all have different surnames: Bora, Das, Hazarika, Rahman and Goswami — but all our names are there. This is the essence of Assam.”

In Tezpur, 77-year-old Jyotirmoy Kalita says for the longest time she didn’t bother to get the NRC done. “I still do not know if it’s been done. I suppose one of my relatives have probably got it done it for me right now,” she says, adding, “I know a lot of people who did not register.We have been living here for ages. We have documents. We have property. Who will chase us out?”

The Uighur Muslim crisis is worse than you think

By CJ Werleman

The New Arab, 9 July 2018

China is sparing no effort in its attempt to erase any proof of its Uighur Muslim population in what the Communist state calls Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. The area, known affectionately as East Turkistan by its 12 million Uighurs, was an independent nation state until China began occupying and colonising it in 1949.

For the past several years, barely more than a trickle of information has seeped out of the tightly controlled Chinese occupied territory, but what we do know suggests China is using an array of brutal measures to eradicate any vestige of Uighur culture.

These measures include a total ban on any form of expression of Islam in Xinjiang. China has not only shut down mosques, but also has banned all Islamic texts, including the Quran, while Muslim sounding names are also outlawed, as are beards and clothing that suggest adherence to the Islamic faith.

More recently, China has made it mandatory for all Uighur Muslims to have their motorbikes and cars fitted with a GPS tracking device, so that authorities can pinpoint any Uighur at any given moment.

If you're thinking this sounds like the making a dystopian futuristic novel, then consider also the fact that Chinese police in the province have been fitted out with "smart glasses," which use facial recognition software to identify Uighur Muslims on trains, buses and in public places.

Linked to a central database, the "smart glasses" are designed to notify a patrolling officer when a Uighur Muslim has moved beyond his orher 'safe area', that is home or place of work.

These hard-line measures form just the tip of the iceberg, however. Uighur Muslims who refuse to give up their Muslim identity are forced into what China calls "re-education camps", which are designed to convert Uighur Muslims to the official ideology of the state: Atheism.

"We target people who are religious… for example, those who grow beards despite being young," one Chinese government officer admitted in a report.

According to reports from human rights watchers, China has ordered its officials in Xinjiang to send almost half of its population to "re-education camps." For those who stubbornly defy China's indoctrination programme, prison or forced disappearance awaits.

Alarmingly, these reports do little to convey the extent of the horror taking place against Uighur Muslims in East Turkistan today.

Interviews I have conducted with several Uighur Muslim refugees who have escaped persecution and likely death at the hands of the Chinese government have confirmed as such.

When I spoke with Sadam Musapir, a Uighur Muslim who successfully applied for asylum seeker status in 2017 while on a student visa in Australia, he told me China is now incarcerating any Uighur Muslim who attempts to travel abroad. His wife and nine-month-old child suffered just that, as the authorities fear the world will learn the full depth and breadth of China's orchestrated campaign to culturally eradicate the Uighur people.

"In 60 days’ time from now, when my baby son, who I haven't seen yet turns one year of age, China will imprison my wife for five years, and then sell my baby to adoption agencies," Musapir told me.

When I asked why China was taking this action against his wife and child, he explained that they arrested her for trying to leave the country to join him in Australia. "China is desperate for the world not to know what is happening there [Xinjiang]," said Musapir.

His account tallies with that of Seven Zhang, a Hui Muslim who now resides in the United States. Zhang explained to me that his wife was arrested and falsely accused of illegally crossing the border on 18 January, 2016, and taken to Jinwuhzen Police Department. Less than four weeks after her arrest, Zhang's cancer-stricken wife fell into a coma after being subjected to torture and ill-treatment.

In the weeks and months following his wife's death, Zhang demanded justice from his government, but instead of compensation or even a hearing, Zhang alleges Chinese authorities tried to kill him in what he described as a "motorcycle accident manipulation".

When I asked what he meant by "traffic accident manipulation," he told me a common method deployed by Chinese authorities to silence critics, is to dress up an assassination to look like a motor accident.

Fearing for his life, Zhang fled China for the United States in 2017, where he still lives today, but in constant fear his home country will come seeking vengeance.

This effort by China to keep a lid on what is taking place under its watch in Xinjiang was also recently documented by The Washington Post, detailing the lengths Chinese authorities are willing to go to in order to silence those who threaten to expose their efforts to ethnically cleanse the Uighur Muslim population.

"China's security services have detained several close relatives of four US-based reporters working for Radio Free Asia in an apparent attempt to intimidate or punish them for their coverage of the Muslim-majority Xinjiang region," writes The Washington Post. One of the relatives of those arrested said, "Chinese authorities have contacted family members living in Xinjiang, urging them to ask him to stop calling and reporting on events in the region."

Despite what the international community knows about China's grave injustices against the Uighur people, international bodies, such as the United Nations, have failed to intervene or even offer stern condemnation.
This global silence can be partly blamed on China attempting to anchor Uighur Muslim aspirations for liberation with "War on Terror" discourse, with China successfully convincing the United States and its allies that it, like them, was at war with "radical Islam".

With that said, there are signs the world is now waking up to China's game, with the United States representative to the UN for economic and social affairs, accusing the Chinese government of blocking a Uighur activist entering the UN headquarters in New York in May, as reported by Foreign Policy.

"This is a very sad and disappointing day," Kelly Currie, the US representative, told UN delegates, accusing China of attempting to silence the persecuted Uighur minority by accusing the Uighur activist, Dolkun Isa, of being a terrorist.

Currie scoffed at China's ridiculous assertion, saying, "If Mr Isa were in fact an actual terrorist… do you seriously think we would be inviting [him] into this country and giving him free rein to travel about? Give me a break!" - while noting that the US had granted the Uighur activist a 10-year multiple-entry visa.

The US had seen the Asian power as an ally in the "war on terror," but the tide has now turned, and one can only hope that the international community will soon pressure China into allowing 12 million Uighur Muslims to live on their land in peace.

Erdoğan ‘Ottoman slaps’ the opposition with a landslide victory

Erdoğan ‘Ottoman slaps’ the opposition with a landslide victory

By Hamad Momin

Islam21c, 24 June 2018

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party (AK) has won a landslide victory on Sunday’s presidential and general election.

On Sunday, millions of Turks headed to the polls for the country’s elections where six candidates went head to head as well as eight political parties. The elections were fast tracked 18 months ahead of their original scheduled date following the parliamentary approval of a joint proposal by the AK Party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). [1]

The country’s voting began at 0500 GMT (8:00am local time) and ended at 1400 GMT (5:00pm local time). More than 56 million registered voters were eligible to cast their vote in these elections with over 180 thousand ballot boxes across the country. [2]

Voter turnout in the presidential elections was an astounding 86.82 percent and 87 percent in the parliamentary election. [3] Commenting on thisIslam21c Middle East Editor, Ahmed Hammuda said:

“Many have challenged European governments to achieve a turnout near what Turkey achieves. This shows us that the Turks are more engaged and confident in their democracy than any other nation in the western hemisphere”.

President Erdoğan obtained 52.7% of the presidential votes to become the country’s first executive president. His alliance, the People’s Alliance obtained 57% of seats in Parliament.

In the run up to the elections many prominent figures, politicians, scholars and academics spoke in support of President Erdoğan and made duʿā that Allāh grants him and his party victory. These included the likes of Sheikh Muhammad al-Hassan Walid al-Dido al-Shanqītī who is the President of the Center for the Development of Scholars and Sheikh Dr. Haitham al-Haddad from the Islamic Council of Europe.

People across some of the most devastated regions in the world also voiced their support for Erdoğan. These included the people of Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Libya amongst many other regions across the world who see Turkey as a beacon of hope at a time of chaos and volatility. Billboards were erected in many Middle Eastern countries in support of Erdoğan whilst millions also took to social media to voice their support and pray for his success. [4]

Why are Muslims celebrating Erdoğan’s victory?

Turkey has witnessed drastic changes ever since the abolishment of the caliphate and the rise of the Zionist-sponsored, secularist Mustafa Kemal “Atatürk”. [5] “Atatürk” came to power imposing decades of secularism on the Turkish people. Turkey endured a staunchly secularised political climate for a number of years but is currently undergoing a remarkable transitional period, in which it is removing itself of some of the tyranny that suffocated it.

In recent years under the leadership of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Turkey has reversed the Hijāb ban, built more than 17,000 new mosques, reinforced familial values, clamped down on alcoholism and formed many other policies in line with Islamic principles. [6]

In February, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan commented that Turkey should reconsider criminalising adultery and bringing back the ‘adultery law’. During a weekly parliamentary group meeting in Ankara, Erdoğan stated: 

“This society holds a different status in terms of its moral values…This is self-criticism. I must say that in the EU process we made a mistake … We should now evaluate making regulations about adultery and perhaps consider it together with the issue of harassment and others…This is an issue where Turkey is different from most western countries.” [7] 

Earlier in February, Erdoğan also said that the Republic of Turkey is a continuation of the Ottoman Empire. During a memorial ceremony to mark the anniversary of the death of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II, Erdoğan stated: 

“The Republic of Turkey, just like our previous states that are a continuation of one another, is also a continuation of the Ottomans. Of course, the borders have changed. Forms of government have changed… But the essence is the same, the soul is the same, even many institutions are the same.” [8] 

Turkey has demonstrated its concern for the vulnerable and oppressed in accordance to humanitarian acts and principles which Islam has emphasised. It has also shown to be extremely charitable and in 2016 was ranked second in the world for the amount of humanitarian assistance it provided ($6 billion), whilst providing the most humanitarian assistance as percentage of gross national income (GNI). [9]

Abdullāh b. Salām (May Allāh be pleased with him) reported: 

The Prophet (sall Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) said, “O people, promote the greetings of peace (Salāms), feed (the poor and needy) and pray when others are asleep so that you will enter Jannah safely.” [10] 

Charity is one of the most essential manifestations of any Islamic country. The above is the founding statement of the Prophetic Islamic state, which shows the great emphasis and direct command the Prophet of Allāh made with regards to humanitarianism and charity.

The Turkish people have come a very long way since the abolishment of the caliphate, an event which certainly marked a turning point in history that was so momentous that mankind can feel the aftershocks of it until present day. However, even with the vicious decades of secularism that was enforced following the fall of the Ottoman caliphate, the Turkish people have used every means to preserve and uphold their Islamic identity against the toxic secular “Atatürk”-driven assault against the deeply-rooted values of the Turkish people.

There is no doubt that despite the atrocities the Ummah is going through, Allāh is showing us rays of light, and glimmers of hope, to keep us optimistic and motivated and to give us the ability to bear the responsibilities He commanded us to bear. 

“Allāh has promised those among you who believe, and do righteous good deeds, that He will certainly grant them succession to (the present rulers) in the earth, as He granted it to those before them, and that He will grant them the authority to practise their religion, that which He has chosen for them. And He will surely give them in exchange a safe security after their fear (provided) they (believers) worship Me and do not associate anything (in worship) with Me. But whoever disbelieved after this, they are the Fāsiqūn (rebellious, disobedient to Allāh).” [11]