Shri Anil Dharker and the liberal’s analysis

There are several reasons why silly liberal views must not be ignored but analysed. Amongst them;

1. Because they are the prevailing viewpoint of our times

2. By prevailing I mean the view largely held by the elite

3. That when not challenged and ignored such views gain even more legitimacy

4. Because they win newsprint space

 But first, this man’s liberal credentials from Wikipedia;

Anil Dharker is an Indian columnist. His articles appear in several Indian newspapers such as the Times of India, Mid-Day, The Hindu, Gulf News, and other similar publications. He has been editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India, The Independent, MidDay, Sunday MidDay. He has also been a producer, anchor and interviewer, head of a TV Channel and critic on The Sunday Times of India and The Sunday Observer. In addition, he has also written a book on state television broadcaster Doordarshan — “Sorry, Not Ready”, published by Harper Collins. He is the father of actress Ayesha Dharker.

Next, his article in DNA;

For Muslims, the enemy lies within

Who are Islam’s worst enemies? Not the west, not the United States of America, not Jews, not extremist Hindus…. Islam’s worst enemies are Muslims.  (Pala S – It is important to remember that for Shri Dharker (D), the Muslim is completely innocent. He (the Muslim) cannot have any legitimate enemy. He can have only aggressors. So this question is actually rhetorical, not factual. Let’s move on)I am not a religious scholar, but people whose opinions I respect and who have studied the Koran and Islam, talk of it being an enlightened religion, and also speak highly of its reiteration of  universal human values. (Pala S – Unfortunately for Shri D the unanimity amongst Muslim scholars about Islam’s innocence is well-known. Unless he starts to reveal the identity of his “opinion formers”, there is little value in dissecting this point)

Yet Islam is constantly being misinterpreted in the most grotesque way. First, there are the extremists who themselves are safely ensconced in hiding places in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq but brainwash poor young men into ‘martyring’ themselves in the cause of Islam  and while doing so take a huge toll of innocent lives (many of them Muslim). (Pala S – Misinterpreted how? Shri D never says. This worthy cares to remind us that there are extremists ensconced in amongst other places, Saudi Arabia too. But of course the rest of Saudi Arabia is liberal to the bone! This apart, what one encounters whilst dealing with non-Muslim liberals, about Islam, is this constant and consistent contradiction in their stances – there is always a minority of majority Muslim extremists)

Read the chilling conversations between Kasab and his fellow terrorists with their Pakistani handlers: “Allah ke pyare ho jao” the handlers cynically tell the young terrorists sending them to their doom. (Pala S – That this should surprise Shri D and make him speechless is understandable given the quality of his liberal conscience. However my bewilderment is with the fact that he calls Kasab’s “handlers” cynical. Does he not think that they actually believed these “martyrs” will be Allah’s favorites? There is only one reason why Islamists have never run out of Muslim jihadis – that’s because they (the various handlers) have retained their credibility and commitment to their “cause”)

Their terrorism has reached such a scale worldwide that the ordinary non-political Muslim has felt compelled to come out in the open to voice their protests. This was particularly evident after 26/11, when every march denouncing the atrocities always contained a sizeable number of Muslims, and every television discussion featured prominent Muslims expressing their denunciations as angrily and vehemently as everyone else. (Pala S – Who is this “ordinary non-political Muslim”? Did such a Muslim keep quite when the Babri Masjid was destroyed? Or did he scream bloody murder when lakhs of truly innocent Kashmiri Hindus were ethnically cleansed by Muslims, and driven from their own homeland in Hindusthan? Why was the occasion of the uber-recent slaughter of Hindus in Mumbai “particularly evident” in terms of Muslim reactions against Islamic terror? 

Someone recently pointed out to me that Muslims in Mumbai never agreed to bury Kasab’s dead jihadi comrades in their local cemeteries. I asked this friend what had happened to the thousands of dead jihadis killed before and since, Mumbai? Where were they all buried or were they not buried at all?!)

A very important voice that was added to these was the voice of the cleric culminating in the Darul  Uloom at Deoband, issuing a fatwa against terrorism on February 25, 2008. (“Islam rejects all kinds of unwarranted violence, breach of peace, bloodshed, killing and plunder and does not allow it in any form”). (Pala S – I will advise readers to dwell upon this fatwa. “(Islam rejects all kinds of unwarranted violence..)”. Now, what is “unwarranted” violence can be decided only by Muslims and not non-Muslims. For instances the ongoing killings of Israelis is not “unwarranted violence”. Islamic terror in Kashmir and the rest of Hindusthan is not “unwarranted violence”, Xinjiang is not “unwarranted violence” and so is not Chechnya – this is why we cannot find fatwas against such violence. This Deoband fatwa serves a political purpose like all others. It helps put liberals like Shri D to sleep)

Then comes the Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind’s 30th General Assembly at Deoband last week held to usher in social and educational reforms. But for some reason, the  conference reiterated a resolution it had passed in 2006, saying that Muslims should not recite Vande Mataram as “parts of the song are against the tenets of Islam”. (Pala S – It should be remembered that the secular State of Hindusthan recognized only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram. The remainder were deemed unfit for Muslim tongues. Now Islamic gangsters, true to their calling, push the envelope further and say the entire song is blasphemy – and this surprises Shri D. Liberals are constantly surprised with the obvious)

Why did they do it? Three years ago the resolution had caused a furore and given the Hindutva brigade something to shout about.  Was there a compelling reason to bring up the question again? Or are the Deobandis deliberately making life difficult for the ordinary Muslim by bringing up provocative resolutions?  As it happens, the 10,000 clerics gathered there, gave even more evidence to the rest of the nation that they are determined to keep India’s Muslim population as backward as possible. They opposed the women’s reservation bill, advocated a special syllabus for girl students, made it compulsory for even young girls to wear the purdah, opposed the government’s effort to reform the madrasa system of education, etcetera, etcetera. (Pala S – A sleight of hand should be recognized here. There would have been no furore if the “Hindutva brigade” had not shouted about it. It was/is beneath liberal conscience to fight for National honor. As for the rest, my position is that if Muslims want to live in Islamic splendor, let them.  Inspite of all the liberal angst Shri D displays here, no Muslim will really oppose the Deoband school)

In short, they made it clear that they want to ghettoise Muslims and make it impossible for them to join the mainstream life of  a modern vibrant India. (Pala S – The mainstream is non-Islamic. How can Muslims join it?)

What are the credentials of these clerics?  What gives them the authority to speak for all Muslims? They have been described as ‘scholars’ but have they studied  any of the subjects that a 21st century citizen of the world must know? How many women are there in that 10,000 strong gathering? If none, what empowers these men to speak about what women should do? (Pala S – Fool! Bloody fool! Sorry, couldn’t resist. The Deoband school is an Islamic school. Their scholars are scholars of Islam. No wonder liberals carry zilch credibility amongst Islamists even though they are such useful idiots (for them))

The Muslim community which came out in such strength against terrorism must now publicly distance itself from the reactionary fatwas of the Deoband conclave. They have already made it amply clear that they belong to India,  something they did not have to do. Now they must make it equally clear that they want to belong to a modern India. (Pala S – A word about the Muslim “protest” against Islamists. The massacre at Mumbai was the most televised and prolonged event in Hindusthan’s modern history. The killers employed, were Muslims. They were killing for a Muslim cause. Their targets were non-Islamic.

To cite Muslim victims of these killers and say the killers were against “Indians” as a whole, is a liberal spin and perversity. But such is the use of the *useful liberal idiots* that Muslim organizations dramatized their “strong protests” against Muslim killers and additionally, refused to bury their dead bodies.

This now is bandied about as “proof of patriotism” and other assorted unknown Muslim virtues)

–Varta–

Palahalli S – Why do liberals indulge in such subterfuge? It’s because they are given the space to do it. More, much of their propaganda is ignored by Hindu nationalists as “ever flowing water” they cannot be expected to waste their time with.

However, it is necessary that each such instance is challenged as best as one can – and spoken about.