Fwd: [BJP News] India: Frequently asked questions

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>[bJP News] India: Frequently asked questions

>Thu, 1 May 2003 05:50:34 -0700 (PDT)

>

>http://www.di.com/peace/india.html

>

>India

>

>Frequently Asked Questions:

>

>What has been the Indian/Hindu experience with Islam?

>Isn't the conflict between Hindus and Muslims in India/Pakistan of

>recent origin and just another byproduct of British imperialism?

>Was the partition of India into Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, a

>solution which alleviated the ethnic and religious tension between

>Muslims and Non-Muslims?

>Once Pakistan was created to allow Muslims to become a majority in

>their own country, hasn't a peaceful democratic state, respectful of

>its minorities, emerged?

>What is the conflict over Kashmir all about?

>Have the Hindus developed similar coping mechanisms as the Jews in

>response to overwhelming Muslim savagery?

>What has been the Indian/Hindu experience with Islam?

>

>

>

>The most heinous crimes which the followers of Mohammad called as

>jihadis or to use a more euphemistic term, Muslims, perpetrated was on

>peace loving Hindus in India. The entire civilization of Hindus called

>as Saraswati Civilization was decapitated and reduced to dust. The

>depth and the scope of holocaust which befell Hindus is so staggering

>that common human mind fails to understand this and goes blank. Vedic

>India, originally called as Bharatvarsha, stretched from Afghanistan

>all the way to Japan. Murderous Muslims layed siege to glorious

>Bharatvarsha almost 1400 years ago and by treacherous and totally

>subhuman techniques succeeded in destruction and plunder of the

>greatest civilization that humanity has known so far.

>

>

>- from Rape of a Civilization, by Kuldeep Razdan, Sword of Truth,

>September 4th, 1999

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>Isn't the conflict between Hindus and Muslims in India/Pakistan of

>recent origin and just another byproduct of British imperialism?

>

>

>

>"The Mohammedan conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in

>history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that

>civilization is a precious thing, whose delicate complex of order and

>liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians

>invading from without or multiplying from within."

>

>

>- W. Durant, "Story of Civilization"

>

>

>

>

>

>In other parts of Asia and Europe, the conquered nations quickly opted

>for conversion to Islam rather than death. But in India, because of

>the staunch resistance of the 4000 year old Hindu faith, the Muslim

>conquests were for the Hindus a pure struggle between life and death.

>Entire cities were burnt down and their populations massacred. Each

>successive campaign brought hundreds of thousands of victims and

>similar numbers were deported as slaves. Every new invader made often

>literally his hill of Hindu skulls. Thus the conquest of Afghanistan

>in the year 1000, was followed by the annihilation of the entire Hindu

>population there; indeed, the region is still called Hindu Kush,

>'Hindu slaughter'. The Bahmani sultans in central India, made it a

>rule to kill 100.000 Hindus a year. In 1399, Teimur killed 100.000

>Hindus IN A SINGLE DAY, and many more on other occasions. Koenraad

>Elst quotes Professor K.S. Lal's "Growth of Muslim population in

>India", who writes that according to his calculations, the Hindu

>population decreased by 8O MILLION between the year 1000 and 1525.

>...We will never be able to assess the immense physical harm done to

>India by the Muslim invasions. Even more difficult is to estimate the

>moral and the spiritual damage done to Hindu India. - from Negationism

>and the Muslim Conquests by Francois Gautier

>

>

>

>

>

>Origins The second caliph, Umar sent an expedition against India in

>636 CE but it was unsuccessful. For thirteen centuries the Hindus have

>withstood, with breaks here and there and with varying degrees of

>success, attempts to Islamize the sub-continent.

>

>

>The last actual war was in 1971 with Pakistan and, at the moment,

>Islamic efforts seem confined to swelling the Muslim population of the

>Republic of India to over 100 million by infiltration and by natural

>increase-the Muslim population increase is nearly double that of the

>Hindu. "Marry women... who will be very prolific, for I wish you to be

>more numerous than any other people" (Muhammad)

>

>

>Islam sees India as "unfinished business" and it is, without doubt,

>the next country on the agenda. Oil-rich Muslim countries such as

>Saudi Arabia are spending millions trying to convert and subvert India

>to Islam.

>

>

>We cannot possibly detail all the terror and cruelty inflicted upon

>the Hindus, particularly in the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries.

>We shall merely illustrate them with several short essays.

>

>

>Shahbuddin Mohammad Kiran

>

>

>Shah Jahan (1593-1666) was the fifth Mogul Emperor, the grandson of

>Akbar the Great. Several writers have romanticized his reign as being

>a golden era. However he was a pathological warmonger, instituting

>forty eight military campaigns in less than thirty years. In the

>meantime famine and fever often ravaged India.

>

>

>While his father, Jehangir, was alive Shah Jahan rebelled against him

>two or three times without success. He had his brother, Shahriyar,

>blinded and thrown into prison. On coming to the throne in 1628 he

>killed all his male relations except one who escaped to Persia.

>

>

>Shah Jahan had several wives and five thousand concubines in his

>harem. He is also said to have had incestuous relations with his

>daughters Chamani and Jahanara. His favorite wife was Mumtaz Mahal,

>The "Ornament of the Palace". She was as fanatical a Muslim as her

>husband. Despite his Rajput (Hindu) mother, Shah Jahan shared none of

>his father's and grandfather's liberal views on religion.

>

>

>A Hindu was made to give up his Muslim wife or convert to Islam.

>(Kashmir is now predominantly Muslim due to Shah Jahan's policies). In

>1632 he ordered that all Hindu temples recently erected or in the

>course of construction should be razed to the ground. In Benares alone

>seventy six temples were destroyed. Christian churches at Agra and

>Lahore were demolished. Later in the year he besieged Hugh, a

>Portuguese enclave, near Calcutta. The siege lasted three months. In a

>manner befitting the Prophet he had ten thousand inhabitants executed

>by being "blown up with powder, drowned in water or burnt by fire".

>Four thousand were taken captive to Agra where they were tortured to

>try to convert them to Islam. Only a few apostacised, the remainder

>were trampled to death by elephants, except for the younger women who

>went to harems.

>

>

>When Mumtaz died, Shah Jahan decided that he should find her a

>suitable resting place in Agra. Muslim chroniclers have taught us that

>he had the Taj Mahal, the "Crown Residence", built for this purpose.

>(Shah Jahan nowhere stated this himself).

>

>

>P.N. Oak2 however, says that the Taj Mahal had been built as a Shiva

>temple in the twelfth century and was currently being used as the

>palace of Rajah Jaisingh. The Hindu was evicted "legally": Shah Jahan

>had him sign a land transfer deed. Oak's corroboration includes carbon

>dating of a wooden doorway and the Hindu octagonal shape of the

>building. Also, despite Muslim skill at pin-pointing Mecca, the qiblah

>of the 'mosque' was fifteen degrees out and was, in fact, due west, a

>Hindu direction. Perhaps even more telling is the fact that the "Crown

>Residence" contains over two hundred rooms, many to this day bricked

>up. It is not likely that a mausoleum should be built with so many

>rooms or with guest rooms, guard rooms, stables, a cow room, a well

>and a bazaar. Shah Jahan's main expense was building brick scaffolding

>around the Taj Mahal so that he could vandalize it with Qur'anic

>graffiti. He also had Hindu idols removed (are there still some

>bricked up?) although Hindu flowers including the lotus are still to

>be found in the mosaics.

>

>

>When his labourers complained of low wages he had some of their hands

>amputated, as an example. The dome of the Taj Mahal is often quoted as

>evidence for Islamic architecture but as Oak says, this was borrowed

>from the early Hindus, just as "Arab" mathematics and astronomy were.

>A score of buildings attributed to Islam are said to be originally

>Hindu: for example the tombs of Humayun, Safdarjang and Akbar. Shah

>Jahan has been incorrectly named as the founder of Old Delhi. The Red

>Fort and the Jama Masjid were early Hindu buildings (Tamurlane, in his

>memoirs,was in Old Delhi in 1398 and mentions the latter building).

>

>

>It was poetic justice when, in 1658, his son Aurangzeb usurped his

>throne. Shah Jahan was kept under house arrest at Agra, being only

>able to gaze across to the Taj Mahal where his Mumtaz was buried. He

>joined her in 1666.

>

>

>Aurangzeb

>

>

>Shah Jahan had four sons by Mumtaz. Dara Shikoh, the eldest was his

>father's favourite and very popular with Hindus, Jesuits and Muslims

>alike.

>

>

>Aurangzeb, the third son was a strict Sunni who knew the Qur'an by

>heart. He hated his brother and had him executed on the grounds of

>heresy. Dara's decapitated body was paraded through the streets of

>Delhi. Aurangzeb murdered several nephews who would have been legal

>heirs to the throne.

>

>

>Aurangzeb was cold and crafty, and an unscrupulous intriguer. He

>invited brother Murad to dinner, took him into custody and had him

>also "legally executed". The fourth brother Shuja took refuge in the

>jungles of Arakan and fell victim to the tribes-people there.

>Aurangzeb had his own son, Muhammad Sultan poisoned.

>

>

>The survivor became Emperor in June 1659 and he declared himself

>Caliph of the whole Muslim world. He tightened up on the observance of

>Qur'anic law. In every city was appointed a censor of public morals,

>the Muhtasib to enforce the Shariah. Drinking, gambling and illicit

>sex relations were made punishable crimes.

>

>

>The Muhtasib saw to it that the Muslims did not omit the five daily

>prayers and the fasts of Ramadan. State musicians and singers were

>pensioned off. The death penalty for apostasy from Islam was enforced.

>

>

>Aurangzeb considered himself "The Scourge Of The Kafirs"

>(non-believers) and closed Hindu schools and libraries. In his

>lifetime he destroyed more than 10,000 Hindu, Buddhist and Jam temples

>and often erected mosques in their stead.3 In 1669 in Agra he had

>hacked off the limbs of the recalcitrant Hindu King Gokla and in 1672

>several thousand revolting Hindus were slaughtered in Mewat.

>

>

>In 1675, Sikh Guru Tegh Bahader protested against the forced

>conversion of Hindus to Islam. He had to watch while one of his

>disciples was burnt to death. Another, Bhai Mati Dass was sawn into

>right and left halves while held in a large wooden vice. Bhai Dyala

>was boiled alive in a huge cauldron. When he still refused to apostase

>to Islam the guru was beheaded.

>

>

>In 1680 Aurangzeb re-introduced the Jizya, the poll tax on

>unbelievers. A huge crowd of kafirs held a peaceful protest against

>the tax and many were trampled to death when the Emperor ordered his

>elephants to be driven through them.

>

>

>The Hindu king, Shambhaji who refused to convert to Islam was blinded

>and his minister Kavi Kalash, who had said some uncomplimentary things

>about the Prophet had his tongue pulled out. On 11th March 1698, while

>still alive, their arms and legs were hacked off and thrown to the dogs.

>

>

>Nor did Aurangzeb show any tolerance for Muslim "heretics"; he had the

>famous Sufi Sarmad executed. As an orthodox Sunni, he hated the Shia

>sultans of Bijapur and Golkonda and attacked and conquered them.

>

>

>On his wars he expended vast sums looted from the Hindu temples; he

>over-extended the Moghul Empire and having murdered many of his

>competitors left it virtually leaderless when he died on the 21st

>February 1707.

>

>

>The Hindus had been aroused to defend themselves and Islam was still a

>minority in a sea of kafirs.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>Was the partition of India into Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, a

>solution which alleviated the ethnic and religious tension between

>Muslims and Non-Muslims?

>

>

>

>BANGLADESH

>

>

>

>

>On July 13, 1947 two days before India was divided into the two

>independent states of India and Pakistan ("the land of the pure"),

>Mohammed Ali Jinnah leader of the Muslim League stated:

>

>

>"I shall not depart from what I have said repeatedly with regard to

>the minorities. The minorities, to whichever community they may

>belong, will be safe-guarded. Their religion or their faith or belief

>will be protected in every way possible. Their life and property will

>be secure. There will be no interference of any kind with the freedom

>of worship. They will have their property and their culture. They will

>be in all respects treated as citizens of Pakistan without any

>distinction of caste, religion or creed".

>

>

>Trusting this forthright pledge, thirteen million non-Muslims-Hindus,

>Buddhists and Christians remained in their homes in East Pakistan.4 A

>reign of terror against the minorities was instituted from the start.

>The minorities were blamed for all of the shortcomings in East

>Pakistan and its Muslims were rallied against the Hindus in

>particular. The government raised slogans such as: "Islam is in danger

>from the heathen Hindus" and distributed firearms and other weapons to

>the bigoted Muslim masses. Property was forcibly taken over. Hindu

>women were abducted in large numbers so that Muslim men could indulge

>in polygamy. Islam became the acronym for Intolerance, Slaughter,

>Loot, Arson and Molestation of minority women.5

>

>

>In 1950, nearly half a million Hindus were slaughtered in East

>Pakistan. The mutilation was disgusting-eyes gouged out, pregnant

>women disembowelled, male genitals cut off, women's breasts cut off.

>

>

>About 4.5 million East Pakistanis crossed into India but eventually

>the Indian government prevented refugees from crossing into its

>territory. "The eight million Hindus left behind lived in constant

>fear for their life, property and honour. "6

>

>

>Between 1951 and 1970 four million more refugees slipped across the

>border into India fleeing from Muslim rapine, looting and torture. By

>the Pakistan "Enemy Property Act" of 1965 those who left had their

>property seized and were virtually penniless.

>

>

>West Pakistan controlled the economy of the Eastern half and did not

>spend a fair share on East Bengal. In 1971 a war of independence was

>fought and with Indian help the independent state of Bangladesh was

>set up. In the process, however, three million Hindus were massacred

>by Pakistani troops using US weapons.

>

>

>Major-General Sawkat Reza remarked: "We have undertaken this noble

>work in the name of our religion...." Often the Hindus had to dig

>their own graves. "There have been a hundred My Lais and Lidices in

>East Pakistan."7

>

>

>Two hundred thousand minority women were raped and many of them then

>killed by bayonets pushed up between their legs.8 Many were shipped to

>Saudi Arabia and sold into slavery which continued clandestinely. The

>money from these sales went into the coffers of Pakistan. In the

>village of Haluagat, Pakistani Army medical officers drained blood

>from minority "donors" until they died.

>

>

>After the war, India repatriated the 9.5 million Hindu refugees back

>to Bangladesh and for a while they were safe under the secular

>government of Mujibar Rahman. However, Lt. Gen. Tikka Khan had Mujib

>murdered and Bangladesh became an Islamic military dictatorship.

>

>

>The strategy of Islam is to ultimately reduce the number of kafirs

>(unbelievers) to zero. Bangladesh achieved this in northern Mymensingh

>which in 1947 had nearly 90% Christian population. Because of brutal

>persecution in 1964 and 1971 all the Garo Christians slipped into

>India. Similarly, the Hill Chittagong District was 98% Buddhist in

>1947. Denied asylum in India most have fled to Arakan in Burma. By

>1979 35% Buddhists lived in that part of Bangladesh. Districts which

>had a majority of Hindus were settled by Muslims to make them the

>dominant population.

>

>

>The eleven million zimmis are literally second-class citizens in

>Bangladesh. All government jobs are denied to them; nor are they

>allowed access to higher education. The Munir Committee on the Shariat

>stated: .... . they will not be full citizens; they will have no voice

>in the making of the law, no rights to administer the law and no

>rights to hold public office."9

>

>

>Police protection is not given to the zimmis. Their women can be

>harassed and violated, their crops removed from the fields, their

>temples and churches destroyed, job and trade licenses refused, and so

>on. The word of a zimmi is not taken in a court of law and even if a

>Muslim would give evidence, Shariat considers it haram (sinful) to

>bear witness against a Muslim in favour of a kafir.

>

>

>Without any redress girls can be kidnapped and married to Muslims,

>becoming converts to Islam against their will. Forcible conversion to

>Islam proceeds in many areas. Petro-dollars from Saudi Arabia sup-port

>organizations such as World Tabligh-i-Jamaat in proselytizing among

>the zimmis.

>

>

>In schools a distorted view of Indian 'history is presented so that

>Muslims are brain-washed into thinking that they are superior and

>Hindu youngsters are made to feel ashamed of their legacy. Often

>Hindus have to hide their identity by aping Muslim dress and customs

>or denying Hindu observances such as wearing the vermilion mark on the

>forehead or the obligatory conch-bangles. Hindu religious rituals are

>attacked and many centuries-old schools have been closed down. Muslim

>religious schools, of course, are liberally supported by the

>Bangladesh government.

>

>

>In August 1991, Bangladesh "returned formally to parliamentary

>democracy, ending nearly sixteen years of presidential rule and

>military dictatorship".10 The elected Prime Minister, Mrs Khaleda Zia

>is the country's executive head rather than the President.

>

>

>We certainly wish Bangladesh well but still have our doubts about the

>ability of an Islamic state to function as a democracy-the two

>concepts are mutually exclusive.

>

>

>September 29, 1993 We were correct about undemocratic practices in

>Bangladesh. The government has banned a book by Taslima Nasreen

>entitled "Lajja" (Shame) about atrocities committed by Muslims against

>Hindus in 1990 and 1991. Nor have the authorities acted against the

>Bangladesh Shahada Sainik Parishad, a fundamentalist group which has

>put a 50,000 taka prize on Ms Nasreen's head.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>Once Pakistan was created to allow Muslims to become a majority in

>their own country, hasn't a peaceful democratic state, respectful of

>its minorities, emerged?

>

>

>

>Zia U1-Haq

>

>

>General Zia was the military dictator of Pakistan from 1977 until

>1988. He had links with the Jamaat-e-Islami a Muslim fundamentalist

>organization, which wanted the country to be ruled by religious rather

>than secular leaders.

>

>

>Zia had been chief-of-staff to Zulfikar Mi Bhutto, Pakistan's first

>democratically elected Prime Minister. Bhutto was the founder and

>leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which enjoyed massive

>support. He was opposed by the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) which

>campaigned for Nizame-E-Mustafa, The "Regime of the Prophet". A vote

>against the PNA was a vote against God whereas a vote for the PNA was

>equal to 100,000 years of prayer.11

>

>

>It was not as if Bhutto had not courted the Muslim vote. He had given

>Pakistan its first Islamic constitution in 1973, its Ministry of

>Religious Affairs, made Islamiyat - religious education compulsory in

>primary and secondary schools, programmed Arabic language lessons on

>Pakistan T V so that the Qur'an could be read in the original; even

>the Red Cross had been changed to the Red Crescent. But the

>fundamentalists would not be happy until the Shariah was instituted,

>turning the clock back hundreds of years, especially for human rights

>and women.

>

>

>Bhutto's new laws supported women working outside the home and forbadc

>sexual discrimination.

>

>

>Demonstrators against the PPP were paid via the PNA in American dollars.

>

>

>Zia overthrew Bhutto in 1977 and had him hung in 1979 on a trumped-up

>charge of murder. He suspended the Constitution and imposed Martial

>Law. Some of his commands were:

>

>

>Martial Law Order No 5: Anyone organizing or attending a meeting of a

>trade union, student union or political party without permission from

>the Martial Law Administrators (Zia) will receive up to ten lashes and

>five years imprisonment.

>

>

>Law No 13: Criticizing the army in speech or writing is punishable by

>ten lashes and five years' imprisonment.'2

>

>

>ML 0 No 16: "Seducing" a member of the army from his duty to the Chief

>Martial Law Administrator (Zia) is punishable by death.

>

>

>ML 0 No 6: No person shall loot: maximum punishment: amputation of hand.

>

>

>M L 0 No 77: "Treason" to be tried by a military court. Maximum

>penalty death by hanging.

>

>

>ML0 No 78: Detention without trial for political prisoners extended

>beyond 12 months for as long as warranted. "Reasons for detention

>shall not be communicated to any person

>

>

>Provisional Constitutional Order: Gave Zia the power to

>(retrospectively) amend the Constitution. All judges were required to

>swear to uphold the Martial Law. One quarter of the judges refused.13

>

>

>Presidential Order No 4 Trials by military court to be held in secret.

>It became an offence to name the accused, the charges or the sentence.

>Military courts did not permit lawyers to defend the accused.

>

>

>M L 0 54 (23-9-82 retrospective to 5-7-77)Death penalty for being

>"liable to cause insecurity, fear, despondency among the public" or

>having knowledge of such an offence. Unless proved to the contrary,

>the accused is presumed guilty.

>

>

>"In October, two thousand lawyers met in Karachi to demand the

>restoration of civil liberties. The organisers of the conference were

>arrested and sentenced to one year's rigorous imprisonment."'5

>

>

>ML 049 The editor of any publication deemed dangerous to the

>"sovereignty, integrity and security of Pakistan or of morality and

>maintenance of public order" is subject to ten lashes and 25 years of

>rigorous imprisonment. 16

>

>

>The mass circulation PPP newspaper, Musawaat was closed down and the

>presses seized. Censorship was enforced and the military controlled

>the source of newsprint.

>

>

>ML 0 No 48 A member of a political party is subject to fourteen years

>rigorous imprisonment, the loss of his property and 25 lashes.

>

>

>Doctors were usually present so that whipping stopped short of death.

>Smelling salts were often administered if the victim lost

>consciousness before receiving his allotted number of lashes.

>

>

>Bhutto's dentist, Dr. Niazi, was not a member of any political party

>but was punished for his friendship with the ex-PM. An American

>visitor had left half a bottle of wine at his house. This was found

>when his home was searched. Dr. Niazi was jailed for six months for

>possessing alcohol.

>

>

>Zia supported the Wahhabis whom we described in the essay on Saudi

>Arabia and he made no effort to restrain the religous fundamentalists.

>They could assault people, throw acid at them or destroy their

>property at will. During Ramadan gangs roamed the streets checking

>that no restaurants were open, that water was shut off in drinking

>fountains and public bathrooms and that no one smoked in public during

>the day. Fundamentalist students campaigned for sexual apartheid at

>the schools and attacked girls wearing Western clothing. Women's

>events at the Olympic Games were not shown on Pakistan T V because

>they showed their legs. Shariah law was introduced so that a woman 5

>evidence was worth only half of a man's. The woman's penalty of being

>stoned to death was introduced for Zina (adultery). The double

>standard was shown in one case in Lahore. Two women were made to

>strip, beaten on the genitals and then raped. After all that, the case

>against them was dropped due to lack of confessions or eye-witnesses.

>Surely their experiences in the police station made them guilty?

>

>

>Members of religious minorities such as Hindus, Christians and

>Zoroastrians were particularly likely to be victimized and warned to

>get out of Pakistan. The Ahmadiyya community whose members consider

>themselves to be Muslims, under amendments made to the penal code in

>1984, may be "imprisoned for up to three years for calling themselves

>Muslims or for engaging in Muslim religious practices such as wearing

>badges displaying verses from the Qur'an."17 Over 3000 Ahmadis have

>been charged under this act.

>

>

>To show how "democratic" he was, Zia decided to go through the motions

>of a referendum in 1985. A "yes" vote would bring the laws of Pakistan

>into line with the Shariah. What was laughable, however, was that

>anyone campaigning for a no vote could be fined $35,000 and imprisoned

>for three years. The only alternative for the democratic forces was to

>call for a boycott of the referendum. The voter turnout may have been

>as low as 10%. Official figures were useless; all supervision and

>counting were done by the military.

>

>

>Zia had a special relationship with the United States of America.

>Despite human rights abuses, many saw Pakistan as a Western bastion in

>the East. Zia called Pakistan a front-line state helping to fight a

>jihad (holy war) against godless communism. He received over $500

>million a year in economic and military aid from the U.S.A., plus

>whatever did not reach the mujahedin forces in Afghanistan. The

>Under-Secretary of State, James Buckley testified before the Senate

>Foreign Relations Committee that elections "were not in the security

>interests of Pakistan" 18

>

>

>Reagan, however, did want Zia to hold elections. The dictator took the

>precaution of rounding up 3000 political opponents until the elections

>were over. Still he was rejected: only six out of6l candidates

>standing for the Jamaat-e-Islami won seats whereas of 52 candidates

>supporting the PPP fifty won seats-this despite the fact that the PPP

>had been banned for eight years.

>

>

>However Zia did not lift martial law until December 1985. He retained

>the posts of President and Army Chief of Staff and he kept the

>"civilian government" under tight control.

>

>

>Little of the billions of dollars received in aid went to help the

>people. For example the literacy rate was falling not improving. The

>infant mortality rate to the age of one was 15% and to age five was

>34%. Over 85% of Pakistanis lived in huts or shacks with no access to

>clean water.

>

>

>In August 1988, Zia was killed in an air-crash. Benazir Bhutto,

>daughter of the murdered Prime Minister, had spent years in exile,

>years under home detention and years in jail including long periods in

>solitary confinement. She obtained a court ruling that elections

>should be party-based. The PPP won the largest number of seats and

>Benazir became Prime Minister. She immediately had all death sentences

>commuted and thousands of political and religious prisoners were

>released.

>

>

>

>

>March 19,1993 Meeting in New Delhi, the supreme council of Shia Ulema

>(religious leaders) is to approach the United Nations to have Pakistan

>declared a terrorist state. The Wahhabist Sunnis do not recognize

>Shiites as Muslims and recently massacred a number of them in

>Bahawalpur, Pakistan.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>What is the conflict over Kashmir all about?

>

>

>

>

>After early Buddhist and Hindu rule, Jammu and Kashmir State became

>part of the Moghul empire in 1587 and most of its people were forcibly

>converted to Islam. It came under British domination in 1846. On

>independence and partition in 1947 its Hindu Maharajah hesitated and

>refrained from joining India or Pakistan for some time.

>

>

>Pakistan made an unprovoked attack and seized thousands of square

>miles. It was then the Majarajah threw in his lot with India, which

>action was later ratified by the Kashmir Assembly. At Leh about five

>hundred innocent Buddhists were murdered and many monasteries were

>looted and desecrated. The secular army of India contained numbers of

>Muslim officers some of whom passed information on to Pakistan. Under

>the cover of darkness Muslim Kashmiri troops murdered their Hindu

>comrades while they slept.

>

>

>The Pakistan army was accompanied by Muslim tribesmen. At Baramula

>they raped and robbed the kafir women including the nuns of the local

>mission hospital. A month later the town of Mirpur fell." Hardly two

>thousand out of about 25,000 living at that time in the ill-fated town

>managed to reach Jhangar in safety. The rest were ruthlessly

>butchered. The number of women abducted from there ran into thousands.

>Most of them were paraded and then sold in the bazaars of Jehlum,

>Rawalpindi and Peshawar. The barbarities of the Pakistan troops and

>civilians on these hapless women... put to shame the worst orgies of

>rape and violence associated with the hordes of Ghengiz Khan and Nadir

>Shah."19

>

>

>On August 15, 1948 after many months of resistance, the town of

>Askardu fell to Pakistan. The entire Hindu population and most of the

>surviving troops were massacred. By the time of the cease fire

>approximately half the state had come int6 the grasp of Pakistan,

>which consolidated its power by killing or driving out all Hindus

>including Sikhs.

>

>

>Pakistan, however, had not been able to take the Kashmir Valley and

>intensified its efforts to agitate the Muslim masses.

>

>

>An example was the disappearance (and later re-appearance) in 1963 of

>the reputed hair of the prophet Muhammad kept in the Hazrat Bal Shrine

>at Srinagar and the anti-Indian storm which erupted.

>

>

> >From May 1965 Pakistan sent thousands of armed infiltrators into

>Kashmir prior to its full-scale invasion on September 1, 1965. In this

>Second Indo-Pak War India was able, in the main, to withstand the

>invaders.

>

>

>On December 3, 1971 Pakistan bombed Indian air bases starting the

>Third Indo-Pak War. Again Kashmir was high on the list of its

>objectives. Apart from India once again preventing the severance of

>Kashmir it helped Bangladesh achieve independence.

>

>

>Still hoping to enlarge its Islamic state, Pakistan is training and

>arming young Kashmiri rebels. To date they have mainly engaged in hit

>and run activities. The Indian Border Security Force have killed 227

>guerrillas and captured three hundred including some Afghan fighters.

>

>

>Sajjad Ahmed, one of the leaders of an Islamic group, the

>Harakatul-Mujahedin stated that every true Muslim should join the

>jihad. In October 1991, Ashun Dar of the Hizb-ul-Mujahedin had four

>captured soldiers hung when the Indian authorities would not exchange

>ten Kashmiris for them.

>

>

>Muslim fundamentalist groups have gone about systematically destroying

>non-Muslim school and college buildings in Kashmir. Six advanced

>colleges, 79 primary schools, 81 middle schools, 63 high schools and

>23 higher secondary schools have been destroyed by the militants. In

>addition, 240 educational institutions have been damaged including

>Christian missionary schools at Srinagar and Baramula.

>

>

>At the same time a number of Islamic schools and seminaries have been

>opened or extended. Money for these activities have derived from

>Pakistan or drug-smuggling. Large quantities of heroin and hashish

>destined for Europe have been seized by Indian security forces on the

>IndoPak border. Together with the drugs come arms and explosives for

>the Muslim terrorists.

>

>

>On August 14 1993, Islamic militants stopped a bus traveling from

>Kishtwar to Jammu, pulled out 16 Hindus who were aboard and shot them

>in cold blood.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>Have the Hindus developed similar coping mechanisms as the Jews in

>response to overwhelming Muslim savagery?

>

>

>

>The happiest in this matter must be the Muslims themselves. What fools

>these Hindus are, they must be telling themselves: We killed them by

>the millions, we wrested a whole nation out of them, we engineer riots

>against them, and they still defend us!... But don't the Hindus know

>that many orthodox Indian Muslims still cling to the Deoband school,

>which says that India was once "Dar-ul-Islam", the house of Islam, and

>should return to that status.

>

>

>...But ultimately, it is a miracle that Hinduism survived the

>onslaught of Muslim savagery; it shows how deep was her faith, how

>profound her karma, how deeply ingrained her soul in the hearts of her

>faithfuls. We do not want to point a finger at Muslim atrocities, yet

>they should not be denied and their mistakes should not be repeated today.

>

>

>

>

>

>

 

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