Open Letter to O. B. Laden

Re: Tahmed321 on Gowardhan and Jay

Very funny. I could not resist smiling even in these terrible days.

Last evening, there was a prayer vigil in our neighborhood for the dead in NYC and the Pentagon. The participants were from various ethnic backgrounds -- there were two afghan women as well. I could not, but help feel for them. They must be feeling very vulnerable these days. Yet, the fact that americans from various backgrounds got together for a common prayer (the african-american christian pastor was almost apologetic before offering a christian prayer in front of a mult-ethnic congregation) was a powerful, moving emotion. The ties that bind, are more powerful than the ones that separate.

Re: Tahmed321

``Let us all pray therefore for continued steps guided by common sense and by God for the coalition against terrorism``

And let us pray that America does not abandon Afghanistan like it did the last time once its interests were served.

Re: Romair #42

``This will be a public relations coup for Pakistan, and a disaster for India....``

Now Vajpayee is really scared! Playing those zero-sum games again, huh? I have seen your various positions shift from -- `Pakistan should ditch USA and fully ally with China` to `Pakistan should not allow any US ground forces` to celebrating US-Pak cooperation. Do you have any abiding principles, or do you simply turn towards wherever the winds blow?

Re: YLH

Had you not announced that you were not going to be around Chowk for a few days? What happened?

Gowardhan: Please report for duty at the nearest police station, from where you will be taken straight to the Annual Convention of Morons where you will present your various chowk posts (starting with the previous one concerning naming of children in Pakistan). After you are through presenting your posts, the morons will each come and personally thank you for making them feel good and intelligent. After that, you will be asked to submit to questioning by the Sub-Committee of Hate-Filled Morons to whom you will provide ways to fill their empty heads with hatreds. Next (sorry, Jay is jumping up and down asking to be presented to these committees as well...)

Fatimah #41 Thanks for sharing your experience on that terrible day. I think these events have touched the hearts of thinking people not just in the US but across the world.

Nasah, Stuka,

Has anyone read my post completely? Havent I said that Ossama Bin Laden and his terrorist organization are involved?

I asked a serious question... something which many have speculated and atleast One Canadian intelligence agency has put forth.... Now instead of attacking me and accusing me of throwing in the name of Mossad.... Please be serious and control your snakes of hate.

As for Indian Government`s involvement in activities against its own people, many well known Indians and many of my friends view the Ganga Hijacking in 1971 as Indian Government`s strategy to refuse Pakistan its air space. Similarly USS Liberty in 1980s according to the History Channel and many Sources within the CIA was destroyed by Mossad.

With that said anyone who has read my articles in various papers and knows my stance knows that I have a great admiration for Israel... and am known as a supporter of it, for which I was repeatedly attacked by the Islamic Society at Rutgers University....

Bijli :

If the people who did the hijackings and crashed

the airplanes into the World Trade Center, killing

so many people, ( including Pakistanis ) did a

crime against Islam, then I expect to see fatwas

from some leading Islamic religious leaders.

I expect them to say that it is a religious duty

for every Muslim to help catch the culprits.

If it is OK for Muslims not to act just because

the West has acted, then how can Muslims complain

when they get scr * *ed ?

-Arun Gupta

Tahmed

Second that thought and would add that Pakistan should also keep her interest always paramount.

The focus of the coalition seems to be Osama and/or the Taliban. This the wrong focus, but there can still be profit in it for Pakistan.

From the NYT: ``The secretary of state said that Pakistan had agreed to all of Washington`s requests. ``The Pakistani government was very forthcoming and we`re appreciative,`` Mr. Powell said.``

A victory for good sense. And a victory for good sense is a victory for all people - be they Indian, Pakistani, Afghani, American or anyone else. Let us all pray therefore for continued steps guided by common sense and by God for the coalition against terrorism.

Sikh distance themselves from terrorism

NY Sikhs mount $100,000 ad campaign



GURMUKH SINGH

TIMES NEWS NETWORK



EW DELHI: The Sikh community in New York is launching a $ 100,000 campaign in the mainstream media to dispel the impression that they are bin Laden sympathisers. More than three dozen incidents of attacks against Indians, mostly Sikhs, have been reported since Tuesday.

Businessman Sant Chatwal said ads and supplements will be carried in the New York Times and other papers from tomorrow ``to tell the Americans who we are``. These attacks have been carried out by Hispanic and other groups which don`t know anything about the Sikhs, he added.

His son, hotelier Vikram Chatwal, said community leaders took camera crews from CNN and other channels to city gurdwaras on Friday to tell the Americans that the Sikh community has nothing to do with bin Laden. ``We feel as empty as any American without the Twin Towers.``

Meanwhile, in the continuing attacks on Indians, two Sikhs were attacked near the Richmond Culture Center on Friday. Two students were also attacked in Queensboro College. ``But when the attackers came to know that their victims were neither pro-bin Laden nor Pakistanis, they apologised,`` said a Sikh leader from Richmond.

``In the prevailing atmosphere anyone wearing a turban is being presumed to be a bin Laden supporter,`` said Baldev Grewal, editor of Sher-e-Punjab newspaper in Manhattan.

A Sikh temple in West Sacramento was also targeted in what the police termed ``a hate crime``. One man was held for vandalism.

Sensing more trouble in the coming days, the Maryland-based Sikh Media Watch and Resource Task Force and other organisations have urged Sikhs to avoid going out and always carry cell phones with them ``as the anti-immigrant feeling is likely to inflame when the US mounts attacks on the terrorists and their sympathisers.``

In an interesting twist, US-based pro-Khalistan elements, who have been denying any allegiance to India, are putting out statements about their being Indians, not Arabs, in order to avoid any blacklash, Grewal said.

RE Ahmed Madani

Dude in a time of terror and pain, we all do need a little outlet for humor. Do keep writing as your profound thoughts do provide us with that desperate humor break

The answer to the bombing may be contained in this book. Read it with an open mind my fellow brothers and sisters.

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/ibn_al-rawandi/review.html

Re Bijli 17

You can`t help yourself but prove that your are a nincompoop each and every time. For the record, I saw it all happen live. Not on TV but before my own eyes, 2 buildings collapse taking with them thousands of lives. I know of 3 people personally who are still missing--who worked on those high floors. And so don`t bloody lecture me.

The problem with your islamist types is that you sit in the west, enjoy all the benefits and then not just criticize, but wish the worst on this civilization. I have nothing but contempt and now, seething rage for your types.

Unlike many of your types who grew up in a monoculture, I grew up in India with friends who were not just hindu but with christians, sikhs, parsis, muslims and jews. And I live in the NY area where you interact with people of all backgrounds and coexist. show me a muslim majority country where the minority is comfortable and well treated. Other than Malaysia--but for how long?

As long as you look backward to the past, you are doomed to live in it.

Suxena #35, ``Here you are posting stupidity on yet another board, while asking others to go do something. Hypocrite if I ever saw one.``

Oh pleaseeeeeee don`t use my words again. I know you can`t think of something to say of your own, but this is preposterous.

``It was not ``miniscule`` as you conveniently say -- it was in the thousands. It is still going on, except cameras have been confiscated and you will be not seeing them.``

Thousands (which is an exaggerated number) is miniscule compared to the overall population of Muslims in this world. Whether you like it or not, Muslims make up the second largest population in this world. There are bound to be some deviants, some bitter people.

What matters is, the majority of Muslims, even the most conservative ones, are appalled by this horrible tragedy. And you may pound your chest otherwise, but the reality remains, that the murder of innocents and suicide in any form is HARAM in Islam.

Swallow that and ``shut your trap`` for a change.

You`re going to get it, where you give it.

Macgupta`s question is important.

Fatwa was issued to kill a man just because he wrote a book.

Where is a fatwa now to kill those who organized killing of 5000 americans?

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=2400Teacher beats up student for criticising Osama bin Laden

Press Trust of India

West Bengal, September 15: A class five student had to be hospitalised on being severely beaten up by his Urdu teacher for making remarks against Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden during a discussion on the terrorist attacks in US, police said on Saturday.

The teacher got so infuriated on hearing the student, Koushik Dey`s remarks against Laden on Friday that he pounced on him and thrashed him in a high school in West Bengal`s Birbhum district, they said.

The boy had to be taken to hospital for treatment, they added. While the headmaster of the school said the teacher had apologised for his action, boy`s father has lodged a complaint in Suri police station.