A Convert’s Complaint: Analyzing Naipaul’s Views on Islam

Romair # 296

``So now Jordan has a Palestinian queen, who replaced the American Queen Noor, instead of a Pakistan queen named Surriyya.``

The name is Sarwat.She is the daughter of Shaista

Ikramullah,niece of Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy.

Ref bong_dongs #: 297

[Pritish Nandy`s views]

Pritish Nandy opens by saying that the Chief Minister of Gujarat was wrong and stupid to blame the Godhra train arson on Pakistani terrorists.

I read another columnist who said that Vajpayee should have blamed the ISI to take the heat off the local Muslim community.

As they say, opinions are like a$$holes: everybody has one.

Ref Banjaara #: 298

[So you provide history lessons learned from the

temple guides.No wonder it sounds so weird.If you

really want to learn about the gyan vapee masjid and the Vishwa nath temple,please read Sir Jadoo

Nath Sarkar`s treatise.]

Nope. If you go back and read my posts for the last year, you will notice that I quote chapter and verse from history books written by British authors on India. Most of these authors, in turn, quote from Muslim historians such as Ibn Batuta who documented events that they witnessed. I do not want to believe any Hindu historian considering that under the Nehru government scholarship was sacrificed for political considerations.

The specific point about the idol being thrown down the well cannot be known to the Muslim historians. If it was, Aurangzeb would have ordered it to be recovered and destroyed. Any such information necessarily passes down as an oral tradition.

Regards.

Is Naipaul married to a Pakistan named Nadira? How did these two hook up? And what is the deal with all the Pakistani women marrying famous foreigners? The wife of the heir to King Hussein of Jordan (his brother) is a Pakistani. She almost became queen until Hussein changed his mind at the last moment, and appointed his son the King. So now Jordan has a Palestinian queen, who replaced the American Queen Noor, instead of a Pakistan queen named Surriyya.

The only male Pakistani who married a famous foreigner, I can think of, is Imran Khan.

harimay # 286

``If you visit the temple and ask a temple guide about the history of the temple, he will relate the story to you.

I only provide history lessons here on Chowk. It doesn`t mean I live in the past.``

So you provide history lessons learned from the

temple guides.No wonder it sounds so weird.If you

really want to learn about the gyan vapee masjid and the Vishwa nath temple,please read Sir Jadoo

Nath Sarkar`s treatise.

Regards.

Pritish Nandy`s views:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/080302/detpla01.asp

Harimao #286

I agree. This mosque should be demolished too. Not only this but hundreds which were destroyed by Muslims must be restored.

Millions of acres of land as Karbala has been occupied as muslim burial grounds. It should reclaimed too.

Aurangabad,Faizabad,Gaziabad, Muzzafrabad, Allahabad, Ahmadabad and many more - all these names should be changed. Muslamaans do not run the writ in this country. Mughlai is over. We gave Pakistan and that should be it. Let them go there or go to hell.

Harimao #286

I agree. This mosque should be demolished too. Not only this but hundreds which were destroyed by Muslims must be restored.

Millions of acres of land as Karbala has been occupied as muslim burial grounds. It should reclaimed too.

Aurangabad,Faizabad,Gaziabad, Muzzafrabad, Allahabad, Ahmadabad and many more - all these names should be changed. Muslamaans do not run the writ in this country. Mughlai is over. We gave Pakistan and that should be it. Let them go there or go to hell.

#harimau

1)Breakdown in law and order:

So now we understand that we were using different definitions.

2)Prevention of Gohdra:

Yes your charge of Monday-morning-quaterbacking is accurate but I can say the same for you. Fact is that neither you nor me have an adequate background in law enforcement to pass judgement here. (unless you are an ex-IAS/IPS guy here, then I`ll withdraw my comments)

2)Inaction of the Modi goverment:

Ok so we both understand the politician-goonda-rioter dynamic. Fact is Modi is playing from the same playbook innumerable congressi leaders have also played from in the past to consolidate vote banks. That doesnt mean we evade our duty to criticize it each time it occurs, do we?

3)Delay in deploying paramilitary:

So what do you think happened here: logistical delays or deliberate inaction? (You have argued for both points)

Ref karuvattu-kuzhambu #: 279

Now that we have established through this post that you are one of those who not only went to Tamil-medium colleges but have minimal facilities in Logic, why don`t you tell me your name? Tamil Mani, I bet. That would have enabled you to sail through college.

Ref veeresh #: 282

[BUT BUT BUT . . . gentleman in question could have had Afghan or German or Tamil Brahmin grandmother and still been tall / fair / blue-eyed / aquiline nose without having Pathan blood . . .]

Keep your hands off our women!

Ref bong_dongs #: 269

[btw harimau, whats your take on the 2 lakhs for the train victims v/s 1 lakh for the subsequent riot victims?]

My take? That would be due to Lord Rama`s blessing for those pilgrims who had gone to Ayodhya. How do you like THAT?

Ref bong_dongs #: 268

[Lets get some definitions straight:

Breakdown in law and order: When repeated acts of violence are committed without any discerable attempts by the administration to prevent such acts.]

No. Breakdown in law and order is when violence and property damage occur. It has nothing to do with any attempts by an administration to prevent such acts. That might be a failure of will, or political calculation.

[So what occured in Gohdra was a failure of the intelligence arm (typically of IB) to anticipate this event. I do not know if the rural or railway police was capable of preventing the murder after the mob assembled. If yes then it indicates incompetence on their part.]

It is quite easy to do Monday-morning-quarterbacking. If the mob at Godhra had assembled without any prior planning as Hydra alleges, then there was no intelligence failure. If all that the police observed was factional fight between Muslims (locals vs. outsiders), that doesn`t necessarily give them any idea that violent actions may be taken against a community (the Hindus) who were not participants in the factional struggle. Considering that the attack was against a train, it is obvious that no Hindu-Muslim struggle local to Godhra was involved. What you seem to want is clairvoyance on the part of the police and the civil authorities.

[But what happened subsequently in Ahmedabad could be easily anticipated even by morons like you and me.]

If that is so, why didn`t YOU alert the police?

How can you be so sure that the riots would occur in Ahmedabad? What if the police had been thoroughly prepared in Ahmedabad but the riots broke out in Baroda? Wouldn`t you still be critical of the local authorities?

[The most charitable explaination I can offer is sheer administrative incompetence on part of the Modi government]

I wan`t even that charitable. I pointed out that there is a cold political calculation that determines how to exact revenge while saving the skins of the politicians in the next elections. You don`t like that logic... too bad.

[The first paramilitary forces entered Gujrat Thursady night atleast 36 hours after the train massacre]

Don`t they have to come from places outside Ahmedabad if there is none stationed there? Doesn`t that take time?

[Shoot-at-sight orders issued and the first flag marches staged (Friday morning). This after an entire days rioting had taken place and more than a 100 people killed]

But as soon as the paramilitary troops were deployed in the city. Don`t you think it takes time for the troops to fan out throughtout the city? Most likely, they were given the instructions as soon as they arrived in Ahmedabad, which would have been Thursday night.

You all seem to think that there should be planes ready to take off at a moment`s notice and that as soon as riots occur, troops should be on site just in about the time it takes to fly them from their base. If you watched the news, the troops didn`t even arrive in Army trucks; they had commandeered some local trucks to take them to the various localities of Ahmedabad and you saw fewer Army vehicles. Next you wil be demanding permanent stationing of troops in any city with a minority population.

All I can say is that is not going to happen. Unless we conscript all of you guys right out of high school and put them on some sort of National Service for a couple of years like they do in Singapore. Then you will all be crying foul about the delay in your college education, loss of personal freedom, why don`t they recruit all the loafers from the street corners, etc.

Ref dost-mittar #: 258

[Goddess Sarswati has been very kind to you but I wish Lord Ganesh had also blessed with you a little heart. How can you see poor babies and children being charred to death on TV in your house and think only in terms of the balance sheet of retribution? This retribution could be foreseen and many, if not all of these deaths were PREVENTATBLE.]

Let me let you in on a little secret: I am the biggest softie around. If I see a man with a ``Homeless`` sign at some street corner, I always reach into my wallet and give him money to tide over for at least a day. Panhandlers see in me an easy mark. But I do have this habit of cold dispassionate analysis and that comes particularly to the fore when I find a bunch of what I consider nincompoops jumping up and down.

I have NOT said that the retaliatory riots were the right thing to do. I merely explained the logic, however cold and unfeeling it may seem, behind the behavior of authorities in situations such as these.

I fail to understand how these people who call for the resignation of Vajpayee`s government on the basis that he did not provide the leadership necessary to stop the violence can reconcile that with the fact the alternative is the Congress which failed to stop the Delhi riots in the wake of Indira Gandhi`s assassination. Their hero seems to be Rajiv Gandhi who said that the earth must tremble when a great tree falls when asked about the Delhi riots. What I see is either hypocrisy or inability to see through the brainwashing that they have received through years in Indian schools.

Re certain people`s characterization of me as a Hindutvavadi, the last time I stepped inside a temple was in Nov 2001. That is about 4 months without visiting a temple. Like a camel with regard to water, I can go for a couple of years without the need for religious sustenance provided by a visit to a temple. My visit to a temple is spent in observing with a cynical eye the visitors there rather than in prayer or contemplation; I guess I am destined for Hell for that reason alone!

Regards.

Ref wholly-precious-you #: 278

[….i thought the ayodhya was the hindus’ mecca…but let me guess….the gyan vapee mosque is next on the vhp’s list…]

Benares is considered one of the holy cities of Hindus. Simply to die on the banks of the River Ganges at Benares is considered sufficiently meritorious to be admitted to Heaven. Benares has even now hundreds of temples dedicated to Lord Shiva and His consort. Of these, the Vishwanath Temple is considered the most sacred.

Aurangzeb destroyed this temple and erected the mosque right next to it. The idol of Shiva was thrown into a well in the courtyard of the temple to prevent it from being destroyed and was rescued about 12 years later. Thetemple was re-built from its ruins and the idol was re-installed. Thus the current juxtaposition of the Vishwanath Temple cheek-by-jowl to the mosque.

As I said before, nobody is writing up about this in magazines or sending out newsletters to the public. If you visit the temple and ask a temple guide about the history of the temple, he will relate the story to you.

While this mosque -- of absolutely no architectural significance; it is just a very ordinary-looking whitewashed building with a couple of minarets -- was on the list of at least 4 sites that the VHP wanted restored to the Hindu public, after the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition and the ensuing outcry, the demand has been restricted just to Ayodhya.

[…re-hashing and living in the past is NOT the sign of a healthy mind….]

I only provide history lessons here on Chowk. It doesn`t mean I live in the past.

Article : Carnage in Gujarat...by Mr. Vadrajana is out of touch...

Blaming Vajpayee is ablsolute stupidity. The which is bing not told is that what happened in Godhra was planned conspracy of Muslims.

Eeven in USA, lot of people got arrested of Arabic and Pakistanis got arrested and there is no pressure on Government by opposition not implement the law of land.

India there is different law when Hindus are agressor and different when Muslims are agressors. If one check the History of riots...there 38,000 riots in Congress party rule of 45 years....almost all of them were initiated by Muslims!

Under BJP upto this date there were no riots...what happened in Gujarat is mere reacton of the people.

In English media as usual BJP is always get criticised but is not the failure of opposition and Muslim leadership to harsh condemnation of event in Godhra? The timely involvement of Muslims leaders would have cool down the temper of the majority. Unfortunately it did not happen but both the opposition and Muslims come up heavy handed when they found that Muslims are on receiving end first time in the History of riots in the country!

The dishonest politicians of opposition and Muslims has caused the reaction of generally sober people of Gujarat.

I cam across reporting of Sheela Bhat...it tells what is realy happened in Godhra and how Muslims has created state within a state supported and nurished by thier link with Pakistan.

Mr. Narendra Modi is taking heat but he has acted impartially and fare, appreciation in of his efforts in bias media is different matter!