"Embrace Islam or pay Jazia"

Hindus in Battagram District of NWFP told to embrace Islam or pay tax

Chief of the Hindu community in the Battagram city of Battagram District said on June 28 that the Taliban had threatened them to pay Jazia (tax) or accept Islam, Dawn reported. “It depends on you to choose between Jazia and Islam otherwise you would face abduction and suicide attacks,” Dr Oam Parkash quoted the Taliban as saying. He said that so far he had received two calls during the last two days: first by a Taliban commander and then by a militant. “They demanded Rs6 million from me,” the Hindu leader added. The Taliban is reported to have threatened that “if you or any other member of your community were kidnapped then we will not release the kidnapped person even after payment of Rs10 million as ransom”. Parkash said that he had made clear to both callers that the Hindus in the region were not in a position to pay such a huge amount. Parkash said that 15 Hindu families were living in Battagram but none of them had enmity with anyone in the District. “The government should take precautionary measures to protect the Hindu community as the Taliban have threatened even to target our place of worship in Battagram,” he added.

"I shall not allow the sacrifice of my parents to go in vein "- Godhra Victim

Ahmedabad: The torching of coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002, was planned, said Gayatri Panchal (24), whose parents and two sisters were killed in the carnage incident.

Charges have been framed against 100 people accused in the case. The dates for the recording of evidence have also been fixed. Evidence in the case will be recorded on July 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 and 8. The Gujarat Police had submitted 19 chargesheets in the case, in which the accused were charged under the provisions of the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), among others.

Gayatri’s Disclosure

On the 27th February, the Ahmedabad bound Sabarmati Express, carrying
karsevaks from Ayodhya was barbarously attacked and burnt at Godhra in which around 60 karsevaks laid their lives. Gayatri Panchal a young eleventh class student was also amongst those who were returning from Ayodhya. She is a surviving witness to the inhuman atrocious cruelty in which right in front of her eyes two of her sisters and parents were burnt alive.

Harshadbhai Panchal, a resident of Ramol, left for karseva at Ayodhya on the 22nd February, together with his wife Neetaben and three daughters, Pratiksha, Chhaya and Gayatri. His sister in law, her son, her neighbour Poojaben and her would be husband were also accompanying him.

All of them were returning to Ahmedabad along with several other karsevaks. Harshadbhai and his family, Poojaben and her husband were in one compartment. While his sister in law and her husband and their son were in another compartment. The only survivor out of these ten, Gayatri, says about this horrible event that, “On the 27th morning, at around 8 a.m. the train left Godhra Station.



The karsevaks


were loudly chanting the Ram Dhoon. The train had hardly gone ½ Km., when it suddenly stopped. Somebody had perhaps pulled the chain to stop the train. Before anybody could know what had happened, we saw a huge mob approaching the train. People were carrying weapons like Gupti, Sphere, Swords and such other deadly weapons in their hands and were throwing stones at the train. We all got frightened and some how closed the windows and the doors of the compartment. People outside were shouting loudly, saying “Maro, Kato” and were attacking the train. A loudspeaker from the Masjid close by was also very loudly shouting “Maro, Kato, Laden na dushmano ne Maro.” These attackers were so fierce that they managed to break the windows and close the doors from outside before pouring petrol inside and setting the compartment on fire so that nobody could escape alive. A number of attackers entered the compartment and were beating the karsevaks and looting their belongings. The compartments were drenched in petrol all over. We were terrified and were shouting for help but who was there to help us? A few policemen were later seen approaching the compartment but they were also whisked away by the furious mob outside. There was so much of smoke in the compartment that we were unable to see each other and also getting suffocated. Going out was too difficult, however myself and Pooja some how managed to jump out through the windows. Pooja was hurt in her back and was unable to stand up. People outside were trying to hold us to take us away but we could escape and run under the burning train and succeeded in crawling towards the cabin. I have seen my parents and sisters being burnt alive right in front of my eyes.” Luckily, by the grace of God, Gayatri was not hurt too badly. “We somehow managed to go up to the station and meet our aunty (Masi). After the compartments were completely burnt the crowd started withering. We saw that even amongst them were men, women and youngsters like us both male as well as female. I returned here after evacuating the dead bodies of my family members at Godhra Station. Out of 18 of us ten had laid their lives.”

Gayatri’s father was a carpenter whereas her mother worked in the Madhyanha Bhojana Yojna (i.e. Mid-day meal scheme), her elder sister Pratiksha was serving in the Collectorate.

In spite of what had happened, Gayatri still feels that she would any time once again venture to go for karseva. She says, “I shall not allow the sacrifice of my parents to go in vein.”

Hindu priest moving after racial attack in Belfast

Hindu priest moving after attack


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8117538.stm


A Hindu priest and his family who live at the Indian Community Centre in north Belfast have said they are planning to move out.

It follows an attack on the Clifton Street property last week, which they believe was racially motivated.

A gang of youths tried to break down the door of the centre while the priest's wife was alone inside.

Stones were also thrown at the building and the gang tried to take grills off the windows to get inside.

The family said they were too afraid to speak publicly about the incident at the time.

According to Bidit Dey, who works at the centre, police did not make any contact with the priest's wife after the attack.

"They did not actually stop by or call in to see her. This would have reassured them," he said.

CPM’s very own Cancer Ward

Balbir Punj

India’s Marxists invariably claim to speak on behalf of the people as if they have a patent on what the people think. In their Orwellian world, the party and the people are one — that is, whoever is with the party is with the people, and whoever is against the party is anti-people.

Last month’s general election results rubbished this notion and cut the Marxists to size in both their strongholds — West Bengal and Kerala. It may be recalled that CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat had boasted that he was acting on behalf of the people when he withdrew support to the UPA Government last year over the India-US civilian nuclear cooperation agreement. Needless to say, the CPI(M) subsequently fell flat on its face.

The repeated reference to ‘American imperialism’ by the Marxists did not create even a ripple among the electorate. Instead, these self-styled guardians of secularism, who backed Islamists in Kerala and West Bengal in a bid to win over the Muslim community, got a rude shock when a large section of Muslims deserted them in the two States.

In West Bengal, the electoral humiliation that the CPI(M) faced prompted talks of removing Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Whereas in Kerala the Marxists are in complete disarray. The party’s Kerala State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan was at war with his own Chief Minister, Mr VS Achuthanandan, even during the height of the Lok Sabha election campaign.

At the centre of the conflict is Mr Vijayan’s dubious role in the Rs 300 crore SNC Lavalin scam. The deal — to retrofit three hydro electric generators in the State — was inked when Mr Vijayan was the State Power Minister in the late-1990s. The public sector firm, BHEL, had offered to do the job for a much lower price, but was still denied the contract.

It is shocking that before the deal was finalised, the Canadian company, SNC Lavalin, was a consultant to the Kerala Government on the project. But suddenly it chose to apply for the tender itself. This goes against all business ethics. For, as a general rule the consultant for a project cannot also bid for it.

In the wake of the criticism that the deal attracted, SNC Lavalin offered to provide equipment for a cancer hospital in Cannore to ‘compensate’ for the high price it had quoted for the project. In the end, neither did the cancer hospital equipment come nor was the firm able to execute its job satisfactorily, drawing strong rebuke from both the CAG and the State Assembly.


The CBI found that the Cabinet note prepared by the then principal secretary of the Energy Department had misled the State Government deliberately on four major points. The note had misinformed the Government that the project for modernisation was as per the MOU. The note had also not mentioned that there was no signed agreement on the Canadian firm’s offer to supply cancer treatment equipment.

The order for the supply of equipment for the modernisation of the power plants was decided without calling global tenders — the Cabinet note did not mention this. Nor did the note reflect the Central Electricity Authority’s view that there was no need for this modernisation project. The CBI also found that the Cabinet was not informed that the State Government could withdraw from the deal if it wanted. In addition to this, even though the Canadian firm claimed that it had deposited Rs 32 crore in the account of the cancer hospital, this has been found to be false.

The UDF Government in 2005 revealed that the Canadian firm wanted a ‘No Objection Certificate’ from the State Government for the supply of equipment it had offered for the cancer hospital. But the departmental report on the work done by the firm was so skeptical about the quality of the equipment that it refused to give any such NOC.

In effect, the deal was a total fiasco. Neither did it result in quality work with respect to the modernisation of Kerala’s power plants, nor did it lead to the cancer hospital getting some new treatment equipment. SNC Lavalin took the Government’s money and provided the latter with some shoddy service for which it charged far more than what it deserved to be paid.

All this while the people of Kerala were watching this twisted drama. Mr VS Achuthanandan, a political rival of Mr Vijayan, has let it be known privately that he was in favour of the CBI’s request to prosecute the latter even though his Cabinet had unanimously advised the Governor to reject the decision. Now that the Governor, Mr RS Gavai, has given his assent to the CBI’s request, the Marxists have been holding demonstrations against him.

Thus, even as the Marxists fear the worst in West Bengal, their only other base, Kerala, is fast slipping out of their grip. Mr Prakash Karat used to bully the first Manmohan Singh Government, but now he himself is fighting to retain his position within the CPI(M). So much for the Marxist dogma that the ‘party is the people’.

As India is a Secular Nation, Non Hindus can be employed in Temple - AP Government

Hyderabad: The Congress government in AP is pursuing their Anti Hindu agenda and Temple destructive policies - The justification for all these Policies are vested around SECULARISM!

In a highly objectionable move AP Endowment Ministry is going ahead with the appointment of Non Hindus in AP temple as staff.Recently Christians were employed at famous Annavaram Temple.

While responding to press , Minister for Endowments, Stamps and Registration Gade Venkata Reddy said there should be no objection to employment of non-Hindus in Hindu temples as India is a secular State.

Fight Mao with Mao

Chandan Mitra

Maoists have declared war on the nation, but the Scotch-sipping, mall-going urban Indian thinks that’s happening in some remote part of the planet, maybe Belize or Benin. In reality, however, ultra-left groups have bared their fangs and progressively seized territory, created No-Go areas, taken over the local administration and even civil society functions. When Maoists take control of a geographical region they drive out not only the police and other organs of the State, including teachers and doctors, but also all political functionaries opposed to them. In other words, the entire fabric of the democratic as well as republican order collapses, leaving residents completely at the mercy of the promoters of chaos and revolution. Even the judicial system is supplanted by kangaroo courts; rough-and-ready justice being delivered at public gatherings presided by heavily armed commissars representing the ‘State-within-the-State’.

The statistics are frightening enough: An estimated 160 to 170 of India’s 600-odd districts are officially admitted to be Maoist infested. But what has happened in recent months is even more chilling. Around 20 districts spread over Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar seem to have slipped into their hands almost completely. Andhra Pradesh may have driven them out temporarily, but the writ of the Indian state still runs somewhat tenuously in certain parts of that State. In eastern Maharashtra and pockets of Karnataka the desperadoes are gaining ground daily, while districts adjoining Nepal in Uttarakhand have also steadily come under Maoist influence. But the really worrisome developments are in the first four contiguous States in East-Central India.

The creation of a virtual ‘liberated zone’ in and around Lalgarh in West Bengal’s Midnapore district has rightly attracted media attention on account of the sheer ferocity of Maoist onslaught and undeniable popular support their foray appears to command. The Naxalites, operating in the State where they first took birth in 1969, have turned public anger against the high-handed and corrupt CPI(M) machinery into a veritable war against the State. The police wait helplessly outside the cordon determined by Maoist authorities, all agencies of the Government have fled the blood-splattered villages, CPM activists have been mercilessly beaten and driven out, their offices burnt, while palatial homes of local apparatchiks demolished brick by brick in broad daylight by rampaging mobs. Maoist commanders are freely accessible to the media and declare their plans to build infrastructure — such as roads, culverts, schools and hospitals over the next few years “to compensate for the neglect of this impoverished region by the CPM Government in West Bengal”. This is a significant change of strategy on the Maoists’ part. Recognising the people’s craving for infrastructure, they have now decided to set up their own delivery mechanisms to address this aspect of public need. So far they were content destroying official structures; now they are confident of holding territory long enough to construct parallel governmental machinery.

A senior police official engaged in combating Maoist insurgency recently told me that seizures conducted across States indicates that Maoist groups collect around Rs 2,200 crore annually through extortion of mine owners, contractors and other businessmen. Most of the money is used to buy increasingly sophisticated arms and ammunition. Much of the information gathering and quotation collecting, believe it or not, happens through the internet! Overground activists of these groups are in regular touch with their bosses deep inside jungles and have successfully set up a communication network, which is yet to be fully cracked by law enforcing agencies. These overground members and sympathisers include teachers, lawyers, Government servants and doctors. It was not without reason that Chhattisgarh Police arrested Dr Binayak Sen although the Government was recently forced by the Supreme Court to release him on bail.

Indian Maoists have a global network operating through so-called human rights activists, bleeding heart NGOs and even Christian Missionary groups. They are engaged in drumming up sympathy for Pol Pot clones, allegedly working to help the underprivileged and downtrodden against a ‘brutal’ Indian state. That these “selfless” do-gooders go around ruthlessly murdering those they remotely suspect of wavering, throw even six-year-old children into the flames of renegades’ huts they routinely set on fire, is of course something that will never come into the public domain because much of the media, too, is irredeemably hostile to the agencies of the State. Under orders of secret committees hundreds of tribals have been shot, beheaded and hanged from trees over the last 20 years of mindless Maoist violence. In fact they have killed more of their “own” people than the police or para-military forces.


Arguably, organs of the State as well as political parties committed grievous errors in the past antagonising forest-dwellers, mainly tribal. But over the years, the tribal in India’s forest belt has ceased to conform to the romantic picture painted by the likes of Verrier Elwin. His modern-day disciples don’t want to acknowledge this reality because it goes against their conviction that by definition the State can do no good and that the tribal should be kept away from the “evils” of civilisation, in reservations akin to museums of natural history. Perhaps the problem began with British laws that theoretically took away the tribals’ right to their forest, something they are unable to accept even after 150 years. But then the forest is no longer an Eden of Bliss in which man endearingly cohabited with animals, spirits of the jungle, totems and witch doctors. Much of India’s forests have been mercilessly degraded since Independence — particularly in Jharkhand and West Bengal. Even remote Bastar in Chhattisgarh is no more the idyllic haven it once was, complete with maverick Rajas and supine tribals. However, it is their sense out outrage at the State’s failure to protect them against rapacious mine-owners and sundry contractors that has created fertile ground for the diabolical ideas of Maoism to sprout. Conditions for Maoism’s rise vary from State to State: Caste exploitation is probably its root in Bihar, while CPM’s atrocities, coupled with abject poverty and official neglect is the cause in Bengal.

But this is not the time for academic brainstorming into the resurgence of the Maoist movement in India. This is the time to act — swiftly and firmly. Mao Zedong’s famous dictum, “Power flows from the barrel of the gun” has to be turned around by the security forces to demonstrate to the merchants of mayhem that two can play that game. Districts severely infested by the Maoist menace needs to be brought under the Disturbed Areas Act, while commandos trained on the lines of Andhra’s Greyhounds should be set on the desperadoes.

Mao talked of combating “White” (meaning official) terror with “Red” terror. This, too, has to be turned on its head to terrorise the very peddlers of terror for that is the only language they understand. Their intellectual sympathisers need to be confronted at every forum with evidence of Maoist tyranny.

These self-anointed messiahs of the downtrodden should also be directed to Lenin’s pertinent pamphlet titled “Left wing Communism — An Infantile Disorder”.

Significance of Swastika: the Hindu View

K. M. Muralidharan

From time immemorial, Hindus have used spiritual and cultural symbols. Of these symbols, Pranavam (Aum), Swastika, and Sri Chakra, are prominent and of special importance, each of these symbols unique in its own way. Though almost all of us know what a swastika is, few of us have any idea about the significance of swastika. Hardly anyone is able to explain why Hindus esteem the right-faced swastika, while most people regard the left-faced so-called ‘swastika’ as inauspicious, and use it very rarely, compared to the right-faced swastika. I have conducted some research on swastika as a Hindu symbol. Some of my findings and conclusions are reproduced below with the hope that it would benefit my Hindu brethren and the readers in general.

In devising symbols, Hindus have followed the natural man’s vision, impressions and imagination. A symbol creates waves of thought in the observer and is capable of producing a psychological atmosphere. Many of us might have noted that the swastika contains a cross in its middle portion, if left bereft of the four bent arms. But without the four arms, a swastika is no more a swastika; it then becomes a cross. In a cross one line crosses and violates the other. ‘Crossing’ his cherished things, by another person, is not liked by the common man. Recall the English expression that we use to rude interveners and those who try to throw a spanner in our work: “Don’t cross my path.” In the natural man’s vision and understanding, a cross represents strife, conflict, violation, malice and harm. This is why a cross is inauspicious and undesirable as a natural symbolism. (What I say is applicable to natural and sane people. About abnormal cases, I offer no comment). It is due to this that ancient Hindus, with all their reverence for Surya, the Sun-god, still never used the cross as a symbol of the sun, whereas some thoughtless minds in some other parts of the ancient world, though very rarely, have used the cross, as a symbol of the sun. The four bent arms of swastika, obfuscates the strife-element in the cross. A swastika, does not remind any sober observer about a cross. It looks rather a conglomeration of four ‘boxes’ arranged in a set pattern. In ancient Greece they took it to be a ‘concentric’ collection of four counts of the capital-letter gamma.

The word “swastika” is derived from Sanskrit prefix su (meaning well, good, auspicious, great), and asti (be) plus the suffix ka (denoting a causing agent) added to the end. Swastika is, thus, ‘a thing that causes well-being, auspiciousness’.

Swastika, as a Hindu symbol, is the right-facing swastika. The left-facing ‘swastika’, strictly speaking, is not swastika at all, and the name ‘swastika’ is used popularly to denote that figure too, only due to the absence of an appropriate name for it. The left-handed swastika, called in Sanskrit “sauvastika”, is the antithesis of swastika. Some tantriks regard sauvastika as a symbol of Kali, the Goddess of destruction. The left-handed swastika is not conducive to well being. Some Jain sanyasis have encouraged the use of aswastika. But to my knowledge, none of them have till date explained any symbolic or philosophical significance in respect of the left-handed aswastika. I will be deeply obliged to anyone who provides a satisfactory explanation as to why the left-handed aswastika deserves any reverence as a symbol. A friend wrote to me that the left-handed swastika was in use even at the time of Indus Valley civilization. That makes no difference, since, first, my friend has no claim that the left-handed swastika was in use during Indus Valley civilization, precisely as a sacred symbol, and secondly, the age-old practice and understanding among Hindu society with respect to the two forms of swastika favours the right-faced figure, whereas they discommend the left-faced one.


Burnouf, the French scholar in 1852 used the term sauvastika, which word is a vriddhi derivation of swastika. Burnouf arbitrarily and un-supported by any authority, used the term to mean ‘salutatory, benedictory.’ Max Muller in a letter parrotted Burnouf’s folly (or mischief ?). Rishi Dayananda Saraswati’s correct observation that Max Muller had the Sanskrit knowledge of a mere class-tenth student only, is worth recalling here. It should also be remembered that Max Muller was employed by the British to misinterpret Hindu scriptures and create confusion and low self-esteem among Hindus. Max Muller has the dubious distinction of introducing the false and mischievous theory of ‘Aryan immigration’ into India. Viewed in the above background, the sauvastika deserves no favourable consideration.

Swastika symbolizes an ideal life. This can be demonstrated by employing a simple device. Supply Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha — the four purusharthas (aims, essentials, in human life, according to Hindu tradition), into the four arms of a right-facing swastika, beginning from the top-left box, as shown in Figure-A below.



In Figure –A Dharma is placed in the first box, open upwards. That shows receptiveness to noble, sacred, worthy and divine influences. The second box, open to the right, takes care of artha (wealth). That signifies use of wealth for good, desirable purposes, and daana (the doling out of wealth) to deserving persons (satpaatra). The third box covering all sides except the bottom, contains third purushartha namely kama (desires, libido). It signifies control, dama over desires and sex-urge. Exercise of such control is the sign of a cultured man. And for a noble soul, who has led a meaningful life in respect of the first three purusharthas, the fourth one, the way of moksha (liberation) is open. That is denoted by the last box, open to the left. No wonder, Hindus regard the right-faced swastika, symbolizing this great principle of life, as auspicious. The adjective ‘right-faced’, used for this figure, is thus meaningful in more than one ways.

The diametrically opposite and undesirable life-pattern is demonstrated by the left-faced Figure-B above, which I would call ‘aswastika’. When the four purusharthas are supplied in the four boxes of an aswastika, the exact opposite of the noble and ideal life-scheme, as represented by a swastika would result. Here, there is a block, an aversion to higher influences; open receptiveness to wealth, (the feeling that getting wealth alone is blessedness); a free hand allowed for kama (desires, libido); and for an ignoble guy who has passed such contemptible existence, troublesome for others, the way of liberation is blocked. This is why the left-faced ‘aswastika’ is regarded as inauspicious, and totally avoided at any religious or cultural venue of Hindus.

Again, it is worthwhile to place into the four boxes of swastika, the four traditional stages of life (ashramas), namely, Brahmacharya (celibate student-life), Garhastya (householder’s life), Vaanaprastha (retired life), and Sanyasa (renunciation) [see Figure-C above]. The well-ordered life represented by right-facing swastika signifies openness to higher influences in student life; ‘right-handed’ earning and right distribution of one’s wealth as a householder; suppression of base passions during retired life; and ultimately an open way to liberation, for such well-ordered person, in the last phase of life and in the ‘hereafter’. Needless to say, the exact opposite of these values is symbolised by the left-faced ‘aswastika’ (Figure- D above).

Swastika, as mentioned above, symbolises the values in human life, and hence its importance as a sacred symbol of Hindus. Like all the symbols and concepts in Hinduism, swastika too represents a higher philosophy, an ennobling thought, and natural, right-thinking symbolism.

Hitler and his ilk obviously did not think so much when they used the gammadion (swastika) as a Nazi symbol. The dictator, presumably, was under the impression that it was just another form of the cross, and he wore a plain cross on the chest pocket of his uniform, as evidenced by several photos of the Nazi leader, who was a devout Roman Catholic Christian. In Swedish, a swastika is called hakkors or hook cross, a clear indication that it has been considered a form of cross. Pertinently, no Nazi philosopher, including Alfred Rosenberg, has offered any cogent theory with regard to the significance of swastika according to Nazi philosophy. Hitler got the inspiration to use the swastika as a symbol for the NSDAP from the use of that symbol by the Thule-Gesellschaft (Thule Society), a German occultist and folk group in Munich, named after a mythical northern country in Greek legend. The Thule Society is notable chiefly as the organization that sponsored the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP), which was later transformed by Hitler into the Nazi Party. Thule Society also had no philosophical explanation regarding the swastika that they used.

Swastika is a sacred symbol of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains. Historically, many other native peoples of several regions the world over have regarded swastika as a sacred symbol. Aversion to Hitler and Nazism should not be used by white Christians of Europe to ban the use of Swastika in Europe. Hindus should challenge such ban orders before appropriate European courts of law. If swastika is to be banned due to its Nazi connection, then the cross also well deserves a total ban since Hitler used it on his chest-pocket. Even otherwise, if historical atrocities are any sufficient reason to ban a symbol, then which symbol deserves such ban in the first place than the cross, under which the notorious Cross Wars and hundreds of other declared and undeclared wars, hate campaigns, persecutions and organized criminal acts have been carried out, massacring millions of persons?

Atma Jyoti Ashram: Sannyasins or Swindlers?

Swami Devananda Saraswati

In Catholic Ashrams: Sannyasins or Swindlers, Sita Ram Goel describes the Christian missionary strategists’ plan to infiltrate Hindu society and gain the confidence of the people: “Christianity has to drop its alien attire and get clothed in Hindu cultural forms. In short, Christianity has to be presented as an indigenous faith. Christian theology has to be conveyed through categories of Hindu philosophy; Christian worship has to be conducted in the manner and with the materials of Hindu puja. Christian sacraments have to sound like Hindu samskaras; Christian churches have to copy the architecture of Hindu temples; Christian hymns have to be set to Hindu music; Christian themes and personalities have to be presented in styles of Hindu painting; Christian missionaries have to dress and live like Hindu sannyasins; Christian mission stations have to look like Hindu ashramas. And so on, the literature of Indigenization goes into all aspects of Christian thought, organization and activity and tries to discover how far and in what way they can be disguised in Hindu forms.”

Sita Ram Goel wrote this in 1988, and he would not be surprised to learn that Christian priests and monks in America have adopted the very same tactics to attract a whole generation of American youth interested in Hindu spirituality, back to Christianity. The leader in this movement today is Abbot George Burke of Atma Jyoti Ashram in Cedar Crest, New Mexico. He is better known on the Internet as Swami Nirmalananda Giri.

Atma Jyoti Ashram was originally called Sri Isha (=Jesus) Jyoti Sannyas Ashram and was located at Borrego Springs, California. Fr. George Burke is a Greek Orthodox Christian priest, and if reports are correct most or all of the community of brothers attached to him are Christian priests.

On one of his visits to India, Fr. George met with the Bengali saint Ananda Mai Ma. She instructed him to remain in the Christian religion and continue with his Christian practices. This is not unusual advice from a Hindu guru. In spite of their enlightenment, most of them are grossly ignorant of Christianity’s ideology and imperial designs, and of its triumphant, sectarian prayers and bloody rituals. They will advise their foreign followers to remain in the religion of their forefathers, not realizing the negative consequences of their thoughtless words.

This kind of advice is insincere and irresponsible, especially when it is made to foreign seekers who take the guru’s instruction as divine word. Christianity is based on a false doctrine of vicarious salvation, and there is nothing in Hindu scripture or the ancient Rishi tradition to support the ill-conceived advice handed out to foreign seekers by Hindu teachers who do not want to take spiritual responsibility for their charges.

However, Ananda Mai’s instruction suited Fr. George and his followers to a T, and they quoted her later as their authority to don the ochre cloth of Hindu sannyasis and adopt the Sanskrit titles and names of Smarta Dasanami monks. The fact that Ananda Mai Ma was not an initiated Dasanami sannyasi herself and had no authority to give her followers ochre cloth or Dasanami titles did not deter them in the impersonation drama. They continued to perform the bloody sacrifice of the Christian Mass in secret, even as they presented themselves in public as simple, unaffiliated Hindu monks. It was the old fraud of Robert de Nobili and Henri Le Saux being repeated again on an unsuspecting public, only this time it was an American not an Indian public that was being duped by the persuasive snake oil salesmen.

At one point in their career, while they were still the Sri Isha (=Jesus) Jyoti Sannyas community in Borrego Springs, they were caught out in their charade by non other than the Shaiva Siddhanta Church in Hawaii. The brothers did carpentry for a living, being followers of the Carpenter, and one of the items they produced for sale was a Roman cross with the sacred Hindu word-symbol Om nailed to its cross bars. They sent a sample to Hinduism Today with the hope of attracting sales. They got instead a negative response and a return of the obscene article. Hindus, even modern American Hindu converts, are deeply offended by this kind of syncretism and do not understand the appeal it has for New Agers and gay Christian priests who flaunt it on their cassock fronts as a sign of their radical universalism.

The Catholic writer S. Kulandaiswami has said vis-à-vis Fr. Bede Griffiths and his bastardized Om-on-Cross iconography: “Ritual, rites, [and] ceremonies in Hinduism have not been changed to suit the whims of modern innovators. Griffiths, by superimposing the sacred word Om on a Cross imagines he has created a new spiritual phenomenon. On the contrary he confuses and insults both Hinduism and Christianity. He fails to realize that by such acts he is neither enriching Christianity nor honouring Hinduism. One has to respect the unique rites and rituals of each religion, which placed in another context, will be meaningless and confusing. In a later debate published in the letters column of the Indian Express, Chennai, in 1989, the Hindu correspondent S. Venkatachalam wrote: “It is highly outrageous and objectionable to compare … Hindu leaders and religious heads with the Christian missionary experimentalists like Bede Griffiths, Hans Staffner [and the] Christian missionary Fr. Henri Le Saux, the so-called Abhishiktananda…. Swami Vivekananda, Gandhiji, Ramana Maharshi and Paramacharya of Kanchi never resorted to such experimentation of a “cocktail religion” or “masala and kichidi religion” by mixing religious symbols, donning the dress of [a Christian] father or [Muslim] mullah, building church-like or mosque-like temples, fabricating Bible- or Quran-like Hindu slokas, or asserting that Rama or Krishna or Shiva is the only God and by accepting Him alone one can get salvation.”

The Sri Isha (=Jesus) Jyoti Sannyas Ashram brothers did not succeed in pedalling their original handcrafted Om-on-Crosses to the Hindus of Hawaii then, but in their new incarnation as the sadhus of Atma Jyoti Ashram they have succeeded in getting advertising space in Hinduism Today and the sponsorship of Ramana Ashram in Tiruvannamalai. All this and more, yet they remain so far as we know Christian priests in orange robes with false Sanskrit names and titles, the usual New Age bells and beads added. They are quite a success in Christian duplicity if not in true Hindu spirituality.


The sponsorship of Ramana Ashram and the publication of the Atma Jyoti Ashram brothers’ articles under assumed Hindu names in the Ramana Ashram journal Mountain Path is not really surprising. Sri Ramana Ashram is a family business headed by a hereditary trustee. The current president is the Advaita Vedanta paralogist V.S. Ramanan. The ashram was declared a non-Hindu institution in 1963.

Though Ramanan is the editor of Mountain Path as required by law, the de facto editor is the Australian theosophist Christopher Quilkey. He is a disciple of the anti-modernist French Sufi Rene Guenon, and is assisted by the American Catholic Benedictine monk Brother Michael. Brother Michael divides his time between Shanti Vanam near Tiruchirappalli, the Benedictine hermitage of the notorious Christian missionary Fr. Bede Griffiths, and Ramana Ashram in Tiruvannamalai. He is a Catholic priest and will say Mass whenever and wherever the Catholic spirit moves him, including Ramana Ashram and other places of Hindu pilgrimage and worship. His other duty is to vet articles sent to Mountain Path for publication and forward them on to Christopher Quilkey in Kodaikanal for acceptance and publication. Ramanan shows little or no interest in the articles that are selected for publication, and though the ashram follows Vedic Brahminical traditions and can afford to employ a professional, it is not able to find and keep a responsible and dedicated Hindu editor for its magazine.

Ramanan appears to be in a state of denial regarding Christians in his own ashram and missionaries in general. He writes, “There is no doubt that Christianity has, over centuries been a proselytizing religion and some of the preachers had indulged in scurrilous propaganda against Hindu beliefs and mores. But there is nothing to worry. The worst is over and the Vedantic Truth is eternal and imperishable. I know a number of Christian priests who revere Hinduism and Vedanta. It is well known that Westerners are increasingly being drawn to Yoga and Vedanta which Swami Vivekananda called the “Religion of the Future.”

Nothing to worry, eh? The worst is over, eh? Either Ramanan is a fool or he is in league with the Christian missionaries who publish in the ashram journal.

The first articles to appear in Mountain Path by an Atma Jyoti Ashram member were by a Catholic priest who resides in Tiruvannamalai and calls himself Swami Sadasivananda Giri. The articles were inoffensive enough, but because it was known to a number of sadhus and Ramana Ashram devotees that the author was in fact a Christian priest masquerading as a Hindu sannyasi, the matter was brought to the Ramana Ashram president’s attention with the request that Sadasivananda be identified by his real Christian name and titles to Mountain Path readers.

The letter was ignored, and when the April-June 2009 issue of Mountain Path appeared, it was discovered that not only did Swami Sadasivanand’s article appear without proper identification, but an article by Fr. George Burke, the Greek Orthodox abbot of Atma Jyoti Ashram in New Mexico, was also included under the name Swami Nirmalananda Giri. The request to identify the Christian contributors to the journal was not only denied by the Ramana Ashram president Ramanan, but a strong message of contempt and scorn for Hindu sannyas traditions was given out by the Mountain Path editor and his dubious, uncommitted assistants.

The problem of Christian priests and missionaries masquerading as Hindu sannyasis is an old one in India. The impersonation drama was first carried out by Robert de Nobili in Madurai in in the 17th century. It was continued and made notorious by Fr. Bede Griffiths (aka Swami Dayananda) in the 20th century, though his collaborator the French Benedictine monk Fr. Henri Le Saux was without doubt the most successful Hindu sadhu impersonator. He is known to this day by his adopted Sanskrit name Swami Abhishiktananda, and had non other than the late Swami Chidananda Saraswati of Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh as a patron.

The new twist in the criminal impersonation of Hindu sadhus, is that Christian priests in the US are adopting Hindu names and dress in order to deceive and entrap America seekers who have already rejected the false doctrines and superstitions of Christianity, in the hope of bringing them back to Jesus and the Church.

Missionary activity in India has peaked under the benevolent gaze of the Christian-Congress UPA regime of Sonia Gandhi. Andhra Pradesh is now said to be 30% Christian and growing, with Tamil Nadu following closely behind. Both states will soon rival Kerala with their Christian populations. The real problem is not missionaries flashing American dollars or dressing up as sadhus in order to deceive unsuspecting villagers. Christians in India are doing what Christians have always done throughout history: they are subverting and subsuming the non-Christian cultures and societies that they are not able to conquer by force. The real problem is with Hindu leaders--political, social, cultural, and religious leaders. They are first of all in a state of denial, unwilling or unable to admit the Christian threat and the grave implications it has for Hindu civilization and society. Or, like the editors of the Ramana Ashram journal Mountain Path, they take the out-dated, irresponsible, and non-Vedic theosophical view that all religions are one and the same anyway, so what does it matter if a few million villagers become dollar Christians. Or, and this is especially true of Hindu religious leaders, they recognise the Christian threat but are not sufficiently equipped or knowledgeable to counter it. Unlike Christian priests who study Hindu scriptures and doctrines in depth for years, they have never read the Bible or studied the imperialist Christian ideologies that have be formulated out of the Bible story. They are helpless, and they are made even more helpless by their own superficially understood and secularised doctrines of an abstract, impersonal, and all-pervasive Brahman godhead.

Every popular religious teacher in India today espouses some form or other of Advaitic philosophy. Even the popular Chennai Christian newspaper Deccan Chronicle carries a weekly “spiritual” column of secularised Neo-Vedantic commentary called “Vedanta Rocks”. This demytholised Vedanta with its abstract terminology and concept of Oneness is the great love of the modern Indian secular sophist or Jesuit-trained Christian casuist. They can turn these Hindu concepts and ideals any which way they like and use them for any amoral purpose when they are taken out of their original Hindu religious context.

Most modern Indian religious teachers do take Advaita Vedanta out of its original Vedic religious context, and in so doing they give a potent weapon to the enemy with which to attack Hindu religion and undermine Hindu society and culture. Sita Ram Goel, in Catholic Ashrams, writes: “[T]he literature of Indigenisation provides ample proof that several Hindu philosophies are being actively considered by the mission strategists as conveyors of Christianity. The Advaita of Shankaracharya has been the hottest favourite so far. The Vishistadvaita of Ramanuja, the Bhakti of the Alvar saints and Vaishnava Acharyas, the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Vichara of Ramana Maharshi are not far behind.”

The medieval Acharyas and more recent teachers of Vedic spirituality like Ramana Maharishi, were able to know without difficulty the religious identity and affiliations of their disciples. They did not have to search out and verify their students’ political and religious backgrounds. This is no longer true today. Hindu society has become secularised in the cities and teachers are faced with multicultural audiences from different countries and traditions. It is therefore incumbent on all Hindu gurus in India and abroad, to put their philosophical teaching into its original religious context so that it cannot be distorted and abused by Hinduism’s scholarly Marxist and Christian enemies.

Apostle Paul and the Early Church Fathers conquered ancient Greece by forcibly secularising Greek society. They divided the unity of Greek religion and mythology from Greek philosophy and philosophic terminology. They then secularised and appropriated Greek philosophic terminology and took the Greek religious concept of an Unknown God for themselves. The religious vacuum that followed in Greek society was then filled in with the Jesus cult and other Christian superstitions. Indian bishops are perpetrating the same apostolic fraud today when they claim the Tamil Shaivite saint Tiruvalluvar was a disciple of the legendary St. Thomas. They then add to their cultural crime by claiming Tiruvalluvar’s “secular” ethical treatise Tirukkural as their own sectarian Christian book.

This is how ancient Greece became a Christian country, and it is how modern India is fast becoming a Christianised Hindu country. The difference is that in modern India, it is well-meaning and ill-informed Hindu spiritual teachers and ashram administrators who are assisting the Christian predators in the downfall and obliteration of Hindu religion and culture.

Perhaps we are mistaken; perhaps we have been misinformed about Atma Jyoti Ashram and its abbot Fr. George Burke. Perhaps he and his brother disciples have converted to Hinduism and gone through Vedic samskaras of purification and name change under the guidance of a Hindu priest. If that is the case, then let them produce their certificates of de-baptism and apostasy from the Christian religion. And as they claim to be Smarta Dasanami sannyasins with Giri titles, let them produce their certificates of sannyasa from a recognised Dasanami mahamandaleshwar and math. They can post these important documents of religion on their website. We will then give them our blessing, for their good sense in religion and spiritual endeavour, and hold our peace.

Links and References:

1. Atma Jyoti Ashram and their Jesus-in-India
propaganda with Swami Devananda's comments:http://vivekajyoti.blogspot.com/2009/02/jesus-in-india-pure-unadulterated.html
2. Hinduism Today, "Catholic Ashrams: Adopting and Adapting
Hindu Dharma": http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1986/12/1986-12-03.shtml
3. Catholic Ashrams in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Ashram
4. Catholic Ashrams: Sannyasins or Swindlers by Sita Ram Goel, Voice of
India, New Delhi, 1994: http://www.indiaclub.com/shop/SearchResults.asp?ProdStock=22597
5. Christian
Aggression: “Catholic
Ashrams: Sachidananda Ashram gets a woman Acharya“: http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=NEWS&id=1155837015

6. History of
Hindu-Christian Encounters (AD 304 to 1996), by
Sita Ram Goel, Voice of India, New Delhi, 1996: http://voiceofdharma.org/books/hhce/
7. Radical Universalism by Frank Morales:

http://www.dharmacentral.com/universalism.htm

Jihadi Violence in West Bngal - Hindu Festival Attacked,Four Killed, Women Molested

In Bardhaman district, this Buro Rajer(another form of Lord Shiva) Mela at Jamalpur village under Purbasthali police station is a major Hindu Religious Festival of hundreds of years. According to age old tradition, on the day of Buddha Purnima, Hindus, especially the people of Yadav community come to this Buro Raj Temple with traditional arms, which do not include fire arms.

This year on 6 & 7 June, the pilgrims were attacked at Kulipukur near Chhatni village. The Hindu pilgrims were beaten mercilessly in a very pre planned design.

More than one hundred people injured and at least 4 Hindus died in the attack.

Many are still missing. It is very much possible that the death score will increase. Many Hindu women were molested and raped in the nearby jute fields.

According to sick ‘secular’ norm of the Media in West Bengal, total suppression of the atrocities upon Hindus is continuing in this case too. The Hindus of the area feels a suffocating situation.

Hundreds of Muslims took part in the attack. Among them, according to eye witness, main culprits were Morshed Seikh, Jahir Seikh, Rahit Ali Seikh, Hannan Seikh, Nazrul Seikh, Lambu Seikh, Somoy Seikh.

After 2 hours of tremendous torture upon the Hindus, when police came to the spot, with a cool pre meditated planning by Joharul Seikh and Khalilur Rahaman, the attacker Muslims changed their posture and started peaceful demonstration and road blocked complaining attack upon them by the pilgrims, which was totally false. Before it, they dispatched the broken cars of the pilgrims away to Katwa and Nabadwip.

They started demanding that arms carrying by the pilgrims Yadav community will have to be stopped for ever. In fact, it is their long cherished aim to disarm and weaken the Yadav community. Once it is accepted, many Yadavs will stop keeping traditional arms in their household.

The higher officers of police were seemed to be willing to believe their(Muslim’s) version of the incident and assured them and then only the blocked was withdrawn. Hindus helplessly witnessed the whole drama and could not protest for lack of leadership and organization.

Still now 16 Hindus are arrested, but not a single Muslim.


The whole area comprising the villages Dharampur, Madhupur, Nimdaha, Jamalpur, Kalekhatala, Kuksimla, Belerhat, Chhatni, Srirampur, Patuli etc., was once the stronghold of RSS and BJP. In Chhatni village, a big school of Saraswati Sishu Mandir is situated. But now the situation is different. Hindus are so unorganized and scattered now that they are just helpless spectator of Hindu massacre in their own area.

Obama has got it wrong

Barry Rubin

Cairo speech has left Islamists gloating

Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo is one of the most bizarre orations ever made by a US President, not a foreign policy statement but rather something invented by him, an international campaign speech, as if his main goal was to obtain votes in the next Egyptian election.

That approach defined Mr Obama’s basic themes: Islam is great. America is good. We are sorry. Be moderate (not that you haven’t always been that way). Let us be friends.

Here, he followed the idea that if you want someone to like you, agree with almost everything he says. Mr Obama also gave, albeit with some minor variations, a speech that the leader of a Third World Muslim country might give, justifying it in advance by claiming America is a big Muslim country, after all.

Of course, the speech had tremendous — though temporary — appeal combined with its counter-productive strategic impact. It will make him more popular. It may well make America somewhat less unpopular. But its effect on West Asian issues and American interests is another matter entirely.

The first problem is that Mr Obama said many things factually quite untrue, some ridiculously so. Pages would be required to list all these inaccuracies. The interesting question is whether he consciously lied or really believes it. I’d prefer him to be lying, because if he’s that ignorant then America and the world is in very deep trouble.

If he really believes Islam’s social role is so perfect, radical Islamists are a tiny minority, Palestinians have suffered hugely through no fault of their own, and so on, then he’s living in a fantasy world. Unfortunately, we are not. The collision between reality and dream is going to be a terrible one.

The second problem is the speech’s unnecessarily extreme one-sidedness. Mr Obama portrays the West as the guilty party. Despite a reference to September 11 — even that presented as an American misdeed, unfair dislike of Islam resulting in it — he gave not a single example of Islamist or Muslim responsibility for anything wrong in the world.

He could easily have made the same points in a balanced way: You’ve made mistakes; we’ve made mistakes. You’ve done things to us; we’ve done things to you. And having established that, I respect you, let me tell you how Americans feel and what’s needed.

But that’s not how he chose to do it. So afraid was Mr Obama of giving offence — and thus not maximising his popularity-at-all-costs mission — he did the political equivalent of scoring a self-goal. President Bill Clinton said, “I feel your pain.” In effect, Mr Obama declared, “We’re your pain.”

So if Muslims are always the innocent victims, isn’t Osama bin Laden and others correct in saying that all the violence and terrorism to date has been just a “defensive jihad” against external aggression and thus justifiable? Why should anything change simply because Mr Obama has ‘admitted’ this and asked to start all over again?

When he cited examples of oppression, Mr Obama listed only Bosnia (where he didn’t even mention the US role in helping Muslims), along with Israel, and also the Muslim-on-Muslim violence in Darfur. He didn’t mention terrorist violence and mistreatement of non-Muslims by Muslims in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Pakistan, India, Iraq, Sudan, the Gaza Strip, Israel, Europe or even Egypt itself.

This is a hallmark of the kind of thinking dominating much contemporary Western thought, extending something that works in their own societies — where self-criticism, apology, and unilateral concessions really can lead to the other side forgiving and compromising — to places where it doesn’t work.

The main ingredient in the Obama speech was flattery. There is a bumper sticker that says: ‘Don’t apologise. Your friends don’t need to hear it and your enemies don’t care’. Mr Obama’s situation might be described as: Don’t grovel. It scares the hell out of your friends and convinces your enemies you owe them big time. As a result, the mainstream in the region will say, “We were right all the time. Mr Obama admitted it!” While more extreme radicals say, “We’ve won and America’s surrendering.”

But if Mr Obama, as it appears, is running to be the region’s favourite politician, he’ll find he — not to mention America’s allies — has to give up many more things to win that dubious honour.

Third, Mr Obama undermined the existing states. True, to his credit, he did talk about reform, democracy, and equal rights for women. Yet what the speech suggests to listeners is: Democracy plus Islam equals solution. If Islam is so perfect — except for a tiny minority of extremists — why shouldn’t it rule? And since the extremists are presumably Al Qaeda, Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood parliamentarians in the audience must have found a lot to applaud. How will this go with the rulers Mr Obama wants as allies?

Finally, he played into the stereotype that Israel is the central political issue in the region. Others, of course, are happy to find the usual scapegoat. An Associated Press headline reads, “Obama’s Islam Success Depends on Israel.” Is the entire ‘Muslim world’ just waiting for Israel to stop building a few thousand apartment units a year before deciding that America is great, reform is needed, and moderation wise?

(The writer is director of the GLORIA Center, Jerusalem, and editor of the MERIA journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader and The Truth About Syria.)

Obama's Cairo Speech - An Open Letter to US President Obama

By Brigitte Gabriel

Dear Mr. President,

You face difficult challenges in matters such as achieving peace in the Middle East and protecting America from the threat of radical Islam and terrorism. These are challenges that have vexed past presidents, going as far back as our second president, John Adams. I have no doubt you appreciate both the gravity of these challenges and the enormous obstacles that exist to solving them.

I also have no doubt that you and your staff understood that, no matter what you said in your speech last Thursday in Cairo, there would be those who would take issue with you. That is always the case when attempting to solve problems that are as deep and emotionally- laden as these challenges are.

I am assuming it is your sincere hope that the approach you have chosen to take, as evidenced by what I’m sure was a carefully crafted speech, will ultimately prove successful. However, it pains me to say this sir, but, while you said in your speech that you are a “student of history,” it is abundantly clear that, in these matters, you do not know history and thus, as Santayana noted, you are doomed to repeat it. In doing so your efforts, however well-intentioned they may be, will not produce what you profess to hope they will produce.

A wise man once said that if you start with the wrong assumptions, no matter how logical your reasoning is, you will end up with the wrong conclusion. With all due respect Mr. President, you are starting with certain assumptions that are unsupported by history and an objective study of the ideology of political Islam.

You began in your speech by asserting that “tensions” exist between the United States and Muslims around the world, which, of course, is correct. Unfortunately, you then proceeded, incorrectly, to lay virtually all the blame for these tensions at the feet of America and the West. You blamed western colonialism, the Cold War, and even modernity and globalism.

A student of American history, who is not trying to reconstruct it to fit a modern politically correct narrative, would state that tensions between America and Muslims began with the unprovoked, four-decades long assault by the Muslim Barbary pirates against American shipping in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I find it telling that you mentioned the Treaty of Tripoli in your speech but ignored the circumstances that led to it. That treaty was but one of numerous attempts by the United States to achieve peace with the jihadists of the Barbary Coast who were attacking our shipping and killing and enslaving our citizens and our soldiers – and who by their own admission were doing so to fulfill the call to jihad.

These jihadists were not acting to protest American foreign policy, which was decidedly isolationist, and there was no state of Israel to scapegoat. They were doing what countless Islamic jihadists have done throughout history – acting upon the hundreds of passages in the Qur’an and the Hadith that call upon faithful Muslims to kill, conquer or subjugate the infidel.

A student of world history would know that, for all the acknowledged evils of Western colonialism, these evils pale in comparison to the nearly 14 centuries of Islamic colonialism that began in Arabia under the leadership of Mohammed. The student of history would know that Islamic forces eradicated all Jewish and Christian presence from Arabia after Mohammed’s death, and then succeeded in conquering all of North Africa, most of the Middle East, much of Asia Minor, and significant portions of Europe and India – eventually creating an empire larger than Rome’s was at its peak.

The number of dead and enslaved during these many centuries of Islamic imperial conquest and colonialism have been estimated to total more than 300 million. What’s more, the wealth of many of the conquered nations and cultures was plundered by the Islamic conquerors, and millions of millions of non-Muslims who did survive were forced to pay onerous taxes, such as the “jizya,” a humiliation tax to the Islamic caliphs. Indeed, in some areas Christians and Jews were made to wear a receipt for the jizya around their neck as a mark of their dishonor.

These facts have not been invented by Christian or Jewish historical revisionists, but were chronicled by Muslim eyewitnesses throughout the past 14 centuries and are available to be researched by any person seeking an objective understanding of how Islam spread throughout the world.


You say in your speech that we must squarely face the tensions that exist between America and the Muslim world. That is a laudable notion with which I agree, but by casting Islam as the historical victim and the West (and by implication, America) as the aggressor, you do not face these tensions squarely, but alleviate the Muslim world from coming to grips with the jihadist ideology embedded in its holy books and acted upon for 1,400 years.

Even worse, you empower and embolden militant Islamists who regard your gestures as signs of weakness and capitulation.

The issue is not that all Muslims are terrorists or radicals or extremists. We all know that the majority of Muslims are not. We also know that many peace-loving Muslims are victims of Islamist violence.

The issue is this: what drives hundreds of millions of Muslims worldwide to call for the death of Jews?

What drives millions of Muslims to riot, destroy property, and take innocent lives in reaction to the Danish cartoons?

What drives tens of thousands of Muslims to demand the execution of a British teacher whose only “crime” was allowing her students to name their teddy bears “Mohammed”?

What drives countless Muslims worldwide to actively participate in, or fund, or provide nurture to, terrorist organizations?

What drives Muslims in mosques in America to proclaim and distribute materials that call for hatred of and the destruction of infidels?

What drives entire Islamic countries to prohibit the building of a Christian church or synagogue?

To assume, as you apparently do, that what drives these actions is not an ideology embedded in the holy books of Islam, but rather other “root causes,” most of which you lay at the feet of America and the West, is at best naïve and at worst dangerous.

Lastly, I must address your statement that “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.” Unfortunately, the examples you gave are the exception rather than the rule.

Historically speaking, I seriously doubt the Egyptian Copts, the Lebanese Maronites, the Christians in Bethlehem, the Assyrians, the Hindus, the Jews, and many others who have been persecuted by Islamic violence and supremacism, would agree with your assertion.

For instance, Christians and Jews became “Dhimmis,” a second class group under Islam. Dhimmis were forced to wear distinctive clothing; it was Baghdad’s Caliph Al-Mutawakkil, in the ninth century, who designated a yellow badge for Jews under Islam, which Hitler copied and duplicated in Nazi Germany nearly a thousand years later.

I witnessed first-hand the “tolerance” of Islam when Islamists ravaged my country of birth, Lebanon, in the 1970’s, leaving widespread death and destruction in their wake. I saw how they re-paid the tolerance that Lebanese Christians extended toward them. My experience is not an isolated one. When you make an unfounded assertion about the “proud tradition” of tolerance in Islam, you do a great disservice to the hundreds of millions of non-Muslims who have been killed, maimed, enslaved, conquered, subjugated or displaced – in the cause of Islamic jihad.

Mr. President, those of us like me who are ringing the alarm in America about the threat of radical Islam would like nothing better than to peacefully co-exist with the Muslim world. Most Americans would like nothing better than to peacefully co-exist with the Muslim world. The obstacle to achieving this does not lie with us in America and the West. It lies with the hundreds of millions of Muslims worldwide, including many of their spiritual leaders, who take seriously the repeated calls to jihad in the Qur’an and the Hadith. Who regard “infidels” as inferior and worthy of conquering, subjugating and forcibly converting. Who support “cultural jihad” as a means to subvert non-Muslim societies from within. Who take seriously the admonitions throughout the Qur’an and the Hadith to convert the world to Islam – by force if necessary – and bring it under the rule of Allah.

Unless you are willing to courageously and honestly accept this, your aspirations for worldwide comity and peace in the Middle East are doomed to fail.

Sincerely,


Brigitte Gabriel


Brigitte Gabriel is the New York Times bestselling author of They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It. She is the founder and president of ACT! for America, www.ActforAmerica. org.

Shrinking Hindu community in Pakistan

N Krishna

The Hindu community in Pakistan, already reduced to an insignificant minority, is further dwindling. What happened to the Hindus there soon after Partition is continuing even now.

Unable to stand-up to the harassment by Muslim fanatics, more than 6,000 Pakistani Hindus have migrated to India in the recent past. Incessant pressure to convert to Islam and social alienation are driving the scattered Hindus to crossover to India. Lashkar Das, one of the Hindu migrants now settled in Haryana, echoes the feelings of many Hindus in Pakistan when he says: “I was constantly under pressure to convert to Islam. Some families budged and capitulated, but those who did not became targets for fanatics.” Another Hindu migrant says: “Local residents call us Hindu kafirs. Our children are discriminated against in schools and forced to read namaz.”

Kafirs! Interestingly, this epithet was used by one of the Pakistani terrorists who took part in the Mumbai massacre in November last. The heavily armed terrorist, on seeing a local resident, called the latter a “Kafir”. This supports the Hindu migrants’ contention that some Muslims in Pakistan call the Hindu neighbours as Kafirs.

No wonder Pakistan is now denuded of the once vibrant Hindu community. How did this happen? A note that the Indian government sent to Pakistan in December 1949 throws some light on the eviction, covert and overt, of Hindus from Pakistan. The note charged the Pakistan government with launching a drive against the remaining Hindus in Sindh. In the interior of Sindh, the note said, conditions were reported to be much worse. Owing to ceaseless “official’ harassment, Hindus were forced to embrace Islam.

Substitute ‘no-official’ for ‘official’ and you will get an idea of why the small Hindu minority in Pakistan is further dwindling. No less a Pakistani leader than the recently assassinated Benazir Bhutto said, in June 2006, that served Hindu families in Larkhana in Sind had been threatened with dire consequences if they did not dissociate themselves from her Pakistan People’s Party. She cited cases in which one Hindu was killed by unidentified assailants in Larkhana and another youth, a son of a noted Hindu family of Warand Mal was shot and wounded.


In February, 2008, Hindus in two districts of Pakistan’s Balochistan province warned that the minority community would boycott the upcoming general elections if the authorities failed to trace three kidnapped Hindu traders, even as armed men abducted another business man’s son. Forced conversions to Islam, which began in the wake of Partition, continue unabated in Pakistan. In March 2007, as many as 79 Pakistani Hindus from the Bhaeel community were converted to Islam near Khapro. The converts included 28 men, 25 women and 34 children. The elderly Bhaeels reportedly told an online news agency that they had embraced Islam after being inspired by the teachings of Islam.

All this ties in with what happened recently in the Swat Valley. It looks as though the Hindus in Pakistan, who now number 20 lakh, are in for further truncation in future. This suspicion was confirmed by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in its annual report for 2006. It says that the state promoted violence by failing to act against those attacking non-Muslims or their properties and their place of worship. The report also lists several cases of forced conversion to Islam, especially of Hindu women.

In September 2005, minority members of the Pakistan National Assembly said that Hindus were being hounded and humiliated to force them to leave Pakistan . They were taking part in a discussion on a call-attention motion on the abduction of a Hindu girl in Sindh and was latter converted to Islam. One member, Krishan Bheel, said many Hindu men were being kidnapped for ransom in Sindh. These incidents were engineered to force Hindus to leave Pakistan where they have been living for the past 5,000 years.

At the time of 1947 Partition, those belonging to Indian religions constituted about 20 per cent of the population in West Pakistan and 34 per cent in East Pakistan. The percentages have now dropped to a little less than two in Pakistan and to about ten in Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan).

All this is in sharp and disturbing contrast to the religious demography in India. The Muslim population in India grew by 1.3 per cent while the Hindu population declined by 1.5 per cent during 1991-2001. The Muslims, comprised 13.4 per cent while the Hindus formed 80.5 per cent with the total population standing at 1.02 billion in the 2001 census.

The policy of the successive Pakistan regimes of turning a blind eye to the harassment and eviction of the remaining Hindu families in places like Sindh has resulted in the continual thinning of the Hindu minority. And this has given rise to Hindu fundamentalism in India. Fundamentalism is something alien to Hinduism, but the injustices heaped on the diminishing Hindu population by Islamic extremists has touched off a wave of resentment in the majority community in India.

There will be meaningful democracy in Pakistan only if its rulers strive to realise Jinnah’s ideal of secularism. It is now universally established that secularism is the bedrock of democracy.

Only Swadeshi and Hindutva can revive BJP

Mukund Apte

BJP did not expose a single anti-Hindu activity of UPA government during elections though there were many.

We Hindus can’t leave our basic ideology of Hindutva and Swadeshi for secularism (literary meaning anti-religion) and globalisation of Congress or socialism of Communists or there will be no difference. Indian nationalism has its base in Hinduism and wherever we are minority like Northeast or Kashmir there is unfortunate separatism. Non-Hindu Indians are part of the same nation and must have equal rights. This basis of equality will culturally unite us on ideological foundation of one country, one nation and one law which is Hindutva! Hindu nation is not a political but a religious concept encompassing global Hindus. So civil, political, family and government laws and facilities must be same for all and we must have uniform civil code and compulsory maximum two children policy for Indians of all faiths.

Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators occupying our land and snatching jobs must be ousted behind border to no-man’s land as their government is not accepting them! Since, our base is equality, the Article 370 must be scrapped in Kashmir and the state merged with neighbouring Himachal Pradesh to increase pro-Indian percentage there and make up for loss of territory to China and Pakistan. LoC and LAC with them be made international boundaries ending disputes. Ram Mandir is a dead issue since temple already there, so must not be racked up again. While all organised religious conversions destroying society by foreign funded religious competition be banned. Finally, people’s welfare depend on economy and we need Swadeshi by ending Income Tax and government must heavily invest in micro-credit and vocational education to poor, green energy and healthcare and infrastructure development, economically restrict FDI and FIIs to maximum 49 per cent in all sectors, price control of medicines, stop subsidies, special treatments to minorities and pilgrimage tax!

Lack of Swadeshi and positive Hindutva issues like ousting Bangladeshi infiltrators, compulsory maximum two children policy for Indians of all faiths, banning all organised conversions, hanging killers of Lakshmanananda Saraswati and punishing Godhra Muslims responsible for train carnage loaded with Hindu pilgrims instead of old, outdated, dead and negative ones like Ram Mandir (which already exist since Babri demolished and faced a jehadi attack, too) and supporting liberal economy cost us this election.

Cause of BJP’s loss and Congress win in 2009 Polls

1.

Modi and Advani made personal attacks on Congress leaders but failed to raise a single Hindutva issue except Varun, Jaitley and Dr Murli Manohar Joshi who however were not chief campaigners and got less media space;
2.

Could not answer Kandahar properly and lost credibility as a tough party against jehad beside Advani saying he knew nothing of it and calling Jinnah secular cost us dearly;
3.

BJP did not expose a single anti-Hindu activity of UPA government during elections though there were many;
4.

Modi is hailed as a Hindu hero while all know that in reality in Gujarat riots of 2002 innocent Hindus and Muslims died while not a single Godhra Muslim hanged for train burning and similiarly inspite of being in government the killers of Lakshmanananda Saraswati neither caught nor punished;
5.

Confused stand on Indo-US Nuke Deal;
6.

Criticising Aam Aadmi friendly policies like NREGS, loan waiver to farmers, 6th Pay Commission while providing no alternative like more pro-poor and nationalist Swadeshi and failure to expose liberalisation and globalisation which put 77 per cent of Indians below poverty line or earning less than Rs. 20 per day and now creating worldwide recession. We need to abolish Income Tax and government must heavily invest in micro-credit and vocational education to poor, green energy and healthcare and infrastructure development, economically restrict FDI and FIIs to maximum 49 per cent in private sectors, strict price control of essential medicines and high import tariffs on non-essentials beside stoppage of subsidies and special treatments to minorities and end to taxing Hindu pilgrims and government loot of Temple money!

In Praise of Hindutva

Dr. Vijaya Rajiva

After the BJP's electoral defeat there has been no shortage of articles from pandits and India watchers advising the BJP to abandon Hindutva if it is to remain relevant on the Indian landscape. This advice coming both from well wishers and opponents is rather premature and does not take into account the importance of Hindutva in maintaining the democratic fabric of the Indian polity and one which makes it unique to the Indian subcontinent, and distinguishes Indian political life from that of its neighbours.

To understand Hindutva in its proper context one must go back to its definition by the much maligned and much misunderstood Damodar Savarkar who defined quite clearly what the word Hindutva means (The Essentials of Hindutva, 1922). Hindutva is the shared culture of all
inhabitants of Hindustan and Hinduism is the faith practised by some of the inhabitants of Hindustan. Thus Hindutva and Hinduism are not identical though related.

The Mahomedans (as the British called them), Savarkar argued, may not consider Hindustan their Punyabhumi (sacred land) since Saudi Arabia would fill that role for the Muslim community. The Hindus consider Hindustan their Punyabhumi. However, in independent India, after the departure of the British, Muslims would enjoy equal rights as equal citizens of independent India.

At the time that Savarkar wrote, the subsequent development of the Hindu Code Bill had not come into play. The use of the word 'Hindu' was unfortunate since it suggests that it is a piece of communal legislation, when in fact, it was a common civil code for the Hindu population, with progressive legislation both in regards to women's rights and property rights etc. Hence, the phrase Common Civil Code or Uniform Civil Code would have been in keeping with the content andintent of the bill.

However, the Nehru government erred in not adopting this terminology and compounded the error by further making special Personal Law for both the Muslim and Christian communities. This would set back for decades to come, the cause of women's rights in the minority
communities, notably the Muslim community, and it would also inaugurate the divisiveness of communal politics.

The Nehru government hailed as the inheritor of the freedom struggle against colonial rule enjoyed the popularity of most of the population and it would have been relatively easy to pass a Common Civil Code or the Unifrom Civil Code. It failed to do so and generations of Indians are suffering from the effects of this failure. At this stage, therefore, the BJP has the responsibility to work for the Uniform Civil Code. Suggestions such as having a Muslim
Code Bill at this late hour (MJ Akbar in Times of India, May 31, 2009, 'Muslim Code Bill for India ?') are counterproductive and will only further encourage communal divide.

And here the philosophy of Hindutva would be an inspiring and useful tool. Far from being a divisive element it will , in fact, strengthen the national spirit and allow disparate elements in the body politic to integrate in one common cause, the modernization and integration
of the body politic. No longer will the BJP or any other political party have to feel apologetic for being a Hindustan where all communities share their culture to a lesser or greater extent,
depending on the locale or individuals. Mohammed Ali Jinnah had famously(infamously!) said that Muslims and Hindus do not have a shared culture, that they are different in their customs, religion and social practice. For him this was the raison de'etre for the creation of Pakistan and the logic behind the Partition.

Muslims do not need to think of Hindustan as a Punyabhumi, however, they can and probably should rejoice in India's ancient history which predates Islam by several millennia. Such was the milieu where most of the freedom fighers worked in (with some exceptions). Writings of
Muslim poets and writers reflect this pan Hindustan approach (Bewildered India by Rasheeduddin Khan, 1994).

Despite the depredations of conquest , Hindu India was prepared to forget and forgive, and the divisiveness and tragedy of Partition had also receded from people's minds. Neverthless, international events would preciptate new hostilities and this clearly originated from
Pakistan's sense of insecurity vis a vis India. Hindus began to ask why the governments of the day both in New Delhi and in the states would discriminate against Hindus. An example of this would be the appropriation of temple funds by the government while neither the Muslim nor the Christian mosques and churches were touched.

The Sachar Commission Report was seen by many Hindus as discriminatory since the absolute number of Hindus who were impoverishd or deprived was obviously greater than that of the minority communities. A frustrated Hindu community was ready for an issue and this came in the blatant hostility towards Hinduism by the Christian missionaries, the many Islamic terrorist attacks from outside the country, the DMK's strident anti Hindu positions. The
beleagured Hindu community saw the Ayodhya theme as a rallying point for Hindu reaffirmation. Soon came the defence of Ram Setu, a must not only for Hindus but for the larger environmental cause, against the greed of developers and corporations.

This writer believes that the civilisational continuity of India, with suitable modernization, is best expressed by Hindutva . The Sangh Parivar's motto Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the family of the Earth is perhaps the most modern statement both of the environmental theme of protecting the Earth and as well the unity of humankind. The Sanskrit word 'vasudha' means the Earth. Hence, the Earth Family.

Commentators, both friendly and hostile, see the BJP as merely another political party out to secure votes and win elections. R.Balashankar (Editor of Organiser) has rightly pointed out that good governance and security issues are the requirements of all governments, but the party with a difference, has to have some noble ideological foundation (Deccan Herald, June 4, 2009 debate on Politics of Ideology). And both from an ideological and pragmatic
point of view, the BJP without its Sangh Parivar moorings would be a carcass, as Balashankar points out.

Hence, a vigorous restatement of Hindutva is an obligation for all patriotic Indians, especially Hindus, who have the civilisational advantage of being able to relate to a noble universal ideal, as opposed to narrow particularism. Upholding Hindutva is not only the task of the BJP. Those who have Hindustan's interests at heart must work to spread the ideal amongst the general population.

(The writer taught Political Philosophy at a Canadian university)

Hindu Seer Hacked to death again in Orissa, Police float Secular Theories

Puri:Swami Ramcharandas famous as Mauni baba who participated actively in the protest against the killing of Laxmanananda Saraswati last year was chased and hacked to death by unidentified assailants in Puri on Tuesday.


The police said Swami Ramcharan Das was feeding fishes at a pond early in the morning when the assailants chased him with sharp weapons.Paikray said at least 10 injury marks were found on his body.

A popular figure in Puri, Das was an active member of the Matha Mahanta organisation of Orissa. In the aftermath of Saraswati's killing last year,he took the lead in the protest against the VHP leader's murder.

The police, however, ruled out any communal angle. "We suspect that he was killed over extortion money," said Puri Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajkishore Paikray.

If one were to accept the extortion theory, then the police should tell how many others have been hacked to death because of their refusal to give money. And if they could come so quickly to the extortion theory,then they knew about the extortionists earlier. So why did they not take any action?

When a Hindu seer gets killed, the police find secular theories, always. When a non-Hindu priest gets killed, it immediately becomes a communal event, always.

49 Million Hindus Forced to Leave Bangladesh since 1946 - Reveals book by US Professor

Empire's Last Casualty: Indian Subcontinent's Vanishing Hindu and Other Minorities (2008) is a study of effects of religious communalism on a pluralistic, tolerant, multi-religious society. It focuses on the loss of indigenous Hindu population from the land of their ancestors; and on changes brought about since a multi-religious progressive region of Colonial British India was partitioned in 1947, and its effects on Hindu and non-Muslim (Buddhist and Christian) minorities, on pluralism and on indigenous cultures. After Britain's Muslim-Hindu partition of Bengal Province east Bengal became Muslim-majority East Pakistan, a part of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, unleashing regular, merciless anti-Hindu pogroms by intolerant Islamists. West Bengal remained in India, with Muslim minority and ever-growing massive Bengali Hindu refugee who turned towards left extremism. Following a 1971 war of independence against West Pakistan, Bangladesh gained independence, creating the second largest Muslim-majority nation. That war was concurrently anti-Hindu and anti-Bengali genocide by Islamic Republic's army and its Bengali and Urdu speaking Islamist allies. The book documents the decade-wise "missing" Hindus from Bangladesh Census: over 49 million; larger than 163 of 189 nations listed in World Bank's April 2003 World Development indicators database, and between 3.1 million (larger than 75 of 189 nations) and 1.4 million Hindus lost their lives through the process of Islamization. Documenting three million-plus lost lives have been painful and difficult; especially when Hindus cremate their dead. Additionally rivers of the world's largest delta washed away signs of mass murder leaving no clue. All attempts have been made to justify the data presented in the book, hardly-known to the world and rarely discussed in Bengal itself.

Dr. Sachi (Sabyasachi) Ghosh Dastidar is a Distinguished Service Professor of the State University of New York at Old Westbury. He has taught in the U.S., Kazakhstan and India. He has also worked in Florida, Tennessee and West Bengal. Dastidar was an elected Board Member of a New York City School district making him the first Bengali-American to hold a popularly elected position in the U.S.

Sachi Dastidar has authored seven books, A Aamaar Desh, (1998), Regional Disparities and Regional Development Planning of West Bengal with Shefali S. Dastidar (1990), Central Asian Journal of Management, Economics and Social Research (2000) and Living Among the Believers (2006). He has written over 100 articles, short stories and travelogues.
His awards include Senior Fulbright Award, Distinguished Service Professor of the State University of New York, and honors from New York City Comptroller, NYC Council Speaker, residents of Mahilara, Madaripur and Uzirpur, all of Bangladesh, Assam Buddhist Vihar, and from Kazakhstan Institute. He has traveled to over 63 countries in all seven continents including Antarctica.


Publisher: Firma KLM Publishers, Kolkata (Calcutta), India, Price: $ 29

(Please call New Jersey at 609-448-7225 to procure a copy, or Muktadhara Booksellers of New York at 718-565-7258; or check Internet; or send a US$29 check to EmpiresLastCasualty to 80-56 251 Street, Queens, New York 11426 for only U.S. shipping.)

ISBN: 81-7102-151- 4