Thursday, March 05, 2009

"in both cases, Muslims were the principal instigators of war and killing - naturally, this has been denied over the years"

from ACT:

A Tale of Two Partitions: India 1947 and Palestine 1948

by Norman Berdichevsky

A few academics and editorial writers claiming to be scholars and quite a few liberal pundits/observers, have argued that some blame for the recent atrocious acts of terror in Mumbai should be put on India’s Hindus by stressing that the terrorist group of “disaffected Muslims” carrying out the outrage of random murder of civilians was “probably funded from outside India.” They believe as Fareed Zakaria stated in Newsweek, that Indian Hindus “had it coming” because “One of the untold stories of India is that the Muslim population has not shared in the boom the country has enjoyed over the last 10 years. There is still a lot of institutional discrimination, and many remain persecuted.”

This view is not just wrong and short-sighted, it is symptomatic of why India has become a major target for terrorism that enjoys widespread support not only in Pakistan but in the wider Muslim world. Hatred of India stems from a psychological need to link India and Israel as guilty in the “injustice” Muslims believe they have suffered and to deflect blame and muddy the waters by shifting responsibility for the Partition of India in 1947 to the Hindus and conjuring up the vision that the Jews and Zionism did precisely this in Palestine in 1948. Nothing is further from the truth. In the case of Pakistan, Muslims were responsible for demanding partition and unleashing a civil war, driving millions of people from their homes, destroying the vision of a non-sectarian united India, and creating a new nationality based on religion – precisely the grievances often raised against the Jews and Zionism. Unlike the Jews and their millennial long religious heritage, a national existence for 1,500 years predating Islam, Hebrew language and experiences in the Diaspora to unite them, the new “nation” of Pakistan was forged by welding together disjointed territories, diverse peoples and languages, without any prior existence as a national entity. While the same may be said of India, the vision forged by its nationalist leaders rested on the very diversity of its people imbued with the idea of an all embracing “Mother India” and the democratic and legal foundations of the state inherited from British rule.
The Muslim demands for a separate state in Pakistan and the area of Bengal (The former Pakistani region of Bangladesh, now an independent state) led to the greatest movement of refugees in the 20th century and three major wars since independence. These demands foster hopes of an eventual secession of Kashmir from India. It was Mahatma Gandhi along with the leadership of the Congress Party (largely Hindu) and precious few Muslim moderates who preached in vain for cooperation between the two communities and an independent, unified and secular state of India.

They were eventually spurned by extremists who could not accept anything less than domination of a part of the country with Muslim majorities to replace British colonialism. This was in keeping with the same line of reasoning that determined the adamant refusal of the Arabs in Palestine to accept the very idea of partition, becoming a minority in a Jewish state or even tolerating a Jewish minority with national rights in a unified Palestine and the implicit threat that Muslims might come under the domination of non-Muslims. In the case of Palestine the idea that the despised Jews might do the same was even more repugnant than that the Hindus would do so in an undivided India.

India had for centuries assimilated numerous invaders but marauders carrying the banners of Islam from the West and North brought with them their new aggressive faith. By 711 they reached the mouth of the Indus and due to their greater mobility and the weakening divisions of Hindu caste society, soon gained ascendancy over large parts of the Northwest. For more than seven centuries the growing extent of Muslim rule in India was accompanied by the threat of the sword – “convert or die” and millions of Hindus were slaughtered in what was a war of religious fanaticism that makes the Thirty Years War between Catholics and Protestants in Europe look like the minor squabble of a debating society. Today’s supporters of multiculturalism prefer to overlook this atrocious record of religious extremism and ignore the expansion of Islam and its record of intolerance towards subject peoples.

Efforts by the later enlightened “Mughal” (from the Arabic word for Mongol) rulers of Afghan-Persian and Turkish origin for a brief time (1524-1707) reached a temporary stage of accommodation between the two faiths and their adherents, ending for a time the humiliating second class status of Hindu subjects and the wholesale destruction of Hindu idols and temples. Under Shah Jahan, the summit of Mughall power, the Taj Mahal was constructed but his rule marked a return to demands for manifest Islamic superiority that would not disappear bur grow in intensity under the British “raj.”

The answer to why India has become a prime target of Islamic extremism is not ambiguous. The roots of the answer go back more than a thousand years. It is therefore a mistake to look at what happened in Mumbai from the standpoint of the problem over Kashmir or the exact partition lines between India and Pakistan dating from 1947, or the grievances of some Muslims on account of prejudice. The terrorist attacks on India are part of the world-wide movement inspired by Jihad against all unbelievers, and primarily where these infidels hold sway over Muslims.

The atrocious short-sightedness of Western advocates of multiculturalism and a “one-world” philosophy who have been scornful of American self-defense measures following the attacks of 9/11 will not, as the Negro spiritual so poignantly intones “WILL NOT BE MOVED” by repeated atrocities committed by a plethora of groups, all describing themselves with the Arabic words of JIHAD (holy war and its practitioners, the “JiHaDists” from the root JiHaD – Holy War, and Fedayeen from the Arabic word for those who commit “self sacrifice” (martyrdom).

ALL OF IT . . .

9 comments:

Unknown said...

This willingness to milk supposed wrong for ever reminds me of the civil rights movement. The story of America now is only, we were racist, but we fought it, but we're still racist. What of the wider glories of America? Without us, no light bulb. No concept of rights.

Your excellent post also gives us a wider perspective by which to judge these horrible wrongs done to Muslims. Both sit on a backdrop of innocence. Yet the West did nothing else but racism. Yes the Muslims were darlings who never wronged a soul. Now they, as moral exemplars, as minorities without gain, claim their revenge.

Ee Gads how a-historical. Thank you for the context.

www.culturism.us

Unknown said...

This willingness to milk supposed wrong for ever reminds me of the civil rights movement. The story of America now is only, we were racist, but we fought it, but we're still racist. What of the wider glories of America? Without us, no light bulb. No concept of rights.

Your excellent post also gives us a wider perspective by which to judge these horrible wrongs done to Muslims. Both sit on a backdrop of innocence. Yet the West did nothing else but racism. Yes the Muslims were darlings who never wronged a soul. Now they, as moral exemplars, as minorities without gain, claim their revenge.

Ee Gads how a-historical. Thank you for the context.

www.culturism.us

Unknown said...

This willingness to milk supposed wrong for ever reminds me of the civil rights movement. The story of America now is only, we were racist, but we fought it, but we're still racist. What of the wider glories of America? Without us, no light bulb. No concept of rights.

Your excellent post also gives us a wider perspective by which to judge these horrible wrongs done to Muslims. Both sit on a backdrop of innocence. Yet the West did nothing else but racism. Yes the Muslims were darlings who never wronged a soul. Now they, as moral exemplars, as minorities without gain, claim their revenge.

Ee Gads how a-historical. Thank you for the context.

www.culturism.us

Unknown said...

This willingness to milk supposed wrong for ever reminds me of the civil rights movement. The story of America now is only, we were racist, but we fought it, but we're still racist. What of the wider glories of America? Without us, no light bulb. No concept of rights.

Your excellent post also gives us a wider perspective by which to judge these horrible wrongs done to Muslims. Both sit on a backdrop of innocence. Yet the West did nothing else but racism. Yes the Muslims were darlings who never wronged a soul. Now they, as moral exemplars, as minorities without gain, claim their revenge.

Ee Gads how a-historical. Thank you for the context.

www.culturism.us

Unknown said...

This willingness to milk supposed wrong for ever reminds me of the civil rights movement. The story of America now is only, we were racist, but we fought it, but we're still racist. What of the wider glories of America? Without us, no light bulb. No concept of rights.

Your excellent post also gives us a wider perspective by which to judge these horrible wrongs done to Muslims. Both sit on a backdrop of innocence. Yet the West did nothing else but racism. Yes the Muslims were darlings who never wronged a soul. Now they, as moral exemplars, as minorities without gain, claim their revenge.

Ee Gads how a-historical. Thank you for the context.

www.culturism.us

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael Travis said...

Lies! Filthy lies! Only the Zayinist State was created during the 20th Century! The great Arab Nation has been around forever@!

midnight rider said...

CJ - Thanks for the compliment (5 times -- finger stuttering?) but I just put it up. Someone else wrote it.

Michael -- been in the 'shrooms again ? ;>)

Pastorius said...

Monu,
You threw out two observations. Do you have any opinions on why those things might be true? I do. But, I want to see what yours are first.