------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRI Continental Film Festival - Dona Paula, Goa, Sep 28 - Oct 2, 2007
http://www.moviesgoa.org/tricontinental/tricon.htm For public viewing. Registration at The International Centre Goa. (Ph: +91-832-2452805 to 10) Online Media Partner: http://www.GOANET.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > From: "vinay natekar" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [Goanet] (Goanet) No freedom of religion for Muslims in Goa? > > Ask any Goan Muslims who are co existing here for generations peacefully > with other communities if anyone has prevented them from practicing their > religion throughout their life. A stray incident in Curtorim/Chinchinim > can not be set as an paradigm for above topic unless proven in depth the > ground realities. The problem is precisely that there is a pattern, not only in Goa, but elsewhere as well. Whenever Muslims try to build a mosque or madrasa, they are greeted with suspicion and hostility, and attempts are made to block them. There are invariably 'objections' raised by various people. Even a legitimate demand for a kabrastan in Goa has yielded nothing. Apart from the incidents that I have mentioned, many others have also been recorded, see for example the 'Broken Peace' report on the Sanvordem violence, available at http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/brpeace.pdf > It does not require anyone to tell that killing is inhuman in he name of > relegion. The madrassas which are funded by Jehadis and ISI are finding to > sprawl its wings in usually serene Goa. These madrassas are the breeding > ground for terrorist in the name of imparting religious education they sow > seeds of hatred towards other religions in the young minds. Of course all religions oppose killing -- and that includes Islam. But there are people who use religion for political ends -- like Osama bin Laden, Pravin Togadia, Narendra Modi, etc. Religion is only a cloak for their activities. These are not 'religious' people, they are the enemies of true religion. Here you have once again come out with the hoary equation 'Madrasa = Jehadis = ISI = terror'. It is this kind of thinking that causes the problem. There is no evidence for any of this. Which are these "madrassas funded by Jehadis and ISI" which are coming up in Goa? Be specific, a general statement like this is meaningless; without any evidence, it is just malicious rumour-mongering, and part of an attempt to deny basic rights to Muslims by creating a fear psychosis. > It is important for perverted notions of secularism for majority community > to learn. So long as Hindu politics were divided on caste and region > secularism was ‘safe’. Appeasement of Catholics communalism was a matter of > fact, conceived by cunning, corrupt Congress party to conceal their > gluttony and questioned by none without inviting the stigma of communalism. > This brand of secularism is practiced unabashedly and indeed is a passport > to secularism or to put it more appropriately, pseudo-secularism. This is the stale and discredited 'psuedo-secularism' mantra chanted by the RSS and L.K. Advani. Standing up for minority rights is 'psuedo-secularism' according to such people. India is an overwhelmingly Hindu-majority country, and the religious rights of Hindus are rarely threatened. But the religious minorities face such problems on a regular basis, and secular persons naturally stand up for their rights. If that makes them 'psuedo-secular' in your view, it is your perspective that is at fault. Look at the data on communal violence in India. The overwhelming majority of those killed in such violence have been Muslims. Then again, look at what happens after such violence. Those who have been involved in killing Hindus are generally brought to book, whereas those involved in killing members of minority communities go off scot-free. Take the case of the Mumbai riots and the Mumbai blasts. The Mumbai blasts case has been concluded and those guilty have been punished. But what has happened to the Shrikrishna report, which identified those involved in the killing of Muslims? No action has been taken. Madhukar Sarpotdar, the Shiv Sena chappie who was caught red-handed by the army transporting arms, was,far from being punished, rewarded by being made a minister. It is in this assymetrical and unjust situation, where minority rights are trampled upon and justice denied, that secularists stand up for the rights of minorities. > callous. The Hindus are taken for granted in the name of secularism The > politicized secularism did not provide for any room for consideration of > Hindu majority which largely remained inarticulate, disorganized and lacked > the political value for the secular political leadership to take cognizance > of inspite of being in the majority, the Hindus are lacking a political > constituency in Goa. Your statement is again reflective of the attempts of the Sangh Parivar to build up a monolithic Hindu identity, and get people to think as 'Hindus', 'Christians', 'Muslims' etc. rather than as 'Indians'. This is what they want, because with Hindus in an overwhelming majority, if people start thinking in such a way (and if people start identifying the Sangh Parivar as the representative of Hindus, which it is far from being), they have created their 'political constituency'. Your statements here indicate exactly who it is that is thinking in terms of vote-bank politics. Projecting your own prejudices and biases onto others cannot hide this reality. > What kind of mankind is this if one religion do not have a healthy respect > for each other. If the minorities cannot be suppressed in a democracy, > neither can the majority be subjugated. And that is the dilemma – the lack > of moral leadership in Goa. Tsk, tsk, the 'majority subjugated'? What kind of nonsense is this? Are you seriously saying that Hindus are 'subjugated' in India? I once heard a Sri Lankan friend describe the Sinhala nationalists in Sri Lanka as 'a majority that has been trained to think like a minority'. They imagine threats to themselves at every turn. This is the kind of mentality that the Sangh Parivar is trying to sow in the minds of Hindus in India, and if they succeed, the harvest will be bitter -- look at what's going on in Sri Lanka. Resentment over decades of denial of their rights built up among the Tamils, and since the 1980s the country has been in the throes of a civil war. -- Question everything -- Karl Marx
