Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:01:22 +0530 From: "Marshall Mendonza" <mmendonz...@gmail.com>
Pl refer to the foll extracts: 'Cedric Prakash is a shining example for all self and own community servers. He has stood up both for Gujarat Muslims and Kashmiri Pandits. To him, what matters are humans, not religion."*CJ Shantanu Dutta.* "The Jesuit priest was also honoured this year with France's Legion of Honour for his action on behalf of victims of the 2002 Gujarat massacre. Mario asks: What did Fr. Cedric Prakash have to say about the 59 Hindu humans who were burned alive on the train at Godhra? Google does not say. Here is an interesting Q & A from an interview with Fr. Cedric: http://www.indianet.nl/iv040629.html Q: As a Catholic priest who is also working among Muslims, how do you see the argument or thesis of a clash of civilisations between Islam and Christianity? A: I think this thesis, which is asserted by some Christians and Muslims, among others, is entirely wrong. We need to condemn mindless violence, terrorism and state terrorism, no matter who perpetrates it. Today you have a situation in which some fundamentalist Protestant right-wing churches, the American establishment and the Hindutva and Zionist lobby have clubbed together, and, like them, you have radical and fundamentalist Islamist groups who see the world in stark Manichean terms. I think this poses a major threat to all humanity. We must not let this degenerate into another crusade, although that is what Bush is trying to do. We need to strongly raise our voices against this. Mario responds: For no apparent reason, Fr. Cedric launches a facile calumny aimed at President Bush, with no context in the discussion taking place. It seems to me that Fr. Cedric, rather than having compassion for ALL humans, has fallen into the same old trap of selective indignation from a far left wing perspective. What "crusade" by Bush is he referring to? Bush's attack in the middle-east was not against Islam but against very specific and mercilessly brutal Muslim tyrants in Afghanistan and Iraq who had physically and psychologically oppressed millions of innocent Muslim men, women and children for several years. In addition, in Iraq, Saddam Hussain had defied all UN attempts at finding out what he had done with his WMDs, not to mention invaded and menaced all his neighbors. Bush was instrumental in mostly-Muslim Kosovo achieving independance, over the objections of most European countries. Bush was instrumental of diverting American resources from Iraq to help the Indonesian victims of the deadly tsunamis a few years ago. Bush has done more to provide aid for impoverished Africa than all US Presidents in history combined. Where was the so-called champion of ALL humans, Fr. Cedric, when millions of innocent Muslims were being brutalized in Afghanistan and Iraq?
