Opinion Time to introspect

Many newspapers have criticised the idea of Muslim organisations demonstrating against the violence in Assam and Myanmar. Lucknow-based journalist,Hisam Siddiqui,in Jadeed Khabar,on August 25,writes: “Some deceitful Muslims (dhongi Musalmaan) have committed the crime of defaming the country’s Muslims and Islam by holding demonstrations… in the month of Ramzan on the pretext of oppression on Muslims… but actually with the objective of getting cheap popularity and receiving financial benefit… Some maulvi-like persons have… given the excuse that some persons with caps on were sent to the processions as part of a conspiracy… This is a very big lie. Their identification is very easy in images on CCTV and still cameras. They are young Muslims. It is another matter that some conspirators had brought them over…”

Noted columnist Khalid Sheikh in Inquilab has blamed the organisers for “giving an undertaking to the police to restrict the crowd to 1,500 whereas it actually turned out to be 15,000. And,the electronic media was targeted. The miscreants forgot that it was the same media that had brought to light the oppression and injustice meted out to Muslims at the time of demolition of the Babri Masjid and the riots in Mumbai and Gujarat. Leave alone the media,what was the crime of the police whose members were attacked and what type of exhibition of manliness was it that even women constables were not spared?”

House logjam

COMMENTING on the impasse in Parliament,Rashtriya Sahara,in its editorial on August 29,writes: “The BJP has decided not to allow the PM to speak in Parliament because it knows that the PM has the right answer to its allegations… The answer is that the opposition to open bidding of coal blocks comes from those states that have coal deposits. In this regard,Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are to be specially mentioned,and these states are with BJP… The party criticises the UPA government for not implementing its decision of 2004 to offer coal blocks through open bidding. But it fights shy of accepting that it had taken the same decision in 2003…”

Inquilab,in its August 25 editorial,reminds readers that at a special session of Parliament to mark the 60th anniversary of its first session last May,“…L.K. Advani had said: ‘Tolerance of criticism is the highest point of any democratic society… For this,only capacity for tolerance is not enough. The sentiment of respect for adversarial viewpoint is also imperative’… BJP makes many such statements. But when the time comes for action,it changes its attitude and tries to get its view accepted by force.”

Mecca’s OIC

JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI’S bi-weekly,Daawat,writes on August 25: “In the present situation,when differences are appearing between Muslim countries,the very participation of heads of Muslim states in the specially convened fourth summit meeting of Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) at Mecca is in itself a great success. And,the consensus on issues discussed and the decisions taken are not an ordinary achievement… Important issues like Islamic unity,Syria’s crisis,genocide of Rohangiya Muslims… were discussed and an effort was made to put an end to the sectarian differences now found in the Islamic world… A very significant aspect of the decisions taken is that,when it was decided by the OIC to suspend its membership of Syria,it was not opposed or resisted…”

Compiled by Seema Chishti