A community magazine is not quite journalism alone. A community magazine must create for its members a platform to articulate their feelings. Internet as a cheap medium offers this possibility. Here is a piece received from a brilliant young thinker of the community, which I reproduce verbatim

“In our last conversation, you inspired me to be articulate. Producing an article requires a steady flow of thoughts and a constant mood. I do have trouble being articulate as I am subjected to such a huge rush of thoughts mixed with emotions that they largely go incoherent and then I have some sort of mood disorder that sweeps away my attention to constant new flows and I end up at a singularity with all those thoughts lumped up together in incoherence. In spite of that I have tried to glue those rushing thoughts into one discipline and have written an essay that may not be relevant as a publishing material but which may help you with suggesting me as to where should I streamline myself. I am pretty sure it won't be impressive for a man like you but at least it can help you to tingle my thought process which I severely need, to cultivate the art of writing topical, because I feel that I write only in the light of imaginations and assumptions made upon those topics. Going by the facts will come as I grow into a well read person, which I am trying to. And I do expect a feedback from you.”

Editor’s suggestion to budding writers: 1.Good reading habit leads to command over language. 2. There is no need to be in a hurry to write everything in one piece. There will always be time for the writer to express his remaining ideas in his future write-ups. 3. Every revision of the work by its author will lead to its betterment as a work of quality. 4. Maximum trimming of the write-up should be done by the author himself. 5. The presumption of author should be that the reader is very intelligent and he need not be explained the detailed process of how the idea was generated in author’s mind or how the reader should go about understanding the ideas of the author (a common mistake by new writers which helps them write lengthy). 6. And finally, a writer should never take non-publishing of his article seriously. The publishers of magazines and newspapers have many reasons for not accommodating a particular write-up, without any reference to its quality.

(Manzurul Haque)

The Nemesis of Bihar

What is true of Bihar may not be any less true for the rest of India. But Bihar gives us an easy opening to look straight into the subject-matter. As Biharis get a beating in Bombay (I don’t relish writing Mumbai), we in Bihar are drawn into questions we had never attempted to answer. The questions relate to the essential weaknesses of the Indian society whose much accentuated face can be seen within the bounds of Bihar. India as we know today was assiduously knit by the British, and was also not built in a day. The constitutional growth of India is a historical rarity and a piece of unparalleled human ingenuity, whose credit entirely goes to the British national genius. In 1947, India as a political entity was constitutionally and legally more marvelously poised than even Great Britain, whose colony it was. An institution must be examined with reference to the challenges it is able to face successfully and the record of British India, helping a tattered and superstitious set of disparate peoples, move along several indicators of progress simultaneously, must be treated as one of a piece.

Bihar was one of the best administered States of British India in 1947. But the forebodings of things to come in Independent India had already come in 1946 through the anti-Muslim riots. If the constitutional history of India is extrapolated beyond 1947, we get a picture of the remarkably consistent downslide. Our ability to feel happier by comparing ourselves with lesser neighbors must be dismissed instantaneously because it is India that is Bharat, which was the inheritor of the British constitutional legacy. India alone has to answer for this historical downslide.

Followed by the Bihar riots of 1946, there used to be regular bouts of anti-Muslim riots in Bihar leading to the culmination of the trend in Bhagalpur. Constitutional deterioration was a consistent feature in all this ‘progress’; police was rabidly communal which helped it to become rapaciously corrupt, because the cover of religion is the best to deflect questions of probity in public life. In the name of governance nothing is left now in Bihar (despite the heroic stance of Nitish Kumar lately), so its economic backwardness was the next logical thing to happen. The net result: not one able-bodied (include, able-minded) man can look forward to a life in Bihar. The largest town of Patna in Bihar resembles the biggest village on earth. Students make a beeline for other states, so do the jobseekers. Local leadership everywhere has gone into the hands of mafia-types, nurtured by the Police Stations and DMs/ SPs. The pride of running large number of trains Ex-Patna is one in kind of the pride in sending a large number of competitors for government jobs from Bihar – both sure-shot indicators of Bihar’s utter inability to provide for its burgeoning population. But the effect of Bihar’s backwardness (add at this point the massive populations of the Central and Eastern parts of UP for the purpose of this analysis) is far-reaching. The Bihari/ Bhaya bashing seen in other parts of India is a direct result of this phenomenon whose roots lie in the slow but sure destruction of the constitutional processes that had been put in place by the British to govern a political entity called India - singularly a product of the British genius. If India has to survive as it exists today, we have to pick-up the thread of constitutionality from where the British had left. Criminality cannot sustain this complex system. Instead of running into pathos let us Biharis start all over again from the pre-1946 riot situation of Bihar with all its implications.

BaKhabar Research

Publisher: biharanjuman.org

Editor:

Manzurul Haque, India

Graphics Designer:

Seraj Akram, Riyadh

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Email: bakhabar@biharanjuman.org

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BaKhabar is your own News Magazine. Share your information and articles with community members...Editors

Publishers Note:

Bihar Anjuman does not guarantee the originality and accuracy of any information, interpretation, opinion, or view presented in this newsmagazine. The views and opinions expressed in this online magazine are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect that of Bakhabar. Bihar Anjuman, however, reserves the right to edit any material submitted for publication for reasons of clarity and space.

A Prescription for Muslims

by Najam Gilan

Islam like every other religion of the world preaches peace, tolerance, amity. If there is one thing, which can be termed as the biggest contributor towards the expansion of Islam it is “Tolerance”. Tolerance not out of compulsion but out of choice. Tolerance not as a strategic tool but as an inherent character.

Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H) never forced his beloved uncle (Abu Talib) into accepting the religion in which he believed in. The biggest supporter of Prophet Mohammad died as a non-believer. If he wished he could have forced him, but then it wouldn't have been in sync with the teachings of Islam-Religion which he was preaching about. In the seven hundred years of Muslim rule in Christian Spain, Muslim have never attempted to convert any of the Jews and Christians living there. It was the tolerance for other believes and choice which led them to co-exists peacefully. Contrary to this after the siege of Spain in 1492 the Christian rulers forcibly converted the entire Muslim Population (Hardly any muslim will be found in present day Spain) It was not the Muslims who started the war in the name of religion. In the year 1092 the Christians ruthlessly attacked the Muslim population of Jerusalem and gave it the name of “Crusade”. Similarly Muslims have ruled undivided India for almost seven hundred years and with complete tolerance-had the Muslim rulers of those times been intolerant, history of this sub continent would have been completely different.

Now cut to circa 2008.Things have completely turned around. The most tolerant of the religion now gets labelled as the propagator of violence. The bitter reality is that many a times they are getting targeted under secular governments. For instance: UK, US, India. But the question is ----Why only Muslim gets targeted all the time?

Where does the problem lie - with the community or with the society? But what exactly is the problem with the Muslims? The major problem is that we don't think that there exists any problem within us. The majority of us feel (actually believe) that the problem lies with everyone else except us - Hindus, Christians or the respective governments of their countries.

The difference between Muslim terrorists and other terrorists is, that except Muslims, none of them have fought in the name of ‘religion’.

Yeoman Work of Bihar Anjuman

by Md Enam Khan

The devastating effect of flood (2008) in the northern part of Bihar is fresh in our memories. True to its creed, Bihar Anjuman stood to the occasion by organizing massive relief funding. Bihar Anjuman’s appeal to contribute generously towards the rehabilitation of flood-devastated people of Bihar had its desired effect and a respectable sum of Rs.38,89,365/- could be raised for the purpose through the various Chapters of Bihar Anjuman, spread all over the world. The collection was handed over to the reputed organization of Imarat Sharia Patna, for further disbursement and utilization through their agencies.

At the physical plane too, the NGO wing of Bihar Anjuman , which goes by the name of ‘RAHBAR’ embarked upon establishing a relief camp in Williams School of Supaul, the worst affected region, under the over-all supervision of Mr. Jawed Ahmad, General Secretary of RAHBAR. Starting from 15th September till the end of Ramadhan, they provided Iftar and Suhoor directly to the people whose number went on to increase from 100 on the first day to more than 200 on the 4th day. The details of their work can be seen at www.biharanjuman.org/flood_relief_2008_rahbar.htm

Is India poor, who says? Ask Swiss banks!

Dishonest Industrialists, scandalous politicians and corrupt IAS, IRS and IPS officers and other bureaucrats and technocrats have deposited in foreign banks, a sum of about $ 1500 billion, which have been misappropriated by them from india. This amount is about 13 times larger than the country's foreign debt. With this amount, 45 crore poor people can get Rs. 1, 00,000 each. This huge amount has been obviously looted from the people of India by exploiting and betraying them. Swiss Banking Association Report, 2006 details bank deposits in the territory of Switzerland by nationals of following countries. This may be the picture of deposits in Swiss banks only. What about other international banks?

India -- $1,456 billion , Russia -- $ 470 billion, UK -- $390 billion, Ukraine - $100 billion, China --$ 96 billion.

Once this huge amount of black money and property comes back to India, the entire foreign debt can be repaid in 24 hours. After paying the entire foreign debt, we will have surplus amount, almost 12 times larger than the foreign debt. If this surplus amount is invested in earning interest, the amount of interest will be more than the annual budget of the Central government. So even if all the taxes are abolished, then also the Central government will be able to maintain the country very comfortably.Some 80,000 people travel to Switzerland every year, of whom 25,000 travel very frequently. 'Obviously, these people won't be tourists. They must be traveling there for some other reason,' believes an official involved in tracking illegal money. And, clearly, he isn't referring to the commerce ministry bureaucrats who've been flitting in and out of Geneva ever since the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations went into a tailspin! What is even more depressing in that this ill-gotten wealth of India has been stashed away abroad into secret bank accounts located in some of the world’s best known tax havens. And to that extent the Indian economy has been stripped of its wealth. Ordinary Indians may not be exactly aware of how such secret accounts operate and what are the rules and regulations that go on to govern such tax havens. However, one may well be aware of ‘Swiss bank accounts,' the shorthand for murky dealings, secrecy and of course pilferage from developing countries into rich developed ones. In fact, some finance experts and economists believe the tax havens to be a conspiracy of the Western world against the poor countries. By allowing the proliferation of tax havens in the twentieth century, the Western world explicitly encouraged the movement of scarce capital from the developing countries to the rich.

In March 2005, the Tax Justice Network (TJN) published a research finding demonstrating that $11.5 trillion of personal wealth was held offshore by rich individuals across the globe.The findings estimated that a large proportion of this wealth was managed from some 70 tax havens. Further, augmenting these studies of TJN, Raymond Baker -- in his widely celebrated book titled 'Capitalism's Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and how to renew the Free Market System' -- estimates that at least $5 trillion have been shifted out of poorer countries to the West since the mid-1970

What is to be notable here is that most of the wealth of Indians parked in these tax havens in such places is central to the issue, not their low tax rates as the term 'tax havens' suggests. Remember Bofors, and how India could not trace the ultimate beneficiary of those transactions because of the secrecy associated with these bank accounts!!

(Note: This piece has been picked up from the internet. There is no way of knowing the truth because the power to investigate is held by those who are the very persons who need to be investigated. But seeing the rampant corruption around and the prima facie structure of the report, there is high probability of this report being true –Ed)

Faith based Ecology

by Dr. Mukhtar Alam

Changes in the climate with rise in the temperature of earth, change in rainfall patterns etc. are caused due to emission of gases, that is raising the temperature of earth as the amount of green house gases generated is much more than the capacity of the green cover for absorbing.

The summit meeting of the Group of Eight industrialised countries (G8) held in Germany in the month of June 2007 agreed to launch new initiatives for collective action by both rich nations and fast-growing developing countries to combat climate change. In its Fourth Assessment Report, the IPCC, the international body that has the task of weighing scientific evidence on climate change, pointed to definitive evidence that global atmospheric concentration of key greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide had “increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750”.

An ecologically safe national strategy/ development paradigm can be considered containing the following features:

1. Marketing of ecologically safe consumption, production, leisure use patterns
2.Discouraging ecologically hostile consumption and production patterns
3.Promotion of neighborhood trade and education and discouraging ecologically hostile trade and education.
4. Ecologically sustainable agriculture
5. Promotion of ecologically sustainable transport systems
6. Faith based measures for transformation of leisure use pattern
7. Promotion and protection of ecologically sustainable habitats
8. Ecologically safe interest free and debt free finance system
9. Ecologically safe models of success

Faith based responses appear to be more effective, and they do not need to be promoted being already there. Such responses are common and they just need to be utilized towards ecological wellbeing at the personal, community, social, national and global levels

Prayer five times a day for transforming leisure use pattern, and recognizing that leisure use pattern is one of the key social engagements that consume most of the fossil fuel based services and utilities. Command for prayer is common across the religious texts though it appears most prominently practiced by men and women following the communications of Prophet Muhammad, believed to be the last messenger by Muslims. Men and women practicing prayer (salah in Arabic) do not visit dancing halls and bars as they are more concerned about praying in time. Prayer in the afternoon, after sunset and then prayer after dinner in the mosques makes the work easy. Prayer and remembrance for the Muslims are means of relaxation, stress-busting, socialization, and communion and so on. She/he concentrates on the essential matters in the neighborhood and cares for them as commanded through the messengers. Secondly, they abstain from exhibitionist consumption following the command of Allah for not transgressing the bounds/limits set by Allah. For dressing, they believe that the best dress is that of piety determined by the extent to which they follow the commands of Allah. They abstain from adultery following the commands against the same as they believe in upholding the best standards of fealty. They seek forgiveness from Allah for the sinful deeds executed intentionally or unintentionally. Thus adoption of prayer five times a day works as a guard against all the socially harmful behaviors that have been prohibited in the holy books across the religions. They donate out of their sustenance to the poor following the commands for zakat, khairat, fitra and sadaqah. They do not waste and thus observe the best of the ideals communicated through the slogan of ‘waste not, want not

They practice ecologically safe consumption and believe in moderation in all matters. The middle path communicated through the commands of Allah is best ensured through the adoption of compulsory prayers five times a day. Men and men following the commands in Shiv Sankalp Taru for remembrance of Ishwar are likely to have the similar best behavior patterns that are ecologically safe. Their average ecological footprints are likely to be very low. They ensure more and more pious behavior, and consumption and production patterns. Centre for Ecological Audit, Inclusion and Governance of which this writer is a functionary, would like to promote generation of more pious responses as they are directly linked to reduction in the emission of green house gases.

can be reached at ceasig@gmail.com

TAMADDUN, TASAWWUF, SHARIAT, KALAAM
BUTAAN-E-AJAM KAY PUJARI TAMAM
HAQEEQAT KHURAFAAT MAIN KHO GAYI
YE UMMAT RIWAYAAT MAIN KHO GAYI
IQBAL^®

A lesson in Logic

by Shoaib Khan

Logic in our Language: Language is the mode of expression. Literature is the art of composition in prose and verse. In our day to day talking, writing or reading, most of us fail to understand the implications of words “and, or, not” and sentences containing “ all, some, if”. We often fail to translate and interpret such sentences. These words also occur in the study of science and in exam like GMAT/CAT Civil Services etc. To convince others, to grasp others’ ideas, we need the skill of argumentation. According to Aristotle, a person who wants to convince another may appeal to that person's reason (logos), ethics (ethos) or emotion (pathos)

The writer's job is to weave the three appeals into a single convincing argument to persuade the readers. The most common argumentative structure in English writing style is deductive: starting off with a generalization or claim, and then providing ground or support for it. An argument is a statement (premise) or group of statements offered in support of another statement (conclusion). Thus, an argument has two essential parts: a claim and support. The claim asserts a conclusion -- an idea, or a point of view - that the writer wants us to accept. The support includes premises, reasons (shared beliefs, assumptions, and values) and evidence (facts, examples, statistics, and authorities) that give readers the basis for accepting the conclusion. At the most basic level, in order for an argument to be acceptable, the support must be appropriate to the claim and the statements must be valid and consistent with one another. When we assess an argument, we are concerned with the process of reasoning as well as its truthfulness (these are not the same thing).

Methods of Reasoning: All reasoning is based on the ways we put sentences together. The basic principle of Logic states that a statement/sentence must be either true or false. By using statements or propositions that are either true or false, the English language becomes the building blocks for a mathematical language. In English, new propositions are formed from existing propositions by using “and, or, not”. These words are called logical connectives. A conjunction is a compound sentence formed by combining two sentences (or facts) using the word “and”. A conjunction is true only where both sentences are true e.g. “Blue is a color and 7+3=10. (True and True=True). Since both facts are true, entire sentence is true. “One hour= 55 minutes and one minute=60 seconds”. (False and T= False). Since the first fact is false, the entire sentence is false. A disjunction is a compound sentence formed by combining two sentences using the word “or”. A disjunction is true when either or both sentences are true e.g. “One hour= 55 minutes or, one minute=60 seconds”. (F or T= T). Since the second fact is true, the entire sentence is true. Negation of a statement is formed by placing the word “not” into the original statement. The negation will always have the opposite truth- value of the original statement. The negation of an “or” statement is always an “and” statement and the negation of an “and” statement is always an “or” statement. For example: The negation of “a2 +b2=c2, and a>0 is “either a2 +b2= c2 or a> 0”. The negation of x+y=6 or 2x+3y<7 is “x+y = 6 and 2x+3y =7”. The precise rules for expressing the negation of compound statement formed with “and” and “or” are called DE Morgan Rules.

In Reasoning, there are mainly five types of sentences/premises. (i)-‘All A are B’ is in the nature of ‘All girls are beautiful’. (Means A lies within B, or A is a subset of B) (ii)-‘No A is B’ is in the nature of ‘No boy is selfish, (Means A and B do not intersect). (iii)-‘Some A are B’. ‘Some rectangles are squares’) (Means some part of A is within B or they have some intersection) (iv)-Some A are not B. Some spheres are not circles. (Means some A is B and no A is B) (??-Ed)

The language we use in argument is much more complex than these statements. From the sentence “I like good food”, we mean, “all good food is something I like”. This has the form, “All A are B” “Everything I like is good food” is an erroneous or invalid conclusion. Similarly from - “no cars are buses”, we can infer/conclude/mean that “some cars are not buses”. We cannot switch over to universal term “all” from particular term “some”. (v) There is one more type of sentence called Conditional Sentence in the form “If A, then B”. From given conditional sentence/statement- “if A, then B”, we can conclude/infer/mean that –“If not B, then not A”. If we put in any other form that will always be wrong or invalid.

Fallacies are common errors in reasoning that will undermine the logic of our argument. We may discuss deductive and inductive argumentation and inherent fallacies in our next dispatch.

can be reached at shoaib_khan567@yahoo.com

Indian Mujahideen

by Mirza Yawar Baig

The famous Indian poet Ghalib, writing about the trials and tribulations of 1857 wrote: ‘Mushkilain itni padhin mujh par ke asaan ho gayin’. I guess we the people of India are fast reaching that stage, where we are developing the ability to read a headline about the deaths of innocents and walk away untouched in any way - except perhaps to be thankful that our own near and dear ones are safe. The issue however does not end with that. It does not end with ‘getting used’ to terror tactics. It ends by defeating those who employ the terror tactics.

Indian Mujahideen is a particularly oxymoronic name because it is as complete a contradiction of terms as one can make. People who set off bombs in public places resulting in the deaths of innocent Indian citizens are neither Indian nor Mujahideen. Their actions at once destroy both of their claims and place them outside the pale of both the Indian nationality and Islam.

The issue before us today I believe can be summarized in the maxim: Behavior that is rewarded is repeated. Be it the case of Pavlovian dogs or young children or grown-up adults, you get what you reward, you get what you pay for and you get what you approve of. I believe that these bombs are a symptom of the far more serious malaise of the national approval for terror, for the breaking of laws, for murder, for ignoring the welfare of others. We have become an extremely uncaring society and the results are there for all to see. Unfortunately when we don’t care for anyone, no one cares for us. So in this vicious cycle, in the end we all will suffer - even those who walk away today breathing sighs of relief that it was not their turn. The law of averages works. One day it will be our turn. Just takes a little while.

Let me give you some recent examples of how we have rewarded murder, destroying the social fabric of society and have reinterpreted the law to make this possible: 1984:Sikh Massacre (where Sikhs were randomly slaughtered in Delhi and other parts of India), where more than 1000 Sikhs were murdered. Result? Jagdish Tytler and all his fellow politicians and the Congress party won the national election. Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minster with one of the largest majorities ever. His comments, when at the Boat Club, he was informed about the killing of Sikhs, became famous: “When a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it should shake a little.” Those who were affected by the ‘shaking of the earth’, the widows of the Sikh martyrs are still awaiting justice. Rajiv Gandhi meanwhile is dead. Jagdish Tytler is alive and well. About this massacre of innocent Indians, Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_anti-Sikh_riots) reports:

On November 1, 1984, large mobs largely formed by supporters of the ruling Indian Congress party from suburbs of Delhi and bordering villages of Western Uttar Pradesh descended on eastern and central Delhi. Sultanpuri, Mangolpuri, Trilokpuri, and other Trans-Yamuna areas of Delhi were the worst affected. The mobs carried iron rods, knives, clubs, and combustible material, including kerosene. They used voters' lists to identify houses and business establishments owned by Sikhs one by one and of which the voters' lists were of course distributed to them by the politicians themselves. The mobsters swarmed into Sikh neighborhoods, arbitrarily killing any Sikh men they could find. Their shops and houses were ransacked and burned. In other incidents, armed mobs stopped buses and trains, in and around Delhi, pulling out Sikh passengers to be lynched or doused with kerosene and burnt. November 1, 1984 Several Congress leaders held meetings on the night of October 31 and morning of November 1, mobilizing their followers to attack Sikhs on a mass scale. The first killing of a Sikh was reported from east Delhi in the early hours of November 1. About 9 am, armed mobs took over the streets of Delhi and launched a massacre. Everywhere the first targets were Gurdwaras, the holy temples of Sikhs, - to prevent Sikhs from collecting there and putting up a combined defense. Mobs were armed with iron rods of a uniform size. Activist editor Madhu Kishwar saw some of the rods being distributed among the miscreants. Mobs also had an abundant supply of petrol and kerosene. Victims traced the source of kerosene to dealers belonging to the Congress party. Every police station had strength of about 100 men and 50-60 weapons. Yet, no action was taken against miscreants in most places. The few places where the local police station took prompt measures against mobs, hardly any killings took place. Farsh Bazar and Karol Bagh are two such examples.

A Debate on Debate

by Sadaf Shahbaz

with the advent of interest in Islam, everybody seems to be keen to debate the Islamic issues. With special reference to the Muslims, I would like to know however, what debate is this? Do Muslims have a uniform notion of the word ‘debate’? Let us examine.

Allah says "...We have not sent you as a guard over them. Your duty is but to convey (the Message)"(Ash-Shura: 48)"...The Messenger's duty is only to preach the clear (Message)"(An-Nur:54),"… Invite (all) to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious. "(An-Nahl:125)

It is from here perhaps that the so called idea to debate till death originated. Here one can see a conflict that is there in the very notion and the very nature of word 'debate'. Some take the word 'argue' to mean debate, while others may simply understand it as a mild discussion to put forth their viewpoint. At least a well read person will not ascribe the meaning of altercation to the word ‘argue’ finding place in the holy Quran (But you never know the cretins!). However picking the thread from the word debate in place of 'argue' one can raise its meaning to the level of ‘continuous assertion of conduct’, where the argument is the silent aspect. This approach may not be regarded by others as anything done concrete for the cause of Islam, because there is no argument, no debate (no altercation if you permit). But never mind as long as you are in a state of continuous argument - by means of a modest demonstration of high conduct enjoined by Islam rather than by pushing down someone's throat its logic mercilessly.

There is no debate in Islam really. There is and will be a continued attempt to demonstrate the finer side of Islam to those who chance to see it or are inclined to see it. Islam’s concept of ‘to you, your religion, to me, mine’ must be celebrated as amongst the fundamentals of Islam.

Argument with grace is the cardinal concept in the verse quoted above. What could be the best form of it? I would like to cite two instances from Islamic history. One when Hazrat Ali Raziallahanho was about to over power his enemy in a battle, the enemy spit on his face and Hazrat Ali let his opponent go. His explanation was that on being spit he became angry and he would not fight out of anger. The only reason he fought was for the sake of Islam. This was an example of active grace. The other example of passive grace is when Hazrat Abdul Qadir Jeelani Rahmatullahalahe, was intercepted by the robbers, he did not tell lie to hide his only money. Needless to say, both the historical incidents had the potential to create winning arguments in favor of Islam.

Let us examine the possibility of graceful arguments in the present context. When someone does not bribe a railway TTE for out of turn preference and chooses to suffer travel hardship, that is graceful. There is a strong argument in his conduct questioning the conduct of the persons who prefer to do things which are considered more practical, such as bribing. A question gets asked, ‘what prevents this fellow from doing the practical thing, and then the only answer derivable is – ‘his belief in Islam prevents’. It goes without saying that being gracious in the Quranic sense is very testing indeed and is much unlike a mere tongue wrestling

can be reached at sadaf_shahbaz@yahoo.com

Unity in diversity

by Asma Khan

'India is a secular democracy’ we proudly say. Every Indian desires that the country should come on top of the world. We are simply overwhelmed with its every success and we get genuinely upset with its single failure.

But Mr. Raj Thackrey masquerading as a die-hard patriot is trying to divide the country in the name of region. The sentiment of Raj Thackrey’s bandwagon on 'regionalism above nationalism' is condemnable to say the least. His tirade against the taxi drivers from Bihar or push-cart vendors from U.P, right to the Bachchans has affected the lives of the people living in the State. On the 19 th of October, its target was north Indians appearing for Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) test. It seems he is unaware that railways do not recruit people on the basis of region. Is he unable to understand that these people are directly or indirectly serving Maharashtra and helping India to ‘shine’? Placing the interest of one's region above that of the nation is a threat to the unity of the country. It reflects that Mr. Thackeray is unable to envision Maharashtra as a part of India.

MNS as the pocket organization of Raj Thackeray made hue and cry, when Amitabh Bachchan announced his intention to build a school for girls in U.P. If Mr. Bachchan opens a school in UP, is he not oxygenating the development process of the country?

Few days back, there was violence against the shopkeepers with Hindi sign boards and hoardings. They were forced to use Marathi instead of Hindi. Recently, Jaya Bachchan's unintentional remark on Hindi drew flaks from supporters of Raj. She apologized but Amitabh had to abstain from the premiere of his movie. There are certain known personalities who only use English for conversation. Why are they acceptable to the likes of Raj Thackeray?

Being sensible citizens of the country, we should be wary of this kind of dirty politics and should protest against these groups. The actions of narrow-minded politicians to garner votes have put the ordinary people's life at risk. Come on!! We are Indians. We want India to be developed. A country cannot progress with only one progressive state. To make India 'shine' we will have to be united as 'United We Stand and Divided We Fall'.

SOME OF THE HUMAN QUALITIES ALLAH LOVES

Contributed by Seraj Akaram

"Say (O Muhammad to mankind): "If you (really) love Allah, then follow me, Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." (Quran: 3:31)

Patience
"And Allah loves as-Sabirun (the patient)." (Quran: 3:146)

Justice and Dealing with Equity
"Be just, that is nearer to piety; and fear Allah." (Quran: 5:8)

Putting Trust in Allah
"Certainly, Allah loves those who put their trust (in Him)." (Quran: 3:159)

Perfection of One's Work
The Messenger (peace be upon him) said: "Allah loves that if one does a job he perfects it."

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