Personnel interactions between communities is need of the day...

I feel personnel interactions between communities is need of the day because If you only see "News Stories" that present Muslims in a negative light, and you have no personal connection to Muslims to offer a counter narrative or the real picture of what the community feels of these incidents (like the beheading of innocents be it a journalist or an aid worker), I can understand the negative views others holds for muslims....

Compounding this issue is that there are few positive images of Muslims in international(Hollywood) or national(Bollywood) entertainment media....
In fact, the exact opposite is true as both has made millions furthering the worst image of Muslims. And I can tell you firsthand as someone who has pitched film and TV shows that would depict Muslims in a positive light, there’s little appetite in "entertainment world" for such projects....

al-Qaida cannot end up doing any good for India's Muslims, but it could harm them....

AQIS harmful to Indian Muslims

The national secretary of a Muslim cleric organization, the South Asia Ulema Council, Aziz Mubarki, said that Zawahiri’s call in fact poses threats for India’s Muslim youth.

“If al-Qaida begins operating in India, counter-insurgency operations will be more intensive and we shall surely see an increased number of innocent Muslims being picked up as terror suspects. Often they spend years in jails before being acquitted by courts. It will trouble the community miserably,” Kolkata-based Mubarki said to VOA.

He said that al-Qaida cannot end up doing any good for India's Muslims, but it could harm them.

http://www.voanews.com/content/indian-muslims-reject-al-quaida-call-for-jihad/2440795.html

Al-Qaeda has tried in the past and failed to woo Indian Muslim youth !

Aziz Mubarki, national secretary of South Asia Ulema Council in Kolkata, said the al-Qaeda stunt could hurt Indian Muslims, already vulnerable to counterterrorism operations and communal violence.

"If al-Qaeda really spreads its network in India …we shall see an increased number of innocent Muslims suffering in jail," he told Khabar South Asia.

Al-Qaeda has tried in the past and failed to woo disaffected Indian Muslim youth, he said. "In fact, it failed miserably to attract Indian Muslims… This time too Indian Muslim youths will not respond to the call of al-Qaeda, I am sure," Mubarki told Khabar.

In Kashmir, separatists dismissed Zawahiri's statement.



http://khabarsouthasia.com/en_GB/articles/apwi/articles/features/2014/09/05/feature-01

Muslims dont vote as per the dictates of any religious leaders....now proved !!

During India’s massive democratic exercise that wrapped up this week, many political parties reached out to the country’s nearly 180 million Muslims through MULLAH's in hope of winning their votes.These political parties even sought the endorsement of imams,mufti and other senior clerics who in turn could sway members of their community. But (my NGO) Sawaab Foundation (India) conducted a survey amongst Muslims in the eastern state of West Bengal ( and i am sure the results may not very different, if a similar survey is conducted anywhere else in the country) that may surprise many !
Pls follow the link.....

http://www.voanews.com/media/video/asia/1914340.html?z=600&zp=1

HINDUTVA'BADIS THREATEN TO MARIGINALISE MUSLIMS......

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“Up to 98% of the Muslim men arrested are found innocent by the courts...

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“A possible apology, the BJP president is talking about holds no importance amongst Muslims. In fact, it’s kind of a ploy to divide the Muslim votes so that the community cannot unite and support a party or alliance that can keep BJP out of power.

“However, this attempt of a calculated apology makes it evident that at least some BJP leaders have come to realise that they had committed sinful crime by inciting majority Hindus against minority Muslims in Gujarat and other states in several occasions.

“BJP president says that Muslims should give his party a chance this time. But the Muslims indeed gave them a chance.

“Despite BJP took the key role in the barbaric vandalisation of the Babri Mosque, in 1998, Muslims lent their support to the party to form the national government. But, when the BJP-led alliance was in power in the Parliament, we saw the ghastly anti-Muslim riot in BJP-ruled state of Gujarat. Then we also witnessed a dramatic increase in number of Muslims being targeted in fake encounters and fabricated terror cases.

“Up to 97% or 98% of the Muslim young men who were arrested in terrorism cases across the country have now been found innocent by the courts...

We must not forget that the BJP is the political wing of the Hindu right wing organization RSS- which is rabidly anti-Muslim in nature...

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/03/muslims-modi-divided-india-20143362734969484.html

Co-operation not jingoism is the key to peace & prosperity in the region …..

Some Sixty-five years ago, an undivided nation was carved out into two indistinguishable nations, India and Pakistan. This was indeed a winding up gesture by an indolent empire, in its period of decline. As Apart from many other reasons World War II had broken the pecuniary standing of British Empire making it almost obligatory for the British policy makers to let go of India, for their own good. But this division on the map led to mass exodus across the newly formed border. Families were set-apart, precious land was left behind. Strenuous journey to the new countries began with zilch, but with a hope for a better prospect, and the Mephistophelean bloodshed between all sides made it a tart memory for most that still live on.

Movement across the border was comparatively easy in the initial years till the war of 1965, which was a result of the botched attempt by Pakistan’s “Operation Gibraltar”, launched in August 1965, according to which Pakistan Army's 50th Airborne paratroopers and Pakistan Army's guerrillas, infiltrated into Jammu and Kashmir (yes, don’t be surprised Kargil was not the first goof up), disguised as locals with the intention of fomenting an insurgency among Kashmirs. However, the strategy went wonky from the beginning as it was not well-synchronized and the infiltrators were soon found that led to the first war between neighbours. After 1971, the trust insufficiency plunged even lower. Due to seclusion from each other and misinformation vending by hawks on either side, generations of Pakistanis and Indians have hated each other.

Despite it all, the sane population on both sides are favoring the meeting between Mr. Singh and Mr. Shareef that is tipped to happen in the U S soon. It is undisputable that nothing significant has come out in the past and I am not sure what else is going to come, if the meeting goes ahead. But as Mr. Nawaz Shareef made some token gesture that he means peace, and we should be exploiting it to our advantage.

whatever the outcome we must give peace a chance and engage in dialogues with the same neighbor we fought wars with, the same neighbor that media likes to label as our adversary, the same neighbor who has these days again taken prime seat as our enemy number one, while the “land grabbing” China and “Tamil killers” Sri Lankans shuffle along on second and third place. And for this accomplishment, along with giving credit to some of the politicians on both sides and their blemished policies, we must also pay tribute to the media on both sides. For nothing impacts people’s feelings faster than a clip on television showing the evil Pakistani shelling and how it is out to get us - vulnerable Indians.

In fact there are two ways to easily gather a crowd and a following in this country- one way is to promote uniting for someone or something, the other way is to unite against someone or something – unfortunately, the latter strategy seems to work improved than the former when it comes to our masses. Unite against some corruption, unite against rapes, unite against the mafia, unite against human Right Violations, against a politician – against America, against China and most importantly, against Pakistan.

Unfortunately, the discourse on Pakistan-India relations has been held hostage, since Independence, by military and militants from there and fundamentalists and hawks in India. It’s time we figure out which direction we want to walk towards. We cannot be advocating dialogue between the two nations during the evening bulletin and then preachify hate later at night during talk shows. If our media has collectively decided to be the more responsible one in this clash, then it should remain determined instead of joining the war-mongering bandwagon. When pointing fingers across the television screens at our neighbor, we must remain alert about our own response as well. Where a large chunk of our media outlets have been praised for their mature reaction compared to their counterpart, some of our “news” channels couldn't help flare up the issue further either? And this recipe could turn more disastrous than profitable in the long run. A tit for tat with the counterpart is no reason to brainwash millions into believing that all their troubles begin and end with Pakistan. Both nations are nuclear powers - one hopes any media, person, institution or group that calls for war or even casually mentions it’s possibility, also realizes the consequences of one in this day and era.

I firmly believe that the only way for normalization in relations between the two countries is through continuation of dialogues and people-to-people contacts. It is time that we move on, towards a pleasurable future and learn to cohabitate with our neighbors. It is also essential that the budget we have been spending on our defence purposes for the last 65 years should be diverted towards public developmental strategies. The common man won’t gain from petty politics or hostilities; hence why fill his mind with those notions when instead we could be uniting for some semblance of peace.

http://twocircles.net/2013aug20/cooperation_not_jingoism_ikey_peace_and_prosperity_region.html

http://news.aligarhkhabar.com/co-operation-not-jingoism-ikey-to-peace-and-prosperity-in-the-region/

http://www.kashmirmonitor.in/news-no-room-for-jingoism-53030.aspx

http://muslimmirror.com/eng/co-operation-not-jingoism-is-key-to-peace-prosperity-in-the-subcontinent/