Stop Israel’s terror in Gaza

US and Britain have blood on their hands | End the killing–lift the blockade

Israel is committing mass murder in Gaza, and the US and Britain are giving their blessing to the slaughter. Gaza’s hospitals and morgues are bursting with the dead and the injured.

Israel’s barbaric assault, which began last Saturday, has killed hundreds of Palestinians. It plans to kill many more. Israel’s defence minister Ehud Barak has said that Israel wants to “widen and deepen the operation”.

Western leaders blame the Hamas resistance group for the conflict. The media mostly go along with this, or at best portray it as a clash between two sides that are equally to blame.

But Israel is a terror state, armed with F-16 fighter jets, helicopter gunships and tanks, that is attacking a largely impoverished and isolated people. The West has backed Israel to the hilt.

Israel has launched its new onslaught in an attempt to wipe out any resistance to its dominance over the Palestinian people.

Struggle

It wants to destroy Hamas, which won the Palestinian elections in January 2006, because the organisation leads the struggle against its people’s oppression.

The last few days have exposed the shameless hypocrisy of Western leaders.

George Bush says there cannot be a ceasefire until the Palestinians surrender to Israel’s demands. Gordon Brown calls for “moderation” but refuses to condemn Israel’s attacks.

Both ignore the fact that, while a “ceasefire” held from June to November, no Israeli was killed by rocket fire from Gaza. Israel broke the ceasefire on 4 November forcing the Palestinians to respond.

Israel’s economic blockade of Gaza over the past year and a half has cut off supplies of the most basic necessities, such as food, medicine and water.

A ceasefire on Brown’s terms would allow the blockade to continue, with tens of thousands of Palestinians suffering from malnutrition, disease and poverty.

Anger at the slaughter has sparked mass demonstrations across the world in solidarity with the Palestinians, calling for an immediate end to the Israeli bombing and the blockade of Gaza. Millions of people are also demanding that Gaza’s borders are opened.

Any hope of lasting peace in the Middle East will only be realised if there is justice for the Palestinian people. This means an end to the racist state of Israel and the so-called “war on terror”, which has produced more wars and instability. It is only a global mass movement of ordinary people that can bring about this change.

Courtesy:http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/
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Mumbai Trails....

Here is an article presented by a close friend of mine. I have added my inputs too....
It was the last week of November and that was the last time once can see the glorious Taj and Oberoi- trident standing showing the world class architecture and hospitality of India. The landmarks were the pride of not only Mumbai but whole India. It was all normal till they came with the intention to challenge the pride of India. Yes there was the terrorist attack this time on Mumbai. They were running on streets and on stations killing innocent people. The government was sleeping, even if the intelligence gave SOS to the state that there could be a terrorist attack. The government was busy in making a consensus that among the population of Mumbai who all were North Indians.
I must ask the politicians of the government that “where were those people who were raising their voice that we were Mumbaikars and will not allow people from other states to enter Mumbai. This time the people were from outside country. Why the hell they were given a chance to enter Mumbai, if our countrymen need a sc called permission from politicians of Mumbai”. It was the system failure. The facts remain the same and the NSG from New Delhi went to rescue the people. The MARCOS for the first time landed on land for the operation, because they knew that they were not doing it for the state, they did it for the country. If the politicians there in Mumbai don’t want any north Indian and south Indian there then why they allowed NSG to operate in their state against those terrorists. Most of the NSG commandos were non- Mumbai Kars but they fought for Mumbai.
Why the politicians always prefer their vested interest first than the interest of the country. Our three main top officials were killed, more than 150 innocent people were killed and around 300 injured in this dreadful attack that shaken the confidence of people. The next question will be on agenda that these terrorists were Muslims and again the debate would be that “All Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists were Muslims”. A sweet answer to that is now days Muslims are so educated that they can judge what is right and what is wrong. I totally agree with the fact that if a person from a particular community favors the so called “jihad” ( a grossly misinterpreted term) of the terrorists there are thousand that are against it. Ask those people from the same community that lost the lives of their kins in the attack. They bears the same pain as the other people.

Hemant Karkare was engaged in unearthing a terror network with characteristics which had not been seen so far. For the first time, the Indian state was conducting a thorough professional probe into a terror network centred on Hindu extremist organisations, this one with huge ramifications, some leading into military and bomb-making training camps and policised elements in the army, others into organisations and political leaders affiliated to the BJP. One of the most potentially explosive discoveries was that a serving army officer, Lt.Col. Srikant Purohit, had procured 60 kg of RDX from government supplies for use in the terrorist attack on the Samjhauta Express (the India-Pakistan ‘Understanding’ train) in February 2007, in which 68 people were killed, the majority of them Pakistanis. Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi and BJP Prime Ministerial candidate L.K.Advani accused him of being a ‘desh drohi’ or traitor, a charge that in India carries a death penalty, and the Shiv Sena offered legal aid to those accused of the terrorist attack, complaining that ‘The government does not save Hindus from terrorists, and if Hindus defend themselves, they are maligned’. In an interview shortly before he died, Karkare admitted he was hurt by the campaign against him. On November 26, just before the terrorist attack, the police in Pune received a call from an anonymous caller saying in Marathi that Karkare would be killed in a bomb blast within two or three days.

Let there be peace……………

Eid Wishes.....

The Hajj pilgrimage is associated with the life of Muhammad, but the ritual of the Hajj itself was considered ancient even during his lifetime in the 7th century. Many Muslims believe that it goes back to the time of Abraham in 2000 BC. Eid-Ul-Adha (a.k.a. the Feast of Sacrifice or Day of Sacrifice) is observed after the Hajj -- the annual pilgrimage to Makkah (Mecca) in Saudi Arabia.
A duty of each Muslim, as described in the Five Pillars of Islam, is to go on Hajj at least once once during their lifetime, unless they are prevented by finances or ill health. "The Hajj consists of several ceremonies, meant to symbolize the essential concepts of the Islamic faith, and to commemorate the trials of prophet Abraham and his family...The pilgrimage also enables Muslims from all around the world, of different colors, languages, races, and ethnicities, to come together in a spirit of universal brotherhood and sisterhood to worship the One God together." 1
It is the second of the two major Muslim holy days. The other is Eid-ul-Fitr which follows Ramadan -- a lunar month of partial fasting.


Its message is to train us to respond to the commandments of god in everyday life. It instills in us the sense of unity and togetherness, and helps remove from our hearts any kind of hatred and animosity toward our brothers and sisters. In Hajj, man enters into a state of total sanctity that prevents him from violating the life or the safety of any human being. Hajj is the sign of the universality of this Divine message. All people come from all parts of the globe celebrating the praises of the One true God, no colors, races, regional borders. All barriers are removed and all pilgrims are molten in one brotherhood that gathers their hearts and strengthens their bonds and sense of belonging to one religion.

Markets Hate Farmers

Farmers in United States, Europe and for that matter in other rich and industrialised countries are quitting agriculture. That makes me wonder. Why? After all, they get huge subsidies. They have the advantage of being literate and techno-savvy. They can take benefit of future trading and commodity exchanges. Linked to supermarket retail stores, they supposedly get a bigger share of the consumer price.

Yet they are herding out of agriculture. How can this be possible if the market was working to the benefit of farmers? How can this be a reality at a time when the private trade is believed to be providing higher income to farmers? Still, there must be some reason for the collapse of family farms in the developed world. Either the ground realities in the rich countries are far away from our perception of farming or something must be terribly wrong in our understanding of the market economy and farming.

What makes it still worse is that the same prescription of farming is being doled out to Indian farmers. Policy makers and the agribusiness companies never feel tired to tell us that such a paradigm shift alone will bring about a second Green Revolution and liberate farmers from the clutches of the old mandi system. What they don't tell us is that the same farming model is not working in America. Farmers are abandoning agriculture at a pace that remains unprecedented. Farming has moved into the hands of agribusiness corporations.

Take the case of Europe. It is the biggest provider of farm subsidies. You get subsidies for entering into agriculture, you get subsidies based on the land you own, you get subsidies for keeping cow, pig or horses. You get subsidised credit for farm machinery, which is often written-off subsequently. You get subsidies for preserving biodiversity, for even planting hedges. The rural infrastructure works very efficiently, farmers have access to credit and insurance and there are no mandis (local market yards) like in India. In other words, farmer is linked to the private markets.

And yet, every minute one farmer quits agriculture. In America, there are more people in jails than on the farm. There are approximately 7 million people in jail or on parole and bail. And only about 700,000 people are left on the farm. Thanks to the farm policies, American farmers have been driven out of agriculture. In its last census in 2000, America did not count the number of farmers for the first time in history. In need not. After all the number of farmers has plummeted to a historic low. So when America talks of agriculture, it actually talks of corporations and machines.

On the other hand, despite the industrial farming systems linked to supermarkets, the number of middlemen has actually grown in the US. The new breed of middlemen operates under one umbrella organisation. You have the quality control man, the standardiser, the processor, the retailer and so on. It is primarily for the increase in the number of middlemen that the farmer's income has got squeezed. Studies have shown that in 1995 when a farmer went to the market to sell his produce worth one dollar, his income would be 70 cents. Ten years later, in 2005, farmer's income has dropped to a paltry four cents. The middlemen have neatly pocketed the rest.

Economists and socialites who back the entry of global retailers like Wal-mart, Tesco, Reliance and Bharti Telecom repeatedly tell us that while the intermediaries may be sulking over being left out from the newly acquired value chain, for the farmers, hopes, opportunities and wealth are all finding their way into their homes. Well, the reality is that the American farmers were actually pauperised by the value chain. If that is the situation in the Mecca of second Green Revolution, I wonder what will happen to the Indian farmers when the retail chains take over.

In any case the proponents of market economy feel that talk of farmer suicide is cheap. Like an Ostrich we should all bury our heads in the sand, and see only what they want us to see.

In America, knowing that distress sale is what the farmer faced, the government had stepped in and provided them with direct support. Each farm receives something close to US $ 33,000 a year in federal support. In Canada, the National Farmers Union has in a study shown that while the 70-odd agribusiness companies are raking in profits, farmers are the only segment of the food chain incurring losses. Farmers in the rich countries essentially live on government doles.

It is now the turn of 600 million farmers in India. Like the farmers in the rich and industrialised countries, it is now their turn to be oppressed. Whatever that remains of the marginalized farming community is now up for grabs. Not only agribusiness companies, private banks and the new micro-finance army that replaces the private money lenders with organised money lending through Self-Help Groups are getting ready to expand their activities. As the ICICI chief K.V.Kamath said: "After all, there is a lot of money to be made from rural areas".

The economic prescription therefore is not for the farmers to get a bigger slice of the consumer price. It is not going to result in new homes rising in rural lands and children going to good schools. As the global experience shows, it is actually aimed at letting the agribusiness industry walk away with the entire cake. Who said you can't have your cake and eat it too? #
By Devinder Sharma
Dsharma.net
(This article first appeared in Deccan Herald, Jan 18, 2007)

www.dsharma.net

So many jobs, but so few experts for Islamic finance industry

The swift rise of the Islamic finance industry could hit a wall in the coming years as the sector struggles to find enough experts to do the job, an industry official said on Tuesday.

Sharia banking’s sudden popularity has created a scramble for bankers, scholars and lawyers conversant in both conventional finance and Islamic economics, and produced a shortage that sometimes compromises the quality of products, experts say.

Many Islamic bankers are drawn from the conventional finance sector and have structured products which have drawn criticism that sharia banking is little more than usury-based financing cloaked in Islamic dress.

The Islamic industry’s rapid growth has outpaced the rate at which the sector is able to churn out workers, said Agil Natt, chief executive of Kuala Lumpur-based INCEIF, which says it is the world’s only dedicated Islamic finance university.

"We want to bring the Islamic finance professionals closer to understanding sharia principles and we want the sharia advisers to be able to understand some of the problems of practitioners," Mr. Natt said in an interview.

About 30,000 Islamic finance professionals will be needed in the Middle East in the next 10 years, he said, citing figures from consultancy AT Kearney.

In Malaysia, another leading center of Islamic finance, an estimated 8,600 sharia bankers would be needed by 2012, almost double the 4,800 available now, according to the central bank.

The Islamic insurance, or takaful, industry would require just over 2,000 professionals by 2012, up from 1,250 now.

The industry’s lack is especially glaring in commercial banking and takaful in the Middle East, retail banking in the United States and fund management and investment banking in Malaysia, Mr. Natt said. Modern Islamic banking, which has its roots in the 1970s oil boom, has been growing about 20% annually, driven mainly by a surge in Middle East oil revenues.

It aims to be a viable alternative to the conventional industry but with over 300 financial institutions worldwide and the sector valued at about $1 trillion, the size of the Islamic industry is still just a fraction of conventional banking.

The shortage of talent in the industry is creating a fierce competition for workers. Middle East institutions, in particular, are trying to draw in professionals by offering top dollar.

It has also driven up wages, with it not uncommon for sharia bankers to draw higher pay than their conventional peers.

The Islamic industry’s growth was not expected to stall despite easing energy prices, as the global financial meltdown have put the spotlight on ethical investing, Mr. Natt said.

The industry also faces a shortage of sharia scholars, he said, estimating that there are about 200 such scholars worldwide.

All financial institutions that offer Islamic products must have a board of sharia advisers who decide if instruments comply with Islamic law’s standards. — Reuters

Hindutva's Terror Link

The revelation that a militant section of the Hindutva network was behind the September 29 bomb blasts in Muslim-dominated Malegaon in Maharashtra and Modasa in Gujarat has shattered the myth propagated by the Hindutva campaign that only Islamist fundamentalism breeds terrorism. Indeed the Sangh Parivar’s loaded argument has been that while all Muslims are not terrorists, all terrorists are Muslim. Saffron rabble-rousers have had no compunction in lobbing this charge at the Muslim community as a whole. While it has become almost an article of faith with the parivar to link Islamist fundamentalists with terrorism, today, with the arrests of radical Hindu activist Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and four others, among them a retired Major, the Sangh and its affiliates find themselves warding off the same accusations. Prima facie, the case against the Sadhvi and her accomplices is serious. The Anti-Terrorism Squad of Maharashtra, which has been on the trail of Hindutva terror since 2006, has charged them under the Indian Penal Code for murder as well as under sections of the Indian Explosives Act, 1884, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

The antecedents of the accused, the suspected role of former military personnel in providing training to them, and the recovery of military-grade explosive material (possibly RDX) from the blast sites, have added to the discomfiture of the BJP and the parivar, which claim to be India’s only truly nationalist forces. The Sadhvi is a former activist of the BJP’s student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. She and her accomplices were associated with several right-wing Hindu extremist organisations. There is another deeply worrying aspect to the case: How did the accused lay their hands on military-grade explosives? The other question is how far the trail will go as the investigators pursue the leads provided by this lethal mix of Hindutva and terror. There is no escaping the crisis that this has set off in the parivar. The BJP’s first response was to deny that any Hindutva outfit could be involved in terror. But party chief Rajnath Singh, who has been photographed with Pragya Singh Thakur, has subsequently gone on the offensive, insisting that she must be presumed innocent unless proven guilty. What all this highlights is the imperative of acknowledging that terrorism is too serious a challenge to be left to opportunistic, subjective interpretation. Combating terror is a responsibility governments and political parties across the spectrum must take up in a united and cooperative way.

Anatomy Of Sangh Parivar

By Ram Puniyani

The arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in the context of Malegaon blasts of September 29, 2008 has been an important step in the investigation of bomb blasts which have been blowing the social peace and communal amity. Along with her the arrest of army officers, retired and serving, has unfolded the whole new dimension about investigation of acts of terror. The involvement of Bhonsala Military School has also come under the scanner of investigating agencies.

The Sadhvi has been the member of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad and Durga Vahini, which are the parts of Sangh parivar, before she adorned the saffron robe. Sangh parivar is the word coined by the RSS and its progeny for the whole combine, all of them put together. RSS acts as the central controller and its trained volunteers, swayamsevaks, set up and manage different organizations to pursue the goals of RSS.

Sadhvi?s connections with BJP/RSS top leadership came to the surface and the BJP leadership in particular, distanced itself from her, initially. The ideological and political association was attempted to be played down to a mere acquaintance. Disowning the member of its outfits, after they do the crime is nothing new for Sangh organizations. The first such disowning was done when RSS prachark Nathuram Godse murdered the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi. Since RSS was not keeping records of its members etc. Nathuram claimed in the court that he had nothing to do with RSS, despite the fact that he was a trained RSS volunteer (swayamsevak). In an interview given to ?The Times of India? (25 Jan 98), his brother Gopal Godse, who was also an accomplice in the murder, elaborated the apparent reasons for hiding their affiliation with RSS. ?Technically and theoretically he (Nathuram) was a member (of RSS), but he stopped workings for it later. His statement in the court that he had left the RSS was to protect the RSS workers who would be imprisoned following the murder, on the understanding that they (RSS workers) would benefit from his dissociating himself??

The second major disassociation has been that from Rajendra Pal, alias, Dara Singh who murdered Pastor Graham Steward Stains. His case in the courts was fought by BJP ex Minister Dilip Singh Judeo's brother. Dara Singh himself was an active worker of VHP, Bajrang Dal and other Sangh organizations. All this was denied shamelessly by RSS combine. And now come the one related to the Sadhvi.

After initial quiet on the issue, now the Hindutva parties (BJP, Shiv Sena) are raising the army of lawyers to fight the case for her. Now their plea is that every accused has a right to be defended. So far they have kept quiet when the lawyers of the accused in the acts of terror have been beaten up and many lawyers associations have resolved not to fight the cases of accused in cases of acts of terror.

It was also stated by BJP spokesperson that there is no evidence, proof of involvement of the Sadhvi. The technicalities of this proof in this case apart one will like to know how many times, in how many cases of arrest of ?alleged Muslim terrorists? this question is raised. Their being a Muslim is a good enough proof of being a terrorist in this scheme of things propagated by RSS combine, and even the encounters, fake most of them, are welcomed by a section of these.

Then came the argument that since Sadhvi is a follower of ?cultural nationalism?, she can?t be a terrorist! Here the partisan attitude of those involved in this politics is clear. What they are referring to by cultural nationalism is Hindu nationalism. As such cultural nationalism has been promoted by the practitioners of politics in the name of religion. Be it Muslim terrorists taught in the US promoted Madrassas in Pakistan in yesteryears or the fundamentalists, doing politics in the name of any religion. In case of Hindutva, this cultural nationalism is the opposite of democratic nationalism, where diversity and equality of all is the foundation of the political ethos.

In case of RSS, cultural nationalism, is based on the some religious texts and the culture of elite Hindus, which gives priority to the Brahminical values, the values of caste and gender based inequality. Democratic nationalism has its focus on respecting and approving all cultures and religions, while in RSS scheme of cultural nationalism the Brahminical culture is the base of political nationalism. So what label does one put to the acts of Godse and Dara Singh? Both of them were steeped in the Cultural nationalism propagated by RSS combine. The formula that terrorism done by Muslims is anti national and the acts done by the ilk of Sadhvi are nationalism defies all the logic. Any act of violation of the Indian law is anti national, there can?t be separate set of laws for those indulging in violence and heinous crimes in the name of religion.

After initial hesitation, it started being said that she was pained by the terrorism committed by Muslims, so this revenge terrorism was meant to protect the Hindu society, and so subtle justification and approval for this variety of crime as being the answer to the terrorism done by Muslims. Some commentators are openly glorifying this and some others are quietly going by this logic. One can say that the Bajrang Dal and Sadhvi?s ilk is not into terrorism because of so called Islamic terrorism, it is in this more due to the indoctrination which they have received through RSS indoctrination module. This indoctrination reduces all the political-social issues to the religious ones.

RSS indoctrination is carried out through its Shakha Baudhiks (Branch intellectual sessions) and camps. It says that this is nation belongs to Hindus alone. Here, the Muslims and Christians are foreigners, the secular people are trying to say that this country belongs to all the people, which is wrong. We need to ensure that these threats to Hindu nation are dealt with properly.

RSS type indoctrination has also created the myth that all terrorists are Muslim, deliberately overlooking that terrorists come from all the religious communities, but not due to religious reasons. The reasons behind terrorism are social, economic and political. Be it LTTE, Khalistanis, ULFA, Irish Republican army all have indulged in terrorism, the reasons being anything but religious. In RSS scheme of things all the acts of terror have been projected to be due to Islam and Muslims. So the two modules merge and create the mind set of Sadhvi or Bajrang Dal members who have died while making bombs in Nanded and Kanpur or members of Hindu Jagran Samiti who planted bombs in Thane near Mumbai.

The current involvement of army officers, Bhonsla Military School and the members of different wings of Sangh privar should not be a surprise if one sees the structure and functioning of RSS. RSS founded to oppose democracy and to work for Hindu nation has been working, indoctrinating and creating more and more organizations to fulfill it objective of Hindu nation, which in essence means to restore the feudal hierarchical values of caste and gender in Indian context, to work for status quo around the modern version of Brahminical system. Its trained swayamsevaks, have been on one hand directly entering the political formations, Bhatiay Janata Party, Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarhti Parishad, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrma, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Hindu Munnani, Bajrang Dal, Samajik Samrasta Manch on one hand, creating subordinate organizations amongst women, Rashtra Seviak Samiti, Durga Vahini etc on the other hand. Vast layers of Saints, the likes Asaram Bapu or Sri Sri Ravishakar, or Narnedra Maharaj are ideologically on same wave length as RSS and through their work they lay the ground for the politics of RSS to flourish in different sections of society.

Its second strategy has been that of infiltration in the different wings of state machinery, police, bureaucracy, Judiciary. On yet another layer its recruits have been working in the field of education and media by the mechanism of infiltration. Its hold and vicious grip on society cannot just be assessed by the electoral strength of BJP. That?s why Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister, in Staten Island could assert that first he is the swayam sevak of RSS and then the prime minister. That?s why in 1977, when the Bharatiya Jansangh, previous avatar of BJP, who were part of Janata Party, were told to severe their links with RSS, they preferred to break the Janata party rather then severing their affiliation with RSS. Its strength comes from the earlier silent, by now violent, infiltration in all spheres of social and political activities. Its wing amongst retired military officers ensures that people like Retired army Officer Upadhyay is probably the part of the Malegaon and other such blasts.

Bhonsala military school has been managed by RSS in more ways than one, so not only it may be a place for hatching the conspiracies for blasts, but also for turning out recruits who can aid and assist this Sangh combine while serving in the army. Surprise is not that Bhonsla military school?s connection with this politics is coming to surface, surprise is not that Upadhyay and Purohits? links are coming to surface so late; surprise is that how they hid it so long and so well?

Various components of RSS family sometimes have some differences also, but these are sorted out by the patriarch RSS, through subtle control and ideological mechanisms so that their cohesion with the goal to destroy democracy, through all the means, including using democratic platforms for the same, remains intact. Sadhvi is involved in the blasts or not, army officers or involved in these acts or not should hopefully come out despite their ideological plants scattered all over. What it has brought to our notice is the dangers of this multi headed hydra, which is working in the democratic system with a goal to abolish democracy itself and bring in Hindu nation, another name of fascist formation, abusing the Hindu religion, the religion of Kabir and Gandhi!

In RSS scheme of things the organizational affiliation comes second, the primary thing which they instill is the ideological subordination. Most of those involved in these acts will not have any remorse for what they did, as like the Al Qaeda variety, they are indoctrinated to believe that it is nationalism (Hindu in this case, in Al Qaeda variety it is Islamic nation of course) so what you are doing while instigating anti minority violence or while planting the bombs is for the service of your religion!

While superficially at loggerheads the ideological wavelength of RSS indoctrination is similar to the one used in Pakistani Madrassas for training Al Qaeda. Here the religion is different paradigms are same. To deal with such ideologies leading to acts of terror, what is also needed is to combat their ideological foundations.

Source:Countercurrents.org