26/11 Mumbai attacks: One year on, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

26/11 Mumbai attacks: One year on

Ceremonies are being held in Mumbai (Bombay) to mark the first anniversary of a series of devastating attacks on the Indian city by militants.

Police have paraded in the city, a memorial has been inaugurated and a candle-lit prayer service held.

The attacks, which began on 26 November 2008 and lasted nearly three days, left 174 people dead, including nine gunmen.

The only surviving attacker, Pakistani Mohammad Ajmal Qasab, is currently on trial in India.

On Wednesday, a court in Pakistan charged seven people in connection with the attacks, including alleged mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi - head of the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The Mumbai gunmen staged co-ordinated attacks at a number of sites, including the CST railway station, two luxury hotels and the Nariman House Jewish community centre.

Security forces criticised

On Thursday, a candle-lit prayer service was held at the Gateway of India monument, near the Taj Mahal Hotel.

Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram unveiled a new memorial, which he dedicated to the memories of "those who laid down their lives to save Mumbai... and the idea of India as a secular, plural, tolerant, democratic republic".

A police band played as several officers and the families of their dead colleagues gathered around, reports the BBC's Prachi Pinglay in the city.

Earlier on Thursday, Mumbai's policemen and commandos marched in a parade and displayed the force's newly acquired equipment, including amphibious patrol boats and "rapid intervention" vehicles.

The equipment has been purchased under a $26m (£16m) modernisation plan to strengthen resources.

The security forces were criticised for their handling of the attacks, and have been using the anniversary to demonstrate their improvements - including the launch of an anti-terrorism commando unit.

http://newageislam.com/26/11-mumbai-attacks--one-year-on/islamic-world-news/d/2147

India’s cultural pluralism its best defence, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

India’s cultural pluralism its best defence

Malini Parthasarathy

November 05 2009

As the anniversary of the cataclysmic event of 26/11 draws near, undoubtedly the country will relive the painful and humiliating memory of its powerful financial capital held hostage for more than 36 hours by a group of murderous terrorists sneaking in from Pakistan, challenging the might and capabilities of the Indian nation. But instead of replaying those dark moments, Indians ought to remember with pride the aftermath of the tragedy. The days after the terror strikes saw a spontaneous nationwide outpouring of sympathy for Mumbai with all communities united in their anger and outrage at the impunity with which Pakistan-based jihadi terrorists had struck at India.

Indeed the Indian national spirit triumphed in that dark moment with thousands of citizens of diverse cultural and social identities rallying together to support Mumbai in that traumatic phase. There was a remarkable absence of communal violence with even the Shiv Sena in Mumbai resisting the political temptation of baiting Muslims in that stressful period. As a new generation of Indians made the political class and the political system the targets of their ire, one refreshing change was that there was absolutely no focus on communal and social identities. Projected was a collective sense of “we Indians” against the external intruders. All this showed that the enduring sense of national unity was a solid asset that helped the country tide over what could have been a deeply disintegrative challenge.

http://newageislam.com/indias-cultural-pluralism-its-best-defence/current-affairs/d/2056

Homosexual exhibitionism will create a vicious backlash,

Current affairs

Homosexual exhibitionism will create a vicious backlash

Inclusiveness, Inch By Inch

By Sagarika Ghose

July 07, 2009

The reinterpretation of Section 377 by the Delhi High Court, decriminalizing consenting adult homosexual sex, is a judgment justly hailed for its wisdom. By saying that it was the same spirit of ‘inclusiveness’ that also motivated Jawaharlal Nehru, the judgment has reminded us of the truly radical freedoms that form the foundations of the nation. In 1947, when India’s constitution-makers gave universal adult franchise to a poor, tradition-bound illiterate country, they set us on course for a constantly evolving contract with freedom. The reinterpretation of Section 377 could become a trigger for a larger debate about the balance between sexual freedom and traditional society and how to achieve a middle ground.

Today, personal freedom and ‘traditional morality’ seem to be on a collision course. The attacks on women at a Mangalore pub led by Pramod Muthalik are the lunatic manifestation of a deeper anxiety being voiced in many quarters on the future of ‘Indian values’. In Mumbai, 2006, an art exhibition entitled ‘Tits, Clits and Elephant Dicks’ was disrupted by the police. Last year, lovers in a Meerut park were beaten up by police. The government has just banned savitabhabi.com, accused of dispensing pornography and showing, in cartoons, the activities of a sultry ‘bhabhi’. The ban has led to protests on the net. In rural communities, marriages and elopements of inter-caste and inter-religious couples are being met by resistance from elders, and sometimes boys and girls are being put to gruesome death. Dress codes are being imposed. In a Kanpur college, tight clothing and jeans were banned for women because such clothes “attract eve teasers”. In Kerala, some colleges have even banned Bollywood dances on campus.

http://newageislam.com/homosexual-exhibitionism-will-create-a-vicious-backlash--/current-affairs/d/1532

The Zia-ist mindset, Pakistani media and the support of the right wing,

Radical Islamism and Jihad

The Zia-ist mindset, Pakistani media and the support of the right wing

By Irfan Husain

28 Mar, 2009

Many talking heads are allowed to get away with espousing extreme viewpoints - File photo.

ON my all-too-brief visit back to Pakistan, I have been flipping local channels to catch up on events. I have found new ones to watch, although not necessarily for any length of time, given the generally low quality of the fare on offer.

The other evening, I caught a panel discussion featuring a gentleman who used to be in the foreign service, together with a couple of other talking heads. The discussion was about last November’s lethal terrorist attacks in Mumbai. When I switched on my TV, the gentleman was confidently asserting that the knowledge of downtown Mumbai the terrorists seemed to possess made it clear that they could not have been Pakistanis. From this shaky theory, he leaped to the conclusion that they must have been Indians who had been trained in their country, and then brought to Pakistan before being put on a boat that took them to Mumbai.

I had scarcely managed to digest this brilliant argument before another panellist, a senior lawyer, chipped in with his stunning contribution. According to him, the killers could not possibly have been Pakistanis because had they been, they would not have attacked Mumbai, but would have gone for Delhi’s Red Fort. 'Why would young Muslims from Pakistan be interested in Mumbai?' he demanded. 'They don’t know the language there, and surely they would not have gone there to ogle Bollywood actresses.' Both expressed their outrage that our government had accepted that the attacks had been launched from Pakistan.

http://newageislam.com/the-zia-ist-mindset,-pakistani-media-and-the-support-of-the-right-wing--/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/1291

Pakistan's drift into the hands of extremists

Pakistan's drift into the hands of extremists

Tariq Ali

The failures of this government and its inability to defend the country's interests or its population from drones or terrorist attacks are paving the way for the return of the army to power as a way of avoiding a serious split within its own ranks. All that is awaited is a green light from the US embassy in Islamabad. Not that this would solve anything, but it might create the illusion of stability for a few months. It's no good Pakistani politicians mumbling that this is "our Mumbai". The fact is that, over the last year, the Zardari government has done a great deal for itself and its clients, but nothing for the people or the country. The more Pakistan drifts, the more opportunities offer themselves to the extremists.

http://www.newageislam.com/pakistan-s-drift-into-the-hands-of-extremists--/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/1227

Understanding Pakistan’s response to Mumbai

Understanding Pakistan’s response to Mumbai

By Praveen Swami

Pakistan’s establishment didn’t listen then — and does not seem to be listening now. Ever since the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s attack on Mumbai, commentators have been struggling to explain just why Pakistan appears so reluctant to act decisively against the perpetrators. Some have focussed on the Lashkar’s patronage by the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate; others on the Pakistani military’s hopes of weakening President Asif Ali Zardari. All these explanations have merit but miss a critical element: the slow transformation of the Pakistani state itself into an instrument of the jihadist agenda.

http://www.newageislam.com/understanding-pakistan%E2%80%99s-response-to-mumbai---/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/1152

Antulay is the Simi Garewal of Indian politics

Antulay is the Simi Garewal of Indian politics

He has chosen to feed the Muslim with the comfort food of conspiracy theories

By M J Akbar

21 Dec 2008

Abdur Rahman Antulay is not in search of truth. He is in search of votes. He has become the Simi Garewal of Indian politics. Garewal saw a Pakistani flag fluttering on every Muslim housetop in Mumbai. Antulay sees a vote beyond every Muslim doorstep. Garewal was blinded by a low IQ. Antulay has turned myopic because one eye is stupid and the other cynical. But that is his secondary medical problem. His primary disease is cancer of the vote-bank.

http://www.newageislam.com/antulay-is-the-simi-garewal-of-indian-politics/islam-and-politics/d/1068