Linda's note - NOTE: In this political climate, I think this is an important topic considering the fact that like it or not, religion has been pulled into US Politics, sadly. This administration has been using Islam as it's focus of "evil" for some time now, and if McCain has his way, that trend will no doubt continue.
ISLAM, unlike other religions, strictly adheres to prayers being offered in a totally peaceful atmosphere and in complete silence signifying voluntary surrender to Almighty and it cannot be a religion that would promote violence and terrorism, as propagated by the West. Rather Islam preaches and follows a peaceful propagation of the tents of the religion and peaceful co-existence right from the days of the Prophet Mohammad (SAS).
But the world powers pursuing an invert anti-Islamic agenda have conspired to provoke Muslims to violently react to terrorist actions of the powers that be. Islam had faced constant attacks since it was created "but in recent years the phenomenon has assumed alarming proportions and has become a major cause of concern for the Muslim world." The anti-Islamic forces, cutting across their religious contours and variations join together to use the occasion to denounce Islam and insult Muslims and try to finish off Islam by engineering conversions to other religions, have been at work for ages. But the Sept 11 event in the USA has been used by all these anti-Islamic forces to slam Islam and torture and kill Muslims, all over the world. The civilized world, the West, has been in the forefront in this evil practice, known as Islamophobia, encouraging anti-Islamic nations like India also to do their part of evil in a sustained manner.
The report the OIC has prepared has added that Muslims in many parts of the world, in the West in particular, are being stereotyped, profiled and subjected to various forms of discriminatory treatment. It called on OIC member states to "step up their counter-measures by keeping the pressure on the international community at multilateral and bilateral forums." The OIC said the Muslim world must launch a campaign to show that it is a "moderate, peaceful and tolerant" religion, closely monitor and the raise the alert over anti-Islamic incidents and organize more inter-faith initiatives. Victims of Islamophobia must be encouraged and given necessary help to file complaints.
They, however, once again failed to make parallels between state-sponsored terrorist activities in the West and those in East, for example in Indian occupied Kashmir, where the Indian terrorist forces kill and torture Kashmiris and also branded them as “terrorists” because they violently have reacted to the systematic Indian terror attacks. I would be in the interests of Islam and Muslims globally, even for peaceful co-existence between different religions, if the Islamic nations take a common stand on an-Islamic terrorism across the globe and take corrective measures to make those who pursue anti-Islamic agenda as a primary domestic and foreign policy agenda. There is no point in beating about the bushes by taking only select problems being faced by Muslims in part of the world. Kashmir was an independent country before Indian tactfully annexed it in 1947, immediately after Indian got its independence from UK.
In a recent State report, the US has slammed India for human rights record, saying it faces evasion of basic human rights, numerous serious problems including extra-judicial killings, disappearances, and torture and rape by security forces. The report said in India 'serious internal conflicts affected the state of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as several states in the north and east. There were several instances in which some elements of the security forces acted independently of government authority, it said. Attacks against religious minorities and the promulgation of anti-religious conversion laws were concerns. Social acceptance of caste-based discrimination often validated human rights violations. OIC should consider the morale of the report quite seriously.
Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal is an analyst, researcher, commentator and columnist based in Delhi
