Tag: Muslims

Genocide Part 2: Mahmud of Ghazni

The founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty was a former Turkish slave, recognized by the Iranian Muslims as governor of Ghazni (a town near Kandahar). His son Mahmud (ruled in 998-1030) expanded the empire further into India. A devout Muslim, Mahmud converted the Ghaznavids into Islam, thus bringing Islam into the sub-continent’s local population. In the 11th century, he made Ghazni the capital of the vast empire of the Ghaznavids, Afghanistan’s first Muslim dynasty. The atrocities by Mahmud of Ghazni makes the Taliban look benign by comparison. Will Durant explains:[Reference]

“The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the bloodiest in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within… For four hundred years (600-1000 A.D.) India invited conquest; and at last it came.”

“In the year 997 a Turkish chieftain by the name of Mahmud became sultan of the little state of Ghazni, in eastern Afghanistan. Mahmud knew that his throne was young and poor, and saw that India, across the border, was old and rich; the conclusion was obvious. Pretending a holy zeal for destroying Hindu idolatry across the frontier with a force inspired by a pious aspiration for booty. He met the unprepared Hindus at Bhimnagar, slaughtered them, pillaged their cities, destroyed their temples, and carried away the accumulated treasures of centuries. Returning to Ghazni he astonished the ambassadors of foreign powers by displaying “jewels and un-bored pearls and rubies shinning like sparks, or like wine congealed with ice, and emeralds like fresh sprigs of myrtle, and diamonds in size and weight like pomegranates.””

“Each winter Mahmud descended into India, filled his treasure chest with spoils, and amused his men with full freedom to pillage and kill; each spring he returned to his capital richer than before. At Mathura (on the Jumna) he took from the temple its statues of gold encrusted with precious stones, and emptied it coffers of a vast quantity of gold, silver and jewelry; he expressed his admiration for the architecture of the great shrine, judged that its duplication would cost one hundred million dinars and the labor of two hundred years, and then ordered it to be soaked with naptha and burnt to the ground. Six years later he sacked another opulent city of northern India, Somnath, killed all its fifty thousand inhabitants, and dragged its wealth to Ghazni. In the end he became, perhaps, the richest king that history has ever known.”

“Sometimes he spared the population of the ravaged cities, and took them home to be sold as slaves; but so great was the number of such captives that after some years no one could be found to offer more than a few schillings for a slave. Before every important engagement Mahmud knelt in prayer, and asked the blessing of God upon his arms. He reigned for a third of a century; and when he died, full of years and honors, Moslem historians ranked him greatest monarch of his time, and one of the greatest sovereigns of any age.”

Reference:“The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage“, by Will Durant. MJF Books, NY. 1935. pp. 459-463

Genocide Part 1: The Conquest of Sind

All the glorious past, and Asia’s civilization, changed forever with the bloody plunder of Sind by the Arabs starting in the 7th century:

“In 653-4, …a force of 6000 Arabs penetrated… To the shrine of Zun. The general broke off a hand from the idol and plucked out the rubies which were its eyes… The Arabs were now able to mount frequent plunder and slave expeditions as far as Ghazna, Kabul and Bamiyan… Arab raiding continued and was aimed at exacting tribute, plunder and slaves …Slaves and beasts remained the principal booty of the raids, and these were sent to the caliphate court in a steady stream.” [1]

Andre Wink describes that this aspiration to conquer India had existed since the time of the Prophet, as is evidenced by the sacred texts:

“… in the hadith collections the prophet Muhammad himself is credited with the aspiration of conquering India. Participants in the holy war against al-Hind [the Hindus] are promised to be saved from hell-fire… Thus also an eschatological work which is called the Kitab al-Fitan (‘Book of Trials’) credits Muhammad with saying that God will forgive the sins of the members of the Muslim army which will attack al-Hind, and give them victory.”[2]

The plunder was also achieved by an ingenious system of leaving the prosperous population alone, so that they would continue to bring donations to the temples, and then the Muslims would loot these temples. In order to save their temple from destruction, many Hindu warriors refused to fight:

“An even greater part of the revenue of these rulers was derived from the gifts donated by pilgrims who came from all over Sind and Hind to the great idol (sanam) of the sun-temple at Multan… When Muhammad al-Qasim conquered Multan, he quickly discovered that it was this temple which was one of the main reasons for the great wealth of the town. He ‘made captives of the custodians of the budd, numbering 6000′ and confiscated its wealth, but not the idol itself – which was made of wood, covered with red leather and two red rubies for its eyes and wearing a crown of gold inlaid with gems –, ‘thinking it best to leave the idol where it was, but hanging a piece of cow’s flesh on its neck by way of mockery’. AI-Qasim built his mosque in the same place, in the most crowded bazaar in the center of the town. The possession of the sun-temple — rather than the mosque — is what in later times the geographers see as the reason why the local governors or rulers could hold out against the neighboring Hindu powers. Whenever an ‘infidel king’ marched against Multan and the Muslims found it difficult to offer adequate resistance, they threatened to break the idol or mutilate it, and this, allegedly, made the enemy withdraw. In the late tenth century however the Isma’ilis who occupied Multan broke the idol into pieces and killed its priests. A new mosque was then erected on its site…” [3]

“The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Volume I – Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7th-11th Centuries”, by Andre Wink. Oxford University Press, New Delhi 1999.
1 Wink p.120.
2 Wink p.192-193.
3 Wink pp.187-188

Hindu Tolerance

For a long time, ‘tolerance’ was spoken of as a characteristic feature of Hinduism. Even people who otherwise strongly disagreed with Hinduism still managed to praise the fact that Hinduism had a benign, harmless tolerance. But in recent years the image of Hinduism and of Hindu society has changed quite drastically.

Historically, Hindu India has indeed been a land of refuge for a great number of persecuted peoples. For example, a greater number of practitioners of the ancient Zoroastrian faith can be found in India than in any other country in the world (including the country of the religion’s origin, Iran). Zoroastrians arrived in India as refugees in the 8th century CE, and have lived there free of harassment ever since. There are also Jewish communities in India (mainly in Kerala), that also came as refugees up to 2500 years ago. When Israel was founded in 1948, the country’s government recognised this, and sent a message of thanks to India, acknowledging that India was one of only two lands where no Jew was persecuted. Syrian Christians are another community that came to India for refuge, in the 6th century AD, fleeing persecution from their co-religionists. They too have never known anything apart from freedom and amity when living among Hindu communities. These are just three examples. The list could be increased considerably.

Hinduism also tolerates diversity of worship in a way that is unparalleled. There is extremely limited and isolated history of conflicts between different sects of Hinduism that could compare with the bloodbaths that have occurred in the conflicts between rival sects of Christianity and Islam. It is not that there have never been any disagreements between different sects of Hinduism, but the scale has always been minimal or restricted to the field of debate.

However, fate was not kind to Hindus in the last millennium. India faced numerous foreign invasions and Hindus were subject to terrible religious persecution in their own homeland, over a period of several centuries. Unlike many other ancient civilizations, Hindu society managed to survive this ordeal, but it was badly bruised and traumatized. Eventually Hindus gained the upper hand militarily (from the 17th century on wards) – but not much sooner than Hindu society shaken off and defeated the challenge of Muslim rule than it was subject to another colonization, which while not as brutal as the first also had far reaching consequences. The forced partition of India and the accompanying massacres concluded the British colonization.

The occasional bout of intolerance and agitation we see from Hindus is the result of Hindu society being sensitive of a living memory of great hardships and persecutions. On some occasions this has caused over reactions when incidents of indiscriminate killing of Hindus occur especially in Godhra and Kandhmahal. This is not to say that Hindu violence should be condoned – certainly it should not. All indiscriminate violence should be condemned equally. But it should be understood in its wider historical setting as an aberration from the historical Hindu behavior pattern, and not used to tarnish the image of Hindu society and Hinduism as a whole, which for the most part continues to be the most inclusive and diverse religious tradition in the world.

Borned on 9th May , we bow down to ‘Communal’ Maharana Pratap , who fought valiantly against tyrant Mughals and also paved way for marathas to master Guerilla warfare and subsequently teach Aurangzeb a good lesson.

Most important of Pratap Singh’s legacy was in the military field – after Haldighati, he increasingly experimented and perfected guerrilla warfare and light horse tactics. His innovative military strategy- use of scorched earth, evacuation of entire populations along potential routes of enemy march, poisoning of wells, use of mountain forts in Aravallis, repeated plunder and devastation of enemy territories along with harassing raids on enemy baggage, communications and supply lines- helped him recapture most of Mewar (except Chittor) by time of his death and enabled him to successfully tackled vastly stronger armies of Akbar. Harassing warfare perfected by Pratap Singh would in due course was adopted by Malik Ambar of Ahmednagar who taught and deployed local Marathas to fight invading Mughal armies, thus preparing them for future warfare against Mughals.

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“Tragedy of India is not wearing Skull Cap defines the political discourse of our country, also the Capability and Integrity of a Leader. ”

Our follower Mahi sharma has this question……….

These caps are the ethnic head gears of the places Modi has visited state wise. It would be prudent on someones part to understand the basic difference. Unlike other politicos he does not make a show of his inclusiveness by wearing caps

ASI renames Shankaracharya hill and Government to auction Kashmiri Pundit houses..OK..Sorry wait we shouldn’t have posted this right- we are already branded communal, dividing society etc etc..Humanity has died in India when its own people are kicked like football and Neighboring Bangaldeshis get Royal treatment..

And icing on the cake is that some one sits in his or her posh Bungalow or abroad and teaches about secularism and liberalism..Bravo.. Bravo.. Flag bearers of sickularism- Shame on you

Social Justice : Questions to Muslims

The present Hindus of India’s have some questions the Muslim Scholars and religious leaders will do well to answer in the interest of communal harmony: 

Question-1. When the Holy Quran was revealed we the Hindus were living thousands of miles away. Pray, what wrong did the Hindus commit that Allah ordained the following in the Holy Quran? 

(a) Surah: 9 Ayat 5: “When the sacred months have passed, slay the idol-worshippers wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them and lie in ambush everywhere for them. If they repent and take to prayer and pay the ‘Jazia’ tax, let them go their way. Allah is forgiving.” 

(b) Surah: 60 Ayat 4: “We renounce you (idolaters). Enmity and hate shall reign between us until you believe in Allah only.”

© Surah: 2 Ayat 193: “Fight against them until idolatry is no more
and Allah’s religion reigns supreme. 

(d) Surah: 9 Ayat 123: “O Ye who believe! Fight those of the 
disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty (unto Him)”. 

(e) Surah: 8 Ayat 12: I shall cast terror into the hearts of infidels. 
Strike off their heads and maim them in every limb.

The above five are merely samples, there are scores and scores of more.

However, if the Muslim religious authorities cannot answer the above question with convincing logic, will they kindly consider the stopping of teaching these and other such Ayats of the Holy Quran to the children reading in the Madarsas in the interest of promoting communal harmony. After all we in India have to live together in love and harmony for the emancipation of our respective communities and glory of our country. Love begets love and hatred begets hatred. Does not the interest of the Motherland demand that the cult of hatred triggered by all such Ayats needs to be 
extinguished. 

Question-2: Could you give us any plausible reason why there is such terrible hatred against “Qufr” and “Qafirs” “Hindus” and “idolators” in Ayats after Ayats of the Holy Quran? If there is no reason for preaching such hatred against those who are innocent and have committed no wrong against Allah or the Prophet would you please consider stopping the teaching of those Ayats to
prevent generating hatred without any reason in the interest of peaceful coexistence of Muslims and non-Muslims in this country?

Question-3. War among human beings is always a despicable thing. Could you please help us to know the factors that go to make Jehad-bil-saif a holy war when it is waged against innocent persons?

We deeply appreciate “Jehad-bil-nafs”, which is a war against one’s own baser instincts; one’s ego.

We also fully appreciate “Jehad-bil-Lasaan”, which is Jehad through lectures, discussions, by word of mouth, but with the proviso that it should not denigrate or insult the belief of non-muslims.

We also appreciate “Jehad-bil-Kalam”, which is Jehad through writings but with the same proviso as in Jehad-bil-Lasaan. 

But Jehad-bil-saif which is done through wars and invasions, and which is generally termed a “JEHAD” will have to be justified by listing the wrongs done by the victims of such Jehad.

Would you care to withdraw the teachings contained in Shariat that encourage Muslims to wage Jehad against innocent persons from the curriculum of all your Madarsas and Maktabs? Would such withdrawal not promote communal amity for all times in our country?

Remember that Sur-e-Maedah in the Holy Quran in Paara-6 Ayat 31 and 32 proclaims that:
“The murder of a single innocent person is the murder of entire
humanity” and “Saving an innocent person’s life is the saving of 
entire humanity”. 

Question-4. From Vivekanand to Gandhi and even till today thousands of Hindu leaders, sages and scholars have been proclaiming consistently that “ALL religions lead to human salvation.” Can you name one Muslim Scholar or Ulema who has stated that “ALL religions lead to human salvation.” If not, then
do you intend to appreciate the distance that the Hindus are prepared to cover to honour your religion as against the absence of it by the Muslims, and rectify the situation in the interest of Hindu-Muslim amity.

We Hindus are prepared to believe the Ulema when it proclaims that islam is a highly scientific religion based on love, truth and compassion for all mankind. In that event there must be some interpretation of all the portions of the Shariat towards
which we have drawn your attention through Questions no.1 to 4, and similar others, that should conform to the above description of the Holy Quran. 

In the interest of long and abiding peace between our communities would you kindly care to put that interpretation in the curriculum of all Madarsas and Maktabs.