INTELLECTUAL FORUM DEMANDS DISMISSAL AND ARREST OF HAJI YAQOOB KURESHI

INDIAN AMERICAN INTELLECTUALS FORUM, INC.
41-67 Judge Street (5P), Elmhurst, N.Y. 11373
Tel: (718) 478-5735, Fax: (718) 271-1906,

PRESS RELEASE

INTELLECTUAL FORUM DEMANDS DISMISSAL AND ARREST OF HAJI YAQOOB KURESHI

Indian American Intellectuals Forum (“IAIF”) expresses outrage at the sensational and provocative statement by a ruling member of India’s largest state government, Utter Pradesh.

The Uttar Pradesh Minority Welfare Minister Haji Yaqoob Qureshi has come out with an extraordinary public offer of awarding a huge bounty of 51 Crore Rupees (over $11 million) to anyone who successfully carries out an illegal and criminal act of murdering -- by the favorite Islamic method of beheading -- the Danish cartoonist credited with preparing the controversial cartoons on Prophet Mohammad.

The Forum also condemns in the harshest possible terms the other prominent Muslim leader and a senior member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Zafaryab Jilani, and another Samajwadi Party MP from Moradabad, Dr Shafiqur Rahman Barq. These two gentlemen, one holding a highly responsible position within a well known Muslim institution and the other an elected member of India’s national parliament, have openly supported Haji Yaqoob’s illegal statement and public offer.

IAIF demands that besides Mr. Qureshi, the other two, Mr. Jilani and Dr. Barq, also should be booked for openly aiding and abetting in the criminal act, and for their irresponsible utterances.

The cartoon crisis, most certainly is a small issue, which has been blown out of proportion by the Jihadi Muslims. It is our firm and sincere belief that cartoons or no cartoons, the Jihadis will continue manufacturing one reason or another to wage Jihad -- an important Islamic religious command -- against the non-believers (Hindus, Budhists, Jains, Sikhs, Christians, Jewish, etc.).

Radical Islamic fanatics who extol the virtue of violence and hatred are determined to establish Sharia (the Islamic Law) all over the world. To achieve their sinister objective, they would indulge in intimidation and murders, on one pretext or the other. In the process, they would gag the voice of reason. They would not allow freedom to their captive followers to know or find out the truth. That is precisely the reason that there is no democracy in Muslim nations.

These fundamentalists believe that by creating a fear psychosis in the mind of masses, they can silence the voice of reason and ultimately impose Nizam-e-Mustafa (Rule of Allah) in all the countries. That is the reason they killed von Ghog, the Dutch filmmaker who questioned the treatment of Muslim women in Islamic countries.

Norwegian publisher of Satanic Verses, William Nygaard, was also shot dead by Islamic fanatics. It is paradoxical that on one hand the radical Islamists insist that Islam happens to be a religion of peace, and on the other hand, they openly warn that if anyone ever questioned their faith, that person would be killed! That is the reason that Islam as the religion is widely seen as being synonymous with Jihad and terrorism.

Islamic fanatics use sophistry and subterfuge in democratic societies. They deny any kind of religious freedom to non-believers in their own countries. They exploit democracy, secularism, liberal laws, human rights and compassion of free societies everywhere. Islam forbids Muslims to assimilate with people of other creeds or civilizations, while at the same time exploiting the freedom and democracy in non-Islamic lands for their own advantage.

Muslims enjoy legal redress in the democratic nations, which they deny to non-believers in their own lands. Life is a constant humiliation and hell for non-Muslims in Islamic nations. The time has come that political parties the world over give up their egregious naiveté and emerge from torpor because religious bigotry cannot be countered by dilettantism.

The reason India is a democratic and secular country is because it is predominantly Hindu. We should not forget that India was divided in 1947 on the basis of two nation theory. Ashok Mehta, a prominent leader of yesteryears, in his book “Muslim Mind” has categorically stated that 92% of Muslims voted for the creation of Pakistan in 1946 elections. Had all the Muslims left India for Pakistan at that time, the Hindus would have lived their lives peacefully in Hindu India. Now the descendants of those Muslims have made the life of Hindus miserable in their own country.

It is a matter of great disgrace and disgust that Hindus are being terrorized by Muslims in the Hindu India. The manner in which rowdy Muslim mobs damaged BJP office in Lucknow, attacked and looted Hindu stores in Hyderabad after the Friday prayer and threatened Hindus in Bangalore, is reminiscent of pre-partition days depredation against Hindus. The astonishing display of political pusillanimity and mal-adroitness on the part of India’s UPA-controlled central government and Samajwadi-controled state government, coupled with the vote bank politics, has emboldened these Jihadis to take out their anger on innocent Hindus because someone insulted Islam in Denmark!

This attitude of disdain, of assumed superiority, irrationality and intolerance, on the part of Muslims against Hindus, is difficult to sustain. At this juncture, India needs leaders with vision, perspicacity, competency and sense of history to be able to handle these demagogues who want to divide India on the communal lines.

Indian American Intellectuals Forum (IAIF) is a New York-based organization. It organizes seminars on the issues affecting Indian-Americans. It invites prominent speakers and publishes their views on-line and in newspapers. Its aim is to strengthen Indo-American relationship.

Narain Kataria

President