…of Love and Love jihad

A: I hate readiing newspapers,but these days,I can’t take my head out of it..Its all so exciting news..

Me: Uh,what is it so exciting..All I read is about Maoists,VS,and lot of accidents,I don’t find them exciting.

A: Didn’t you read about Love Jihad?

Me: What is that?

A: It is an organisation that aims at converting girls through love  marriage is functioning in Kerala. Hundreds of girls have been converted by this organisation through this strategy.This organisation makes use of groups of boys belonging to a particular religious faith. They are taught how to lure girls coming from different religious persuasions. They have been ordered to leave those girls who do not fall into their “love trap” within two weeks. Further, the organisation orders their followers to marry them within a short period of six month and to have at least four childrenThe “Love Jihad” organisation provides their members with mobile phones, motor cycles, good clothing, etc. for more effective allurment of girls.

Me: What the heck…Are Hindu /Christian girls,and in this case educated ones in particular,so gullible that anybody who pass by can trap them using mobile phones and battas?

A: That’s not it in complete.Various organisations have started campaging against this Love Jihad.Didn’t you read that The Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Conference (KCBC), the umbrella organisation of all the bishops of the Catholic rites of Kerala, has started awareness campaigns to teach Christian girls and parents about the dangers of the “holy war of love” by certain Islamic groups. The council asks the parents to be on the alert at all times about the responses of their daughters, so that the danger of their falling into the Love Jehad trap could be avoided.Both Hindu and Christian girls are falling prey to the design. So we are cooperating with the VHP on tackling this. We will work together to whatever extent possible.“

Me : But…

A : Wait,let me complete..Pramod Muthalik,the whole sale protector  of Hindu culture has said that Sri Ram Sena has,  braced itself to protect this country and their sisters and would soon start nation-wide agitations against this issue. Sri Ram Sena will, however, not take law in its hand; but if the Government prefers to ignore them, they will have no option but to follow the same path as done in ‘pub’ issue in Karnataka.

Me : OhI know how they handled the pub issue..

A: They say that more than 4000 girls have been converted this way..

Me :What is the source?

A :Don’t ask unnecessary questions you silly girl..

Me :

A: So that you may know,Shri Rama Sene will launch a nation-wide `Save our daughters, save India’ campaign, beginning in Karnataka, against `love jihad’.

Me :Ha ha,I am glad that atleast some people are working towards the progressivness of Hindu and Christian girls..It is sad  that muslim girls are doomed and have nobody to help them when they marry out of caste..Ok,now stop overloading me with news bits ,and tell me in detail what this drama of love is all about.

A :Ok,I ‘ll explain..It all started with a love story of Silja Raj (23), a civil engineering graduate,who ran away with Ashkar,a taxi driver.She married him and later converted to Islam.Relatives enter the scene,they file complaint aginst Ashkar for kidnapping their daughter,the court intervenes,Silja says that the two were in love and that she came to him on her own and that she doesn’t want to go with her parents.But strangely,the court  asked the Karnataka DGP and IG to conduct investigation into the matter (including any role of ‘love jihad’) and to submit a report by November 13. The girl was asked to stay with her parents till that time.

Me: Hey hey,whatz that?She is 23,legally an adult..Then how can the court make an order infringing a human’s basic freedom and right to choose what she feels is right..

A : So? this world is  load of hypocrites..Feminists and others champions of human rights rant and shout about freedom of expression,freedom of choice bla bla bla..Where were they when this happened..I am sure atleast a majority would  not have missed this news.And moreover,we hear about Talibans and Talibanization of India etc etc etc every now and then. Tell me,how does it differ from a Taliban in this particular case?

Me :Thatz not true..The PUCL will question the decision of the High Court to send the woman of 23 back to her family despite her statement in court that she had willingly converted and was waiting to get married under the provisions of the Special Marriages Act.Reacting to the order, senior advocate Ravi Varma Kumar said that it violated Article 21 (of life and personal liberty) and Article 25 (of freedom of religion) of the Indian Constitution. He cited Lata Singh vs. State of Uttar Pradesh, 2006, in which the Supreme Court upheld the right of a person who had reached the age of majority to marry of his or her own choice..Also,Kirti Singh, a Supreme Court advocate and legal convener of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), described the case as “absolutely shocking”. She said the question of national security was being mixed up with the simple case of a girl exercising a choice guaranteed to her under the law of the land and Constitution. “The court has taken a patriarchal role,” she said, stating that it reflected intolerance for the girl’s choices.

 A: Duh,so what?Are you not a human being with common sense ? The Kerala high court had ordered probe over this matter.No organisation or movement in the name of ‘Love Jihad’ or ‘Romeo Jihad’ is functioning in Kerala, says the report submitted by Jacob Punnoose, Director General of Police, in the Kerala High Court yesterday. The report adds that no evidence has been found regarding the functioning of any such organisation dealing with forced conversion in the state..

Me: Ok,but the court is not really comfortable with that report..Let me add that like the Kerala police, the Dakshina Kannada police has also clarified that the rumour is baseless in the face of facts. The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) claims that 3,000 Hindu girls are “missing” in Dakshina Kannada and 30,000 in the rest of the state. The police have clarified that till the end of September 2009, there were reports of 404 missing girls of whom the police had traced 332. By end October, only 57 women were still missing. Furthermore, the police have clarified that where women were missing because they had eloped, there were many cases of non-Hindus as well as Hindus eloping with Hindus.

The Dakshina Kannada police also explained that in one particular case, that of a 22-year-old girl who had been missing since June and who was rumoured to have fallen victim to this so-called “Love Jehad”, in fact, she had been murdered by a Hindu man, a serial killer who confessed to his crime.

A : Fine,let the second report come.Shall we not give them ,the muslim community atleast the margin of doubt until they are all proved jihadists and terrorists?

Me :Yes,I agree..Honestly speaking,I have no idea why is this an issue all of a sudden.And moreover,I find it very offenvive when somebody says that its easy to lure me with mobile phones and motor bikes.And moreover,who are these bishops and Sanghis to teach me how to love or love my life.How can they talk about something they have no idea about? And moreover,such is the credibility of these people..In Kerala, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s mouthpiece, Janmabhumi, sacked a woman journalist who got married to a Christian and converted. They claimed they could not employ a convert because they were against conversions.

A :

Me : Also,It is well known that atheists promote intercaste marriages openly and there is an association for them. Why isn’t VHP and Churcand h not taking care of those women ? Or is it that they are only bothered about women who run away with muslim men? Double standards uh?

A :

Me :All I have to say is,please do not mix simple human love and complicated religion.. ***sigh***

P.s: I am tired of reading Love Jihad related articles and blogposts…

I am really sorry for not replying to your comments..I am online after many many days..don’t ask me why..as there is somebody around this computer engineer,who don’t like meyself using computer.. Life is strange..JFs are a load of BS..Don’t ask me to elaborate..

Proposed Kerala Muslim Marriage bill-A great step towards a noble cause

In a progressive and bold step towards the reform of Muslim Personal Law, the Kerala Law Reforms Commission has drafted a bill which will curb and check the practices of polygamy and divorce through Talaq among Muslims in the state.

 

 

Essentially neither is it a bill with radical stand nor is it revolutionary in terms of its features. In fact almost all of its features are there in the Shariah law. For instance it doesn’t ban polygamy nor does it ban the concept of talaq among Muslims. The only thing that it does that it tries to regulate the indiscreet marriages and divorces in the community.

 

 

One has to understand that the legal issues related to Muslim personal laws like that of divorce, marriage, inheritance are usually dealt with by the respective Shariah bodies. There is no mechanism in Shariah framework (as it is being practically implemented in India) where the people who violate the Shariah laws are held accountable to their misdeeds and punitive measures are applied to them.So if a person remarries or misuses the provision of talaq he can and in most of the cases, he does easily get away with this because there is no effective mechanism in the existing Shariah based Muslim Personal Law Board which could ensure that he is punished as per the existing punitive measures available in the Shariah.

 

 

The Indian Constitution doesn’t provide the organizations like Muslim Personal Law Board (who claim to have the exclusive rights of representation of personal law related issues of Indian Muslims) legal legitimacy. So this Bill seeks to address the implementation of the punitive aspect in the cases of all the discreet remarriage and divorces

 

 

The draft Bill titled “The Kerala Muslim Marriage and Dissolution by Talaq (Regulation) Bill” seeks to legislate that ‘monogamy shall be the rule’ and that ‘marrying again during the lifetime of husband or wife is an offence.’ However, the proposed Bill provides for remarriage by husband in exceptional cases “with the (wife’s) consent in writing before a notary public or a judicial officer expressing her consent to the second marriage and briefly giving her reasons for the consent.”

 

 

The Law Reforms Commission’s proposed law aims to “declare that, among the Muslims in Kerala, monogamy is the general rule and polygamy a just exception, permissible only in socially exceptional circumstances and that also subject to compassionate conditions, and to provide further that divorce by talaq can be effected only subject to special conditions.” It wants that “if any married Muslim, man or woman, marries again during the subsistence of the first marriage, the party who violates shall be guilty of bigamy under the Indian Penal Code and punishable as such.”

 

 

The proposed law makes it mandatory that all Muslim marriages and divorces be registered with the local registrar of marriages. The most important provision in the proposed law is the constitution of a ‘conciliation council,’ to be set up in each district, to regulate Muslim remarriages and divorces. The council, to be set up by the State government, will have a retired district judge or magistrate from the Muslim community as its head.

 

 

The man, permitted to take a second wife, “shall be liable to provide reasonable accommodation and privacy as well as just alimony or maintenance sufficient for the wife to sustain herself in reasonable comfort.”The proposed law also says that marriage of Muslim shall be contract. It also says that “the female spouse shall be entitled to divorce only through court or with the approval of the conciliation council on grounds of irretrievable breakdown irreparable by conciliation

 

 

It has sought a variety of responses from the Muslim community be it the common masses or its intellectual class. Moreover it has created a debate in the community to ponder over the effects of polygamy and talaq on the community.

 

 

The bill has sought positive responses almost from all the women’s activists across the religious, political and ideological divides. They have been pitching for the bill and mobilizing forces to pressurize the government to legislate the bill.

 

 

According to Febeena Seethi, the president of Kerala Women’s Front, polygamy is a double edged sword in the sense that it can be useful but it can also be a way to exploit women. Usually it becomes a way of exploitation of women where their lives are made miserable because of it. “There should be a women and a religious scholar in the conciliation councils.” She explained that the representation of women and a religious scholar is very important. The religious scholar will help in avoiding any kind of controversy and the woman member will .

 

 

A big section of all the people who support the Bill feel that it is high time that reform must happen in the Muslim Shariah law or Muslim Personal Law. So their support of the bill can be seen as motivated by an effort to bring about some kind of balance between the Shariah laws and changed circumstances of the modern times. Likewise Dr. Feebina also expressed an urgent need for the reforms in the Muslim Personal Laws.Finally she pointed out that it has been experienced that legislations alone have never been sufficient to control some practice or any person. For instance – dowry. Since the first legislation on Dowry many more laws have been made but only to increase the number of dowry cases.

 

 

The misuse of Talaq and polygamy can only be stopped with a change in the attitude of men and for this we need a war like campaigning against the both practices by every medium and every suitable platform. Dr. Seethi also pointed out that almost every woman’s organization has supported the bill.As far as most of the Muslim organizations are concerned they favor the bill in some cases with few suggestions and concerns to be addressed and included in the bill. So to a large extent there is no opposition to the Bill, in fact he went on to the extent of saying people have hardly opposed the bill on religious grounds at least. The reason is that today most of the progressive organizations want the reform in the Shariah Laws.

 

There hasn’t been any strong opposition to the bill as such except by few orthodox Muslim organizations like Samastha Kerala Jamiatul Ulama and Kerala Jamiatul Ulama. Both these organizations are completely rejecting the Bill. They have termed it as interference in the Shariah Laws by the secular Indian law.But their opposition also is complicated by the fact that their office bearers and some leaders have supported the Bill individually. In their religious lectures these people have accepted the problems created by the polygamy and expressed the need for the law to check those problems as pointed out by Mr. M Ebrahim of the Madhyamam daily.

 

 

As far as the coverage of this issue by the mainstream media in Kerala is concerned, Mr. Shareef refers to a very dangerous precedent; which is to sensationalize and controversialize every issue related to Muslims even if the issue is very simple.

 

So in spite of the fact there hasn’t been a strong opposition to the Bill by the Muslims in the state except few orthodox organization, instead of highlighting the moderate voices media is trying to pick up the few voices of opposition to the Bill and portray the whole community as backward and non-progressive.

 

 

People in the Sunni Cultural Centre pointed out that the main reason for the opposition by A.P. Aboobaker Musliar (yeah,the same old guy whom we discussed here) is the fact that for them the bill seems to be an attempt to encroach and “interfere” in the area which otherwise has been the exclusive domain of the Muslim religious bodies like All India Muslim Personal Law Board.They accept that there should be reforms in the Shariah laws but that reform should be initiated from within the Shariah law and by people in who are expert in the Shariah laws: because they want the reforms to be essentially within the framework of Islamic Shariah.

 

 

A very interesting answer to the argument of the Shariah bodies lies in the fact that in several Muslim countries triple talaq has been banned or restricted.

 

 

And what the Muslim women’s rights and progressive sections of the community like Dr. Feebina Seethi say is that the Muslim bodies on the Shariah laws have been hearing the calls for reforms since a very long time but they haven’t yet come up with any kinds of plan and strategy for the reforms in the Shariah laws which is actually one of the most important demands of the modern times.So when there is no hope of reform from within the clergy fraternity then the bill represents a saner and sensible attempt to bring about that reform.

 

Resources:

http://www.twocircles.net/

http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=630467

 

 

 

P.S

 

I didn’t write this article..I just gathered information from different sources,from links provided.All I intend is to spread the word..Thanks for reading and Good day to o all..

 

How do I make his beard catch fire?

This is a waste post and if you are busy,please don’t waste your time reading this..

 

Yesterday,I watched a report on TV ,regarding muslim women’s condition-especially in northern kerala ,nicknamed as ‘Malabar’…To keep my holy rant short,I heard a ‘powerful Sunni cleric’ AP Kanthapuram Abubaker Musliyar ranting something very ‘interesting’..When asked by the journalist,regarding polygamy in Islam,my retina and ear drums blasted out watching his ignorance and arrogance parade..He says,men can do polygamy because women will be ‘out of service’ during 7-10 or even 15 days during a month and that is a very good reason for men to get another wife so that he needn’t go to a prostitute..What the hell…I pinched myself to make sure I was not dreaming.Then I looked into calender and made sure that time machine didn’t take me centuries back,in a matter of few minutes..It  was 5/11/08 and  10.15 pm and I am watching this’holy’ man’s rant in a worldwide telecasted news channel…What time has come oh Lord..

 

I pray his white long beard cathes fire and his turban is freezed to -423423 celsius and he be made to sit on hot plate with 32356 celsius temperature ,until he apologize to all women out  here for having made such an ‘holy’ comment..I wonder how many wives does he have and I wonder what will he do if all his wives get periods on same day..yuck yuck yuck.What is disgusting piece of creation Lord has made..Oh yeah,I am not a great person.But atleast I don’t vomit such crap.I am so angry .I know I am overreacting,but I can’t get over it until or unless I shout at him ths way..

Kerala tops primary education index

Kerala is ranked No. 1 among the 21 major states (large in geographical area) in the latest composite Education Development Index (EDI) prepared for the primary and upper primary levels of schooling for 2006-07.

 

The report on the EDI was prepared by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) based on the District Information System for Education (DISE), a comprehensive database on elementary education in India, which is had created in recent years.

“The indicators used in computing the EDI included access, infrastructure, teachers and outcome. In the broader sense, we had used 23 indices like number of schools per 1000 child population, average student-classroom ratio, pupil-teacher ratio, gross enrolment ratio and gender parity index,” a source in NUEPA said.

 

The NUEPA has suggested that all the States including the top ranking states should analyse all the indicators used in EDI computation district-wise, and within a district, block-wise and follow it up by adopting appropriate strategies without which neither their overall ranking nor status of universal elementary education in the state are expected to improve.

 

Proud Keralite

Onam-the festival of flowers,happiness,and ofcourse great food ;-)

Onam is the national festival of my homeland-Kerala,India.I have always wondered how come Onam is a ‘national’ festival,when it is celebrated us,malayalees alone????hmm..Let all people out there celebrate Onam,which has no strings of religion or caste or colour attached to it..Read more on Onam.

 

Though Onam is the day on which the good old king of ours,Mahabali,is supposed to visit every home and see for himself if we all are in content and peace.To me,Onam is an occassion of having lot of fun with flowers,having contests on flower carpets-Pookkalam,wearing traditional Kerala Saree,having Sadhya and lot lot more…While in college we have lot of games ..where all of us would cheer for our respective teams..I was the expert to peep into others pookalams while we made our own ,during the contest..lol..Gone are those days..gone for ever..

 

We would make pookalams in my home almost all ten days,starting from Atham.Me and my mother would make lot of dishes and all of us,all our helpers,my grand mom,everybody would have lunch together on banan leaf..Being an NRI,Onam is nothing but watching lot of movies in channels and drooling while flim stars had their online lunch..lol..It is boring to prepare all those dishes and eat among two people..

 

I wish Onam reminds all of us,the good old days during our King Mahabali,and have a look into our own lives in regard to the song we learned since childhood..

When Maveli, our King, ruled the land,

All the people had equality.

And people were joyful and merry;

They were all free from harm.

There was neither anxiety nor sickness,

Death of the children was never even heard of,

There were no lies,

There was neither theft nor deceit,

And no one was false in speech either.

Measures and weights were right;

No one cheated or wronged his neighbor.

When Maveli, our King, ruled the land,

All the people formed one casteless race

 

 

Happy Onam to all..God bless..

 

 

P.S :None of the images belong to me,but to the respective links provided..