Couldn’t help taking a potshot at Islam right..?
UR whole article was wrt some other topic,but u simply got to make a tangential reference to Cat Stevens and from Cat Stevens to Islam.. What gives boss?? What has Islam done to you??

Rgds,
Zenil

What has Islam done to me? You mean other than declaring that I belong to the forces of evil and that my extermination is a religious duty?

and when confronted about this statement, replied:
“Does his conversion to Islam have anything to do with it? Perhaps. As one would say, if the cap fits … What has Islam done to me? You mean other than declaring that I belong to the forces of evil and that my extermination is a religious duty?”

Atanu, this is a funny/ disturbing stance to take… it is like condemning a person for his faith… If you hace something more than your seemingly biasedviews/perceptions to substantiate this, it will help to understant your comments.

My understanding about Cat Stevens is only from this website:
http://www.yusufislam.org.uk/

Not that it makes any difference to you Antanu,u r such a smart cookie,u got it all figured out,right??. I ask u again,what gives antanu??Why are u so fucking prejuidiced(and probably phobic),anything I say is not going to change ur stance..

BTW,rest assured ,nobodys coming to exterminate you…:)-.Take it from a guy who “wears a skull cap with an arabic-beard and arabic-named wives with 14 children living in a slum..”..whew!!!

Rgds,
Zenil

Your comments suggest that you don’t know much about the history of India – particularly Bengal. There is more than a 50% chance that Atanu’s parents/grandparents were driven out of East Bengal by muslims. A bias against muslims is therefore not unusual in Hindu Bengalis.

To learn more about what happened to Hindus in Bangladesh in 1971 and what continues to happen to Hindus and Buddists in Bangladesh and other muslim countries just go to your nearest public library. Do I have a bias against a religion that converts timid people into murderers? Yes!!!

BB

Lakshmi, please do re-read what I wrote. I did not condemn Cat Stevens because he is a Muslim. I wrote that he advocated murder after he converted. It was his attitude that I did not approve of, not his conversion. Then comes my explanation: that his conversion to Islam had something to do with his change. From a person who wrote beautiful songs, he became a person who was quite the opposite.

I think you fundamentally misunderstand my argument. It has very little to do with Yusuf Islam; it has to do with Islam. So your reading of Yusuf Islam’s website will not help much. You have to read about Islam. Try http://www.faithfreedom.org, for instance. Read Anwar Sheikh and Ali Sina. You would really make a difference to those sites if you could refute their claims and their arguments.

Finally, a followup to what BB wrote. He is remarkably accurate. My ancestors are originally from the Khulna District of what used to be East Bengal. In the 1930s, being Bengali Hindus, fearing for their lives they had to flee westwards. They left with what they were wearing. The extermination of Hindus goes on even now. See http://www.mayerdak.com for details.

BB is right. One cannot but be biased against a creed that has personally affected one’s well-being. Will a Jew whose ancestors were killed in Germany have a soft-corner for Naziism?

I have no problems with peope being biased in their views,u grow up in a community,ur parents,ur friends,teachers all influence ur thoughts. I am as biased as the next guy.I got my own prejudices no doubt.But my education,my readings and the ideas and thoughts that I get from my readings,are supposed to reason with my prejudices. Atanu is too educated and learned to make the kind of statements he make.What is prejudice? A feeling of hatred/dislike/assumptions/presumptions against something/someone without rhyme or reason.[Not the dictionary definition,but i am sure it will come pretty close] .Atanu is prejudiced ,not just against Bengali Muslims or Pakistanis or Arabs..,he’s prejudiced against ALL muslims and the very religion of Islam.He ridicules not just people who has (supposedly) wronged him,but everyone who believes in that Faith. I get from his statements(and I am pretty sure) that he make’s no distinction between Indian,Pakistani,Arab muslims.All belong to Islam and therefore all are part of the worlwide terrorist network.[that attitude is the one that gets my goat,i dont identify myself with the bearded,gun-wielding mullah as much as any other antanu or banerjee]

contd..

When u have time..http://www.freemuslims.org/issues/
http://www.zackvision.com/weblog/archives/entry/001023.html
http://india_resource.tripod.com/Muslims.html

Very nice blog and congrats on Indiblog!

Cat Stevens and Islam is the more interesting topic – but enough has been written – so I’ll pass on that!

I had travelled for a couple of years in Mumbai Locals around 8-9 years ago – and I had found them to be so overcrowded that I used to think, how they will handle any additional crowd! I do not know what changes have been done (they had introduced some Locals with 12 coaches at that time) since then but it is amazing that people can still travel in Mumbai Locals! Sometimes I think, it is more like ‘Swadesh’ story everywhere in India – everyone is ready to live without electricity (or overcrowded trains!) – notable exception I found is in Delhi Metro – amamzing stuff!! I wish there are more E.Sreedharans to make that happen.

“Muslims are not a homogenous community, differences b/w muslims exist ,dont see muslims as one huge bloc,we have a country,a region,a language just like others”

I fully agree with Zenil on it – I have never had any problem with any Muslim that I have come to know in personal life – be it in my neighbourhood or college or work. But what happens at a macro level affects the thinking (not correctly) and we, as a country or society, need to find solutions to that. And I’m sure even Muslims, say living in India, need to understand that and work/act accordingly!

“We need people to see that muslims are a disadvantaged community(for whatever reasons) and given a chance they can rise and be part of the national mainstream.”

I agree with this part also – but a lot more needs to be done within the community before being able to use the ‘chance’ – specially in the field of education, population control and strngthen the moderate part of the religion!

Pretty much like doing a thesis work before being called a doctor of something (surprisingly or not so, a PhD is a doctor of philosophy of/in the subject and to gain or create a philosophy about a subject requires time and experiencing it).

I remember reading an article about IDEO (www.ideo.com) asking their clients AT&T to use their own product (I think it was Mmode) to find some common stuff, and they found it so difficult to do so. They remodelled the whole thing and it was a hit (or so I read).

The same thing will work for the MPs/MLAs and the like.

Any state run on the basis of intelligence, innovation and insight would succeed more than a state which has no clue where it is going or trying to make sure that you have no clue where you’re being taken.

Why do we call it a democracy if we cannot establish these things and __demand__ that each and every individual who wishes to lead any group of human beings, must adhere to this?

One night he said that he visits India once a year, which reminds him of how fortunate he is. He said “On my last trip to India I saw a dog puke in the street and beggars fought to eat it.”

Hard to forget that image.

I know that India has lots of dirt poor people but believe you me that they are not animals as made out by Tony’s comment. Among the poor, there is a surprising amount of sharing and caring, often more than what one finds among the rich. It has to be otherwise they will not survive.