Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Non-Muslims in India have no human rights, media thinks.


Indians are mindful of how politicians - unconstitutionally - pander to demands of adherents - section of maulvis - of the religion of peace; one example is even reversing High court order for construction of mosques illegally with state money in Delhi state (here and here). And the problem is much deeper.

Lately, even media started selectively censoring news that shows Islam, its doctrines and its adherents in unfavorable colors. When media was reporting on Deganga violence perpetuated by some extremist elements in Muslim community, it never mentioned criminals by their religion. At times, it chooses to ignore the whole incident like NDTV ignoring the whole Deganga episode.

In November, police in J & K arrested a Christian pastor CM Khanna because he was proselytizing and propagating Christianity ( a constitutional right ) and 7 Muslims for converting to Christianity. Only Zee news reported this (here).

The same report also mentions sharia courts (courts to enforce Islamic law i.e. Sharia law), undoubtedly unconstitutional and inhuman, calling the shots. In the whole report, criticism of or showing concern about existence of sharia courts in the state is simply non-existent. And this is not all.

Later, when pastor wanted to apply for bail, the bar association in Srinagar has threatened to debar lawyers from practice if they represented the pastor in the court (here). This is reminiscent of incident of lawyers in Pakistan showering rose petals on the killer of Punjab Governor (here)  - Salman Taseer - which was also reported in our media too. But, media choose not to report what is taking place in our country, for some enlightened reasons!

Considering that people like me are labelled as Islamaphobes for writing that Islam prohibits proselytizing by other religions and also awards death penalty to those Muslims leaving Islam, now, should some one say that bar association is also suffering from Islamaphobia?

To know Islamic law on freedom of religion, read chapter 8 and chapter 11 from 'reliance of traveller' - English translation of Sharia law book -  which is also certified to be authentic and accurate by none other than Al-Azhar University, the highest Islamic institute in Sunni Islam (here).

In the end, by failing to report and criticize the existence of Sharia courts in India media simply upheld Sharia law which treats Non-Muslims as fourth class citizens.

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