Contradictions in Ummah 
By V.P. Goyal, New Delhi

Instead of publishing caricatures of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, would it not have been more appropriate to depict him in the fullness of life, which he believed in and which he propagated? He was strongly opposed to celibacy and exhorted even holy men to lead a life of marital bliss. According to hadith 3238 (page 849), Sahi Muslim Vol.II, by Imam Muslim, translated into English by Abdul Hamid Siddiqi, he went to the extent of asking men who sought permission to remain celibate to get themselves castrated . He himself set an example by marrying eleven times beginning with lady Khadija and ending with Maimunah, according to the Dictionary of Islam by Patrick Hughes, published London, 1885, pages 380 and 671.

Gandhiji sang Ishwar Allah tero naam. He also asserted that Ram and Rahim were the same. However, a momin or a pious Muslim would feel offended and protest against these assertions because for him Allah is the only God and there can be no possible alternative. For the momin, humanity is divided into Muslims and Kafirs, into believers and infidels. Kafirs are not allowed to set foot on the soil of Mecca and Medina. The world was also divided between darul Islam and darul Harb. History also has two clear compartments. Pre-Islamic times were dismissed as yom-e-roshni (days of ignorance) and thereafter yom-e-jahilya, (or times of enlightenment). The refusal to consider any divine other than Allah enjoined the momin to destroy any alternative object of worship. Which explains why the Buddha statues at Bamiyan were blown up a few years ago. Because of their exceptional fame, this act of iconoclasm attracted world attention. Other desecrations take place without publicity.

Over 400 temples have been destroyed across the Indian subcontinent during the last five decades. The score in Bangladesh has been 232, in Indian Kashmir 116 and Pakistan 57. A detailed list is available in a volume called Hindu Masjids published by Contemporary Targett, 2003. Medieval iconoclasm in India has been recorded in considerable detail by Muslim chroniclers. Based on these, the best known compilation is by the late Sita Ram Goel. In medieval times, it was customary to bury the splintered idols below the entrance of a masjid. According to no other than Vincent A. Smith, the author of The Oxford History of India, 1919, 'The richly jewelled idols taken from the pagan temples (Mathura) were transferred to Agra and there placed beneath the steps leading to the Nawab Begum Sahib's mosque, in order that they might ever be pressed under foot by the true believers'.

The controversy which has recently acquired public attention is with regard to the paintings by M.F. Husain. The popular painter has painted Hindu deities in a disgraceful and perverse light. The example that stands out is that of Goddess Durga copulating with her lion. Another one shows Sita masturbating on the tail of Hanuman. Yet another painting shows Parvati in sexual union with the Nandi bull. Unfortunately, Husain makes his message clear by painting Muslim women, whether lady Fatima, his mother or daughter, fully clad.

Seen in this background the protests by masses of Muslims stretching from Denmark in the west to many a country like Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and going on to Indonesia in the east, appear to be extraordinarily contradictory. The protests smack of double standards.

About a month before he died, a scholar, Agha Iqbal Mirza, did admit that when a Muslim talks about peace, he means harmony amongst the followers of Prophet Muhammad. The implicit aspiration was that a great many of the kafirs would go over to Islam whereafter the promised peace would be universal. There is no doubt that Islam has taken enormous demographic strides and today over 20 percent of humanity is Muslim. However, there is still a long way to go before the admirers of Osama bin Laden would be ready to promote peace on earth. Until then the world must remain divided between momins and kafirs Double standards would be the order of the day. Jehad will continue so long as the lamp of piety that inspires Islam continues to be alit.

The greater pity is that the double standards are not confined to the ulema and their followers but extend to a number of others. The Hindu elite is gifted with such crypto Muslims who justify virtually anything that the ulema say and do and begin to condemn no sooner than the word Hindu is spoken. Eminent historian Romila Thapar wrote the following: Mahmud of Ghazni is primarily associated as the despoiler of temples and the breaker of idols. Little attempt is made to search for further explanations regarding Mahmud's behaviour. In Prof. Gargi Chakravartty there is another historian who justified Temur Lang's barbarism by claiming that he was more cruel in Central Asia on its Muslim population than what he did in India. At a later period, she goes on, plunderers like Nadirshah and Ahmedshah Abdali massacred Muslims as well. According to Prof. Bipin Chandra, Rana Pratap, Shivaji and Guru Gobind Singh, have done as much to undermine secularism and national integration as any other ideological factor. These hero-myths proved the case for the two nation theory.

Mughal Connection of Nehru Dynasty
By Roopa Kaushal, New Delhi

Some years ago, a learned journalist expressed a serious doubt about the Kashmiri Brahmin (Kaul) origin of Jawaharlal's Nehru dynasty. He revealed that, on her official visit to Afghanistan, as India's Prime Minister, in 1968, Mrs Indira Nehru-Gandhi took an unscheduled and unusual trip to the almost forgotten grave of Babar in a remote corner of Kabul. Babar is well known as an invader and founder of the Mughal dynasty in India. Mr. Natwar Singh, UPA government's Foreign Minister till recently, had accompanied her as an officer on special duty. She bowed her head before Babar's grave and silently prayed for his soul for a few minutes. Natwar Singh was standing behind. On turning back, she spoke to him,�Today I had my brush with history.� The question arises,�How was Indira Nehru-Gandhi or the Nehru dynasty related to Babar? Is it that the Nehru dynasty is a branch of Babar's Mughal dynasty?

In his autobiograpy, Jawaharlal Nehru states that he had seen a small painting of his grandfather, Gangadhar, in which he wore a �Mughal court dress with a curved sword, although his features are distinctly Kashmiri�. Couldn't he be a real Mughal, who alongwith his family managed to escape Delhi during the uprising of 1857, with an assumed name of Gangadhar and posing as a Kashmiri Brahmin.

This is to request your learned readers to let me know, if they have, any positive evidence, prior to 3rd July, 1910, in support of or against the Brahmin origin of the Nehru dynasty, at e-mail address, shivguptak@yahoo.com