Prove your innocence if you are a Muslim By Shahidur Rashid Talukdar Altogether the instant reaction to the Norway

y incident, without any pursuance of proof or evidence, was that Muslim terror must be responsible for the attack. O nce again, it has been proven that not all terrorists are Muslims Prove your innocence if you are a Muslim, because the media and the police belie ve Muslims are guilty by default. Terror intimidates Muslims more than anyone else on earth. After any terrorist a ctivity, inside their houses, Muslims try to put fingers into their ears so as n ot to hear the phrase: another act of Muslim terror. Outside, in non-Muslim countr ies, they avoid eye-contact with others to avoid giving possible explanations th at it need not be an act of Muslim terror or I was not a part of it. For any terror attack anywhere, Muslims everywhere have to hang their heads in shame. Muslims are the first suspects in almost all cases of violence the world over. T he media usually has credible sources and bigot analysts to hatch theories against Muslims and the police has informers and matrix of terror links with names of Mus lim youths inscribed as terrorists-in-line. Thus investigation, forensic analysi s and fact finding all have become irrelevant. The new logic of both the media a nd the police is to blame Muslims first, and investigate later. Moments after the horrific Norway bomb blast that killed seven people on July 22 , followed by the massacre of 85 teenagers, speculations started regarding the p ossible culprits. Renowned media group, the BBC considered objective started spe culating on the following night that the Islamist group al Qaeda could be behind the attacks, although the next morning they had to change their tone in front o f the evidence. As The Sun labelled the attacks as Norways 9/11, The Guardian was n ot behind in their suspicion and analysis of jihadists role in the bloody episode . The American medias reaction was not different either. Fox News OReilly Factor not on ly suspected the Norway killing spree as another incident of Islamic terror, the guest host Laura Ingraham even attempted to link it with the atrocious 9/11 tha t happened in the US a decade ago by reminding the audience about the Ground Zer o mosque to be built in Manhattan. No doubt she would succeed in her effort to m ultiply the right-wing American hatred against the Muslims and Islam. Blaming the jihadists, the Wall Street Journal reported, Norway is targeted for b eing true to western norms. Meanwhile, on The Washington Posts website, Jennifer R ubin wrote, This is a sobering reminder for those who think it is too expensive t o wage a war against jihadists. Altogether the instant reaction to the incident, without any pursuance of proof or evidence, was that Muslim terror must be respo nsible for the attack. However, within a day the whole story had to be changed, as the right-wing Chris tian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, with a background of hating Muslims and l iberals, claimed responsibility for the attacks, exposing media bigotry to malig n Islams image. Once again, it has been proven that not all terrorists are Muslim s. The same thing happens everywhere. Minutes after the Mumbai blasts on July 13, t he Indian TV channels propagated the theory that Indian Mujahedeen (IM), deemed to be an Indian Muslim extremist group, could be behind the blast, although secu rity agencies and the police took hours before adopting the hypothesis solely on the basis of spurious previous trends. Based on their guesswork, the Mumbai pol ice, as usual, detained several Muslims for questioning. One of those detained F

aiz Usmani died while in police custody on July 17, sparking allegations of poli ce brutality. It has been more than a week, yet the investigating agencies have found no evide nce to support their claims against the IM nor those detained. The tameness of t he media and police administration reflects that Muslims have been harassed, som e Muslims have been detained, and one of them got killed (all without any eviden ce). So what? Does it really matter? The Muslims are presumed guilty, by the unw ritten rule, until proven innocent. This trend is not new. In the past, although there have been occasions in which Muslim groups have been found linked with terrorist activities, extremist Hindut va terrorists have also been proven to have carried out half a dozen attacks in India, such as bomb blasts in Samjhauta Express, Makkah Masjid, Ajmer Sharif in (2007), and Malegaon (2008) the list goes on. When the right-wing Hindutva group s are known to have established links with the Indian military and intelligence agencies to carry out terrorist activities, yet raising fingers against them is an anathema. The level of hypocrisy in the attitude of the police and the media is conspicuou s. If a Muslim commits an act of terror, it is a terror plot but if a non-Muslim does, it is just an act of violence. If a Muslim is suspected in a terror act, he is an Islamic terrorist while a proven non-Muslim figure behind terror activiti es is merely an accused. If this is how peoples sentiments against Muslims are aroused, how can the 1.5 bi llion Muslims live in peace with others and what message are we giving to the yo unger and future generations? The writer is a PhD student in Economics at Texas Tech University, USA. Source: The Daily Times, Lahore URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamMuslimsAndIslamophobia_1.aspx?Article ID=5140

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COMMENTS 7/29/2011 12:22:11 PM Ghulam Mohiyuddin Mr. Talukdar speaks the truth. Media reporters and police officers seem to forge t their fundamental duty to be objective and unbiased in their search for answer s.

By Shahidur Rashid Talukdar Altogether the instant reaction to the Norway incident, without any pursuance of proof or evidence, was that Muslim terror must be responsible for the attack. O nce again, it has been proven that not all terrorists are Muslims

Prove your innocence if you are a Muslim, because the media and the police belie ve Muslims are guilty by default. Terror intimidates Muslims more than anyone else on earth. After any terrorist a ctivity, inside their houses, Muslims try to put fingers into their ears so as n ot to hear the phrase: another act of Muslim terror. Outside, in non-Muslim countr ies, they avoid eye-contact with others to avoid giving possible explanations th at it need not be an act of Muslim terror or I was not a part of it. For any terror attack anywhere, Muslims everywhere have to hang their heads in shame. Muslims are the first suspects in almost all cases of violence the world over. T he media usually has credible sources and bigot analysts to hatch theories against Muslims and the police has informers and matrix of terror links with names of Mus lim youths inscribed as terrorists-in-line. Thus investigation, forensic analysi s and fact finding all have become irrelevant. The new logic of both the media a nd the police is to blame Muslims first, and investigate later. Moments after the horrific Norway bomb blast that killed seven people on July 22 , followed by the massacre of 85 teenagers, speculations started regarding the p ossible culprits. Renowned media group, the BBC considered objective started spe culating on the following night that the Islamist group al Qaeda could be behind the attacks, although the next morning they had to change their tone in front o f the evidence. As The Sun labelled the attacks as Norways 9/11, The Guardian was n ot behind in their suspicion and analysis of jihadists role in the bloody episode . The American medias reaction was not different either. Fox News OReilly Factor not on ly suspected the Norway killing spree as another incident of Islamic terror, the guest host Laura Ingraham even attempted to link it with the atrocious 9/11 tha t happened in the US a decade ago by reminding the audience about the Ground Zer o mosque to be built in Manhattan. No doubt she would succeed in her effort to m ultiply the right-wing American hatred against the Muslims and Islam. Blaming the jihadists, the Wall Street Journal reported, Norway is targeted for b eing true to western norms. Meanwhile, on The Washington Posts website, Jennifer R ubin wrote, This is a sobering reminder for those who think it is too expensive t o wage a war against jihadists. Altogether the instant reaction to the incident, without any pursuance of proof or evidence, was that Muslim terror must be respo nsible for the attack. However, within a day the whole story had to be changed, as the right-wing Chris tian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, with a background of hating Muslims and l iberals, claimed responsibility for the attacks, exposing media bigotry to malig n Islams image. Once again, it has been proven that not all terrorists are Muslim s. The same thing happens everywhere. Minutes after the Mumbai blasts on July 13, t he Indian TV channels propagated the theory that Indian Mujahedeen (IM), deemed to be an Indian Muslim extremist group, could be behind the blast, although secu rity agencies and the police took hours before adopting the hypothesis solely on the basis of spurious previous trends. Based on their guesswork, the Mumbai pol ice, as usual, detained several Muslims for questioning. One of those detained F aiz Usmani died while in police custody on July 17, sparking allegations of poli ce brutality. It has been more than a week, yet the investigating agencies have found no evide nce to support their claims against the IM nor those detained. The tameness of t he media and police administration reflects that Muslims have been harassed, som e Muslims have been detained, and one of them got killed (all without any eviden ce). So what? Does it really matter? The Muslims are presumed guilty, by the unw

ritten rule, until proven innocent. This trend is not new. In the past, although there have been occasions in which Muslim groups have been found linked with terrorist activities, extremist Hindut va terrorists have also been proven to have carried out half a dozen attacks in India, such as bomb blasts in Samjhauta Express, Makkah Masjid, Ajmer Sharif in (2007), and Malegaon (2008) the list goes on. When the right-wing Hindutva group s are known to have established links with the Indian military and intelligence agencies to carry out terrorist activities, yet raising fingers against them is an anathema. The level of hypocrisy in the attitude of the police and the media is conspicuou s. If a Muslim commits an act of terror, it is a terror plot but if a non-Muslim does, it is just an act of violence. If a Muslim is suspected in a terror act, he is an Islamic terrorist while a proven non-Muslim figure behind terror activiti es is merely an accused. If this is how peoples sentiments against Muslims are aroused, how can the 1.5 bi llion Muslims live in peace with others and what message are we giving to the yo unger and future generations? The writer is a PhD student in Economics at Texas Tech University, USA. Source: The Daily Times, Lahore URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamMuslimsAndIslamophobia_1.aspx?Article ID=5140

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COMMENTS 7/29/2011 12:22:11 PM Ghulam Mohiyuddin Mr. Talukdar speaks the truth. Media reporters and police officers seem to forge t their fundamental duty to be objective and unbiased in their search for answer s.