Opinion The colour of terror

The paper further wrote: “A certain group has been feeling very restless (‘tilmila rahey hain’) about giving terrorism a particular name and linking it with a particular colour. But its difficulty is that it cannot falsify certain factual evidence.”

Hyderabad-based daily Rahnuma-e-Deccan (August 30) says that “it was the professional honesty of Maharashtra’s ATS chief,Hemant Karkare,that unmasked the face of Hindutva terrorism.” The paper has criticised the decision by the Congress to issue clarifications about Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s statement about saffron terror. It wrote: “Instead of giving clarifications,leaders of the Congress should say in a determined manner that Hindutva terrorism is a serious threat to the country’s internal security. These leaders should applaud (‘daat deni chahiye’) the confidence and courage of P. Chidambaram and say openly that the term ‘saffron terrorism’ refers to RSS and Sangh Parivar,and it does not refer to Hindus in general,who are neither connected with terrorism nor with the RSS.”

A mosque at ‘Ground Zero’?

The proposed mosque near “ground zero” in New York continues to be discussed. The widely-circulated Hyderabad-based daily,Munsif,in an editorial on August 26,wrote: “The first thing that should be kept in mind is that the entire proposed structure is not for a mosque. It is a cultural centre which also would have a mosque… The objective of the proposed centre is to strengthen mutual relations between different communities and present before the world the face real Islam… It should also be noted that the structure is not to be constructed on ‘ground zero’. It will be two blocks away.” The paper points out that five lakh Muslims live in New York and there are many mosques there. “Then why so much din is raised over this proposed centre?”

But eminent religious scholar,Congress MP Maulana Asrar-ul-Haque wrote in his column in Rashtriya Sahara (August 31): “The real question is that,after all,what will be gained by the construction of a mosque there? The objective of building a mosque,in Islam,is nothing except worship. But the decision of constructing the proposed mosque in America is politically motivated. If this mosque is constructed it will be a political mosque and in a society like America it will always remind people that,standing at that place,were America’s historic business towers,and that they were destroyed in an air attack by Muslims. Thus,this memorial would cause the intensification of already strained relations.”

Pakistan’s ‘Naapak Khel’

Rashtriya Sahara,in an editorial on September 1,entitled ‘Paise Ka Khel’,wrote: “Allegations of ‘spot fixing’ against players of the Pakistani cricket team are certainly quite stunning and greatly worrying for the future of Pakistan’s cricket.” Delhi-based daily Hamara Samaj,in an editorial entitled ‘Naapak khel’ wrote: “This naapak khel of the fixing experts from Pakistan has indeed defamed them; it has also deeply hurt the greatness of this game… It seems the Pakistan Cricket Board is helpless before these players as it proves unable to take strict action.”

The daily Sahafat,published from Delhi,Mumbai,Lucknow and Dehradun,lamented in an editorial on September 1 that “cricket is no longer a gentlemen’s game.” It says that because of the understandable isolation of Pakistan in the cricketing world,the incomes of its cricketers has been greatly hit and “perhaps the only source of income left for them is match-fixing.” The paper also notes that Pakistani cricketers are rather jealously looking at their foreign counterparts,especially Indian cricketers,who are making huge amounts of money through playing cricket and advertising endorsements,“adding to their disappointment and frustration.”

Compiled by Seema Chishti