Renowned Muslim leader and president All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, in a letter to the High Commissioner of Bangladesh in New Delhi, on August 6, termed the Bangladesh government’s bid to remove books written by Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi as “contrary to democratic principles” and urged the government of Bangladesh to withdraw the order to this effect.

The letter says: “It has been reported that the government of Bangladesh has asked all mosques, a...

A special court in Lucknow on August 17 framed charges against 23 accused, including two legislators and the then Faizabad District Magistrate, under various sections of IPC which included criminal conspiracy, in the Babri Masjid demolition case. Special Judge (Ayodhya Prakaran) Virendra Kumar fixed August 23 for recording evidence in the case which pertained to the demolition of Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. The charges were framed against VHP leader Acharya Dharmendra Deo, SP MP Brij ...

The Bombay High Court has issued notice to the central and state government on a petition seeking high-level probe into the killing of former Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare and two other higher police officers during the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai in 2008. Veteran socialist and three-time MLA from Madhepura in Bihar, Radhakant Yadav, had approached the High Court on August 6. The court heard his petition on August 17 and issued notice to the governments asking them to reply within ...

Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) is mentioned as one of the best practices of youth inter-faith dialogue initiatives in a global survey report of UNESCO (United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation). As part of UNESCO’s efforts to strengthen dialogue among civilisations and cultures it had conducted a global research to define the best practices in interreligious dialogue. The research was conducted by Arigatou International. SIO is the only Islamic Orga...

Two police officers have been suspended after a Muslim banker found dead near a park was mistakenly identified as a beggar and cremated according to Hindu rites in Patna, the capital of Bihar. The body of Mohd Ishrafil, a 46-year-old State Bank of India official, was recovered near Gandhi Maidan last week. He was cremated within three hours. According to police, Ishrafil’s body was cremated after officials assumed he was a beggar. “It was a big mistake on the part of the police,...

It’s a mosque, but only in name. The corner plot measuring 361.86 sq. m. in Sector 16, Block ‘D’ in Rohini is bare except for a half-raised compound wall and a temporary roof.

Construction here came to a halt on Friday, June 26, 2009 — after slogan-shouting Hindutva mobs set upon the namazis, critically injuring 40-year-old labourer Mohammad Moin, and assaulting dozens of others. Some policemen also sustained injuries in the attack, a front-page story in ...

ANHAD, a voluntary organisation working against communal forces, has expressed shock over the use of a photograph of its month-old demonstration against “excessive” use of force by the security forces in Kashmir, in advertisements issued by the BJP, which observed ‘Save Kashmir Day’ on August 21. Objecting to the use of the photograph of people associated with the voluntary organisation, ANHAD managing trustee Shabnam Hashmi termed the act by the BJP “defamator...

Nearly a month after RTI activist Amit Jethwa was shot dead, a police constable from Gujarat’s Junagadh district has been arrested in connection with the murder. Three others have been detained for questioning in connection with the killing of Jethwa, who had filed a PIL against illegal mining in Gir forest, on the night of July 20. “Bahadursinh Dhirubha Wadher (37), posted as a constable in Girgadhada police station in Junagadh district, was arrested for allegedly getting Jethw...

The Supreme Court on August 19 ordered the statement of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, recorded by the special investigating team (SIT), probing some of the 2002 Gujarat riots cases, should not be made public, and also granted more time to the SIT to conclude its investigations into the Ehsaan Jaffrey murder case. But the report is understood to have indicted former Gujarat home minister Goverdhan Zaphadia and two senior Gujarat cadre police officers. One of them, M.K. Tandon, is for...

Trade between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council has soared despite a newly imposed round of international economic sanctions on Iran. A Press TV report claimed that while Iranian imports from the US and the UK have suffered under the new sanctions regime, exports to both countries rose by 76 per cent and 61 per cent, respectively, over the last four months. Trade with China, by many accounts Iran’s most important trading partner, saw a 50 per c...

Russia’s nuclear chief on August 19 said the planned start-up of Iran’s first nuclear power plant will demonstrate that Iran is entitled to peaceful use of nuclear energy under international supervision. Sergei Kiriyenko said at a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that the uranium fuel will be loaded into the reactor in Iran’s southern port of Bushehr. “That marks the beginning of the physical start-up of the plant and turns it from a site under construction...

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has ordered the donation of two field hospitals to Pakistan to provide medical services for flood victims in the country. This was announced on August 22 by Minister Health Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah. “This generous humanitarian gesture from the king reveals his concern for Muslims all over the world, especially in Arab and Muslim countries,” the minister said. “Immediate measures are under way to implement the king’s order. These two hospi...

A Saudi Islamic scholar has described Saudi intellectuals with modern views as heretics and followers of the West. Ahmad bin Abdullah Al-Ammari, former dean of the faculty of the Holy Quran at the Madinah Islamic University, said in a lecture on “We and the Others…Our Islam is Our Identity” at the Baha Literary Club last week that a lot of people were seduced by Western ideals. Al-Ammari did not spare “the modernists” in his sweeping attack, describing them as...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on August 22 expressed his hope that Israel will choose the peace option and not the settlement one. The Palestinian president’s remarks came in a letter the chief Palestinian negotiator sent to US President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton invited the Israeli and Palestinian lead...