Habib Siddiqui

In some of my articles on France, I mentioned how hypocritical the entire French society is. It gave the modern world the concept of equality, liberty and fraternity. But truly it never learned how to walk the talk. If you do things French style, everything is kosher but if it is not done in the French manner, it is haram. So, am I surprised with the new revelation that the French professional basketball player Akin Akingbala (originally from Nigeria) has been fired from his team for re-tweeting a message that began, 'Je ne suis pas Charlie', meaning 'I am not Charlie,' in reference to the cartoonist who was killed? The tweet then went on, 'I am Ahmed the dead cop. Charlie ridiculed my faith and culture, and I died defending his right to do so  ‪#‎ JeSuisAhmed‬ '. Do you see any problem with Akin's view? I don't see any. As a western Muslim, I can understand why he would tweet what he did. But the secular fundamentalists have problem with Akin's f...

Violence against religious minorities is very common inside Burma. Often such violence comes with rape and murder, which are used as weapons in this den of intolerance to ethnically and religiously cleanse a minority group. As a matter of fact, such crimes against minorities is tolerated and promoted by vast majority of Buddhists in this Buddhist-majority country that is making increasingly a mockery of the teachings of Gautam Buddha. The Rohingya Muslims, who are of Indian stock, closely resembling Bangladeshi and other Indians to the west of the border,  from where Buddha himself emerged, are the worst persecuted people in our time simply because of their race, color, ethnicity and religion. Owing mostly because of the Muslim identity of the Rohingya people, more often than not the powerful western nations have tried to overlook such crimes perpetrated by the Myanmar people against them. Forgotten there is the mere fact that Myanmar does not tolerate anyone outsi...

The Myanmar Times has posted an article on the subject of the Rohingya people. As I have noted a few times, Mr. Tonkin's approach to history has been problematic because of his business interest with Burma and no one should take his take on such important matters seriously. As an obsessed anti-Muslim Brit, who smells jihad everywhere, he would quote views that try to undermine Muslim influence in Arakan before the British arrived in the scene.   As I have noted in my book on demography of Muslims in Arakan, the entire census process during the British period was a flawed one by any measure. It is that flawed census that said that just after British colonized Arakan there were 2:1 Magh:Muslim ratio. And now Tonkin quotes another missionary where it is 8:1 ratio. Which one should we believe and why?   Did it every come to his mind: how authentic these latest numbers are? Did Comstock do a real survey by counting 250,000 heads and categorizing them? Or did he meet a few...

Jeff Kingston is the director of Asian Studies, Temple University Japan. Recently his article - Militant monks rabble-rousing in Myanmar - has appeared in the Opinion page of the Japan Times.  I share his article below in its entirety.  ======================   With the people of Myanmar heading to the polls later this year, there are troubling signs that some extremists are intent on stirring up trouble. Last month, one such extremist held a rally in Yangon. Ashin Wirathu gave a vitriolic speech that attacked U.N. human rights envoy Yanghee Lee. “Don’t assume you are a respectable person, just because you have a position in the U.N. In our country, you are just a whore,” he said. “If you are so willing, you may offer your arse to the kalar [a racist term meaning 'blacks' that is commonly used to denigrate Muslims in Myanmar]. But you will never sell off our Arakan State!” Remarkably, Wirathu is a monk. This notorious monk has a history of instigating v...

Muslim Aid, a UK-based non-government organization, is going to close down its Rohingya project in Teknaf in phases, as the European Union has stopped funding it after being requested to do so by the Bangladesh Government. I am simply shocked to learn of the decision. The current government in its zeal to eradicate Jamat-e-Islam and Muslims religious groups which had opposed its rule seems not concerned about ramifications of its actions which not only punish the Rohingya refugees living in makeshift camps but also show a total abhorrence to simple acts of mercy and compassion -- virtues that are universally cherished. One wonders how low would the government step down to alienate itself from the general public who are sympathetic to the Rohingya cause and would welcome finding an honorable solution to end their plight. As to the reason of why the UK based NGO was blacklisted, we are told that it was at one time headed by a Jamat (JIB) leader who was accused...

Ishann Tharoor was previously a senior editor at TIME, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York. He writes on international affairs. In a recent column in the Washington Post, he discusses the fate of the Rohingyas in Buddhist-majority Burma (Myanmar). You can read this article by clicking here .

Three Muslim students were murdered on February 10 in Chapel Hill, N.C. in what can only be described as a hate crime. As usual, the popular media in the USA initially did not mention that it was a targeted murder committed by a gun-toting White racist whose all victims were Muslims. Only after the Internet had cried foul the media pundits corrected their reporting so as not to appear biased. I am sure if the victims were non-Muslims and the killer a Muslim, the media would have called him a Muslim or an Islamic terrorist. The three Muslim victims included — a man, his wife and her sister — all college students who were all born in the USA and grew up in the North Carolina area . They were shot to death at a quiet condominium complex near the University of North Carolina. It is worth recalling the recent controversy surrounding the Duke University campus, which is also located in North Carolina where Muslim students were denied the right to broadcast adha...

Three Muslim students were murdered in CHAPEL HILL, N.C. in what can only be described as a hate crime. As usual, the popular media did not mention that it was a targeted murder committed by a White racist whose all victims were Muslims who were born in the USA and were residents of North Carolina. The three victims included — a man, his wife and her sister — all college students. They were shot to death at a quiet condominium complex near the University of North Carolina, but police had not yet given a motive or released details about the suspect.    You may recall the recent controversy surrounding another university campus in North Carolina where Muslims were denied the right to call adhan after hatemongering Xian priest Franklin Graham's objection. I won't be surprised to learn that the murderer was influenced by Graham's hatred of Islam and Muslims. Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, was charged with three counts of firs...

Nasreddin Hodja (Hoca in Turkish; the letter ‘c’ is pronounced as ‘dj’) was a Muslim humorist from Turkey (in the 13 th century C.E.). As many as 350 anecdotes have been attributed to the Hodja, as he most often is called. Hodja is a title - meaning teacher or scholar (“Hodja” or “Hojjat” literally means “Proof,” e.g., of learning or in Islam). These stories about Molla Nasreddin are enjoyed throughout the world, not just among Turkish speakers where the anecdotes originated. Azerbaijanis and Iranians know this comic sage as "Molla Nasreddin." Turks and Greeks call him "Hoja Nasreddin." Kazakhs say "Koja Nasreddin;" Arabs, "Juha;" and Tajiks, "Mushfiqi." Other spelling variations for Nasreddin include: Nasrettin, Nasrudin, Nasr-id-deen, Nasr-eddin, Nasiruddin, Nasr-ud-Din, Nasr-Eddin, Nasr al-Din and Nasr-Ed-Dine. Molla is also written as Mulla. The many spelling variations for Hodja include: Hoja, Hojja, Hodscha, Hoca, Chotza, Khodja...