Blogs unbanned (updated)

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The Indian Government’s recently imposed ban on all Typepad and Blogspot blogs will soon be over and may already be over in some places. Earlier today, Rediff reported:

The blocking of blogs hosted by sites such as Blogspot, Typepad and Yahoo! Geocities by Internet Service Providers is likely to be lifted within 48 hours. [Link]

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p>In fact, both the government and the ISP umbrella group are claiming that they never planned a blanket ban in the first place, they just wanted to ban 17 blogs:

Amitabh Singhal, a spokesperson of the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) … said … some ISPs — he insisted it wasn’t all — mistook the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) notice and blocked entire blog domains, adding that it was technically feasible to block a sub-domain and leave others still accessible. [Link]

According to an email sent to SAJA by the Deputy Counsul General in New York, the ban was imposed because:

A two-page write up containing extremely derogatory references to Islam and the holy prophet which had the potential to inflame religious sensitivities in India and create serious law and order problems in the country appeared in a blog facilitated by well-known search engines

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p>However, here’s the actual list of blogs that the government was trying to block. I’ve just skimmed them, but I can’t see the “two page write up” that they’re referring to [a copy of the original order is below the fold]:

  1. www.hinduunity.org
  2. mypetjawa.mu.nu [American right-wing blog]
  3. pajamaeditors.blogspot.com [American right-wing blog]
  4. exposingtheleft.blogspot.com [American right-wing blog]
  5. thepiratescove.us [American right-wing blog]
  6. commonfolkcommonsense.blogspot.com [This is isn’t even in English!]
  7. bamapachyderm.com [American right-wing blog]
  8. princesskimberley.blogspot.com [Long defunct]
  9. merrimusings.typepad.com [Defunct American right-wing blog, but now at http://www.merrimusings.mu.nu ]
  10. mackers-world.com [American right-wing blog]
  11. www.dalistan.org [They actually mean www.dalitstan.org which is currently down]
  12. www.hinduhumanrights.org/hindufocus.html
  13. www.nndh.com [Dead URL]
  14. bloodroyaltriped.com [Dead URL]
  15. imagesearchyahoo.com [Dead URL, but it wouldn’t be a blog!]
  16. www.imamali8.com [They probably mean imamali.com but somebody mistyped]
  17. www.rahulyadav.com [Computer geek at IU Bloomington – not a blog at all – banned merely for his links to the BJP, RSS, etc]

A few of the blogs mentioned do have some very offensive photos of the Koran, but that’s not the offense that the government was using to justify its ban. Seven of the seventeen blogs are right wing blogs that are strongly anti-Islamic in that LGF-clone way, but again, the government didn’t announce that it was trying to ban all blogs that were harshly critical of Islam. Most importantly, none of them are linked to recent terrorist attacks at all !

So even if you think that censorship should sometimes be imposed by the government, and you accept the government’s reasoning that this “two page write up” is one of those things that should be censored, you’d still be hard pressed to justify this ban.

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p>Technical aside – here’s why the ISPs may have accidentally banned many blogs when they intended to ban just a few:

Google’s Blogspot servers use IP multihoming, meaning a single IP address resolves to all blog subdomains hosted on Blogspot. Typepad may be similar. The ISPs blocked the IP address instead of filtering by subdomain or URL. [Link]

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p>And here’s the government order to the ISPs concerning which blogs to ban:

Update 1:

It seems that Rahul Yadav (#17 on the list) was banned not for having a blog, but merely for linking to the BJP and RSS. Here’s his response to my inquiry:

Hi, I have a pretty good idea as to why my site was blocked and its very ridiculous, in the links section I have links to various Hindu organizations and political parties back in India (VHP, RSS, BJP), none of which the current political party (Congress Party) is a fan of. BJP is their main rival and they were in power before this current government. BJP is a nationalistic political party which has been demanding better security against terrorism in India, which the Congress Party has yet to seriously respond to. When I found out about this it was pretty shocking, how can a government focus their time and efforts on a personal website with only links to its political opponents?

Update 2:

Here is an explanation from the American websites as to why they were banned. They think it has to do with the very offensive photoshopped photos of the Koran mentioned above:

Why did India ban this website? And what is the larger meaning of this action?

The short answer to the first question is that we offended Islamists and India is afraid of its own Muslim citizens. The short answer to the second question is that, sadly, it is increasingly becoming evident that liberty may not be able to exist wherever there is a large population of Muslims.

What, specifically, did we do to offend Islamists and their supporters in the Muslim world?

Some time ago a story began to be circulated in the mainstream press that a detainee’s Koran had been put in a toilet at Guantanamo Bay. It later turned out that the story was false.

Nevertheless, the reaction from many in the Muslim world was quite revealing about an alleged ‘tiny minority of extremists’. Riots erupted all over the world by people who were offended. Thousands marched, caused property damage, and some were even killed.

Over what? A story about a book being put in a toilet.

We can understand why someone might get offended over their holy book being mistreated. We might get offended if someone did the same to a Bible. But anyone who would engage in violence over such an action has a values system that is not only foreign to us, but also one which is not compatible with liberty.

This reaction, along with the later reaction of many Muslims over cartoons depicting Mohammed, was a clarifying moment for us.

Islam, as understood by many Muslims, is not a tolerant religion.

The very definition of tolerance is to allow that which we do not agree with. The moment Muslims demand that their governments punish those who say, write, or depict things that they find offensive, they reveal their intolerance.

Many people in my experience are intolerant. Intolerance is not a very unique attribute. It is intolerance coupled with threats of violence that makes many Muslims unique in the world. It is also what makes Islam uniquely dangerous among the major religions of the world.

Not only do these intolerant Muslims wish for offensive speech to stop, but they threaten violence upon any government unwilling to censor.

So, our reaction to the overreaction in the Muslim world was to make fun of them by making fun of the Koran flushing story. Oddly, making fun of intolerant people is now considered a form of intolerance by many in the world. [Link]

86 thoughts on “Blogs unbanned (updated)”

  1. Vikram’s post, #26:

    I can’t wait to hear the self-proclaimed post-colonial post-post-modern intelligensia of SP when they come out of the woodwork.

  2. It’s kind of amazing how easy it is to have a blog banned in India, huh? I mean, it’s not like just anyone could type (or mistype) up a list of URLs on some official letterhead and then scrawl a signature on it.

    I can’t wait to get home. I’m going to ban all kinds of sites from entire countries!

  3. Desitude,

    I believe he was placed on the “hitlist” after he married a Muslim woman and wrote an article about it in MSM. Its actually very funny in places.

    It is not because Amitav Kumar married a muslim woman, from what I read on Internet forums, a lot of Hindus didn’t like his conversion to Islam to marry the Muslim woman, you may know, according to islam a muslim woman souldn’t marry a non-muslim man.

    Most of the terrorist activities in present day India are the consequence of such right-wing pro-zionist hate mongering by right wing nutjobs resultng in the alienation and ghettoization of the muslim minority. I think the government’s reasoning behind connecting the ban, to protect against terrorism, is absolutely correct, if anything the ban is too incomplete and easy to circumvent. It’s easy for Americans to chide India on the ban, but they need to keep in mind these bans probably save lives by preventing riots and terrorism and by stopping recruitment by fanatics (both hindu and muslim).

    Wow, thats right, blame someone else for islamic terrorism in India. Muslim ghettoization is self imposed, they are just creating small darulislams. Because of their religous books, islamic history & imams/mullahs muslims have a strong us-them feeling in their psyche and also the insecurity they feel with their women living among infidels is a major factor that leads to their ghettoization. I remember a few years back mulslims in West Bengal made the govt ban Taslima Nasreen’s autobiography by saying the book hurt muslim sentiments and will disturb communal harmony, I didn’t understand why communal harmony will get disturbed when the author Taslima is also a muslim, and what has Hindus got to do with their hurt sentiments. Basically it is a threat to WB govt that “they will” disturb communal harmony if the book is not banned. You call muslims a minority in india, but considering that Hindus have strong caste and language identities I would say muslims are the single largest community in India. No other community has such unified voice and representation and no other community gets patronized so much by the govt and state like the muslim community. It is to credit of muslims that these days some Hindus, irrespective of caste and language, are seeing themselves as belonging to one community.

  4. It is not because Amitav Kumar married a muslim woman, from what I read on Internet forums, a lot of Hindus didn’t like his conversion to Islam to marry the Muslim woman, you may know, according to islam a muslim woman souldn’t marry a non-muslim man.

    Did Amitava Kumar convert to Islam?

  5. It is not because Amitav Kumar married a muslim woman, from what I read on Internet forums, a lot of Hindus didn’t like his conversion to Islam to marry the Muslim woman, you may know, according to islam a muslim woman souldn’t marry a non-muslim man.

    He had to technically convert in order to be married in a Muslim ceremony (Nikka). But he makes clear that he wasn’t a religious Hindu to begin with, and he doesn’t consider himself a ‘Muslim’ now. He talks about this event in detail in his book ‘Husband of a Fanatic’. You should try reading that instead of chatrooms on Hindutva websites…

  7. He had to technically convert in order to be married in a Muslim ceremony (Nikka). But he makes clear that he wasn’t a religious Hindu to begin with, and he doesn’t consider himself a ‘Muslim’ now. He talks about this event in detail in his book ‘Husband of a Fanatic’. You should try reading that instead of chatrooms on Hindutva websites…

    This is funny, If he doesn’t believe in religions what’s the need to convert?. He could have said ‘no’ to being converted even nominally.. If someone asks questions about that, he/she becomes a Hindutvadi.. nice logic.. 🙂

  8. Sarita, did you miss my comment #55?

    Anyway, it’s not true his “new name is Safdar Ali.” As I mentioned, that name was given to him in order to technically be married. But he is still very much Amitava Kumar.

    By the way, how is this relevant to anything??? The absurdity of this discussion is a little bewildering — how on earth would this qualify someone to be on a “hitlist” (presumably for assasination) when thousands of Hindus marry Muslims every year? Why does it matter to you who he married or whether he recited the Kalma?

  9. I simply can’t see how someone’s personal life choices are relevant to anything mentioned in this post. The Hindu Unity website is at best a laughable disgrace. At worst, it’s legally actionable (as it encourages readers to commit acts of violence). The people named on that site are perfectly in their rights to file legal notice against Mr. Barotia in a U.S. court for incitement.

    Ponniyin, I’m surprised you can’t see that AK’s choice surrounding his marriage is not something any of us ought to be judging.

  10. I simply can’t see how someone’s personal life choices are relevant to anything mentioned in this post. The Hindu Unity website is at best a laughable disgrace. At worst, it’s legally actionable (as it encourages readers to commit acts of violence). The people named on that site are perfectly in their rights to file legal notice against Mr. Barotia in a U.S. court for incitement. Ponniyin, I’m surprised you can’t see that AK’s choice surrounding his marriage is not something any of us ought to be judging.

    Well, I think personal choices do count.. Now he claims that “he converted nominally”.. Who knows after bashing Hindus all his life (and reaping the benefits that come with it) and finally at the age of 60 on a Hajj pilgrimage, he could say he was all along an acting Muslim.. If a person is strong in his convictions he should remain so… And not claim, Oh I did that because of my mom / dad / wife.. If he does not believe in religion he should have said no to conversion..

    As an example, I know quite a few folks who don’t believe in ‘religion/gods’. They stuck to their decisions and never used ‘priests’/’rituals’ when they got married. I’d rather believe those folks..

    I don’t support any hit list on any site. If they advocate ‘physical violence’ they need to be dragged to court and jailed..

  11. He had to technically convert in order to be married in a Muslim ceremony (Nikka).

    He had a civil marriage first and then a muslim cermony. If he considers himself not religious, why have a Muslim ceremony(nikah)?.

    He talks about this event in detail in his book ‘Husband of a Fanatic’. You should try reading that instead of chatrooms on Hindutva websites…

    I read reviews of the book, it appears he indulged in one-sided bashing of Hindus. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20041114/spectrum/book5.htm

    Few reasons why Hindus take a patronizing attitude towards muslims and blame themselves instead: 1) There is tolerance and even acceptence of muslim’s behaviour by Hindus, “man, muslims are like that only”. A kind of resignation.. 2) Hindus are afraid to hold muslims accountable for their behaviour, muslim sentiments get hurt easily and they turn violent. So instead Hindus take a safer route of blaming themselves, a typical turnin-against-self defense mechanism.

  12. I simply can’t see how someone’s personal life choices are relevant to anything mentioned in this post.

    Well, he does write about his marriage extensively in the articles here. In the “bigot” article he even writes about kissing his wife while thinking about the profanity hurled at him by Mr. Barotia, the hindu unity crazo.

    The Hindu Unity website is at best a laughable disgrace. At worst, it’s legally actionable (as it encourages readers to commit acts of violence). The people named on that site are perfectly in their rights to file legal notice against Mr. Barotia in a U.S. court for incitement.

    No question about it. Now I know where Spoor Lam gets his lines from. You are warned, etc,.!

  13. Who knows after bashing Hindus all his life (and reaping the benefits that come with it) and finally at the age of 60 on a Hajj pilgrimage, he could say he was all along an acting Muslim…

    Ponniyin Selvan, Amitava Kumar has never “bashed Hindus,” and I very much doubt that he will seek last minute refuge in Islamic belief. Read the actual books before you judge the man. Don’t take someone else’s word for it, get thee to a library. It’s so easy to sit in judgement over someone else’s lifework, but at the very least engage with the work itself, instead of repeating what haters have to say about it. You also have to remember that this kind of talk actually can endanger the lives of people.

    For those interested in “hate speech” and where we should draw the line (if we should draw a line), this article (by law prof Jeremy Waldron) in the LRB is interesting.

  14. Ponniyin,

    Here is what the HinduUnity site says:

    KNOW YOUR ENEMIES! KNOW WHO WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DOWNFALL OF BHARAT!…and prepare yourselves for the duty towards your religion and nation.

    How would you interpret that? I would interpret it as a call to commit acts of violence: Hindu Jihadism. If you changed the terminology and the graphics around, this site would be indistinguishable from a site published by Al Qaeda.

    Earlier in this thread (with Saurav) I was suggesting that the proper response to this should be parody, since no one in their right mind would take such a “hitlist” seriously.

    But now that I’m arguing with several people who seem to think it’s relevant to discuss Amitava Kumar’s marriage rituals because they justify — by some warped logic — his inclusion on a list of “traitors” to the “Hindu Nation,” I’m coming to see what Saurav was trying to say.

  15. Rahul Yadav (www.rahulyadav.com) is a liar. His blog was not banned because he had linked to BJP/RSS/VHP. It was banned becasue he is a Hindu Fundamentalists who belives that somehow Islam is responsible for terrorism in India. Just search for this query on google “site:rahulyadav.com”, and you will see all the articles where he dares to question the patriotism of Muslims, but now deleted.

  16. http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&num=10&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=islam+terrorism&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=rahulyadav.com&as_rights=&safe=images

    gives you cached parts of the Rahul Yadav site. Interesting how the Hindutva agent provocateurs run into the woods and refuse to be counted. What else can be expected from the intellectual descendants of the capitulating Savarkar and his ilk?

  17. Amardeep

    Hindu Jihadism, good joke. Here is my take on it, Since Hinduism predates all major religions we should call Jihad as Islamic Dharma Yudh.. I would say, Islam copied the concept of dharma yudh and called it Jihad. I know this sounds absurd, so is your Hindu Jihadism.

  18. I posted earlier that dalitstan.org has some EXTREME ISLAMIC views on it. not in a forum, but on the website itself. Vivek didn’t realize the severity.

    Here is the link for Googles cached version: http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:gC1TdJhwjpMJ:www.dalitstan.org/mughalstan/azad/zindabad.html+dalitstan.org+Hezb-e-Mughalstan&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2

    Copied and pasted from the above link:

    MUGHALSTAN is the Muslim response to Hindu Rashtra. Envisaging an united Islamic homeland stretching from Sind to Bengal via Kashmir, it is the very antithesis of Hindutva. No, we Muslims are not going to go to Pakistan as the Brahmins command. Instead we will break India once more and re-unite with our brethren in Pakistan and Bangladesh to form the greatest nation of the world – Mughalstan, “The Land of Mughal-Muslims” . Mughalstan is “Greater Pakistan”, or “Pakistan No. 2”. In other words, Mughalstan is “India’s Bosnia” – a nation within a nation. Mughalstan will Inshallah consist of the following coterminous territories :

    PAKISTAN comprising Punjab, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Sindh. BANGISTAN or Greater Bangladesh, comprising modern Bangladesh, southern Assam and the surrounding Muslim-dominated regions. KHALISTAN, the Sikh Nation of Sufi Muslims. The Sikhs or Nanakshahis are followers of the Muslim Sufi saint Nanak Shah; hence Khalistan is a natural part of Mughalstan. ROHILSTAN, northern Uttar Pradesh or Rohilkhand', with a 60 % Muslim population. MALWASTAN or Malwa in Madhya Pradesh. BIHARISTAN comprising the Muslim-dominated regions formerly known asMagadha’ in southern Bihar, and of course. KASHMIR, the Crown of Mughalstan. Each of these regions individually possesses Mughal-Muslim population exceeding 50 %, and hence these regions justifiably belong to Islamic Mughalstan instead of Brahmin-Occupied Hindu Rashtra. The following is a map of Mughalstan –

    The population of the resulting Mughalstan homeland is obtained by adding the Muslim populations of Pakistan, Bangladesh and North India, and subtracting the populations for Brahmavarta, Rajputana, Bhojpur and Brahuiland, which are envisaged independant ethnic nations. Using the latest population figures, one obtains

    70 % Mughal-Muslim 3 % Vaidik-Brahmins 5 % Vaishya-Vaishnavite 15 % Sudroid-Shaivite 5 % Rajput-Saura 2 % Portuguese-Christian and others. Since 70 % of Mughalstan’s population is Muslim, Mughalstan belongs to us by birthright. The term Mughal-Muslim' is analogous to the conventional ethnographic termsAnglo-Saxon Protestant’, Sinhala-Buddhist' orRussian-Orthodox’. Since each of these peoples have independant nations, it follows that the Mughal-Muslims deserve a homeland as well. Moreover, the creation of Islamic Mughalstan shall pave the way for the creation of Dravida Nadu in South India and Hindutva based states in Central India around Maharashtra.

    This Mughalstan is the homeland for the dominant Urdu-speaking Muslims of the North who are mainly descendants of immigrant Muslims and have been historically referred to as `Mughals’. The Muslims of Southern India, however, are mostly Naumuslims or converts and do not speak Urdu as a mother tongue. Thus, the following Naumuslim states may be established in addition to Mughalstan –

    Nizamistan comprising the regions around Hyderabad for the `Dakhini Muslims’, Moplahstan situated on the Malabar coast for the Moplahs, Nasaristan for Sri Lankan Moors. Yes, the Mughal Muslims will rise. Mirza Qutb Islamic Mughalstan Zindabad ! Long Live the Mughal-Muslim Race ! Hezb-e-Mughalstan http://www.dalitstan.org/mughalstan/

    So-called liberal, secular Indians… this is for you. This is the kind of stuff our government was trying to block. This, and websites that may be used to incite Hindus to retaliate. This should have been banned A LONG TIME AGO. Banning all blogs, etc. may not have been the right thing to do, but I think they were in such a rush to stop internet communication of sites like this, I can see why it happened.

  19. Sarita:

    You bring up a very good response to those that say Muslims are a minority, when you write, “but considering that Hindus have strong caste and language identities I would say muslims are the single largest community in India. No other community has such unified voice and representation and no other community gets patronized so much by the govt and state like the muslim community. It is to credit of muslims that these days some Hindus, irrespective of caste and language, are seeing themselves as belonging to one community.”

    Indians are some of the most divisive people I know. Perhaps it is because Indians are some of the most varied people on the planet. Every major and moderate religion, 126 or so dialects, and 30-40?? languages! A Punjabi Hindu, such as myself, has very little in common with a Tamilian Hindu from Tamil Naidu. Even our religion varies. Being Punjabi, we also worship the Guru’s, and pay respects to the Guru Grant Sahib. We have different Hindu customs and rites. Of course our language is about as different as English is to Chinese, as is our dress, food, customs, habits, appearance, preferences, just about everything. Truth be told, I have about 90% more things in common with a Sunni Muslim from Lahore than I do with someone from south India (customs, habits, sayings, language, food, dress, appearance)

  21. the Sikh Nation of Sufi Muslims. The Sikhs or Nanakshahis are followers of the Muslim Sufi saint Nanak Shah

    There are many snarky ways I could respond to that, although I’m sure I’m not the only Sikh here grinning at this quote. Saffronists/Hindutva types insist we’re Hindus. “Mughal-Muslims” insist we’re Muslims. Everyone wants to be our friend. How nice to be so popular.

    Being Punjabi, we also worship the Guru’s,

    Er, technically no-one is supposed to “worship” them. Revere/respect them, yes. But not literally worship them. Anyway, off-topic, and a subject that has triggered heated flame wars on SM a number of times previously, so no more from me on that.

    Back to the blog-banning/unbanning debate. By the way, has everyone noticed that both MoorNam and his nemesis SpoorLam have mysteriously disappeared from SM ?

  22. Amardeep,

    I’m not defending hinduunity.org. This is what I said

    I don’t support any hit list on any site. If they advocate ‘physical violence’ they need to be dragged to court and jailed..

    But I agree that there is a market demand for people who are born into some religions and then write against such religions/fanatics in those religions (thereby proving their broad, liberal, secular outlook).. And people like Amitava kumar / Irshad Manji satisfy such markets..

    Atleast Irshad Manji has not converted out, but Amitava kumar looks like a fake liberal..

  23. Hinduunity.org is not different from hinduunity.com .they have not banned it.I think dalitstan was banned few years ago as it had some articles on veerappan and was supporting LTTE.In any case the move to ban some blogs and sites and under that pretext banning access to blogs etc only shows that the Indian state is yet to learn how to handle technology.they dont know that banning a site is different from banning and seizing copies of a banned book or stopping a play feom being staged or stopping a film being shown.

  24. Saurav, You are a typical Desi snob. What made you think that Indian govt was responding to the people outside the country. Indian bloggers and Indian Media are responsible for this.

    Indianoguy, namecalling is not nice! I was responding to Amardeep’s comment that “our outrage keeps Indian democracy alive.” Amardeep is in the U.S.

    I have no idea who the Indian govt responsed to.

  25. Jai,

    You are correct about worship. We’re not supposed to worship any Guru, not even the GGS, only God. However, i was writing at 2 am. and couldn’t think of the right word…

    I didn’t write the part of Suffism, and I’m definitely in the camp that believes that Sikhism is a part of the great Hindu religion. I also think Jainism is, and Buddhism, because all of these religions were offshoots and variances of Hinduism. Most modern Sikhs disagree, however, even the Guru’s were all from Hindu families, except I think Gobind Singh.

  26. Just an addition to the hinduunity.org discussion, it looks juvenile and all, but I know people who’ve got death threats from being on their hit-list, trust me it’s not a joke..

  27. DT2004,

    This is off-topic so I’ll keep it brief.

    Most modern Sikhs disagree,

    One quote out of many that could be supplied to politely contradict the assertion that this is a “modern” phenomenon; this one is by Guru Tegh Bahadur, who lived over 300 years ago:

    “Hinduism may not be my faith, and I may believe not in the supremacy of Veda or the Brahmins, nor in idol worship or caste or pilgrimages and other rituals, but I would fight for the right of all Hindus to live with honour and practice their faith according to their own rites.”

    however, even the Guru’s were all from Hindu families, except I think Gobind Singh.

    Their ancestry is irrelevant. One is not a member of a religion, or deemed a believer in that faith, purely because one’s parents may be. Also Guru Arjan Dev was the son of Guru Ram Das, Guru Hargobind was the son of Guru Arjan Dev, Guru Har Rai was Guru Hargobind’s grandson, Guru Harkrishan was Guru Har Rai’s son, Guru Tegh Bahadur was Guru Hargobind’s son, and Guru Gobind Singh was Guru Tegh Bahadur’s son. In each of these cases, none of their parents were Hindus. Ancestrally, yes, but not in terms of belief or religious affiliation. The only ones who were born into Hindu families in the strict sense of the term were Guru Nanak, Guru Angad Dev, and Guru Amar Das, and they all disassociated themselves from Hinduism in the orthodox sense.

    Anyway, in the interests of not creating ill-feeling on this blog I think we should amicably agree to disagree about your viewpoint that Sikhism is a part of Hinduism, especially as that argument has broken out on SM several times previously and left a fairly nasty aftertaste for everyone involved, considering the animosity it usually generates.

  28. And since it would be both off topic and ugly, it usually leads to the thread being shut down (sound of a throat being cleared). So take it elsewhere, boys. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t do it here.

  29. One of the stated enemies on the hitlist is Shah Rukh Khan, stating he is anti-Hindu. He even married a Hindu and has portrayed moral Hindus against the Muslims in many movies. Not to say such movies helped Indo-Pak relations but it seems odd that he would be added to the list.

  31. I have a response to Jai’s post, but will keep mum

    🙂

    out of respect to the thread. I’m surprised this has been a hot topic before. Well, not really, but I guess I’m surprised that it has been a hot topic on Sepia Mutiny.

  32. Yes, two of those websites are Islamic from what I’ve been told – the Dalit one and the mis-spelled ImamAli.

  33. I am shocked and aghast at the Hindu nationalist propaganda by some members here, the extreme racist,casteist putrid hatred for muslims by some members here. Terrorism is a result of the ghettoisation of the muslims by the right-wing pro-zionist neo-fascist Hindu nationalist parties. If we care to look beyond our own capricious anger we will find that a lot of righteous anger of the minorities goes unrecognised, which ultimately culminates in activities like bombing local trains in peak hours as an outwardly manifestation of deep inner insecurities

  34. IreneFingIrene

    I am extremely offended by your right wing innuendo. It is because of such shallow generalisations that youth get misguided and engage in terrorist activities.

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