REJOINDER TO DAILY MIRROR EDITORIAL

UNPUBLISHED 


Rejoinder to Daily Mirror Editorial

Hameed Abdul Karim

Your description of Israel being an egalitarian state in your editorial (D.M. Tuesday 2 August 2011) is misplaced and misleading, because all along Israel has been more of a racist state than apartheid South Africa was according to the much respected Archbishop Desmond Tutu. 

From the moment of its creation Israel has tried its very best in so many cruel ways to expel Christians and Muslims from their ancestral homes the same way the European Nazis wanted to get rid of the Ashkenazi Jews living among them. The Nazis wanted to create a Europe free of Jews and following in their footsteps the Jews want to create an Israel free of Arabs. To achieve their objective, the Israeli Jews first wiped historical Palestine off the map of the world with the help of the U.S. and Europe often called the ‘international community’.  When the Nazis went about their crimes to ‘purify’ Europe they were called fascists. Why then are the Zionists called ‘egalitarian’ instead of being called fascists? 

A RESPONSE TO ARCHBISHOP OSWALD GOMIS

Sunday 30 July 2011

A Response to Archbishop Oswald Gomis

Hameed Abdul Karim

It was rather distressing to read Archbishop Emeritus Oswald Gomis’s remarks about ‘militant Islam causing worldwide chaos and at times making slaves of their female followers to their men folk’. (Lakbimanews Sunday July 17, 2011)

The learned Archbishop must ask the question why Islam has become militant before passing judgment on the faith and its followers. For one thing he must realise the cause of militancy in Islam especially in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, Xinjiang Province, Chechnya and Mindanao is especially because these places are occupied by foreign forces. I am sure, the good man that he is, he will acknowledge that when Sri Lanka was under colonial occupation, Sri Lankans too were militant as were the Indians like Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohandas Gandhi apart from many others. Gandhi’s militancy was of a different kind though, but it still led to bloodshed. And the British did not fail to call them names like ‘militants’ or ‘terrorists’. The arrogant imperialist and supreme racist, Winston Churchill used to call Gandhi a ‘half naked fakir’. No Hindu or Muslim attributed Churchill’s arrogance and bigotry to his Anglican faith, though he had said many despicable things about Islam.  

OSLO TERROR, MEDIA HYPE AND WESTERN HYPOCRISY

 Saturday 30 July, 2011

Oslo Terror, Media Hype and Western Hypocrisy

Hameed Abdul Karim

Muslims the world over became apprehensive when the bombing in Oslo took to the TV screens in all its horror. And they had every reason to be so because all the international media, including Al-Jazeera, thought it proper to point the finger at what they said could be ‘Muslim extremists groups’ who were responsible for the atrocity with Al-Qaeda being the chief suspect. To add to the variety Russia Today (RT) broke the news that a hitherto unknown ‘Islamic terror group’ calling itself the ‘Al-Ansar Something’ had called in to say they were the ones responsible for the attack. Within a flash all TV networks latched on to the lead with all the familiar sound-bites associated with Islam and Muslims  and in no time a new ‘Islamic terrorist group’ had taken centre stage on the world scene. Muslims squirmed in shame and embarrassment as they reconciled themselves to yet another act of terror the extremists had carried out in their name and the name of their faith.

SCARE SINHALESE - PROVOKE MUSLIMS

Sunday 24 July, 2011

Scare Sinhalese – Provoke Muslims

Hameed Abdul Karim

When a few friends invited me to join them to watch some films produced by some extremists purported to be Sinhala Buddhists. I thought the guys were getting ‘het up’ over nothing. But what I saw shocked and shook me like I never imagined.

In one of the films the narrator, while preaching what he said was the sublime teaching of Gautama Buddha, extolled Sinhala Buddhists not to buy goods from a popular retail chain owned by Muslims and instead buy from a famous outlet owned by a Sinhala Buddhist, which in fact is patronised by Muslims in very large numbers. Going further he urged Sinhala Buddhists not to believe Muslims when they say the human race is one because this line, the producers believe, is somehow intended to dupe the poor little gullible Sinhala Buddhist.

Frankly, all of this was nothing new.

THREE OPTIONS FOR ISRAEL

10 July, 2011

Three Options for Israel

Hameed Abdul Karim

A Russia Today report said there was a surge in anti-Israel sentiment in Europe and that Europeans were demanding that their governments stop turning a blind eye to Israel’s violation of human rights and international law.  This change of attitude is a reflection of the failure of traditional ‘main stream media’ in the face of challenges of social media sites as well as new channels that have appeared on the international scene. Israel’s monopoly of the world media is a thing of the past and nobody elucidated this reality more than Hilary Clinton who confessed ‘we are losing the media war and Al-Jazeera, Russia Today and China’s CCTV is winning. You could include Iran’s Press TV into the equation. The operative words in Clinton’s despair should be ‘media war’ and ‘losing’. 

IS JESUS REALLY GOD?

April 21, 2008 
Is Jesus Really God?

Hameed Abdul Karim

In his letter titled ‘The adoration of my Lord and God’ (DM April 2, 2008) Mr. Victor Ivan Silva says that Mr. Lucien Perera and he had given many verses from the Bible to support their claims that the Blessed Jesus Christ (peace be on him) was/is God. I beg to differ. The crucial question that arises out of this discussion is not so much the divinity of Jesus but whether he said he was God. And I reiterate there is no place anywhere in the New Testament where Jesus had said ‘I am God’. Period.

FURTHER CLARFICATION OF THE MUSLIM POINT OF VIEW OF JESUS

Wednesday March 19, 2008 
Further clarification of the Muslim point of view of Jesus Christ, the Messiah

Hameed Abdul Karim

First let me thank Lucien Perera for praying for me in his response (DM 27 February, 2008) to my article on the Muslims’ viewpoint of Jesus Christ which I wrote out of my faith and love for Jesus Christ (peace be on him) as a Muslim. I too wish him well.

I am happy Mr. Perera accepts the contradictory reports of Judas’ suicide as found in the Bible. He then goes on to say the core point is that Judas did commit suicide and the manner in which it happened is a secondary point. That may be so. But the crucial issue we were discussing was the divinity of the Revered Jesus Christ. So the question that comes to mind is whether we can attach any reliability or significance to the statements by Gospel writers which Christians interpret to claim that Jesus Christ was divine (meaning God) if they cannot get right a non-controversial issue like the manner in which Judas committed suicide.