[sremani]

xx223, You are doing a disservice to the article by veering away from the thoughtful parts of the article. There is some discussion about "Warrior Gita" and Hindu-right, but nothing to imply about Gujarat riots. I would be more than willing to debate about the whole episode, especially about the initial part where 50 Hindu pilgrims were burnt alive in a train by Muslims, but I am fully aware this is not the forum for that.

[ameen]

There is a clear contrast to what xx223 says and what you imply, and in that unravels a lot that doesn't need to be said. He says extremist Hindus and you said just plain Muslims.

I'm an Indian Muslim and myself and others that I know would never think of such an act, yet I'm being grouped with the miscreants just because of association by religion.

Evil doesn't need a religion, what happened in Godhra was the triumph of evil over not just good, but basic humanity.

[sremani]

It is not my intention to implicate all Muslims. All the conspirators in Godhra which ignited the religious tensions in Gujarat were Muslims and all of the victims are Hindu.

[vaishaksuresh]

If you're really going to talk about semantics, xx223 says 'Modi and his government of extremist Hindus'. There is no evidence to back the point that the entire government is made up of extremist Hindus.

[ameen]

Yes, what's wrong in his statement. He just says extremist Hindus. He isn't painting all Hindus as culprits, as sremani does to Muslims.

[xx223]

The government is from a party that glorifies and admires Hitler. Their founder praised Hitler for the ethnic cleansing of Semites and wished to replicate that in India. In order to be a member of this party, one has to pass their litmus test, i.e. hate minorities like Muslims and Christians. They have been banned in the past by the fathers of the Indian independence movement for murdering Gandhi and spreading hate. Their party has orchestrated numerous riots after Indian independence.

You cannot deny the fact that Modi and his government are extremists.

[vauydoot]

That's BS. BJP is a political party, RSS is a non-government organiaztion. Founder of RSS was Dr Keshav Baliram Hegdewar, please show any evidence against him regarding any wrong doing, or any of his contemporaries saying anything negative about him.

Modi's government is democratically elected government. In fact, it won by a clear majority which was not seen in India in decades. Unlike other parties, BJP fought election under Modi and pledge that he will be PM if elected. Given that, your argument is that majority of India is extremist!

[ameen]

BJP obtaining a clear majority is a fallacy [1].

[1] http://www.livemint.com/Politics/3icITaIhURYOiptoaidAhN/BJP-...

[vauydoot]

ameen, but you need to understand too that almost all culprits of bomb blasts in India were muslims, majority of mafia is run by muslims, most riots happened between hindu/muslim, or sikh/muslim, or recently bauddh/muslim. While I agree, majority of muslims are peaceful and just like any other person, Islam in general is failing to corroborate that image. Instead of blaming other about how they perceive islam, time is ripe for muslims to work for cleaning up image of islam.

[kxc]

Gandhi assassination :- Hindu extremist (RSS member actually).

Indhira Gandhi assassination :- Sikh.

Rajiv Gandhi assasssination :- Tamilian (who happened to be Hindu).

Never mind the maoists, the naxalites, the RSS, the scores or more assorted seperationist groups (majority of which are non-muslim) operating in the North-east provinces. Statistically speaking I would bet the Maoists and Naxalites killed more people than Pakistani and Kashmiri separatists in the last few years.

Also your statements imply that because muslims were a party in all the conflicts and events you cherry-picked - that makes them responsible for all or most of them. By that logic, Jews were persecuted over millenia, (and are still embroiled in conflict today). So does that make them responsible for all those conflicts? Maybe you should face the fact about your anti-muslim prejudices.

I do agree with your last line about muslims needing to clean up their image. Also we need some serious soul-searching in light of the insanity that is happening in Iraq and Syria(Luckily the 175 million Indian muslims have been practically un-involved in these outside conflicts). But it is a uphill battle because the bad guys always get more ink than the good guys. The media in turn, are just feeding off the public fascination with shock and violence.

[ameen]

There was a report recently that most of the prison inmates were Dalits and Muslims, and the reason were mostly socio-economic than anything nefarious.

Illiterate people are an easy target and can be swayed by emotions. The need of the hour is education. And the worst part is our education system is regressing rather than progressing.

A parallel in the US is the case of African American youth. Most of them are of lower socio-economic status.

Also coming to your first point, there have been bomb blasts committed by Hindu extremists, Maoists, Naxalites, etc. Riots still occur in 2014 due to ugly vote-bank politics. So called leaders fan flames and then feign innocence in the media.

Not unless we conquer ignorance and prejudice can peace prevail.