[Reader-list] Mourning for Varanasi

Wed Dec 8 12:46:28 IST 2010

thanks Shuddha for writing this.I mourn too for the death of the small girl
and injuries to so many other people one of which is a dear friend who had
come visiting to India.It makes me terribly sad that someone who wasnt even
remotely connected got killed or injured.

Incidentally the night before Maoists alledgedly slit throats of three
"Police Informers" in Sundargarh district of Orissa.I mourn those deaths
too.

I was going through the email sent out alledgedly by the IM and am rather
surprised how much they draw( ie if they are the ones who committed this
ruthless act of terror and cowardice) from the ideologues who sit cosy in
seminars and write from their plush houses.

The men who might have planted this bomb are surely guilty but equally
guilty are the people who are the masterminds and the ones who incite them
or misappropriate verses from the Holy Book  and invoke them to commit such
acts or simply appeal to their sense of victimhood real or imagined,but are
sadly never even touched by the authorities.So while the government may
catch hold of the people who planted the bombs and even punish them we are
only treating the symptom and the leaving the disease to fester.

While at this I rejoice that we have thrown out of the "nastiest" and one of
the most "noisy anatagonist" members of this forum.RIP Aditya Raj Kaul.After
20 years of being thrown out I again realised that whenever I have to shut
out a voice that doesnt concur I must throw it out.Thats what Doctors do
with cancer.

*Kambakht Na murad Ladakpan ka yaar tha*

 I hope the other Aditya Raj now sheds the snake skin he was in.The original
is gone,the shadow can come out.
 Sorry if I mixed too many things.Incidentally I came here to share this.

http://www.dawn.com/2010/12/07/danish-playground-mosques-temples-build-religious-tolerance.html

Best Regards

Rashneek

*Children skip across the roof of a mosque and play hide and seek in a Hindu
temple: this unsual playground is designed to build tolerance as religious
relations are cooling in Denmark.*

Volunteers from various faiths in Fredericia helped to create the seaside
playground, which opened in August in a town proud of its 18th-century role
as a refuge for Europe’s persecuted.

There is a green mosque with a golden dome, a red and white brick village
church and a brightly coloured Hindu temple.

“It is fun to see what a mosque looks like and a Hindu temple and to play
with children from other religions,” says nine-year-old Caroline as she
scrambles among the model buildings.

And the playground is a great way for parents to introduce their children to
other religions and cultures, says Hanne Ravn, in her 50s, who lives in a
neighbouring village.

“It is important for parents to talk to their children, to teach them to be
tolerant and open to others, from a young age,” she says.

Caroline has never been inside a real mosque. And there is little chance she
will in Denmark anytime soon, since a project to build the country’s first
mosque in Copenhagen has been delayed amid financial problems and rumours
that it was being financed by Tehran.

Islam is the second largest religion in Denmark, which counts more than
200,000 Muslims among its some 5.5 million inhabitants.

But relations with the Muslim minority, who make up about 3.5 percent of the
population, have become tense since Danish daily Jyllands Posten in 2005
first published 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that were considered
blasphemous and insulting.

The cartoons, including one depicting Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like
a bomb with a lit fuse, sparked massive and in some cases deadly protests
across the Muslim world, as well as boycotts of Danish companies, threats
against Danish interests abroad and attempted attacks on both
Jyllands-Posten and one of the cartoonists.

Several Muslim countries have also demanded an official apology from the
Danish government, which it has repeatedly rejected, stressing the
importance of freedom of expression in the country.

At the same time, the far-right Danish People’s Party – a key ally of the
centre-right government – has significantly increased its anti-Muslim
rhetoric, warning of the alleged “Islamisation” of Denmark and Europe.

And a survey published in August showed that nearly 55 percent of Danes
believe Islam is an obstacle to social harmony.

In such an atmosphere, observers say the Fredericia playground project is an
important one.

“It is good to through tolerance seek to prevail over prejudice,” says Mehdi
Mozaffari, a professor of Islam and Islamism at the Aarhus University.

Other, smaller religious groups may not face the same stigmatisation as
Islam, but due to their small followings in the Scandinavian country, most
people still have little idea what they stand for.

That is what is so good about the new Fredericia playground, according to
Joydal Sritharan, a 12-year-old Dane of Sri Lankan origin and one of very
few Hindus living in Denmark.

“It allows us, through games, to learn more about other religions,” he says.

Sritharan’s grand uncle Antoni, a Hindu patriarch visiting from the
Netherlands, agrees.

“It is a good thing to teach children other ways to get to know each other,”
he says.

A notable absence from the new playground is a synagogue, even though
Fredericia was in the early 18th-century the first city to accept Jews in
Denmark, where the the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark is the
official state religion.

Denmark today counts some 7,000 Jews, and Caroline’s grandmother, retired
teacher Bente Christensen, says it is peculiar they are not represented at
the playground, especially considering the town’s history.

“Fredericia had in the past the second largest Jewish community in Denmark
after Copenhagen, and it was their refuge during the 1700s,” she says.

But she is nevertheless “enchanted by this place which invites dialogue
between religions and learning about tolerance.” Organisers of the project
insist the lack of a synagogue in the playground was not intentional.

All faiths were asked to participate, but due to their small number, the
Jewish community “did not respond to our invitation,” explains Protestant
pastor Karina Dahlmann.

Fredericia mayor Thomas Banke is mindful of the religious disputes behind so
many of the world’s conflicts.

“This is why it is essential to teach children that religion must be used
not for killing each other, but to talk to each other, play together,
whatever our beliefs,” he tells AFP, adding he’s proud municipal funds
contributed to the “bridge between religions” playground.

The town of 50,000 people is today home to more than 100 nationalities, says
the mayor, adding he hopes the pioneering playground “will be copied and
will contribute to making the world a more tolerant place for the next
generations.”
 [image: share save 120 16 Danish playground mosques, temples build
religious tolerance]<http://www.addtoany.com/add_to/a2a?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dawn.com%2F2010%2F12%2F07%2Fdanish-playground-mosques-temples-build-religious-tolerance.html&type=page&linkname=Danish%20playground%20mosques%2C%20temples%20build%20religious%20tolerance&linknote=>

On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 1:24 AM, shuddha at sarai.net <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> Several years ago, I spent some very intense few days in Varanasi with a
> friend, who used to study at the Banaras Hindu University. I had always
> loved
> the city, ever since I read about it in Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay's novel
> -
> Aparajito, and had seen the great film version of the novel by Satyajit
> Ray.
> Growing up, I always thought of Apu's adventures (Apu was the boy hero of
> Bibhutibhushan's novel and Satyajit Ray's film trilogy) on the ghats as my
> own,
> vicariously. I also knew Diana Eck's book, Banaras : City of Light, quite
> well.
> It was my first excursus into imagining the geography and life of a city by
> reading from a printed page. Varanasi will always remain an incredible
> example
> of the durability of all things human for me. I learnt a few important
> personal
> things, about ephemeral and enduring realities, sitting through a winter
> night,
> warmed by the fires of unending cremations, at the Manikarnika Ghat,
> several
> years ago in Varanasi.
>
> I am especially saddened to hear that terror struck Varanasi yet again with
> a
> bomb placed in a milk can by the river bank, and that too at a time when
> the
> ghats were full of worshippers. Killing (so far) tragically, an eighteen
> month
> old baby and injuring several others. An email from the shadowy entity
> calling
> itself the Indian Mujahideen  reached several media outlets after the event
> and
> has claimed responsibility for the attack, apparently in order to avenge
> the
> destruction of the Babri Masjid, which took place eighteen years ago on the
> sixth of December.
>
> Regardless of whether or not the Indian Mujahideen is what it is thought to
> be
> - a terror group of home grown jihadis - and regardless of whether or not
> it
> perpetrated this attack - this incident of terrorism  (like all others) is
> only
> worthy of condemnation in the harshest of terms. Terrorism is vile,
> thoughtless
> and has only evil consequences, no matter who plants the bomb and for what
> cause. it can never be a force for justice, anywhere.
>
> An eighteen month old baby's life is far more precious, and sacred, in my
> opinion, than the sanctity of any mosque, temple or church, and anything
> that
> claims that life in the name of a place of worship deserved to be condemned
> by
> everybody, regardless of whether or not they are believers or
> non-believers.
>
> I mourn for Varanasi, Banaras, Benaras, Kashi
>
> Shuddha
>
>
> Shuddhabrata Sengupta
>
>
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-- 
Rashneek Kher
http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com