Polio-stricken little girl gets strangled by father: Mullahs of india/pak must be proud

[Guest dada_rocks]

Nice read quite pertinent given recently even in Pakistan on lines of India mullahs have put big spanner in polio-eradication program on the pretext of polio drops being american conspiracy to check the increasing muslim population..

Blame mullahs, not polio

On Friday, The Pioneer published a heart-wrenching story about a father strangling his five-year-old daughter to death in Hyderabad because he couldn't pay for the polio-afflicted child's medical care. Since the morning newspapers are flush with similarly tragic stories, it's unlikely too many readers would have noticed it; of those who did, most are unlikely to have read beyond the headline. The few who read the full story would have forgotten the details before the day was over. After all, sob stories about the unwashed masses aren't worth remembering; life's too short to be wasted on agonising over a little girl in a slum who died for no fault of hers. But it's in the details of that story that we can get a glimpse of a gigantic problem that has become a stumbling block in eradicating polio from our country. So, at the risk of boring some of you, let me recall the story. Irshad Ahmad, a labourer who lives at Hyderabad's Zaheernagar slum, strangled Qurana, his five-year-old daughter crippled by polio, on Tuesday night. The news report said Ahmad was "frustrated over his inability to provide for Qurana's medical treatment and the family's inability to look after her". The next morning he pretended the child had died of her illness, but his neighbours sensed something was wrong and alerted the police "who reached Ahmad's house while he was making arrangements for her funeral". The report quoted police inspector E Shankar Reddy as saying that "Qurana was afflicted with polio from her birth and over the years her condition deteriorated with her hands also paralysed and she was not able to attend even nature's call on her own". The second part of the statement is possibly true, but the first part is entirely wrong. No child is born afflicted with polio; children pick up the crippling disease if their parents fail or refuse to have them vaccinated. And, as everybody knows, the polio vaccine is administered orally, free of charge, by health workers who go from door to door every few months, or at the nearest Government dispensary. So, why wasn't Qurana vaccinated? Since the vaccine is free, Ahmad can't claim he couldn't afford it. Nor can he claim that he didn't have access to health workers. Or that he was unaware of the deadly impact polio has on children: We may have a lot to crib about Government's propaganda, but the publicity given to the pulse polio campaign can't be faulted. The message is simple enough for everybody to understand; hence, illiteracy can't be cited as a reason for parents like Ahmad not vaccinating their children. The reason why Qurana wasn't vaccinated lies in an insidious counter-campaign launched by mullahs in Muslim majority mohallahs. Muslims, especially those who live in ghettoes, are told that they shouldn't allow their children to be administered the polio vaccine as it's "part of a conspiracy to make them sterile". The 'conspirators' are variously described as "Islam's enemies in the West", "scheming Jews of Israel" and the "anti-Muslim Government of India". For all his emphasis on "Muslims first" and despite spending sleepless nights, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hasn't been able to get the third category removed from the list of suspects. In vast swathes of western Uttar Pradesh, every time the Government announces a pulse polio campaign, banners and posters are put up at the behest of the local mullahs, telling health workers they aren't welcome and warning Muslims that the vaccine is "a potion invented to limit their population". It's, therefore, not coincidental that Uttar Pradesh witnesses the highest incidence of polio, accounting for 474 of the 666 new cases reported in India in 2006, registering a four-fold increase over those of 2005. Ninety per cent of the new cases were reported from western Uttar Pradesh. Last year's polio survey shows eight States that hadn't reported any cases in 2005 saw fresh cases in 2006. These include Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal. In Maharashtra, incidence of polio was reported from slums inhabited by migrants from western Uttar Pradesh. Parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated know that it's wrong to believe the mullahs; the mullahs know that they are lying when they allege the anti-polio drive is a plot to make Muslims infertile; and, the Muslim intelligentsia, whose children are duly vaccinated against polio, knows that it should speak out but chooses to lay the blame elsewhere. The New York Times carried a full-page report, headlined 'Distrust Reopens the Door for Polio in India', by Amy Waldman, on January 19, 2003. The report begins with the tear-jerking tale of Uzma, a four-year-old child whose parents didn't vaccinate her and who "came down with a fever. Then the paralysis, polio's calling card, set in". Waldman writes, "Mrs Jahan had heard the story circulating through her Muslim neighbourhood that the polio vaccine would make her child sterile. She believed it. So even though her daughter, Uzma, still needed two doses of the vaccine, Mrs Jahan would not take her to the immunisation booth. When the vaccinators came to her house, she demurred." Waldman then adds a twist, no doubt prompted by what she heard from the Muslims she spoke to, to her story: "That has been especially true among Muslims, not least because most Government health workers are Hindu... Naseem Ahmad, vice-chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh, said the divide between Muslims and Hindus widened when the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party rose to power in the State five years ago." So, the parents who believe the drivel put out by the mullahs, the mullahs who concoct brazen lies, and the cunningly silent Muslim intelligentsia aren't to blame for the plight of hundreds of Quranas and Uzmas. The fault lies with Hindu health workers and the BJP. But if that's the case, how do we explain the fact that polio is rampant in Muslim-majority Nigeria (it topped the list in 2006, reporting 1,090 new cases) where there are no Hindu health workers and there is no BJP? On January 4, 2004, the Baltimore Sun carried an article by John Murphy, saying the Muslims of northern Nigeria suspect that the polio vaccine being offered them gratis is in fact "contaminated with an anti-fertility agent that would sterilise their children or perhaps infect them with the AIDS virus, all part of an American plot". They "chased, threatened and assaulted vaccinators". Aha! If it's not Hindus and the BJP, it is the Americans. Why blame the mullahs for Qurana's death?

[The Outsider]

Can we cut out these religious discussions/threads as decided?

[Guest dada_rocks]

obviously u didn't read article.. which part is religious here

[feverpitch]

DR, do you want someone to publish reports of women in Indian villages being paraded naked, gangraped and burnt on the stake as witches; as well as that of US 'health workers passing on untested dugs to the gullible poor of Africa, Latin America and India in the name of social service? There are at least two sides to every story, except in the minds of fanatically motivated like you.

[Guest dada_rocks]

go ahead do that. rest assured if any ponga-pandit defends those things he/she will get my boot.. now instead of providing apology for these idiots please produce the other side of this story I would love to know .

[Ram]

DR , nobody would be questioning you for highlighting the role of Muslim Mullahs sometimes play. If something/someone deserve to be criticized , then its only fair that it is highlighted. The problem is , you highlight bad/unfortunate acts of ONLY the muslims, which shows that you obviously have an agenda. Why dont you ever bring to the posters' attention acts like Child marraige which causes a lot of harm and is still prevelant in many parts of Hindu society ?

[kumble_rocks]

DR , nobody would be questioning you for highlighting the role of Muslim Mullahs sometimes play. If something/someone deserve to be criticized , then its only fair that it is highlighted. The problem is , you highlight bad/unfortunate acts of ONLY the muslims, which shows that you obviously have an agenda.Why dont you ever bring to the posters' attention acts like Child marraige which causes a lot of harm and is still prevelant in many parts of Hindu society ?

I have asked this question many a times before since the nascent of this message board and everytime I get the same answer from DR which is he doesn't have to play the UN and try to be fair and balanced.

[Ram]

I have asked this question many a times before since the nascent of this message board and everytime I get the same answer from DR which is he doesn't have to play the UN and try to be fair and balanced.

The thing is , none of us have the right to question DR's affiliations and likes/dislikes. He can always speak his mind . Only , his image as a fair-minded person takes a beating every time he indulges in this muslim bashing.

[feverpitch]

I have asked this question many a times before since the nascent of this message board and everytime I get the same answer from DR which is he doesn't have to play the UN and try to be fair and balanced.

If so, then we are well within our rights to label him as the Bill O'Rielly of this forum, right?

[sandtest]

Only ' date=' his image as a fair-minded person takes a beating every time he indulges in this muslim bashing.[/quote'] Marris, what is definition of "fair minded" person in present day. If we have thousands of Islamists who flatly deny the evil liying within ROP and balatantly accuse others for their evil.....so why we should not defend our Dharma?? If out of hundred there is one courageous person in this forum who dares to expose the ROPers, then why all of us try to Lynch him and label him as lacking "fair mind". If exposing ROP is lack of fair-mind then that fair mind needs to be kept aside-- as simple as that.

[Ram]

Marris, what is definition of "fair minded" person in present day. If we have thousands of Islamists who flatly deny the evil liying within ROP and balatantly accuse others for their evil.....so why we should not defend our Dharma?? If out of hundred there is one courageous person in this forum who dares to expose the ROPers, then why all of us try to Lynch him and label him as lacking "fair mind". If exposing ROP is lack of fair-mind then that fair mind needs to be kept aside-- as simple as that.

S'test , you might want to read my earlier post on this. I had said very clearly that " No one would have any problems with DR highlighting the ills of the islamic world. The problem is , he highlights the problems of ONLY the islamic world". If you are to criticize something bad , then why be selective in your choices ? And you have to understand that i am in no way trying to defend the islamists that we talk about. I felt DR has a personal agenda , which is to highlight all bad things about muslim society. Of course , he has the right to choose how he is , nobody can deny him that right.

[King]

Pretty sad really :sad_smile: There is no point in criticizing for what has already transpired. It won't help anyone really. There is a good lesson to be learnt from this and the pros of vaccination should be drilled into the socially and economically weaker society at every given opportunity. Unfortunately the onus of the report must really be the loss of life of a little kid and actions that can be taken to ensure such instances don't happen again. The rest like pointing the finger at mullahs or whatever should really be a back burner. I'm sad even a shocking instance such as this doesn't spur the writer to do something about this than just look at it from religious angle. I suppose this is the world we are supposed to get used to in future.

[The Outsider]

obviously u didn't read article.. which part is religious here

Hopefully, your concerns have been addressed by the replies posted on the thread and where the discussion is heading. BTW, sarcastic digs at any religion like the latest "ROP", "ROPer" need to be cut out as they do nothing but incite religious discussions.

[The Outsider]

If out of hundred there is one courageous person in this forum who dares to expose the ROPers, then why all of us try to Lynch him and label him as lacking "fair mind".

Simple. This is not a forum for "exposing" any religion. There are hundreds of fora on the internet to do that if you want to. We don't want the troubles associated with having heated religious arguments. In the past, Ravi has offered for someone else to take control of the servers if you want to "expose" a particular religion but no one volunteered and it is asking too much of our time and efforts to allow you to "expose" a religion anonymously while we go through the hassles associated with it, and there have been hassles in the past. Not only that we also created blog facility for individual posters where they could write whatever they want but no one used it for "exposing" a religion while the facility was on offer.

[CC1981]

If so' date=' then we are well within our rights to label him as the Bill O'Rielly of this forum, right?[/quote'] Far far worse. Even Bill O'Reiley (to my knowledge) has not defended terrorism. Dada_rocks is on record defending Menachim Begin's terrorist attack on Hotel King David and poisoning of arab village wells.

[CC1981]

so why we should not defend our Dharma??

because Dharma does not need defending. It needs only acting upon- ie, follow dharma, not defend dharma. Dharma is the truth- truth needs no defence. By defending it, you are (unwittingly i bet) relegating yourself to precisely the same mentality and illogic that you accuse the ROP-ers of being. As a great philosopher once said- don't stare into the abyss too hard- for the abyss also stares back into you. The reason Buddha said conflict doesnt solve anything is not because of some high-falutan and fantasically high-horsed notion of civility, it is based on logic. The logic behind it is this- by engaging in conflict ( be it defending or attacking), your co-action with the adversary (which is the same action but different people- like two ace dogfighters duelling and doing the exact same things) makes you one and same with the adversary. So you are no longer what you started out defending, you are infact now what you wanted to defend yourself/your people from. In case of life and death, defence is understandable, but your concept of defending our dharma is just flawed. You defend dharma by living dharma- not speaking for dharma and trying to prove that dharma is superior. As i said earlier- dharma doesnt need you,me or anyone- not even Vishnu, brahma,maheshwar ,buddha or mahavira to defend itself- its mere existance is its defence.

If out of hundred there is one courageous person in this forum who dares to expose the ROPers, then why all of us try to Lynch him and label him as lacking "fair mind".

because he is not a fair mind. It is one thing to outline the wrong-doings, its an entirely different thing to attack it with single-minded dedication and hatred, holding double standards and blatant lying. When you defend israelies for bombing a civillian hotel, poisoning wells and evicting people at gunpoint, simply because it happened to be done against your fav. punching bags ( ie, muslims), you lose all credibility of fair-mindedness. It shouldnt matter what islam has done or hasnt done if your intentions are fair- for if they are, then you can criticize them for their misdeeds, yet defend them when misdeeds are done to their community. PS: I do fully agree with the title of the newsletter. Mullahs are a real problem in India- not just for the rest and the government, but for their own people as well. This is not just for polio, this is for other vaccines as well that are administered to kids ( i forget their names, MMR is one of them?) as well. India is beginning to start incentives for population control, such as second honeymoon for delaying babies etc- i am very anti-profiling when it comes to statistics but i think THIS is one field where india should keep a demographic info at hand-even if classified. A move like population control will not work for India if it is not carefully monitored- if the Mullahs keep their routine 'this is all an evil ploy to damage muslims/islam' nonsense, then they'd discourage muslims from following the plan and the plan will fail anyways- but it will cause an incalculable risk to India due to accelerated demographic shift in the space of a generation or two.

[feverpitch]

I feel really sad for the girl. I feel like crying. However, the man who strangulated her should immediately hanged to death and that too openly in front of everyone in bazaar so that the others know what´s the outcome of performing such a dirty act. God bless Qurana!

I agree with the feeling behind your post. But not the content. An eye for an eye makes the world go blind. Especially when corrective punishment becomes public spectacle. Actions like public executions etc belonged to the middle ages. Lets leave them there.

[sandtest]

Simple. This is not a forum for "exposing" any religion. There are hundreds of fora on the internet to do that if you want to. We don't want the troubles associated with having heated religious arguments. In the past, Ravi has offered for someone else to take control of the servers if you want to "expose" a particular religion but no one volunteered and it is asking too much of our time and efforts to allow you to "expose" a religion anonymously while we go through the hassles associated with it, and there have been hassles in the past. Not only that we also created blog facility for individual posters where they could write whatever they want but no one used it for "exposing" a religion while the facility was on offer.

Thanks Shwetabh for letting us know. I can understand the difficulty faced by Admins while trying to do balancing act. But, as usual this boils down to fact that why we become so sensitive and "soft" when it comes to criticism of followers of that religion. You will agree there have been threads here where ICFers have posted videos of Gujarat Riots and speeches, then people wasted no time in condemning our own community. What I mean to say is that when any criticism of Hindu religion is posted it is NOT considered as against norms....but when something is posted against that religion we start feeling guilty. Why? If admin think there is no need of any such topic then all topics including bashing of Hindus by p-sec crowd should be stopped. Otherwise, prohibiting only one particular will be an act of dhimmitude, IMHO. And yeah, we are very much sincere Cricket loving folks and site caters for Cricket lovers across the globe. But since Cricket has immense popularity in our country, so we Indian Cricket lovers while following cricket should not remain ignorant about serious issues undermining our countries national interests and General discussion is for that purpose, I guess.

[sandtest]

because Dharma does not need defending. It needs only acting upon- ie, follow dharma, not defend dharma. Dharma is the truth- truth needs no defence. By defending it, you are (unwittingly i bet) relegating yourself to precisely the same mentality and illogic that you accuse the ROP-ers of being. As a great philosopher once said- don't stare into the abyss too hard- for the abyss also stares back into you.

Another philosopher has said something -- There is not much merit in the lamb declaring vegetarianism, when the wolf is of a different persuasion And yeah, I don't need to turn this into a debate about what Dharma says or prohibits, it will be endless, beacuse Dharma is so vast that neither you can prove something wrong nor you can prove it right. That is why, as I said earlier, Dharma is free to evolve like science and it can take forms as and when needed to protect itself. To summarize definition of Dharma --- "Dharyati iti Dharma " what holds you is Dharma. and then, Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah -- Protect Dharma and Dharma will protect you. Go figure.

[CC1981]

What I mean to say is that when any criticism of Hindu religion is posted it is NOT considered as against norms

That is because hinduism is known for its ability to take/accept criticism. Why would there be the same expectations/standards when you fundamentally think the two ways to be different ? What exactly are you accomplishing here with your rant about religion ? Is talking here about religion really getting the point across ? Is this an attempt at militarizing the emotions ? Is this to generate a feeling of 'we must do something, this is wrong' ? If so, what must we do ? What is the solution plan ? If you don't have a solution to the problem outlined and implementable, why are you provoking the people here anyways ? And if its not provocation, then what else purpose does it serve ? You really think you are gonna get a random poster named 'Mxc333abadillah' or whatever, who supposedly claims to be a muslim, to say 'yes you are right, islam is flawed and i thus quit' ? If that is your expectation, i think you've got the notion of the internet and internet forums completely wrong. When you think about it, except for vague claims to 'spreading the thought around', you are not getting anything meaningful done whatsoever. And the irony of it all is this: Even if we all said 'we agreee with you, Islam sucks', would you say 'oh okay, glad i got that off my chest mate, glad we all agree..lets talk something else' ??? Hell no, it'd end up in a flood of anti-islamic messages/stories/incidents etc.