Punjab has seen over a dozen incidents of alleged desecration of religious books over the last one month. Violent protests were held over these incidents, leading to the https://www.religious-rosary.com death of two persons and injuries to others..It appeared to be a handiwork of some anti-social elements, says police Moga: Incidents of sacrilege of holy book continued unabated in Punjab with burnt pages of Guru Granth Sahib and some Hindu scriptures being recovered from a canal near Kachha Ghal Kalan road in this district on Wednesday, police said.The situation in both the areas is under control and no protests have taken place after the incident, police said. on Tuesday, torn pages of holy book were found near the Gobindpura village gurdwara in Mansa district, police said. The torn pages were first noticed by some villagers, police said adding that the religious scriptures were sent to Gurdwara Damdama Sahib in Talwandi Sabo.Police and representatives of Sikh and Hindu outfits reached the spot and took the burnt religious scriptures in their custody.Police have launched an investigation even as an uneasy calm prevailed in the area. Police said that it appeared to be a handiwork of some anti-social elements, aimed at disturbing peace in Punjab.
Former Congressman Tom Garrett said, "No one in the world should feel insecure in their country or house because of what they believe in.Low literacy rates, proliferation of deadly weapons, rising poverty and ethnic tensions and deprivation make the region a perfect breeding ground for extremist forces and this must be seen and tackled as a global challenge, he said..He added that the people of the restive north-western region of Pakistan have suffered immensely since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and their miseries continue even today.In her remarks, Abha Shankar, director of research at the Investigative Project on Terrorism, shared how Jamat-e-Islami has systematically established its offshoots in the US over the years and these offshoots have played a major role in radicalising some American-Muslims. No one must be killed or hurt because of their beliefs or views". She shared some of her findings as part of her research, which confirm the role of Jamat-e-Islami in exporting extremist ideas from South Asia to Western countries.

The 2,000 bio toilets installed are clean and stink free ensuring no one ever defecates in the open, as well as the 3,000 water ATMs for free drinking water to all the pilgrims which provides a lot of relief after walking tired and exhausted. This year all the 13 akharas were accommodated in Sector 4 close to the main bathing site or the sangam. Or, you can even indulge in luxury at Rs 30,000 a night, which is called Indira Prastham or the city of eternity. I observed the cleanliness of the place; workers deployed everywhere to pick up even a small piece of trash.Special facilities this year  The Kumbh this year is well spread out in an area of 56 km, which means except for the special bathing dates you will not get to see people restricted in just one area only. It is a point for interacting with Aghora sadhus and Naga sadhus and discovering their rituals and ceremonies. Nowhere in the world are you going to discover a culture so unique and ethereal as one can witness here. And of course you have the heads of https://www.religious-rosary.com/ all religious institutions like Morari Bapu, Avdeshanand, Narayan Seva Sansthan, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, who have discourses in this three-month-long festive fair.So, unless you are ready to battle the crowd of 30 million people and are religious to the core, I would suggest you take a comfortable dip on any day in between.

This place of confluence of the three rivers is called the sangam and devotees go exclusively to the banks of sangam to take the holy dip which has to be done in a kayak boat but if you wish to escape the crowd you also have the option of going to Ganga Ghat. The laser lights in the night add to the experience. Prevention of stampede measures in the form of intricate barricading has been well set up, so when it comes to safety all measures have been taken. My four-day trip to Prayagraj left me intrigued by the sheer magnificence of the huge canvas painted by the Uttar Pradesh government in bringing together a city so seamlessly perfect with high tech systems in place to host the world’s largest religious event. They are spread out in 14 sectors with 18,000 police personnel ensuring that everything goes as perfectly as planned.

I have been a regular visitor to the last two Kumbhs at Prayagraj. There are private companies setting up tents to suit everybody’s budget, with flush toilets, showers, hot water and all the facilities needed for acomfortable stay. Juna akhara is the most popular because of Naga sadhus who even in the severest of winters do not put any clothing on them. You gasp in awe at the effort to create a unique atmosphere when you see the beautiful art on walls and crossroads from the airport to the fair area. The Kumbh Mela is essentially a peaceful congregation of pilgrims on earth during which devotees bathe or take a dip in a sacred river.Where to stayA tent city has been constructed around the Kumbh making it easy for you to enjoy all the festivities.Saffron and yellow all over The akharas or the tents of all religious heads in the area are called Jhusi. I recommend you stay in tents which are as comfortable as a hotel room.Prayagraj is the city where holy river Ganga unites with the other two rivers  Yamuna and the invisible river Saraswati.The Kumbh Mela is an experience of a lifetime.The royal bath datesThere are five special dates for the saints who all come out of their camps and participate in the procession on elephants, horses and vehicles with their devotees  replete with music and dance and all the fervour that goes in this merry making procession.

It should matter little what religion inspires music, which is to be judged only by the listener’s liking.No one took it amiss in India when an early song of The Beatles was a runaway hit here too. But the politics of such a formal space should not cloud the fact that at issue here is the freedom of the artiste to sing or perform as he/she pleases where he/she pleases.Krishna says music does not have religious boundaries. It is a pity then that such issues are popping up as to distract the genuine music lover to whom the melody and the rhythm is everything and words are secondary.

For those spreading hate and disaffection, any handle is good enough to beat those who are popular. An all new system based on a WhatsApp rumour mill and merciless online trolls orchestrated to take on anything that the far right dislikes is fast changing India too.Jumping into the fray as a gladiator more than the social activist that he may be these days, T.An avalanche of reactions on the social media to threats held out against certain singers has revived an angry debate about Carnatic music. Senior singers unequivocally condemned the trend being set by these hatemongers. No one ever thought it amiss that a Christian was singing the praises of Hindu gods. But, as a music lover pointed out, these little storms will blow over and art will win at the end. That ocean of a subject may be subjected to scrutiny once again when the music season comes upon us in winter.Meanwhile, the trolls have quietened after kicking up a storm over Christianity and Carnatic music. My Sweet Lord sported lyrics that straddled Hindu and Christian faiths with a chorus that contained the words ‘Hallelujah’ and ‘Hare Rama’ and ‘Hare Krishna’a as the music enthusiast Suresh Subrahmanyan, an uncle of the celebrated Sanjay Subrahman-yan, explained. It is reported that not only online trolls took on some singers but also people placed mobile phone calls to threaten artistes. Arun on their rumoured singing of Thyagaraja keerthanas with a twist in injecting the word Jesus for any of Hinduism’s 33,000 gods set off a series of exchanges on the social media.

Fact-checking revealed that such charges were blatant lies. If that had been done, it would not only be against aesthetics as Krishna says but also intellectually dishonest bordering on plagiarism. For those who believe at a very basic level of consciousness that music is music, the whole debate is jarringly unmelodious. The issue does, of course, become different in the formal ecosystem of Carnatic music as it is shaped in Chennai with the sabhas (or associations) as the conduits for performers to get paid and access sponsors too.. Any right-minded person would agree, including those who may have grown up on pop music before widening the gallery to eclectic experiences. In injecting venom and hatred where none existed before, fake news is also getting into a mix that is churning the once esoteric world of classical Carnatic music in its capital Chennai. Krishna is trying to bring some order and logic to what is seen as a needless controversy because the singers in question did not plagiarise devotional music across religions as the rumour mills seemed to have it. That may have stemmed from language chauvinism rather than any religious divide as the Bengalureans felt that classical Kannada music was being ignored while Tamil and Malayali singers were being honoured in their city.The trolling of singers Nithyashree Mahadevan and O.S.Ravikiran points out that that last time a few top Carnatic vocal stars faced such a situation was from Kannada fanatics in Bengaluru and elsewhere in the 1980s.Music is melody and that is what captures you first, whether such music is western classical pop or spiritual as sung in any language or whether it is Carnatic, Hindustani or Hindi film music. The instinctively correct position is music is for the soul and it draws each one according to his liking.

There are other issues over whether the formal Carnatic music ecosystem in Chennai is the preserve of the Brahmins and the upper castes.  The trolls seemed to be barking up the https://www.religious-rosary.com/ wrong tree when they took up issue on an imaginary grouse that Carnatic singers were using verses from kritis and merely interchanging the gods of different religions. "The song was an outsize hit, selling millions of copies, not because people in the UK, USA, Europe and the rest of the world were transported by Harrison into a religious frenzy — they just loved the song and danced to it as they might have danced to The Beatles’ She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah," Suresh said.M. "Carnatic music, which has created harmony between people and communities has been targeted by certain people with feigned or genuine concern to churn up religious or communal disharmony in recent times," says Chitraveena Ravikiran. Lovers of music would know that Yesudas sings at temples regularly and his devotional renderings on Hindu gods are stirring. For the true music lover, even the lyrics are unimportant as compared to the wholesome effect the music has on him or her.

"Prominent Intellectual Property Rights lawyer Ashok Ram Kumar, who has defended many hotels in their cases, explains, "The purpose of a copyright society is to collect royalty for events and after deducting their administrative cost give the balance to the Copyright owners. TCEI is fighting a legal battle against PPL, IPRS and Novex, he informs and says, "Novex is pressurising people to pay. I tell my clients that when you download a song or a ringtone, you pay for it.THE ONES ON BOARDMr Venu from Radisson Gachi-bowli, says, "Every hotel is facing the same problem with Novex. They very smartly came under Section 30. Some hotels pay the money, that is why the others are forced to pay. But are companies such as Novex, who do not create music, entitled to grant licences and monitor people and organisations on behalf of the copyright owners?A Delhi High Court judgement, however, asked event organisers to pay royalty to one of these three — IPRS, PPL or Novex Communications, which hold the rights for the use of copyrighted songs. Talking about religious events, Ashok says on a concluding note, "Even religious events, like a sangeeth, which are exempted from Section 52  are not spared and the event is threatened to be stopped if the demand of payment is not met by the family. The same company has filed FIRs against many other five-star hotels as well."

"You can’t play a disco song at a temple and say it is exempted and you won’t pay. After the amendment in 2012, PPL and IPRS did not register themselves as copyright societies, thereby they relinquished the rights to collect money as a society. They say they have over one lakh songs on their list, but I want to use only four and for that I’m asked to pay a hefty amount. Due to their negligence, the owners of music companies have https://www.religious-rosary.com suffered huge losses," says the official. The concept of defence of fair use depends on the context in which the music is played — it has to be relevant to the activity," says  Santhosh. What option are they left with? Since the last four years, I have been challenging this usurious demand and levy under the pretext of Royalties. But the lines between public, private and religious events in a country like ours is almost non-existent."OF ARGUABLE CONTEXTSHowever, Neeraj Kumar Thakur, Secretary, Telangana Chamber of Events Industry (TCEI), feels that the issue is highly debatable. If they file one case, all the hotels will be frightened."However, there are many hotels in the city that play music only after paying royalty.

These bodies had argued that under Sections 18 and 30 of the Copyright Act, 1957, there is no bar on the copyright owner or his agent or an assignee from monetising copyrighted works.A SERIOUS OFFENCE?An official from Novex communications states that any establishment such as a hotel, pub, convention, banquet hall, mall and gym etc. The official adds that even the events organised by the government obtain necessary licences since it is mandatory. Abhinandan Mukherjee, Associate Director, Food and Beverage, The Park, says, "Awareness is very important. Also, some feel it’s a legal body. In India, we notice that a lot of people look for loopholes and then try to cross them.  Hotels are liable to inform their guests," he feels. We as event managers are telling them to have a la carte approach. The point is demands are made without showing legal documents that they’ve the licence for a particular song and exorbitant amounts are demanded under the guise of collecting royalties. Criminal FIR has already been registered against Courtyard by Marriott and we have an injunction against Park Hyatt and Radisson Gachibowli.

An FIR has been filed against Courtyard by Marriott for copyright infringement based on a complaint registered by Novex Communications, which claims that the hotel was playing the song Kala Chashma — the rights of which were assigned to Novex by Zee Music — without paying for it. These companies were in turn asked to upload on their websites the copyright assignment deeds along with the list of songs whose licence they own. If you don’t agree with the price, then you don’t pay and you don’t play. People who are doing a big event don’t mind paying for the music, but those with just 30 or 40 guests find it too high.Advocate A. "Using or playing copyrighted music without a necessary license is infringing of copyrights, which is a criminal offence. Santhosh Kumar, practising at the High Court, puts forth his view: "The original creator of the music holds rights to the work, but a music company can assign someone to collect royalty on their behalf. But they ask you to pay for the repository of more than 9 lakh songs, even though you didn’t use so many.

We ask them to show us under what provision do they have the right to collect money — they say section 30 of the Indian Copyright Act and we direct their attention towards Section 33, which says that no person or association can carry on the business of issuing or granting licences," explains and adds, "Suppose you have to buy their songs for a party, where you play say 60 songs., needs to take an authorisation for using copyrighted music for events such as weddings receptions, sangeets, cocktail parties, award functions, get-togethers and birthday parties among other events."Prabal Chandra Srivastava, General Manager, Hotel Marigold By Green Park, says, "Hotels here are unaware, that such a body exists. Companies like Novex act as mediators and are entitled to collect money being the assignee of the copyright holder."PROFUSION OF CONFUSIONNotably, Section 52 of the Indian Copyright Act mentions that religious functions are exempted. Piracy has to be stopped and we need to do our bit for curbing it. When contacted, Courtyard by Marriott failed to respond. The same way you have to contribute to the royalty if you use a song.

With the state expecting a substantial number of tourists to visit during summer, security agencies want to plug all possible security loopholes.Sources said once the Centre receives a detailed report from the state government, it will work on a detailed plan as to how religious institutions can be insulated from the increasing threat of radicalisation.Now that the situation is getting back to normal in Kashmir valley following the long spell of violence and sustained stone-pelting last year, the Centre and the state government are keen that separatists should not be given any opportunity to vitiate the atmosphere in the region again by using the platform of religious places.

"Since the state security agencies, including local police and their intelligence units, are better equipped to get ground-level report as to what exactly is happening in Kashmir, we have asked them to submit details on this," a senior ministry official said.It is being suspected for some time now that separatists have managed to make inroads into madrasas in Kashmir valley, and are using this opportunity to radicalise young students.It is also believed that terror groups are using the hardliners, like Hurriyat members and their overground workers (OGWs), to target religious places and madrasas.

Once we get the details both the Centre and the state government will https://www.religious-rosary.com/ jointly chalk out a plan to deal with the problem," the official said."So far we are yet to receive the report.New Delhi: The home ministry has sought a detailed report from the Jammu and Kashmir government on whether terror operative and hardliners, including members of the Hurriyat, were using religious places, especially madrasas, for radicalising youth and doing other subversive activities.The issue had come on the radar of Central security and intelligence agencies in the wake of unprecedented violence seen in the valley following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani last July.

It will also launch a campaign to educate Muslim youth about multiculturalism, plurality, unity in multiplicity and other glorious facets of Indian compositeness. As a result, Kharijism-inspired extremism is now spinning out of control. An initiative of the All-India Ulema and Mashaikh Board, an apex body of the Indian Sufi Sunni Muslims, the WSF aspires to constantly engage in Sufism-inspired Islamic discourses and divergent contemporary debates to enlarge the ambit of approaches to counter extremism. The emergence of Kharjism in Islam in its early phase was the first brutal and bloodthirsty incarnation of religious extremism among Muslims. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) also warned against Takfirism: "Do not revert to takfir after me by cutting one another’s necks" (Sahih al-Bukhari). Ibn Muljim, the founder-ideologue of this fanatic faction, went to the extent of killing Prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law Hazrat Ali in his crazy bid to "purify" Islam.Notably, the first Islamic curriculum on peace and counter-terrorism has been developed by the Minhaj-ul-Quran International, under the guidance of its founder Muhammed Tahir-ul-Qadri, a prominent Pakistani Sufi leader. If they are declaring the terrorists "kafirs" (infidels), they are also, inadvertently, replicating their ways. They could begin by asking why it is still being taught in Pakistan’s Wahhabi seminaries, despite the serious threat it poses. This was exhorted by the Prophet in his last sermon in Mecca. There is no difference between Kharjism and modern-day jihadism. It was carried out by the Talibani religious zealots with a gross violation of peaceful Islamic principles. Similarly, India’s leading Barelvi madrasa, Jamia Rizvia Manzar-e-Islam, has launched a course on de-radicalisation titled "Islam and Terrorism".Walking in the same "puritanical" footsteps of Kharijites, the present-day jihadists have declared all those who differ from or even doubt their desiccated faith as mubah al-dam (whose blood can be shed) and wajib-ul-qatl (whose killing is mandatory).

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s order to kill all those who celebrated Id last year was no different from https://www.religious-rosary.com/ the Kharijite ideologue Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s fatwa that whosoever celebrates any cultural or religious festival "should be killed, their wives and daughters violated, and their possessions confiscated". It contains the main theological discourses challenging dangerous radical doctrines with extensive quotations from Quran, hadith and other Islamic texts and resources. Anjaria, the head of Islamic Defence Cyber Cell in Mumbai, Anjuman teachers closely monitor students in secondary, graduate and post-graduate courses, noticing their behavioural changes. Shortly after four Kalyan-based young Muslims joined the Daesh in May 2014, India’s largest modern Islamic institute, Anjuman-e-Islam, joined the ideological war against the ISIS. Whoever, Muslim or non-Muslim, went against the Kharijite puritanical understanding of Islam, had his/her throat slit. Contact him at grdehlavi@gmail. He warned that Takfir is a grave fitnah (sedition) that has to be defeated by people of all times. The entire Muslim community, and especially moderates, need to rethink their strategy to defeat the vindictive Kharijite-Talibani ideology.The silence of a large number of Muslim leaders on the historical nexus between violent extremism and Kharjism, the first radical movement in Islam, is surprising. Ibn Kathir and Tabri, the two earliest authorities on Islamic history, tell how Kharijites peddled hatred, intimidation, violence and terror. What are the nefarious political motives behind this "religious" mindset Why are holy scriptures of peace, like the Quran, being misused to justify violence by the neo-Kharijites It’s time we start looking for concrete answers to these questions. Thus, the ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, TTP and all other jihadist outfits strictly subscribe to the puritanical, radical Kharjism. Faith-inspired terror in Islam began with the rise of Kharjism. Kharijites declare all those who don’t believe in their vile ideology as kafir and mushrik (infidel and polytheist) and, hence, slaughter them. Categorised into several volumes, it is separately meant for young Muslim students, imams, clerics and teachers, although much of the material overlaps.Neo-Kharjism can only be eliminated by completely shunning Takfirism. The early Kharijites terrorised civilians in Nahrawan, a part of Iraq then, because they did not accept their coercive creed.The wanton killing of students in Bacha Khan University in northwest Pakistan, leaving 20 dead, has deeply pained us all. According to the madrasa rector, it is aimed at teaching students a tolerant Islam. Muslim clerics must be wary of their approach towards countering violent extremism. But the question is why this obnoxious ideology is attractive today to some Muslims.

The writer is an alim (classical Islamic scholar) and doctoral scholar with Centre for Media, Culture & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia. Very few Islamic clerics or heads of Muslim seminaries have, so far, identified the relation between extremism and the misreading of Islamic scriptures.The growing number of young Muslims joining terror outfits like the ISIS, Al Qaeda, TTP or Boko Haram are inspired by the very well worked out Kharijite theology being installed in radicalised madrasas. The Kharijites have always rejected any kind of reconciliation with people of other faiths, and remained hell-bent on complete cessation of all other creeds, sects, systems of governance, modes of education and even multicultural traditions. So this highly radicalised indoctrination of Islamism has to be countered and controlled by educating Muslims about non-Takfirism.A word of caution, however. Today, this fitnah has risen again, on a global scale.But, at the same time, it is heartening to note that over 100 heads of Sufi shrines of India have formed the "World Sufi Forum" (WSF), bringing together spiritually-inclined leaders of all faiths and traditions from various countries to strengthen the cause of peace, tolerance, dialogue and de-radicalisation.Radicalised Muslim youth joining the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) in Pakistan or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to attain what they call "istishhad" (martyrdom) is not a recent phenomenon.Kharijism is extremely rigid in its interpretation of Islam and, therefore, turns into violent extremism anytime, anywhere. Mainstream Muslims need to brainstorm why the extremist indoctrination of the Muslim youth and madrasa pupils by the TTP in Pakistan, ISIS in Syria or by its jihadist ilk in other countries is succeeding. They immediately report to the Anjuman management and the student’s guardians if they find even a slight hint of radicalisation. According to A. It has launched an anti-terrorism course for more than one lakh students at its 98 branches and campuses spread across Maharashtra.More noticeable development in the community is that a number of Indian madrasas are beginning to counsel their students against the vices of extremist groups like the ISIS and Taliban.Throughout Islamic history, Kharjism-inspired doctrines have encouraged radical Islamists to take up arms against non-combatant civilians.Kharjism is based on Takfirism — declaring all others, that is non-Muslims, kafir (infidel). By merely proclaiming that all the jihadist volunteers are kafir and murtad (apostates) and hence not Muslims, they are not on the right track to stem the tide of modern Kharijite extremism.