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Hindu BJP Attacks Sonia Gandhi on Her Oxford Islamic Center Participation
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Sonia Gandhi
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By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW
DELHI, November 29 (IslamOnline) - Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) has come down heavily on the secularist Congress
president, Sonia Gandhi’ s visit to the United Kingdom and
addressing a prominent Muslim organization.
The
Hindu nationalist party’ s objection to Mrs Gandhi’s visit came
just three days after an exclusive report about her visit was
published by a Delhi-based Muslim fortnightly The Milli Gazette. It
was only after publishing this report that the mainstream media picked
up the issue and published BJP’ s objection to Gandhi’ s visit.
Earlier,
Congress spokesperson Jaipal Reddy talked to the MG correspondent, and
confirmed Sonia Gandhi’ s visit to London.
Sonia
Gandhi planned to address Islamic scholars and researchers, and
deliver a lecture on “ Conflict and Peaceful Co-existence in our
Age” at Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies tomorrow, November 30.
The
Oxford Islamic Centre has been holding inter-faith dialogue, as well
as organizing seminars and publishing books. In the academic world, a
degree of prestige is attached to those who are invited to give a
lecture at the Centre.
The
centre is headed by Farhan Nizami, an Indian scholar who is son of
renowned historian Khaliq Ahmad Nizami of Aligarh Muslim University.
The centre has a chair named after widely-respected Islamic scholar of
India late Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi, former rector of Nadwatul
Ulama, an Islamic seat of higher learning at Lucknow, capital of the
northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Incidentally Maulana Nadwi was
the chairman of the Oxford Centre until his death three years ago.
Hindu
nationalist BJP accused Sonia Gandhi of patronizing a center which had
links with the family of Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind
behind the September 11 attacks on various facilities, including the
famed World Trade Center in the United States of America. The
accusation is bogus and gives an idea of the rabid anti-Muslim stances
of the BJP.
BJP
general secretary Arun Jaitley addressed a press conference Thursday,
November 28, about Sonia Gandhi's visit. Jaitley said, “ We hope
that the Congress party and its president have verified the
credentials of their hosts, particularly in the context of India
having been in the forefront of the crusade against terrorism.”
To
buttress his point Jaitley also released Photostat copies of British
media reports in October 2001 about Prince Charles having hosted a
dinner in support of the center two weeks after the September 11
terrorist attacks, where Bakr bin Laden, a brother of Osama bin Laden,
was prominent among the 60 guests. Laden’ s family funds a
fellowship at the center, Jaitley said. Jaitley has emerged as
representative of a more fanatical band of BJP which includes Gujarat
state's chief minister Narendra Modi.
Notably,
Osama bin Laden was ostracized for the September 11 attacks on the
United States. However, it is only Osama of the Bin Laden clan to be
declared an outcast and not his other brothers or family members who
are successful businessmen and spread all over the world. Quite
mischievously, Jaitley played up the Osama bin Laden factor and tried
to implicate the entire Bin Laden clan and those associated with them
without any rhyme or reason.
Meanwhile,
the Congress party has pulled up the BJP for raising this unwarranted
issue. The party has dubbed the BJP move as a “ political stunt”
aimed at the Gujarat assembly elections. K Natwar Singh, chairman of
AICC’ s foreign affairs department, said, “ The BJP is grossly
ill-informed. The external affairs minister, who belongs to the BJP,
himself acknowledged the letter which I had written him about a
fortnight ago informing him about Mrs. Gandhi’ s and my visit along
with her. He had asked the Indian High Commission to render all
assistance.”
Singh
said, “ The institution is acclaimed as “ one of the greatest
seats of learning.” Its list of speakers included dignitaries like
former South African President Nelson Mandela, UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad. Prince
Charles is the patron-in-chief of the center, which is funded by the
King of Saudi Arabia and the Ford Foundation, among others.”
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