Media Terror

K. M. Shariff, a prominent information technology professional from the city has filed a defamation suit against The Times of India for publishing a libelous report against him. The report carried in the February 28 edition of the paper from Bangalore while linking Muslim Information Technologists Association (MITA) with radical activism, had alleged that the Police were looking for Mr. Shariff, describing him as an active MITA member. The report carried the byline of Mr. N. D. Shivakumar. Mr. Shariff, who was earlier vice president of Sun Microsystem and had been associated with several leading IT companies in the past, is also a noted social worker and runs several welfare institutions in the city. He currently runs an IT firm called Icalibrator from Bangalore.
The tendentious report had quoted police sources for casting aspersions about the activities of the organization without bothering to directly contact Mr. Shariff who was available in the city. The report had appeared amid a slew of such reports branding several accused or suspects as terrorists in the wake of arrests of some students from Hubli.
The scurrilous report about Mr. Shariff appeared in the February 28, edition of the TOI. A day later, Mr. Shariff held a press conference in the Bangalore Press Club and issued a rebuttal against the TOI report. He said MITA was no secretive body and operated openly imparting technical training to IT professionals. He said it also sponsored children for education in schools, and held courses in various aspects of IT for corporates. He said IT professionals like Subroto Bagchi of the MindTree and others had addressed the workshops of the MITA. He expressed surprise at the TOI report which ascribed training of radicals to the MITA. With him were seated Mr. Ananth Kansal, Chief Operating Officer and Mr. Rajendra Kumar Khare, chairman and managing director of the Indus Edge Innovation and B. R. Seetharaman, Director, Synopsis India Private Limited. Mr. Khare also spoke at the press conference and described Mr. Shariff as a highly patriotic person. He said MITA had been encouraging the Muslim youth to upgrade themselves technically and the TOI report was highly damaging for the otherwise fair reputation of Mr. Shariff. He said the appearance of the report at a time when terror reports provide daily diet to newspapers, people would be susceptible to believing such allegation. The duo, classmates of Mr. Shariff from college days, said there was no iota of doubt about Mr. Shariff engaging himself in any such activity as alleged by the irresponsible report in the daily known for its fair reporting.
Khare clarified that MITA was not an underground body, but was a body of professionals which was working hard to help the industry. He appealed to the media community to desist from publishing unfounded and scurrilous reports.
However, the TOI only carried a two-line report in a subsequent issue saying the MITA had denied link with terror. It neither published an apology nor a retraction.
Following refusal to publish an apology by the TOI, Mr. Shariff sent a notice to the daily demanding a compensation of Rs. 5 crore from the daily and filed a defamatory suit under sections 499, 500, 501, and 502 for libel.

The policemen who were deputed for bandobust at the hall where eminent human rights activist of Pakistan, Asma Jahangir was to meet people’s representatives, were found noting antecedents of the participants.
Asma was deputed here as a UN rapporteur to take stock of the human rights violations of the Gujarat riot victims in the second week of March. The hall was teeming with complainants and representatives who had come from distant places.
As the people began moving into the hall, the security officials asked their name to ensure the identity of the community. But human rights activist Teesta Seetalvad opposed this saying it was not allowed under UN protocol. Later, when Asma arrived she had to explain to the police officers that they need not take down names of those who had come to see her in her official capacity.
Asma demanded strong actions against the culprits of 2002 riots in which more than 2,000 Muslims were killed by rioters. She met CM Modi and other higher officials of state government. Asma said that government must take some drastic measures to promote tolerance and peace among the people.
She was in Ahmedabad in her capacity as the UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, and interacted with victims of the 2002 riots as well as marginalized groups like Dalits and tribals who made representation to her about the alleged human rights violations and oppression by the state government. She said she would put down her observations in a report to be submitted to the UN human rights council.

Recently (Feb. 25, 2008), Darul Uloom, Deoband organised a meeting of over 4,000 delegates from madrassas. The overall consensus was that terrorism is un-Islamic. They did point out the role of US-Zionism in projecting this nexus of Madrasas and terrorism while appealing to them to desist from falling to the temptation of associating with groups indulging in acts of terror in the name of Islam.
The very word Islamic terrorism is a creation of US media, faithfully followed by media all over the world. And taking cue som that the communal forces have been regularly shouting that Madrassas are the breeding ground of terrorism.
The resolution of the Deoband conference is very significant. It not only has hit the nail on the head by pointing out that terrorism is due to political forces, that Islam does not permit terrorism and that those dejected Muslims facing grave injustices at the hands of the system which regards Islam and terrorism as synonyms, should not get tempted to associate with the terror outfits operating in the name of Islam.