On the occasion of Eid, former Pakistani cricketer, Danish Kaneria put a post on his Twitter account, with the caption “Jai Shree Ram” while the photo that went along with it was “Eid Mubarak”. This tweet was celebrated by Indian Hindu nationalist on Twitter with comments like “Sabse bada bhakt Pakistan me hai (Biggest devotee (Hindutva) is in Pakistan)” and “proud of you”.

Quoting this tweet, a Sindhi Pakistani girl, apologised to all Muslims and said, “On Behalf of #PakistaniHindus, particularly #Hindus of #Sindh, I my sincere apologies to all the Muslims celebrating #Eidh, this fraud and corrupt snake is not a Hindu, he is only desperately appeasing #Hindutva terrorists in #India so that they offer him some job. #EidhMubarak”

The girl, Veemal Sindhu is a content creator with over 9,000 followers and as per her bio, a human rights activist, living in Canada,

Related:

Stones pelted during Eid namaaz in Allahabad

Harmony vs disharmony in 2 states: Kerala temple welcomes Muslims; MP temple fires Muslims

Communal harmony, Mumbai style

The post Pakistani Hindu girl apologises for cricketer’s “Jai Shree Ram” post on Eid appeared first on SabrangIndia.

This was during Ramzan in 2010. My maternal grandmother had to undergo knee replacement surgeries after losing her mobility due to a combination of severe arthritis, varicose veins and bad reaction to lifelong and daily use of steroids due to debilitating asthma (which took her eventually). Her surgery for each knee was around 3 months apart, so I used this opportunity to make a career shift and the break to be with her for her surgeries and after care. This was also the point of reckoning for my grandfather’s health which took a bad turn around the same time.

During one of her knee replacement surgeries in a hospital in Baroda, Gujarat, there was an urgent requirement for three units of blood. It was sometime in the middle of the night, I was alone there in the hospital. Her blood type being B negative, was rare and difficult to arrange, and the hospital washed off their hands saying they did not have the required backup and that they were trying with the blood banks but they did not have the blood group. I started making calls and sending messages to everyone I knew in baroda – friends, family, activists I knew and to contacts sent by my parents who have better networks there, also exploring again with the blood banks, but nothing was coming up. 

I was panicking by the time I got a call back from an activist friend a few hours later who told me that something was being arranged and that the blood donors would come in. In an hour, three men showed up at the hospital and enquired for me. They had come from Muslim dominated area of Tandalja. They were all observing roza and had woken up early for sehri. While we got speaking, one of them told me that he was enlisted as a blood donor but doesn’t get calls often because people won’t take Muslim blood in Baroda, he had asked if we would but was told it was not a problem so he came. I was too exhausted and couldn’t help but tear up out of gratitude and pain. 

We started exchanging stories of a different Baroda before 2002, before disturbed areas and segregation. The city of their memories and imagination, the one my parents romanticise from their student and movement days, what I reminisce of childhood summers and safety in my second home. At some point I was told it was good I lived in Bombay being HM – Hindu-Muslim, because here that can only mean riots. We imagined a different future, of peace and friendship and love (if only we knew better then) and laughed on some common gujju jokes. My granny met one of them later when he returned, blessed them all and cracked some more hilarious jokes on her surgery and leg in her unique style. We went to the canteen and broke fast together with fruits and hospital chai and biscuits too.

I have never felt the value of blood more than then. The pain of that which is shed out of hate and Gratitude for that which is given out of love. When my granny died quite suddenly after a bad spell of asthma on the new years eve of 1st January 2015, for her condolence meeting in Baroda a few days later, we had a blood donation camp along with body and eye donation (following her lead) with songs of love playing in the background. Each time I donate blood I feel happy remembering my friends from Tandalja and that hopeful day. But today I remembered this story while forwarding a few appeals for blood donation and also reading some hate speech calling for the blood of Muslims that has been doing the rounds. 

We are living in a world oscillating between warped priorities and stark realities. And in between a world blissfully and conveniently oblivious to both these worlds. I just hope more people actively choose love over hate. Love is the epidemic this world desperately needs. And one we don’t is Covid which really really needs to go now, it has weakened and destroyed just enough, even the strength to fight hate. It’s time for us to rebuild and heal, all of us who reject hate need to say it out loud in unison. 

#DonateBlood #RejectHate #loveistheanswer #ramzanmubarak

Rohit Prajapati-Trupti Shah-Amar Jesani-Vibhuti Patel from that time

(The author is a rights advocate, feminist and secretary of the Maharashtra Unit of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties-PUCL; the post is from her Facebook post dated April 13, 2023 and is being published with her permission with minor edits)

The post Red for blood, love and Ramzan appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Heartwarming reports of good samaritans, many of them Muslims, risking their lives to save those drowning in the Machhu river, are adding a silver line of hope in the otherwise bleak aftermath of the tragedy in Gujarat’s Morbi. Over 130 people are feared dead on Sunday when allegedly 700 people thronged the British-era suspension bridge, leading to its collapse. Incidentally, the bridge had been shut for renovations and had only recently been thrown open to the public. 

After the bridge collapsed around 6:30 PM, Mahbub Hussain Pathan, a local resident, was called by a local reporter. He rushed to the site.  An expert swimmer, he claims to have saved about 50-60 lives. Among them, he says, were pregnant ladies, young people and kids.

A Muslim youth named Mahebub Hussain Pathan of Morbi jumped into the water without caring for his life and saved people alive, Salute to the humanity of Hussain Mahebub Pathan who saved the lives of more than 50 people ?? pic.twitter.com/ihcRsV0FOZ

— Imransha Bhati عمران بھٹی (@IMRANBHATI82) October 31, 2022

Even though it was getting dark, Taufik bhai, another local resident, jumped in the waters,and managed to save 35 lives. In a video clip recorded by a TV channel, he says that he had tears in his eyes because of the sheer number of children fighting to get out. 

Taufiq bhai, Naeem Shaikh along with others saved over hundreds of lives in Gujarat’s Morbi when flying bridge collapsed.

Taufiq bhai saved the lives of 35 children.#MorbiBridgepic.twitter.com/XQbdwedDJ4

— Waquar Hasan (@WaqarHasan1231) November 1, 2022

The hero who never returned

Naeem Sheikh, a migrant worker from Kolkata, working in the jewelry making sector, rushed with five of his friends to the site of the tragedy. He says between them, they managed to save 50-60 people. but lost a friend Habibul Sheikh. “By then we had all had ingested a lot of water. One of us never came back”, he tells a TV channel. 

There were many others too, who risked their life and limb to save strangers. The Quint has a report about Hussain, an ambulance driver who, alongwith Milan Prakashbhai, ferried the injured and dead to the hospital all night. This when his own cousin had perished in the tragedy. Haseena, a social worker helped in identifying bodies by cleaning them in the civil hospital. Ravi and his friend chipped in to provide food and water to the injured. 

Agniveers to the rescue

Jignesh Laljibhai trains young men for the agniveer program. According to him, he saw the broken bridge on his way back from a training run and directed his trainees to jump in and rescue people. Those who knew how to swim, jumped in. The others provided ropes and helped people come out of the water from the bank. 

With political forces increasingly seeking to polarize the country on religious lines and particularly in a poll bound state where religious polarization is the norm, it is perhaps important to remember how love and courage keep us united, and save lives, in the face of a tragedy as enormous as this. 

Related: 

Everyday Harmony: Muslims donate to renovate Hindu temple in Gujarat

Everyday Harmony: Members of Ganpati Visarjan procession pay respect to mosque

Everyday Harmony: Kashmiri Pandits welcome back Hajis with Na’at recital

The post Everyday Harmony: Heroes to the rescue – Muslims amongst many pitch in to save lives in Morbi appeared first on SabrangIndia.

VISAKHAPATNAM: Setting yet another example of religious co-existed and harmony, some Muslims served bhiksha (food) to Ayyappa Swamys at Gajuwaka in Visakhapatnam on November 1, a Tuesday. The Times of India reported this example from the ground of how various Indian communities live. 

Muslim, banding together under the Youth Welfare AP organization served food in Ramalayam in Sitaramanagar. 
Youth Welfare and Minorities Rights Protection Council state president Sharukh Shibli, members Zaheer and Abu Nasar arranged food for the Ayyappa devotees who are observing Ayyappa Deeksha.

“We should confine our religion beliefs to ourselves and to our homes. Once we come out of the home, we are all Indians. Every Indian should have this kind of attitude. I believe this would sustain religious harmony,” Zaheer said.

The post Visakhapatnam: Muslims serve food to devotees of Ayyappa appeared first on SabrangIndia.