An interesting piece in today’s Melbourne Age, based on the transcript of Mohammed Haneef‘s interrogation by the Australian police, says it is illuminative of the “ill-lit gulf of misunderstanding that exists between the hugely different cultures of the East and West”.
Dr Haneef can speak English, and the interrogation takes place in English. But, writes Sushi Das, “good communication is not just about literally understanding the words spoken, but also about detecting the nuances embroidered in those words.”
“The police struggle to understand Haneef’s family connections. They also appear to lack a rudimentary understanding of basic terms. Haneef explains he is a Muslim. To work out if he is Sunni or Shiite, the policeman asks: “You said you were Islam, do you ascribe to any sort of strain?”
“Perhaps it’s just the oddity of spoken words written down, but an understanding of Islam as the religion and a Muslim as a follower of that religion might have made for sharper communication. Later, Haneef tries to explain the concept of Mufeed—a club of doctors who get together to socialise.
“Asked whether the word is Indian or Arabic, Haneef says it means “something beneficial”, adding “It’s, that’s it from Udo …” “So it’s an Udo?” asks the policeman. Could Haneef have said or meant that Mufeed has its origins in the Urdu language? Is it possible that police did not know Urdu is an Indian language?
“At the end of the interview Haneef is asked whether he has anything to add. “I haven’t done any of the crimes,” he said. “I don’t want to spoil my name and my profession.” In typical Indian fashion a man in a desperate situation raises the last thing he can cling to—his honour.
“In the West, where the concept of good character has long been replaced by the notion of a great personality, honour may seem quaint. But in the East, it is central to life. Did the police understand that?”
Also read: From us to them: rack off you bloody bonzers
churumuri 
Indian Press is full of idiots. Till the investigation is complete, one cannpt be presumed as Guilty, but he cannot be presumed as innocent as well.
Wake up folks. Specially those from Karnataka where India’s tech capital is.
These Jihadis, Deobandis, Jama-E-Islami and assorted islamists/Jihadi groups are going to destroy Bangalore.
Lashkar-E-Taiba’s head Hafeez Sayeed candidly spoke in an Interview that ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING WHICH EMPOWERS INDIA ECONOMICALLY IS A LEGITIMATE TARGET OF JIHADIS. ITS BECAUSE OF BANGALORE, MUMBAI, GUJARAT’s CONTRIBUTION TO INDIAN ECONOMY, KASHMIR IS UNDER INFIDEL OCCUPATION.
Wake up folks, before ots 2 late.
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Sushi Das is romanticizing Jihad.
He/She should visit Bangladesh/Kashmir to see what it actually means.
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BC,
Pleaaase….!!
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TS: what is written by me above are 101% truth. Based on facts.
If you want not to confront it, its upto you.
The specter now lurking before Karnataka (and large parts of South India) is, to become a fertile ground of Jihad to undermine Indian state.
Its our future generation who will pay more unless we act now/
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/*this write up is not relevant to the title of this article but but in line wid the line post haneef dfiscussions here. Got this from my friend.Donno where it was published */
The peaceful majority
Author unknown
July 17, 2007
I used to know a man whose family was German aristocracy prior to
World War II. He was a German Jew. They owned a number of large
industries and estates. I asked him how many German people were true
Nazis, and the answer he gave has stuck with me and guided my attitude
toward fanaticism ever since.
“Very few people were true Nazis,” he said, “but many enjoyed the
return of German pride; and many more were too busy to care. I was one
of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the
majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it,
they owned us; and we had lost control, and the end of the world had
come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp,
and the Allies destroyed my factories.”
We are told again and again, by “experts” and “talking heads” that
Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims
just want to live in peace.
Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely
irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and
meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the
globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam,
at this moment in history, as the Nazis did, in their time in history.
It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of
50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically
slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa, and are
gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is
the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor kill. It is the
fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who
zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and
homosexuals.
The hard quantifiable fact is that the” peaceful majority” is the
“silent majority,” and it is cowed and extraneous.
History
Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in
peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of
about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.
China’s huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists
managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.
The average Japanese individual, prior to World War 2, was not a
warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way
across Southeast Asia in an orgy of killing, that included the
systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians – most killed by
sword, shovel, and bayonet.
And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it
not be said that the majority of Rwandans were “peace loving?”
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our
powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of
points:
Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.
Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up,
because like my friend from Germany, they will awake one day, and find
that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have
begun.
Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs,
Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many
others, have died – because the peaceful majority did not speak up
until it was too late.
As for us who watch, it all unfold; we must pay attention to the only
group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.
Lastly, I wish to add: At the risk of offending someone, I sincerely
think that anyone who rejects this as just another political rant, or
doubts the seriousness of this issue, or just deletes it without
sending it on, is part of the problem.
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KH,
Nice,,,but no cigar and brandy!
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DB,
cigar brandy ella nam shoki alla sir.. adenidroo class jana nimdu…tribal sympathisersge beedi shendine saaku
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salamo 3alaikom :
your writing made some sence following your single premis ???
Untill :
in the end , you made an account of all the examples you mentioned ???
the German , the Japanees, the chinees …………………………………..
THEN , The Afgani , the Iraqis , the Palistenians, ……………………………..
and casualy neglecting to mention the Israelies ????????????????????
that made you a person not worth talking to listening to.
Salamo 3alaikom
PS:all humans have opinions .
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