On the day when yet another global leader who quotes him at the whirr of a teleprompter coolly walked away with the Nobel Prize for Peace, the latest model for Mont Blanc pens ponders his fate at Mekhri Circle in Bangalore. Should he have, like, jockeyed for the award a bit more aggressively?
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
Also read: CHURUMURI POLL: Does Obama deserve the Nobel?
churumuri 
The Noble committee didn’t award the Peace Prize for 1948. Me thinks it is in honor of the Mahatma.
They waited too long. And probably don’t want to repeat the mistake?
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Rashmi:
True, they waited too long in Case of Gandhi, so does it justify awarding it for intentions (not actions)? Should it presume that all intentions of Obama (Nuclear free world, healing touch to muslim world etc.) have all worked out?
If awards were given for intentions, they might as well give me one – before it is too late? ;-)
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Jockey boxers are cool and comfortable as compared to briefs. Even Jockey should be given Nobel.
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Teleprompter..maybe, but atleast he will save lives when he ends the war. Whereas the the other person was solely responsible for deaths of millions due to his flawed, philosophical, impractical opinions. He was a person with no accountability, yet had a mass following simply because people were naive and uneducated during the 40’s. If there is an award for creating a long lasting, never ending feud between two countries, he deserves it!!!
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The reason for the peace prize, in my opinion, is not for his intentions, but for the simple reason that he was the first black president of the most powerful country in the world, which itself is a great achievement, giving hope to millions. A dalit prime minister in India would deserve the award on the same lines, if it ever happens!!!
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Santosh, It is so true. We honour the Mahatma, but his teachings? We saw that picture of UP congressman having chicken dinner on Gandhi’s birthday. We just talk, we make our leaders Gods, We are so satisfied with hald a dozen names we glorify and we expect the whole world to agree with us.
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I don’t know what the sources for your claims are, Santhosh, but facts contradict you. Most of Gandhi’s ideas were practical and grounded in reality – take his insistence on personal hygiene, for example. Or his advocacy of a lifestyle closely interdependent on nature. Long before the scientists and statisticians started warning us about environmental issues, Gandhi addressed them. As for political matters, I wouldn’t engage in a debate – those, I fear, are subjective to individual leanings. One thing however, the last man you could blame for the partition would be him. His was just a sad grudging nod when even his closest associates though Partition to be the only solution to an escalating Hindu-Muslim tension.
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Mahathma is much more greater than your Nobel award
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@Sudipto – My source -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi
I am not commenting on his personal lifestyle or beliefs, like simplicity, truth, vegetarianism etc.
Here are some of the excerpts from his books, which I feel are too idealistic & impractical in real world. His political opinions were based on this idealistic world he was dreaming of, which was never going to happen.
From the book “For Pacifists”
“The unexpected spectacle of endless rows upon rows of men and women simply dying rather than surrender to the will of an aggressor must ultimately melt him and his soldiery…A nation or group which has made non-violence its final policy cannot be subjected to slavery even by the atom bomb…. The level of non-violence in that nation, if that even happily comes to pass, will naturally have risen so high as to command universal respect”
Gandhi’s advice to British during WW II
Non-Violence in Peace and War
“I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions…If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them.”
Gandhi’s opinion on the Jews apathy
“Hitler,” Gandhi said, “killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs… It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany… As it is they succumbed anyway in their millions
– The last one troubled me the most – We have stories after stories of bravery during the holocaust & this man’s opinion was that jews commit suicide & expect the perpetrators to realize by themselves. One thing is for sure, if they had followed Gandhi’s idea, there wouldn’t be any jew living today.
Final thoughts – The man was great, but too idealistic. As far as partition goes, he should have stepped up and negotiated a settlement – his inaction caused so much misery, after all he was the “Father of the nation” but during partition, he was treated as the grandfather of the nation, whose nod is all you need – not their authoritative stance. After partition, he should have suggested better logistics for the partition, rather than just asking people to switch sides.
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Tragically we are post morteming the Mahathma’s idealism and capabilities. RSS and chamchas still try to underplay his efforts to stall partition. Godse finally did the honours.
Truly India does not know how to pay respects to the Father Of The Nation.
@Santhosh
Probably you are a Jew sympathiser. For all we know the world would have been a better place to live, if all of them would have been wiped out, as you think would have happened if they followed Gandhijis idealism. But on the contrary it would have been a different scenario. But who knows?
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So many with anti-Obama sentiments. Perhaps driven by the observation of Obama about the American jobs outsourced to Bangalore. I do not live in America, but I agree with his observation.
Indians should learn to move on and no harping on the non-award of Nobel Peace Prize for M Gandhi. He was prepared to handover the PMship of India to Jinnah if the latter agreed not to press for partition. The fact that he liked muslims cannot be refuted. Calling some one as ” Jew Symapthiser” as if it is crime is silly and infantile Indian politics. It is this kind of attitude that undermines India’s gaining international influence.
Let us face it, Obama is a transformational leader and even his worst enemy accept this. I am at ease about this award unlike the hyperventilating folks here.
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@ krishna
Probably you are a Jew sympathiser. For all we know the world would have been a better place to live, if all of them would have been wiped out, as you think would have happened if they followed Gandhijis idealism. But on the contrary it would have been a different scenario. But who knows?
Only sick mind can think like this.. isn’t it?
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@Manjunath,
Don’t go by name ‘Krishna’. This guy is a narrow-minded fanatic (as usual) muslim writing in disguise.
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Induji..
You wrote..’We saw that picture of UP congressman having chicken dinner on Gandhi’s birthday.’
I am confused as to what’s the point? Is eating wrong on Gandhiji’s b’day? Or eating ‘chicken’ is wrong on his b’day? Or eating chicken is wrong on any day? Or he/she being a congressman shouldn’t be eating chicken in the name of Father of the nation – atleast on his b’day?
Kindly explain maadi.
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@alvaa matte and manjunath
I sincerely beleive jews are the epicentre of all controversies. Hence my comments. And i should not be banished as a muslim for my thoughts.
And by the way whom are you masquerading as? Are you a Jew!!?
But we are diverting from the main subject of not honouring Gandhiji. What is your stand on the same. Or are you with the Right wingers?
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Krishna:
Why this generalization of all Jews as evil and such an antipathy? That’s the hall mark of right-wingers and you ask the others if they are with Right-wingers. Now that’s comical:) Your views about Jews are very much similar to the Right-wing extremists who tend to paint a religious or linguistic minority as an unmitigated evil. So where’s the difference sir?
Unfortunately many of us hold very rigid views about the historical figures depending on which side of the ideological divide we are in. For many Nehru and Gandhi were villains par excellence while for many others on other side it’s Savarkar and Golvalkar.
This has something to do with our easy felicity to deify the leaders methinks. When you deify a person or his/her ideology, you necessarily have to create an equally vile demon/s.
But even by these sordid standards, I would think M K Gandhi has received and continues to receive quite a raw deal. For many Hindu nationalists he was not ‘Hindu enough’ while for many Ambedkarites/Dalits he was a mad Sanatani who perpetuated the classical caste structure. Both continue to hate him with apparent glee and they are quite vocal. So who likes him one may wonder and I think a silent and substantial block of folks still do..may be. Or who knows I might be terribly wrong in that assumption!
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@Anshuman Patel
I really think the majority of the dravidians, idolize him, and the bulk of the Aryans feel he does not deserve the kudos.
And we clearly know who have the numbers…and it is just a matter of time it will reflect very clearly.
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w.r.t Jews as troublemongers. History reveals that Jews always considered themselves the “Chosen People”, much like a few elite in our country.
And when you have such an attitude…God save others.
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Krishna = An Islamic person hiding behind this noble name! Ignore him.
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Mahatma, (once the great soul) now a poor soul is forced to jockey, with some Indian studs in skimpy underwear, for visibility and space. We should recognize BBMP for its efforts in (dis)honouring Mahatma Gandhi in this way.
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@THE TRUTH
Forget about jews. What is your stand on Gandhiji?
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Any man who says that to kill oneself is the same as defending oneself like Gandhi did wrt jews, is not a normal person. Such a man is a brutal masochist and if the jews did not spit on his face, it was simply their decency.
@krishna – what exactly makes you tick I say? No one other than muslims can talk like this. You cannot be a hindu.
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I don’t know why people are sympathsizing with Jews so much? Even Indians are capitalists. And some trace their Indo-European grand porno identity with pride. They just want not to work; and eat usury- colloquially called baddi maklu and with pride they say they are Lakshmi Putrudu – thus putting all the blame of women -call them shudra also.
@Curious
Krishna and Muslim -nothing wrong with it. He built caste, divided society, had countless affairs, provoked Arjuna to fight, and eventually sent Pandavas to exile ,no one knows what happened to happy nation people afterwards .
Materialistically, Hindu swarga and Muslim Jannat- both want to seduce woman , and have multiple affairs.
and as per my observation Jews were the most materialistic class, which also made Michael Jackson to sing “Jew me, Sue me,cut me kill me” in They don’t really care about us, and Hitler to roast them in concentration camps -again Krishna’s way of protecting Dharma.
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Curious:
Sir, you ought to take off your prejudiced goggles off and go slow on easy n quick stereotyping.
Sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction. Guess who said the following about Hitler and his well documented ‘treatment’ of Jews?
“To keep the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked up the world by her purging the country, of Semitic races – the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well -nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to root to be assimilated to one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by.”
It’s Shri Golwalkarji who proclaimed such in ‘We or Our Nation Defined’ P.35/43.
Now you and I obviously know Shri Golwalkarji was not a Muslim and yet he ranted against Jews. Or do you think he was a clandestine Muslim in private life? Or you thonk he operated under a pseudonym?
Such is history – always full of surprises and regularly punches holes in many of our pet theories and stereotypes.
The love for Jews in the Indian right-wing is of recent origin. As you can see such was not the case few decades back with right-wingers eulogising Hitler. Why, our man Bal Thakre worships Hitler even today!
Jews became right-winger’s bosom buddies once Israel was created and they became a thorn in the Muslim flesh. Enemy of my enemy is my friend you see.
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raaja, i see your being very level headed about jews and brahmins. good for you. carry on. all of them are baddi makklu and lazy :) nice to hear such facts
i see, now krishna built caste. did he build it in one day or during the bhagvad gita narration time? what was his basis for building caste system? what were his materials? why did ppl help him? was there no caste system before him? etc etc etc
krishna = hitler ah? tumba chennagide. btw, which planet? isn’t it different on earth? :)
patelavare, ade ondu quotannu ujji, ujji, ujji, ujji….eshtu anta ujtira? u also dont know that there has not been a single hindu nationalist who has been against israel or jews. even golwalkar has never spoken against israel and jews. your quotation ujjing only tells me you have not understood its intent. but if you like it so much you can keep it :)
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Curious avre,
Anna…Krishna avru ondu sandesha baradru. Neevu avarna Muslim madidri. Guruji kooda ade tara helidru andre ujjodu anteera. Nyaya enri idu?
Neevu Krishna avarna Muslim mado modlu koncha tale ujjidre nanu Guruji avra quote ujjo paristhiti barta itta swami?
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patelavare, golwalkar avaru jews viruddha matadlilla. adanna maribedi.
the point golwalkar was making in that overused quote was how difficult it is for cultures with differences going to the roots to live together. he was not being anti-jew nor was he being pro-german, let alone pro nazi.
since you seem to like quotes why don’t you look up some pro-hitler ones by gandhi himself? was gandhi pro-nazi too? or better still, was he anti-jew?
here we have this krishna commentor who has imputed vile motives that jews are usurpers and worse. he has even said that they should have been finished completely. liquidated. this is the language the islamic world is speaking these days and has always spoken right from the first chapter in their book not excluding dear ahmedinejad.
you realize all of this and still say krishna is a standalone? worse, you want to paint galwalkar in dark colours too? that’s callous.
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@Curious
If you start commenting without any pre-concieved ideas which is very very difficult for anyone since we are all pre-concieved , but atleast start trying, it would be better.
And I never said all. I said some ,because a kannada veg brahmin is more near to kannada jain and may not accept brahminism of bong,or a kerala ,or even a temil one and those GSBs Oops. Heights will be when Udupi mutt ostracizes a swami for travelling abroad! Thus brahmin by itself is migratory at some parts and not at some. That means they are also Jangama. Hence there is no use to collectively call everybody with same practice just because they keep same name! We reach nowhere and will be fighting uselessly.
History and events overlap. I will give a simple example to see things in shallow. Gandhi overlap with Hitler, but never with violence – the result
difference – Gandhi died saying his favourite hymn and Hitler committed suicide.
similarity – both never cared for their lives. For this can we name them former jehadis ? :)
hope you get the difference there. Hitler overlaps with Aryan origin suddenly and I have no doubt he was helped by Indian travelling Brahmins to relate to that story who now proclaim everything having european origin including languages! And if you read Hitler’s story he was right in his own perspective about the oppressed working class. All the scientists who worked their day in and day out for inventions made during industrial revolution were never jews! All the workers who builts metros and mines were never jews. Then how the hell can they keep all the profits themselves just because they traded and, ontop built ladders of castes for workers to keep climbing after death ,was an obvious question. Just used Krishna and Muslim as test cases to show the overlapping.
Even now CA’s and HR’s are paid heavily without any reason just because they tend to have no ethics when they deal with money. I am not everyone else is ethical but numbers suggest me them in majority. Forgetting Golvalkar, I am sure if you take all the teachings you have learnt in completion you may end up supporting Hitler as you have supported Jews.
It’s better we look things in perspective. Even today IMF officer of UN gets pelted by Agriculture and Commodity sector people after every trade meet. Now can you compare Che Guevara with Osama!!! This divide of capitalism and communism is quite deep rooted and we tend to do all such overlappings and if you try being hindu and muslim when we open our markets like india, or pakistan getting US donation every now and then in the name of reconstruction. I really think it’s protection money given to Pakis from India via america not to throw bombs at india, just like Taliban’s demand it from Punjabis and sikhs in pakistan. Both cases are mutual agreements.
And make sure how much of what subdivision you belong to . Maybe you are also oppressed but made to support someone who oppresses you also globally. And please don’t dwell too much into global scene trying to get involved into it by some or the other way. Frustration builds.
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raaja, i swear to god i never understood a word you said. u seem to be all over the place. anyone can be anything it seems :) better to focus on one thing instead of one hundred things. sorry ah.
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@ Curious
Anna, I am neither trying to defend Krishna ( the fellow blogger and not the divine one:)) nor to defame Shri Guruji. All I wanted to do was point out the similarity in their thoughts and then your easy and selective labelling of Krishna as a closet Muslim using a pseudonym while Guruji continues to retain his halo and more importantly his ‘Hindu’ religion. Isn’t that a double standard?
I also wanted to point out the perils of blind labelling and easy assumptions – ie if some one doesn’t like Jews, then he/she ought to be a Muslim. Why sir, can’t he be a Jew himself? Or a Sikh? Or for that matter an atheist? Then the other assumption – no self-respecting Hindu or Hindu Nationalist can harbour such ill-will towards Jews! What’s it about Hindus and Jews and this impossiblity or incapacity of mutual hatred? Were we separated at birth or during Kumbh Mela? Are we both ‘People of the Book’? I thought it’s Jews, Christians and Muslims that belong to that category.
Thanks for your back handed compliment about my fascination with quotes:). You too could easily look up similar quotes by a bit of Googling and unearth many more such quotable gems from not only Guruji but also many other right wing luminaries. You would also find that Jews have been a hated figure throughout history – Romans, early Christians and many other communities and religionists. Probably the hatrred of Christians for Jews is unparalleled as many of them considered the Jews as Killers of Christ. Apart from such religious considerations many communities also hated them for what many believed as unfair trade paractices and their greed. ‘Merchant of Venice’ was not written by Shaikh Peerzada you may know.
Not for a moment am I trying to defend such hatred for Jews as a community. To paint an entire comunity in vile colors for misdeeds of some is utter nonsense and I just hope we don’t fall into similar traps of stereotyping.However it’s just to show that Muslims don’t have a monoploy on that commodity called Hatred for Jews.
I find it incredibly disingenuous to say that Guruji admired Hitler but didn’t hate Jews. Isn’t that ardha satya? Even if one were to accept that argument, where does admiration of Hitler come from? His purging of Jews or not? His quest for ‘purity’ of nation and its constituent people or not? Or is it that Jews were just incidental and it’s more a treatise on ‘how to treat minorities’?
I also find this love for Jews as mostly a fake sentiment. There’s definitely much to be admired about them – their intelligence, tenacity and enterprise. However for many people it’s more of a Mukhota of pyar that cleverly hides hatred for Muslims. I repeat it’s mainly the case of ‘they’r stickin’ into them so they’r my pals’.I wonder if this outpouring of love for them would have been present if Jews in India were to have similar numbers as Muslims. Soemthing tells me even they would have been equally demonized.
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@curious
all over the place;anyone can be anything. exactly that was what i meant. curios ity and bi-curiousity exists till you shed the illusion.
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patelavare, pls read your post again. only assumptions. you cannot prove to me that hindu nationalists hate jews/israel. that much is very clear.
when did i say golwalkar admired hitler? did he really? is that quote of his a mark of admiration for hitler or an observation of a pertinent fact?
i think in your haste to cover for folks of one book, you wish to demonize folks of no particular book. beam-mote-eye should ring your bell no?
so please let me know if you have anything more substantial than one quote from entire life of golwalkar? btw this quotu also does not prove what your desperately trying to prove :)
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Curious avre,
Saar if you read through all my posts on this thread, you would know I am not on mission to prove or disprove Hindu nationalist’s hate or lack of it for Jews.
All I wanted to (rather tried with miserable results, I can see:)) do was to show the fallacy of such sweeping argument that you made.
To quote you ‘No one other than muslims can talk like this. You cannot be a hindu.’
Since when love or lack of hatred for Jews became a defining quality for a Hindu? I didn’t know my Hinduness solely depends on this wonderful test.
What you are trying to say? A good Hindu is incapable of Hatred towards anyone? Or is this incapacity to hate selective and only Jews are excluded?
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@Anshuman Patel
Be careful in voicing your comments, lest you too be labelled a muslim(or was it islamist).
@curious
You seem to be an authority on guruji and right wing stuff. I beleive in equality to all. Guys like you are just like jews, who consider themselves as the only humans, and rest as animals. I dont know how you guys can appreciate a set of people who drink peoples blood. As somebody pointed out if jews were in a huge %age in India, you would have been dead against them. But since they are far away and in direct conflict with muslims, u support their cause.
I DONT BELIEVE in “Enemys enemy is my friend concept”. But i definitely beleive that certain people in the higher heirarchy of caste system in India definitely consider themselves as blood relatives of the jews tracing their origins elsewhere.
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“I sincerely beleive jews are the epicentre of all controversies. Hence my comments.”
Huh? Oh well …..one can believe in whatever one wants. But somehow you seem to suggest “curious”‘s beliefs are inferior/incorrect ?
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patelre its not very difficult to understand. why wud hindus hate jews? tell me. what have jews done to hindus for hindus to hate them? or u can see it this way too. there is no hindus scripture that asks hindus to hunt down jews under rocks, behind trees, in the neigbours house etc etc.
now see mr krishna. he believs in equality for all but wants jews killed. nice no?
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@Curious Saar,
If u read jewish scriptures you will realize that they seriously consider themselves above all, and all others as expendable, or literally a level below humans. So if you feel comfortable to their tagging, then please feel pleased to bettering up to the jews.
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@Curious:
Ayyo swami, I am not advocating any hatred..whether Hindus sticking into Jews or Jews sticking into Muslims or Muslims blowing up Hindus or for that matter Raj/Bal Thakeray stickin into Kannadigas/south Indians, Gujaratis, Muslims and North Indians (in a chronological order).
I have mentioned many times in this thread that hatred for a community as a whole is not a good sentiment. Same goes for negative stereotyping of an entire community for the misdeeds of a few bad men.
You make a point when you say that Hindus have no axe to grind with Jews and you are right in that insofar as any direct impact of their actions being injurious to us. They haven’t hurt us anytime. Agreed. But it wouldn’t stop a liberal (or may be misguided as per your view) Hindu to nurse a grouse against them due to their treatment of Palestinian people in the Middle-East. I am not advocating such hatred, please note. However one can’t stop any one else from having his/her own opinion on matters that affect them. Can we? Would you throw them out of the Hindu ambit for holding such a differing opinion or nominate them as Hindus? What next? I just shouldn’t have any views or feel for anything that doesn’t directly affect my bottomline?
Speaking about myself, I neither hate them as a community nor do I love them as a community. However there are some Jews whom I adore and some I can’t stand. Einstein, Benjamin Disraeli, Joseph Heller, Steven Spielberg and of course Jesus belong to the first category. Then there are war-mongers such as Benyamin Netanyahu or Henry Kissinger who belong to the second.
As the social and religious framework of both these religions (ie Judaism and Islam) are concerned, I frankly don’t see much scope to differentiate(either in a positive or negative way). I am not being judgemental here when I say this. I neither consider the following similarities good nor bad. They are the way they are.
– Both belong to the common ‘People of the Book’ – Old Testament as the basis.
– Both are fiercely monotheistic and the concept of Jehovah and Allah are very much similar.
– Both are equally opposed to idolatry and would view Hinduism as a pagan religion.
– Both are similar in their dietary practices – Kosher, no pork etc
– Both have similar ‘exclusivity’ paradigm. ie both think their way is the High Way when it comes to religious ideology.
– Both suffer from sense of persecution (real or imaginary)
– Both strive for theocracy or ‘exclusive’ states – eg. Israel, Saudi Arabia
So what’s that redeeming feature about Jews as a religion or a community? That they fight Muslims? Is that all?
Lastly as you have rightly said they haven’t done any harm to us Hindus and hence we have no reason to hate them as a community. ok..but is there any strong reason to love them? ie have they done any great good to us Hindus so that we should have this gushing love for them as a defining characteristic of our Hinduness? Can’t we just be neutral?
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“krishna” saar I wud much rather side with a brave nation than be with a bunch of cowards who like to collectively gang up but still fail miserably :) sad
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patelre, you compare israel with saudi arabia and tell me they are the same? u then as for reasonable debate? are u a serious person? or is this some kind of diwali fool day??
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@Curious Saar,
Who is ganging up on whom? Israel+USA+UK+France+………………………….Vs Palestine
Wow …..What an even fight. I really am afraid Israel will get hurt in the stone throws. We should protest strongly, and should ensure all stone throwers are aimed by Israeli unarmed missiles containing phosphorous which will ensure they die whether the missile is on target or not.
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Ok..Ok…curious saar..cool down..Israel can’ be compared to Saudi Arabia according to you and I am sorry if I have hurt you by this awful mistake.
What I should compare that with? Pakistan? Afghanistan? Syria? Iran?
Like all these states Israel is pseudo-secular and theocratic state with ‘non-believers’ being always politely nudged to know their place.
Do you seriously think the plight of Arabs or X’tians in this ‘Chosen land’ of Israel much better than the plight of Hindus in Pakistan or Bangladesh? Then I ought to ask you the same question – Are you really a serious person?
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krishna saar, palestine is alone ah? the muslim states of middle east and iran and china and russia etc etc not excluding fifth column in the west n east..no, these are not with palestine :) olle comedy saar :))
more comedy when mr patelru compares palestinians in israel with hindus (they exist ah?) in pakistan and bangladesh :))) too much all this is.
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@Curious Saar
Comedy show neevu saar nadstaairadu. Israel is todays Goliath. Can’t u see, or you prefer not to. Israel rules USA, and thus dictates terms over the whole world.
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