Title: Violence in Bangalore
over article on Muslims
Author:
Publication: The Asian
Age
Date: January 3, 2000
Bangalore: The police
used teargas and a lathicharge to disperse an angry crowd of Muslims gathered
outside the New Indian Express office here on Sunday evening.
A lorry belonging to
the newspaper was set on fire and traffic held up for hours at Queen's
Circle. On Sunday morning copies of the New Indian Express were burnt at
Russel Market Chowk in protest against an article in the newspaper's Saturday
edition, which the men in the crowd said contained "insults to Prophet
Mohammed."
Over 1,000 men, who started
gathering around 2 pm, performed both the assar and magrib namaaz on the
road in front of the newspaper office. The men in the crowd also broke
their fast on the road as the police watched. However, when the crowd grew
restless and set the lorry on fire, the police used teargas and a lathicharge
to disperse the mob. Two photographers were hurt in the clash between the
police and protesters. Sporadic violence was reported from other parts
of Bangalore on Sunday.
The mob was enraged by
comments in an article titled The millennium is dead... Long live the millennium
by veteran journalist T.J.S. George. He observed in the article: "So pervasive
was the equation between the orient and evil on the one hand and between
Europe and virtuousness on the other, that the stereotypical notions found
their way into great literature. Dante should suffice as example if because
his Inferno, composed in the first decades of the 14th century, is so profound
a fixture in the literate world's consciousness. Dante had no doubt that
Prophet Mohammed's eventual place was in hell but in the eighth of nine
circles of hell, that is so close to the very bottom where Satan himself
dwells." This and subsequent quotations from Dante about the Prophet's
condition in the afterlife enraged Muslim sentiment and provoked an anger
which intensified over time. Some Muslims considered it particulalrly heinous
that the quotations should have been published in the month of Ramzan.
Ironically, Mr George's
article says that one word which sums up the last millennium is violence
and, "for that very reason, we must wish that the summing up word for the
new millennium that is upon us is: Peace."
The Express management
issued a clarification in Sunday's edition after it received protests from
readers on Saturday. On Sunday, a group of Muslim intellectuals led by
the Jamia Masjid Imam went to the New Indian Express office with a memorandum
seeking action against Mr George and a personal apology from him. The Express
management agreed to apologise by expressing its regret over the report,
However, this did not satisfy the protesters and they wanted the police
to arrest Mr George. The crowd grew angrier as the day progressed and set
on fire a New Indian Express lorry carrying 74 rolls of newsprint on Sunday
evening in front of the Hindu office on Infantry Road.
At Anepalya, violence
broke out when youths threw stones at a few shops and forced businessmen
to down their shutters. Two photographers from local newspapers covering
the violence were beaten up and their cameras snatched. Trouble over the
article started in the city on Saturday evening. People had gathered in
the predominantly Muslim pockets of Russell Market Chowk to chalk out plans
to condemn "unholy remarks passed against the Prophet." Around 100 Muslim
youths wanted to go to the Express office on Saturday night but were prevented
by the police. Prohibitory orders are in effect over a 1-km radius around
the the New Indian Express until January 5.
