FJ Kashmir

inam ul rehman    If Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires Kashmir is the graveyard of reputations. The latest example of this is the Jamaat-i-Islami . From violently taking on the Indian state from 1990 to 2019 to its final meltdown, or the National Conference challenging the rule of the Indian state on Kashmir to finally acceding to it, Kashmir has seen many others crumbling under their own inflated weight.    As the present “panel head” of the banned Jamaat-i-Islami finally said publicly his party is ready to contest elections, adding it never issued boycott calls. One wonders why this politico-religious party lies so much? Officially the party endorsed election boycott calls throughout the 90s well upto 2014 ( https://kashmirlife.net/ jamaat-e-islami-supports- geelanis-poll-boycott-call- 48486/ ). (If the Jamaat hadn’t pulled out its website one could have easily show them their past statements. But there is still a vast digital repository where one can find...

  Book: Kashmir : Rage and Reason Author: Gowhar Geelani Publisher: Rupa Publication Pages: 288   inam ul rehman The “Rage and Reason”, Gowhar Geelani, believes is because of the Indian state policies toward Kashmir ! Paradoxically he cites an example of a mechanical engineer, Maseehullah , working in Jalandar Punjab , joining militant ranks. It was Maseehullah’s study of Islam that prompted him to join the call of, what he believed, jihad.    The author here, like a skilled politician, spins the narrative, and writes that the protest of 2008 against the grant of land to the Amarnath shrine board made many to think that it was an attempt to change the demography, and it was this event which forced Maseehullah! Although the latter’s father clearly states that it was Islam which made him to pick the gun against the state. Even his father supports that the land belongs to Allah, and His laws should govern people here.    In fact, throughout the book author ne...