Why Only Mike Ghouse? by Shah Alam Siddiqui

January, 29,2014

Why Only Mike Ghouse???

By Shah A Siddiqui

It was my second year to attend the seminar on Holocaust & Genocides. Every year has been organized by the Foundation for Pluralism  and American Together Foundation. This year the focus was on Native American Indian genocide in the American history.The venue was as usual the Unity Church of Dallas's beautiful auditorium. Before I elaborate the manifesto of this very well organized annual program under the superb management of Mike Ghouse, I will praise for the punctuality of his all events, whether it is a small get together or big event , starts on time and ends on time without waiting for the people to accumulate and fill the hall. This gesture of his punctuality shows the discipline in his life.

I was very much impressed when I had attended  last year's event on Sikh massacre and I was participating as a speaker on the genocide of Urdu speaking Pakistanis in Bangladesh in 1971 by the Mukti Bahini forces. This event was widely attended by the Indian Sikh and Hindu community besides of local dignitaries from the American offices. In my column in Urdu Times I had criticized the missing numbers of Pakistanis where, only 3 or 4 were present at the event to support the Sikh community on their memorial program of Sikh genocide in 1984 in all over India.

I will quote here the saying of John F Kennedy "Geography has made us neighbors.History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies". Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder" what a beautiful quote is that, and if we all start thinking in this way the world can be a wonderful place to live with harmony. Mike Ghouse in his program, always spreads the word that  "speak up for others and stand up for others" Unfortunately, as a human being our mental capacity is went below average for the others. We should come out of the shell of self centered policies and be useful person of the community.

Come to the point of the symposium on American-Indian genocide in the 17th century, which is a Stigma on the forehead of powerful civilized country of the world. The lobby was nicely displayed with the posters and pictures on the topic of Native American genocide. It was very good exposition of the history and frankly speaking, it was my first ever chance to attend a symposium on the extermination or genocide of Native Americans. I have had a little knowledge of Native Americans  that this tribe were brutally killed and exterminated by the conquerer. Christopher Columbus was also one of those who ordered to kill Native Indians during his governorship and. I read about the brutality that Columbus once punished a man found guilty of stealing corn by having his ears and nose cut off and then selling him into slavery. There are many ore stories about him.

In the expo lobby, I met with one spiritual Mexican man whose nickname was "Gorilla" who told the story of being named "Gorilla" which was interesting, but his real name is  Ricardo Cervantes and he showed us a black shiny round stone plate about an inch thick and a spiritual torch burner. Later he displayed in the auditorium the lighter and the stone with the noble history of his ancestors related to stones and prayed or those who left this world for the betterment of the human being.

Mike Ghouse also introduced me with a prominent historian, lecturer of Full Blood American Indian, Citizen of Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Peggy Larney, who gave us a brief information on the Native American holocaust. 

At the symposium there were a couple of very impressive speakers like Civic Leader and Native American Representative  Steve Melendez, who briefly took us back to the history of the Native American Genocide in which more than 100 millions were brutally vanished from the earth.

There were many speakers like Coke Buchanan, Alan Keith, Michael Losurdo, Constance and I heard one speaker Gurvinder Singh of Sikh massacre in 1984 and also one Indian-American Civil right activist Sajee Gopal on Gujrat killings of Muslims in 2002 they both delivered very impressive and touch speech on the subject. Very young keynote speaker Mary Ann Thompson-Frank, who  is also a Civil Right activist delivered her speech with charismatic style and gripped the audience to listen to her findings and experience to visit Rwanda. She shared a very useful information to the audience.

A short documentary prepared by CNN and presented by International correspondent Christian Amanpour on Jewish genocide was also displayed for the audience. In the documentary the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland was focused which dragged me to my visit of this camp in 1986 when I was posted on a diplomatic assignment there. The Jewish Holocaust has  a horrible heart wrenching stories and in the concentration camp one can see and feel the pain and pesky scenes even after more than seven decades. I have written my memoir about this visit.

I had a very little knowledge about the genocide of native Americans, but in this symposium and its exhibition gave me a vast picture of this barbaric ethnic cleansing of a tribe where hundred of thousand of pregnant women killed with their babies in the womb and the invaders used different killing methods like  infesting  with deadly epidemics of diseases in women and children. New born babies were also not spared and got killed by the occupying soldiers. I read different  slogans printed in the flyer regarding the genocide. One interesting slogan of British soldiers  was " The only good Indian is a dead Indian". In fact, this slogan reminds me when the British soldiers use to put signs in different public places in Indian subcontinent before partition that" Admission of dogs and Indians are prohibited" etc.  

This  wonderful symposium and exhibition was full of knowledgeable materials and information. I can say it was an educational symposium or convention on the native American Indians and I congratulate Mike Ghouse for doing this wonderful job on his own.

I will again criticize our Indian and Pakistani community for not attending and supporting the cause of Native Americans on their genocide. I know this is history now, but to remember the history keeps you energized to face the consequences.Thanks a million to God that we are  now living in a civilized country and we did not go through the atrocities the people from the other communities have gone trough and we are reading their stories.

I would like to come to the title of this article " Why only Mike Ghouse???" most of my readers can understand the concept of this article but most of the readers  will just ignore knowingly.  First, I would like to say something about Mike Ghouse that whatever he is doing is a noble work. In the beginning when he started his 'Pluralism' mission to bring the different faiths at one platform, it was a rubbish and provocative act for other believers,in my opinion and I was very against of his all these activities being propagated his 'Pluralism' "faith" among the communities of different faith and cultures. I moved from Chicago in 2001 to this beautiful city Dallas and since then I have been listening Mike Ghause 's radio program and different papers and literally I use to hate him because of his illogical  theories  on pluralism and I thought this guy must be an '' atheist" or he hates Pakistanis or Muslims. In the beginning, in 2001 when I moved to Dallas from Chicago 

I started listening his radio program and most of the times I use to call on his radio show and complain for  not being fair with Pakistanis and Muslims and after listening and reading his articles about 'pluralism' I deadly gone against Mike Ghouse and thought that this guy is against Muslim ideology. By the time passes away, I use to read his  emails and couple of times I saw him on the Fox TV show with 'Sean Hanity show' in favor of the Muslim cause defending Muslims in the 9/11 scenario and after that I saw him on different occasions on Fox Tv and read his articles in 'Huffington Post' newspapers and in groups of community emails, gradually, I changed my opinion about Mike Ghouse. I extended my full support for the cause that Mike Ghouse is carrying alone on his shoulder for the humanity. He is serving the community in all walk of life, regardless of religions and ethnic backgrounds. He is trying to bring an impossible dream into reality and that is harmony, brotherhood and sincerity within the different communities.

He stands up for Ahmadis, Bahais, Buddhist, Christians, Sikhs, Hindu, Jains, Ismailis and of course for Muslims as well. He attends all kinds of worship as a gesture to show his and community's cooperation with them. 

The teaching of Islam is very broad who clearly speaks about brotherhood and harmony to the others and the other religions also support the same gesture, none of the religion teaches hatred or violence among different believers. This is a hard work which Mike Ghouse is doing alone under his own flag of 'Pluralism' .

Is his all activities are going against of humanity? Or it is in the right direction of humanity. If he is doing something positive for the community, for the different believers, then why we should not support him and extend our cooperation to him for the betterment of the human cause. Together we can stand strong and it is my believe that one day our dream will come true when all the  believers of different  faiths will live in peace and prosperity. We should join hands to hand with Mike Ghouse to make this planet a beautiful place to live.

Symposium cum exhibition on Holocaust and Genocide by Saeed Qureshi

Upright Opinion

January 27, 2014

Symposium cum exhibition on Holocaust and Genocide

By Saeed Qureshi

Let me first of all warmly compliment Mike Ghouse and his companions for holding the Seventh Exhibition cum Symposium on a crucial phenomenon that we all know as holocaust. This august event took place on January 26 in the spacious hall of the Unity Church of Dallas.

  Holocaust is a dreadful and ghastly dimension of human civilization that has been happening since the dawn of civilization and perhaps even earlier than that. Let me quote one important episode from the known history preserved in Bible and also in the holy Quran. When Prophet Moses liberated the Jewish nation from centuries old stranglehold of the Pharaohs who were the mighty emperors of their own time, they marched into the Sinai desert and settled there for 40 years. Thereafter they perpetrated the first distinctly documented genocide of the peaceful population in the land of Canaan. They killed the inhabitants including the infants indiscriminately and with savagery that is beyond description.

The Jewish nation itself suffered terrible genocides at least four times in history: one at the hands of Babylon Empire, second under the Roman Empire, third in Spain and fourth in Nazi Germany. The Muslims too faced the similar appalling genocides. Apart from other cities of Muslim rule, the Mongols, laid waste the capital of the Islamic caliphate Baghdad in 1258 and killed 1.6 million Muslims. This mass annihilation of Baghdad is recorded as the most heinous genocide carried out during the Middle Ages. 

Besides the Muslims suffered terrible genocides in Jerusalem, Alexandria and Spain at the hands of the victor Christian crusaders. In Spain where they ruled for seven centuries, they were entirely massacred and expelled along with the Jews. Those left somehow were finally deported in 1609. In history the Muslims, the Christians and Jews have been alternating in killing each other adopting a parched earth drive and ethnic cleansing policies. England passed through a spell of genocides at the hands of Romans and Vikings in early times. 

Holocaust and genocide can be treated as synonyms carrying the diabolic connotation that implies the wholesale massacres and extermination of a race of segment of human beings. During the last two centuries several grisly genocides have taken place. 

The British colonial armies in their frantic onslaught to expand the abominable colonialism marched on the vast continent of America. Those who arrived first were called pilgrimages. Their beastly annihilations of the local population have no parallel in history.  They kept on wiping off the local population called native Indians with such a diabolic obsession that continued till it culminated into a civil war between the federalists and the co federalist. 

The native inhabitants called red or native Indians and now American Indians were easy prey to their superior weaponry and fighting tactics. The natives fought back with primitive arrows, batons and swords against the merciless pogroms of the invaders who were more like bounty hunters. The natives’ mainstay of living, cattle and buffaloes were totally wiped off. They were infested with deadly epidemics of diseases like small pox to die if left alive from the pointblank shooting of the well armed and disciplined killers. Even children sucking their mothers’ breasts were not spared. The slogan of the British generals was that “only good Indian is dead Indian”. Approximately 100 million native Indians perished in this the most macabre genocides in the human history after Mongols’ curse.

The exhibition of the Indian genocide displayed extremely heart wrenching and harrowing scenes making the onlookers wonder how human beings could be as callous and barbaric as to slaughter a helpless, primitive and defense segment of human race. 

The exhibits and graphics showed huge piles of dead bodies with killer soldiers standing aside with devilish smiles on their faces after performing this hideous job. The copies of the scrolls, orders and parchments issued by the British commanders were also displayed. In those documents reflects the hate and obsession to kill the local population without any compunction. The exhibition continued from 3p.m.to 7 p.m. when the whole program came to close.

I was thrilled and rather entranced by the presentations and speeches’ during the two hours session conducted in the main hall of the church. The speakers’ spoke about the Native Americans holocaust, the 2002 Gujarat massacre and the 1984 massacre of Sikhs in India. The Jewish holocaust at the hands of the Nazis in Germany was portrayed in video clips, prepared by Christiana Amanpour, the celebrated CNN anchor. Mike Ghouse, the principal organizer of this phenomenal yearly event told his side of the story about the genocide. 

The keynote speaker and host of this memorable evening Mary Ann Thompson-Frank expressed her empirical impressions about the Rwandan genocide in which 800,000 humans were killed. Mary is immensely knowledgeable, highly articulate with   flair of oration. She was eloquent, vocal and gave an excellent account and grasp of the subject and kept the audience riveted to her discourse. I was personally greatly impressed by fluency and candor in dishing out her thoughts and observations. This highly fruitful and greatly enlightening session included a peace pledge by Mike Ghouse followed by a poignantly sad and moving Native American Mourning Song. 

This distinctive and remarkable seminar would add another feather in the cap of Mike Ghouse and his associates in highlighting and rekindling an issue for the civilized nations to reflect and ponder how to foster love and harmony among the people of this planet mother earth. It should serve as a grim reminder and resounding lesson for the human race that never again any genocide or holocaust be allowed to happen.

Such seminars and symposiums emit the divine and cardinal message that the age of barbarians and beast is over and we should all live in harmony and peace and work in unison for the collective good of the entire human race. Those who voluminously collaborated and sponsored in this effort among others were ‘Muslims Together’, ‘American Indian Genocide Museum’, Mnemosyne institute and Foundation for Pluralism. A sumptuous dinner was served at the end to all, the speakers and the spectators alike.

Dealing with genocide and Holocaust across religious lines: What’s politics got to do with it?

Dealing with genocide and Holocaust across religious lines: What’s politics got to do with it?
 
By Wayne Slater | wslater@dallasnews.com
9:35 am on January 25, 2014 | Permalink
http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/2014/01/dealing-with-genocide-and-holocaust-across-religious-lines.html/
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Mike Ghouse is frequently introduced as ‘the first Muslim guy to commemorate the Holocaust” with an appeal across broad religious lines. The idea is to recognize what people have in common, regardless of their differences as a way of lessening the conflicts, prejudices and intolerance that has produced genocide. And to go beyond politics to find common ground. On Sunday, a program attracting disparate groups around the idea “Never again” is scheduled for Unity Church on Forest Lane in Dallas, sponsored in part by Ghouse’s organization, the Foundation for Pluralism. The event is entitled Holocaust, Genocides of Native Americans and Gujart Massacre.The theme: Sparks of hatred and how to extinguish them.

Mike Ghouse, speaker, writer and advocate of pluralism across religious lines

Ghouse says he hopes attendees will walk out better appreciating the sufferings of others and seeing “the perpetrator in us” as a way of building trust across social and religious lines.


“I called on my friends with the idea of commemorating the event, and thus began this journey,” said Ghouse. “Education is the purpose; we have to learn, acknowledge and reflect upon the terrible things that we humans have inflicted upon each other, and we have to understand that our safety hinges on the safety of all others around us.”

Ghouse says the conference is designed as a comprehensive event where various human failings, massacres, genocides and the murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust will be addressed. The conference begins at 3 pm with an American Indian genocide museum exhibit, then a program between 4-6 pm.

“I have always believed, and I read the assessments of some of the best brains, that if we can resolve the Jewish-Palestinian conflict, i.e., security to Jews and justice to the Palestinians, most of the world issues will collapse and a period of peace on earth will begin,” said Ghouse.

“There is a shameless cruelty in us, either we shy away or refuse to acknowledge the sufferings of others, worrying that it will devalue our own or somehow it amounts to infidelity to our own cause,” he said. “Shame on us that we justifying massacres by believing and propagating that the victims deserved it or asked for it.”

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2014/01/dealing-with-genocide-and-holocause-across-religious-lines-whats-politics-got-to-do-with-it.html/