Why Iftekhar Hai, is running for Congress…

Why Iftekhar Hai is running for US Congressional seat from District 14 in Northern California?  Jackie Speier, the incumbent is retiring.

I was really happy with my family of my wife, my children and grandchildren. We did the normal vacationing and spending the golden years of my life in music and fun. However, everything changed for me when my relatives back in India were calling me and telling me that the Narender Modi, Prime Minister of India and his political party were openly saying: Time has come to exterminate Indian Muslims from the face of India. In other words: MUSLIM GENOCIDE.

That Indian Muslims are not equal. They must convert to Hinduism or move to Pakistan. The largest democracy of the world is saying this to its 200 million Muslims who have been living in undivided India from the last 1300 years.

Prime Minister Modi is supporter of RSS a para-military organization. Initially the RSS drew its inspiration from European right wing groups during World War II, such as the Italian Fascist Party.

Now experts say, the RSS extremist group glorifies Adolph Hitler. The RSS group has never made any secret of its love for Hitler’s ideology. Honestly the HAF, largest lobby group on behalf of Modi loves Jewish Americans and they are allies. The Hitler ideology is applied to Muslims now, followed by Indian Christians, Dalits, Sikhs, etc. Google and you find lots of information. New York Times has published many articles.

1. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/24/india-hindu-event-calling-for-genocide-of-muslims-sparks-outrage
2. VIDEO of Indian mob lynching Muslim while forcing him to praise Hindu gods sparks national outrage — RT World News
3. muslim women sold by hindu fanatics – Bing images

So, I get ready to fight fascism in India from USA soil. USA to me is the only beacon of hope. India, Israel and USA are great allies against China and our present government will not reprimand Indian ally. Modi thinks that is Green Light for Genocide of minorities.

I am educating my constituents in District 14, if I win voters confidence, I promise to reform not only India’s RSS inspired ideology but also Muslim’s nations to embrace democratic ideals.

1. Pluralism
2. Freedom of religion
3. Democracy
4. Secular governance

Hence if I die fighting for a good cause of saving lives, my family will not regret. After all we all must return to our Lord some day and answer for our inactions. I am not a perfectionist, but I am willing to listen from my constituents.

In God, I trust and I know the American people will support me.

Expert Who Predicted Rwanda Massacre Warns
Genocide of Muslims in India?

FAIRFAX COUNTRY, Virginia (Al Jazeera) – A genocide of Muslims in India could be about to take place, an expert said to have predicted the massacre of the Tutsi in Rwanda years before it took place in 1994, has warned.
Gregory Stanton, the founder and director of Genocide Watch, said during a U.S. congressional briefing there were early “signs and processes” of genocide in the Indian state of Assam and Indian-administered Kashmir.
“We are warning that genocide could very well happen in India,” Stanton said, speaking on behalf of the non-governmental organization he launched in 1999 to predict, prevent, stop and seek accountability for the crime.
Stanton said genocide was not an event but a process and drew parallels between the policies pursued by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the discriminatory policies of Myanmar’s government against Rohingya Muslims in 2017.
Among the policies he cited were the revocation of the special autonomous status of Indian-administered Kashmir in 2019 – which stripped Kashmiris of the special autonomy they had for seven decades – and the Citizenship Amendment Act the same year, which granted citizenship to religious minorities but excluded Muslims.
Stanton, a former lecturer in genocide studies and prevention at the George Mason University in Virginia, said he feared a similar scenario to Myanmar, where the Rohingya were first legally declared non-citizens and then expelled through violence and genocide.
“What we are now facing is a very similar kind of a plot,” he said.
Stanton said the Hindutva ideology was “contrary to the history of India and the Indian constitution and referred to Modi as an “extremist who has taken over the government”.
In 1989, Stanton said he had warned the then-Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana that “if you don’t do something to prevent genocide in your country, there is going to be a genocide here within five years”.
The early warning signs were followed by the massacre of 800,000 Tutsis and other Rwandans in 1994.
“We cannot let that happen in India,” Stanton said.
Genocide Watch began warning of genocide in India in 2002, when a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat resulted in the killing of more than 1,000 Muslims.

Aakar Patel, a Bengaluru-based rights activist, writer and the former head of Amnesty International in India, told Al Jazeera that the reports should be taken “very seriously”.
“I think the history on the record of India’s civic violence shows either the state does something that provokes the violence (against Muslims) or does not do enough to stop it,” Patel said.
“I think the government of India needs to take it seriously … The people outside are naturally alarmed when such things are said in India and nothing is done by the state,” he said referring to a recent call for Muslim genocide made at an event by right-wing Hindu groups.
MM Ansari, a former information commissioner and educationist based in New Delhi, termed the report “alarming”. “The fear is very genuine,” he said.
Other experts have denounced rising attacks on Muslim vendors and businesses by Hindu supremacist groups.
In November, Hindu hardliners set fire to the home of a former Muslim foreign minister, Salman Khurshid, who had compared the kind of Hindu nationalism that has flourished under Modi with “extremist groups” such as Daesh.
Videos of Hindu religious leaders calling for mass killings and for the use of weapons against Muslims that went viral on social media last month prompted the Supreme Court to order an investigation into hate speech in Uttarakhand state.
“Under BJP’s leadership, India became one of the most dangerous countries for Muslims and Christians in the world. They are being persecuted physically, psychologically and economically,” activist and academic Apoorvanand wrote in an OpEd for Al Jazeera.
“Laws are being passed to criminalize their religious practices, food habits and even businesses.”
Syed Zafar Islam, the spokesperson of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, rejected Genocide Watch’s report, saying “no such things exist as [is] being portrayed”.
Muslims comprise nearly 14 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people, while Hindus still form nearly 80 percent of the population.
Modi’s BJP and its ideological parent, the far-right Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), have warned Hindus about religious conversions to Islam and Christianity, and called for action to prevent a “demographic imbalance” in the world’s second most populous nation.
Modi’s BJP has been accused of encouraging the persecution of Muslims and other minorities by hardline Hindu nationalists since coming to power in 2014, allegations it denies.

Bio Data of Iftekhar A. Hai

Iftekhar A. Hai was born in a village in India during the days of the British rule in 1942 in Muslim house hold.  He went to a Catholic school from ages 6 to 17 years where he learned about Christian values and ethics.  He earned his Bachelors from a Podar college in Mumbai. Facing religious discrimination, I moved to Pakistan for better job opportunities in 1965.  Pakistan had its own problems because it was divided ethnically and racially. I looked to USA to fulfill my dreams and ended up in 1969 in San Francisco for MBA Program at Golden Gate University.  I lived with an elderly, Jewish landlady, a daughter of a Rabbi. She gave me room and food in exchange for eight hours of household chores in San Francisco. The Jewish landlady introduced me to Judaic values and ethics and the strong emotional attachment of Jews to the State of Israel.  The commonality of the messages in the Abrahamic faiths coupled with the non-violence concept of Gandhi & Martin Luther King Jr. became of intense importance in resolving religious differences and conflicts.

 

After earning my MBA in 1973, I agreed to an arranged marriage to Atiya.  Thirty years, as financial officer helped accomplish my American dream. Being a loving husband, father and grandfather did not satisfy me when I found hatred, bigotry and racism towards Muslims in the USA. I changed my profession from finance to interfaith education. I became one of the founding Directors of United Muslims of America in 1982 and became its full-time honorary Director of Interfaith Relations from 1990.  In June 2004, I founded UMA Interfaith Alliance and became its President.  The mission was to promote cooperation and understanding among world religions through interfaith dialogue, creating racial and religious harmony and encouraging American Muslims to get involved locally, nationally and globally for the common good of all people. I am eager to bring peace between India and Pakistan, and also between Israel and its Arabs neighbors.  From the last 25 years I have worked with numerous organizations, here are a few:

 

  • F. Interfaith Council (local organization)
  • Interfaith Center at the Presidio (local organization)
  • Interfaith Witness for Peace in the Middle East (local organization)
  • Peninsula Clergy Networks (PCN) (F. Bay Area organization)
  • Commonwealth Club of CA – Middle-East Forum (state wide organization)
  • Interfaith Alliance Foundation, Wash. DC (national organization)
  • International Diplomacy Council or Institute of International Education (national organization)
  • United Religions Initiative (global organization)
  • Parliament of World Religion (global organization)
  • Southern Poverty Law Center, USA

 

The 9/11 tragedy and the demonization of Muslims and Islam has created a crisis for American Muslims.  I am explaining Islam and its practices to Americans in Churches, synagogues, schools, colleges and universities. Once a substitute volunteer-teacher in Public Schools, Jewish and Christian private schools, I am also an honorary lecturer in universities, churches, charitable and interfaith organizations.  Taught Islam course at Holy Names College in Oakland for 4 years.  Also taught Islam class at UC Berkeley under Professor Steve West for 2 years. I have represented Islam in Conflict Resolution Conferences and interfaith seminars in USA, Canada, UK, India, Pakistan, Africa, Afghanistan, Brazil, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

 

I have also visited the Vatican to promote peace between Islam & Christianity in March 2006.  Hindu American Foundation conferred on me Mahatma Gandhi Award on Pluralism in year 2014.  United Religions Initiative and San Francisco Interfaith Council also honored my 25 years of peace building by conferring an Award.

 

Iftekhar is a writer who not only eliminates negative stereotyping, but also differentiates between moderate and extremist interpretation of Islam. Most of the San Francisco Bay area newspapers have printed his articles.  For three years his columns have appeared in Faith pages of San Mateo Times. He compares the global and inter-religious message of Islam to other religions and spiritual traditions.  He also talks about a list of grievances of the Muslim world because of U.S. foreign policies. Lately he has been one of the most sought-after speakers on peace and reconciliation among religions. Earnestly he talks about the challenges facing the American Muslims in the 21st century in the face of terrorism, globalization and interconnectedness. He is a humanist and focuses on humanity, living as one family with its wonderful diversity, on one piece of real estate – THE EARTH.

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