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Prof. T J Joseph (right) is now in a serious state after his palm was cut off by extremists
July 4th, 2010 would be a sad day for Kerala to remember. A group of extremists attacked Mr T J Joseph, a former college professor at Muvattupuzha in Kerala, India when he was returning after Sunday prayers at church and chopped off his right palm. The reason? Three months back, he prepared a question paper for an examination in which there was a question defamatory to, as these extremists say, Prophet Mohammed. Right at the time of the exam in March 2010, there were widespread protests outside Newman College, Thodupuzha, where he was employed and the management suspended him from service and apologized for the misconduct. The professor too apologised for the mistake. A criminal case was however filed against him for inciting communal passion and he was arrested by the police a few days later. In the meanwhile, as he was absconding, the police took extreme measures to hunt him down including cruelly torturing his son so as to pressurise him to surrender. How this could happen, how an innocent boy could be punished for the crime committed by his father, in a democratic country is difficult to fathom. Talibanisation of Kerala society seems to be going at a fast pace as the Muslim terrorists have started imposing Sharia punishments in public. The spineless marxist government in Kerala who are bent upon devising more and more schemes for appeasing the jihadis for the votes they will bring don’t take the issue seriously. Two persons have been arrested so far, but the charges filed against them are bailable and they are expected to come out soon. The first Sharia punishment in Kerala is to be noted clearly as undoubtedly more are to follow.
Still, the marxist government is in the final stages of setting up an Islamic style bank which won’t accept or pay interest to or from the clients. Public money is being wasted on such projects which don’t have any resonance with the majority of the people, even among most of the Muslims too. The outrage on the barbaric act is loud and clear, but the Islamic organisations are again following their ambivalent stance. These associations always demand that the circumstances which lead people to terrorism should be investigated, but are curiously silent about the most obvious fact, fanaticism of which they themselves are not absolved. Kerala has become a haven for terrorists as the Kerala government is still hesitant to arrest and hand over Mr Abdul Nasser Madani, one of the accused in the Bangalore serial blasts case. This man is being protected by an armed group of supporters and the sight of the police remaining helpless spectators in front of his office complex is heartbreaking for people who believe in democracy and rule of law. He may be guilty or he may be innocent, but it is for the court to decide and nobody, however powerful should be above law. But these basic tenets of democracy has no place in Kerala now and the communists themselves are not staunch supporters of democracy. They adhere to it, because it suits them best for now. I had decided earlier not to write anything except soccer in this 'holy' month of football, but this was a little too much to leave without comment.
