Hasanul Banna, a senior correspondent of Jamaat-e-Islami linked Malayalam newspaper called Madhyamam was ‘suspended’ for his comments during a TV debate. He is their Delhi bureau chief. As per the notice released by Madhyamam, Banna was suspended for seven days for violating the company’s social media policy and for his statements that are against the company’s views.
A suspension for a mere seven days is as blatant an eyewash as it gets. All claims of our media to have self-regulation fly out the window when we see decisions like these. Madhyamam has been trying hard to whitewash Taliban crimes since 1996.
Banna and his newspaper have a habit of justifying any atrocities committed by terrorist organizations like the Islamic State and the Taliban. They try their best to validate barbarianism using Islamic theories like Jihad and Sharia.
In his excitement to whitewash the Taliban, Banna indirectly exposed his own faith. He said that the viewpoint about a centuries-old philosophy being unsuited for the progressive modern world, was a major mistake when viewed from the Taliban’s point of view. Sitting here in Bharat we are not qualified to speak or criticize the Afghanistan turmoil or the Taliban, he added.
He made his paymasters proud by mentioning that Qatar is the only Arab country where there is a ‘whiff of democracy’. He praised Qatar who took the lead to ‘talk’ to the Taliban. Incidentally, Qatar is where the state-funded global Islamist outlet Al-Jazeera runs from.
Banna felt that the Taliban used PR stunts to gain global recognition. He said that Tablighi Jamaat wanted to wait and watch and then react to the Taliban. When reminded about the atrocities that the Taliban were committing by hanging Afghans without trial in Herat and the whipping of ladies all over the country, he doubted such media reports. Banna said that such sources are ‘biased and suspicious’.
His talk was interspersed with the usual rant on Narendra Modi’s educational qualifications and the usual bovine and dung rants.
Banna said that the other panelists were trying to whip up ‘communal hatred’ by comparing Kerala Muslims with the Taliban. The other participants were 2 Muslim ‘intellectuals’ and The Hindu reporter from Delhi and the Asianet news anchor. The latter are both Christians.
The Jamaat-e-Islami had opposed the 1947 partition and the formation of Pakistan since they wanted the whole of Bharat to be ‘reclaimed for Islam’. They saw the partition as creating a temporal border that would divide Muslims from one another and prevent the spread of Islam in the entire sub-continent, a position that was shared by Congress’ Maulana Abul Kalam (Azad). The organization was founded in 1941 by Aurangabad-born Abul Ala Maududi, a fanatic fundamentalist who maintained that Islam should not be confined to a geographical area as it was “destined to rule the world.”
Till recently, the Jamaat-e-Islami even asked its supporters to boycott elections and democracy as it held that following the dictates of an un-Islamic state amounts to ‘shirk’ or polytheism, which is the greatest sin for a Muslim.
The original Hassan al-Banna was an Egyptian Islamist who is known for founding the dangerous Muslim Brotherhood. He wanted a totalitarian Islamization of the state, the economy, and society. He was shot dead for plotting a coup against the Egyptian regime in 1949.
