PART 2 'Irish Unity' conference
Yaqoob
One of the largest ethnic groupings in Birmingham define themselves as being of Kashmiri descent. Britain bequeathed Kashmir to India, against the wishes of the Kashmiris, when they partitioned the country in 1947. The cost of that decision has been the brutal Indian occupation to date, resistance and armed struggle to that occupation that has taken the lives of many thousands of people, and three wars between nuclear armed India and Pakistan.
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Some history re: Kashmir
Gateway of enclosure, (once a Hindu temple) of Zein-ul-ab-ud-din's Tomb, in Srinagar. Probable date A.D. 400 to 500 (150 years befor Mohammad), 1868. John Burke. Oriental and India Office Collection. British Library.
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only to the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range.Contemporarily, Kashmir denotes a larger area that includes the Indian administered state of Jammu and Kashmir (Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh), the Pakistani administered Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir, and the Chinese administered regions of Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract. The United Nations, and other local entities, use the designation Jammu and Kashmir to geographically denote said area.
According to the Mahabharata, the Kambojas ruled Kashmir during the epic period with a Republican system of government.In the first half of the first millennium, the Kashmir region became an important center of Buddhism and later of Hinduism; later still, in the ninth century, Kashmir Shaivism arose.
In 1349, Shah Mir became the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir and inaugurated the Salatin-i-Kashmir or Swati dynasty. For the next five centuries, Muslim monarchs ruled Kashmir, including the Mughals, who ruled from 1526 until 1751, then the Afghan Durrani Empire that ruled from 1747 until 1820.[7] That year, the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh, annexed Kashmir.[7] In 1846, upon the purchase of the region from the British under the Treaty of Amritsar, the Dogras—under Gulab Singh—became the new rulers. Dogra Rule, under the paramountcy (or tutelage) of the British Crown, lasted until 1947, when the former princely state became a disputed territory, now administered by three countries: India, Pakistan, and the People's Republic of China.
Yaqoobs accusation of 'Indian brutal occupation' is false. Futhermore it is to 'curry flavour' (no pun intended) with Muslim voters in Birmingham. I say this because many Muslim men are not so happy to have a woman in a leadership role. She will have to please them in every other way, hence speaking up for Kashmir and Palestine.
As portrayed by a few verses from the Quran
Qur'an (24:31) - Women are to lower their gaze around men, so they do not look them in the eye.
Qur'an (4:11) - (Inheritance) "The male shall have the equal of the portion of two females" (see also verse 4:176).
And from the Hadith
Bukhari (6:301) - "[Muhammad] said, 'Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?' They replied in the affirmative. He said, 'This is the deficiency in her intelligence.'"
Tabari Vol 9, Number 1754 - "Treat women well, for they are [like] domestic animals with you and do not possess anything for themselves." From Muhammad's 'Farewell Sermon'.
Yaqoob goes on to attack the British again (over Palestine) and also indulges in some 'dead white man bashing'....Sir Winston Churchill.
Yaqoob
The foreign policy issue that probably burns the brightest in the city, especially among young people, is that of Palestine. A conflict, once again, that has its origins in a British government decision. This time the partition of historic Palestine to create, in the words of Winston Churchill, a ‘loyal Ulster’ in the Middle East.
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Salma Yaqoob shows her objectivity on the Israel/Palestine situation.
History of Judea
n 130, Roman Emperor Hadrian visited the ruins of Jerusalem, in Judaea, left after the First Roman-Jewish War of 66–73. He rebuilt the city, renaming it Aelia Capitolina after himself and Jupiter Capitolinus, the chief Roman deity. In addition, Hadrian abolished circumcision, which was considered by Romans and Greeks as a form of bodily mutilation and hence "barbaric"
These anti-Jewish policies of Hadrian triggered in Judaea a massive Jewish uprising, led by Simon bar Kokhba and Akiba ben Joseph. Following the outbreak of the revolt, Hadrian called his general Sextus Julius Severus from Britain, and troops were brought from as far as the Danube. Roman losses were very heavy, and it is believed that an entire legion, the XXII Deiotariana was destroyed.
Indeed, Roman losses were so heavy that Hadrian's report to the Roman Senate omitted the customary salutation "I and the legions are well". However, Hadrian's army eventually put down the rebellion in 135, after three years of fighting. According to Cassius Dio, during the war 580,000 Jews were killed, 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed. The final battle took place in Beitar, a fortified city 10 km. southwest of Jerusalem.
In an attempt to erase the memory of Judaea, he renamed the province Syria Palaestina (after the Philistines), and Jews were forbidden from entering its rededicated capital. When Jewish sources mention Hadrian it is always with the epitaph "may his bones be crushed" (שחיק עצמות or שחיק טמיא, the Aramaic equivalent), an expression never used even with respect to Vespasian or Titus who destroyed the Second Temple.
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Left: Emperor Hadrian
The Jews therefore have been in Judea (now Israel) for 2000 years.
Recent history
From 1517-1917 Turkey's Ottoman Empire controlled a vast Arab empire, a portion of which is today Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. During World War I (1914-1918), Turkey supported Germany. When Germany was defeated, so were the Turks. In 1916 control of the southern portion of their Ottoman Empire was "mandated" to France and Britain under the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divided the Arab region into zones of influence. Lebanon and Syria were assigned (mandated) to France... and "Palestine" (today's Jordan, Israel and "West Bank") was mandated to Great Britain.
http://www.masada2000.org/historical.html
The history of this region then is not so complicated. The Jews fought two wars against the mighty Romans and eventually lost. The Romans, not ones to like resistence, crushed the Jews and remaned the place Philistinia, which later became Palistinia, which later became Palestine. Still no Arabs at this point.
As the centuries past empires rised and fell. There has been several empires which ruled the land.
Roman rule (63 BCE)
Byzantine (Eastern Roman) rule (330–640 CE)
Arab Caliphate rule (638–1099 CE) (Muslim)
Umayyad rule (661–750 CE) (Muslim)
Abbasid rule (750–969 CE) (Muslim)
Fatimid rule (969–1099 CE) (Muslim)
Crusader rule (1099–1187 CE)
Mamluk rule (1270–1516 CE)
Ottoman rule (1516–1831 CE) (Muslim)
Egyptian rule (1831–1841)
Ottoman rule (1841–1917) (Muslim)
Here the Ottomans backed Germany and lost. Therefore the land belonged to the victors, Britain.
British Mandate (1920–1948)
Crucially
When the Second World War broke out, the Jewish population sided with Britain. David Ben Gurion, head of the Jewish Agency, defined the policy with what became a famous motto: "We will fight the war as if there were no White Paper, and we will fight the White Paper as if there were no war." While this represented the Jewish population as a whole, there were exceptions.
There were no Islamic nations which sided with Britian.
On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted 33 to 13 with 10 abstentions, in favour of a plan to partition the territory into separate Jewish and Arab states, under economic union, with the Greater Jerusalem area (encompassing Bethlehem) coming under international control. Zionist leaders (including the Jewish Agency), accepted the plan, while Palestinian Arab leaders rejected it and all independent Muslim and Arab states voted against it.
In conclusion, Yaqoob needs to accept a few facts. The Arabs sided with Germany in two world wars, so are lucky to have any land (in what was Judea) at all! Germany lost the war with Russia and conceded Prussia to the victors. That country is now called Kaliningrad. Do you hear the Germans complaining Salma?
Prussia 1525-1947
Kaliningrad 1947-present day
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