Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > American born son of Ethan Allen furniture tycoon Farooq Kathwari, was killed fighting Jihad in Afghanistan
American born son of Ethan Allen furniture tycoon Farooq Kathwari, was killed fighting Jihad in Afghanistan
Farooq Kathwari was speaker at radical Islamist ISNA conference in 2004
May 7, 2005
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MIM: The fact that Farooq Kathwari, the multi millionaire owner of the Ethan Allen furniture company , son Irfan (aka Imran), was killed fighting Jihad against the Russians in Afghanistan should serve as another cautionary tale that every Muslim is suceptible to radical Islam. Farooq Kathwari recently spoke at a radical Islamist events in the US and his enormous wealth has no doubt made him a donor and guest to be courted by these groups. Farooq Kathwari came from a priviledged Kashmiri family , attended New York University, worked on Wall Street, and made a fortune as a businessman. That his 19 year old son Imran would leave America to be killed fighting as a Muhajadeen in Afghanistan, shows that even a Muslim from a modern, 'Westernised' background can become a Jihadi and begs the question of how many more Imran Kathwari's may be tempted to become Jihadis). (The recent trials and convictions of wealthy and educated American born Phd Ali Al Tamimi, (who earned a 3 figure salary working for the US Department of Transport) and was jailed for Jihad recruitment, and Abu Ali, (whose father works for the Saudi Embassy) was accused of training with Al Qaeda and plotting to kill president Bush shows that Farooq Kathwari was an early manifestation of an alarming trend.) In his blog "Are Muslim Americans victimised?" named Farooq Kathwari as one of the the most sucessful Muslim businessmen in America. "...Business tycoons of note in the Muslim-American community include Bijan (high-end men's clothing), Rashid A. Chaudhry (personal care products), Ayhan Hakimoglu (armaments), Yusef Haroon (consulting and managerial services), Mansoor Ijaz (investment management), Farooq Kathwari (furniture), Nemir Kirdar (venture capital), and Safi Qureshey (computers). The wealthiest Muslim American appears to be a software engineer of Turkish origins, Kenan Sahin, who in 1999 netted $1.45 billion when he sold his company, Kenan Systems, to Lucent Technologies. Muslim Americans proudly say that theirs is "the richest Muslim society on earth," and they are right. .."http://www.danielpipes.org/article/358 MIM: Besides making the list the richest Muslims in America Farooq Kathwari was also a featured speaker at the Islamic Society of North America 2004 conference which included some of the most radical Islamist leaders and groups in America. ISNA is one of the largest Wahhabist/Saudi funded umbrella groups which owns most of the mosques in America. The ISNA voter recruitment efforts are directed at consolidating Muslim political power in America to further the Islamist objective of turning the United States of America into a 'United States of Allah'. "...The speakers included Muhammad Nur Abdullah, Dawud Warnsby, Farooq Kathwari, Zaid Shakir, Altaf Husain, Nada Unus, Shazia Siddiqi, Amir Al-Islam, Abdul Hakim Murad (T.J. Winters), Umar Faruq Abd-Allah, Mokhtar Maghraoui, Shugufta Yasmeen, Habibe Husain,Rami Nashishibi, Thomas Simons Jr., Ingrid Mattson, Hamza Yusuf, Suhaib Webb, Abdalla Idris Ali, Abdul Rashied Omar, Feisal M. Abdur Rauf, Ekram Beshir, Suhaib Webb, Kenya Numan, Ihsan Bagby, Suhail Ghannouchi, Hadia Mubarak, Salam Al-Maryati, Omar Ahmad and Agha Saeed. Moderator were Azhar Azeez, Louay Safi, Ingrid Mattson, Syed Imtiaz Ahmad, Kamran Memon and Kareem Irfan. Ten top Muslim American organizations Sunday evening set up 'The American Muslim Taskforce (AMT)', but declined to make an endorsement for a single candidate in the U.S. presidential elections, appealing to the community to unite, register to vote, and fully participate in the November polls. The ten organizations are: AMA, CAIR, ICNA, ISNA, MENA, MAS, MPAC, MSA National, Islamic Hope and UMA. The previous task force of the Muslim Americans had endorsed George Bush in the 2000 elections, which decision was, however, opposed by the African-Americans, who vote for Democrats. http://www.pakistantimes.net/2004/09/08/specialreport.htm --------------------------------------- MIM: Farooq Kathwari's brother wrote an entire article about Irfan Kathari's death in Jihad entitled: "My Nephew the Freedom Fighter". The article gives a valuable insight into how wealthy American born Muslims can get involved in Jihad, (the juxtaposition of a long haired Irfan Kathwari shooting hoops in driveway of the family farm where his father's BMW is parked and listening to Metallica, to his last picture in traditional Muslim garb in Afghanistan and a note reaffirming his'love for Allah". Kathawari's father was also a high ranking official in Kashmir, which shows that the family, many of whom still live there, and continue their involvement in the political life of the region. The writer of the article Rafiq Kathwari, has said that after 35 years, he still feels as the same about the struggle in Kashmir. http://www.featurewell.com/?Doc=Signin.cfm&AID=2080
MIM:The interviewer refers to Imran Kathwari's death while fighting Jihad in Chechyna as his having been the youthful pursuit of a 'romantic notion' and glosses over the death without questioning what could have motivated the son of one of America's wealthiest business tycoons, from an 'assimilated' Muslim background, to become a Muhajideen fighter in Afghanistan. ---------------------- 2001 Business Week At Ethan Allen, Selling Furniture and Tolerance | |||
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CEO Farooq Kathwari has revitalized the company, while leading a campaign to bring peace to Kashmir
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Kathwari, 57, knows something of how grief and anger work on people. His eldest son was killed in Afghanistan in 1992: Imran, a 19-year-old college student born and raised in America, was drawn there by romantic notions of the fight against the Russians (and by that time, the regime they backed), says Kathwari. Imran went despite the family's opposition. He died in a mortar attack, in one of the last battles for the capital, Kabul. "My son is lying in rubble in Afghanistan," Kathwari says.
A death like that could make a parent bitter for life. And Kathwari was for a while. But eventually he decided to get involved, not in Afghanistan but in Kashmir, as a diplomat of sorts. At least 35,000 Kashmiris have died or disappeared since 1989, when their renewed call for more autonomy, if not independence, from India, sparked a rebellion that Pakistan supports. Kathwari, once a student activist in Kashmir, brought together a group of predominantly American politicians, academics, and former diplomats in 1996 to suggest ways to end the civil strife. Kathwari, talking publicly about his work there for the first time, says: "I wanted to try to save parents from the agony of losing a child. And Kashmir helps me maintain perspective."
What makes Kathwari's experience so interesting is the way in which it has influenced his leadership at Ethan Allen, that most traditional of American retail icons. He's as demanding as any CEO. But colleagues also talk about his sense of justice and humility. As Sandra Lamenza, vice-president and general manager of the retail division, puts it: "Ego is not tolerated. You can't throw power around."
Kathwari, who grew up in a privileged, politically active family, left Kashmir in 1965 to obtain an MBA at New York University. After a few years on Wall Street, he began importing handicrafts from Kashmir. In 1980, Kathwari sold his company to Ethan Allen, an early client, and five years later he was promoted to president.
Since then he has changed almost everything about Ethan Allen: the furniture, the design of its 300-plus stores, its relationship with dealers, and the senior management, almost all of whom retired between 1988 and 1990. Ethan Allen used to sell traditional furniture, some of which hadn't been updated in 40 years, in stores that even employees say looked like colonial museums. "Ethan Allen was a trusted, dusty brand in danger of going the way of the Oldsmobile," says Simon Williams, chairman of brand consultant Sterling Group in New York. Kathwari and his designers made over its Valley Forge look to suit modern tastes and they now launch new collections more frequently. They have also remodeled most stores and relocated half to prime retail space.
At the same time, Kathwari took on the independent dealers who sold most of Ethan Allen's furniture. Breaking with industry protocol, he told them to sell only the company's merchandise at one price to be set in the Danbury (Conn.) headquarters. He also required them all to buy the furniture at the same price; before, the bigger dealers received a discount. Several of them confronted Kathwari in 1986, saying: "Do you think you are Robin Hood? You're giving to smaller dealers at [our] expense." To Kathwari it was an issue of fairness, and that was that. Two dealers walked out.
A MESSAGE. Now the transformation is almost complete. To fend off a hostile bid in 1989, Kathwari led a $350 million buyout; that gave him a 10% stake in the company and more operational control. Kathwari took Ethan Allen public again in 1993. At most stores, sales have tripled since 1985, and the company's profit margins are the highest of any furniture manufacturer. But of course, no business is immune to the slowing economy and the likelihood of protracted military action. Profits for the fiscal year that ended on June 30 were $84 million, down 7% from a year ago. Sales were $904 million, up 5.6%. As late as June the stock price was holding up well, at about $38. Now it's trading around $30. To reduce costs, Kathwari closed three U.S. factories this year and he is moving some production to Southeast Asia. He still expects sales to grow 5% in 2001. Though that may be optimistic these days, the company does have a strong enough balance sheet to weather a recession.
Kathwari talks often about establishing "a moral precedent" at Ethan Allen. When Corey Whitely, vice-president of retail operations, won the company's Golden Kite achievement award in 2000, Kathwari said he should think of it as recognition that he fulfilled his responsibilities with modesty. And when the company bought a plant in Virginia ten months ago, he told Charlie Farfaglia, vice-president of human resources, to recognize the employees' service with the old company when determining benefits. Kathwari also speaks of religious tolerance, when speaking of it seems appropriate. At a Christmas dinner he hosted, he read from the Koran about the birth of Jesus. After Sept. 11, the staff agreed Ethan Allen should put a public message in a few newspapers. "They know of my loss. They know I believe injustice is a sin," he says. Kathwari wrote the note himself.
Kathwari is intimately involved, some would say overly, in running the company. That doesn't work to everyone's benefit. After years of operating without a chief financial officer--the company has a controller--Kathwari decided last year to hire William Beisswanger from Ernst & Young LLP. He left after nine months. Beisswanger would only say that "Farooq is very hands-on. I didn't think it was the right place for me." Kathwari has since hired someone else.
Any difficulties with the turnaround pale alongside Kathwari's efforts to bring peace to Kashmir. The Kashmir Study Group is an independent effort, initially welcomed by no one and still criticized by some as out of touch. But over the past five years, Kathwari has largely persuaded Indian and Pakistani officials that he is serious, fair, and worth their time. "He and his project are highly respected by both sides as well as the U.S. government," says a Bush Administration official.
The group's report, released in early 2000, offers a supple approach to sovereignty, giving Kashmiris (a majority of whom are Muslim) the right to rule themselves within India or Pakistan. That is a controversial notion among Indians who want to retain control, and some of them view Kathwari with suspicion. "They've asked the leaders to imagine a settlement that's fair to both. It's very helpful just to get people thinking about that," says Frank C. Wisner, a former ambassador to India who is now a director at Ethan Allen. Last year Kathwari met with Pakistan's ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, and Indian officials close to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee; he was one of many urging them to talk. The two met in the Indian city of Agra in July and are considering another summit. The violence continues: A car bomb exploded near the state legislature Oct. 1, killing at least 40 people. Now, though, there may be more pressure to bring peace to Kashmir, says Kathwari, because then "those fighting jihad there would lose an important base."
Kathwari insists that his work in Kashmir didn't distract him from Ethan Allen, and the board doesn't seem worried. "It helps give him a sense of value beyond the furniture business," says Edward H. Meyer, a director and head of Grey Global Group Inc., an advertising agency in New York. Who can argue with that?
| Corrections and Clarifications In "Selling Furniture and Tolerance" (People, Oct. 22) about Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. CEO M. Farooq Kathwari, the name of Kathwari's late son should have been Irfan. BusinessWeek apologizes for the error |
See link for scanned page of original article with pictures from Businessweek
http://www.adnan.org/kathwari1.php
http://www.adnan.org/kathwari2.php
MIM:This entry on Google groups reveals that Kathwari is known as a "sucessionist leader' based in America and that he used the Ethan Allen company as a front to meet with a Kashmiri official to discuss what was said to be timber for furniture manufacture. As the writer of the artcle points out - the region in question is does not permit use of forests for timber and the meeting was for political reasons. In a discussion of an article entitled "Letter from a Shaheed" comments were posted which stated that it was Farooq Kathwari who motivated his son to quit his medical studies at Harvard to wage Jihad in Afghanistan where he was killed in 1992. (see entry below)
What would be interesting would be to hold a refrendum in
Jammu , Ladakh and the valley and ask each voter which
state they would like to live in , if these states were
carved out of the present Kashmir .
Its almost certain that most of the Muslims of Doda and even
the valley would vote to join Jammu , to stay in India
proper and this would be a kind of indirect refrendum ..
A divisive agenda
Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah's recent conclave with United
States-based secessionist leader Farooq Kathwari is seen as
part of a larger U.S.-sponsored covert dialogue on Jammu and
Kashmir, in which the Vajpayee Government is complicit.
PRAVEEN SWAMI
JOIN the dots on the graph charting the future of Jammu and
Kashmir, and it is hard to miss the shape staring back from
the page. On March 8, Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and a
group of his top Cabinet colleagues held a closed-door
secret meeting with Farooq Kathwari, a U.S.-based
secessionist leader. The meeting, held at the Secretariat in
Jammu, appears to be just part of a larger U.S.-sponsored
covert dialogue on Jammu and Kashmir. Indeed, there is
growing evidence that the Bharatiya Janata Party-l ed
coalition government in New Delhi is complicit in this
dialogue, which could lead to a violent communal sundering
of the State.
Kathwari heads the Kashmir Study Group (KSG), an influential
New York-based think tank which has been advocating the
creation of an independent state carved out of the
Muslim-majority areas of Jammu and Kashmir. The owner of
Ethan Allen, an upmarket furn iture concern which includes
the White House among its clients, Kathwari's associates in
the KSG have included influential Indian establishment
figures, notably former Foreign Secretary S.K. Singh and
retired Vice-Admiral N.K. Nair. Kathwari was blacklis ted by
successive Indian governments and on one occasion was even
denied permission to visit the country to meet a seriously
ill relative. Shortly after the BJP-led coalition took power
in 1998, however, he was granted a visa.
It is still unclear at whose initiative the visa was
granted. But Kathwari arrived in New Delhi in March 1999,
carrying a series of proposals for the creation of an
independent Kashmiri state. Called Kashmir: A Way Forward,
the proposals were the outcome of the KSG's deliberations.
On this first visit, he met what one senior intelligence
official describes as a "who's who of the BJP
establishment". Kathwari also appears to have visited Jammu
and Srinagar, staying at the home of a top National Con
ference politician. Frontline has so far been unable to
establish whether he met Abdullah on that occasion.
Public disclosure of Kathwari's proposals provoked a minor
storm. Both S.K. Singh and N.K. Nair disassociated
themselves from its recommendations. Nonetheless, Kathwari
seemed encouraged enough to push ahead with a new version of
Kashmir: A Way Forwar d. Last September, a fresh version of
the document was finalised after, its preface records,
receiving reactions from "government officials in India and
Pakistan". The new document was even more disturbing than
the first. At least one KSG member, the University of South
Carolina's Robert Wirsing, refused even to participate in
the discussions. But the BJP, it now appears, was not wholly
unhappy with the direction Kathwari was proceeding in.
Kashmir: A Way Forward outlines five proposals for the
creation of either one or two new states, which would
together constitute what is described in somewhat opaque
fashion as a "sovereign entity but one without an
international personality". "Th e new entity," the KSG
report says, "would have its own secular, democratic
constitution, as well as its own citizenship, flag and a
legislature which would legislate on all matters other than
defence and foreign affairs... India and Pakistan would be
re sponsible for the defence of the Kashmiri entity, which
would itself maintain police and gendarme forces for
internal law and order purposes. India and Pakistan would be
expected to work out financial arrangements for the Kashmiri
entity, which could inc lude a currency of its own."
Four of five possible Kashmiri entities the KSG discusses
involve two separate states on either side of the Line of
Control (LoC), and territorial exchanges between India and
Pakistan. But the fifth Kashmiri entity outlined in Kashmir:
A Way Forward - of a single state on the Indian side of the
LoC - is the most interesting of the KSG proposals. Premised
on the assumption that Pakistan would be unwilling to allow
the creation of a new entity on its side of the LoC -
although there is no discussio n of what will happen if
India were to be similarly disinclined - the new state would
come into being after a series of tehsil-level referendums.
All the districts of the Kashmir Valley, the districts of
Kargil and Doda, three northern tehsils of Rajouri and one
tehsil of Udhampur, the KSG believes, would opt to join the
new Kashmiri state.
Kashmir: A Way Forward attempts, somewhat desperately, to
prove that its assumptions are not based on communal
grounds. "All these areas," it argues, "are imbued with
Kashmiriyat, the cultural traditions of the Vale of Kashmir,
and/or interact ext ensively with Kashmiri-speaking people."
But this assumption is patently spurious, for several of
these areas also interact similarly with peoples who do not
speak Kashmiri. There is no explanation, for example, as to
why the linguistic, cultural and tra de links between the
three northern Muslim-majority tehsils of Rajouri district
and the three southern Hindu-majority tehsils are of any
less significance than those they have with the Kashmir
region.
Nor is it made clear what linguistic affiliation the tehsils
of Karnah and Uri in Kashmir, where just 3.2 per cent and
3.1 per cent of the population were recorded as
Kashmiri-speakers in the 1981 Census, the last carried out
in Jammu and Kashmir, might have with the Valley. Indeed,
these tehsils have recorded some of the highest voter
turnouts in successive elections from 1996, suggesting that
their residents have little sympathy for Kashmir
Valley-centred secessionist politics. Similarly, while
Ramban and Bhaderwah tehsils in Doda are not
Kashmiri-speaking and principally trade with Jammu, the KSG
proposals make the a priori assumption that they would vote
to join the new state.
OFFICIALS in Jammu and Kashmir seemed uncertain of just what
Kathwari and Abdullah discussed during their meeting. State
Chief Secretary Ashok Jaitley told Frontline that the
meeting had indeed been held, but said that he was unaware
of just what was discussed. "What I can tell you is that the
initiative for the meeting was not ours," he said, "and that
the highest quarters were consulted before it was held."
Others said Kathwari had requested the meeting to discuss a
potential timber business in the State. Neither the Jammu
and Kashmir Directorate of Public Relations, which handles
media interaction with the Chief Minister, nor Abdullah's
personal staff, responded to queries from Frontline.
Even leaving aside the minor point that following Supreme
Court orders, felling forests is illegal in Jammu and
Kashmir it seems implausible that the content of Kathwari's
dialogue with Abdullah centred on raw material for Ethan
Allen. The National Confe rence's proposals for Jammu and
Kashmir's future have striking similarities with those that
the KSG is touting. The controversial report of the Regional
Autonomy Committee (RAC), which was tabled in the Jammu and
Kashmir Assembly last year (Frontline , July 30, 1999) and
is in the process of being implemented, bears similarities
with the KSG proposals. Muslim-majority Rajouri and Poonch
are scheduled to be cut away from the Jammu region and
recast as a new Pir Panjal province. The single districts of
Buddhist-majority Leh and Muslim-majority Kargil too will be
sundered from each other and become new provinces.
In some cases, the RAC Report and the KSG proposals mirror
each other down to the smallest detail. For example,
Kashmir: A Way Forward refers to the inclusion of a
Gool-Gulabgarh tehsil in the new state. There is, in fact,
no such tehsil. Gool and Gulabgarh were parts of the tehsil
of Mahore, the sole Muslim-majority tehsil of Udhampur
district, until 1999. Gool subsequently became a separate
tehsil. But the proposal for Mahore's sundering from
Udhampur and inclusion in the Chenab province was fi rst
made in the RAC Report. According to the RAC plan, as in the
KSG proposals, Mahore would form part of the Chenab
province, while Udhampur would be incorporated in the
Hindu-majority Jammu province.
Significantly, Abdullah's plans for the future of Jammu and
Kashmir's relationship with India match the KSG's
formulation of a quasi-sovereign state. The report of the
State Autonomy Committee (SAC), which was released in March
1999 and is now under cons ideration by the Centre, would
leave New Delhi with no powers other than the management of
defence, external affairs and communications. Fundamental
rights mentioned in the Constitution, for example, would no
longer apply to Jammu and Kashmir if the SAC has its way.
They will have to be substituted by a separate chapter on
fundamental rights in the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution,
which now contains only Directive Principles. The Supreme
Court's jurisdiction over Jammu and Kashmir will end and the
State Election Commission will conduct polls in the State,
not the Election Commission of India.
While the National Conference's demands for greater autonomy
are in themselves not disturbing, the context in which they
have been made and their character are. For one, the SAC
proposals were pushed through without debate in the Assembly
and a nation-wi de political debate on the issue, promised
by Abdullah, never took place. Meaningful autonomy seems to
be the last of the SAC's concerns. The report does not
contain even one sentence about financial autonomy,
essential ...
What would be interesting would be to hold a refrendum in
Jammu , Ladakh and the valley and ask each voter which
state they would like to live in , if these states were
carved out of the present Kashmir .
Its almost certain that most of the Muslims of Doda and even
the valley would vote to join Jammu , to stay in India
proper and this would be a kind of indirect refrendum ..
A divisive agenda
Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah's recent conclave with United
States-based secessionist leader Farooq Kathwari is seen as
part of a larger U.S.-sponsored covert dialogue on Jammu and
Kashmir, in which the Vajpayee Government is complicit.
PRAVEEN SWAMI
Aug 5 2000, 3:00 am
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Farouq Kathwari Pres. of Danbury based Ethan Allan Corp. also did
something
equally stupid in filling his son's head usual Islamic nonsense. As a
result he too took leave from Harvard Medical School to go fight in
Kashmir. He did not know any Urdu or anything else about the conflict
except that it was a fight between good and evil. Good meaning of
course Islam and Hindu were no doubt the evil.
On an excursion in Kashmir his group saw an Indian military truck and
decided to engage it by opening fire. The Indian soldiers returned
fire and a shell fragment from a grenade severed an artery causing him
to bleed to death. His comrades left his body on the scene for the
Indian soldiers to find, where upon they found documents revealing his
identity. American Embassy was informed which arranged his body to be
send back to Connecticut.
At his funeral services a Jewish boy who was a childhood friend got up
and shouted at his parents that "my friend lies in that box today
because YOU filled his head with hatred" No other words were spoken
afterwards.
| Momin | Aug 5 2000, 3:00 am show options |
| Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian, soc.culture.pakistan, alt.religion.islam, soc.culture.punjab |
| From: Momin <M...@momin.com |
| Date: 2000/08/05 |
| Subject: Re: Message of a shaheed . |
- nusrat rizvi wrote:
> Farouq Kathwari Pres. of Danbury based Ethan Allan Corp. also did
> something
> equally stupid in filling his son's head usual Islamic nonsense. As a
> result he too took leave from Harvard Medical School to go fight in
> Kashmir. He did not know any Urdu or anything else about the conflict
> except that it was a fight between good and evil. Good meaning of
> course Islam and Hindu were no doubt the evil.
> On an excursion in Kashmir his group saw an Indian military truck and
> decided to engage it by opening fire. The Indian soldiers returned
> fire and a shell fragment from a grenade severed an artery causing him
> to bleed to death. His comrades left his body on the scene for the
> Indian soldiers to find, where upon they found documents revealing his
> identity. American Embassy was informed which arranged his body to be
> send back to Connecticut.
> At his funeral services a Jewish boy who was a childhood friend got up
> and shouted at his parents that "my friend lies in that box today
> because YOU filled his head with hatred" No other words were spoken
> afterwards.
Things haven't changed any. This fucked up kathwari continues to pump
money for ongoing terrorist activities in Kashmir. The irony is that the
stupid Indian eunuchs at the helm are fully aware of it....
Somebody needs to sue Ethan Allan for sponsoring global terrorism...
 |
>nusrat rizvi wrote: >> Farouq Kathwari Pres. of Danbury based Ethan Allan Corp. also did >Things haven't changed any. This fucked up kathwari continues to pump I dont think he uses his corporate funds for his nefarious deeds, ------ http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.pakistan/msg/e600ea9b01b98575?&hl=en&q=farooq+kathwari |
A meeting that portends a new Kashmir
JAMMU, March 14
WITH the US President, Mr. Bill Clinton's visit to India and Pakistan
just days away, the dots on the map charting the future of Jammu &
Kashmir are starting to join together into a striking picture.
The Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, held a
one-to-one closed-door meeting with Mr. Farooq Kathwari, a top
secessionist political figure, in Jammu last week. He subsequently flew
to Srinagar, where he stayed with his father-in-law, Mr. Ghulam Rasool
Khan. The March 8 meeting with Mr. Kathwari suggests that the Union
Government is engaged in a dialogue on plans that would, in effect,
amount to a fresh partition of Jammu & Kashmir, this time on communal
lines.
Mr. Kathwari heads the Kashmir Studies Group (KSG), an influential
think-tank which has been advocating the creation of a quasi-independent
State carved out of the Muslim-majority areas of Jammu & Kashmir. The
owner of Ethan Allen, an upmarket furniture concern which includes the
White House among its clients, Mr. Kathwari's associates in the KSG
include the former Foreign Secretary, Mr. N.K. Singh, and Vice-Admiral
S.K. Nair (retd.). Although the furniture tycoon had been blacklisted by
successive Indian governments, he received a visa last year and visited
several senior establishment figures.
A KSG report circulated among top Indian and Pakistani officials
subsequently detailed proposals for the creation of a new "sovereign
entity but one without an international personality." "The new
entity," the report said, "would have its own secular, democratic
constitution, as well as its own citizenship, flag and a legislature
which would legislate on all matters other than defence and foreign
affairs."
The most significant of five proposals Kashmir: A Way Forward envisages
is a single Kashmiri State on the Indian side of the Line of Control
(LoC). It argues for a series of tehsil-level referendums leading to all
of the Kashmir Valley's districts, along with the district of Doda,
opting to be part of the new entity. The KSG's new entity would also
include the district of Kargil, three northern tehsils from Rajouri, and
a single tehsil of Udhampur. The new State would, in effect, be an
agglomeration of the Muslim-majority tehsils of Jammu & Kashmir.
No one in Jammu seemed to be aware of just what Dr. Abdullah discussed
with Mr. Kathwari during their hour-long interaction. The Chief
Secretary, Mr. Ashok Jaitley, told Business Line that the meeting had
indeed been held, but said that he was unaware of just what had been
discussed. "What I can tell you is that the initiative for the meeting
was not ours," he said, "and that the highest quarters were consulted
before it was held." Neither the Jammu & Kashmir Directorate of Public
Relations, which handles media interaction with the Chief Minister, nor
Dr. Abdullah's personal staff responded to queries.
While officials contacted in New Delhi argued that the Kathwari-Abdullah
meeting had no significance, the facts appear to suggest otherwise. The
KSG's specific suggestions for the powers of the new entity are
remarkably similar to those proposed by Jammu & Kashmir's State Autonomy
Commission (SAC). The SAC's report, now under consideration by the Union
Government, would restore the State's 1953 constitutional status, giving
it power over all subjects barring defence and external affairs.
Significantly, no major Union Government figure has taken issue with the
proposals.
The communal ripping apart of Jammu & Kashmir suggested in the KSG
report has also found expression in the controversial recommendations of
the Jammu & Kashmir Regional Autonomy Commission (RAC). The RAC proposes
to create a series of communally-homogeneous provinces, mirroring the
KSG report's cartographic content down to the last tehsil. More than a
few observers believe that the dialogue now in progress could lead to an
internal partition of Jammu & Kashmir, with the Muslim-majority
provinces gaining quasi-independence, and the Hindu-majority regions
being further integrated in India.
Interestingly, the Pakistani journalist, Mr. Talat Hussain, reported
last year in The Nation that the back-channel negotiators during the
Kargil war, Mr. Niaz Naik and Mr. R.K. Mishra, had discussed what was
described as the "Chenab Plan" for Kashmir. The Chenab Plan which,
according to Mr. Hussain's report, was documented in a Pakistani
proposal, an Indian response, and a second Pakistani proposal, suggested
recognition of the LoC as the border, followed by the grant of autonomy
to Kashmir Valley. Several US establishment figures, too, have argued
that India needs to make concessions in this direction.
The secrecy shrouding such dialogue has fuelled fears that the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP)-led Union Government is engaged in an exercise that
could have serious repercussions. The Communist Party of India (Marxist)
MLA, Mr. M.Y. Tarigami, told Business Line that the senior BJP leader,
Mr. K.R. Malkani, had, at a conference last month, told him that a
division of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh was, in the long term, inevitable.
MIM: Kathwari brother Rafiq's radical Islamist proclivities are evident in this 'poetry' which was published on the ersatz Al Jazeera website. Rafiq, who boasts of having a Jewish girlfriend and mentor blasts Israel in poem number 1
.Poem number two glorifies the death of his nephew in Afghanistan fighting 'Jihad', who was his Farooq Kathwari's son Imran. http://www.aljazeerah.info/Poetry/2004%20Poems/Palestine,%20Afghanistan,%20Iraq%20By%20Rafiq%20Kathwari.htm
Poem 1
ISRAELI PATROLS KILL
90 DOGS IN ARAB TOWN
The New York Times, April 14, 1995
Mother, I'm living in sin with an Egyptian
Jew raised in Paris. We stroll in Central Park.
Gaulois, her mutt, off the leash. Lucky he's
not in Hebron, where gods kill dogs for sport.
Poem 2
HISTORY'S MOST PERSECUTED MINORITY
IS INSENSITIVE TO THE ASPIRATIONS
OF WORLD'S MOST DISPOSSESSED TRIBE
I held my sister-in-law's hand
in the back seat of the Volkswagen
while my older brother drove
through red lights to Maimonides.
"Kicking," she said, drawing my hand
over her belly. I lowered my gaze: Her
toes curled on the car floor.
He was born a Scorpio.
For years I watched my nephew
dunk hoops, grow his hair long, flunk
Islam and embrace the NRA,
his dad's rifle on boy's shoulder.
"On Judgment Day," he wrote
"We shall meet again."
Allah's soldier flung a stone
somewhere in Afghanistan
the enemy fired arcs across
a cobalt sky. In their Brooklyn yard
his mom was pruning roses
the day the call came.
Poem 3
ASSIGNMENT
Only Muslim in the workshop,
I went on about the President,
his firm stand on Iraq,
civilization's cradle, bombed
back to the Stone Age for flaunting
weapons sold by capitalist gunrunners.
I am a witness, I must howl, I said.
In every well in Baghdad a Rafiq
is weeping while long black coats (with
gas masks) huddle at the Wailing Wall,
as if prayers could halt smart bombs.
"Rhetoric, not lyric," my peers echoed Yeats.
"Argue with yourself, not others." The teacher,
an adjunct, said "Presidential warhead
rising from its silo was over the top. Nike
stockpiling kneepads, sick. Not ars poetica."
***
Rafiq Kathwaria is a Kashmiri-American poet and author of the award-winning website http://KashmirRetextured.com
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http://www.counterpunch.org/kathwari.html
Rafiq Kathwari recounts his own role in Jihad and trivialises 9/11 with an article entitled 'Kashmir Dispute Will Make Ground Zero Seem like a Bonfire.
Kashmir Dispute Will Make Ground Zero Seem Like a Bonfire
By Rafiq Kathwari
When I was a teenager about 35 years ago and in my final year in college in Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir, the movie "Battle for Algiers" was a big hit. It captured my imagination as well as that of my classmates, one of whom approached me a few days later and asked if I would commit myself to the liberation of Kashmir. Yes, of course, I said, reading a typed sheet my friend took out from his coat pocket. "Bear Arms against a Sea of Troubles," I remember the title said.
"This is our manifesto," my friend said as I read the aims and objectives, which included blowing up bridges and the local radio and telephone buildings, ambushing army convoys and killing soldiers. The text said nothing about where we would get arms and ammunition, the number of members in the group, how we would organize, who our leader was or when we would execute our plan.
However, I remember the manifesto was long on the why, with each point emphasized in the present tense: Our cause is freedom. India promised us a referendum on our future, but fails to keep its promise. Prime Minster Nehru, the last Englishman to rule India, has kept our popular leader Sheikh Abdullah in jail for over 15 years. To the extent that India denies us our fundamental rights and subverts its own constitution, to that extent, India is not a democracy.
It was great stuff for my impressionable mind. My friend had energized me. If the Algerians could do it, so could Kashmiris. I read the typed manifesto again before signing it with a flourish.
A few weeks later that teenage flirtation landed me for 11 months in Srinagar's Central Jail, where I met 12 of my classmates who had also signed the manifesto. (The college Principal had been somehow alerted to the plan and called the police.) Subsequently, India announced that it had cracked a dangerous gang of terrorists trained in Pakistan. There was no trial. We were just locked up and forgotten, until one beneficent pro-India sycophant in Kashmir was replaced by another, who ordered an amnesty. Soon after, I fled to the future of other continents.
The passage of 35 years hasn't dimmed my memory. My passion for Kashmir's freedom is undiminished, despite the horror of the last ten years during which anywhere from 35,000 to 80,000 mostly civilians have been killed. Maddened by merciless Hinduization of Kashmir's Muslim culture, the lack of career opportunities and India's repeated betrayals during the past 50 years, a rag tag army of young Kashmiri men took on the third largest army in the world.
To obtains arms, those young men crossed the Line of Control that divides Indian from Pakistani- administered Kashmir, rode in buses to Kabul, where armaments supplied by the CIA to the Mujahideen were readily available after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan. India calls those Kashmiri youth "cross border terrorists" and blames Pakistan for supporting them. Pakistan, which has competing claims on Kashmir, calls them freedom fighters. Many Kashmiris I know simply say, a plague on all your houses, which, of course, includes my adopted home-I know it's politically incorrect to say it- the United States.
Many young native Kashmiri men who took up arms against a sea of troubles are dead or languishing in India's jails. The fighting now is being mostly done by foreign mercenaries, recruited by the elusive Mr. bin Laden, whose so-called martyrs have changed the tenor of Kashmir's legitimate struggle to that of an Islamic Jihad against Hindu India.
"See, we told you so," India is screaming, "Kashmiris are terrorists." India has fueled Western fears of resurgent Islam, propagandizing the militancy as fundamentalist, which in turn enables India to flout all international codes of conduct in Kashmir. If all Kashmiris are terrorists and must be smoked out of the Himalayas by 500,000 Indian troops stationed there, then let us at the very least agree on a working definition of terrorism which must include both the unofficial and official variety.
But, wait. Let's be honest. Prior to the militancy, India portrayed Kashmir as the model for secularism in India, as the warp of her pluralist democracy. What has propelled Kashmiri society seemingly overnight from a model of secularism to deranged fanaticism?
Under the present ultra right wing regime, Indian society is becoming increasingly intolerant and absolutist. There is a profound disturbance within Mother India. Many Indians I know think of India as a super power next only to the United States. I will believe that when Kashmir, the source of five great rivers, gets a basic sanitation system and an unrestricted flow of electricity the Kashmir valley itself generates.
Kashmiris have been enslaved for generations. The West is finally taking note of the fact that regional conflicts have a global reach. Nothing is remote anymore. It never was. Now we must do whatever is necessary to win the hearts and minds of alienated peoples such as the Kashmiris. Restore their dignity. Fulfill longstanding promises, and watch how swiftly Kashmiris sign a manifesto to honor democracy in a world that has changed literally overnight after nine eleven zero one. Indifference will make Ground Zero seem like a Boy Scout's bonfire gone awry.
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