An interview with Puneet Madaan: Germany repeating mistakes of India

Money Jihad recently sat down for an informative instant messaging interview with longtime reader and commenter Puneet Madaan.  In this interview, Puneet shares his story about the murders of non-Muslims during the partition of India, which resulted in the deaths of 60 percent of the older generations of his family.  Now living in Germany, Puneet finds that Europe is repeating the mistakes of India in the name of multiculturalism.  For example, the number of dangerous mosques in Germany (often with funding from Turkey) is increasing exponentially, and the government encourages it or turns a blind eye.  Puneet’s proposal?  Learn from history and adopt a clear strategy to combat the problem.

MJ:  Thanks for joining me for this IM interview!  How are you doing?

Puneet:  Fine, in fact, great.  My last day in India, flying back to Germany tomorrow.

MJ:  Were you in India on business or pleasure?

Puneet:  Just on vacation at a pretty interesting time, especially seeing how anti-Israeli propaganda is being pushed in the Indian media, even though the Indian public is more pro-Israel.

MJ: Perhaps the media bias has something to do with the oil that India buys from Iran?

Puneet:  Possibly.  They were blaming Israel for the attack on Israeli embassy personnel in Delhi…  I think we cannot fight it [radical Islam], till we put human rights above everything.

MJ:  Speaking of human rights, you’ve mentioned that you used to be involved with the Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam. Could you say more about that?

Puneet:  Yes, HRCARI was an initiative–a learning curve for many–and it even includes Darfuri Muslims.  Yet the point I learned is the limitation on our side.  I, myself, am not in a single organisation that has a real goal… and I think till we define a clear goal, we will be defensive and losing ground day by day.  I do not want to say that one has to take weapon, but being on the offensive in an ideological war at least requires a clear goal, which is missing in ‘fighting terrorism’ side.

MJ:  But you’re no longer involved with HRCARI?

Puneet:  I’m one of the founding members, though I’m no more 100% active with it…

MJ:  I see. You also contributed to http://www.islam-watch.org?

Puneet:  Yes, I did, though I’m unsatisfied with it… not because I disagree, but rather because real change requires real debates and [bringing] taboo issues of Islam in public–issues like apartheid in Mecca and Medina, the mandatory 6th part of Islamic banking, etc.  And lobbies [interest groups] are not doing enough in this front.

MJ:  You’re saying that these groups aren’t doing enough?

Puneet:  Definitely not … If they were, wouldn’t we have sanctions against Saudi Arabia for its official apartheid signs on roads?

MJ:  Are people in the West are afraid to speak the truth?  You never seem to be afraid. You’ve gotten into some verbal tussles with Muslim commenters on our blog who don’t like the truth. They don’t scare you?

Puneet:  I think they are either ignorant of the truth, or are in denial towards what they all know from their consciousness deep inside them.  Fear use to scare me.  I was on the other corner of the world, running away from Deobandis.  Realizing [now] in Germany, that what I was running away from is a social disease at a global level, and I’m not afraid of naming the disease as “ummah mentality”–a central pillar in Islam.

MJ:  You grew up in India?

Puneet:  Yes I grew up in India, in fact near Deoband.  So I knew what the real Taliban style Islam is. The only problem was that I was never allowed in India to express the problem… like a child struggling to communicate, I was struggling back then to define the problem I was running away from.  And now as I can define it, I think that Islam is the core central part of this problem in modern world, but as I said it is a social disease.

MJ: It sounds like your concerns about fundamentalist Islam are based on personal experience.

Puneet:  Yes my concerns are linked with personal experience, as well as a study of patterns in genocide.  (P.S. 60% of my family was butchered during Indian partition.)

MJ:  I am sorry to hear about your family.  Have you been personally attacked or discriminated against by a Muslim?

Puneet:  Yes.  Discriminated: yes.  Attacked: no.  But that was back as a child.  Like giving Muslim kids free special packages that non-Muslims do not get.

MJ: Who did that?  Teachers? Government officials? Neighbors?

Puneet: Government officials.

MJ: But now you live in Germany. And you say it’s not that much better?

Puneet:  Well the problem with Germany is that it’s repeating the mistakes of India.  It’s not enforcing the “equality of Humans,” rather is [emphasizing the] “equality of religion”…

MJ:  Out of curiosity, how many languages do you speak?

Puneet:  A few. A bit of English.  German, Hindi, Urdu. A bit Hebrew.  Bit Japanese. Bit Sanskrit. That’s all.

MJ: I’d say seven is more than a few!

Puneet:  I love it, it opens a new dimension–a new world of understanding.  [It’s] a must to read and look the world in global context.

MJ:  What is it like ‘on the ground’ in Germany/Europe these days? How visible are Muslim immigrants?

Puneet:  In Germany mosques have come up exponentially in basements in many suburbs.  And a majority are from radical Islamist groups.

MJ:  Basements? Of homes?

Puneet:  Yes from homes, but they are usually seen as private gatherings.  They never register, but still sometimes you can find them in Google as meeting grounds…

MJ:  Do you think they are funded by Turkey?

Puneet:  Yes the last one I looked at was Turkey funded…  I was amazed that they rented a place in a church, and their advertisment was pasted on almost every dönner shop and halal chicken shop. I never was able to find the event in any event book, though posters were on public display.

MJ:  You started voicing concerns about halal foods and the money behind it early on. How did you predict that this would become a growing problem?

Puneet:  My family history.  From the time I’ve been in Germany, and realized the root of the problem, I started recording people’s statements from a generation that is fading away.. a generation which survived the Indian partition genocide.

MJ:  What else should we be watching for?  What else concerns you going forward?

Puneet:  The biggest concern today is indeed saving our freedom of expression, because it is under attack.  I think if the OIC sponsored “stop defamation of religion” bill is not thrown away, we will have the biggest trouble.  It will be a revival of my own case when I felt the problem as a child, but was unaware about how to express it.

MJ:  Why aren’t liberals, human rights advocates, feminists, gay people, animal rights activists, etc. more vocal against sharia and the imams?

Puneet:  The problem is in the view of these people.  The majority of them (with the exception animal right activists) are defenders of “multiculturalism” and that’s the problem.  I only recognize one culture, which is human culture… something which they deny.

MJ:  Is that why Germany is allowing sharia finance to take hold?

Puneet:  Indeed…  There was an interesting case one has observed, I think it was in 2008 or 2009?  A German court denied a divorce to a woman, even though extensive proofs of wife-beating were present.  The court said that as per Islamic law, as per which she was married, it is allowed.  And that’s all in name of multiculturalism.  Currently German kids are forced to practice Islamic systems, citing integration.  But is it really required, knowing that it enforces sexual apartheid that denies women various rights?

MJ:  Perhaps sharia finance is the gateway drug for sharia law in the West.

Puneet:  Sharia finance is not just gateway.  It also is a source to fund weapons.  So even if they fail in propaganda [that converts] people to Islam, it still leaves open room for weapon funding–something that happened during Indian partition.

MJ:  Is your write-up on Kuveyt Turk Bank still available? I couldn’t access it the last time I was on Facebook.

Puneet:  Facebook’s upgrading changed the visibility permission.  I fixed it, now content should be visible (https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=167371703286889).

MJ:  If people want to get to know you better or follow your work, what should they do? Friend you on Facebook?

Puneet:  Surely.  I am currently working on documenting India and Islam.  It might help many in understanding the threat.  And perhaps I will provide an update by February’s end.

MJ: Great!  Just one or two more questions.  “Three-way” talks have begun among Afghanistan, the Taliban, and the U.S.  Do you think that’s wise?

Puneet: The last Afghan ‘peace talks’ had a clause that wanted to re-enforce orange arm bands that Taliban forced on Afghan Hindus from 1999 onwards.  If it is what one can define as wise, then for sure the US is wise.  But as we had observed in various Pakistan peace treaties with Pak Taliban, for example in Swat, it was neither wise, nor doom.  It’s a well-organised Muslim Brotherhood campaign for political gain. Never forget that the foundation of the Muslim Brotherhood and Tablighi Jammat have a shared foundation in the 1926 Mecca ‘peace’ summit for the goal of raising the flag of Islam around the world, and remounting the caliphate.

MJ:  Is there anything else that you’d like to share with me or the readers of Money Jihad?

Puneet:  Well all I can say is learn from history, and read history in global context, and do discuss with older generations as much as you can.  Irrespective of the history and geography, if you analyze it, you will see the same factors and same policies that give birth to human tragedies, and these are the elements one has to find and counter.

MJ:  Well said!  You’ve been a loyal reader and commenter on Money Jihad blog, Puneet. Thank you so much for that, and for who you are.

Puneet:  Thanks to the West and freedom of expression.  Without that I might never be able to express myself.

Note:  Puneet was kind enough to send in a photo of one of the ads he observed posted on a halal chicken truck for an unregistered gathering of Muslims mentioned in the interview:

Photo by Puneet Madaan