Muscarinic autoreceptors regulate cholinergic tone in the striatum. We investigated the functional consequences of genetic deletion of striatal muscarinic autoreceptors by means of electrophysiological recordings from either medium spiny neurons (MSNs) or cholinergic interneurons (ChIs) in slices from single M4 or double M2/M4 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR) knock-out (−/−) mice. In control ChIs, the muscarinic agonist oxotremorine (300 nm) produced a self-inhibitory outward current that was mostly reduced in M4−/− and abolished in M2/M4−/− mice, suggesting an involvement of both M2 and M4 autoreceptors. In MSNs from both M4−/− and M2/M4−/− mice, muscarine caused a membrane depolarization that was prevented by the M1 receptor-preferring antagonist pirenzepine (100 nm), suggesting that M1 receptor function was unaltered. Acetylcholine has been involved in striatal long-term potentiation (LTP) or long-term depression (LTD) induction. Loss of muscarinic autoreceptor function is predicted to affect synaptic plasticity by modifying striatal cholinergic tone. Indeed, high-frequency stimulation of glutamatergic afferents failed to induce LTD in MSNs from both M4−/− and M2/M4−/− mice, as well as in wild-type mice pretreated with the M2/M4 antagonist AF-DX384 (11-[[2-[(diethylamino)methyl]-1-piperidinyl]acetyl]-5,1 1-dihydro-6H-pyrido[2,3b][1,4] benzodiazepin-6-one). Interestingly, LTD could be restored by either pirenzepine (100 nm) or hemicholinium-3 (10 μm), a depletor of endogenous ACh. Conversely, LTP induction did not show any difference among the three mouse strains and was prevented by pirenzepine. These results demonstrate that M2/M4 muscarinic autoreceptors regulate ACh release from striatal ChIs. As a consequence, endogenous ACh drives the polarity of bidirectional synaptic plasticity.
Acetylcholine (ACh) plays an essential role in striatal synaptic plasticity and motor learning, as well as in the pathophysiology of movement disorders (Calabresi et al., 2000; Partridge et al., 2002; Pisani et al., 2007). Striatal ACh innervation is exclusively intrinsic, originating from large cholinergic interneurons (ChIs) (Bolam et al. 1984). Regardless of their paucity, cholinergic markers measured in this region are among the highest within the brain. ChIs exhibit autonomous pacemaker activity, firing action potentials at rest, providing a constant ACh tone in the striatum (Bennett and Wilson, 1999; Zhou et al., 2002). Maintenance of discrete ACh levels is ensured by either ACh degrading enzymes or by M2/M4 muscarinic autoreceptors, which exert a negative feedback control on ACh release, hyperpolarizing ChIs through Cav2 calcium current inhibition and the opening of potassium (K+) currents (Yan and Surmeier, 1996; Calabresi et al., 1998).
Five distinct muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs; M1–M5) have been cloned and divided into two main classes, according to their pharmacological properties and transduction mechanisms (Wess et al., 2007). Receptor localization studies have revealed a predominant expression of M1 and M4 receptors on striatal neuronal subpopulations, whereas M2 and M3 are clearly less abundant (Zhang et al., 2002; Zhou et al., 2002). ACh also exerts its modulatory effects through nicotinic receptors, expressed on striatal dopaminergic terminals whose activation stimulates dopamine release. The close functional interplay between dopamine and nicotinic receptors is proven by the observation that nicotinic receptor antagonists prevent the induction of striatal synaptic plasticity (Partridge et al., 2002).
High-frequency stimulation (HFS) of the glutamatergic pathway causes either a long-lasting increase, or an enduring decrease in synaptic efficacy, referred to as long-term potentiation (LTP) or long-term depression (LTD), respectively (Calabresi et al., 1992a,b; Lovinger et al., 1993). Compelling evidence suggests that intrastriatal ACh levels dictate the polarity of plastic changes via M1 receptor activation, that are expressed on dendrites and spines of medium spiny neurons (MSNs), and are therefore strategically positioned to influence synaptic plasticity (Hersch et al. 1994, Yan et al., 2001). Indeed, M1 receptor activation increases MSN excitability by reducing KCNQ and Kir2 currents (Galarraga et al., 1999; Shen et al., 2005, 2007). Consequently, M1 receptor activation favors MSN depolarization, playing a permissive role in LTP (Calabresi et al., 2000). However, M1 receptor activation also inhibits Cav1 and Cav2 calcium currents (Howe and Surmeier, 1995) that are necessary for LTD induction. It has been proposed recently that reducing ambient M1 receptor stimulation promotes LTD through disinhibition of Cav1 channels (Wang et al., 2006).
The lack of selective ligands for mAChRs has made it difficult to define the role of striatal mAChRs by pharmacological means (Wess et al., 2007). We analyzed the consequences of muscarinic autoreceptor loss on striatal synaptic plasticity by using a combined pharmacological/molecular genetic approach. Specifically, we performed electrophysiological recordings from MSNs and ChIs using slices from wild-type (WT), single M4−/−, or double M2/M4−/− mice (Gomeza et al., 1999a,b, 2001).
All procedures were performed in accord with the European Commission guidelines (86/609/EEC) and approved by the University "Tor Vergata." Mice (4–6 weeks old) were generated as described (Gomeza et al., 1999a,b, 2001). WT littermates of the same mixed genetic background were used as controls. Coronal corticostriatal slices (180–250 μm) were cut in Krebs' solution [containing (in mm) 126 NaCl, 2.5 KCl, 1.3 MgCl2, 1.2 NaH2PO4, 2.4 CaCl2, 10 glucose, and 18 NaHCO3], bubbled with 95% O2/and 5% CO2. Individual slices were transferred in a recording chamber (∼0.5–1 ml volume), continuously superfused with oxygenated Krebs' medium at 2.5–3 ml/min (32–33°C).
Current-clamp recordings were performed using sharp microelectrodes filled with 2 m KCl (40–60 MΩ). Signal acquisition and off-line analysis were performed using an Axoclamp 2B amplifier and pClamp9 software (Molecular Devices). Glutamatergic EPSPs were evoked with a bipolar electrode placed in the white matter. Test stimuli were delivered at 0.1 Hz in bicuculline. For high-frequency stimulation (three trains, 3 s duration, 100 Hz frequency, 20 s intervals), stimulus intensity was raised to suprathreshold levels. The amplitude of EPSPs was averaged and plotted as % of the control amplitude for ∼10 min before HFS. EPSPs did not reveal significant differences in the three groups of mice (data not shown) (p > 0.05) and were suppressed by the AMPA receptor antagonist CNQX (10 μm).
Whole-cell recordings were made of ChIs visualized by means of infrared-differential interference contrast videomicroscopy, as described (Bonsi et al., 2007). Borosilicate glass pipettes (3–5 MΩ) contained (in mm) 125 K+-gluconate, 10 NaCl, 1 CaCl2, 2 MgCl2, 0.5 BAPTA [1,2-bis (2-aminophenoxy) ethane-N,N,N,N-tetraacetic acid], 19 HEPES, 0.3 GTP, and 1 Mg-ATP, adjusted to pH 7.3 with KOH. Membrane currents were monitored (Axopatch 200B; Molecular Devices) and access resistances measured in voltage clamp were in the range of 5–30 MΩ before electronic compensation (60–80% was routinely used). To compare correctly current–voltage relationships before and after drug perfusion, series resistances (8–15 MΩ) were monitored by the peak amplitude of the capacitive transient induced by a −5 mV step applied before a voltage ramp (from −120 to −40 mV, 6 mV/s). Neurons in which series resistance changed by >10% were discarded from the statistics. Values given are mean ± SEM. Student's t test and nonparametric Mann–Whitney tests were used to compare means before and after HFS/drug. ANOVA test and post hoc Tukey's test were performed among groups (p < 0.05; α = 0.01). Drugs were from Tocris Cookson, except for muscarine, methoctramine, hemicholinium-3, and bicuculline (Sigma), and were applied by switching the control perfusion to drug-containing solution.
Large ChIs (n = 61) were identified by means of their peculiar electrophysiological properties (Kawaguchi, 1993; Bonsi et al., 2007). Intrinsic membrane properties were not significantly different among ChIs from WT mice and M4−/− or M2/M4−/− mice (ANOVA, p > 0.05): these interneurons showed depolarized resting membrane potential (RMP; WT, −56 ± 1.3 mV, n = 10; M4−/−, −57 ± 1.7 mV, n = 9; M2/M4−/−, −53 ± 4.7 mV, n = 6) and high input resistance (WT, 150 ± 3.2 MΩ, n = 10; M4−/−, 144 ± 3.9 MΩ, n = 9; M2/M4−/−, 135 ± 4.4 MΩ, n = 6). More than half of the recorded cells exhibited a spontaneous firing activity. Hyperpolarizing current protocols activated a typical sag in the voltage response, indicative of an Ih current (Fig. 1B) whose amplitude (WT, 389.7 ± 93.4 pA, n = 10; M4−/−, 325.5 ± 78.0 pA, n = 9; M2/M4−/−, 300.3 ± 41.3 pA, n = 6) and density (WT, 2.4 ± 0.3 pA/pF; M4−/−, 2.7 ± 0.2 pA/pF; M2/M4−/−, 2.8 ± 0.4 pA/pF) did not differ among the three strains (ANOVA, p > 0.05). The current–voltage relationship did not show any significant change between ChIs from WT mice and M4−/− or M2/M4−/− mice (Fig. 1A).
Muscarinic autoreceptor responses recorded from ChIs of knock-out mice. A, Current–voltage relationships of ChIs recorded in slices obtained from WT, M4−/−, and M2/M4−/− mice are not significantly different from each other (ANOVA, p > 0.05). B, Representative recording of a ChI from M4−/− mice showing no change in the typical sag caused by Ih activation at hyperpolarized potentials. C, Top, In a representative recording, bath application of oxotremorine (300 nm, 3 min) induced an outward current (black trace). This response was reduced by preincubation with the M2/M4 receptor antagonist methoctramine (gray trace; 300 nm). Middle, The response to oxotremorine (black trace) is mostly reduced compared with WT, and was completely blocked by methoctramine in M4−/− ChIs (gray trace). Bottom, The recording shows the absence of any detectable response to bath-applied oxotremorine in M2/M4−/− mice. The deflections represent voltage ramps applied before, at the peak of the oxotremorine-induced current, and after drug washout. D, Plots of a recording from a WT (top) and M4−/− ChI (bottom) showing the estimated reversal potential for the oxotremorine-induced current. Gray line, Voltage ramp in control condition; black line, voltage ramp at the peak of oxotremorine effect. Holding potential, −60 mV. Error bars indicate SEM.
It has been shown that activation of M2/M4 autoreceptors in ChIs generates a membrane hyperpolarization or an outward current (Calabresi et al., 1998; Pisani et al., 1999). In the presence of tetrodotoxin (1 μm), oxotremorine (300 nm, 3 min) induced an outward current in the recorded cells from WT mice (Fig. 1C) (55 ± 2.6 pA; n = 7) coupled to a decreased conductance (81 ± 3.2% of control; n = 7; p < 0.05), which was blocked by incubation with the M2/M4 receptor-preferring antagonist methoctramine (300 nm, 10 min). The reversal potential for this outward current was close to the calculated equilibrium potential for K+ ions (Fig. 1D) (−120 ± 4.0 mV; n = 6). Surprisingly, oxotremorine was still able to induce an outward current in M4−/− mice (Fig. 1C) (18 ± 2.6 pA; n = 7). This response was antagonized by methoctramine (Fig. 1C) and reversed at −105 ± 2.3 mV (Fig. 1D). Conversely, the response to oxotremorine (300 nm) was fully abolished in M2/M4−/− mice (Fig. 1C) (n = 4).
MSNs from both WT and knock-out mice (WT, n = 24; M4−/−, n = 36; M2/M4−/−, n = 16) did not exhibit differences both of RMP (WT, −89 ± 6.1 mV, n = 19; M4−/−, −86 ± 5.3 mV, n = 21; M2/M4−/−, −91 ± 7.7 mV, n = 13; ANOVA, p > 0.05) and input resistance (WT, 62.4 ± 9.2 MΩ, n = 19; M4−/−, 59.6 ± 10.6 MΩ, n = 21; M2/M4−/−, 61 ± 8 MΩ, n = 13; ANOVA, p > 0.05), as measured by means of intracellular recordings. Depolarizing current pulses showed membrane rectification and tonic action potential discharge. The current–voltage relationship did not show any change among groups.
M1 receptor activation has been shown to depolarize MSNs (Calabresi et al., 2000). Accordingly, perfusion of muscarine (30 μm, 1 min) caused a reversible membrane depolarization of MSNs from WT (5.6 ± 3 mV; n = 8) as well as from M4−/− (5.8 ± 3.5 mV; n = 6) and M2/M4−/− (5.5 ± 4 mV; n = 5) mice that was prevented by the M1 receptor-preferring antagonist pirenzepine (100 nm) (supplemental Fig. 1, available at www.jneurosci.org as supplemental material).
Removal of magnesium from the perfusing solution reveals an NMDA-mediated component of EPSPs and optimizes LTP induction (Calabresi et al., 1992b). Accordingly, HFS invariably induced LTP in MSNs from WT mice (Fig. 2A,B) (180 ± 28% of control, 25 min post-HFS; n = 7; Mann–Whitney, p = 0.005). Moreover, blocking M1 receptors with 100 nm pirenzepine prevented LTP in WT MSNs (108 ± 8.8%; n = 6; t test, p = 0.9) (data not shown), confirming that M1 receptors promote LTP. In M4−/− or M2/M4−/− mice, HFS induced a LTP of a magnitude similar to that measured in WT littermates (Fig. 2C,D) (M4−/−, 172 ± 22%, n = 7; M2/M4−/−, 164 ± 17%, n = 5; ANOVA, p > 0.05). In both knock-out strains, pretreatment with 100 nm pirenzepine did not cause significant changes of basal EPSP, but prevented LTP (data not shown) (n = 3). To verify these data pharmacologically, WT slices were incubated with the M2/M4 receptor antagonist 11-[[2-[(diethylamino)methyl]-1-piperidinyl]acetyl]-5,1 1-dihydro-6H-pyrido[2,3b][1,4] benzodiazepin-6-one (AF-DX384; 300 nm, 20 min). Under this experimental condition, no significant effect on control EPSP was recorded. Yet, LTP induction was not different from control LTP (Fig. 2A,B) (172.8 ± 17.2%; n = 6; ANOVA, p = 0.2). Therefore, either genetic or pharmacological blockade of striatal muscarinic autoreceptors failed to alter LTP.
Normal LTP in mice lacking muscarinic autoreceptors. A, Time course of changes in EPSP amplitude recorded from WT MSNs. In the absence of external magnesium (LTP induction protocol), HFS induced a marked potentiation of cortically evoked EPSP (open circles), which persisted for >40 min of recording. LTP was unaffected by 300 nm AF-DX384 in WT mice (filled circles). B, Representative traces of the EPSPs recorded before (pre) and 25 min after (post) HFS in WT (top) and in WT pretreated with AF-DX 384 (bottom). C, HFS induced a stable LTP in M4−/− (open circles) as well as in M2/M4−/− mice (filled circles). D, The superimposed traces show the EPSP before (pre) and after (post) HFS in slices from M4−/− and M2/M4−/− mice. Each data point represents the mean ± SEM.
In principle, blockade of LTP by pirenzepine could be a consequence of a facilitatory action on LTD. Thus, in a final set of experiments in M4−/− mice, slices were treated with sulpiride to block LTD (3 μm, 15 min) and then pirenzepine was added (100 nm, 15 min). In this experimental condition, HFS failed to induce LTP both in WT and M4−/− mice (110.6 ± 13.7%; n = 6; t test, p = 0.38), confirming that M1 receptors are indeed necessary for LTP induction.
Ambient ACh concentrations exert a central role both in LTD or LTP. Loss of striatal muscarinic autoreceptor function is therefore expected to affect LTD by elevating cholinergic tone. HFS caused LTD in MSNs from WT mice (Fig. 3A,B) (49.3 ± 11% of control, measured 25 min post-HFS; n = 6; t test, p < 0.01). Conversely, in MSNs from M4−/− or M2/M4−/− mice, HFS failed to induce LTD (Fig. 3A,B) (M4−/−, 100.3 ± 8%; M2/M4−/−, 96.6 ± 8%; n = 6 for each strain; t test, p = 0.3). Moreover, in WT slices, pretreatment with the M2/M4 receptor antagonist, AF-DX384 (300 nm, 20 min), fully prevented LTD (data not shown) (103 ± 17%; n = 5, p = 0.62), suggesting that either pharmacological blockade or genetic deletion of muscarinic autoreceptors impairs striatal LTD.
Impairment of striatal LTD. A, In MSNs from WT mice, HFS of glutamatergic fibers induced LTD of EPSPs (+/+, open square). The induction protocol failed to cause any synaptic change in MSNs from M4−/− or M2/M4−/− mice (open and filled circles, respectively). B, The superimposed traces represent the EPSPs recorded before (pre) and 25 min after (post) HFS in WT and knock-out mice. C, In slices incubated with hemicholinium-3 (300 nm), HFS restored LTD in M4−/− and M2/M4−/− mice (open and filled circles, respectively) without affecting LTD in WT mice (open square). D, Representative traces show the EPSP recorded before (pre) and after (post; 25 min) HFS in slices from both M4−/− and M2/M4−/− mice in the presence of hemicholinium-3. Each data point represents the mean ± SEM.
Assuming that this impairment was caused by an increase in striatal ACh release, lowering cholinergic tone is expected to restore LTD. Slices were bathed with hemicholinium-3 (10 μm, 20 min), which depletes endogenous ACh (Parikh and Sarter, 2006). Hemicholinium-3 did not change EPSP amplitude per se, but completely rescued LTD in both M4−/− and M2/M4−/− mice (Fig. 3C,D) (58.1 ± 13.6% and 53.2 ± 9% of control; n = 6 for M4 and M2/M4, respectively; t test, p < 0.001). Hemicholinium-3 did not cause any change in LTD in MSNs from WT mice (Fig. 3C) (58 ± 9%; n = 3; p = 0.13).
To verify whether the impairment of LTD involved M1 receptors, slices were treated with either the non-subtype-selective mAChRs antagonist scopolamine or with the M1 receptor-preferring antagonist pirenzepine. Both 3 μm scopolamine (20 min) and pirenzepine (100 nm, 20 min) did not modify basal EPSP amplitude, but restored LTD (Fig. 4) (scopolamine: 67.3 ± 11.3%, n = 5, Mann–Whitney, p < 0.0001 for M4−/− mice; 65 ± 14.4%, n = 5, p < 0.0001 for M2/M4−/− mice; pirenzepine: 53 ± 10.5%, n = 6, t test p < 0.0001 for M4−/− mice; 51.4 ± 9.5%, n = 6, p < 0.0001 for M2/M4−/− mice; ANOVA among groups, p = 0.7).
Blockade of M1 muscarinic receptors restores LTD. A, EPSP amplitudes in MSNs from M4−/− (open circles) and M2/M4−/− (filled circles) are plotted in the presence of scopolamine (3 μm). B, Representative traces of EPSP recorded before and 25 min after HFS in scopolamine from both groups of mice. C, Time course of EPSP amplitudes in pirenzepine (100 nm) in M4−/− (open circles) and M2/M4−/− (closed circles) mice. D, Individual traces shown before (pre) and after (post) HFS. Data points are mean ± SEM.
"Competition" between LTD and LTP could hypothetically account for the rescue of LTD by pirenzepine. To address this hypothesis, the effects of pirenzepine on LTD were tested also in the presence of MK-801 [(+)-5-methyl-10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzo [a,d] cyclohepten-5,10-imine maleate; 30 μm, 15 min], an NMDA receptor antagonist, to block LTP. In such experimental condition, HFS was still able to restore LTD in M4−/− mice (48.7 ± 11.6%; n = 5; Mann–Whitney, p < 0.0001).
Maintenance of ACh homeostasis in the striatum is of primary importance for correct motor control (Pisani et al., 2007). Loss of autoreceptors expressed on striatal ChIs is therefore expected to lead to a tonic increase in ACh levels and altered locomotion. Indeed, the oxotremorine-mediated inhibition of K+-stimulated [3ACh] efflux was completely lost in cortical and striatal tissues from M2/M4−/− mice (Zhang et al., 2002). Similarly, a large elevation in basal ACh content was found in the hippocampus of either M2 or M4 single or M2/M4 double knock-out mice (Tzavara et al., 2003). Moreover, in behavioral studies, M4−/− mice displayed increased basal locomotor activity (Gomeza et al., 1999b).
Consistent with these findings, we found that the outward current recorded in ChIs was mostly reduced in single M4−/− and abolished in M2/M4−/− mice, implicating both receptors in the cholinergic autoreceptor response. Accordingly, anatomical and pharmacological evidence identified both the M2 and M4 subtypes as striatal autoreceptors (Zhang et al., 2002).
Disruption of the M2/M4-mediated autoregulatory mechanism has been shown to alter synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus as well as in the visual cortex (Tzavara et al., 2003; Origlia et al., 2006). We tested the hypothesis that a presumed increase in cholinergic tone would influence striatal synaptic plasticity, providing the first evidence that striatal synaptic plasticity is indeed critically dependent on the levels of endogenous ACh, with higher levels favoring LTP and lower levels promoting LTD. First, we found that MSNs from both M4−/− or M2/M4−/− mice retain LTP. Second, pharmacological blockade of M2/M4 receptors with AF-DX384 prevented LTD, but did not alter LTP induction in WT mice. Because ACh exerts its permissive role in LTP induction through M1 receptor activation, we examined whether this pathway was preserved in MSNs of knock-out mice. In both M4−/− and M2/M4−/− mice, muscarine depolarized MSNs, confirming that M1 receptors were functional. In addition, LTP induction depended on M1 receptor activation in both knock-out mice, as it was fully prevented by pirenzepine.
Conversely, no striatal LTD was observed in either M4−/− or M2/M4−/− mice. In keeping with the assumption that elevated striatal ACh release affected LTD in mice lacking muscarinic autoreceptors, we were able to restore LTD by lowering striatal cholinergic tone with hemicholinium-3, which blocks the high-affinity choline transporters, preventing ACh resynthesis (Parikh and Sarter, 2006). Reducing M1 receptor activity has been proposed to facilitate LTD induction (Wang et al., 2006). Accordingly, we found that blockade of M1 receptors with pirenzepine was able to fully rescue LTD in both M4−/− and M2/M4−/− mice.
Our data are consistent with the novel concept that bidirectional synaptic plasticity in the striatum is strictly regulated by ACh provided by ChIs. Under physiological conditions, striatal dopamine inhibits the activity of ChIs and ACh release (DeBoer et al., 1996; Pisani et al., 2000; Maurice et al., 2004). Moreover, different pathophysiological conditions characterized by striatal dopaminergic dysfunction, including Parkinson's disease and dystonia, are accompanied by abnormal cholinergic function (Ding et al., 2006; Pisani et al., 2007). Accordingly, mAChRs antagonists are used in the symptomatic treatment of these movement disorders (Lang and Lees, 2002; Horn and Comella, 2007). The findings reported here may contribute to a better understanding of how alterations in striatal circuitry are linked to motor dysfunction and eventually help identify novel therapeutic strategies to fine tune striatal cholinergic function in human disease.
This work was supported by grants from the Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia and Parkinson's Foundation, Dystonia Medical Research Foundation (A.P.), Ministero Salute (Program Finalizzato and Articolo 56) (G.B., A.P.), Istituto Superiore Sanità (Malattie Rare) (A.P.), and Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (Disturbi del Controllo Motorio e Cardiorespiratorio grant) (A.P.). J.W. was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
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text:
Q: After changing disk to dynamic windows 7 doesn't boot
Possible Duplicate:
After changing disk to dynamic windows 7 doesn't boot

I shrink a partition in hard disk.And there was a unallocated space.Then I make a partition from that unallocated space.After doing this whole disk was converted  to dynamic type.After doing this I restarted the computer.But windows doesn't boot.After coming bios there is a blinking cursor.Please help me.

A: Start with the Windows CD and reinstall windows cleaning up the messed up partitions.

A: You can't boot from a dynamic disk.
You need the partition to be active to boot from it.
You can't mark an existing dynamic volume as active.
If you have Windows 7 bootable DVD, you can fix it.

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text:
The army has responded to 82 bomb threats this year
And 30 were viable.
By Paul Hosford Wednesday 20 Aug 2014, 6:55 AM
Aug 20th 2014, 6:55 AM 4,063 Views 6 Comments
http://jrnl.ie/1628440
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THE DEFENCE FORCES bomb squads have responded to 82 bomb threats this year.
The figure was revealed by the new Defence Minister Simon Coveney before the Dáil break.
Coveney added that of those, 30 were viable.
He told Fianna Fáil's Sean O'Ferghail:
"Primary responsibility for the maintenance of law and order rests with An Garda Síochána. The Defence Forces, pursuant to their role of rendering Aid to the Civil Power (ATCP), assist An Garda Síochána when requested to do so. The Defence Forces Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Teams respond when a request is made by An Garda Síochána for assistance.
Up to 15 July 2014, EOD teams were deployed on 82 occasions and viable devices accounted for 30 of these call outs.
"Other types of callouts would include hoaxes, false alarms, post-blast analysis, and the removal of unstable chemicals in laboratories."
Coveney also responded to a question on the number of cash-in-transit escorts that members of the Defence Forces had carried out this year. He said that there had been 799.
Read: 10-year-old's bomb threat shuts down airport
Read: Tweeting an airline to say you're a member of Al-Qaeda isn't a great idea, apparently
Paul Hosford
@PTHosford
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Episode 071 - Megan Mallon
One of our producers, Melissa Mallon, took advantage of the holiday time to get some work done. Melissa had been wanting to interview her sister, Megan, for a little while, and since they were both home over break visiting their parents, Melissa brought along a microphone to talk with Megan in person. Melissa and Megan have perhaps a little more in common than your typical sisters. Both are educators, Melissa as a librarian here at Vanderbilt University and Megan as a fifth grade teacher at...
Episode 070 - PODcasters Panel
In this episode, you'll hear from Jay Todd and Bart Everson from Xavier University of Louisiana, Tenisha Baca and Beth Eyres from Glendale Community College in Arizona, and our own Derek Bruff from Vanderbilt University, talk about their respective podcasts on teaching and learning. Jay and Bart are two of the producers of Teaching, Learning, and Everything Else, a production of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development at Xavier. Beth and Tenisha are the hosts of...
Episode 069 - Kelly Hogan And Viji Sathy
Viji Sathy and Kelly Hogan both work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where they not only teach hundreds of students a year, but also support their fellow UNC educators in a variety of ways. Viji is a teaching associate professor in the department of psychology and neuroscience and special projects assistant to the senior associate dean of undergraduate education. Kelly is a STEM teaching professor in the department of biology and associate dean of the Office of...
Episode 068 - Ian Bogost
Ian Bogost is the Ivan Allen College Distinguished Chair in Media Studies and Professor of Interactive Computing at the George Institute of Technology. He's an author of multiple books, an award-winning game designer, and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. Ian studies games by making games and is an incredibly deep thinker about an impressively broad array of topics, as you'll hear from this conversation. Links • Ian Bogost's website, http://bogost.com/ • @ibogost on Twitter,...
Episode 067 - Christopher Cayari
Christopher Cayari is an assistant professor of music education at Purdue University. He teaches college students, mostly pre-service teachers, but his research considers how musicians use technology, particularly the internet and social media, to make music. Just as YouTube is changing how music is created and shared, Cayari is using YouTube and other video tools to change how his students learn about music. He uses technology to turn his classroom into a learning community, where students...
Episode 066 - Derek Bruff
In this episode, Leading Lines producer Melissa Mallon interviews our podcast host, Derek Bruff, about his new book entitled Intentional Tech: Principles to Guide the Use of Educational Technology in College Teaching. Melissa spends time talking with Derek about his seven principles that inform and inspire instructors interested in incorporating educational technologies into their teaching. He also shares with Melissa his writing process and gives some insights on how busy academics can fit...
Episode 065 - Swati Pandita And Jack Madden
Astronomy PhD student, Jack Madden and communication PhD student, Swati Pandita, talk about the results of their VR study they conducted, using VR to teach students how the phases of the moon work. They split students into three conditions: a VR simulation letting them explore the Earth-Moon-Sun system; a computer simulation of the same topic; and an old-fashioned physical simulation, involving a light bulb on a stick. Their findings? No difference in learning across the three conditions....
Episode 064 - Andrew Wesolek
In this episode, Vanderbilt librarian Melissa Mallon brings us an interview with another Vanderbilt librarian about his new book on open educational resources. Andrew Wesolek is the director of digital scholarship and scholarly communication at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries at Vanderbilt University. He is also the co-author, along with Jonathan Lashley and Anne Langley, of the new book OER: A Field Guide for Academic Librarians, published in 2018 by Pacific University Press. OER...
Episode 063 - David Michelson and Michelle Taylor
On this episode of Leading Lines, we feature a conversation between a librarian, a faculty member, and a post-doc about a course two of them taught recently at Vanderbilt University focused on TEI, the Text Encoding Initiative. The course was team-taught by David Michelson, associate professor of the history of Christianity, and Michelle Taylor, a post-doctoral fellow in digital cultural heritage with a background in English literature. They're interviewed by Leading Lines producer Cliff...
Episode 062 - Chris Gilliard
In this episode we talk with Chris Gilliard, Professor of English at Macomb Community College. His scholarship concentrates on privacy, institutional tech policy, digital redlining, and the re-inventions of discriminatory practices through data mining and algorithmic decision-making, especially as these apply to college students. Chris talks with Derek Bruff about some of the problems and concerns about educational technologies that may not be immediately visible to others. Links: • Chris'...
Episode 061 - Randall Bass
Leading Lines kicks off season six with an interview with Randall Bass. Randy is vice provost for education and a professor in the English department at Georgetown University. He was the founding director of Georgetown's teaching center, the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS), and one of the first educators to explore the digital humanities through the multi-campus Visible Knowledge Project he directed. More recently, he moved into administration at Georgetown, where...
Episode 060 - The Future of Digital Literacies
We have something special for this final episode of the academic year. Usually, we talk with educators, researchers, and technologists about what they're doing now, and ask them a question or two about where they'd like to see educational technology go in the next few years. In this episode, however, we're going to camp out in the future. The Vanderbilt Center for Teaching recently convened a faculty panel to discuss the future of digital literacies where we asked our panelists to gaze into...
Episode 059 - Rodolfo Rego
How do you teach an earth science course entirely online? In this episode, we talk with Rodolfo Rego, senior instructor in the department of earth and environment at Florida International University. He develops and teaches online courses for his department, including courses on earth science, environmental science and sustainability, and earth resources. Rodolfo has won teaching awards at FIU for his creative use of technology and open content, and, in this interview, we talk about the...
Episode 058 John Katzman
Back in Episode 52, Leading Lines producer John Sloop interviewed Chris Parrish, senior vice president and portfolio general manager at 2U. 2U is an online program management, or OPM, provider. They work with universities to develop, launch, and sustain online degree programs. In this episode, John Sloop talks with John Katzman, who helped found 2U back in 2008, then moved on to start a different OPM provider, Noodle Partners, in 2010. Before that, Katzman founded the Princeton Review. In...
Episode 057 Bobby Bodenheimer - Ole Molvig
Here on Leading Lines, we're exploring the future of educational technology, and we have a team of producers who make sure that we consider all kinds of topics, including ones some of us may be skeptical about. Producer Gayathri Narasimham, associate director at the Vanderbilt Institute for Digital Learning, is very interested in virtual reality and its potential in education. In this episode, she shares an interview with two Vanderbilt faculty—Bobby Bodenheimer from computer sciences and...
Episode 056 - Sophie Bjork - James
In this episode, we first hear a short, speculative fiction audio story by Vanderbilt undergraduate Sarah Saxton Strassberg called "Hagar Rising" that explores the future of gene editing. Sarah Saxton created this piece for a course on the politics of reproductive health taught by Vanderbilt anthropology professor Sophie Bjork-James. After Sarah's audio piece, Derek Bruff talks with Sophie about the course and her podcast assignment. "Hagar Rising" originally aired as an episode of another...
Episode 055 Nathan Dize
In this episode, Paula Andrade, a second-year graduate student in history here at Vanderbilt who is currently serving as the Center for Teaching's HASTAC Scholar, interviews another HASTAC Scholar for Leading Lines. Nathan Dize is a PhD candidate in the department of French and Italian, and a HASTAC Scholar with the Vanderbilt Digital Cultural Heritage research cluster. In the interview, Paula talks to Nathan about the digital archive project he built into a course on the Haitian revolution,...
Episode 054 Mike Caulfield
In this episode, we talk with Mike Caulfield, director of blended and networked learning at Washington State University Vancouver and head of the Digital Polarization Initiative at the American Democracy Project. Mike talks about some of the shortcomings of the way information and web literacy has been traditionally taught, the moves and heuristics he and his colleagues at the Digital Polarization Initiative are teaching their students, and the strategies they're using for helping students...
Episode 053 - Korsnack
In this episode, the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching's assistant director for educational technology, Stacey Johnson, recently talked with Kylie about a new practicum the CFT launched aimed at preparing grad students to teach online. Stacey and Kylie discuss the origin and structure of the practicum, as well as a really useful framework for teaching online that Kylie learned about while designing the practicum. Links • Kylie Korsnack's English department page,...
Episode 052 - Chris Parrish
In this episode, we hear from Christopher Parrish, senior vice president and portfolio general manager at 2U. 2U is what's sometimes known as an online program management, or OPM, provider. OPM providers are for-profit companies that partner with non-profit universities to develop, launch, and sustain online degree programs, especially graduate and professional programs. In this interview, John Sloop, Vanderbilt's associate provost for education development and technologies, talks with Chris...


Valentine's Day – a day fraught with meaning. A day that can either delight or disappoint. A day about love or the lack there of. I remember Valentine's day in fourth grade. We had to create these boxes to hold all the valentines that we were to give each other. Those little squirrelly valentines that say "You're Neat!" Or, "My pal!" And they always had little kittens or cartoon trucks or Mickey Mouse on them. So, in fourth grade there was a Valentine box contest. My mother spent all night creating mine. Beautiful, tiers of crunchy pink shades of crepe paper ruffled to look like rose petals. I helped her. I was the crepe paper ruffler. Truly exquisite.
However, the winner was Sharon, the most popular girl, and cutest. Long blonde hair perfectly combed in a flip. Sharon's box was covered in white satin billows that floated in creamy swirls around a Barbi in silver and pink sequins. Nestled on the doll's perfectly Barbi-flipped hair was a crown. We all knew Sharon hadn't made her box. Her mother did. (Of course so did mine, but I helped.) It was an early Valentine's day disappointment.
Many more Valentine Days ensued. In high school, everyone could send carnations to their valentine. Some perky pep club girl in plaid would pop into homeroom and deliver flowers to those lucky few that were popular enough to get the long-stemmed beauties. I think one year I actually got one – from my mother.
My favorite Valentine is God.
Now many years later, I enjoy the delight of flowers from my husband and cards from my daughters. I no longer feel sad if the day isn't perfect or worry if I am loved. Because my favorite valentine is God. Because His Love is that real to me. Because His love never changes. His love isn't based on having the best crepe paper ruffles or the most carnations. He loves me despite my many flaws and inadequacies. He is always available. He yearns to comfort me and lavish His love on me.
That's a pretty great Valentine! If your Valentine's day is looking a little bleak or perhaps lonely, or even if it isn't, take some time to seek Him in prayer. Make a lovely dinner and invite Him to enjoy it with you. Buy yourself flowers and inhale their heavenly scent knowing, He is the one who invented flowers. Wrap yourself in a warm knitted throw and feel His arms around you. Smile knowing His heavenly love is eternal.
God does want you for His Valentine. Today and every day.
For more on finding the love God, read Finding Love.


Fits these Chevrolet Silverado Classic engines 1999-2007: 4.3L, 4.8L, 5.3L, 6.0L and 8.1L.
2000-2006 Suburban: 5.3L and 6.0L.
2002-2006 Avalanche: 5.3L and 6.0L.
Will the 3.1171 fit an Alison Transmission?
The 3.1171 is an OE stock replacement. It will only fit the stock transmissions that are provided in the vehicles this kit is fitted for.
Yes we do ship to Japan.
Will part number 3.1171 fit my 2001 silverado 4.8 vortec with a 5 speed manual transmission?
No, part number 3.1171 will not fit the 2001 silverado 4.8 vortec with a 5 speed manual transmission. It will work with the automatic only.
Does part number 3.1171 have the transmission mount with the piece number 1036 in it?
No, you would need part number 3.1108.


text:
Face to Face with the Indian Muslims
English, Muslim Minorities
(Note: The writer visited India several times; has visited Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Jaipur, Agra, Azmir and travelled through the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The article is based on personal observations, Indian media inputs and face-to-face talks).
The Muslim-phobia & the disbelief
In 2001 census, 13.4 percent of the Indians were found to be Muslims. It is currently estimated to be 15 percent. But, most of the Indian Muslims do not believe this official figure as true. They believe that the actual number is much higher. They consider the official 15 percent a skilfully manipulated lie only to serve the anti-Muslim political agenda of the over-stated Hindu majority. The Hindu ruling clique strongly feels that a higher figure will generate sense of severe deprivation among the Muslims; hence may generate more communal unrest. Such a figure may also cause fear among the Hindus. Even the statistics of 15 percent Muslim population creates a lot of Muslim-phobia among the ruling Hindu clique. They consider it a great increase in Muslims from 9.9 percent in 1951 census. Such a panic in Hindu mind also gets reinforced by the falling Hindu population of 85 percent in 1951 to the current level of estimated 79 percent. They get more panicky when foresee a declining Hindu majority in the near future in some of the strategic states like Assam, West Bengal and Kerala. In these peripheral states, at least one-third of the populations are already Muslim.
The increasing surge in extremist Hindutva politics of BJP (Bharatia Janata Party) is indeed an expression of such a panic in Hindu psyche. To bring down the panic, the strategy of deportation of the Muslims –currently from Assam and other provinces afterwards, gets the priority. They don't bother to have an objective study of the causes of the surge in population; rather blame it as an infiltration from neighbouring Bangladesh. But such allegation will not help, rather can damage India's friendly relation with Bangladesh. Thousands of Indians are working in Bangladesh –especially in its garments sector; they earn huge amount of foreign currency for India. Moreover, it is well recognised that the health and socio-economic indicators of people's wellbeing is significantly better in Bangladesh and its economy is moving faster than India. The poor people in Bangladesh enjoy better opportunity for moving up faster in the socio-economic ladder than that exists for the poor in India. Even Mr Rahul Ghandi –the Indian Congress revealed such truth while he visited Bangladesh. Moreover, unlike India, no caste-based system or religious scripture label the poor as untouchable and restrict the social mobility. Having been heavily infested with anti-Muslim tyranny, rape and massacres, India seldom presents itself as an option for the Bangladeshi economic migrants.
As regards to Muslim population surge, the ground reality tells otherwise. Some of the realities have been revealed in Sachar committee report. In 2006, the fact-finding Sachar committee -set up by the former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh published its reports on social, economic and educational status of the Muslims community of India. The report endorsed the old historic fact that the Muslim population growth was higher than the Hindus even under the British colonial rule. Despite the poor educational status of the Muslim women, the report revealed that the child death rate among the Muslims stands significantly lower than that exists among the Hindus. It also reported that despite economic deprivation, the lifespan of an Indian Muslim is one year more than a Hindu. But the Hindutva supremacists don't bother to read the scientific facts that are embedded in the report. Rather, they construct their politics on a blatant lie and generate phobia that the Muslims from Bangladesh are flooding their country. This way, they justified the genocidal massacre of about 10, 000 Muslims in Nellie in Assam in 1983 and kept 4 million Assamese Muslims out of the citizenship registrar.
The Sachar report also revealed some horrendous facts on deprivation of the Muslim population. It found that the Muslims' share in the government jobs doesn't cross even 5 percent in any of the all-Indian civil service cadres. But awfully, although such commissions cast lights on facts, but do little to solve the problems. Committees are installed under a judge or judges only to minimize the anger of the Muslims -usually after a major anti-Muslim massacre. It looks that the reports are not for consumption by the policy makers; hence, those who can solve the problems seldom read the reports. This is why, little has changed after the publication of the Sachar report. Very low share of the Muslims in Indian civil service is enough to expose the government's inherent anti-Muslim policy. Such gross injustices against the minority and the policy of exclusion are incompatible to any civilised mode of governance. Such inhumanity fits only into colonial or apartheid rule. So, the end of British colonial rule in 1947 gave liberty only to the Hindu majority, but not to the Muslims. The slavery of the Muslims still continues.
The strategic lie & the beginning of the end
India's image would have turned much uglier and shameful if the true figure of the Muslim population would have been made public. Then, the deprivation of the Muslims would have looked much worse and gloomy. In such situations, the truth proves most powerful to cause political upheavals. The aggrieved ones even turn to human bombs. Such anger of nearly 200 million Muslims would have caused a political explosion to reduce India to an unmanageable mess. Few years ago, India's vulnerability was exposed while a few Muslim attackers brought Mumbai -its business heart, to a standstill. Therefore, manipulation of the Muslim population statistics stays as a strategic tool in the hands of the ruling Hindu majority. So, the actual number of the Muslims remains highly secret and sensitive issue -as are the number of the Indian soldiers, details of nuclear bombs and the spy agents at home and abroad.
Nevertheless, the Muslims anger is now steadily boiling up. It has already inflicted a lethal blow to Indian National Congress –the original architect and the political giant of un-divided India. For more than 50 years, the Muslims used to be the traditional vote bank for the Congress. But its huge disservices to the Muslims are now fully exposed. Thousands of anti-Muslim riots and demolition of the historic Babri mosque took place under its watch. Massive deprivation of Muslims in political decision making and the exclusion in civil services didn't happen in recent years; in fact, these owe to the long rule of the Congress. As a result, the Muslims reject its rule. Due to Muslims' alienation, the Congress now stands as a political orphan. It has lost its power in the central government with little hope to come back. It has also lost power in many key states with significant Muslim population like West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Kerala. The Muslims now negotiate with the regional parties for their survival. Hence, like dinosaur, an all-India national political party is now stands as an extinct entity. With such irreparable political disintegration, this may turn the beginning of the end of India's geographical integration. In such a void, the emergence of Bharatia Janata Party (BJP) as a Hindutva fascist party has only added more fuel to its existing socio-politico-ethnic tension rather than solving it.
The strategy for the crime
To keep the Muslim population low, the government of the Hindu majority has its own well-known strategies. Most commonly, it is done by keeping huge number of Muslims out of the census record -especially in provinces adjacent to Bangladesh like West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, and in big cities like Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi. Only in Assam, 4 million people are kept out of the national citizenship registrar. Since they can't deport them as per their whims, they deprive them of their voting rights. To justify such exclusion, the Muslims are labelled as foreign infiltrators. Along with the party in power, all Hindutva political parties too, get united to make the Muslims political destitute. They demand their immediate push back to Bangladesh. They even launch manslaughter to reduce their number. In Nellie, in Assam, in February 1983, thousands of Muslim men, women and children were killed with no reason other their Muslim identity. The official number of deaths in Nellie were 2,191, but unofficially it was 10, 000. But none was punished for such a genocide. As if no, murderer was involved in that genocidal massacre.
Demands for the push-back and anti-Muslims agitations are usually arranged prior to any national census or voter-list update. It has been an effective ploy to curtail the Muslims' influence on Indian politics. Because of the agitation, the government gets easy pretexts to exclude Muslims from the census as well as from the voters' list. This way, the ruling parties appease the Hindu voters. Even the migrant rural Muslims of West Bengal who live in the slums of Kolkata, Mumbai or Delhi also get labelled as Bangladeshi; and left excluded from the census record and the voter list. Their non-Hindi mother tongue like Bengali become an unamenable disability. They conveniently forget the fact that West Bengali Muslims also speak the same Bengali language. Since, inclusion in the census is required as a proof for citizenship, a large number of the Muslims are left disqualified. This way, they keep their case alive to push them back into Bangladesh at a convenient time.
In the Indian media, it is a common practice to publish highly inflammatory news and feature articles demonising the Muslims and blaming them as illegal intruders. The content, tune and political spin in these reports are almost always the same. The Muslims are blamed to cause a dangerous demographic shift in Indian population. For instance, the Time of India once published a claim made by a central Jubo Front (Youth Front) leader in a mass-meeting that Muslim population has increased significantly in Assam and West Bengal. The paper added its own hype to the fear. It reported that if such increase in Muslim population is not checked now, these provinces will turn Hindu minority province in the near future. Thus, the paper projected the issue as a great threat to India's integrity and prelude to creation of another Pakistan in its own territory. During my six months' stay in India I found recasting of such inflammatory rhetoric almost once or twice a week on the front page in major Indian dailies. The dailies like the Time of India, the Hindustan Time, the Indian Express, the Pioneer and the Statesman are in the forefront to spread such anti-Muslim venom. As a result, the anti-Muslim fervent never gets any opportunity to die out; rather receives regular boosts to stay alive. The communal parties thrive on such media-engineered phobia and anti-Muslim hatred.
Once I read an article in the Hindustan Time with the caption "Hindu Population and Muslim Population". The writer tried to tell that there are two different rates of population growth in India: one for the Muslims and another for the Hindu. And he tried to prove that the growth of Muslim population is much higher than that of the Hindus. He cautioned that the Hindu domination will soon come to an end in India if the Muslim population continues to increase with the current rate. I found it a morbid delusion; only a man with pathological bigotry against the Muslims can believe such politically motivated speculation. How the Muslims with its current 15 % proportion can emerge as the majority in India – which did not happen even in about 700 years of Muslim rule. I also wonder how these people could sleep with such terrible fear. I noted that the Hindustan Time, the Time of India and the India Today have special interest in publishing such toxic views. To keep the anti-Muslim sentiment alive, such spin-added news, news analysis and feature articles are published regularly in those papers by different people with different captions. Such propaganda stuffs indeed work as the crucial life line for the communal Hindu politics. Now, more than a hundred TV channels have also joined the battle on their side. As a result, anti-Muslim hatred in Hindu mind has raised to an explosion level. Lynching Muslims to death on alleged beef eating, anti-Muslim riots and burning their houses are indeed the expression of such hatred. However, there are few exceptions; journals like the Frontline show some courage to stand against such tsunami of anti-Muslim propaganda. Once I had a long discussion on such issues with one of the leading Indian economist from Kerala. Although a Hindu, I found him very rational and thoughtful. He studied and taught economics in the MIT in the USA and happens to be a close friend of the former Prime Minister Mr. Monmohan Singh. He also showed deep displeasure on these issues. I expressed my worries: how can India build and sustain friendly relation with the neighbouring Muslims countries with such toxic attitude against the Muslims?
The biased bureaucracy
I found it very common that the Muslims consider the civil servants of both the central and provincial governments more communal and anti-Muslim than the political leaders and activists. So, there exists active non-co-operation in the bureaucracy towards reducing the Muslims' deprivation. Such non-co-operation becomes more evident during or after any anti-Muslim riots cum massacre. They become the part of the problem by taking side of the Hindu majority and make it impossible to control the killing or undertake any impartial investigation. Because of the bureaucratic inaction, the demolition of Babri mosque or pogrom against the Muslims in Mumbai and Gujarat could continue in broad day lights for days and nights. Because of extreme bigotry in the planning, executive and investigative branches of the government, the Indian police can't find, arrest and prosecute murderers even after a huge genocidal carnage. Active non-cooperation of the police has become so phenomenal that even horrendous murderer, rapists and arsonists need not face any prosecution -as seen in Gujrat, Bombay and Assam. Because of moral blindness, they see only the crimes, but not the criminals. This is why, the government agencies fumbled to find the criminals while the historic Babri mosque was razed to the ground in broad daylight by thousands of the Hindu extremists. In 1984, thousands of Sikhs were killed, raped and their properties were burnt down after the murder of Prime Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards. The massacre went on for a week; but the law enforcing authority stood by only as silent watchers. Even the Christians faced similar atrocities in Orissa in 2010. So, India stands heaven for killers, rapists and arsonists –especially if the perpetrators are Hindu and the targets are the minorities.
Hostage to the vested interests
The Indian bureaucrats are relentless to preserve their own vested interests. The powerless poor, the untouchables and the Muslims stay hostage to them. The racial, religious or linguistic identity of people decides not only the fate of the government's service delivery, but also controls the entry of people in their midst. Faith of a Muslim indeed works as the greatest disability to join their rank. In such a milieu, any small attempts of doing justice towards the Muslims proves suicidal -even for a Hindu leader. It has a long history. During the British raj, the Bengal Pact signed by Chittaranjan Das and Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy of Bengal ended in a fiasco due to the bureaucratic thugs. The Pact promised more employment opportunities for the Muslims; hence was detested by the Hindu elite. The vested interest that they established in the administration as the most obedient servants of the British raj was kept unaltered even in the independent India. In fact, the British rule survived in India for 190 years because of their deep obedience to those foreign imperialists. Mamata Banerjee -the Chief Minister of West Bengal, is rapidly losing her popularity because of same privileged class. In West Bengal, about 30 percent people are Muslim. But in government jobs, they do not have a share of even 5 percent. Mamata Banerjee allocated a meagre monthly allowance for the imams and the muezzin of the mosques. Such a grant for the poor muezzin and imam caused huge uproar in Hindutva camp; they called it appeasement for the Muslims.
The foreign colonialists have gone. But the colonial practice and its brain-child still survive with the same agenda. However, the targets are different. They execute the same colonial policy of suppression and deprivation against the Muslims and other minorities. In the colonial era, they received benefits from their British master for the servitude. After 1947, these home-grown mercenaries proved to be very lucky to fully protect their all previous privileges. In independent India, they even ensured the same privileges for their future generation. Any possible advancement of the downtrodden 200 million Muslims into their domain of influence is perceived a real threat. So, hatred against Muslim gets deeper and more vitriolic in the fabric of the bureaucracy. They use the state apparatus as a powerful bulwark to protect their territory against any Muslim advancement. Like their past strategy of alliance with the British rulers, these communal bureaucrats made alliance with the communal politicians. Because of such alliance, anti-Muslim pogrom could be repeatedly committed even in big cities and Babri mosque could be destroyed even in daylight without any preventive efforts. As if, there exists no bureaucratic infrastructure or law-enforcing agency in India to stop such crimes. Such an unholy alliance could justify even the robust inaction of the Indian Prime Minister Narsima Rao, his whole ministry and the whole civil and military bureaucracy in stopping the destruction of Babri mosque.
One can easily sense the tip of anti-Muslim ice-berg in Indian bureaucracy after landing at Mumbai, Delhi or Kolkata airport from a European or Middle Eastern cities with a Bangladeshi passport. It seems they find it difficult to swallow the pride of a Bangladeshi Muslim travelling worldwide with an international passport. Probably they think such privilege is only the right of an upper caste Hindu -as it is customary in India. The communal nature of the Indian administration and the police becomes more evident during any event of Muslim mass killing. The police become more active in arresting the Muslim victims than the Hindu killers. Hence, more Muslims are taken to jails than the Hindu attackers -as happened in Muslim genocide in Mumbai and Gujarat. In both the places, scores of Muslims were killed, arrested and oppressed by the state police. Hundreds of criminal charges are lodged against them. In Rajasthan, the police failed to punish the vigilante who lynched a Muslim cow trader to death; but after his death, a case was lodged against him for illegal cow transport from the state. So the police sets the priority; Muslims' life has little importance in that setting.
In Meerut, the Indian police scored a new low to its already tainted record. They dumped hundreds of Muslim corpses into a nearby canal to show the lower number of the Muslim deaths in the massacre. During the demolition of the Babri mosque, they indeed provided the necessary protection to the militant Hindus -so that they could accomplish the crime without any resistance from the Muslims. After the mosque demolition, the Hindu terrorists started mass-murder of the Muslims in cities like Mumbai. According to government statistics, more than two thousand Muslims were murdered in Mumbai alone; fire was set to thousands of Muslims' houses and shops. Women were raped and the Muslim babies were thrown into fire. What is more surprising is this: the police couldn't find any murderers or looters -as if such systemic pogrom happened out of the blue. The police made similar history in Nellie in Assam in 1983, too. About 10 thousands Muslims were killed in a single day in 14 villages of Nagao district, but not a single murderer or a rapist or an arsonist had to appear before the judge to receive any punishment. Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi signed an accord with the anti-Muslim communalists to stop all judicial investigation of the massacre. Whereas, delivering justice is the most basic constitutional duty of the government. Since the victims were the Muslim, the Prime Minister could abrogate his own constitutional responsibility! This was done only to appease the murderer.
While the bureaucrats are impregnated with so much anti-Muslim venom, it is not surprising that the officers will discover scores of fabricated reasons to exclude the Muslims from the voters' list or census record. The sheer lack of interest in protecting Muslims' lives, liberty, property and dignity has never been any hidden fact; becomes more pronounced from lack of prosecution against the perpetrators. In fact, the rapists, the arsonists and the murderers are allowed to boast in public in front of the victims. But such ugly failures make little political, moral or ethical impact on India's civil administration or political leader. Moreover, such awful failures of the politicians and the law enforcing officers have never been considered any moral or ethical disability of the complicit people. No leader get named and shame for that. Even architects of Gujrat pogrom like Norendra Modi and Amit Shah could escape the blame. Rather such complicity in crime works otherwise. Muslim-blood on the hands helped Norendra Modi to speedily climb up the political ladder and become the Prime Minister of India. It also helped Amith Shah to become the Home Minister. In fact, because of such appeasing culture for the criminals, the anti-Muslim pogrom has attained some added speed and barbarity.
The neglect
The Muslim population in Jaipur city looks quite large –easily visible by its huge number of hijabi women. But very few people could tell me the actual number. They live in a very small area of the central part of the city. The new road and house constructions are booming in all directions in the outskirts, but the Muslims are not moving to those areas. They fear, anytime the Hindu neighbours may turn murderous against them. The Muslims learned such harsh reality from the previous massacres that happened mostly by the hands of the Hindu neighbours. So in Jaipur, like any other Indian city, the heavily-congested old city centre is the abode of the Muslims. There is no park, no wide road, no clean drain, no good school or college – even no arrangement for regular removal of garbage. Piles of garbage covered with thick armies of flies and mosquitoes were visible even in the close vicinity of living quarters and mosques. Most of the civic facilities are absent there. I saw some horrendous pictures of such neglect also in Ajmer –the city of famous shrine of Khawja Moinuddin Chisti. While visiting the shrine, at some point, I needed to go to the public toilet located at its backyard. But I could not proceed. The raw faeces and urine were overflowing its tanks and dirty footpath. This shrine brings in a lot of money to Ajmer city and huge foreign currency to India, but its basic facilities are kept in utter neglect. It depicts a clear picture how the provision of very basic services to the Muslim visitors gets ignored by the city's Hindu municipal administration. Even in Emperor Shahjahan's mosque in Agra, the mark of chronic neglect was revealing. But in famous Hindu temples, I found a different standard.
The situations are not different in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and other cities, either. In all these cities, the Muslim dwellings are situated in unhygienic and congested city centres. The reason is the same. The Muslims suffer from a serious lack of safety and security in the prosperous areas – because of its Hindu dominance. In the past, the Muslim families that suffered the worst massacres were the inhabitants in the Hindu-majority areas. During any anti-Muslim pogrom, the neighbouring Hindus always appeared ready to annihilate them with huge jubilation. Killings, rapes and arsons in those areas did not need any outsiders. As soon as any riot starts, the Muslim men, women and children immediately become the sitting duck to be executed; all the camouflages of civility, morality and humanity disappear very quickly. As if, these neighbours were standing ever ready in the next doors for doing the job. In fact, such readiness gets constant boost by the Indian media and the Hindutva political parties; hence gets little chance to drop down. As a result, even a layman easily becomes remorseless killer, rapist or arsonist. Therefore, for gutting Muslim properties, raping Muslim women and murdering Muslim men, women and children, armies of criminals quickly get mobilised. Even an apparently normal Hindu neighbour readily joins such gang. As a result, most of the heinous atrocities are not works of the known local criminals, but committed by the so-called educated and well-off Hindus. Even the white-collar political activists, the academics and the well-placed professionals take part in the carnage. A doctor from Rai Bareli told, how a Muslim professor was killed by his Hindu neighbour's gunshot.
The pure evil and the mass conversion
In fact, the genocidal mass-killings or mass-scale gang rapes in history have never been the works of the previously known criminals. It could only happen with the mass conversion of the common people to a purely evil ideology. In India, such mass conversion has already been accomplished by the RSS family of organisations and its militant political front called BJP. In Germany, it was done by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi followers. It was the same evil ideology of race-based supremacism. Because of such mass conversion, the German fascists could raise an army of millions to cause havoc all over Europe. And, they didn't have any shortage of people to take the Jews to the gas chambers. In India, the members of the RSS family are closely following the footsteps of Hitler. They only differ in the identity of the targets. For the German, it was the Jews. And in India, it is the Muslims. Like the German fascists, they too, believe that wholesale extermination of the target population is the quick and effective way to get rid of them. Such an evil motive of the Hindutva forces gets regularly and vividly displayed in every anti-Muslim pogrom and could instil an aura of extreme insecurity in Muslims' mind. This is why, the Muslims lose their trust in the Hindu neighbours. Since saving life gets priority than living in good locality, the Muslims voluntarily leave the Hindu-dominated areas and concentrate in over-crowded Muslim quarters. Since located at the centre, the Muslim quarters possess little room for further expansion. So the problems are multiplying with the ever-increasing Muslim population. On the other hand, the Hindus are establishing their absolute dominance in the new residential areas. The political leaders –both in the government and in the opposition, show little political commitment to resolve this inhuman issues. They only pursue to keep the status quo. Surprisingly, such a huge humanitarian issue couldn't be a political issue in India! Except a few, the so-called writers, intellectuals and social scientists are also sleepwalking with the communal political leaders.
The Muslim migration
After 1947, the mass migration of the Indian Muslims took place primarily in two ways – external migration and internal migration. The external migration was basically exodus to Pakistan. And the goal of the internal migration was to leave villages or non-Muslim dominated areas to settle in the Muslim-dominated quarters in cities. The Indian Muslims are facing similar situations as the Jews experienced in Germany, France, Poland, Russia, and other European countries. Confronted with the persecution by the Christians, they withdrew to ghettoes in European cities. Likewise, every major city in India is divided into two sub-cities: the congested central one is for the Muslims and the prosperous peripheral one for the non-Muslims. Indeed, in every Indian city, the Hindu-Muslim dividing line is too obvious to ignore. During the riot, this division-line becomes the natural frontier between the warring Hindus and Muslims. Many secular Ph.D. holders, university professors and intellectuals in Bangladesh or Pakistan may fail to understand the famous "Two-Nation Theory"; but in India, its visibility is quite distinct even to a layman. Even an illiterate man or woman can see and feel it in every second of his or her survival. The current inhuman condition of the Indian Muslims explains why the creation of Pakistan was so strongly supported more in the Hindu majority provinces of India than the Muslim majority ones. It also explains why the Indian Muslims were eager to migrate to Pakistan even at the cost of abandoning houses, business, graves of dear ones and the dearest lands where their forefathers grew up and settled for hundreds of years.
The deprivation
The Jaipur city has many mosques. Most of these mosques are old and built during the Mughal or the British era. I could not find a single mosque built in recent years. Every time of prayers, I intentionally offered my prayers at different mosques (I visited at least six of them), so that I could get the opportunity to see different mosque premises and the different people each time. I found every mosque to be old and some of them are dilapidated. The floors, the prayer mats, the walls and the ablution areas of those mosques tell vividly the story of deprivation and poverty of the Muslims. Jaipur is a provincial capital of Rajasthan, but its mosques do not match even the standard of a district mosque in Bangladesh or Pakistan. Once I got the opportunity to offer my Eid prayer in one of the Jaipur mosques. It was one my very saddest experience during my whole stay in India. People's attire on a festive day indeed gives a true depiction of their happiness and prosperity. At least on the Eid day, the people wear the best possible dress to attend the congregation with the fellow Muslims. Thus, people's inner joys gets an unrestrained expression on that special day. Once I offered my Eid prayer in a mosque in the outskirt of Jaipur city -near to its international airport. It is also near to one of the business hub of the city -known for traditional bed-sheets and garments of Rajasthan. To my utter surprise, I couldn't find any joy and jubilant festivity in people who came to offer the Eid prayer. Even the mosque did not receive any special treatment for the Eid celebration, either. Everything inside the mosque, on its wall and in the courtyard looked old and untouched for ages. A very few people were found with new dress. Their facial expression looked gloomy, too. As if, the Muslims are living in an open prison. The people in a prison don't show any joy or festivity; every day of their captivity tells a new story of sadness and agony. As if the state itself has become a tool of oppression and de-empowerment of the Muslims. I couldn't find a single man with a smiling face. Even the imam didn't say Eid greeting to the attendants with a smile. After the Eid prayer, very few people were seen to embrace each other –which is very common in South Asian Muslim culture. Probably, ongoing poverty, alienation, marginalisation and lack of security have robbed their inspiration for any joyous living.
In most of the Indian cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Jaipur, Agra, the number of the mosques did not increase even though the Muslim population soared. The existing mosques cannot accommodate the musallies especially on Friday and Eid days. Consequently, the Muslims get compelled to spill over onto the surrounding street on Friday and on Eid occasions. As a consequence, this causes traffic jam in the adjoining areas. Such traffic jams give extra weapons to the Hindu extremists to generate more hatred against the Muslims. Without considering the reasons of such problems, the Hindutva outfits ask the government to stop Muslims' outpouring onto the streets. The Hindu communal media also make huge issues out of it. But they never ask the government to allocate adequate lands for building more mosques to accommodate the ever increasing Muslim population. They even don't bother to mention that performing prayers on Friday and Eid days in a proper mosque is the fundamental right of every Muslims in any country. No civilised country can't deny such basic religious right. To honour such right, the European governments have allocated lands to build hundreds of new mosques. As a result, in the UK alone, the number of new mosques stands more than a thousand. But in India, such religious right of the Muslims finds its place in the bin. Whenever the Muslims take their own initiative to purchase a land and build a new mosque, they face fierce resistance from the Hindu administration. While sitting in a mosque in Jaipur, one tablighi man told me how the government stopped construction of a mosque in Jaipur. Since none of the mosque in Jaipur could accommodate the participants of a large Tablighi ijtema, the local Muslims took initiative to construct a two-storey bigger mosque in the outskirt of Jaipur city. But the government did not permit to execute the plan. The official explanation was very clear. The government allows icons that fit only into its Hindu identity. Since such two-storied mosque would be a visible Muslim landmark, the government can't allow that to happen.
At some places, the mosque's own land stands annexed illegally either by a government department or by a private organisation. I visited such a mosque near Jaipur international airport to offer my prayer. The mosque stands on a very tiny piece of land, its border extends hardly beyond its walls. The surrounding huge open area of the mosque is grabbed by the government's Public Works Department (P.W.D.). The mosque was built during the rule of the British. The imam of the mosque came from Bihar. There is a residence in the mosque premise to provide accommodation for the imam, but that has been occupied by the employees of P.W.D. I saw people gossiping in that room. Whereas, the imam has to sleep right on the floor. The huge waqf compound of the mosque has become a damping ground for P.W.D's worn-out tools. After the afternoon prayer, I talked with few local musallies. While I introduced myself as a Bangladeshi, their enthusiasm got a bit of sudden boost. I asked them many questions. They also wanted to know many things about Bangladesh. At that time, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in power in Rajasthan. There were no anti-Muslim riots; but the oppression was taking place in other ways. The educated Muslims didn't have any opportunity to secure government jobs. They didn't have no other alternatives but to accept low-paying menial works in factories owned by the Hindus. Since education gives little socio-economic benefit, the children get little zeal for higher education.
While strolling along the streets of Ajmer, I met a retired headmaster of a local secondary school. I found this handsome tall man in his traditional Muslim dress with a long black sherwani, white shalwar and a black cap. All four of his children were university graduate but none of them got any job. He lamented, "The Muslims have no other alternatives but to do menial chores under the Hindus. Some are living from hand to mouth by begging at the majar [shrine]". Our conversation went on while standing on the street in front of the shrine. The shopkeepers were doing brisk trade on both sides of the road. Most of the buyers were Muslims travellers –many of them are from other parts of India and some of them belong to Bangladesh. The headmaster continued, "Here you can see hundreds of shops but none of the shops are owned by the Muslims – not even the shops that sell prayer rugs and tasbees [counting beads], although the Muslims comprise 40% of the population of Ajmer. Even in Moradabad, Aligarh and Bareli -where the Muslims are comparatively better in businesses, their shops and houses get periodically burnt down on various flimsy excuses. Such anti-Muslims arsons and killing have been very effective strategy to drive out Muslims from their established businesses. I talked with several shopkeepers at Agra – the city that boasts Taj Mahal. They sell miniature marble replicas of Taj Mahal. They told that most of their highly educated relatives did not get any government jobs. Thus, even the educated Muslims are prevented to get nearer to the ladder of socio-economic progress, let alone climbing it up. Stagnation prevails over their entire existence.
The policy of exclusion
Apart from the business, the Muslims are also being successfully driven away from higher education sector. Aligarh Muslim University was founded exclusively by the Muslims, and with the Muslims money collected from all over India. Its objective was to promote higher education among the Muslims. After India's independence, new laws are introduced to curtail the admission of Muslim students. Instead, its gate was opened for the Hindus. It was argued that in secular India the Hindus must have the equal rights of admission in every institution even in Muslim-owned Aligarh Muslim University. As a result, the Aligarh Muslim University lost its Muslim identity. Thus, all the resources invested by the Muslims to promote education among downtrodden Muslim community were usurped. Later on, the Hindu bigots of the RSS-BJP family established their stronghold on the administration, as well as on the students' body. These days, Aligarh is more remembered for brutal anti-Muslim skirmishes than for the university. I heard from an ex-Aligarh Muslim doctor about the story how he was deprived of getting admission into the post-graduation program due to anti-Muslim bigotry of the Hindu faculty members. He said that Hindus comprise more than half of its academics.
Moreover, whenever some Indian Muslims working in the Middle-East take some initiatives to build schools, colleges or madrasahs at their own cost for the backward Muslims, the Hindu media starts vile propaganda against such venture. The RSS-BJP family and other Hindutva forces consider such Muslim initiatives inimical to Hindu identity of India; hence campaign goes vehemently against the establishment of such Muslim or Islamic schools. They even complain that an uneven competition has been started with foreign money to help the Muslims to go ahead of the Hindu. They demand equal opportunity of admission for the Hindu students to these institutions which are built exclusively by the hard earned money of the Muslims. The government willingly yields to such demands of the Hindu communalists. As per coercion, not only the Hindu students get admitted to such Islamic or Muslim schools, but also the Hindu teachers get employed. The situation is getting increasingly worse. The Muslims are not even left with any option to grow up in their own way. Even the religious institutions suffer from blatant government interferences. Thus the majoritarian Hindutva fascism has taken full control over all affairs in India. As a result, growing up as a Muslim, living up as a Muslim and excelling as a Muslim is made extremely difficult in India. What Allama Iqbal and Mohammad Ali Jinnah could foresee about hundred years ago now stands 100 percent true in India.
(First published in Daily Inqilab, Dhaka on 3rd July, 1997 in Bengali; Updated English edition: 13/09/19


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Home Traveling I Dream of Tokyo: Sites that are a Must-See!
I Dream of Tokyo: Sites that are a Must-See!
zaidh120 January 19, 2014 0 comments
Going to Japan has always been one of my fondest dreams, which I hope comes true sooner rather than later. With that in mind, one my new year's resolutions this year is to save more so I can travel more. If I can't make it to Japan later this year, then I'm open to making that trip happen next year. Originally I was thinking of taking the Osaka route as it passes by Kyoto, which is a historical must-see in Japan. But Vanessa, a close friend of mine who has experienced living in Tokyo for a couple of years, talked me out of it.
Though Japan is relatively safe for solo travelers, the language barrier can be a difficult obstacle to overcome. My friend told me to go straight to Tokyo, where some of my friends are, so they can help me navigate the sights and sounds of Japan. To convince me why I should go to Tokyo, she gave me a list of wonderful scenic sites that are a must-see.
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Tokyo Tower is a popular icon that is frequently featured in many Japanese animations or manga (comics). Inspired by Paris' Eiffel Tower, this lattice-designed tower is actually a communications and observation tower, which is also a favorite location for climatic battles in films featuring kaiju or giant monsters like Godzilla or King Kong. I've always wanted to go to Tokyo Tower and thought it was the only tall site with a view of Japan when Vanessa suggested an intriguing new place that I was not familiar with, Tokyo Sky Tree.
Image Credit: delo photo
With a height of 634.0 metres (2,080 ft), Tokyo skytree is the tallest tower in the world, replacing the original, which is Tokyo Tower. In fact, it is holds second place as tallest structure in the world after Burj Khalifa, which has a height of 829.8m or 2,722 feet. The highlight of this tourist stop are two observation decks with dizzying heights of 350 and 450 meters respectively, making them the highest in Japan and included in some of the highest in the world. Vanessa, who has no fear of heights, wouldn't even dare to go here but still she encouraged me to try if I dared. She told me to make reservations a couple of months prior to visiting Japan since same day tickets can be sold out on extremely busy days.
Image Credit: Globetrotting
The Tokyo Imperial Palace is located in Edo Castle's former site, which is where Japan's imperial family currently resides. It is situated in a large park area in the center of Tokyo, where it is surrounded by moats as well as huge stone walls. It is also just a short walk coming from Tokyo station. Inner palace grounds are inaccessible to the public except only on January 2 and December 23. The former is for New Year's Greeting while the latter is the Emperor's birthday. On these dates, visitors may enter the inner palace grounds and actually see the imperial family. The Imperial Palace East Gardens, however, are accessible to the public all throughout the year excluding Mondays, Fridays and special occasions. There are also guided tours, although people are unable to enter the buildings.
Image Credit: phil harrold
Chidorigafuchi
If you are visiting the Imperial Palace, go northwest and you'll be in the Chidorigafuchi moat. When I asked a distant relative about this place, she said there's not much to see in this place. However, further research online revealed wonderful pictures of cherry blossoms, which makes this a must-see in my book. There is a pedestrian path where hundreds of varied species of cherry blossoms bloom in spring or late March to early April. Chidorigafuchi Park is also located nearby, which is another popular cherry blossom viewing site. If you want to experience more, you can also rent a rowboat or a pedal boat at Chidorigafuchi boathouse.
Image Credit: akapensensei
One thing that Vanessa reiterated about Tokyo is that it offers me the modern japan experience while Osaka and Kyoto offer a glimpse of the old japan. Kyoto is a small city that you can tour in a day or two. Osaka is lovelier to visit in autumn. But Tokyo, there's so much more to explore. Other places she suggested that I visit are Showa Kinen Park, Tokyo Dome, Tokyo Station, Ginza and Asakusa. The way to tour Asakusa is through a rickshaw ride or a river cruise. Both are entirely different experiences so it would be good to try both.
SEE ALSO: How To Enjoy Your Trip in Turkey
As majority of Japan's population do not speak English, it would be a good idea to get an English Japanese electronic dictionary. However, these gadgets can be expensive so the next best thing you can do is--if you have a smartphone--to download free apps that can help you navigate around Japan. Even better if your friend employed there can take a leave of absence from work to show you around. To be on the safe side, bring travel insurance with you, just in case the unexpected happens, and they can happen. You don't have to worry about spending a lot since there are travel insurance agencies such as Seven Corners, that have budget-friendly plans that will not burn a hole in your pocket. In the case of medical emergencies especially abroad, it's better to be prepared than sorry.
Based in San Diego California, Tiffany Matthews is a professional writer with over 6 years of writing experience. In her free time, she likes to travel, read books, and watch movies. You can find her on Twitter as @TiffyCat87.
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