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| Kashmiris aren't for 'separate Islamic State' | | They don't want to force anyone to be Muslims: Baker | | B L KAK
NEW DELHI, NOV. 3: William Baker has added a new leaf to the turbulent history of Kashmir Valley by asserting that the Kashmiri Muslims are not Islamic radicals out to establish a separtate Islamic State. Baker, who heads the California-based organisation, Christians and Muslims for Peace (CAMP), has claimed that the people of Kashmir "want a secular State".
Baker, who is the author of widely-circulated book titled 'Kashmir: Happy Valley, Valley of Death', has pronounced that Kashmiri Muslims "want to be free to practice Islam but they do not want to force anyone to be Muslims". And his prediction: "There is not going to be a chador or the hijab". "It is those damn Britsh who were to blame for the continuing inbroglio in Kashmir", Baker was quoted as saying during his speech at a seminar held at the Marvin Center of George Washington University. The seminar was on 'Kashmir: Future Approaches'.
On the Kashmiris' attitude towards India and Pakistan, William Baker was also quoted as saying: "These people are extremely educated and open and free-minded and I have never met any Kashmiris in the valley who did not say that they don't want to be owned by either country (India or Pakistan)." "We are not cattle to be owned and purchased," he said they had told him when he had visited there.
Baker declared: If that Berlin wall can come down, Kashmir can be reconciled and the issue can be resolved. Baker's anti-British feeling was illustrated by his observation: "The British have left a legacy of death and destruction and disunity among people (of Kashmir) who were one at one time".
He was reported to have told the nearly 100 members of the audience, who were largely Indian American and Pakistani American studentsw with roots in Kashmir: Whether you were Hindus or Muslims is not the issue; you were from the same origin. You were there living together and you can do it again".
Reports fed to India's Foreign Office from Washington quoted William Baker as saying: Americans who believe the Kashmir problem is not their problem should realize that it sure does involve America. The nuclear flashpoint of the world is not (Iranian President Mahmood) Ahmedinijad in Teheran. The nuclear flashpoint is most assuredly not the little South American gentleman who spoke to the United Nations, Hugo Chavez (who called President Bush 'a devil'). The nuclear flashpoint of the world, acording to Baker, has always been all these years in India and Pakistan-- both nuclear-capable.
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