Tag Archives: eid

The bloodbath in Bombay thus led to unprecedented media mayhem in India and certainly in the US as well. It was certainly enjoyable to see Indian New Yorkers of every shape, size and political opinion pontificating on India’s 9-11 on the networks here. And as frantic American shoppers trampled a Walmart worker to death, we got a brief respite from the bombs in Bombay. I felt ashamed that my country had never before elicited such attention in the American media. Most Americans were certainly not informed in such detail about the train bombings in Bombay in July that killed more than 200. And the Gujarat riots of 2002, where more than 2000 people, the majority of them Muslim, were killed also did not occupy the Breaking News cycle on American television with such intensity. – Parvez Sharma

I still find the intense, misguided coverage of the Mumbai attacks to be amusing, or enough to elicit a jaded chuckle. As Sharma talks about in the above quote, India has had plenty of other attacks. Last time I went to India, in 2006, the 7/11 train bombings occurred in Mumbai. Did the American media focus on it at all? Not really. They were to busy rattling their mouths on the Hezbollah crisis going on at the time. But why didn’t we talk about it — I mean, after all, couldn’t Al-Qaeda be involved? This little tidbit was often vigorously declared on air a week ago. (Really, no other terrorist organizations exist? Hmm.)

Anyway — you all should take a break from the Illinois coverage and read Parvez Sharma’s most recent post on HuffPo… Bullets in Bollywood:No Eid For Me.