India's Political Blasphemy - NYTimes.com January 25, 2012, 11:38 pm The controversy over Salman Rushdie's proposed visit to the Jaipur Literature Festival is "nothing more than a dodge by India's politicians and Muslim leaders to cover their failure to improve the dreadful conditions in which many Indian Muslims live," Dan Morrison writes in the International Herald Tribune. In Rajasthan, "41 percent of urban Muslims live below the poverty line, compared with 27 percent of Hindus," the article states, citing the Sachar Committee's 2006 report. In the state of Uttar Pradesh, where Darul Uloom is located, 44 percent of urban Muslims live in poverty, compared with 24 percent of Hindus. Also from the report: 25 percent of Muslim children aged 6 to 14 had never attended school or had dropped out. Muslim-majority villages are less likely to be served by government schools, paved roads and bus stops. Muslims hold a tiny proportion of civil service jobs that are an important route to the middle class here. More recently, a November 2011 report by Gallup found that 32 percent of India's Muslims consider themselves to be "suffering," compared with 23 percent of Hindus, who make up India's majority. Read the full article here: