From: nadeem@igpho (Nadeem Malik)
Subject: Re: Voting on the Ahmadiyya Newgroup
Organization: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, CH
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 16:43:41 GMT

rick@crick.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu (Richard H. Miller) writes:
: In article <1992Nov14.024750.3261@ee.eng.ohio-state.edu>, rached@blanc.eng.ohio-state.edu (rached) writes:
: > Hi
: > 
: > I am completely confused. This morning I read about the CFV for SRIA and
: > sent my vote to the specified address. Then now I read that the votes
: > should be sent to somwhere else. I think this is a very bad way to
: > conduct a voting and therefore I move to call for an annulation of both
: > votes and a postponment to the voting period to a time where it is
: > clear where the votes must go and how the voting should be done.
: 
: I am not mystified but troubled. In the period of time I have been on the net
: and for the first time since we had news.announce.newgroups this is the first
: time I have ever seen this happen. For the sake of preventing another even more
: violent flame war over this vote may I suggest that the CFV for the group be
: canceled now and a disinterested third party volunteer to take the votes. I
: can already see that regardless of how the vote goes; if either a proponent or
: opponent of the group collects the vote, there will probably be claims of 
: improprieties in the vote. Let's head them off as much as possible and not 
: repeat the fiascos such as the sf-lovers reorg or soc.culture,indian.american
: 
: 
: -- 
: Richard H. Miller                 Email: rick@bcm.tmc.edu
: Asst. Dir. for Technical Support  Voice: (713)798-3532
: Baylor College of Medicine        US Mail: One Baylor Plaza, 302H
:                                            Houston, Texas 77030

I have talked to most Ahmadis on e-mail, and we are all very disturbed by this
latest episode. One M. Jaffrey somehow was given "authority" unoficially and
unilaterally by a Moderator of Soc.religion.islam to issue a CFV for the proposed
s.r.i.ahmadiyya newsgroup. This is a most extraordinary move since of all people
the moderator, one Balasat Ali has been aware that our moderator, Nabeel Rana
was to woul be the one to  call for votes. This is clear since a previous CFV by
Nabeel a week or two was cancelled. So the Ali and Jaffrey cannot claim any 
sort of ignorance on this issue.


So one is left to speculate on their motivation for making an un-offocial CFV. some 
of the things that are disturbing us most is that (1) it may confuse many people so 
that they may end up wasting their votes either by sending to the wrong address or
simply getting fed up of it all; (2) the knowledge that the oppposing Muslims
gain from who is voting YES for the s.r.i.a. may be used to canvass or even
intimadate these people privately to vote NO.

Since this is quite unprecedented, I am strongly in favour of cancelling the present
CFV and waiting about a week or two before proceding. In the meantime, is it possible
that the opposing camp should be penalised for their very obvious deception. I
feel that strong and decisive action must be taken otherwise it may encourage them
to other follys later on.

Nadeem Malik
nadeem@p.igp.ethz.ch
Newsgroups: news.groups