It is surprising to note that Muslims in the U.K have a greater freedom than anywhere else and they receive governmental grants and funds to build mosques in prime locations in British cities including London. A predominantly Christian society, the British have been quite tolerant in accepting immigrants and also allowing them to practice their personal beliefs. However, the fate of Christians in the Muslim world is one that has to be dealt with cautiously. Christians have been persecuted and marginalized in most Middle Eastern countries and recently, in India too.

However, the idea is to live peacefully and with religious tolerance. Though Atheism and non-religious societies are always welcome and of course safer too, it is difficult to change the way people think. If the British decided to avenge the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and promptly persecute the Muslims of Britain, it would be harking back to the Middle Ages. The Old Testament law of an eye for an eye and a hand for a hand would not work in a modern society and free societies must set up an example by not tolerating ‘other’ religions but in fact discouraging overt religious behaviors anywhere. In fact, avoiding religious topics and stopping the funds for religious institutions would do well and the money could be diverted to saner purposes like education and research.

The concept of religious tolerance must be thought over and when it is thought over, we would know that there really isn’t much to think, except allow others to live productive lives while we live our own live productively.

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Via: Guardian

‘Muslims are turning away from terrorism and the world is turning against them’. This line caught my attention in a very interesting blog I read today. It was heart warming to finally have a non-Muslim discuss the plight of an ordinary God-fearing Muslim who just wants to lead a peaceful life like the rest of us. The blog discussed the Pew Global reports that have found anti-Muslim feelings increasing significantly between 2006 and 2008 the world over. And perhaps this was exactly the time when the rigid domination of fundamentalists was being taken over by modernisers within the Islamic community across the globe.
Then again we must remember Muslims do not support the terrorist attacks but the irony is that these very attacks that they condemn further increase the hostility that non-Muslims already feel towards them.
My question is will Muslims be the next Jews? An act that the generations to come will repent all their lives!
Please read
http://nitawriter.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/muslims-turning-away-from-terrorism-but-the-world-is-against-them/

Zubeida Qureshi

In a moment of its kind, the mother of the main accused of the serial bombing in Delhi on Saturday declared that if her son is guilty “hang him”. Our country has been faced with many terrorists but for the first time ever, a mother, yes the 60 year old Zubeida Qureshi came out to face our rat like media sending out a message to her son Abdul Subhan Qureishi, “come back and stand trial”. With a trembling voice, she said that if her son is guilty he should be hanged before her eyes so that no one else commits such a heinous crime again.
Maybe it is the undercurrent of suspicion and dislike that Muslims in India have faced at the hands of other religious groups that Zubeida came up with such a brave stand. Those doubting every Muslim they see as a terrorist will perhaps realise that only a few are infected with the anti-humanist strain and not the whole clan. After all, people dying in the terrorist attacks are not all non-Muslims. Due to the actions of a handful, the others are being subjected to a life of renewed shame and embarrassments. Landlords do not like to lease the flat to a Muslim surname. Parents don’t want their children to get their Muslim friends home. Muslim kids are asked for reactions to the terrorist activities in the class. The traditional Muslim ‘burqa’ or ‘hijab’ or even the scarf and cap evoke a discomfort to others around.
Well, this is the treatment meted out to an average Muslim in India. Perhaps, Zubeida’s courageous words can make a change. I’m just hopeful.
Via hindustantimes

It’s scary to even think of the mindset behind protests like the VHP chakka jam that took over the nation yesterday. Apparently, it was a support agitation for the brothers in J&K angry over the Amarnath row. We know what happened there. And it wasn’t fair. But why spread the virus of hatred emanating from the political situation in J&K to the rest of India. Former CM of J&K, Farooq Abdullah expressed his “fear of communal hatred” that is generating from this issue across the country.
But I haven’t come to the most frightening aspect. An agitator in Delhi claimed on national television that he and his peers realise the inconvenience and hardships the common man has to face due to the protests but they are for the larger good (which he claimed was to awaken the Hindu brotherhood). “Sometimes, you have to go through difficult times to be enlightened,” he shared without batting an eyelid. Ram’s family would disagree. The 70-year-old heart patient died in Ambala yesterday when he could not reach the hospital in time due to the roads blockage by the VHP.
Is this the kind of enlightenment that religious fanaticism is leading to?
Via hindu

And once again, Hollywood heartthrob of yore Tom Cruise is in news thanks to the controversial religion called Scientology that he follows. Apparently, he is one of the names mentioned in a federal lawsuit filed by ex-Scientologist Peter Letterese in Florida. Letterese’s complaint provides details of harassment by the notoriously thievish organisation that runs Scientology. Referring to the Church of Scientology as a “crime syndicate” in the lawsuit, Letterese demands the dismantling of the organisation under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisation law. For those of you who didn’t know, David Miscavage is the Church head of Scientology with Cruise as his ‘right-hand man’. The two have not left any stone unturned to promote their religion domestically as well as abroad acquiring and spending money in tens of millions of dollars, a huge portion of which is donated by Cruise himself.
A classic case of having to taste one’s own bitter medicine, isn’t it? Scientology made a killing by filing frivolous law suits based on falsehoods. And then there is the controversial past. Don’t we remember how in 2005, Cruise was described as a militant for Scientology by the French who regard Scientology as a cult and business respectively, and even decided to stop dealing with him. And of course, how can we forget the famous spat with Brooke Shields and the medical practitioners on the use of anti-depressants and psychiatry.

Via GlossLip

Featuring a remake of the epic saga Ramayana is a safer bet for channel owners than having yet another one from the infamous K series. Though, in all honesty, the actors playing the mythological characters look like they have stepped from those sets. But that is not our focus this time. We are pondering over the big question: Are we really going to call our cable operator and beg to have this channel added to our monthly subscription?
The same applies to all other channels which require an extra payment before they can be seen on our TV sets. NDTV Good Times is one of them. It was all right to watch when free to air but definitely one will not be picking up the phone and command to the cable guy, “I want this!”

And it’s not the money involved. After all we don’t mind spending 40 bucks for a cup of coffee. It is INERTIA, the default option. Like they say the US always has a shortage of organ donors where as the French face no such problem. Does this the French are more generous? No. The answer is simple. In France, Austria and Hungary everyone is a potential donor unless they opt out. In the US you have to opt to be a donor. In the same breath, expecting Indian viewers to opt in for a channel is not going to work unless it’s for cricket!

Via NDTV

Syeda Semim Zahan’s blog entry grabbed my attention immediately. No she’s no celebrity or a writer by profession but an educated, burqaless Muslim woman living with fear. She shares one of her conversations with a stranger, which goes as follows:
“Madam are you a Musalmaan?”
“Yes. But how do you know?”
“Oh, you get letters at the address 2047.”

Imagine the effect this little informal talk had on Zahan, “So they have registered my identity in case there is a riot.” Such is the plight of a Muslim in India, be it a man or a woman. Every one of them is treated with a courtesy as is attributed to an insect. He/she is the centre of the attention and not for reasons that go in his/her interest.

Harmless educated Muslims are either confronted with a blunt “NO because you are a Muslim” by the landlords when looking for a place to live in or they receive comments like, “Hey, you got me there. You no way look like a Muslim.” Now, tell me is that supposed to be a comment or a compliment. I have never heard of anyone exclaiming, “Mmmm…you don’t look like a Hindu/Sikh/Christian!” Then why do we reserve special responses for the ones following Islam?

Via BlogBharti

With the stupendous success rate of the reality TV shows, now more and more fresh ideas are springing out. This time there will be a contest of hymn-singing pop idols. And like all other of these famous and fabulous shows, this too claims to have a noble purpose behind it- to bring spirituality to young Indians influenced by liberal Western lifestyles and stressed by increasing work pressures.

Producers of “Swaradhiraj” or “Supreme ruler of musical notes” — which is expected to be aired in October — say contestants will sing spiritual songs of any religion.

“Youth today are going to discotheques. They are drinking too much, smoking too much and being influenced by Western media,” said Arvind Joshi, an official from Aastha, India’s largest spirituality TV channel, which will air the show.

A booming economy, though has brought prosperity, but it has also led to more stressful lifestyles where a faster pace of life has left many urbanites working long hours and with little time to relax. This has resulted in a proliferation of faith-based television stations offering talk shows, astrological programmes and classes on yoga and alternative medicine as a soothing alternative to 24-hour news channels and soap operas.

“Spirituality is there in the youth already, but we are trying to consolidate it,” said Joshi.
“Devotional music is the one thing that can relieve stress from people and take them towards God and spirituality.” “The set, possibly with a river or trees in the background, will create tranquility in the minds of viewers.”

Instead of prizes of cash or cars normally offered to winners of India’s numerous singing reality shows, the winner will get a paid pilgrimage to a holy site of their choice and the chance to record an album of devotional songs.

Lets see whether this spiritual-singing hunt will win over the hearts of the people as all other talent hunts, or whether this spiritual show will completely sideline all the other similar kind of shows!

A new survey conducted by Durex Network, a social marketing arm of condom makers in the world shows that the age for “first sex” among Indians is 22.9 years. In China, the figure stands at 22.1, in Malaysia it is 23, in Singapore the average is 22.8 and in Thailand, it is 20.5.

In western countries such as Brazil and Germany, the mean age is below 18 years. The fact that Indians abstain from sex for nearly 23 years would leave most people happy because of obvious reasons: Indian culture is not going to the dogs( or west!!, if you like it)!!

I am happy for a different reason: the later the age for sex, the more is the emotional and psychological maturity to deal with a sexual relationship. I belong to the old school of thought that still believes that just because you are sexually mature does not mean you should go out to the nearest orgy.

I am also happy because it means comparatively less risk of spreading AIDS/STDs, less risk of unwanted pregnancies and dangerous abortions…

There’s more to Yamuna than a floating mass of filth…

Struck in a never ending traffic jam on Delhi’s famous ITO

Bridge built over the sacred river Yamuna, something that caught my eye was a man on the bank of the river performing some religious rituals and then disposing off the dead body of a baby into the river. Till that time all I knew about the river was that it was used as a dumping area by the so called religious souls.

Since many a years Yamuna was being used as the channel to make the offerings reach directly to God, there by piling up the muck in it, making it a floating mass of dirty, stinky and useless things. But that it was also an active crematory for little corpses came as a sheer filthy surprise to me. And the act was not new, but had strengthened its roots deep down the age-old religious Hindu traditions, which do not allow the cremation of corpses of babies and children under 3, like their grown-up counterparts and registered for them a watery grave.

“I don’t know how many babies I have put there, maybe thousands,” says 40-year-old naval Kishore, who has been performing this gruesome task for more than 10 years now, and before him it were his fore fathers indulging in this so called ‘religious service.’ If the religious sects are to be believed, there is no such mention of denial of cremation to babies, but still people blinded by their mad faith in their ancestors are continuing the tradition without paying any heed to what they are doing to the environment.

For a meager sum of Rs.100 or even Rs 50 a man takes the baby in the center of the river, ties a brick to it and set it go in the water. Everybody knows what happens to the corpses, but none is daring enough to realize that they either become food for the organisms breeding deep down the filthy river or dissolve in the water. I don’t think the parents have ever wished for a doom like this for their little ones…what do you say? They definitely deserve something better…at least a decent journey towards the ultimate end…a decent BURIAL GROUND is what they deserve.

Though a court order was passed against the crematoriums to allow the babies to be buried there, but of no use. The capital city Delhi, which is gearing up in full spirits to welcome the commonwealth games has no time to sit back and think for a proper cremation ground for the tiniest members of the society. The adult crematoriums turn away these babies’ corpses leaving them to go no where but to end up making Yamuna a little more murky and enthralling the age old religious sentiments.

Via: CNN