February Month Articles
- Why I Published Those
Cartoons
- by Flemming Rose
Childish. Irresponsible. Hate speech. A provocation just for the sake
of provocation. A PR stunt. Critics of 12 cartoons of the prophet Muhammad
published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten have not minced their
words. .....
- 'Raving about jihad is
simply un-Australian'
- by Mark Chipperfield
The Australian prime minister, John Howard, criticised the minority of
Muslims in the country who "rave on about jihad" and hold "extreme
attitudes" towards women, saying they do not fit into Australian
society. .....
- The Farce of an Inter-faith
dialogue
- by Arun Kumar
The event was organised by the Islamic Research Foundation, which was
widely publicised through hoardings and newspapers in Bangalore. The place
was heavily crowded and majority of the crowd (95 per cent) was Muslim.
.....
- Karzai's visit and continuing
acrimony
- by Imtiaz Gul
As expected, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's three-day visit last week
was marked by the usual mutual ceremonial vows of friendship and cooperation.
But insiders suggest that most of the official meetings ended on either
a bitter or stale note because of the contentious issues raised by both
sides. .....
- Defiant Haji Yaqoob dares
Mulayam
- by Biswajeet Banerjee
For Uttar Pradesh Haj and Minority Welfare Development Minister Haji Yaqoob
Qureshi, defiance is the keyword when it comes to defending his shocking
announcement in the name of religious faith. .....
- At least 27 dead in Nigeria
riots
- by George Esiri
Revenge attacks against Muslims killed at least 27 people in southeastern
Nigeria on Wednesday after anti-Christian violence killed dozens and left
thousands homeless in the mainly Muslim north. .....
- Blast at Shiite Shrine
Sets Off Sectarian Fury in Iraq
- by Robert F. Worth
A powerful bomb shattered the golden dome at one of Iraq's most revered
Shiite shrines on Wednesday morning, setting off a day of sectarian fury
in which mobs formed across Iraq to chant for revenge and attacked dozens
of Sunni mosques. .....
- Dr Manmohan Singh: 'Neville
Chamberlain' of India
- by V Sundaram
On 30 September 1938, Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich bearing
what he believed was Hitler`s reassurance of `peace in our time`. For
a brief interlude, he was a most popular man in his country and his Parliamentary
majority was never in doubt. .....
- The Colors of Desi
- by Lavina Melwani
Genetics is their football and they are out to smash all stereotypes.
Races meet and merge in their faces. Long Indian eyelashes cover eyes
of pristine blue; glowing ebony skin mixes with Caucasian features. .....
- 12.98-lakh names deleted
in Bengal, 4 times since 2004, 2005
- by The Hindu
The final list of voters released today showed that 12.98 lakh names have
been deleted from the electoral rolls in West Bengal, which is four times
the number of deletions as compared with that in 2004 when it was 3.47
lakh. .....
- MINI Pakistan in Kerala
--- why Hindu want secularism
- by Sourav Reddy
Hindus are under siege in the Muslim majority district of Malappuram -
Kerala. The district was carved out to create a Muslim majority district
by the Communist government headed by E.M.S Namboothiripad. .....
- Justice after Jessica
Lall
- by V. N. Khare
After the Gujarat riot cases, especially the Best Bakery case in which
I ordered a re-trial as the victim Zaheera Sheikh changed her statements
and witnesses turned hostile, the Jessica Lall murder case has thrown
up a challenge for the country's criminal justice system. Our criminal
jurisprudence requires drastic changes. .....
- Olive green carries the
united colours of India
- by N.N. Vohra
It has been complained that the Sachar Committee is engaged in an exercise
to count the number of Muslims and their hierarchical levels in the Indian
army. This committee is reported to have been set up to assess the socio-economic,
educational, etc, status of Muslims so that, based thereon, relevant initiatives
may be launched to provide better opportunities for the uplift of this
community. .....
- Captives point to Pakistan
- by Praveen Kumar
The October 2005 blasts in the Capital were manoeuvred allegedly by Pakistan
if the conversation intercepted of the meetings between Lashkar operatives
and Dar's admission during interrogation is to be believed. .....
- Banning the Quran?
- by Koenraad Elst
The controversy over the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad
has generated plenty of hypocritical commentary from politicians and other
public figures in attempts to convey an impression of moderation and neutrality.
In most cases they do so by taking up the quarrel in the middle and condemning
both the "insensitivity" of the cartoonists and the "overreaction"
of the Muslim world, both alleged instances of "extremism."
.....
- BBC caves to Islamicist
pressure
- by Thomas Lifson
The UK Sun, reports that the BBC has caved in and is junking an already
filmed episode of a hit series for fear of offending Muslims - because
an al Qaeda terrorist is shot dead: a £1million episode of hit drama
Spooks in which an al-Qaeda terrorist is shot dead - in case it upsets
Muslims. .....
- Headcount a threat to
Army's secular mindset
- by S Gurumurthy
''I felt a tremendous sense of pride when, at an Independence Day function
in Pune in 2002 (in the aftermath of the horrible Gujarat riots), Qutbuddin
Ansari, the tailor from Ahmedabad who became famous as the face of that
tragedy, told me it was the Indian Army's timely arrival that had saved
him and his family. In a choked voice, he said throughout his life he
would pray for the success of the Indian Army. .....
- Saudi Arabia police razes
makeshift Hindu temple
- by Daily Times
Saudi religious police have destroyed a clandestine makeshift Hindu temple
in an old district of Riyadh and deported three worshippers found there,
a newspaper reported on Saturday. .....
- Tolerating Islamist intolerance
- by KPS Gill
A great deal has been written on the 'cartoon controversy', but it is
far from enough. The current storm of orchestrated violence and intimidatory
protests across the world is symbolic of a deep and sustained intolerance
among Muslims, and of rising levels of tolerance of Muslim intolerance,
that jointly undermine the possibility of freedom in large parts of the
world. .....
- Ex-PLO man warns of militants
- by Conor Feehan and Paul Melia
A former PLO bomber has warned that Irish immigration policy needs to
toughen up to weed out possible infiltration by Islamic fundamentalists.
.....
- U.K. Police Thwarted Three
Terrorist Attacks, Brown to Say
- by Bloomberg.com
U.K. security forces have thwarted three terrorist attacks since the failed
London bombings of July 21, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown will
say in a speech tomorrow, as he seeks to raise his profile beyond financial
matters in his bid to lead the nation after Tony Blair. .....
- Jockeying for the Muslim
vote
- by T V R Shenoy
Mulayam Singh Yadav was, as those with long memories may recall, the defence
minister of India from 1996 to 1998. The joke in South Block was that
he was more interested in the conquest of Lucknow than of Lahore! So what
has led the Samajwadi Party boss to threaten to table a no confidence
motion in the Lok Sabha following the Manmohan Singh ministry's decision
to vote against Iran in the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting?
.....
- 'Ganga Valley epicentre
of ancient India'
- by The Hindustan Times
Delivering a lecture on 'Metal Implementations of Northern Black Polished
Ware' on the concluding day of the three-day national seminar on 'Studies
on the Ganges Civilization: Shifting Paradigms' in Banaras Hindu University
here on Sunday, Dr. JP Upadhyay of Ewing Christian College (Allahabad)
said "The Ganga Valley has been the historical epicentre of ancient
India, which passed through numerous socio-economic, religious, political
and other cultural vicissitudes". .....
- PM assures Shahi Imam,
cartoons issue taken up with Denmark
- by Deepika.com
Reiterating the country's commitment to religious tolerance Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh has assured Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari that India had
taken up with the Danish government the controversy over the publication
of cartoons of Prophet Mohammad. .....
- Muslim or Hindu, soldier?
- by The Indian Express
The government's decision to collect information on the number of Muslims
in the Army and its overruling the Army's protest on such thinking undermines
a basic ethos of the Indian Army. .....
- Caught between fate and
borders
- by Tejinder Sodhi
For 35-year-old Kapoor Jaan, marrying on the Indian side of Kashmir turned
out to be a disaster twice as she ended up spending almost half her life
in Indian jails. .....
- British imam praises London
Tube bombers
- by The Sunday Times
A leading imam in the mosque where the July 7 bombers worshipped has hailed
their terrorist attack on London as a "good" act in a secretly
taped conversation with an undercover reporter. .....
- The Sword of Islam
- by Krishen Kak
Thoughts on issues of current interest, including instances of some double
standards of our public figures, especially in the construction of Hindusthani
identity (all those Macaulayan myths, and the hypocrisy that is Nehruvian
secularism) .....
- Pakistan's Costly 'Other
War'
- by Selig S. Harrison
The usual explanation for Pakistan's failure to go all-out against al
Qaeda and Taliban forces along the Afghan frontier is that Gen. Pervez
Musharraf's armed forces and intelligence services are riddled with Islamic
extremists. But there is also another, equally disturbing, reason. .....
- Armed & dangerous
- by The Indian Express
That the army chief publicly indicated what his force had told the government
in private - soldiers and identity politics don't mix and ignoring that
means stirring trouble - should hopefully somewhat lighten the onerous
burden of the Rajinder Sachar committee. If the government does not instruct
the committee to withdraw the Muslims in armed forces questionnaire even
after this, we will know that this variant of "minority welfare"
policy can be dangerous. .....
- They ruled over ruins
- by KR Phanda
In his article, "Why blame Abu Salem?" (16, January), Jamal
Ansari questions Hindus about their faith in the sanctity of Ayodhya,
thus: "How can the site of an outrageous offence be called a place
of worship or pilgrimage? Can any religion put such a premium on fraud,
deceit and brute force?" .....
- Kishanganj: Haven for
ISI men
- by Bhuvneshwar Prasad
Hedged in by both inter-state and international borders Kishanganj district
in Bihar has, for long, been a happy hunting ground for Pakistan's ISI
and Nepalese Maoists. .....
- In rigging country, EC
hits great wall (Part II of II)
- by Udayan Namboodiri
The Election Commission (EC) has lashed out at the Marxist Government
of West Bengal for deliberately creating conditions hostile to the holding
of free and fair elections. The 19 observers sent to the State for the
second time in four weeks returned to home base on Friday to confess to
Chief Election Commissioner BB Tandon that democracy and Bengal are two
mutually exclusive concepts. .....
- Sailor beaten to death
in oil tanker over 'cartoons'
- by Salah Al Debarky and Riyasbabu
A sailor was allegedly beaten to death by his colleagues on board a Norwegian
oil tanker in the international waters off the coast of Fujairah, following
an argument over the blasphemous cartoon published on Prophet Mohammed
in a Danish daily recently. .....
- Muslim count not mere
academic exercise
- by Navin Upadhyay
The exercise of doing a headcount of Muslims in the defence forces could
ultimately pave the way for religion-based quota in the services. .....
- Youngsters and jihad
- by Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A.
Lappen
What would you like to be when you growup?A Hamas children's magazine
has a clear answer: a terrorist. A children's story it published calls
upon small children and encourages them to commit terrorist acts and sacrifice
their souls for Allah. .....
- Christian missionaries'
role under scanner in J&K
- by Rediff.com
The detention of Christian missionaries, who were allegedly trying to
convert earthquake-affected people of Uri Tehsil in Jammu and Kashmir
under the garb of providing relief, has once again brought to light the
role of missionaries in the state under scanner. .....
- Cong goes all out to woo
Muslims
- by Pallavi Ghosh
A minority affairs ministry, amendments to the Foreigners' Act and then
a minority census in government service - Congress' political strategy
is becoming quite obvious. .....
- Pakistani viewpoint (Letter
to the Editor)
- by Meher Unnisa
I was saddened to read the letter of Javed Altaf in the Milpitas Post
dated Feb 2, "Text clashes extremist, moderate Hindus." As a
woman from Pakistan who immigrated to the United States, I would like
to tell everyone that there are people in Pakistan who do not show such
hatred toward others. .....
- Inscriptions point to
horizontal social formations during medieval era
- by T. Ramakrishnan
Several Tamil inscriptions of the medieval era have revealed the existence
of a social formation, which had emerged as a challenge to the hierarchical
caste system based on Brahminical ideology, according to Noboru Karashima,
Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo and Professor of Indian Studies,
Taisho University. .....
- India marches together
- by V. R. Raghavan
The fascinating public debate consequent to the questions by the Sachar
Committee on the number of Muslims in the defence forces is cause for
reflection. If as The Indian Express reported, Justice Sachar said that
the military is no different from any other central government organisation,
there is cause for disquiet. .....
- Storm builds over Muslim
count
- by The Pioneer
Bukhari comes to PMO's support ---- The UPA Government's bizarre move
to order a headcount of Muslims in the Indian defence forces has triggered
off a political storm in the country. The main Opposition NDA on Tuesday
met President APJ Abdul Kalam and sought his intervention to stop the
exercise that amounted to "communalisation of military". .....
- We were brought up to
hate - and we do
- by Nonie Darwish
The controversy regarding the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed
completely misses the point. Of course, the cartoons are offensive to
Muslims, but newspaper cartoons do not warrant the burning of buildings
and the killing of innocent people. .....
- Vote-bank wins
- by The Pioneer
It is not surprising that the Congress should fall back on its traditional
strategy of vote-bank politics to retain power in Assam, which goes to
the polls later this year. What is not only surprising but shocking in
the extreme is the blatant and outrageous manner in which it did so last
Friday when, following a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political
Affairs, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced that the United Progressive
Alliance Government would set up tribunals under the Foreigners Act of
1946 .....
- Husain slur on Bharat
Mata
- by Sandhya Jain
In its second secular overture to Hindu opinion after the CPM MP, Brinda
Karat publicly targeted Ayurveda and yoga guru, Swami Ramdev, the Maharashtra
coalition has booked the controversial artist, M.F. Husain, for hurting
the sentiments of the people. .....
- Counting Muslims in forces
'anti-national', George to meet Kalam
- by The Indian Express
Reacting to The Sunday Express exclusive about the Government ordering
a Muslim-specific survey of the armed forces, BJP president Rajnath Singh
and former Defence Minister George Fernandes today slammed the Government,
saying the exercise was a "seditious act" and amounted to "communalising"
the forces. .....
- Chavez deadline for US
preachers
- by Greg Morsbach
The Venezuelan government has given a Christian missionary group from
the US until Sunday to leave the country. .....
- The Silence of Liberal
Muslims
- by Vir Sanghvi
I am sorry if you feel you have had enough of the latest religion vs freedom
of expression controversy: the fuss over the Danish cartoons that featured
the Prophet Mohammed. And yes, I am also sorry that my own position mirrors
familiar liberal arguments - so, no surprises there. But I do think that
much of what has been said or written about the issue misses the point.
So, bear with me this Sunday. .....
- Army in wonderland
- by Ahmad Faruqui
Why does the army do poorly on the battlefield, squandering individual
acts of bravery and destroying lives? The generals have enmeshed themselves
in civilian duties, the army chief doubles as the president and key corps
commanders double as provincial governors. .....
- Embarrassing Leftovers
- by Swapan Dasgupta
Judged purely by inches of column space in newspapers and minutes of footage
on television, the past seven days has been truly momentous for the Left.
From the kerfuffle over Iran's nuclear programme to the stinking lavatories
in India's airports, the Left has intruded into the public consciousness
more effectively than at any time since the Chinese invasion in 1962.
And what interventions! .....
- Insults to the Mahatma,
ignored by India
- by Vijay Dandapani
George W Bush's protocol handlers have notified South Block that the American
President's deep belief in his born again faith precludes his visiting
Mahatma Gandhi's Samadhi at New Delhi's Raj Ghat -- during his forthcoming
visit to India. .....
- Do not blame the PM for
he is a gentleman
- by The Free Press Journal
Now that a newly-launched television channel has foiled the gameplan to
let that Italian fugitive from the Indian law, Ottavio Quattorocchi, enjoy
the Bofors loot, it seems almost certain that the real conspirators behind
the cynical move would sacrifice Law Minister Hansraj Bhardwaj. Some years
ago, the same people had made the then External Affairs Minister, Madhavsinh
Solanki a scapegoat. .....
- In suicide country's Ground
Zero, ghost mills, buried reforms
- by Sonu Jain
Yavatmal's cotton belt is Ground Zero of suicide country-over 115 farmers
have killed themselves in the last one year. And right in the heart of
this, just off Yavatmal town, stands the skeleton of a cotton spinning
mill, under construction for the last 15 years. .....
- When the lights stayed
on
- by Meena Menon
One evening, two years ago, Bhimrao Baburao Pawar, a lineman with the
then Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB), faced the wrath of school
children who stopped his vehicle and deflated its tyres. The students
were upset that there was erratic power supply in their village of Javle
Kadlag in Sangamner taluk of Ahmednagar district. .....
- Armed with sops for 'foreigners',
Cong eyes Assam
- by The Times of India
Congress president Sonia Gandhi will visit Assam on Saturday to virtually
kick-start her party's poll campaign a day after the Centre revived some
provisions contained in the scrapped IMDT Act, a measure aimed at easing
pressure on illegal Bangladeshis in the state. .....
- Cong does trapeze act
on cartoons
- by The Times of India
Under pressure from Muslim groups " to denounce the Prophet cartoons
in a Danish newspaper, Congress has preferred to walk the political
tightrope by insisting that the caricatures are as offending as artist
M F Husain's painting of nude deities. .....
- Army's food-and-yoga mantra
for jawans
- by The Indian Express
The Army, which is upgrading equipment and technology to meet futuristic
war requirements, will now tackle a more basic problem-food for its soldiers.
.....
- India shining
- by Vishwanathan Anand
In 1987, I remember someone asking me if I played chess to escape from
the abysmal conditions in my country. I was so shocked by the question
that even now I grapple with a witty retort. To them, India was a kitchidi
of mysticism with a liberal dose of poverty and every imaginable social
evil. .....
- Caught In Its Own Web
- by Neeraj Mishra
Like the gun, the Bofors controversy continues to recoil. A week after
the unravelling of the favours to Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi,
an accused in the infamous Bofors case, it transpires that the CBI had
all along planned to wrap up the last vestiges of the case. But the Supreme
Court had to play the party pooper. .....
- RSS documentary seeks
to clear 'wrong' notions against Sangh
- by Rediff.com
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Saturday said it would seek to counter
various charges and "wrong" notions against it through a documentary
film being made on the second sarsanghchalak Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar
to be screened during his birth centenary year celebrations. .....
- Musharraf's blackmail
- by The Free Press Journal
President Musharraf of Pakistan has been flying a number of political
kites of late for a solution of Kashmir. In his latest unsolicited advice
to India, he says that the first step for ending terrorism in India is
the withdrawal of Indian troops from three cites of Kashmir, namely Srinagar,
Baramula and Kupwara, the nerve centre of Pakistansponsored terrorism.
.....
- Shahabuddin may be questioned
for Hizbul links
- by The Indian Express
The problems for RJD MP Shahabuddin seem to be far from over as the police
in Jammu and Kashmir are likely to question him for his alleged links
with the pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen. .....
- A prisoner of his own
murderous rhetoric
- by The Telegraph
The successful prosecution of Abu Hamza for incitement to murder brings
only partial satisfaction. The cleric uttered his incitements to kill
for years before being charged. .....
- AMU moral cops target
girl wearing T-shirt
- by Varghese K George
Wearing a T-shirt can be dangerous as a girl student of the prestigious
Aligarh Muslim University realised last week. For daring to wear what
she wants to, Najma (name changed) is being threatened by fellow students
who claim the sole right to interpret what is moral in Islam. .....
- Sinner and sin
- by The Pioneer
The revelation that trusts directly or indirectly controlled by Election
Commissioner Navin Chawla solicited and accepted contributions from Congress
MPs' local area development funds is extremely distressing. .....
- Aiyar had refused Rahul's
request
- by Seema Mustafa
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has acquired a towering profile within the party
after the AICC plenary session which formally accepted him as the next
leader of the party. Congress leaders treat him with the same reverence
as they do Congress president Sonia Gandhi, with questions about the young
scion being met with evasive answers and "let's change the subject"
looks. .....
- Haitians Flock to Vote,
on a Day of Anger and Hope
- by Ginger Thompson
After more than a year of planning, the long-awaited presidential elections
began here on Tuesday with signs of the same tensions and disorder that
have kept this poor, troubled nation at the brink of chaos for the last
two years. .....
- Revealed: ISI's Operation
Andhra
- by George Iype
The recent arrest of a suspected Laskhar-e-Tayiba operative from Nalgonda
in connection with the terrorist attack on the Indian Institute of Science
in Bangalore holds a lesson for the country: That Andhra Pradesh is fast
becoming jihad's production factory. .....
- Moussaoui Ejected Four
Times for Disrupting Jury Selection
- by Neil A. Lewis
Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person to be put on trial in the United States
for involvement in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was ejected from a
federal courtroom on Monday at the start of the jury selection process
because of an outburst in which he shouted "I am Al Qaeda."
.....
- Subverting the nation
- by Hari Om
The views of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) chief Ms Mehbooba Mufti
asking the Union Government to "empower people of Jammu & Kashmir
(read the Valley's Muslims) so that they can shape their future themselves"
deserves to be read carefully. .....
- Police found weapons at
Finsbury Park mosque
- by The Times
Full details of what police discovered during a raid on the Finsbury Park
in 2003 can be revealed only today after the conclusion of Abu Hamza's
trial on race hate charges. .....
- Terrorist training camps
might exist in UK -police
- by Michael Holden
Police say they uncovered evidence of terrorist training camps in Britain
after raiding Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri's north London mosque,
which they believe was a global magnet for Islamic militants. .....
- Iran to publish Holocaust
cartoons
- by News.com.au
Iran's largest selling newspaper announced today it was holding a contest
on cartoons of the Holocaust in response to the publishing in European
papers of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. .....
- In the national interest,
Dr Singh?
- by Arvind Lavakare
One meaning of the word 'confer' is 'have discussions'. Its extension
into 'conference' would therefore mean a formal meeting where there would
be discussion, however brief. .....
- Stop cringing and stand
up for our own values
- by Bruce Anderson
The embattled Danish newspaper has performed a valuable public service.
It may have caused mayhem across several continents; is this the first
globalised riot? But the cartoons did not create the tension. They merely
highlighted it. .....
- Blasting the myth of southern
comfort
- by K Govindan Kutty
The future or the antiquity of Bahubali's statue or Edakkal's cave cannot
be Mr Dharam Singh's and Mr Oommen Chandy's immediate concerns. These
enclaves of heritage do face threats of vandalism or philistinism, but
Mr Singh and Mr Chandy have other preoccupations. .....
- Dialogue With Pakistan:
Journey Without Maps
- by Bharat Bhushan
It is amazing that on the very day that Pakistan's president, General
Pervez Musharraf, claimed that the relations with India were at an "all
time best", a senior Indian official should brief the media to say
that the peace process was threatened by Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.
There cannot be a more clear indication of where the relationship is headed
- downwards. .....
- Nation taken for a ride
- by Navin Upadhyay
CBI aids Govt in cover-up --- Ottavio Quattrocchi has once again taken
for a ride the Indian law enforcement agencies, judiciary, media, political
system, governance - and the entire nation. .....
- Back to Bengal Pact
- by Balbir K. Punj
Two "Acts" promulgated by the Indira Gandhi government with
an eye on the Muslim vote bank - the AMU Amendment Act (1981) and the
IMDT Act (1983) - have been struck down by the Allahabad High Court and
the Supreme Court respectively as "unconstitutional." Yet, it
is generally believed that the UPA government, in collusion with its "secular"
allies, would conjure up some kind of "Constitutional" trickery
to override the court judgments. .....
- Just shut up, Brinda Karat
- by The Hindustan Times
Member of Parliament from Rajya Sabha Brinda Karat's remarks and allegations
on yoga guru Ramdev have irked the surfers. It's quite clear they are
extremely angry with both the MP and HindustanTimes.com. .....
- Textbooks And Hinduism
-- Why Accuracy Matters
- by Viji Sundaram
Earlier this month, the arm of California's Board of Education that decides
what will and won't go into the history textbooks of millions of students
was persuaded by followers of Hinduism and Judaism to correct what the
groups felt were historical inaccuracies pertaining to their religion
and culture. .....
- India Digitizes Age-Old
Wisdom
- by John Lancaster
In a drafty government institute, Nighat Anjum reads from a dog-eared
textbook on traditional Indian medicine and acquaints herself with the
miracle fruit known as aamla, which is said to be useful in treating heart
palpitations, immune disorders, bed-wetting and memory lapses. .....
- Ulema changes tune on beef-eating
- by Sandhya Jain
In a surprise development for the Hindu community, the famous Deoband
Darul Uloom has asked Muslims nationwide to avoid slaughtering cows on
the occasion of the forthcoming Id-ul-Zuha on January 11, out of respect
for Hindu sentiments. The measure is fraught with significant possibilities
for inter-community relations, but even more importantly, contains the
seeds for progress and change for the Muslim community itself. .....
- Math Yoga
- by John Myers
Math instructor Vivek Astunkar barely caps his pen before 12-year-old
Janhavi Shah calls out "one, three, two, one, six, double zero!"
She has, in mere seconds, correctly answered Astunkar's whiteboard challenge
- multiply 1,120 by 1,180. .....
- Two LeT men, 5 others convicted
- by Daily Excelsior
Two Pakistani Lashkar-e-Toiba militants were among seven men convicted
by a Delhi Court today in connection with bomb blasts which rocked various
north Indian cities in 1997 killing 17 persons and injuring nearly 300
others. .....
- Video of revenge riot appears
- a month late
- by Andrew Clennell and Ben Cubby
NSW Police will increase the number of detectives investigating the revenge
attacks after the Cronulla riots, after the Commissioner, Ken Moroney,
discovered month-old video footage of youths attacking a man. .....
- Credibility is Musharraf's
problem
- by Arvind Lavakare
Were it not for the decorum of international diplomacy, the Indian government
would be justified in saying 'Piss off' to General Musharraf after his
recently expounded suggestion that the solution to the 'Kashmir problem'
lay in granting the state 'self-governance with joint management by India
and Pakistan' along with demilitarisation initially of Srinagar, Baramulla
and Kupwara regions. .....
- MPs adopt 'Defend Russian
Hindus' resolution
- by Nabanita Sircar
British Parliamentarians, members of the Hindu, Jew, Muslim and Christian
communities adopted a resolution at a meeting held at the House of Commons
to launch the Defend Russian Hindus campaign in protest against the alleged
harassment of Hindus in Russia by the Orthodox Church on Wednesday. .....
- To dole out plan funds
on religious demography
- by Sandhya Jain
Regardless of whether or not there is a consensus within the ruling UPA
about reservations for Muslims on the basis of religion, Union Minister
for Human Resources Development will certainly push through an ordinance
on the issue, because few in the present regime will have the foresight
or courage to resist its dangerous implications. .....
- Immoral UPA tries to save
Mr Q
- by Arun Jaitley
The disclosure made by the news channel CNN-IBN that the Government of
India through the Law Ministry, and in particular, through Mr B Datta,
Additional Solicitor General of India, officially requested the Government
of Great Britain in December 2005 to de-freeze the bank accounts of Mr
Ottavio Quattrocchi which were frozen in the course of investigation of
Bofors bribery case, has exposed the complete lack of ethics and morality
of the UPA Government. .....
- Chawla's Cong past comes
back to haunt
- by The Pioneer
Election Commissioner must quit, say BJP, RSP ---- Election Commissioner
Navin Chawla on Monday found himself in the midst of a major political
controversy following a TV channel exposure establishing that he and his
family had received large sums of MPLAD funds from MPs, all belonging
to the Congress party. .....
- Rajasthan opens doors to
first RSS university
- by Sandipan Sharma
Taking advantage of the Rajasthan Government's decision to allow private
universities in the state, the RSS has decided to set up its first varsity
in the country on the outskirts of Jaipur. .....
- LeT Kolkata attack foiled:
Police
- by The Indian Express
With the arrest of three alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) members, the Kolkata
Police today claimed to have foiled a major plan to carry out explosions
at public places. .....
- Alleged terrorists had
accomplices in Govandi
- by Sagnik Chowdhury
The two alleged terrorists nabbed from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Kurla
by the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Monday, had three accomplices in
the city, who were waiting to harbour them in Govandi, ATS sources told
Newsline today. .....
- We are all Danes now
- by Jeff Jacoby
Hindus Consider it sacrilegious to eat meat from cows, so when a Danish
supermarket ran a sale on beef and veal last fall, Hindus everywhere reacted
with outrage. India recalled its ambassador to Copenhagen, and Danish
flags were burned in Calcutta, Bombay, and Delhi. .....
- Muslim girl ostracised
for learning Bharatanatyam!
- by S. Chandrasekhar
Kerala has always been a model to the world. While in earlier days it
was social reformers like Adi Sankara, Sree Narayana Guru, etc. in modern
times it is its predominance in education, health care, land reforms etc.
.....
- Airline bans Bibles to
avoid offending Muslims
- by WorldNetDaily.com
A British airline banned its staff from taking Bibles and wearing crucifixes
or St. Christopher medals on flights to Saudi Arabia to avoid offending
the country's Muslims. .....
- 5,000 Pakistanis missing
in India: Govt
- by The Hindustan Times
More than 5,000 Pakistan nationals who entered India in the past five
years are missing. Acting on intelligence report, the Union Home Ministry
has directed the Haryana Police to trace the 342, who had not returned
after the expiry of their visas. .....
- The pull of the 'Centre'
of Gravity
- by T R Jawahar
The north thrives even as the south wanes (Vadakku vazhgirathu, therkku
theikirathu). This slogan used to stir scores of southerners in TN, in
the fifties and early sixties. Those were heady times when the India beyond
the Vindhyas was forbidden land of 'Madarasis' for the 'northerners'.
.....
- Hindu text case: Legal
aid sought
- by Suman Guha Mozumder
The Hindu American Foundation upped the ante in its teach-real-Hinduism
in American schools campaign by announcing it has hired a law firm to
represent it in its imminent interactions with the California State Board
of Education. .....
- Danes face fury over cartoons
of Prophet
- by David Rennie
A Danish newspaper apologised to Muslims last night after provoking fury
in the Arab world by running cartoons featuring the Prophet Mohammed.
.....
- 'Prevarication cost US
chance to kill Osama'
- by Dawn
Pakistani government has been accused of 'prevarication' in a report carried
by the Sunday Telegraph, which according to the paper's sources, cost
America the chance to kill Osama bin Laden in an air strike near the Afghan
border about two years ago. .....
- Revealed: ISI's Operation
Andhra
- by George Iype
The recent arrest of a suspected Laskhar-e-Tayiba operative from Nalgonda
in connection with the terrorist attack on the Indian Institute of Science
in Bangalore holds a lesson for the country: That Andhra Pradesh is fast
becoming jihad's production factory. .....
- Andhra Pradesh: Jihad's
new hotspot
- by George Iype
The recent arrest of a suspected Laskhar-e-Tayiba operative from Nalgonda,
Andhra Pradesh, in connection with the terrorist attack on the Indian
Institute of Science in Bangalore holds a lesson for the country: That
Andhra Pradesh may swiftly becoming jihad's production factory. .....
- The man who knew he was
Mahatma
- by The Pioneer
Gandhi was busy writing articles about his desire to renounce the flesh
when India was burning in 1947 and the people of this country were more
interested in knowing whether they would live or die rather than in heeding
the problems of brahmacharya .....
- The tale of shining Indian
Americans
- by Rediff.com
Much has been said about outsourcing of American business to India, but
far less is known of the singular influx of Indian talent and wisdom that
has enriched this country in a big way, says a new book. .....
- Hijacking the nation
- by Dina Nath Mishra
The following symptoms compel us to consider if India is a "half
sovereign" State? The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB)
sub-committee on Muslim reforms has demanded abolition of Article 44 of
the Indian Constitution, which recommends a uniform civil code in the
country. .....
- Hizb conduit with cash,
explosives held in Delhi
- by Khaleej Times
An alleged conduit of the banned militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen (HM)
was arrested with a large quantity of explosives and hawala cash from
south Delhi, police said yesterday. .....
- Losing the fight for Europe?
- by Thomas Lifson
David Schwammenthal, a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board,
writes today on the paper's subscriber-only website that Denmark has in
effect capitulated in the cartoon crisis, and that this bodes ill for
the future of Europe. .....
- PBS Station Nixes Show
On Terrorism
- by Jennifer Siegel
Following last-minute cries of protest from Muslim leaders last week,
a Public Broadcasting Service affiliate in Dallas canceled the premiere
of a documentary on the roots of Islamic terrorism. .....
- Endemic discrimination
against Hindus
- by Rajeev Srinivasan
I was once looking through the 'Great Books' series from Harvard University:
this is widely used as reading material in college. In the introduction
to the Bhagavad Gita, the compiler of the volumes says something -- I
paraphrase -- to the effect that 'to western ears, this sounds primitive.'
.....
- Britney turns Hindu?
- by The Hindustan Times
The priest at a Hindu temple visited by pop singer Britney Spears admits
he didn't recognise her when she first arrived with her four-month-old
son Sean Preston to seek spiritual guidance. .....
- Imams accused of doublespeak
- by The Copenhagen Post
PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen lashed out at extremist Muslim leaders in Denmark
on Thursday for speaking with two tongues in the on-going row between
the country and the Muslim world. .....
- Gulf of Cambay Cradle of
Ancient Civilization
- by Badrinaryan Badrinaryan
For decades archaeologists have argued about the origins of the mysterious
"Harappan" (Indus Valley) civilisation that flourished across
what is now Pakistan and north-west India from about 3000 BC. Now new
findings by Indian scientists working in the Gulf of Cambay suggest that
the Harappans were descended from an advanced mother culture that flourished
at the end of the last Ice Age and that was submerged by rising sea-levels
before history began. .....
- Ignorance, the Greatest
Threat Facing America
- by Amil Imani
The intention of this article is to provoke a much needed debate on the
nature of a phenomenon called Islamic Terrorism. Most people in America
assume that the phenomenon called Islamic Terrorism started after the
September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City.
.....
- J&K village refuses
burial to LeT commander
- by Pramod Kumar Singh
In a heartening incident, angry villagers of Dul in Doda district refused
to allow the burial of an area commander of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba killed in
an encounter in their village graveyard. They were not willing to accede
space to the body of a Pakistan national who had terrorised the entire
district with his mindless killings, rapes and forcible abduction of youth.
.....
- Bigotry and Prejudice:
the Depiction of Hinduism in the West
- by Rajeev Srinivasan
For the past few months, an obscure debate has been raging on about California
school textbooks, which actually boils down to a vexed and important issue:
Do Hindus have the right to be treated as equals with followers of other
religions, or are Hindus and Hinduism to be deemed, ipso facto, inferior
and objects of scorn? .....
- The Indian as "Black
White" and as "Nigger"
- by Francis C. Assisi
There is this essential contradiction in being a South Asian, or a person
of Indian origin, in America: on one hand the South Asian is perceived
as being black by the majority white population, and on the other the
South Asian is eager to be categorized alongside whites, as Caucasians.
.....
- How marine archaeologists
found Dwaraka
- by V Gangadharan
The submergence into the sea of the city of Dwaraka, vividly picturised
in the great epic of Mahabaratha, is indeed true! A chance discovery made
by a team of scientists, in the Gulf of Cambay region, establishes that
the Mahabaratha story is not a myth. The rich city with fertile landscape
and great rivers had indeed submerged into the seas several thousand years
ago. .....
- HC orders reinstatement
of 3 dismissed CRPF men
- by Abraham Thomas
Three CRPF personnel, who were dismissed from service for firing "indiscriminately"
during an ambush involving militants in Jammu & Kashmir, have been
ordered reinstatement by the Delhi High Court. .....
- Embrace Islam and go home
from prison
- by Telugu Daily Eenadu
Our Indians are going to foreign countries for their livelihood and some
are going to earn more money. They are paying lakhs of rupees to the brokers
to get visiting visas. Who went to Dubai and other Arab countries are
not able to get proper jobs and forced to do illegal liquor business and
caught by the Dubai Police and kept in Jails. .....
- Tallest statue of deity
unveiled
- by The Star
About 30,000 Hindu devotees and visitors came to witness the official
unveiling of the country's tallest Lord Murugan statue on Sunday and the
garlanding of the golden statue yesterday. .....
- Bangladesh witnessing ethnic
cleansing: Shahriar Kabir
- by Sujoy Dhar
Under the vice-like grip of fundamentalists, Muslim majority Bangladesh
is pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing to rid the country of Hindus,
says human rights activist and writer Shahriar Kabir. .....
- Fitzgerald: Whence Ayman
Al-Zawahiri?
- by Jihadwatch.org
Al-Zawahiri does not come from the lower depths, and neither "poverty"
nor any of those other off-the-shelf pseudo-explanations will do. He comes
from the highest stratum of Egyptian Arab society. He was trained as a
surgeon. He comes from a long line of physicians, professors, and others
who have made their mark. .....
- All Jihad All the Time
- by Dean Barnett
In The Wake Of The 9/11 Attacks, President Bush famously referred to Islam
as a "religion of peace." To display solidarity with this notion,
politicians of all rank in both America and Europe hurriedly made their
way to the nearest mosque to show that, in spite of the destruction of
the World Trade Center, they bore no animus to Islam. .....
- Wedded to the cause
- by Anuradha Nagaraj
Last weekend, 21-year-old Madhuri Patil tied the knot in Amlad Village,
in the heart of Maharashtra's tribal Nandurbar district. It was a quiet
two day affair. A simple haldi function at home, followed by a ''minimalistic
wedding''. And then the grand announcement. .....
- Status Conscious
- by Rakesh Rocky
There is little in this uninspiring crowded patch of makeshift tents that
can remind 72-year-old Hazra Begum of her home in Tank Targam village
in Doda district. A home she left 10 years ago when militants killed her
husband. .....
- Women and Hinduism in U.S.
Textbooks
- by David Freedholm
In a recent article on Sulekha, Sankrant Sanu examined Microsoft Encarta's
treatment of Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. He concluded that Encarta's
portrayal of Hinduism was decidedly skewed and negative in comparison
to the more even-handed and sophisticated treatments granted Islam and
Christianity. .....
- Purulia Maoist carnage
- by The Telegraph
A group of about 50 Maoists burnt alive a CPM district secretariat member
and his wife today in Purulia's Bandwan after caging up 30 policemen inside
their camp 2 km away by planting three landmines in front of it. .....
- Kashmir Earthquake: Unearthing
an Untold Story
- by Ronald Joseph Abraham
Around three months have passed since the earthquake in the disputed Kashmir
region that struck on October 8, 2005 at 9:20 am (IST). This was the first
and most severe of the earthquakes that have overwhelmed the Himalayan
belt in the recent past. This earthquake grabbed newspaper headlines all
over the world for more reasons than one. Initially, the sheer magnitude
of the earthquake, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, caught our attention.
.....
- Saffron School Texts For
California: A Matter Of Concern For Us
- by Nalini Taneja
The kinds of debates over history textbooks we are familiar with in India
are now raging in the California state of the US. The RSS linked organisations
in the US have been trying to get school textbooks for young children
saffronised in much the same way as they did in India. They of course
do not hold the government there, nor do they have state governments in
their control as they do in India. .....
- BJP lacks the 'moral quotient'
- by A Surya Prakash
The silver jubilee celebrations of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have
just concluded. The completion of 25 years is a significant milestone
for any political party. It is a moment to savour. It is also a moment
for introspection, more so for a party which, after achieving spectacular
heights in a short span of time, has fallen in the eyes of its own cadres
and well wishers. .....
- Harijans fill in for Brahmin
priests
- by Hindunet.com
Facing upper caste Brahmin priests' refusal to perform rituals for them
on auspicious occasions, Harijans in Kota have found a way out for themselves.
Some of them have trained themselves to perform Hindu rituals and are
working as priests for the community. Till a decade back, Harijans in
the Rajasthan district had to perform auspicious work without the services
of Brahmin priests. .....
- OK to kill 'Kafirs' for
no reason: Hamza
- by The Times of India
The murder of non-Muslims is justified "even if there is no reason'',
radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza instructed his followers, a British court
heard on Friday. In videotaped speeches played to the jury, the radical
cleric, on trial for inciting murder, also heaped praise on child suicide
bombers and gloated over the murder of Americans. .....
- Religious Groups Get Chunk
of AIDS Money
- by Rita Beamish
New groups are springing up to win a piece of President Bush's $15 billion
AIDS program, with traditional players and religious groups joining forces
to improve their chances in a competition that already has targeted nearly
a quarter of its grants for faith-based organizations. .....
- Clamour for Rahul exposes
the waning Sonia spell
- by Sandhya Jain
Rahul Gandhi's de facto anointment at the Hyderabad plenary session of
the Congress, under the watchful eyes of his mother and Congress President
Sonia Gandhi, sent political and media acolytes into the throes of a self-induced
hysteria and hyperbole. .....
- Who remembers ancient India's
scientific wealth?
- by Md. Vazeeruddin
Sessions of Indian Science Congress are held with monotonous regularity
at fixed periodicity. Eminent persons use them to think aloud on what
breakthroughs India needs to achieve. For instance, Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh has just told such a session that India should aim at a second Green
Revolution. .....
- Democrats in 2 Southern
States Push Bills on Bible Study
- by David D. Kirkpatrick
Democrats in Georgia and Alabama, borrowing an idea usually advanced by
conservative Republicans, are promoting Bible classes in the public schools.
Their Republican opponents are in turn denouncing them as "pharisees,"
a favorite term of liberals for politicians who exploit religion. .....
- Enlightened Design
- by Susan Hodara
In the four years that Terry and Bernard Nevas have lived in their Weston,
Conn., home, their lives, they will tell you, have never been better.
Their sleep is refreshing, their meals are nourishing, their work is productive.
Though their two children are grown, Ms. Nevas says she feels "a
deepening richness of experience within our family." As for their
30-year marriage, Mr. Nevas says, "We had a perfect marriage before
we moved into our vastu, and now it is even more perfect." .....
- Sri Guruji, a Drona for
global Hindutva
- by V Sundaram
Anation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things, which in truth are
but one, constitute this soul or spiritual principle. One lies in the
past, one in the present. One is the possession in common of a rich legacy
of memories; the other is the present-day consent, the desire to live
together, the will to perpetuate the value of the heritage that one has
received in an undivided form. .....
- The man who knew he was
Mahatma
- by The Pioneer
Mahatma Gandhi is one of those leaders who has left a permanent imprint
on world history. This biography, The Life And Death Of Mahatma Gandhi
by Robert Payne proves it beyond an iota of doubt. Lenin and Gandhi were
the only leaders in the 20th century who brought revolution in political
thinking. .....
- Caste, Jaathi, Varna etc
- by Nandakumar Chandran
Differentiation is an inherent part of human nature. Our knowledge of
things is based on our ability to differentiate between them. Even with
regards ourselves whose identity is based on all the things we've experienced
in life, we further seek to enhance our identity by constantly comparing
ourselves with those around us. A superior reading of ourselves in such
comparison often tends to heighten our self-perception - makes us feel
good. .....
- Democrats in 2 Southern
States Push Bills on Bible Study
- by David D. Kirkpatrick
Democrats in Georgia and Alabama, borrowing an idea usually advanced by
conservative Republicans, are promoting Bible classes in the public schools.
Their Republican opponents are in turn denouncing them as "pharisees,"
a favorite term of liberals for politicians who exploit religion. .....
- Beware, there's no morality
in midnight haste
- by Soli J. Sorabjee
The recent Supreme Court judgment pronouncing dissolution of the Bihar
legislative assembly to be unconstitutional has enunciated far-reaching
constitutional principles. .....
- Older civilisation than
Indus found
- by Bureau Report
Recent excavations in parts of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Pakistan have
made the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) believe that a developed
civilization possibly existed in the region in the 6th millennium BC,
assumed to be older than the Indus valley civilisation. .....
- Pak channels blacked out
to protest ban on Indian programmes
- by The Daily Excelsior
Cable operators in Sindh province blacked out Pakistani channels for the
third day today demanding lifting of a ban on 35 mainly Indian entertainment
channels in spite of raids by police to force them to resume operations
and threat of legal action. .....
- Muslim cleric arrested for
the murder of a young Catholic
- by Qaiser Felix
The cleric teaches at a madrassah where two years ago Javed Anjum was
tortured to death in order to convert him to Islam. Both the victim's
father and the family's lawyers are in danger. Muslim extremists pack
the court room during the trial. .....
- Nation's dharma above politics
- by Ram Madhav
The RSS is very difficult to understand; and very easy to misunderstand,"
said Prof Walter Anderson, American political scientist and the author
of the book, The Brotherhood in Saffron. What is the core idea of the
Sangh? What is Hindutva? Is it a vision of a theocratic state? Is it a
Fascist movement? Political pundits have been debating these issues ever
since the RSS became a formidable force in Indian public life. .....
- In defence of Hindu gurus
- by Francois Gautier
When Marxist leader Brinda Karat attacks Swami Ramdev, she is not attacking
Ramdev in particular, she is attacking Hinduism in general. .....
- Who are opposing the Hindu
initiative to end discrimination in California textbooks?
- by Vishal Agarwal
Many Hindu American parents have been dismayed by the negative and caricaturist
description of our heritage that our school children in the United States
are subjected to. A few Hindu organizations such as the Hindu Education
Foundation (HEF) and the Vedic Foundation (VF), as well as many individual
Hindus, have been working with the California Department of Education
(CDE) to end the derogatory and discriminatory portrayal of Hinduism in
textbooks. .....
- Nuke scientists battle PMO
on US deal
- by Seema Mustafa
The Prime Minister's Office and the department of atomic energy differ
on several aspects of the US-India civilian nuclear deal, with top nuclear
scientists determined not to allow the United States full say in the separation
of the country's military and civilian nuclear facilities. .....
- Mother and son
- by The Asian Age
The AICC plenary at Hyderabad did not throw up a new idea or a new thought.
It was merely an assertion that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was fully
in command of not just the party, but the government, and that her son
Rahul Gandhi had decided to postpone his formal entry into the party.
In his maiden speech at such a function, Mr Rahul Gandhi followed in his
mother's footsteps and read out his speech. .....
- Conversions: a source of
concern
- by Mariana Baabar
Let me confess at the outset: I'm travelling in interior Sindh to verify
specifically the reported widespread menace of abduction of Hindu girls,
their forcible conversion to Islam and betrothal to Muslim men. My first
port of call is the district court of Mirpurkhas. I promptly mingle among
the crowd waiting for the court's decision on a kidnap-and-conversion
case. Different voices narrate contradictory stories. I am befuddled for
the moment. .....
- Uniform personal law to
define nationhood
- by Sandhya Jain
In the current atmosphere of unsolicited appeasement of the Muslim community
by the ruling UPA, it seems futile to advocate a uniform civil code. Yet
the time is propitious as a small village in Greater NOIDA has stood up
for a motherless child. Its decision contrasts with the attitude of the
ulema who in September 2004 made a sick young woman leave the husband
she loved, and meets contemporary society's notions of justice and fair
play. .....
