by Mumbai Mirror
For the last five days, 100
members of the Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal, Lalbaug, have been busy
counting the money and other offerings made to Mumbai's favourite God,
Lalbaug Cha Raja. They are only half-way through yet. Santosh Andhale
and Pal Pillai take a look at this mammoth exercise, which is expected
to go on for another four days at least ......
by K J M Varma
Minority Hindu lawmakers in
Pakistan's parliament have alleged that men and women from their community
were being kidnapped in southern Sindh province in order to force them
out of the country. ......
by The Asian Age
Supporting a late KGB official's
claims contained in a book published recently, Janata Party president
Subramanian Swamy on Thursday alleged that not only did two Indian political
parties receive monies from the agency but there were at least 343 Indians
on its payroll. ......
by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld & Alyssa
A. Lappen
"A universal Islamic banking
system is a jihad worth pursuing to abolish this slavery [to the West],"
former Malaysian Prime Minister Mohamed Mahathir told a banking conference
in Kuala Lumpur in November 2002. The conference was convened following
the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. "to absorb the 11 September shock and
reinforce the stability of Islamic finance." ......
by The Pioneer
The chief of Chhattisgarh's
madrassas dropped a proposal to introduce a chapter on tennis ace Sania
Mirza in books taught in them after he was threatened by the religious
orthodoxy, a local newspaper claimed on Thursday. ......
by Srdja Trifkovic
Members of the West European
and North American elite class approach the war on terrorism in a schizophrenic
manner. Their world view rejects any possibility that religious faith
can be a prime motivating factor in human affairs. Having reduced religion,
literature and art to "narratives" and "metaphors"
which merely reflect prejudices based on the distribution of power, the
elite class treats the jihadist mindset as a pathology that should be
treated by treating causes external to Islam itself. ......
by Ramananda Sengupta
On August 15, 1947, what was
known as the Indian subcontinent was forever divided on religious lines
into India, East and West Pakistan. ......
by The Indian Express
Despite the brave denials,
the sullen nervousness of CPI leaders on television screens through Sunday
betrayed their instincts about the 'The Mitrokhin Archive II'. The book
makes fairly well-documented allegations that, from the '50s to the '80s,
left-leaning Congressmen and members of the CPI were paid stipends and
electorally funded by the KGB. Indian diplomats in Moscow were subjected
to honey traps, the book says, sections of the intelligentsia and media
were on Soviet secret service retainers. ......
by The Free Press Journal
Witness how the Comrades are
scurrying for cover. Lacking a sense of shame, the sellers of puerile
dialectical materialism are brazening out their well-known dependence
for all things material on their masters in Moscow. Hence the crude reaction
of the CPI leader A. B Bardhan who dubbed the well-documented `Mitrokhin
Archive II: The KGB and the World' a cheap spy thriller. ......
by Innovative Minds
At least 234,000 people have
been confirmed killed, thousands missing and millions displaced in several
Asian countries in tidal waves triggered by a 9.0 magnitude undersea earthquake
- the world's biggest in 40 years - which struck deep in the Indian Ocean
off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island on 26th December 2004.
......
by David Orr
It is meant to engender feelings
of peace and well-being, but yoga has become a battleground as India tries
to stop its ancient heritage from being exploited by the West. ......
by
"We have shown how much
we surpass the Indians in courage and wickedness, and how inferior to
them we are in wisdom. Our European nations have mutually destroyed themselves
in this land where we only go in search of money, while the first Greeks
travelled to the same land only to instruct themselves." - Voltaire,
Fragments historiques sur l'Inde (first published Geneva, 1773), Oeuvres
Completes (Paris : Hachette, 1893), Vol.29, p.386 ......
by Ekklesia
As relief finally arrives in
places devastated by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi, Christians
have been reminded that they should not use aid as a cynical tool for
winning vulnerable people over to their religious convictions. ......
by The Hindu
Sarah Joseph, writer and women's
rights activist, has alleged that the church and the Left movement cannot
escape blame in the marginalisation of Dalits and other deprived sections
of society. Prof. Joseph was speaking at a programme organised here on
Wednesday to remember the contributions of the late Bishop Paulose Mar
Paulose, a social activist. She said there were very few Dalit priests
or nuns in the Catholic Church in the State, and "as far as my knowledge
goes, none in the Thrissur Archdiocese. ......
by Kalinga Seneviratne
Ever since Indonesia's highest
Islamic authority, the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI), issued 11 fatwas
or edicts against liberal Islam, a fierce debate has begun raging in the
world's most populous Muslim nation on what constitutes an Islamic society.
......
by Swapan Dasgupta
The Communist Party of India
(CPI) was regularly bankrolled by the Soviet Union even prior to 1967.
Reports of Communists being sustained on 'Moscow Gold' were conventional
wisdom in political circles during the Cold War. Apart from the revelations
from the KGB documents in the second volume of the Mitrokin Archives,
the private papers of a Russian Ambassador to India also confirm that
the CPI directly approached the Soviet Embassy in New Delhi for funds
during the 1962 election. ......
by Tarun Vijay
It's nice to hear from scholars
about how Islam stands for peace, brotherhood and coexistence, and all
those terror machines are created either by wayward Muslim youth in anger
against the 'oppressors', which is against the real teachings of Islam,
or by western governments to give Islam a bad name. Okay, agreed. We too
would like to trust them and this theory. ......
by M.V.Kamath
When India became independent
after being partitioned on religious lines, it was part of Delhi's faith
that it would be secular in every possible way in sharp contrast to Pakistan's
approach that Muslims constitute a separate nation. There was no other
stand that India could possibly have taken. ......
by The New Indian Express
Damaging claims in a new book
that the KGB, the former Soviet secret service, bribed diplomats, select
media, Communist politicians and ministers during then Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi's tenure has been met with shock, denial and we-knew-it-all-along
reaction in the Indian establishment. ......
by newkerala.com
This is a good example of poor
women in Chhattisgarh coming together for self-help and emerging as a
formidable economic force. ......
by Sunil Shakdher
The emanations of the so-called
"historic" meeting between the Manmohan Singh government and
the Hurriyat Conference had no reference at all to the Kashmiri pandits.
No other ethnic group, except probably the Jews, have been as buffetted
by history as the Kashmiri pandit. Its saga of pain and misery began with
the advent of Muslim rule in Kashmir in the early 14th century. ......
by Ashok Malik
One year after he died, the
ghost of Vasili Mitrokhin, former senior archivist at the KGB, has returned
to haunt the core of the UPA-the Congress and the Communists. ......
by ABC Newsonline
Concern has been raised about
a New South Wales court's decision to reduce the jail sentences given
to five Sydney men, who committed a series of gang rapes five years ago.
......
by P. N. Benjamin
I AM provoked to write this
after reading several articles and statements of well known writers and
intellectuals and representatives of NGOs - call them, dalit warriors
- in The Hindu for some time now, criticising the Indian Government's
alleged attempts to thwart a debate on caste-based discrimination in the
coming United Nations World Conference against Racism in Durban. ......
by Deccan Herald
The Poor Christian Liberation
Movement (PCLM) has blamed Church Authorities of conspiring to include
them in the Scheduled Caste list, which it said is not acceptable to Dalit
Christians. ......
by Surjit S Bhalla
When asked about his government's
record on reforms, Mr Chidambaram, somewhat innocently but perhaps disingenuously,
asks, "If reforms have slowed down, how are we registering high growth?"
Interpretation: It is the great leadership of the Congress that has allowed
economic growth last year to be 6.9 per cent, and this year to be near
7 per cent; that has allowed the Sensex to be higher, and Indians to be
richer, and for India to have a woman tennis player in the top 40. One
might also add, according to Mr C's logic, that if my temperature is normal
today, I will stay well tomorrow. ......
by Vijay Simha
Rahul was unstoppable once
he got going. At times he was like an express train, moving from thought
to thought at great speed. He had good fun, laughing at many things, and
went over several aspects of his personality. He is free with his hands,
and likes to make gestures to stress a point while he speaks. Every time
he cracked a joke, he hitched up the sleeves of his white kurta. ......
by Human Rights and Commission of
Pakistan
Attacks on minorities: Non-Muslims
across the country are facing an accelerating threat of violence. HRCP
recently received a copy of a 'Fatwa' issued in Kumri, in the Umerkot
district of Sindh, warning Hindus that they must clear the area or face
death. The Hindu community was also warned acid would be thrown on their
women. Similar violence has been threatened against non-Muslim citizens
in the NWFP, where temples have been attacked in several instances. ......
by Deccan Chronicle
A psychic murdered his 65-year-old
mother and skinned her head at Maitrenagar in L B Nagar on Thursday. According
to police, Premnath, 32, who is in police custody, strangled Ramulamma
to death after a heated argument around 12.10 pm. "I did not kill
her, it was Jesus who skinned her for not accepting Christianity,"
Premnath is reported to have said later. ......
by Scotsman.com
A report due to be published
next week claims that extremist organisations and terror groups are operating
in universities across the UK. ......
by Scott Helman
Governor Mitt Romney raised
the prospect of wiretapping mosques and conducting surveillance of foreign
students in Massachusetts, as he issued a broad call yesterday for the
federal government to devote far more money and attention to domestic
intelligence gathering. ......
by Pramod Kumar Singh
A Bangladeshi accused of engineering
the 400 serial explosions that rocked Dhaka and other towns across Bangladesh
on August 17 has an Indian voter ID card, a house in West Bengal where
his name is included in the electoral roll and is an activist of the Communist
Party of India (Marxist). His family lives in Sonaberia town in Chittagong
district of Bangladesh, a hotbed of jihadi activity. ......
by Sandhya Jain
The recent Supreme Court judgment
discouraging additions to the list of religious minorities and the Central
Government's failure arrive at a consensus over the Women's Reservation
Bill provide an occasion to debate the meaning of caste and religion,
and their usage as instruments of reservation benefits. ......
by Organiser
Kalahandi is one of the most
poverty-stricken district of Orissa where almost all the people are living
below poverty line. Although, the State Government and various international
agencies like DFID, World Bank, etc, spend a lot of money here, the people
hanker after the basic amenities for life. Selling out newborn babies
is not new here. It provided a golden chance for the pastors, claiming
themselves as the embodiment of service. ......
by Mohit Kandhari
Although intelligence agencies
in India have been saying this for some time now, on Thursday when security
forces presented a 21-year-old surrendered militant of Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami
(HUJI), Mohd Amin Chopan, who travelled to India via Nepal, in front of
the media, it was out in the open. ......
by Sunny Singh
The past few weeks have raised
some of the usual questions about Islamic fundamentalism and, more importantly,
Islamist terrorism. After two rounds of London bombings, (not to mention
the Egypt bombs and the recent Imrana case and the Ayodhya temple attack
in India), one is left with more questions than answers. ......
by Penny Wark
Kathleen O'malley lives in
a neat bungalow with shiny furniture and lots of photographs of her husband,
her son and herself. She always looks very glamorous and today, her hair
and make-up considered and precise, her pronunciation received and modulated,
she looks like what she is, a Hertfordshire lady golfer and magistrate.
......
by Syed Zarir Hussain
Tribal separatists in Tripura
have been using women cadre as consorts and making pornographic films
to raise money to fund their terror campaigns.The police in Tripura said
surrendered leaders of the outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura
(NLFT) made the shocking revelations recently. ......
by Jonathan Petre
The Church of England is infected
with institutional racism and is still a place of "pain" for
many black Anglicans, according to its first black archbishop. ......
by Jonah Goldberg
How's this for a plot? There's
this international conspiracy to acquire nuclear weapons and kill millions
of Americans. The conspirators act with the aid of various governments,
some of which pretend to be our friends. Some of these governments are
ruled by medieval tyrants who keep many wives (and even more concubines),
rule by fiat, and crush, behead, hang or otherwise mutilate dissidents,
free-thinkers, Christians, Jews, homosexuals and other inconvenient souls.
......
by S. Chandrasekhar
Right from local offices to
multi-crore headquarters to TV channel, to newspaper, to hospitals, to
banks, to resorts and to a water theme park, the CPM is no longer a working
class party. It is equivalent to any other corporate body which has interests
in various areas and products. ......
by J P Yadav
When members of the Technology
Information Forecasting Assessment Council (TIFAC) asked Deolila Singh
(50) to adopt a new method of cultivating paddy, the traditional farmer
was apprehensive. ......
by T. V. R. Shenoy
The Opposition demands Union
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's head and stages walk-outs when this
is not on the menu. Priyaranjan Das Munshi reportedly concedes that the
finance minister is guilty of "impropriety" (well, a water resources
minister should never be short of crocodile tears). And waiting in the
wings someone is undoubtedly clearing his throat to utter that immortal
phrase about Caesar's wife being above suspicion in connection with Nalini
Chidambaram. ......
by The Pioneer
Some are rich, others are stinking
rich. Meerut Mayor and BSP Member of Parliament P Haji Shahid Akhlaq definitely
belongs to the second category. And, he is not ashamed to flaunt his wealth.
......
by Geoff Strong
The warning signs were apparent
to Chris Doig at least 10 years ago. A small group of the teacher's students
made it clear they despised Australia, regarding it as a degenerate culture
to be disrupted and ultimately swept aside. ......
by The Asian Age
Mr Yadav, a champion of social justice who frowns upon superstition, is
planning to consult astrologers on whether his stars are at the right
place. According to sources, he told some of his confidants that he has
come out of the bad spell of Saturn, but Mars is creating problem. In
fact, he is searching for powerful astrologers who would not only predict
his fortune correctly but will also guide him to weaken planetary influence
in the coming battle of the ballot.
......
by DDI News
The Bihar government is planning to sound a red corner alert all over
the country for the arrest of controversial RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin.
......
by The Hindu
Following a court ruling, the Hindu Munnani is making "environmental-friendly"
Vinayaka idols to be immersed in water bodies during this year's Vinayaka
Chaturti that falls on September 7.
......
by PN Khera
Even as the National Socialist Council of Nagaland led by Isak Swu and
T Muivah was negotiating with the Government delegation it was parlaying
drugs to fill its coffers.
......
by Los Angeles Daily Bulletin
Developers plan to break ground on the site of a new Hindu temple next
weekend, though details regarding the structure's spires are still being
worked out. City officials approved plans for the cultural center, dining
hall and other portions of the development in 2004, with the exception
of the mandir, or temple, which had initially called for 73-foot spires.
......
by Vivek Deshpande
A surrendered woman Naxalite from Gadchiroli, Pushpakala, has alleged
that she ran away from her dalam as she was subjected to sexual harassment
by the dalam's deputy commander.
by Daily Excelsior
Various functions were organised by Kashmiri Pandits at different places
here today in connection with observance of 16th Martyrs' Day. The Day
is also observed as Balidan Divas.
......
by Steven Stalinsky
Tracking the Arab press - not what they are saying to the West, but what
they are whispering to each other. We believe you will be sickened. But
you will certainly better understand the war on terror and what we are
up against ......
by Rediff on Net
Richard Zimler's novel, Guardian of the Dawn, documents the little-known
Portuguese Inquisition in India, in 16th century Goa. He points out that,
apart from their laws and religion, the Portuguese also imported and enforced
their infamous methods of interrogation to subdue troublemakers.
......
by Meeta Chaitanya
As people and organisations come forward to contribute heartily to the
rescue and rehabilitation efforts in Louisiana, Sewa International, a
global Indian volunteer organisation is amongst the first to spearhead
the Indian endeavour in the US in this regard.
......
by Yahoo News
Prime Minister Tony Blair has said that the world had been reluctant to
recognise the insurgency in Indian-ruled Kashmir as terrorism.
......
by S Gurumurthy
Telling children to yell 'A' for 'apple', 'B' for 'biscuit', 'C' for 'chocolate',
and 'D' for 'daddy' is secular, and amounts to secular education. This
spreads harmony, peace and understanding between communities and religions.
But asking them to say 'A' for 'Arjuna', 'B' for 'Bhima', 'C' for 'Chola',
and 'D' for 'Damayanti' is unsecular, divisive education.
......
by World News
Missionary Jim Hogrefe emails this: "As one who believes that God
is all-powerful, all-knowing, and always good, events like Hurricane Katrina
force me to pause. All of the evidence - and the media's reporting of
extensive human suffering - suggest that this was a catastrophe, a great
tragedy. ......
by G.S. Radhakrishna
One is glamorous, cocky, looks and sounds good on TV and is world no.
42 in her sport. The other, with average looks and excelling in a non-spectator
sport, is world no. 6. The first, tennis ace Sania Mirza, commands the
second-highest sponsorship fees in India after Sachin Tendulkar and is
on record that she doesn't need government aid any more.
......
by Daily Excelsior
Smashing an ISI base in Punjab, Delhi police has arrested an alleged agent
of the Pakistani Intelligence Agency who had been tasked to provide shelter
to other operatives. ......
by The Hindu Forum of Britain
Hindu leaders led by the Hindu Forum of Britain and other organisations
in the UK were left fuming after the Home Affairs Select Committee's decision
to only accept oral evidence from the Muslim community on 13th September
in its investigation into the aftermath of the recent terrorist attacks
in London. ......
by Daniel Pipes
A sustained assault on Arab Christians has led to their fleeing the birthplace
of Christianity. The likely result will be reduced to empty church buildings
and a congregation-less hierarchy with no flock
......
by Dr. Anis Shorrosh
When we immigrated from Jerusalem, Jordan in January, 1967, little did
I imagine that Islam would become center-stage in world news. As my sincere
interest in the growth of Islam in America intensified, I began to discuss,
dialogue, and then debate Muslim leaders throughout the world from an
Arab Christian's view of Islam. So far, I have had the privilege of participating
in over 20 debates and discussions on every continent plus T.V. and radio.
Islam Revealed was released in 1988 and is now in its 8th printing.
......
by David E. Sanger
President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan said yesterday that he believed
that a Pakistani nuclear expert who ran the world's largest proliferation
ring exported "probably a dozen" centrifuges to North Korea
to produce nuclear weapons fuel. He added, however, that after two years
of interrogations there was still no evidence about whether the expert
also gave North Korea a Chinese-origin design to build a nuclear weapon.
......
by Brendan Nicholson, Farrah Tomazin
and Michael Gawenda
A video claiming that Melbourne will be the target of an al-Qaeda attack
reinforced the need for tough terrorism laws, according to Prime Minister
John Howard. ......
by Andrew G. Bostom
We Americans, with our singular heritage of religious freedom, endeavor
to think the best of all faiths. But the past four years - since Sept.
11 - have challenged our accustomed ecumenism.
......
by The New York Times
Al-Qaida leaders in hiding and foot-soldiers preparing for terrorist attacks
are turning to outlawed Pakistani extremist groups for spiritual and military
training, shelter and logistical support, say U.S. officials who see them
as an emerging threat. ......
by S. Chandrasekhar
K. Karunakaran, one of the stalwarts of the Congress Party started his
public life in the 1930s, selling salt made by the satyagrahis. A close
aide of Indira Gandhi, he stood with her during the days when she was
out of power. A kingmaker, he is believed to have made Rao, prime minister.
Now in a twist of fate, he is out of the Sonia-led Congress and is out
to defeat it by allying with the CPM.
......
by Supriya Dravid
In the opening lines of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, the eponymous
hero wonders whether he would turn out to be the hero of his own life.
It is a question every individual must ask himself. Sam Singh, 65, did.
After flipping through the script of his life, he reinvented it. He threw
the lid on a cushy suburban existence in the United States and moved home
to Bulandshahar after 35 years. "It was time for my second act,"
says Singh. ......
by Zia Haq
Four years ago on this day, New York's twin towers fell to a terrorist
attack. The event sparked off two wars - in Afghanistan and in Iraq -
and global upheaval. ......
by Sandhya Jain
Dr. Manmohan Singh's Government has done well to recognize aggressive
evangelical activities by missionaries as the primary cause behind communal
unrest in the country, particularly in sensitive states like Gujarat and
Rajasthan. Despite opposition from prominent Christian activists, the
UPA Government pressed ahead with the agenda paper for the recent meeting
of the National Integration Council on 31 August 2005.
......
by
Came across this article in a local publication (which publishes religious
and spiritual articles) about plans going on in building a church in Tirumala
(up in Tirumala and not Tirupati). In fact the article said already there
are 7 churches in Tirupati. The CM of AP Mr. Y. Samuel Rajashekar Reddy
(who converted to Christianity ) is providing all the support for the
same from the government, which manages the whole temple through T.T.D
(the trust which manages all the temples at Tirumala and Tirupati).
......
by Zenit.org
China has turned down a Vatican invitation to four Chinese bishops to
be members of the Synod on the Eucharist this October, contending the
move showed no respect. ......
by R.S. Narayananswami
Serious doubts are being raised as to whether there is a government in
the country to protect the interest of the citizens or not. A Canadian
missionary flush with funds-defying all court orders and avoiding the
police dragnet-is not only staying in the country but also freely converting
the poor Hindus to Christianity. That man in question, Donald R. Watts,
Chairman, South Asia Division of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) mission,
first came to India in May 1997 on a "business visa".
......
by Gautam Siddharth
Claude Arpi, French author and journalist living in India for the past
33 years, is a well-known name on the editorial pages of The Pioneer -
and the reasons are not far to seek. He writes with a vision and a deep
sense of history. His articles reveal the rigours of research and a clarity
of perception not ordinarily discernible in the writings on the same subjects
by most Indian commentators and journalists.
......
by Jagdamba Mall
Mutual understanding, cordial relations, positive interaction and symbiosis
should be established and enhanced for mutual benefit of the societies.
If RSS and VHP are intolerant, how does a microscopic Christian community
(2% of total population of the country) with the properties worth billions
and billions of rupees could live peacefully in UP, Bihar, Delhi, Rajasthan,
Haryana, Punjab and other parts of the country.
......
by Frederick Fernandez and Khaw Chia
Hui
Thousands thronged a humble-looking temple here after a five-metre long
King Cobra, which appears to be albino and had coiled itself around the
Amman deity at its main altar since Monday, became the talk of the town.
......
by Liam Houlihan
As fury erupted over fresh September 11 conspiracy claims by radical cleric
Sheik Omran, the sheik's diehard supporters compared their critics with
Nazis. ......
by Jerry Markon
An American student was charged yesterday in an al Qaeda plot to kill
President Bush, with prosecutors alleging that Ahmed Omar Abu Ali and
his confederates planned to use multiple snipers to shoot Bush or to blow
him up in a suicide bombing.
......
by
"Two of our full-time evangelists were looking for accommodation
for the night," reports German missions agency "Stimme der Zigeuner"
(Voice of the Gypsies). "When they eventually found a place to stay
in Khamman, Andra Pradesh State, the house owner refused to let them in
because they were Christians. The housewife bravely decided to let them
in. The unfriendly owner, a rich landowner, suffered from diabetes, and
had open wounds on his feet. His doctors had prescribed various medicines
to prepare him for an amputation the following week.
......
by Radha Rajan
Hallelujah, Allah be praised, the unthinkable has finally happened. The
Union Home Ministry is finally showing some signs of waking up from the
sleep of the dead; it has acknowledged at long last that religious conversions
of Hindus - Vanvasis, Adivasis, Brahmins, caste Hindus, Harijans and the
small Sikh and Jain communities - by rabid evangelizing churches of all
denominations is a major cause of social unrest and communal disharmony.
......
by Abul Taher
Advisers appointed by Tony Blair after the London bombings are proposing
to scrap the Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day because it is regarded as offensive
to Muslims. ......
by David Selbourne
The scale and speed of the Islamic advance have exacted a high price from
Muslims themselves in the past decades. Their handicaps have mounted as
a consequence of being seen as an actual or potential danger. After the
9/11 attacks, Muslims almost everywhere in the western world, Britain
included, reported increasing hostility and discrimination. However, their
negative "image", about which Muslims are rightly anxious, has
largely been of their own creation.
......
by David Kostinchuk
The rape of India is done in a model similar to a military model used
to invade, occupy, control, or subjugate a population of a given country.
Intelligence is considered essential to invading a country; language,
religion, culture, etc. are some of the variables considered. Division
among the given population is considered essential to gain political control
once inside the country. ......
by Peggy Fletcher Stack
The tower on a Hindu temple is designed to look like a mountain, reaching
higher and higher toward the gods. It is covered with figures divine and
devilish, meant to invoke enlightenment while warding off evil spirits.
Perched on the peak of the tower installed this week on top of the Sri
Ganesha Hindu Temple in South Jordan is a lotus, symbolizing serenity.
But the process of building the tower would hardly be called serene.
......
by Bruce Thornton
Four years after 9/11 the postmortem of that disaster continues to focus
on the institutional failures of our intelligence agencies and government
bureaucracies. Yet the larger intellectual and cultural corruption that
in part made possible many of those misjudgments and mistakes does not
receive the public attention it deserves.
......
by M.V. Kamath
In 1958 an American journalist, Harold Isaacs, wrote a book on India.
It was called Scratches On Our Minds: American Images of India and China.
The book was written on behalf of the Centre for International Studies
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a prestigious institution.
It was a study of how Americans perceived India and China between the
years 1953 and 1957. ......
by The Times of India
He waded through chest-high flood waters in Chembur, fished out bodies
from the landslide at Saki Naka and sprayed insecticide on carcasses at
the Deonar dumping grounds.
......
by Bella Jaisinghani
You get an inkling of what is to come when you leave sultry Malad behind
and head towards Aksa Beach. The narrow ribbon roads remind you of the
ones that lead to Goa, another verdant haven. Tall trees form a thick
canopy above, which means your cellphone finds it difficult to pick up
a signal. ......
by Rajeev P I
On Thursday night, five armed men boarded a Tamil Nadu State Road Transport
Corporation bus at Ernakulam, hijacked it at gunpoint and burnt it, demanding
the release of Abdul Nasser Madani, Islamic extremist and a key accused
in the Coimbatore blasts.
......
by The Indian Express
In fact, the Congress has already devised a post-poll strategy to woo
Paswan. Buta Singh will be replaced as Governor by Jaffer Sharief, who
lost his parliamentary seat from Karnataka in the last election. That
way the Congress can meet halfway Paswan's proposal that only a Muslim
should be made Chief Minister.
......
by Jaideep Mazumdar
Are the Communists in India changing colour? The West Bengal CM explains
why there is no dichotomy between his position and his party's.
......
by John Mary
Way back in 1986, T.S.Viswan, an agriculture officer, sowed the seeds
of a revolution at the Kanjikuzhy panchayat in Kerala's coastal Alappuzha
district. It was about cultivating organic vegetables -a revolution of
the garden variety, you could say, but it transformed many lives. Till
then, the means of livelihood in the region included coir-weaving, toddy-tapping,
fishing and plucking coconuts.
......
by Sandeep Unnithan
Circa 2500 B.C. "Land Ahoy!" the lookout screamed even as Eabani
the mariner rubbed the sleep from his eyes to join in the exultation onboard.
In the distance through the boat's black woollen sail loomed the mountains
of Meluhha. Suddenly, every privation of the 10-day voyage from Magan-seawater
gushing incessantly, blistering heat and relentless thirst-seemed worth
it. ......
by Kimi Dangor
Manisha Varma exposed what many had suspected for long. In June this year,
the district collector of Solapur, Maharashtra, noticed that labour attendance
at the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) works had touched an unusually
high figure of one lakh. But according to her books, the projects she
had approved of, the number of works being carried out-usually construction
on canals, tanks, bunds and roads-and the number of workers on sites just
didn't tally. ......
by P.N. Benjamin
In a letter to the Indian Prime Minister on the eve of the recently held
National Integration Council meeting in New Delhi, John Dayal, member
of National Minorities Commission (NCM) and chairman of the All India
Christian Council (AICC) has accused the "obscurantist and fundamentalist"
Hindu political organisations of raping nuns, murdering priests, attacking
churches and harassing believers".
......
by Alyssa A. Lappen
It is only fitting that Andrew G. Bostom's massive collection, The Legacy
of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims, appears in time
for the fourth anniversary September 11, 2001, for no other collection
since then has so well explained the theology and philosophy behind those
Islamic attacks on America.
......
by Balla Jaisinghani with Sharmila
Ganesan and Nilanjana Sengupta
In a country that was always a revolution short, the rise of a youthful
population may have fooled theorists into believing that a dramatic cultural
revolution will lay waste the foundations of all things Unscientific.
But the sweep of modernity has only touched the cotton fabrics of warm
Indian clothes. The souls inside are still crying out for frequent cosmic
intervention Model question papers are left for the deity to bless.
......
by V Sundaram
H G Rickover in an article called The World of the Uneducated, wrote hilariously
in 1959: 'The truly educated man can admit his mistakes without
feeling that his personal worth has been diminished; the uneducated man
clings to his mistakes with all the more determination when others point
them out. ......
by V Sundaram
H G Rickover in an article called The
World of the Uneducated, wrote hilariously in 1959: 'The truly educated
man can admit his mistakes without feeling that his personal worth has been
diminished; the uneducated man clings to his mistakes with all the more
determination when others point them out. ......
by V Sundaram
H G Rickover in an article called The
World of the Uneducated, wrote hilariously in 1959: 'The truly educated
man can admit his mistakes without feeling that his personal worth has been
diminished; the uneducated man clings to his mistakes with all the more
determination when others point them out. ......
by V Sundaram
H G Rickover in an article called
The World of the Uneducated, wrote hilariously in 1959: 'The truly educated
man can admit his mistakes without feeling that his personal worth has
been diminished; the uneducated man clings to his mistakes with all the
more determination when others point them out. ......
by V Sundaram
H G Rickover in an article called
The World of the Uneducated, wrote hilariously in 1959: 'The truly educated
man can admit his mistakes without feeling that his personal worth has
been diminished; the uneducated man clings to his mistakes with all the
more determination when others point them out. ......
H G Rickover in an article called The
World of the Uneducated, wrote hilariously in 1959: 'The truly educated man
can admit his mistakes without feeling that his personal worth has been diminished;
the uneducated man clings to his mistakes with all the more determination
when others point them out. ......
A Muslim preacher has arrived in his home
country Morocco after being arrested overnight in Turin under Italy's newly
adopted counterterrorism law, accused of extremism, the Interior Ministry
announced yesterday. ......
The Jewish High Holidays this year fall
in early October, and that's when a massacre was planned against two Los Angeles
synagogues, as well as other targets, according to an indictment just handed
down against four young Muslim men. ......
Fearing threat to their life from the
devastating Hurricane Katrina, priests Thangam Bhattar and Srinivas Lanka
loaded their cars with whatever they could lay their hands on and left the
Sri Venkata Satyanarayana Temple in New Orleans at 10.30 am on Sunday morning.
......
Special rights for specific groups in
the form of reservations and quotas are justified. These help overcome historical
disadvantages and assist powerless groups to join the mainstream. The Dalits
are a case in point. However, exempting religious communities from progressive
legislation has the exact opposite results ......
For years, as the dragon north of the
Himalayas radiated fiery economic might, the tiger to the south whimpered
in awe. China outstripped India on almost every parameter. ......
A significant portion of the fund that
the Islamic organisations in Bangladesh receive every year from foreign Islamic
bodies is being used for the cause of Jihad, said the police after having
carried out an investigation. ......
Former human resource minister Murli Manohar
Joshi on Sunday assailed the move to distort the Indian history by the NCERT
and demanded that school syllabus, which described Lord Ram and Lord Krishna
as 'imaginary figures,' should be scraped immediately. ......
When CPM veteran Jyoti Basu said yesterday
that there was ''absolutely nothing unfair'' and ''all land issues had been
sorted out'' in Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's investment plans
for Indonesia's Salim Group in West Bengal, it was not without reason. ......
Let me begin with a question. Why have
Muslims in India remained an underclass despite ''secular'' governments having
ruled for most of our years of Independence? It is a question over which I
have pondered long and deep because in the early years of my career as a journalist
I had the misfortune of covering several horrific Hindu-Muslim riots. ......
Inayat Bunglawala, the 36 year old media
spokesman of the Muslim Council of Britain which claims to speak for "moderate
Muslims" is the son of multi-million pound convicted drug smuggler. ......
A friend recently offered a profound insight,
viz., the Rand Corporation headquarters at Santa Monica, visible on its website,
is shaped like the "Jesus fish," the secret sign by which Early Christians
recognised each other and under which they organised to overthrow the Roman
Empire. ......
Efforts were under way on Sunday to calm
the situation in this Christian village east of Ramallah after an attack by
hundreds of Muslim men from nearby villages left many houses and vehicles
torched. ......
When former US Under Secretary of Defense
Jed Babben asked on Fox News last week the key question: "Where are the terrorists
and where does the war of terror stand," he was only seeking the official
answer from the Bush Administration. But Babben, and all others, know the
answer. It is not even kept a secret by the terrorists themselves. ......
The face of global terrorism is changing
so rapidly and dramatically that counter-terrorism experts and security agencies
are finding it almost impossible to keep track of the growth and spread of
terrorist networks. Today's jihadi is home-grown, autonomous, computer-savvy
and is willing to give up the comforts of middle-class home to become a suicide
bomber. ......
Like a blast from the past, a rhythmic
chanting of Vedic mantras greets anybody entering the Navi Mandal Veda Vidya
Mandir in the heart of Ujjain. Inside, 80 boys, between 8 and 18, in white
dhoti and kurta with tricolour angavastrams recite the shlokas in unison.
Their heads are shaved, save for a tuft of hair tied in a knot at the back.
There are no desks and chairs; pupils sit on the floor to study. ......
Muslim missionaries from the Middle East,
Pakistan, Malaysia and South Africa are being questioned in Argentina in its
terrorism probe, according to a media report. ......
They are old predators with new vigour.
Often bearded, invariably in flowing robes and expensive turbans. The rich,
middle-aged Arabs increasingly stalk the deprived streets of Hyderabad like
medieval monarchs would stalk their harems in days that we wrongly think are
history. These Viagra enabled Arabs are perpetrating a blatant crime under
the veneer of nikaah, the Islamic rules of marriage. ......
As usual, Mr CP Bhambhari has gone off
the tangent in his article, "RSS is the only reality" (August 25). The
sum and substance of his 1,000-word piece is: Sangh Parivar is anti-Muslim.
How and why, he does not care to elucidate. He is oblivious to the fact
that the hallmarks of Hindu leadership - be it the Congress, the BJP
or any other regional outfit - are self-aggrandisement and hypocrisy.
Therefore, Hindu leaders have proved to be the greatest enemy of the
Hindus and Hindu ethos. ......
Accusing LJP president Ramvilas Paswan
of promoting communalism by advocating a muslim Chief Minister in Bihar, the
VHP today asked the Centre to initiate legal action against the Union Minister.
......
Although 13 years have passed since the
destruction of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, the desecration still reverberates
in both Muslim and secular Indian minds. ......
The phenomenon of modern Islamic terrorism
has forged an inchoate strategic alliance between the Israeli and Indian governments,
while heightening the awareness of a common threat-the institution of jihad-among
the civilian populations of these nations. ......
Religious conversions are emerging as
major cause of concern for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government.
The agenda paper prepared by the Government for the National Integration Council
(NIC) meet on Wednesday attributes conversions as the one of the major cause
for disturbing the communal situation in the country. ......
The Chairman of the National Commission
for Minorities, Tarlochan Singh, on Saturday called upon the minority communities
to discard the habit of criticising democratically elected governments with
constant complaints of "perceived discrimination.'' He said the fear psychosis
created among the minorities would harm them in the long run. ......
The western media are fed by large global
news agencies whose agendas transcend national loyalties to espouse multinational
concerns. And dead Hindus and Moslems in India, or dead Africans in Africa
are only newsworthy if the spin will promote the foreign policies of western
governments. India is a land of complex diversities - once a leader in the
non-aligned movement, but today a follower in the globalization race. ......
Born and brought up in Holland, 40-year-old
Chitra Gayadin plans to visit India some day. Gayadin's Bhojpuri poems "Paira
(The Straw Bed)" and "Tahare Bare Main Sochat Rahali (I Have Been Thinking
Of You)," written in Roman script, are a rage among the 1.5-lakh community
of second/third generation Dutch Hindustanis who have yet to overcome the
trauma of migration from eastern UP their ancestors faced nearly 132 years
ago. ......
Veiled in black cloaks, these women made
headlines for targeting women who didn't wear veils. Now claiming that they
were leading a campaign to "check moral decline", the Valley's hardline women's
organisation, Dukhtaran-i-Millat, announced today that it had raided what
they called brothels and even cybercafes in Srinagar. ......
Sewa International, a charitable organization,
expresses deep anguish and sorrow at the loss and disruption of life and the
property damage caused by hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi and
Alabama. This is truly "one of the worst natural disaster in our nation's
history" as stated by President Bush. ......
Videos show men training with explosives,
Sweden threatened with 'suffering in the name of Allah'; former ambassador
to Sweden says potential for terror infrastucture exists Yaakov Lappin ......
At least 17 men convicted or linked to
terrorism obtained US citizenship or permanent residency by marrying American
women in the past 15 years, according to a report on Tuesday that urged better
enforcement of immigration laws. ......
Religious Islamic leaders who run madarassas
in Pakistan have categorically rejected the federal government's ordinance
which makes it mandatory for all religious schools to get registered under
the Societies Registration Act 1860, saying that the seminaries would "continue
to teach the principles of jihad as inscribed in the Holy Quran". ......
Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) expresses
heartfelt sympathy for the victims of hurricane Katrina, one of the worst
natural disasters in the USA. HSS urges all Hindus in America to rise to the
occasion by addressing needs of the people suffered by hurricane Katrina.
......
I have long maintained that today's global
jihad calls for a reconfiguration of American alliances. The sham friendships
the United States maintains with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and other jihad-exporting
states may be motivated by political expediency - and, in the case of Saudi
Arabia, economic necessity - but no one can maintain that in view of America's
long-term strategic and security interests that in the long run they represent
sound foreign policy. ......
Let me begin with a question. Why have
Muslims in India remained an underclass despite ''secular'' governments having
ruled for most of our years of Independence? It is a question over which I
have pondered long and deep because in the early years of my career as a journalist
I had the misfortune of covering several horrific Hindu-Muslim riots. ......
They are old predators with new vigour.
Often bearded, invariably in flowing robes and expensive turbans. The rich,
middle-aged Arabs increasingly stalk the deprived streets of Hyderabad like
medieval monarchs would stalk their harems in days that we wrongly think are
history. These Viagra enabled Arabs are perpetrating a blatant crime under
the veneer of nikaah, the Islamic rules of marriage. ......
August 15 should be a day of celebration.
But as the years passed and the memory of 1947 grew dim, anxiety replaced
the surge of confidence that independence engendered in me when I was a child
of eight. In the last few years, anxiety has given way to despair. ......
He's battled suspicion, illiteracy, bureaucratic
apathy and paucity of funds. His effort has borne fruit.
This heartwarming story comes from the
northeastern outskirts of Calcutta, a place called Kadapara (the mohalla of
muck). Dalits from Bihar settled in these parts in pre-Independence days.
They worked as sweepers for the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, living the
life they always lived. The dead weight of 'tradition' was upon them till
Kalyanbrata Das came to the area. ......
