யூத தெய்வம் யாஹ்வே (இதுவே இயேசு என்ற யூத தெய்வமாகவும் பிறந்தது என்று கூறுகிறார்கள்) பூமியை நகராமல் அடித்தளமாக அமைத்ததாம். அதன் பிறகு வானத்தை கட்டியதாம்.
1:10 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:
இது போன்ற வசனங்கள் ஏராளமாக பைபிள் என்ற யூத மத புத்தகத்தில் இருக்கின்றன.
இன்னும் பரவலாக பைபிளை நம்புபவர்கள் பூமி தட்டை, பூமி சூரியனை சுற்றி வரவில்லை. சூரியன் தான் பூமியை சுற்றி வருகிறது என்று நம்புகிறார்கள்.
தி வியூ என்ற அமெரிக்க தொலைகாட்சி நிகழ்ச்சியில் ஒருவர் இதனைத்தான் கூறினார்.
அதனை யூ டியூபிலும் பார்க்கலாம்.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
ஒவ்வொரு வருடமும் 30 லட்சம் முஸ்லீம் சிறுமிகளின் பெண்குறிகள் அறுக்கப்படுகின்றன
ஒவ்வொரு வருடமும் 30 லட்சம் முஸ்லீம் சிறுமிகளின் பெண்குறிகள் அறுக்கப்படுகின்றன.
சிறுபான்மை ஆண்களின் உரிமைகளை பாதுகாக்கும் அறிவுஜீவிகள் மிகவும் சந்தோஷமடைந்ததாக தெரியவருகிறது.
Female genital mutilation: A gruesome torture
Published Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Every year, three million girls and women undergo female genital mutilation (FGM). It is torture, and yet it is tolerated and excused in many places as just another example of cultural diversity.
While the details are gruesome, it is necessary to have some specifics. In Somalia, 90 to 98 percent of women have their genitals cut. Eighty percent of those cases are Type III, meaning that part or all of the external genitalia is excised, and the vaginal opening is stitched up to the size of a matchstick. In Somalia, this procedure is usually performed on girls aged six to seven. In Ethiopia, 80 percent of girls undergo FGM, ranging from the removal of various parts of the female genitalia to genital piercing.
FGM has been reported in 28 African countries, several countries in Asia and the Middle East, and some ethnic groups in Central and South America. And according to the World Health Organization, there are “increasing numbers” of girls now living in North America and Western Europe who have already undergone FGM or are at risk of suffering through the practice. Today, between 100 and 140 million girls and women worldwide are thought to have had their genitals cut. The risks and consequences do not fade when procedure itself ends; the medical dangers are numerous. Blood is shared, risking HIV infection, cutting instruments are sometimes unsanitary, and bodily functions such as urinating and childbirth often become a source of excruciating pain.
Justifications for FGM range from religious obligation to familial honor to men’s sexual pleasure to the aesthetic appearance of FGM scars. FGM “ensures” virginity, and virginity “ensures” the absence of “loose morals,” and the absence of loose morals guarantees a high bride-price, in addition to the family’s honor. Indeed, the practice is often buried deep in a community’s social structure.
A CARE International study carried out in Somalia in October 1999 found that forty percent of women interviewed felt there was nothing bad about the practice, and only eleven percent did not want their daughters to undergo FGM. The practice also carries significant ethnic and political implications. British colonial legislation against FGM in Kenya was a serious source of resentment, and attempts to eradicate the practice by some African governments who do not have the support of FGM-practicing ethnic groups have met stiff resistance.
We have now witnessed about three decades of intensified opposition to the practice by non-governmental organizations and some governments. FGM has declined in frequency or been made safer in some areas, and there is a growing number of educational initiatives to stop it altogether. Yet governmental legislation has translated poorly into de facto enforcement. At times, the legal prohibition of FGM has forced the practice underground and into more unsanitary conditions. While the World Health Organization projects a greater decrease in the prevalence of FGM within a generation, the pace of decline has been much too slow.
What can we do? First, we can be aware of the massive suffering and the unconditional need for it to stop. Second, we can lend support to the non-governmental organizations who are visiting villages, educating parents, providing medical care, and seeking to protect girls and women on the ground. Third, we should push international organizations to put a much greater spotlight on the matter. Fourth, we should insist that our own government highlight the issue by placing conditions on funding to countries in which the practice is widespread.
The prevention of FGM is one of the most basic women’s rights issues in the world, and it is a defining example of women’s inability to exercise personal autonomy. We have been confronted time and again with the false dichotomy between “forcing our values upon others” and “being pragmatic.” Taking local customs and considerations into account does not mean relinquishing the moral authority to call the deliberate mutilation of women’s bodies wrong — regardless of culture, religion, or nationality. It means pursuing the eradication of FGM now.
Asha Rose Migiro, the deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, announced at the current session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women that U.N. agencies had made a “collective commitment to stop the archaic practice of female genital mutilation.” It is not only archaic; it is torture. Call it what it is, and we will be closer to eliminating this immediate and fundamental destroyer of women’s equality.
Rachel Bayefsky is a junior in Morse College. Her column runs on alternate Tuesdays.
சிறுபான்மை ஆண்களின் உரிமைகளை பாதுகாக்கும் அறிவுஜீவிகள் மிகவும் சந்தோஷமடைந்ததாக தெரியவருகிறது.
Female genital mutilation: A gruesome torture
Published Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Every year, three million girls and women undergo female genital mutilation (FGM). It is torture, and yet it is tolerated and excused in many places as just another example of cultural diversity.
While the details are gruesome, it is necessary to have some specifics. In Somalia, 90 to 98 percent of women have their genitals cut. Eighty percent of those cases are Type III, meaning that part or all of the external genitalia is excised, and the vaginal opening is stitched up to the size of a matchstick. In Somalia, this procedure is usually performed on girls aged six to seven. In Ethiopia, 80 percent of girls undergo FGM, ranging from the removal of various parts of the female genitalia to genital piercing.
FGM has been reported in 28 African countries, several countries in Asia and the Middle East, and some ethnic groups in Central and South America. And according to the World Health Organization, there are “increasing numbers” of girls now living in North America and Western Europe who have already undergone FGM or are at risk of suffering through the practice. Today, between 100 and 140 million girls and women worldwide are thought to have had their genitals cut. The risks and consequences do not fade when procedure itself ends; the medical dangers are numerous. Blood is shared, risking HIV infection, cutting instruments are sometimes unsanitary, and bodily functions such as urinating and childbirth often become a source of excruciating pain.
Justifications for FGM range from religious obligation to familial honor to men’s sexual pleasure to the aesthetic appearance of FGM scars. FGM “ensures” virginity, and virginity “ensures” the absence of “loose morals,” and the absence of loose morals guarantees a high bride-price, in addition to the family’s honor. Indeed, the practice is often buried deep in a community’s social structure.
A CARE International study carried out in Somalia in October 1999 found that forty percent of women interviewed felt there was nothing bad about the practice, and only eleven percent did not want their daughters to undergo FGM. The practice also carries significant ethnic and political implications. British colonial legislation against FGM in Kenya was a serious source of resentment, and attempts to eradicate the practice by some African governments who do not have the support of FGM-practicing ethnic groups have met stiff resistance.
We have now witnessed about three decades of intensified opposition to the practice by non-governmental organizations and some governments. FGM has declined in frequency or been made safer in some areas, and there is a growing number of educational initiatives to stop it altogether. Yet governmental legislation has translated poorly into de facto enforcement. At times, the legal prohibition of FGM has forced the practice underground and into more unsanitary conditions. While the World Health Organization projects a greater decrease in the prevalence of FGM within a generation, the pace of decline has been much too slow.
What can we do? First, we can be aware of the massive suffering and the unconditional need for it to stop. Second, we can lend support to the non-governmental organizations who are visiting villages, educating parents, providing medical care, and seeking to protect girls and women on the ground. Third, we should push international organizations to put a much greater spotlight on the matter. Fourth, we should insist that our own government highlight the issue by placing conditions on funding to countries in which the practice is widespread.
The prevention of FGM is one of the most basic women’s rights issues in the world, and it is a defining example of women’s inability to exercise personal autonomy. We have been confronted time and again with the false dichotomy between “forcing our values upon others” and “being pragmatic.” Taking local customs and considerations into account does not mean relinquishing the moral authority to call the deliberate mutilation of women’s bodies wrong — regardless of culture, religion, or nationality. It means pursuing the eradication of FGM now.
Asha Rose Migiro, the deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, announced at the current session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women that U.N. agencies had made a “collective commitment to stop the archaic practice of female genital mutilation.” It is not only archaic; it is torture. Call it what it is, and we will be closer to eliminating this immediate and fundamental destroyer of women’s equality.
Rachel Bayefsky is a junior in Morse College. Her column runs on alternate Tuesdays.
இகிபோ: கன்னி கழியாத 144000 ஆண்களே சொர்க்கத்துக்கு போவார்கள்
இயேசு ரட்சிக்கிறார், பட்சிக்கிறார் என்று பிரச்சாரம் செய்து சொர்க்கத்துக்கு கூட்டிக்கொண்டு போவதாக பிரச்சாரம் செய்பவர்கள் நன்றாக பூச்சுற்றுகிறார்கள் என்பதற்கு சாட்சி இதோ.
யார் சொர்க்கத்துக்கு போவார்கள்?
மொத்தம் 144000 கன்னி கழியாத ஆண்கள்தான் சொர்க்கத்துக்கு போவார்களாம். பெண்ணுடன் படுக்காத ஆண்கள்தான் சொர்க்கத்துக்கு போவார்களாம். போகாத சொர்க்கத்துக்காக நடுத்தெருவில் பைத்தியக்காரனை போல "பாவிகளே" என்று கத்துபவர்களை பார்த்து பரிதாபப்படாமல் என்ன செய்வ்து?
நீங்கள் பெண்ணாகவோ, கன்னி கழிந்த ஆணாகவோ இருந்தும், ஏதோ இயேசு கிறிஸ்து என்ற யூத தெய்வம் சொர்க்கத்துக்கு கூட்டிக்கொண்டு போகும் என்று நம்பிக்கொண்டிருந்தால் உங்களுக்கு என் பரிதாபம்.
14:3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
14:4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
யார் சொர்க்கத்துக்கு போவார்கள்?
மொத்தம் 144000 கன்னி கழியாத ஆண்கள்தான் சொர்க்கத்துக்கு போவார்களாம். பெண்ணுடன் படுக்காத ஆண்கள்தான் சொர்க்கத்துக்கு போவார்களாம். போகாத சொர்க்கத்துக்காக நடுத்தெருவில் பைத்தியக்காரனை போல "பாவிகளே" என்று கத்துபவர்களை பார்த்து பரிதாபப்படாமல் என்ன செய்வ்து?
நீங்கள் பெண்ணாகவோ, கன்னி கழிந்த ஆணாகவோ இருந்தும், ஏதோ இயேசு கிறிஸ்து என்ற யூத தெய்வம் சொர்க்கத்துக்கு கூட்டிக்கொண்டு போகும் என்று நம்பிக்கொண்டிருந்தால் உங்களுக்கு என் பரிதாபம்.
14:3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
14:4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
பெப்ருவரி 2008 ஜிகாத் அறிக்கை
பெப்ருவரி 2008 இல் நடந்த மொத்த ஜிகாத் தாக்குதல்கள் : 174
பாதிக்கப்பட்ட நாடுகள் 14
பாதிக்கப்பட்ட மதங்கள் 5
இதனால் இறந்த மனிதர்களின் எண்ணிக்கை 1318
உயிருக்கு போராடிக்கொண்டிருப்பவர்கள் எண்ணிக்கை 1460
பாதிக்கப்பட்ட நாடுகள் 14
பாதிக்கப்பட்ட மதங்கள் 5
இதனால் இறந்த மனிதர்களின் எண்ணிக்கை 1318
உயிருக்கு போராடிக்கொண்டிருப்பவர்கள் எண்ணிக்கை 1460
| தேதி | நாடு | இடம் | இறப்பு | காயம் | விவரம் |
| 2/29/2008 | Pakistan | Lakky Marwat | 4 | 2 | Four local cops are blown to bits by Islamic bombers. |
| 2/29/2008 | Iraq | Mosul | 3 | 0 | Three Christians are killed trying to unsuccessfully protect their archbishop from an abduction. |
| 2/29/2008 | Iraq | Mosul | 2 | 0 | An 11-year-old child and his father are murdered in a roadside bombing by Sunni radicals. |
| 2/29/2008 | Pakistan | Swat | 42 | 50 | Over forty people attending a funeral are murdered by a Fedayeen bomber who wandered into the crowd before detonating. |
| 2/29/2008 | Thailand | Narathiwat | 2 | 0 | Two local soldiers are killed in an ambush by Islamic militants. |
| 2/29/2008 | Somalia | Mogadishu | 13 | 40 | Thirteen civilians are killed when Islamic terrorists attack government troops near a marketplace. |
| 2/28/2008 | Iraq | Mosul | 2 | 0 | A traffic officer and his young son are shot to death by radical Sunnis. |
| 2/27/2008 | Israel | Sderot | 1 | 1 | Hamas kills an Israeli student with a rocket barrage on a college campus. |
| 2/27/2008 | Afghanistan | Kandahar | 2 | 6 | Two local soldiers are gunned down in an ambush by religious extremists. |
| 2/27/2008 | Thailand | Yala | 1 | 4 | A local soldier is killed in a bombing ambush by Islamic militants. |
| 2/27/2008 | India | Pulwama | 2 | 1 | Two local cops are massacred in a Mujahideen ambush. Elsewhere, an 11-year-old boy is severely injured in a bomb attack. |
| 2/27/2008 | Thailand | Narathiwat | 1 | 0 | Muslim gunmen murder a 60-year-old man sitting in this truck. |
| 2/27/2008 | Iraq | Hamdaniyah | 1 | 0 | A university student is shot to death by suspected fundamentalists. |
| 2/27/2008 | Iraq | Mosul | 2 | 1 | Two civilians are killed in a Jihad bomb blast. |
| 2/26/2008 | Somalia | Dusamareb | 1 | 0 | A former government official is assassinated by Islamic terrorists. |
| 2/26/2008 | Pakistan | Peshawar | 1 | 0 | A Shia leader is shot to death by Sunni radicals. |
| 2/26/2008 | Afghanistan | Kandahar | 2 | 0 | An 50-year-old American humanitarian worker and her driver are kidnapped and executed by the Taliban |
| 2/26/2008 | Iraq | Mosul | 8 | 8 | A suicide bomber detonates inside a passenger bus, killing eight Iraqis. |
| 2/26/2008 | Afghanistan | Khost | 6 | 0 | A 9-year-old child and five Afghan adults are murdered by Islamic bombers. |
| 2/25/2008 | Iraq | Haruja | 8 | 0 | Eight women are kidnapped and executed by Islamic fundamentalists. |
| 2/25/2008 | Iraq | Samarra | 3 | 8 | A suicide bomber in a wheelchair murders three Iraqi policemen. |
| 2/25/2008 | Pakistan | Rawalpindi | 8 | 35 | Eight people are killed when a suicide bomber rams into another vehicle along a city road. |
| 2/25/2008 | Iraq | Mosul | 7 | 7 | Three members of the same family are killed in their home by Jihads. Four other Iraqis are killed in a separate attack. |
| 2/25/2008 | Pakistan | Mansehra | 5 | 10 | Two women are among five dead when Islamists attack and burn down a humanitarian agency office. |
| 2/25/2008 | Pakistan | Mingora | 1 | 0 | A traffic cop is gunned down by Muslim militants. |
| 2/25/2008 | Iraq | Baghdad | 4 | 15 | Three women are among four Shia pilgrims killed by radical Sunni bombers. |
| 2/25/2008 | Somalia | Mogadishu | 1 | 0 | A young police officer is assassinated outside his home by Islamic militia members. |
| 2/25/2008 | Afghanistan | Helmand | 5 | 1 | Religious extremists kill five civilians with a rocket. |
| 2/24/2008 | Afghanistan | Garmabak | 3 | 2 | The Taliban are suspected in an assassination attempt on a local official that leaves three people dead. |
| 2/24/2008 | Iraq | Iskandariyah | 63 | 68 | A suicidal Sunni blasts more than sixty Shia pilgrims to death as they are resting from their journey in a tent. |
| 2/24/2008 | Pakistan | Qadirabad | 3 | 5 | Islamic militants attack a group of local police, killing three. |
| 2/24/2008 | Iraq | Baghdad | 3 | 49 | Three Shia pilgrims are killed when Sunni gunmen attack their procession. |
| 2/24/2008 | Iraq | Mosul | 2 | 3 | Two electrical workers are blown apart in an IED attack on their vehicle. |
| 2/24/2008 | Somalia | Dinsoor | 18 | 8 | Islamic militias attack a small town, killing eighteen local defenders. |
| 2/24/2008 | Algeria | Tablat | 1 | 2 | A village guard is gunned down by Islamic fundamentalists. |
| 2/23/2008 | Iraq | al-Saqlawiyah | 6 | 2 | Sunni radicals attack a police station, killing six Iraqis. |
| 2/23/2008 | Somalia | Mogadishu | 3 | 5 | Two young sisters are among three civilians killed in a roadside bombing attack by Islamic militia. |
| 2/23/2008 | Afghanistan | Zabul | 1 | 0 | A civilian truck driver is killed and his vehicle set ablaze by religious extremists. |
| 2/23/2008 | Afghanistan | Kunar | 7 | 0 | Seven Afghans are killed in a landmine attack by the Taliban. |
| 2/23/2008 | Somalia | Mogadishu | 4 | 0 | Four Ethiopians driving a water truck are gunned down by radicals screaming 'Allah Akbar.' |
| 2/23/2008 | Iraq | Baiji | 1 | 1 | Jihadis kill a woman in a roadside attack that leaves her son badly injured. |
| 2/22/2008 | Iraq | Tikrit | 3 | 8 | Three people are killed when a suicide bomber rams his vehicle into a police station. |
| 2/22/2008 | Afghanistan | Khost | 3 | 0 | A suicide attack kills three Afghans. |
| 2/22/2008 | Pakistan | Swat | 13 | 14 | Bombers kill thirteen members of a wedding party traveling in a minibus. |
| 2/22/2008 | Iraq | Baghdad | 8 | 15 | Various Jihad attacks leave at least eight Iraqis dead, including three children. |
| 2/22/2008 | Iraq | Fallujah | 6 | 9 | Six people at a mosque are blown to bits by a suicide bomber. |
| 2/22/2008 | Thailand | Narathiwat | 0 | 22 | Twenty-two migrant workers are injured when Islamists set off a bomb at a garbage dump. |
| 2/22/2008 | Iraq | Garma | 2 | 3 | A Fedayeen suicide bomber murders two Iraqis at a checkpoint. |
| 2/21/2008 | Iraq | Baquba | 24 | 0 | Three women are among twenty-four victims of al-Qaeda found in two mass graves. |
| 2/21/2008 | Somalia | Afgoi | 1 | 0 | Islamic militias assassinate a government official. |
| 2/21/2008 | Afghanistan | Helmand | 1 | 4 | Religious extremists kill a local policeman in a roadside bombing attack. |
| 2/20/2008 | Iraq | Muqdadiyah | 7 | 20 | Seven civilians are killed when a suicide bomber detonates in a marketplace. |
| 2/20/2008 | Somalia | Baidoa | 2 | 0 | Two Ethiopian soldiers standing guard at a market are murdered by Islamic gunmen. |
| 2/20/2008 | Iraq | Mosul | 5 | 4 | Sunni gunmen murder five Iraqis, including one woman. |
| 2/20/2008 | Iraq | Balad | 3 | 7 | Jihadis kill three children playing soccer near a US base. |
| 2/20/2008 | Iraq | Tal Afar | 2 | 8 | A woman and a 6-year-old child are taken out by a suicide bomber at municipal office. |
| 2/19/2008 | Somalia | Mogadishu | 6 | 0 | Islamic militia ambush a patrol along a city street, killing four soldiers and two civilians. |
| 2/19/2008 | Afghanistan | Kandahar | 1 | 1 | A civilian is killed by a suicide bomber. |
| 2/19/2008 | Gaza | Khan Yunis | 1 | 2 | A 10-year-old boy is killed while being used by Hamas as a human shield to ambush Israeli soldiers. |
| 2/19/2008 | Iraq | Baquba | 4 | 0 | Two children and their parents are shot to death by Islamic terrorists. The family had been displaced. |
| 2/19/2008 | Iraq | Baghdad | 6 | 3 | Six civilians are killed in two Mujahideen bombing attacks. |
| 2/19/2008 | Thailand | Pattani | 1 | 1 | A 46-year-old Buddhist man is shot from his motorcyle and then set ablaze by militant Muslims. |
| 2/18/2008 | Afghanistan | Spin Boldak | 38 | 36 | Thirty-eight Afghans are blown apart by suicide bomber in an explosives packed car. |
| 2/18/2008 | Iraq | Hit | 2 | 1 | Fundamentalists bomb a video store, killing the owner and a customer. |
| 2/18/2008 | Iraq | Baghdad | 5 | 14 | Jihadis mortar an airport, killing five Iraqi civilians. |
| 2/18/2008 | Sudan | Jebel Moon | 11 | 0 | Seven women and four children are killed in an attack by government troops on their village. |
| 2/18/2008 | Iraq | Sheikh | 4 | 0 | al-Qaeda gunmen murder a couple and their teenage son in their home along with a neighbor. |
| 2/18/2008 | Somalia | Dhobley | 3 | 5 | Fundamentalists cut down three youth with gunfire for refusing demands to turn off their music. |
| 2/18/2008 | Iraq | Mosul | 3 | 4 | Three civilians are killed in a roadside bombing. |
| 2/17/2008 | Iran | Zahedan | 1 | 0 | A man and a friend stone his 14-year-old daughter to death over an unauthorized relationship. |
| 2/17/2008 | Iraq | Baghdad | 3 | 12 | A female sucide bomber at a marketplace sends three shoppers to Allah. |
| 2/17/2008 | Iraq | Mosul | 4 | 2 | Jihadis kill four Iraqis with a remote-controlled bomb. |
| 2/17/2008 | Somalia | Mogadishu | 1 | 0 | A young child is killed when Islamic fundamentalists toss a grenade into a crowd watching a soccer match on TV. |
| 2/16/2008 | Thailand | Pattani | 1 | 0 | A gardener is shot to death by Mujahid while sitting outside a teashop. |
| 2/16/2008 | Thailand | Narathiwat | 1 | 0 | A local Buddhist is murdered by Muslim gunmen while riding a motorcycle. |
| 2/16/2008 | Thailand | Pattani | 1 | 2 | An Islamic radical strides into a mosque and blows away a local with a handgun. |
| 2/16/2008 | Pakistan | Parachinar | 47 | 110 | A suicide bomber sends at least forty-seven souls to Allah by plowing an explosives-laden car into a political office. |
| 2/16/2008 | Iraq | Ramadi | 5 | 0 | Five Iraqis are kidnapped and tortured to death by Freedom Fighters. |
| 2/16/2008 | Algeria | Tizi Ouzou | 1 | 4 | A local soldier is blown to bits by Islamic fundamentalist bombers. |
| 2/16/2008 | Pakistan | Swat | 2 | 14 | A Fedayeen suicide bomber kills two civilians. |
| 2/16/2008 | Afghanistan | Arghandab | 101 | 75 | A suicide bomber blows himself up in a crowd of spectators watching a dog-fighting event, killing over one-hundred. |
| 2/16/2008 | Algeria | Tadmait | 3 | 0 | Three local soldiers are killed in an ambush by Islamic fundamentalists. |
| 2/16/2008 | Somalia | Yaqshid | 1 | 0 | Islamic militia members assassinate a local official outside a mosque. |
| 2/15/2008 | Algeria | Bouyara | 3 | 5 | Islamic terrorists detonate a bomb at a sports stadium, killing three people. |
| 2/15/2008 | Iraq | Tal Afar | 4 | 17 | Two Fedayeen suicide bombers kill four Shia in an attack on their mosque. |
| 2/15/2008 | Afghanistan | Nimroz | 4 | 2 | Religious extremists gun down four Afghan police officers. |
| 2/15/2008 | Pakistan | Peshawar | 1 | 1 | Mujahideen attack an army checkpoint with automatic weapons, killing a local soldier. |
| 2/14/2008 | Iraq | Baghdad | 7 | 36 | Jihadis bomb a crowded marketplace, killing at least seven Iraqis. |
| 2/14/2008 | Pakistan | Bajaur | 3 | 3 | Three local soldiers are killed by a Taliban roadside blast as they return from guard duty. |
| 2/14/2008 | Thailand | Narathiwat | 2 | 1 | Two villagers are murdered by Islamic gunmen. |
| 2/14/2008 | Thailand | Yala | 1 | 0 | A laborer is shot to death in front of his wife by militant Muslims. |
| 2/14/2008 | Iraq | Awja | 9 | 0 | Freedom Fighters shoot a family of nine to death in their home, including children. |
| 2/14/2008 | Algeria | Boumerdes | 1 | 0 | Islamic terrorists assassinate a security guard. |
| 2/14/2008 | Somalia | Mogadishu | 1 | 4 | Islamic militants hurl a grenade into a crowd, killing a school headmaster. |
| 2/13/2008 | Somalia | Hegan | 1 | 0 | Islamic militias assassinate a local official. |
| 2/13/2008 | Iraq | Zafariyah | 1 | 1 | Holy warriors break into a school where they beat a woman and hang her 3-year-old son. |
| 2/13/2008 | Iraq | Saadiya | 5 | 2 | Five construction workers are shot to death by Mujahid. |
| 2/13/2008 | Pakistan | Swat | 2 | 3 | Two people are killed when Muslim militants bomb a civilian convoy. |
| 2/13/2008 | Afghanistan | Khost | 4 | 1 | Four security guards are murdered by Islamic bombers. |
| 2/13/2008 | Afghanistan | Helmand | 3 | 4 | Three local soldiers are killed in a Taliban roadside bombing. |
| 2/12/2008 | Thailand | Narathiwat | 2 | 0 | A district chief and his teenage son are shot to death by militant Muslims. |
| 2/12/2008 | Iraq | Baquba | 4 | 3 | Four children are killed by Islamic terrorists in two separate attacks - one a bombing and the other a shooting. |
| 2/12/2008 | Iraq | Muqdadiyah | 20 | 0 | Twenty victims of suspected Sunni extremists are discovered in two locations. |
| 2/11/2008 | Iraq | Baghdad | 19 | 45 | Nineteen Iraqis are blown to bits when Sunni bombers car bombers attack a petrol station. |
| 2/11/2008 | Pakistan | Mir Ali | 10 | 13 | A suicide bomber detonates at a political rally, killing ten people. |
| 2/10/2008 | Afghanistan | Heart | 1 | 2 | Religious extremists ambush a vehicle, killing a young man inside. |
| 2/10/2008 | Thailand | Narathiwat | 1 | 1 | A 65-year-old man is shot to death by Muslim militants while sitting in a tea shop. |
| 2/10/2008 | Somalia | Baidoa | 1 | 0 | Islamic gunmen assassinate a government worker. |
| 2/10/2008 | Iraq | Yathrib | 33 | 51 | A Fedayeen suicide bomber at a marketplace blasts thirty-three Iraqi shoppers to Allah. |
| 2/10/2008 | Iraq | Albo Efan | 3 | 7 | A suicide attack leaves three civilians dead. A woman is shot to death elsewhere. |
| 2/10/2008 | Iraq | Tal Abta | 12 | 7 | Two women and four children are among the dead when al-Qaeda gunmen attack a Sunni village. |
| 2/9/2008 | Somalia | Mogadishu | 2 | 0 | Two men are shot to death by Muslim militants in separate terror attacks. |
| 2/9/2008 | Thailand | Yala | 2 | 0 | Two middle-aged men are brutally ambushed and killed by Muslim extremists while sitting in a pickup truck. |
| 2/9/2008 | Thailand | Yala | 1 | 0 | A 29-year-old woman is murdered by Islamic gunmen while she is riding a motorcycle. |
| 2/9/2008 | Nigeria | Kano | 3 | 20 | Muslims riot over a cartoon caricature of Muhammad, killing three people with machetes. |
| 2/9/2008 | Pakistan | Charsadda | 27 | 50 | A Fedayeen suicide bomber slaughters twenty-seven people attending a political rally. |
| 2/9/2008 | Iraq | Baghdad | 26 | 0 | More than twenty-five victims of sectarian violence are found in at least two locations. |
| 2/9/2008 | Somalia | Hiiraan | 5 | 9 | Suspected Islamic militia kill five local soldiers in a brutal ambush. |
| 2/9/2008 | Afghanistan | Nawa | 4 | 0 | Three children and a woman are killed when a bomb being constructed by a religious cleric explodes prematurely. |
| 2/8/2008 | Algeria | Boukalfa | 1 | 1 | Islamic gunmen murder a police officer. |
| 2/8/2008 | Iraq | Baquba | 13 | 0 | Jihadis kill five people in a brutal home invasion as a mass grave is unearthed elsewhere with eight bodies. |
| 2/8/2008 | Sudan | Abu Surouj | 200 | 0 | The initial death toll from attacks on three villages by government troops and the Janjiweed is put at two-hundred civilians. |
| 2/8/2008 | Afghanistan | Ghazni | 2 | 7 | A child is among two Aghans murdered in a suicide attack by a Fedayeen bomber. |
| 2/8/2008 | India | Poonch | 1 | 0 | A civilian is shot to death by Muslim terrorists. |
| 2/8/2008 | Algeria | Ain R'Ghiya | 8 | 0 | Eight security officers are massacred at point-blank range by Islamists with machine-guns. |
| 2/7/2008 | Iraq | Muradiyah | 4 | 9 | A child is killed in a bombing. Jihadis also invade a home and murder three brothers in a separate attack. |
| 2/7/2008 | Iraq | Baghdad | 11 | 18 | Islamic gunmen shoot eleven people to death in various attacks. |
| 2/7/2008 | Thailand | Narathiwat | 1 | 0 | Islamic radicals kidnap a young man in his 20's, bind him, slash his throat and then shoot him in the head. |
| 2/6/2008 | Iraq | Kirkuk | 2 | 9 | A 7-year-old girl and a woman are killed in separate Jihad bombings. |
| 2/6/2008 | Pakistan | Khyber | 1 | 2 | A civilian is killed in a bomb blast. |
| 2/6/2008 | Iraq | Muqdadiyah | 10 | 0 | Ten headless bodies are found, presumably kidnap victims decapitated by the Mujahideen. |
| 2/6/2008 | Thailand | Yala | 1 | 0 | A 21-year-old man is shot to death by Muslim militants. |
| 2/6/2008 | Iraq | Diwaniya | 4 | 9 | Four people are killed when Jihadis bomb a minibus. |
| 2/5/2008 | Somalia | Mogadishu | 4 | 9 | Two women are among four killed in a marketplace attack by Islamic militias. |
| 2/5/2008 | Somalia | Bossaso | 25 | 90 | Islamic militias claim responsibility for two separate bombings in which 25 African laborers are killed. |
| 2/5/2008 | Iraq | Fallujah | 5 | 4 | A Fedayeen suicide bomber murder five Iraqis along a city street. |
| 2/5/2008 | Iraq | Samarrah | 1 | 0 | A cleric speaks out against al-Qaeda and is quickly gunned down. |
| 2/5/2008 | Iraq | Hillah | 1 | 0 | A woman is shot to death by Islamic radicals. |
| 2/5/2008 | Iraq | Samarrah | 55 | 0 | Fifty-five bodies, victims of the Islamic State of Iraq, are found in a mass grave. Many had been tortured. |
| 2/5/2008 | Bangladesh | Rangpur | 0 | 0 | A convert to Christianity dies from burns suffered when a Muslim mob set fire to her house four weeks earlier. |
| 2/5/2008 | Afghanistan | Kandahar | 2 | 0 | Two Afghan police are killed in a Taliban bombing. |
| 2/4/2008 | Iraq | Abu Saida | 2 | 1 | Jihadis kill a 7-year-old boy and one other civilian in an attack on a minibus. |
| 2/4/2008 | Israel | Dimona | 1 | 11 | A Palestinian suicide bomber murders an Israeli woman at a shopping mall. |
| 2/4/2008 | Pakistan | Rawalpindi | 8 | 25 | A suicide bomber rams his car into a minibus carrying medical personnel, killing at least eight. |
| 2/4/2008 | Thailand | Pattani | 1 | 12 | Islamists detonate a bomb outside a boarding school, killing one person. |
| 2/4/2008 | Thailand | Yala | 1 | 0 | A 30-year-old civilian is shot to death by Muslim militants. |
| 2/4/2008 | Pakistan | Sukkur | 1 | 0 | A girl is chopped to pieces with an axe by her father, who was concerned about her 'character.' |
| 2/4/2008 | Afghanistan | Helmand | 5 | 1 | Two children and two women are among five members of the same family killed in a roadside attack by religious extremists. |
| 2/3/2008 | Somalia | Mogadishu | 8 | 9 | Islamic militia blow up a minibus, killing eight civilians and maiming nine more. |
| 2/3/2008 | Sweden | Malmo | 1 | 0 | A 16-year-old girl dies after being pushed from the balcony in a suspected honor killing by her brother. |
| 2/3/2008 | Iraq | Baquba | 4 | 0 | Suspected al-Qaeda gunmen attack a home, killing four young Sunnis. |
| 2/2/2008 | Thailand | Yala | 1 | 0 | A rubber tapper is shot to death by Muslim militants on his way to work. |
| 2/2/2008 | India | Poonch | 2 | 1 | Two police officers are killed by Lashkar-e-Toiba gunmen. |
| 2/2/2008 | Iraq | Mosul | 4 | 9 | al-Qaeda bombers take out four Sunnis. |
| 2/1/2008 | Pakistan | Mir Ali | 5 | 8 | A suicidal Sunni rams a police vehicle with an explosives-laden vehicle, killing at least five people. |
| 2/1/2008 | Iraq | Baghdad | 99 | 196 | al-Qaeda sends two women with Down's Syndrome into two pet markets, then detonates each remotely, slaughtering about one hundred other innocents. |
| 2/1/2008 | Iraq | Mosul | 1 | 0 | A 12-year-old boy is taken out by Sunni radicals. |
| 2/1/2008 | Iraq | Kut | 2 | 4 | The Mujahideen fire into a bus terminal, killing two Iraqis. |
| 2/1/2008 | Thailand | Narathiwat | 2 | 0 | Two elderly men are murdered by Islamic gunmen in separate attacks. |
| 2/1/2008 | Mauritania | Nouakchott | 0 | 3 | Bearded Jihadis shout 'Allah Akbar' and open up on the Israeli embassy with automatic weapons, injuring three bystanders. |
பாகிஸ்தான் லாகூர் கடஸ்ராஜ் சிவன் கோவிலில் மகாசிவராத்திரி பூஜை
நல்வழி திரும்ப முயற்சிக்கும் பாகிஸ்தான் மக்கள் இந்துக்களை கடஸ்ராஜ் சிவன்கோவிலில் மகா சிவராத்திரி கொண்டாட அனுமதித்துள்ளனர்.
பாகிஸ்தானிய மக்களுக்கும், பக்தர்களுக்கு எம்பெருமான் ஈசன் முழு முதல்வன் அருள் பாலிக்க இறைஞ்சுகிறேன்.
பாகிஸ்தான் எங்கும் ஓம் நமசிவாய ஒலிக்கட்டும். இறையருள் பெருகட்டும்!
Maha Shivratri festivities at Katas Raj Temple: Thousands of Hindu pilgrims arriving today
* MLA Rajni Kant Chawla to lead 200 strong Indian delegation
By Shahnawaz Khan
LAHORE: More than 200 Hindu pilgrims – led by Indian Legislative Assembly member (MLA) Rajni Kant Chawla and her sister Mala – will reach the Joint Check Post at Wagah Border today (Monday). They will be on a special train and are coming to Pakistan to celebrate Maha Shivratri - a three-day holy festival.
Senior officers of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) will receive the delegation at Wagah Railway Station, from where they will go to Gurdwara Dera Sahib. The ETPB and other departments concerned have finalised security and other arrangements for thousands of Hindu pilgrims expected to visit Pakistan for the event.
ETPB Deputy Administrator Faraz Abbas told Daily Times that all the pilgrims would reach Gurdwara Dera Sahib on Monday. “On Tuesday morning, the pilgrims will leave for Katas Raj Temple, where they will stay till the concluding ceremony of the event, which is till March 6,” he said. He said the pilgrims would return to Lahore on Friday, and after visiting their holy places in the city and in surrounding cities, they would return to India. Besides pilgrims from other countries, a large number of Hindus living in Pakistan will also join Maha Shivratri celebrations.
Faraz Abbas told Daily Times that Hindus would fast on Maha Shivratri. “Some devotees do not drink water and stay up all night,” he said.
“The Shiva Lingam (the mark or sign of Shiva, the Hindu god) is worshipped throughout the night, as people wash it every three hours with milk, curd, honey and rose water, whilst chanting ‘Om Namah Shivaya’.
Hindus living in Lahore, while explaining about the festivities, said the word Maha Shivratri means the night of Shiva, and ceremonies are pre-arranged chiefly at night time. Maha Shivratri is the night on which lord Shiva and Parvati got married.
They said the Hindu community throughout the country celebrated Maha Shivratri and that the event was particularly popular in interior Sindh.
Maha Shivratri falls on the 13th (or 14th) day of the dark half of ‘Phalgun’ (February-March). The event marks the night when lord Shiva performed the Tandav dance (the dance of destruction).
Home | Lahore
பாகிஸ்தானிய மக்களுக்கும், பக்தர்களுக்கு எம்பெருமான் ஈசன் முழு முதல்வன் அருள் பாலிக்க இறைஞ்சுகிறேன்.
பாகிஸ்தான் எங்கும் ஓம் நமசிவாய ஒலிக்கட்டும். இறையருள் பெருகட்டும்!
Maha Shivratri festivities at Katas Raj Temple: Thousands of Hindu pilgrims arriving today
* MLA Rajni Kant Chawla to lead 200 strong Indian delegation
By Shahnawaz Khan
LAHORE: More than 200 Hindu pilgrims – led by Indian Legislative Assembly member (MLA) Rajni Kant Chawla and her sister Mala – will reach the Joint Check Post at Wagah Border today (Monday). They will be on a special train and are coming to Pakistan to celebrate Maha Shivratri - a three-day holy festival.
Senior officers of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) will receive the delegation at Wagah Railway Station, from where they will go to Gurdwara Dera Sahib. The ETPB and other departments concerned have finalised security and other arrangements for thousands of Hindu pilgrims expected to visit Pakistan for the event.
ETPB Deputy Administrator Faraz Abbas told Daily Times that all the pilgrims would reach Gurdwara Dera Sahib on Monday. “On Tuesday morning, the pilgrims will leave for Katas Raj Temple, where they will stay till the concluding ceremony of the event, which is till March 6,” he said. He said the pilgrims would return to Lahore on Friday, and after visiting their holy places in the city and in surrounding cities, they would return to India. Besides pilgrims from other countries, a large number of Hindus living in Pakistan will also join Maha Shivratri celebrations.
Faraz Abbas told Daily Times that Hindus would fast on Maha Shivratri. “Some devotees do not drink water and stay up all night,” he said.
“The Shiva Lingam (the mark or sign of Shiva, the Hindu god) is worshipped throughout the night, as people wash it every three hours with milk, curd, honey and rose water, whilst chanting ‘Om Namah Shivaya’.
Hindus living in Lahore, while explaining about the festivities, said the word Maha Shivratri means the night of Shiva, and ceremonies are pre-arranged chiefly at night time. Maha Shivratri is the night on which lord Shiva and Parvati got married.
They said the Hindu community throughout the country celebrated Maha Shivratri and that the event was particularly popular in interior Sindh.
Maha Shivratri falls on the 13th (or 14th) day of the dark half of ‘Phalgun’ (February-March). The event marks the night when lord Shiva performed the Tandav dance (the dance of destruction).
Home | Lahore
இஸ்லாமிலிருந்து வெளியேறியதற்காக மலேசிய பெண்ணுக்கு இரண்டு வருடம் கடுங்காவல் தண்டனை
இஸ்லாமிலிருந்து வெளியேறியதற்காக மலேசிய பெண்ணுக்கு இரண்டு வருடம் கடுங்காவல் தண்டனை
Malaysian sentenced to 2 years in jail for abandoning Islam to join banned sect
© AP
2008-03-04 05:36:25 -
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - A Muslim-born woman arrested for joining a banned sect was sentenced to two years in jail for renouncing her religion, her lawyer said Tuesday.
The case underscores growing concern about religious freedom in this mostly Muslim nation, where Islamic Shariah courts _ which govern the personal conduct and religious lives
of Muslims _ have invariably refused to sanction the conversion of people who try to leave Islam.
A Shariah High Court judge in eastern Terengganu state ruled Monday that Kamariah Ali is still a Muslim despite her declaration to the contrary.
«The court is not convinced that the accused has repented and is willing to abandon any teachings contrary to Islam,» news reports quoted Judge Muhammad Abdullah as saying. «I pray God will open the doors of your heart, Kamariah.
Court officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday, a state holiday.
Last month, Kamariah, 57, was convicted of declaring herself an apostate after she and 58 others were arrested in July 2005 for following the teachings of the banned Sky Kingdom, a local sect claiming to promote interfaith harmony.
Kamariah's lawyer, Sa'adiah Din, said her client, who started serving her sentence Tuesday, insists she is no longer a Muslim and has instructed her to appeal the conviction and verdict.
«She informed the court that she is not a Muslim,» Sa'adiah told The Associated Press. «She doesn't come under Shariah court anymore.
Kamariah has already been convicted of apostasy in a separate case in 1992, and served less than 20 months, Sa'adiah said.
«This has to stop. They can't be sending her again and again to prison for this,» Sa'adiah said, adding she had little hope in Kamariah's appeal.
Sa'adiah said Kamariah also is facing a second charge of joining a banned sect, which is punishable by up to two years in prison. Hearings are scheduled to begin in May with most of the other alleged sect members arrested in 2005.
Kamariah's case highlights a dilemma faced by those who want to leave Islam in Malaysia, where Muslims make up 60 percent of the population. In the past, Muslims who renounce Islam have been sent to religious re-education camps.
Kamariah filed an application in civil court in 1998 to declare herself an apostate, but a Federal Court ruled in 2004 that it had no jurisdiction in the case and sent Kamariah to Shariah court, which administers civil matters for Muslims, Sa'adiah said.
Malaysian sentenced to 2 years in jail for abandoning Islam to join banned sect
© AP
2008-03-04 05:36:25 -
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - A Muslim-born woman arrested for joining a banned sect was sentenced to two years in jail for renouncing her religion, her lawyer said Tuesday.
The case underscores growing concern about religious freedom in this mostly Muslim nation, where Islamic Shariah courts _ which govern the personal conduct and religious lives
of Muslims _ have invariably refused to sanction the conversion of people who try to leave Islam.
A Shariah High Court judge in eastern Terengganu state ruled Monday that Kamariah Ali is still a Muslim despite her declaration to the contrary.
«The court is not convinced that the accused has repented and is willing to abandon any teachings contrary to Islam,» news reports quoted Judge Muhammad Abdullah as saying. «I pray God will open the doors of your heart, Kamariah.
Court officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday, a state holiday.
Last month, Kamariah, 57, was convicted of declaring herself an apostate after she and 58 others were arrested in July 2005 for following the teachings of the banned Sky Kingdom, a local sect claiming to promote interfaith harmony.
Kamariah's lawyer, Sa'adiah Din, said her client, who started serving her sentence Tuesday, insists she is no longer a Muslim and has instructed her to appeal the conviction and verdict.
«She informed the court that she is not a Muslim,» Sa'adiah told The Associated Press. «She doesn't come under Shariah court anymore.
Kamariah has already been convicted of apostasy in a separate case in 1992, and served less than 20 months, Sa'adiah said.
«This has to stop. They can't be sending her again and again to prison for this,» Sa'adiah said, adding she had little hope in Kamariah's appeal.
Sa'adiah said Kamariah also is facing a second charge of joining a banned sect, which is punishable by up to two years in prison. Hearings are scheduled to begin in May with most of the other alleged sect members arrested in 2005.
Kamariah's case highlights a dilemma faced by those who want to leave Islam in Malaysia, where Muslims make up 60 percent of the population. In the past, Muslims who renounce Islam have been sent to religious re-education camps.
Kamariah filed an application in civil court in 1998 to declare herself an apostate, but a Federal Court ruled in 2004 that it had no jurisdiction in the case and sent Kamariah to Shariah court, which administers civil matters for Muslims, Sa'adiah said.
இஸ்லாமை கடுமையாக வெறுக்கும் ஈராக் இளைஞர்கள்
ஏராளமான ஈராக்கிய இளைஞர்கள், சுன்னி ஷியா போன்ற பிரிவுகளில் பிறந்த இளைஞர்கள், கடுமையாக இஸ்லாமையும், இஸ்லாமிய தலைவர்களையும் வெறுக்கிறார்கள் என்று ஆராய்ச்சி கூறுகிறது.
ஈராக்கில் தொடரும் வன்முறைக்கு ஷியா தலைவர்களையும் சுன்னி தலைவர்களையுமே காரணமாக கூறுகிறார்கள். இஸ்லாம் என்ற மதமே வன்முறை மதம் என்றும் இவர்கள் கருதுகிறார்கள்.
ஆனால், ஈராக் தவிர மற்ற மத்திய கிழக்கு நாடுகளில் இளைஞர்கள் தேசிய வாதத்தை விட்டுவிட்டு மதவாதத்தில் இறங்குகிறார்கள் என்பதையும் ஆராய்ச்சி தெரிவிக்கிறது.
Young Iraqis are losing their faith in religion
By Sabrina Tavernise
Monday, March 3, 2008
BAGHDAD: After almost five years of war, many young Iraqis, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.
In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives.
"I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us," said Sara Sami, a high school student in Basra. "Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don't deserve to be rulers."
Atheer, a 19-year-old from a poor, heavily Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, said: "The religion men are liars. Young people don't believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore."
The shift in Iraq runs counter to trends of rising religiousness among young people across much of the Middle East, where religion has replaced nationalism as a unifying ideology. While religious extremists are admired by a number of young people in other parts of the Arab world, Iraq offers a test case of what could happen when extremist theories are applied.
Fingers caught smoking were broken. Long hair was cut and force-fed to its owner. In that laboratory, disillusionment with Islamic leaders took hold.
It is far from clear whether the shift means a wholesale turn away from religion. A tremendous piety still predominates in the private lives of young Iraqis, and religious leaders, despite the increased skepticism, still wield tremendous power. Measuring religiousness furthermore, is a tricky business in Iraq, where access to cities and towns that are far from Baghdad is limited.
But a shift seems to be registering, at least anecdotally, in the choices some young Iraqis are making. Professors reported difficulty recruiting graduate students for religion classes. Attendance at weekly prayers appears to be down, even in areas where the violence has largely subsided, according to worshipers and imams in Baghdad and Falluja. In two visits to the weekly prayer session in Baghdad of the followers of Moktada al-Sadr last autumn, vastly smaller crowds attended than had in 2004 or 2005.
Such patterns, if lasting, could lead to a weakening of the political power of religious leaders in Iraq. In a nod to those changing tastes, political parties are scrubbing overt references to religion.
"In the beginning, they gave their eyes and minds to the clerics, they trusted them," said Abu Mahmoud, a moderate Sunni cleric in Baghdad, who now works deprogramming religious extremists in American detention. "It's painful to admit, but it's changed. People have lost too much. They say to the clerics and the parties: You cost us this."
"When they behead someone, they say 'Allah Akbar,' they read Koranic verse," said a moderate Shiite sheik from Baghdad. "The young people, they think that is Islam. So Islam is a failure, not only in the students' minds, but also in the community."
A professor at Baghdad University's School of Law, who would identify herself only as Bushra, said of her students: "They have changed their views about religion. They started to hate religious men. They make jokes about them because they feel disgusted by them."
That was not always the case. Saddam Hussein encouraged religion in Iraqi society in his later years, building Sunni mosques and injecting more religion into the public school curriculum, but always made sure it served his authoritarian needs. Shiites, considered to be an alternate political force and a threat to Hussein's power, were kept under close watch. Young Shiites who worshiped were seen as political subversives and risked attracting the attention of the police.
For that reason, the American invasion was sweetest to the Shiites, who for the first time were able to worship freely. They soon became a potent political force, as religious political leaders appealed to their shared and painful past and their respect for the Shiite religious hierarchy.
"After 2003, you couldn't put your foot into the husseiniya, it was so crowded with worshipers," said Sayeed Sabah, a Shiite religious leader from Baghdad, referring to a Shiite place of prayer.
Religion had moved abruptly into the Shiite public space, but often in ways that made educated, religious Iraqis uncomfortable. Militias were offering Koran courses. Titles came cheaply. In Abu Mahmoud's neighborhood, a butcher with no knowledge of Islam became the leader of a mosque.
A moderate Shiite cleric, Sheik Qasim, recalled watching in amazement as a former student, who never earned more than mediocre marks, whizzed by stalled traffic in a long convoy of sport utility vehicles in central Baghdad. He had become a religious leader.
"I thought I would get out of the car, grab him and slap him!" said the sheik. "These people don't deserve their positions."
An official for the Ministry of Education in Baghdad, a secular Shiite, described the newfound faith like this: "It was like they wanted to put on a new, stylish outfit."
Religious Sunnis, for their part, also experienced a heady swell in mosque attendance, but soon became the hosts for groups of religious extremists, foreign and Iraqi, who were preparing to fight the United States.
Zane Muhammad, a gangly 19-year-old with an earnest face, watched with curiosity as the first Islamists in his Baghdad neighborhood came to barbershops, tea parlors, and carpentry stores before taking over the mosques. They were neither uneducated nor poor, he said, though they focused on those who were. Then, one morning while waiting for a bus to school, Muhammad watched a man walk up to a neighbor, a college professor whose sect Muhammad did not know, shoot him at point-blank range three times and walk back to his car as calmly "as if he was leaving a grocery store."
"Nobody is thinking," Muhammad said in an interview in October. "We use our minds just to know what to eat. This is something I am very sad about. We hear things and just believe them."
By 2006, even those who had initially taken part in the violence were growing weary. Haidar, a grade school dropout, was proud to tell his family he was following a Shiite cleric in a fight against American soldiers in the summer of 2004. Two years later, however, he found himself in the company of gangsters.
Young militia members were abusing drugs. Gift mopeds had become gift guns. In three years, he saw five killings, mostly of Sunnis, including that of a Sunni cabdriver shot for his car.
It was just as bad, if not worse, for young Sunnis. Rubbed raw by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, they found themselves stranded in neighborhoods that were governed by seventh-century rules. During interviews with a dozen Sunni teenage boys in a Baghdad detention facility on several sticky days in September, several expressed relief at being in jail, so they could wear shorts, a form of dress they would have been punished for in their neighborhoods.
Some Iraqis argue that religious-based politics was much more about identity than faith. When Shiites voted for religious parties in large numbers in an election in 2005, it was more an effort to show their numbers, than a victory of the religious over the secular.
"It was a fight to prove our existence," said a young Shiite journalist from Sadr City. "We were embracing our existence, not religion."
The war dragged on, and young people from both sects became more broadly involved. Criminals had begun using teenagers and younger boys to carry out killings. The number of juveniles in American detention was up more than sevenfold in November from April, and Iraq's main prison for youth, in Baghdad, has triple the prewar population.
But while younger people were taking a more active role in the violence, their motivation was less likely than adults to be religion-driven. Of the 900 juvenile detainees in American custody in November fewer than 10 percent claimed to be fighting a holy war, according to the American military. About one-third of adults said they were.
A worker in the American detention system said that by her estimate, only about a third of the adult detainee population, which is overwhelmingly Sunni, prayed.
"As a group, they are not religious," said Major General Douglas Stone, the head of detainee operations for the military. "When we ask if they are doing it for jihad, the answer is no."
Muath, a slender, 19-year-old Sunni with distant eyes and hollow cheeks, is typical. He was selling mobile phone credits and plastic flowers, struggling to keep his mother and five young siblings afloat, when a recruiter, a man in his 30s, a regular customer, offered him cash in western Baghdad last spring to be part of an insurgent group, whose motivations were a mix of money and sectarian interests. Muath, the only wage earner, agreed. Suddenly his family could afford to eat meat again, he said in an interview in September.
Indeed, at least part of the religious violence in Baghdad had money at its heart. An officer at the Kadhamiya detention center, where Muath was being held this autumn, said recordings of beheadings fetch much higher prices than those of shooting executions in the CD markets, which explains why even nonreligious kidnappers will behead hostages.
When Muath was arrested last year, the police found two hostages, Shiite brothers, in a safe house that Muath revealed. Photographs showed the men looking wide-eyed into the camera; dark welts covered their bodies.
Violent struggle against the United States was easy to romanticize at a distance.
"I used to love Osama Bin Laden," proclaimed a 24-year-old Iraqi college student. She was referring to how she felt before the war took hold in her native Baghdad. The Sept. 11, 2001, strike at American supremacy was satisfying, and the deaths, abstract.
Now, the student recites the familiar complaints: Her college has segregated the security checks; guards told her to stop wearing a revealing skirt; she covers her head for safety.
"Now I hate Islam," she said, sitting in her family's unadorned living room in central Baghdad. "Al Qaeda and the Mahdi Army are spreading hatred. People are being killed for nothing."
Parents have taken new precautions to keep their children out of trouble. Abu Tahsin, a Shiite from northern Baghdad, said that when his extended family built a Shiite mosque, they purposely did not register it with the religious authorities, even though it would have brought privileges, because they did not want to become entangled with any of the main religious Shiite groups that control Baghdad.
In Falluja, a Sunni city west of Baghdad that had been overrun by Al Qaeda, Sheik Khalid al-Mahamedie, a moderate cleric, said that fathers now came with their sons to mosques to meet the instructors of Koran courses. Families used to worry most about their daughters in adolescence, but now, the sheik said, they worry more about their sons.
"Before, parents warned their sons not to smoke or drink," said Muhammad Ali al-Jumaili, a Falluja father with a 20-year-old son. "Now all their energy is concentrated on not letting them be involved with terrorism."
Recruiters are relentless, and, as it turns out, clever, peddling things their young targets need. Stone describes it as a sales pitch a pimp gives to a prospective prostitute. American military officers at the American detention center said it was the Al Qaeda detainees who were best prepared for group sessions and asked the most questions.
A Qaeda recruiter approached Zane Muhammad, on a college campus with the offer of English lessons. Though lessons had been a personal ambition of Muhammad's for months, once he knew what the man was after, he politely avoided him."When you talk with them, you find them very modern, very smart," said Muhammad, a nonreligious Shiite, who recalled feigning disdain for his own sect to avoid suspicion.
The population they focused on was poor and uneducated. About 60 percent of the American adult detainee population is illiterate and is unable to even read the Koran that religious recruiters are preaching.
That leads to strange twists. One young detainee, a client of Abu Mahmoud's, was convinced he had to kill his parents when he was released, because they were married in an insufficiently Islamic way.
There is a new favorite game in the lively household of the Baghdad journalist. When they see a man with a turban on television, they crack jokes. In one of them, people are warned not to give their cellphone numbers to a religious man.
"If he knows the number, he'll steal the phone's credit," the journalist said. "The sheiks are making a society of nonbelievers."
Kareem Hilmi, Ahmad Fadam and Qais Mizher contributed reporting.
ஈராக்கில் தொடரும் வன்முறைக்கு ஷியா தலைவர்களையும் சுன்னி தலைவர்களையுமே காரணமாக கூறுகிறார்கள். இஸ்லாம் என்ற மதமே வன்முறை மதம் என்றும் இவர்கள் கருதுகிறார்கள்.
ஆனால், ஈராக் தவிர மற்ற மத்திய கிழக்கு நாடுகளில் இளைஞர்கள் தேசிய வாதத்தை விட்டுவிட்டு மதவாதத்தில் இறங்குகிறார்கள் என்பதையும் ஆராய்ச்சி தெரிவிக்கிறது.
Young Iraqis are losing their faith in religion
By Sabrina Tavernise
Monday, March 3, 2008
BAGHDAD: After almost five years of war, many young Iraqis, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.
In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives.
"I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us," said Sara Sami, a high school student in Basra. "Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don't deserve to be rulers."
Atheer, a 19-year-old from a poor, heavily Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, said: "The religion men are liars. Young people don't believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore."
The shift in Iraq runs counter to trends of rising religiousness among young people across much of the Middle East, where religion has replaced nationalism as a unifying ideology. While religious extremists are admired by a number of young people in other parts of the Arab world, Iraq offers a test case of what could happen when extremist theories are applied.
Fingers caught smoking were broken. Long hair was cut and force-fed to its owner. In that laboratory, disillusionment with Islamic leaders took hold.
It is far from clear whether the shift means a wholesale turn away from religion. A tremendous piety still predominates in the private lives of young Iraqis, and religious leaders, despite the increased skepticism, still wield tremendous power. Measuring religiousness furthermore, is a tricky business in Iraq, where access to cities and towns that are far from Baghdad is limited.
But a shift seems to be registering, at least anecdotally, in the choices some young Iraqis are making. Professors reported difficulty recruiting graduate students for religion classes. Attendance at weekly prayers appears to be down, even in areas where the violence has largely subsided, according to worshipers and imams in Baghdad and Falluja. In two visits to the weekly prayer session in Baghdad of the followers of Moktada al-Sadr last autumn, vastly smaller crowds attended than had in 2004 or 2005.
Such patterns, if lasting, could lead to a weakening of the political power of religious leaders in Iraq. In a nod to those changing tastes, political parties are scrubbing overt references to religion.
"In the beginning, they gave their eyes and minds to the clerics, they trusted them," said Abu Mahmoud, a moderate Sunni cleric in Baghdad, who now works deprogramming religious extremists in American detention. "It's painful to admit, but it's changed. People have lost too much. They say to the clerics and the parties: You cost us this."
"When they behead someone, they say 'Allah Akbar,' they read Koranic verse," said a moderate Shiite sheik from Baghdad. "The young people, they think that is Islam. So Islam is a failure, not only in the students' minds, but also in the community."
A professor at Baghdad University's School of Law, who would identify herself only as Bushra, said of her students: "They have changed their views about religion. They started to hate religious men. They make jokes about them because they feel disgusted by them."
That was not always the case. Saddam Hussein encouraged religion in Iraqi society in his later years, building Sunni mosques and injecting more religion into the public school curriculum, but always made sure it served his authoritarian needs. Shiites, considered to be an alternate political force and a threat to Hussein's power, were kept under close watch. Young Shiites who worshiped were seen as political subversives and risked attracting the attention of the police.
For that reason, the American invasion was sweetest to the Shiites, who for the first time were able to worship freely. They soon became a potent political force, as religious political leaders appealed to their shared and painful past and their respect for the Shiite religious hierarchy.
"After 2003, you couldn't put your foot into the husseiniya, it was so crowded with worshipers," said Sayeed Sabah, a Shiite religious leader from Baghdad, referring to a Shiite place of prayer.
Religion had moved abruptly into the Shiite public space, but often in ways that made educated, religious Iraqis uncomfortable. Militias were offering Koran courses. Titles came cheaply. In Abu Mahmoud's neighborhood, a butcher with no knowledge of Islam became the leader of a mosque.
A moderate Shiite cleric, Sheik Qasim, recalled watching in amazement as a former student, who never earned more than mediocre marks, whizzed by stalled traffic in a long convoy of sport utility vehicles in central Baghdad. He had become a religious leader.
"I thought I would get out of the car, grab him and slap him!" said the sheik. "These people don't deserve their positions."
An official for the Ministry of Education in Baghdad, a secular Shiite, described the newfound faith like this: "It was like they wanted to put on a new, stylish outfit."
Religious Sunnis, for their part, also experienced a heady swell in mosque attendance, but soon became the hosts for groups of religious extremists, foreign and Iraqi, who were preparing to fight the United States.
Zane Muhammad, a gangly 19-year-old with an earnest face, watched with curiosity as the first Islamists in his Baghdad neighborhood came to barbershops, tea parlors, and carpentry stores before taking over the mosques. They were neither uneducated nor poor, he said, though they focused on those who were. Then, one morning while waiting for a bus to school, Muhammad watched a man walk up to a neighbor, a college professor whose sect Muhammad did not know, shoot him at point-blank range three times and walk back to his car as calmly "as if he was leaving a grocery store."
"Nobody is thinking," Muhammad said in an interview in October. "We use our minds just to know what to eat. This is something I am very sad about. We hear things and just believe them."
By 2006, even those who had initially taken part in the violence were growing weary. Haidar, a grade school dropout, was proud to tell his family he was following a Shiite cleric in a fight against American soldiers in the summer of 2004. Two years later, however, he found himself in the company of gangsters.
Young militia members were abusing drugs. Gift mopeds had become gift guns. In three years, he saw five killings, mostly of Sunnis, including that of a Sunni cabdriver shot for his car.
It was just as bad, if not worse, for young Sunnis. Rubbed raw by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, they found themselves stranded in neighborhoods that were governed by seventh-century rules. During interviews with a dozen Sunni teenage boys in a Baghdad detention facility on several sticky days in September, several expressed relief at being in jail, so they could wear shorts, a form of dress they would have been punished for in their neighborhoods.
Some Iraqis argue that religious-based politics was much more about identity than faith. When Shiites voted for religious parties in large numbers in an election in 2005, it was more an effort to show their numbers, than a victory of the religious over the secular.
"It was a fight to prove our existence," said a young Shiite journalist from Sadr City. "We were embracing our existence, not religion."
The war dragged on, and young people from both sects became more broadly involved. Criminals had begun using teenagers and younger boys to carry out killings. The number of juveniles in American detention was up more than sevenfold in November from April, and Iraq's main prison for youth, in Baghdad, has triple the prewar population.
But while younger people were taking a more active role in the violence, their motivation was less likely than adults to be religion-driven. Of the 900 juvenile detainees in American custody in November fewer than 10 percent claimed to be fighting a holy war, according to the American military. About one-third of adults said they were.
A worker in the American detention system said that by her estimate, only about a third of the adult detainee population, which is overwhelmingly Sunni, prayed.
"As a group, they are not religious," said Major General Douglas Stone, the head of detainee operations for the military. "When we ask if they are doing it for jihad, the answer is no."
Muath, a slender, 19-year-old Sunni with distant eyes and hollow cheeks, is typical. He was selling mobile phone credits and plastic flowers, struggling to keep his mother and five young siblings afloat, when a recruiter, a man in his 30s, a regular customer, offered him cash in western Baghdad last spring to be part of an insurgent group, whose motivations were a mix of money and sectarian interests. Muath, the only wage earner, agreed. Suddenly his family could afford to eat meat again, he said in an interview in September.
Indeed, at least part of the religious violence in Baghdad had money at its heart. An officer at the Kadhamiya detention center, where Muath was being held this autumn, said recordings of beheadings fetch much higher prices than those of shooting executions in the CD markets, which explains why even nonreligious kidnappers will behead hostages.
When Muath was arrested last year, the police found two hostages, Shiite brothers, in a safe house that Muath revealed. Photographs showed the men looking wide-eyed into the camera; dark welts covered their bodies.
Violent struggle against the United States was easy to romanticize at a distance.
"I used to love Osama Bin Laden," proclaimed a 24-year-old Iraqi college student. She was referring to how she felt before the war took hold in her native Baghdad. The Sept. 11, 2001, strike at American supremacy was satisfying, and the deaths, abstract.
Now, the student recites the familiar complaints: Her college has segregated the security checks; guards told her to stop wearing a revealing skirt; she covers her head for safety.
"Now I hate Islam," she said, sitting in her family's unadorned living room in central Baghdad. "Al Qaeda and the Mahdi Army are spreading hatred. People are being killed for nothing."
Parents have taken new precautions to keep their children out of trouble. Abu Tahsin, a Shiite from northern Baghdad, said that when his extended family built a Shiite mosque, they purposely did not register it with the religious authorities, even though it would have brought privileges, because they did not want to become entangled with any of the main religious Shiite groups that control Baghdad.
In Falluja, a Sunni city west of Baghdad that had been overrun by Al Qaeda, Sheik Khalid al-Mahamedie, a moderate cleric, said that fathers now came with their sons to mosques to meet the instructors of Koran courses. Families used to worry most about their daughters in adolescence, but now, the sheik said, they worry more about their sons.
"Before, parents warned their sons not to smoke or drink," said Muhammad Ali al-Jumaili, a Falluja father with a 20-year-old son. "Now all their energy is concentrated on not letting them be involved with terrorism."
Recruiters are relentless, and, as it turns out, clever, peddling things their young targets need. Stone describes it as a sales pitch a pimp gives to a prospective prostitute. American military officers at the American detention center said it was the Al Qaeda detainees who were best prepared for group sessions and asked the most questions.
A Qaeda recruiter approached Zane Muhammad, on a college campus with the offer of English lessons. Though lessons had been a personal ambition of Muhammad's for months, once he knew what the man was after, he politely avoided him."When you talk with them, you find them very modern, very smart," said Muhammad, a nonreligious Shiite, who recalled feigning disdain for his own sect to avoid suspicion.
The population they focused on was poor and uneducated. About 60 percent of the American adult detainee population is illiterate and is unable to even read the Koran that religious recruiters are preaching.
That leads to strange twists. One young detainee, a client of Abu Mahmoud's, was convinced he had to kill his parents when he was released, because they were married in an insufficiently Islamic way.
There is a new favorite game in the lively household of the Baghdad journalist. When they see a man with a turban on television, they crack jokes. In one of them, people are warned not to give their cellphone numbers to a religious man.
"If he knows the number, he'll steal the phone's credit," the journalist said. "The sheiks are making a society of nonbelievers."
Kareem Hilmi, Ahmad Fadam and Qais Mizher contributed reporting.
இகிபோ: வலிப்பு நோய் சாத்தானால் வருகிறது! - இயேசு கிறிஸ்து கண்டுபிடிப்பு
அந்த காலத்தில் வலிப்பு நோய் சாத்தானால் வருகிறது என்று கருதினார்கள். சாத்தான் (அல்லது பேய்) ஓட்டினால், வலிப்பு நோய் போய்விடும் என்று நம்பினார்கள்.
அப்பாவிகளை ஏமாற்ற இப்படி இயேசு என்ற யூத தெய்வம் பேயோட்டியதாக கதை எழுதியிருக்கிறார்கள்.
அதற்காகத்தான், இப்போது வாடிகன் என்ற இயேசு என்ற யூத தெய்வத்தை கும்பிடும் கூட்டம், பேயோட்ட பல பாதிரிகளுக்கு ஏற்பாடு செய்வதாகவும் தெரிகிறது.
ஒரு செய்தி. வலிப்பு நோய் பேயாலோ சாத்தானாலோ வருவதல்ல.
பாவம் இயேசு என்ற யூத தெய்வத்தை நம்பும் அப்பாவி தமிழர்கள்.
17:15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. (17:15-18) "He is lunatick."
Jesus cures an epileptic "lunatic" by "rebuking the devil." (Epilepsy is caused by devils.)
17:16 And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
17:17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. "O faithless and perverse generation"
Jesus speaks harshly of his disciples when they fail to cast out the devil, saying "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?"
BOM: Alma 10:17, 10:25
17:18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.
அப்பாவிகளை ஏமாற்ற இப்படி இயேசு என்ற யூத தெய்வம் பேயோட்டியதாக கதை எழுதியிருக்கிறார்கள்.
அதற்காகத்தான், இப்போது வாடிகன் என்ற இயேசு என்ற யூத தெய்வத்தை கும்பிடும் கூட்டம், பேயோட்ட பல பாதிரிகளுக்கு ஏற்பாடு செய்வதாகவும் தெரிகிறது.
ஒரு செய்தி. வலிப்பு நோய் பேயாலோ சாத்தானாலோ வருவதல்ல.
பாவம் இயேசு என்ற யூத தெய்வத்தை நம்பும் அப்பாவி தமிழர்கள்.
17:15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. (17:15-18) "He is lunatick."
Jesus cures an epileptic "lunatic" by "rebuking the devil." (Epilepsy is caused by devils.)
17:16 And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
17:17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. "O faithless and perverse generation"
Jesus speaks harshly of his disciples when they fail to cast out the devil, saying "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?"
BOM: Alma 10:17, 10:25
17:18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.
15 மாத குழந்தையின் தலையை வெட்டி வீசிய அரபியர்!
சகோதரியின் மகனான 15 மாத குழந்தையை கடையில் இருக்கும் எல்லோர் முன்னிலையிலும் வெட்டி வீசிய அரபியர் கைது செய்யப்பட்டார்.
Man Butchers 15-Month-Old Nephew in Jeddah Supermarket
Samir Al-Saadi, Arab News
JEDDAH, 3 March 2008 — Early morning shoppers at a supermarket in Jeddah were left reeling yesterday, with some falling unconscious, after a well-built Syrian man clinched a knife and decapitated his 15-month-old nephew in front of his mother in the store’s fruit and vegetable section.
In a brutal murder that has shocked the city, the 25-year-old man beheaded the boy, who was out shopping with his mother — in full glare of shoppers and staff at Al-Marhaba supermarket on Sari Street around 9.30 a.m. The man, who is the boy’s maternal uncle, apparently killed the boy following a dispute with his sister and brother-in-law.
Eyewitnesses said that the man picked up a knife from inside the store and severed the boy’s head. The mother and a shopper standing close by fainted, while several other stood in shock and disbelief over what had happened.
A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Arab News, “The murderer was in a dispute with the boy’s mother and her husband. He chopped off the boy’s head in front of the mother to get back at her.” He added that the mother has been left traumatized and is in hospital. The boy’s father was at work at the time of the incident.
Following the murder, police sealed off the supermarket while forensic experts gathered evidence. Ambulances were also called to the scene. The supermarket reopened for business at around 1.15 p.m. “It happened so quickly. Before people could intervene, the man had cut more than half way through the child’s neck,” said Abu Muhammad, a grandfather in his mid-60s.
A Saudi till attendant at a nearby cafe said, “One of my colleagues went to see what was going on and returned shivering. He saw the kid’s body and so we gave him the day off. He was in a bad state.”
An eyewitness, who lives in the neighborhood, said that the victim’s family lived close by and frequented the supermarket. “I’ve seen the murderer carrying the same child and playing with him on a number of occasions,” he added.
“No one could bear the gruesome sight of the boy’s decapitated body lying on the floor,” said Muneer, a Turkish car mechanic, who works at a garage close by. “How could someone do such a thing? I just can’t understand it... I still can’t believe it,” he said, shaking his head.
When the store reopened, employees were still in a state of shock. A guard, standing at the entrance, stood frozen and oblivious to the rush of shoppers. Pain and anguish were writ large on his face.
Man Butchers 15-Month-Old Nephew in Jeddah Supermarket
Samir Al-Saadi, Arab News
JEDDAH, 3 March 2008 — Early morning shoppers at a supermarket in Jeddah were left reeling yesterday, with some falling unconscious, after a well-built Syrian man clinched a knife and decapitated his 15-month-old nephew in front of his mother in the store’s fruit and vegetable section.
In a brutal murder that has shocked the city, the 25-year-old man beheaded the boy, who was out shopping with his mother — in full glare of shoppers and staff at Al-Marhaba supermarket on Sari Street around 9.30 a.m. The man, who is the boy’s maternal uncle, apparently killed the boy following a dispute with his sister and brother-in-law.
Eyewitnesses said that the man picked up a knife from inside the store and severed the boy’s head. The mother and a shopper standing close by fainted, while several other stood in shock and disbelief over what had happened.
A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Arab News, “The murderer was in a dispute with the boy’s mother and her husband. He chopped off the boy’s head in front of the mother to get back at her.” He added that the mother has been left traumatized and is in hospital. The boy’s father was at work at the time of the incident.
Following the murder, police sealed off the supermarket while forensic experts gathered evidence. Ambulances were also called to the scene. The supermarket reopened for business at around 1.15 p.m. “It happened so quickly. Before people could intervene, the man had cut more than half way through the child’s neck,” said Abu Muhammad, a grandfather in his mid-60s.
A Saudi till attendant at a nearby cafe said, “One of my colleagues went to see what was going on and returned shivering. He saw the kid’s body and so we gave him the day off. He was in a bad state.”
An eyewitness, who lives in the neighborhood, said that the victim’s family lived close by and frequented the supermarket. “I’ve seen the murderer carrying the same child and playing with him on a number of occasions,” he added.
“No one could bear the gruesome sight of the boy’s decapitated body lying on the floor,” said Muneer, a Turkish car mechanic, who works at a garage close by. “How could someone do such a thing? I just can’t understand it... I still can’t believe it,” he said, shaking his head.
When the store reopened, employees were still in a state of shock. A guard, standing at the entrance, stood frozen and oblivious to the rush of shoppers. Pain and anguish were writ large on his face.
Monday, March 03, 2008
இஸ்லாம் ஒரு அமைதிமார்க்கம்: சொல்வது ஆயிரக்கணக்கான இந்துக்களை பாலியில் கொன்ற இஸ்லாமிய பயங்கரவாதி
இஸ்லாம் ஒரு அமைதிமார்க்கம்: சொல்வது ஆயிரக்கணக்கான இந்துக்களை பாலியில் கொன்ற இஸ்லாமிய பயங்கரவாதி!
We killed too many, say Bali bombers
Three Islamic radicals behind the bombings in which 202 people died talk in prison to our writer about faith, mass murder and their impending execution by firing squad
Michael Sheridan
AS our Jeep rocked along a jungle track towards the maximum-security prison housing the Bali bombers, we passed a group of bored-looking men in fatigues sitting around outside a hut in the noonday heat.
“The firing squad,” said the defence lawyer Achmad Michdan in a matter-of-fact tone. “They’ve been here for two months now.”
The families and friends of the three prisoners awaiting execution were with us, and they too drove past the men, who stared at the convoy of vehicles.
On the prison island south of Java all felt surreal: first the journey on a dilapidated ferry to a penal colony rising out of snake-infested swamps; on to the white walls and silvery barbed wire of the jail, a permit check, a search; then a steel door opened and we went into a room where the condemned men waited for us.
Imam Samudra, 38, was the planner who chose the targets in Bali and organised two suicide bombers to carry out the attack. He wore a fine blue robe, leading his three young children around by the hand and chatting to his wife and his mother, both veiled.
Ali Ghufron, better known as Mukhlas, 48, was the financier who once met Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan while making his own pilgrimage from theologian to jihadist. He sat crosslegged on the floor, lecturing to his friends.
Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, 46, dubbed “the smiling bomber”, was the village mechanic who bought the explosives and the Mitsubishi van used as a car bomb. He rose from the floor, kissed me on both cheeks and said, “Salaam aleikum [peace be upon you],” with a cheery grin.
There were 202 people killed on the night of Saturday, October 12, 2002, when the crime planned by these men was carried out on the peaceful, mainly Hindu holiday island of Bali.
The first suicide bomber walked into Paddy’s Bar and set off a bomb in the middle of a crowd of customers. The second bomber waited for people to flee into the street then detonated the Mitsubishi, packed with more than a ton of explosives, outside the Sari Club.
The victims were incinerated or flayed, died of shock or perished from burns and injuries later. They included 28 Britons.
For Australia, with 88 dead, it was a national tragedy, the greatest peacetime loss of life in the country’s history. It was a political and economic calamity for Indonesia, which lost 38 of its citizens, Muslims among them.
The three men in the room with us were caught, tried, convicted and sentenced to death. They said they had been stripped naked, beaten, given electric shocks and plunged into baths of water to make them talk.
Last week their lawyers won a judicial review of their case, though it is likely to fail. Their only hope after that is for clemency, but President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has hinted he will not grant it.
Thinking about all this I had little appetite for the chicken, spicy vegetables and rice we had brought from the mainland, which the bombers and their nearest and dearest were now eating with their hands.
“Are you a Muslim?” Samudra demanded in English, coming over to sit on the floor opposite me, a challenging look in his eyes. No, I replied.
“Are you a believer?” he asked. Yes, I said. Well then, he said, he would consent to talk if I truthfully reported all he said.
What of their legal case, I asked. “I am at the mercy of almighty Allah,” Samudra replied. “I don’t care.”
Did he deny the charges? “People called me the mastermind of the Bali bombing,” he said. “Maybe right, maybe wrong. My only mission was to help the Muslims.”
And then he said something extraordinary. He claimed the bombers had never meant to kill so many people. What happened at Paddy’s Bar and the Sari Club was “unacceptable”, he said.
Had he made the bomb? “No, no, no!” he said, shaking his head. “I didn’t help to make it, and who made the bomb and when I don’t know.”
The second explosion was much bigger than they had expected, he said.
The only explanation, he suggested, was that “the CIA or KGB or Mossad” - those familiar bogeymen of the conspiracy theorist – had somehow tampered with the bomb. “It is very possible,” he claimed.
“I learnt about explosives in Afghanistan,” he continued. “As you know, I may be an expert.”
The truth may never be known. Investigators think the actual bomb-maker was a militant named Dulmatin. Police in the Philippines are conducting DNA tests on the body of a man killed in a gun battle with special forces on January 31, which informants say is Dulmatin’s.
Samudra’s fastidiousness about mass murder, which some scholars attribute to an element of Islamic theology, did not extend to any remorse. Two months before the bombing, he said, he had studied tourist literature to narrow down the list of targets.
Once on the scene, he said, “I observed Zionists. I knew they were using it [the bar] and then also I know I could spread this, with Australia, with Aussies.” No Israelis were killed in the attack.
His targets, he said, were “antiMuslims, especially people from the USA, Australia, members of Nato, elements of what people call the alliance because they know it’s a crusader army”.
What would he say to the families of his victims?
“To Muslim people I would say pardon - but Muslims only. While the unbelievers - they must be entering into hell. Allah says to all unbelievers that this road will bring you to hell,” he said.
Samudra denied that Bin Laden had paid for the bombing, saying, “The money came from other people.
“Some try to make a link between Al-Qaeda and us. Now I don’t know about this. We are not linked. The only link is iman [faith] and aqida [teachings],” he added.
Mukhlas, who prosecutors say raised the funds, also denied receiving money from Bin Laden, saying: “I collected it from supporters in Malaysia and Indonesia.”
For Samudra the bombing was a victorious act; not a suicide mission but a “martyrdom operation” in a war that, he says, is now being fought out on the internet - “the most important way to spread jihad”.
Samudra remains extremely dangerous. Police say that while in jail in Bali he used a smuggled laptop computer to communicate with militants to organise a second suicide attack in 2005 that killed 20 people.
“Your country, the United Kingdom, will lose of course because Allah says that only Muslims will win,” he said.
“I call you to Islam,” he said to me. “Islam is peace. Tomorrow belongs to Islam.”
It was almost a relief when Amrozi came over, sat down and squeezed my leg in a friendly manner. “My smile is my weapon,” he explained. “It makes my enemies upset. This is a very special weapon for jihad.”
Amrozi said he had read 500 books while in custody, mainly on Islam, and that he studied developments pointing to the imminent ruin of the United States, sometimes without any need of news media.
“I have received a sixth sense from Allah, which indicates to me one or two days in advance anything massive that may happen in the world,” he confided.
The reverie was broken by guards calling us out. Our time was up. The chicken and rice were all gone. The families gathered up their things. Between them the three condemned men have 13 children.
For British relatives of those who died in Bali, another difficult moment is approaching.
“I’d hoped it would be quietly sidelined and they’d be quietly left to rot in prison,” said Susanna Miller, whose brother Dan, aged 31 and married five weeks, was killed.
“They’re fanatics. What fanatics want is action and passion, and the worst thing you can do to a fanatic is to let them sit and get bored because then they might actually start to doubt themselves,” she added. “If you just rush them into an execution cell, you’re making them the martyr they want to be.”
Not all feel this way, however. “It’s about time they were executed,” said Sue Cooper, who lost her brother Paul Hussey. “I would pull the trigger myself.” That will not be necessary. If the judicial review fails and the president declines to grant clemency, the men in fatigues are waiting.
Additional reporting: Dewi Loveard in Jakarta, and Sara Hashash
We killed too many, say Bali bombers
Three Islamic radicals behind the bombings in which 202 people died talk in prison to our writer about faith, mass murder and their impending execution by firing squad
Michael Sheridan
AS our Jeep rocked along a jungle track towards the maximum-security prison housing the Bali bombers, we passed a group of bored-looking men in fatigues sitting around outside a hut in the noonday heat.
“The firing squad,” said the defence lawyer Achmad Michdan in a matter-of-fact tone. “They’ve been here for two months now.”
The families and friends of the three prisoners awaiting execution were with us, and they too drove past the men, who stared at the convoy of vehicles.
On the prison island south of Java all felt surreal: first the journey on a dilapidated ferry to a penal colony rising out of snake-infested swamps; on to the white walls and silvery barbed wire of the jail, a permit check, a search; then a steel door opened and we went into a room where the condemned men waited for us.
Imam Samudra, 38, was the planner who chose the targets in Bali and organised two suicide bombers to carry out the attack. He wore a fine blue robe, leading his three young children around by the hand and chatting to his wife and his mother, both veiled.
Ali Ghufron, better known as Mukhlas, 48, was the financier who once met Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan while making his own pilgrimage from theologian to jihadist. He sat crosslegged on the floor, lecturing to his friends.
Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, 46, dubbed “the smiling bomber”, was the village mechanic who bought the explosives and the Mitsubishi van used as a car bomb. He rose from the floor, kissed me on both cheeks and said, “Salaam aleikum [peace be upon you],” with a cheery grin.
There were 202 people killed on the night of Saturday, October 12, 2002, when the crime planned by these men was carried out on the peaceful, mainly Hindu holiday island of Bali.
The first suicide bomber walked into Paddy’s Bar and set off a bomb in the middle of a crowd of customers. The second bomber waited for people to flee into the street then detonated the Mitsubishi, packed with more than a ton of explosives, outside the Sari Club.
The victims were incinerated or flayed, died of shock or perished from burns and injuries later. They included 28 Britons.
For Australia, with 88 dead, it was a national tragedy, the greatest peacetime loss of life in the country’s history. It was a political and economic calamity for Indonesia, which lost 38 of its citizens, Muslims among them.
The three men in the room with us were caught, tried, convicted and sentenced to death. They said they had been stripped naked, beaten, given electric shocks and plunged into baths of water to make them talk.
Last week their lawyers won a judicial review of their case, though it is likely to fail. Their only hope after that is for clemency, but President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has hinted he will not grant it.
Thinking about all this I had little appetite for the chicken, spicy vegetables and rice we had brought from the mainland, which the bombers and their nearest and dearest were now eating with their hands.
“Are you a Muslim?” Samudra demanded in English, coming over to sit on the floor opposite me, a challenging look in his eyes. No, I replied.
“Are you a believer?” he asked. Yes, I said. Well then, he said, he would consent to talk if I truthfully reported all he said.
What of their legal case, I asked. “I am at the mercy of almighty Allah,” Samudra replied. “I don’t care.”
Did he deny the charges? “People called me the mastermind of the Bali bombing,” he said. “Maybe right, maybe wrong. My only mission was to help the Muslims.”
And then he said something extraordinary. He claimed the bombers had never meant to kill so many people. What happened at Paddy’s Bar and the Sari Club was “unacceptable”, he said.
Had he made the bomb? “No, no, no!” he said, shaking his head. “I didn’t help to make it, and who made the bomb and when I don’t know.”
The second explosion was much bigger than they had expected, he said.
The only explanation, he suggested, was that “the CIA or KGB or Mossad” - those familiar bogeymen of the conspiracy theorist – had somehow tampered with the bomb. “It is very possible,” he claimed.
“I learnt about explosives in Afghanistan,” he continued. “As you know, I may be an expert.”
The truth may never be known. Investigators think the actual bomb-maker was a militant named Dulmatin. Police in the Philippines are conducting DNA tests on the body of a man killed in a gun battle with special forces on January 31, which informants say is Dulmatin’s.
Samudra’s fastidiousness about mass murder, which some scholars attribute to an element of Islamic theology, did not extend to any remorse. Two months before the bombing, he said, he had studied tourist literature to narrow down the list of targets.
Once on the scene, he said, “I observed Zionists. I knew they were using it [the bar] and then also I know I could spread this, with Australia, with Aussies.” No Israelis were killed in the attack.
His targets, he said, were “antiMuslims, especially people from the USA, Australia, members of Nato, elements of what people call the alliance because they know it’s a crusader army”.
What would he say to the families of his victims?
“To Muslim people I would say pardon - but Muslims only. While the unbelievers - they must be entering into hell. Allah says to all unbelievers that this road will bring you to hell,” he said.
Samudra denied that Bin Laden had paid for the bombing, saying, “The money came from other people.
“Some try to make a link between Al-Qaeda and us. Now I don’t know about this. We are not linked. The only link is iman [faith] and aqida [teachings],” he added.
Mukhlas, who prosecutors say raised the funds, also denied receiving money from Bin Laden, saying: “I collected it from supporters in Malaysia and Indonesia.”
For Samudra the bombing was a victorious act; not a suicide mission but a “martyrdom operation” in a war that, he says, is now being fought out on the internet - “the most important way to spread jihad”.
Samudra remains extremely dangerous. Police say that while in jail in Bali he used a smuggled laptop computer to communicate with militants to organise a second suicide attack in 2005 that killed 20 people.
“Your country, the United Kingdom, will lose of course because Allah says that only Muslims will win,” he said.
“I call you to Islam,” he said to me. “Islam is peace. Tomorrow belongs to Islam.”
It was almost a relief when Amrozi came over, sat down and squeezed my leg in a friendly manner. “My smile is my weapon,” he explained. “It makes my enemies upset. This is a very special weapon for jihad.”
Amrozi said he had read 500 books while in custody, mainly on Islam, and that he studied developments pointing to the imminent ruin of the United States, sometimes without any need of news media.
“I have received a sixth sense from Allah, which indicates to me one or two days in advance anything massive that may happen in the world,” he confided.
The reverie was broken by guards calling us out. Our time was up. The chicken and rice were all gone. The families gathered up their things. Between them the three condemned men have 13 children.
For British relatives of those who died in Bali, another difficult moment is approaching.
“I’d hoped it would be quietly sidelined and they’d be quietly left to rot in prison,” said Susanna Miller, whose brother Dan, aged 31 and married five weeks, was killed.
“They’re fanatics. What fanatics want is action and passion, and the worst thing you can do to a fanatic is to let them sit and get bored because then they might actually start to doubt themselves,” she added. “If you just rush them into an execution cell, you’re making them the martyr they want to be.”
Not all feel this way, however. “It’s about time they were executed,” said Sue Cooper, who lost her brother Paul Hussey. “I would pull the trigger myself.” That will not be necessary. If the judicial review fails and the president declines to grant clemency, the men in fatigues are waiting.
Additional reporting: Dewi Loveard in Jakarta, and Sara Hashash
மிருகங்களை போல கருப்பின கீழ்சாதி அடிமைகளை நடத்தும் ஏமன்
மிருகங்களை போல கருப்பின கீழ்சாதி அல் அக்தும் அடிமைகளை நடத்தும் ஏமன் பற்றிய நியூயார்க் டைம்ஸ் கட்டுரை.
யேமனில் துயருரும் இந்த இஸ்லாமியர்களுக்காக இரங்குவோம்.
Languishing at the Bottom of Yemen’s Ladder
Bryan Denton for The New York Times
In Yemen’s capital, Sana, the Akhdam live crammed into a stinking warren of low concrete blocks. By ROBERT F. WORTH
Published: February 27, 2008
SANA, Yemen — By day, they sweep the streets of the Old City, ragged, dark-skinned men in orange jump suits. By night, they retreat to fetid slums on the edge of town.
The Akhdam held a demonstration in Taiz this month. More Photos »
They are known as “Al Akhdam” — the servants. Set apart by their African features, they form a kind of hereditary caste at the very bottom of Yemen’s social ladder.
Degrading myths pursue them: they eat their own dead, and their women are all prostitutes. Worst of all, they are reviled as outsiders in their own country, descendants of an Ethiopian army that is said to have crossed the Red Sea to oppress Yemen before the arrival of Islam.
“We are ready to work, but people say we are good for nothing but servants; they will not accept us,” said Ali Izzil Muhammad Obaid, a 20-year-old man who lives in a filthy Akhdam shantytown on the edge of this capital. “So we have no hope.”
In fact, the Akhdam — who prefer to be known as “Al Muhamasheen,” or the marginalized ones — may have been in this southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula for as long as anyone, and their ethnic origins are unclear. Their debased status is a remnant of Yemen’s old social hierarchy, which collapsed after the 1962 revolution struck down the thousand-year-old Imamate.
But where Yemen’s other hereditary social classes, the sayyids and the judges and the sheiks, and even the lower orders like butchers and ironworkers, slowly dissolved, the Akhdam retained their separate position. There are more than a million of them among Yemen’s fast-growing population of 22 million, concentrated in segregated slums in the major cities.
“All the doors are closed to us except sweeping streets and begging,” Mr. Obaid said. “We are surviving, but we are not living.”
The Akhdam have not been offered the kind of affirmative action programs India’s government has used to improve the lot of the Dalits, or untouchables, there. In part, that is because Yemen never had a formal caste system like India’s.
As a result, the Akhdam have languished at the margins of society, suffering a persistent discrimination that flouts the egalitarian maxims of the Yemeni state.
Even the recent waves of immigrants from Ethiopia and Somalia, many of them desperately poor, have fared better than the Akhdam, and do not share their stigma.
The Akhdam who work as street sweepers, for instance, are rarely granted contracts even after decades of work, despite the fact that all Yemeni civil servants are supposed to be granted contracts after six months, said Suha Bashren, a relief official with Oxfam here. They receive no benefits, and almost no time off.
“If any supervisor wants to dismiss them, they can do that,” said Ali Abdullah Saeed Hawdal, who started working as a street sweeper in 1968. “The supervisors use violence against them with no fear of penalties. They treat them as people with no rights.”
The living conditions of the Akhdam are appalling, even by the standards of Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Arab world.
In one Akhdam shantytown on the edge of Sana, more than 7,000 people live crammed into a stinking warren of low concrete blocks next to a mountain of trash. Young children, many of them barefoot, run through narrow, muddy lanes full of human waste and garbage.
A young woman named Nouria Abdullah stood outside the tiny cubicle — perhaps 6 feet by 8 feet, with a ceiling too low to allow her to stand up — where she lives with her husband and six children. Inside, a thin plastic sheet covered a dirt floor. A small plastic mirror hung on the wall, and a single filthy pillow lay in the corner.
Nearby, a single latrine, in a room approximately 3 feet by 3 feet, serves about 50 people. The residents must carry water in plastic jugs from a tank on the edge of the slum, supplied by a charity group.
Wearing a brown dress, with a rag tied around her head, Ms. Abdullah said she and her family brought in no more than 1,000 Yemeni riyals a week, about $5. She begs for change, while her husband, Muhammad, gathers metal and electrical components from trash heaps and sells them.
Like most people in the shantytown, they have no documents, and they do not know how old they are.
“We are living like animals,” Ms. Abdullah said. “We cook and sleep and live in the same room. We need other shelters.”
When the winter rains come, the houses are flooded, she said. On the cold days in winter, the family burns trash to stay warm.
Richard Bramble, a British doctor who works in a charity-sponsored clinic inside the shantytown, said half of the deaths there over the past year were of children under the age of 5, and one-quarter were in the first month of life.
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The Akhdam of Yemen The death rates from preventable disease are even worse than the nationwide average in Yemen, where overall infant mortality is already an appalling one in nine, and maternal mortality is one in 10. Most of the women among the Akhdam start having children in their early teens, residents said.
Part of the problem, many members of the community say, is that most of the Akhdam have internalized their low status and do not try to better themselves, find real jobs or seek an education. Much of their meager income goes to buying qat, the plant whose leaves many Yemenis chew for its mildly narcotic effects.
“They do not even push their children to become soldiers,” said Muhammad Abdu Ali, the director of the medical clinic in the shantytown and one of the Akhdam. “They have given up on changing their situation.”
In the past two years, members of the Akhdam have begun to organize, creating a political front to lobby the government and seek development aid from charity groups. Earlier this month, hundreds of Akhdam demonstrated in the city of Taiz to protest their mistreatment, and afterward a government supervisor accused of stealing money from Akhdam street sweepers was fired.
But efforts to help the Akhdam have sometimes backfired. International donors have mostly preferred to work through Yemeni mediators, who have often misused or stolen the money intended for the Akhdam, said Rashad al-Khader, a Yemeni lawyer who has been representing the Akhdam for seven years.
The Yemeni government has occasionally built shelters for the Akhdam, but has not provided them documents for those shelters or the land, Mr. Khader said. And it has done little to help them improve their access to health care and education, despite a series of election-year promises to the community, according to Akhdam leaders.
The government does, however, seem embarrassed by the plight of the Akhdam, Mr. Khader said. When the new national political front was formed a few months ago, government officials insisted that its proposed name be changed — removing the term “the marginalized ones” in favor of “those in extreme poverty.”
The popular notion that the Akhdam are descendants of Ethiopian oppressors appears to be a myth, said Hamud al-Awdi, a professor of sociology at Sana University. Most of them have roots in villages in Red Sea coastal plain of Yemen, and many of them may have African origins, he added. Little else about them is clear, despite a number of academic studies.
Some Akhdam have found ways to improve their station. Mr. Hawdal, after working as a street sweeper for 20 years, became a supervisor, and now lives in central Sana with his wife and five children in two rooms that are relatively clean, a world away from the slums at the city’s edge.
As he leaned on a cushion chewing qat, with a television chattering in the background, Mr. Hawdal pointed proudly to a plaque on the wall commemorating his long service as a sweeper. He has sent all of his children to school, unlike most of the Akhdam, and one of them made it as far as ninth grade.
But Mr. Hawdal acknowledged sadly that all of his children had since dropped out. He was running out of money, he said. But that was not the only reason.
“They had no hope of doing anything except street sweeping,” he said.
யேமனில் துயருரும் இந்த இஸ்லாமியர்களுக்காக இரங்குவோம்.
Languishing at the Bottom of Yemen’s Ladder
Bryan Denton for The New York Times
In Yemen’s capital, Sana, the Akhdam live crammed into a stinking warren of low concrete blocks. By ROBERT F. WORTH
Published: February 27, 2008
SANA, Yemen — By day, they sweep the streets of the Old City, ragged, dark-skinned men in orange jump suits. By night, they retreat to fetid slums on the edge of town.
The Akhdam held a demonstration in Taiz this month. More Photos »
They are known as “Al Akhdam” — the servants. Set apart by their African features, they form a kind of hereditary caste at the very bottom of Yemen’s social ladder.
Degrading myths pursue them: they eat their own dead, and their women are all prostitutes. Worst of all, they are reviled as outsiders in their own country, descendants of an Ethiopian army that is said to have crossed the Red Sea to oppress Yemen before the arrival of Islam.
“We are ready to work, but people say we are good for nothing but servants; they will not accept us,” said Ali Izzil Muhammad Obaid, a 20-year-old man who lives in a filthy Akhdam shantytown on the edge of this capital. “So we have no hope.”
In fact, the Akhdam — who prefer to be known as “Al Muhamasheen,” or the marginalized ones — may have been in this southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula for as long as anyone, and their ethnic origins are unclear. Their debased status is a remnant of Yemen’s old social hierarchy, which collapsed after the 1962 revolution struck down the thousand-year-old Imamate.
But where Yemen’s other hereditary social classes, the sayyids and the judges and the sheiks, and even the lower orders like butchers and ironworkers, slowly dissolved, the Akhdam retained their separate position. There are more than a million of them among Yemen’s fast-growing population of 22 million, concentrated in segregated slums in the major cities.
“All the doors are closed to us except sweeping streets and begging,” Mr. Obaid said. “We are surviving, but we are not living.”
The Akhdam have not been offered the kind of affirmative action programs India’s government has used to improve the lot of the Dalits, or untouchables, there. In part, that is because Yemen never had a formal caste system like India’s.
As a result, the Akhdam have languished at the margins of society, suffering a persistent discrimination that flouts the egalitarian maxims of the Yemeni state.
Even the recent waves of immigrants from Ethiopia and Somalia, many of them desperately poor, have fared better than the Akhdam, and do not share their stigma.
The Akhdam who work as street sweepers, for instance, are rarely granted contracts even after decades of work, despite the fact that all Yemeni civil servants are supposed to be granted contracts after six months, said Suha Bashren, a relief official with Oxfam here. They receive no benefits, and almost no time off.
“If any supervisor wants to dismiss them, they can do that,” said Ali Abdullah Saeed Hawdal, who started working as a street sweeper in 1968. “The supervisors use violence against them with no fear of penalties. They treat them as people with no rights.”
The living conditions of the Akhdam are appalling, even by the standards of Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Arab world.
In one Akhdam shantytown on the edge of Sana, more than 7,000 people live crammed into a stinking warren of low concrete blocks next to a mountain of trash. Young children, many of them barefoot, run through narrow, muddy lanes full of human waste and garbage.
A young woman named Nouria Abdullah stood outside the tiny cubicle — perhaps 6 feet by 8 feet, with a ceiling too low to allow her to stand up — where she lives with her husband and six children. Inside, a thin plastic sheet covered a dirt floor. A small plastic mirror hung on the wall, and a single filthy pillow lay in the corner.
Nearby, a single latrine, in a room approximately 3 feet by 3 feet, serves about 50 people. The residents must carry water in plastic jugs from a tank on the edge of the slum, supplied by a charity group.
Wearing a brown dress, with a rag tied around her head, Ms. Abdullah said she and her family brought in no more than 1,000 Yemeni riyals a week, about $5. She begs for change, while her husband, Muhammad, gathers metal and electrical components from trash heaps and sells them.
Like most people in the shantytown, they have no documents, and they do not know how old they are.
“We are living like animals,” Ms. Abdullah said. “We cook and sleep and live in the same room. We need other shelters.”
When the winter rains come, the houses are flooded, she said. On the cold days in winter, the family burns trash to stay warm.
Richard Bramble, a British doctor who works in a charity-sponsored clinic inside the shantytown, said half of the deaths there over the past year were of children under the age of 5, and one-quarter were in the first month of life.
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The Akhdam of Yemen The death rates from preventable disease are even worse than the nationwide average in Yemen, where overall infant mortality is already an appalling one in nine, and maternal mortality is one in 10. Most of the women among the Akhdam start having children in their early teens, residents said.
Part of the problem, many members of the community say, is that most of the Akhdam have internalized their low status and do not try to better themselves, find real jobs or seek an education. Much of their meager income goes to buying qat, the plant whose leaves many Yemenis chew for its mildly narcotic effects.
“They do not even push their children to become soldiers,” said Muhammad Abdu Ali, the director of the medical clinic in the shantytown and one of the Akhdam. “They have given up on changing their situation.”
In the past two years, members of the Akhdam have begun to organize, creating a political front to lobby the government and seek development aid from charity groups. Earlier this month, hundreds of Akhdam demonstrated in the city of Taiz to protest their mistreatment, and afterward a government supervisor accused of stealing money from Akhdam street sweepers was fired.
But efforts to help the Akhdam have sometimes backfired. International donors have mostly preferred to work through Yemeni mediators, who have often misused or stolen the money intended for the Akhdam, said Rashad al-Khader, a Yemeni lawyer who has been representing the Akhdam for seven years.
The Yemeni government has occasionally built shelters for the Akhdam, but has not provided them documents for those shelters or the land, Mr. Khader said. And it has done little to help them improve their access to health care and education, despite a series of election-year promises to the community, according to Akhdam leaders.
The government does, however, seem embarrassed by the plight of the Akhdam, Mr. Khader said. When the new national political front was formed a few months ago, government officials insisted that its proposed name be changed — removing the term “the marginalized ones” in favor of “those in extreme poverty.”
The popular notion that the Akhdam are descendants of Ethiopian oppressors appears to be a myth, said Hamud al-Awdi, a professor of sociology at Sana University. Most of them have roots in villages in Red Sea coastal plain of Yemen, and many of them may have African origins, he added. Little else about them is clear, despite a number of academic studies.
Some Akhdam have found ways to improve their station. Mr. Hawdal, after working as a street sweeper for 20 years, became a supervisor, and now lives in central Sana with his wife and five children in two rooms that are relatively clean, a world away from the slums at the city’s edge.
As he leaned on a cushion chewing qat, with a television chattering in the background, Mr. Hawdal pointed proudly to a plaque on the wall commemorating his long service as a sweeper. He has sent all of his children to school, unlike most of the Akhdam, and one of them made it as far as ninth grade.
But Mr. Hawdal acknowledged sadly that all of his children had since dropped out. He was running out of money, he said. But that was not the only reason.
“They had no hope of doing anything except street sweeping,” he said.
வேகமாக பெண்களை மொபைல் போனில் விவாகரத்து செய்ய சவுதி அரேபியா வசதி!
பெண்டாட்டிகளை பிடிக்காத ஆண்களும் ஏற்கெனவே இருக்கும் நான்குமனைவிகளில் ஒருவரை கழட்டிவிட்டு இன்னொருவரை விரைவில் திருமணம் செய்துகொள்ளவும் சவுதி அரேபியா அதிவேக மொபைல் போன் வசதி ஏற்படுத்தி தந்திருக்கிறது.
Divorces Get on Fast Track With E-Communication
Arab News
RIYADH, 2 March 2008 — Living in a high-tech world, many husbands have opted for new ways of divorcing their wives rather than confronting problems head on through discussion and dialogue.
Jawhara, a divorcee, said that she received a message on her mobile phone from her husband that read, “Pack your things and go to your family before I return, you’re divorced.”
Jawhara promptly telephoned her brother, asking him to pick her up. He, however, asked her to wait for her husband and ask him why he had divorced her. “I stayed and when he came he repeated what he said. I told him that I was off to my family and that he should keep his children,” she said.
A week later, Jawhara’s husband said he wanted to get back together and that he had made a mistake. “It took me time to accept but I did in the end after he admitted to a judge that he had made a mistake,” she said.
Munira Asaad was faced with a similar situation when her husband asked her, through an SMS message, to take their children and leave home. “At first I thought it was a joke. But when he came home he hit me and asked me to leave. I refused to leave the house saying it was mine and my children’s,” said Munira, adding that instead her husband left. A week later he returned and said he wanted to get back together.
“I refused. He made this decision based on wrong information, which he got from his sister-in-law. His actions show that he doesn’t trust me. Why should I take him back?” she said.
Suad woke up one morning to find a text message reading, “I divorce you. Go back to your family.” Suad was left shocked and could not believe what she saw. “There was no problem between us. I called him but he did not answer,” she said.
When her husband returned from his trip, he told her that he divorced her because one of his friends had not accepted an invitation to dinner. He had sworn that he would divorce his wife if his friend did not accept his invitation.
Suad said she went to her room, packed her stuff and left. “I asked my children to come with me. After two weeks he came back and urged me to return. He told me that he hadn’t registered the divorce in court,” said Saud, adding that she agreed to go back after her husband promised to be careful with such issues.
Commenting on the issue, Ahmed Al-Muhaimid, a lawyer, said in a report carried by the Al-Riyadh newspaper that text-message divorces take effect even if a husband does not verbally pronounce his intention. He added that such divorces take place even without the women knowing about it.
He urged couples to be careful while dealing with such a serious issue as divorce. He called on officials to question the conditions for such divorces, the causes and the real intentions who do them.
Al-Muhaimid also said that it was important to ensure messages are actually sent by husband and not by third parties.
Divorces Get on Fast Track With E-Communication
Arab News
RIYADH, 2 March 2008 — Living in a high-tech world, many husbands have opted for new ways of divorcing their wives rather than confronting problems head on through discussion and dialogue.
Jawhara, a divorcee, said that she received a message on her mobile phone from her husband that read, “Pack your things and go to your family before I return, you’re divorced.”
Jawhara promptly telephoned her brother, asking him to pick her up. He, however, asked her to wait for her husband and ask him why he had divorced her. “I stayed and when he came he repeated what he said. I told him that I was off to my family and that he should keep his children,” she said.
A week later, Jawhara’s husband said he wanted to get back together and that he had made a mistake. “It took me time to accept but I did in the end after he admitted to a judge that he had made a mistake,” she said.
Munira Asaad was faced with a similar situation when her husband asked her, through an SMS message, to take their children and leave home. “At first I thought it was a joke. But when he came home he hit me and asked me to leave. I refused to leave the house saying it was mine and my children’s,” said Munira, adding that instead her husband left. A week later he returned and said he wanted to get back together.
“I refused. He made this decision based on wrong information, which he got from his sister-in-law. His actions show that he doesn’t trust me. Why should I take him back?” she said.
Suad woke up one morning to find a text message reading, “I divorce you. Go back to your family.” Suad was left shocked and could not believe what she saw. “There was no problem between us. I called him but he did not answer,” she said.
When her husband returned from his trip, he told her that he divorced her because one of his friends had not accepted an invitation to dinner. He had sworn that he would divorce his wife if his friend did not accept his invitation.
Suad said she went to her room, packed her stuff and left. “I asked my children to come with me. After two weeks he came back and urged me to return. He told me that he hadn’t registered the divorce in court,” said Saud, adding that she agreed to go back after her husband promised to be careful with such issues.
Commenting on the issue, Ahmed Al-Muhaimid, a lawyer, said in a report carried by the Al-Riyadh newspaper that text-message divorces take effect even if a husband does not verbally pronounce his intention. He added that such divorces take place even without the women knowing about it.
He urged couples to be careful while dealing with such a serious issue as divorce. He called on officials to question the conditions for such divorces, the causes and the real intentions who do them.
Al-Muhaimid also said that it was important to ensure messages are actually sent by husband and not by third parties.
ஏழுபது லட்சம் வருடங்களுக்கு முந்தைய மனிதனின் எலும்புகள் கண்டுபிடிப்பு: கிறிஸ்துவர்கள் முஸ்லீம்கள் அதிர்ச்சி!
எழுபது லட்சம் வருடங்களுக்கு முந்தைய மனிதனின் எலும்புக்கூடுகள் கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன. இந்த எலும்புகள் முன்பு கிடைத்தபோது இந்த எலும்புகள் ஒரு குரங்கினத்தின் எலும்புகள் என்று அறியப்பட்டிருந்தன. அவற்றை கம்ப்யூட்டர் மூலம் ஆராய்ந்து பார்த்தபோது, இவை உண்மையிலேயே ஒரு மனிதனின் தலையை ஒத்து மனித மூளையை தக்கவைத்துக்கொள்ளும் அளவோடு இருப்பதை கண்டுபிடித்துள்ளனர்.
5000 வருடங்களுக்கு முன்னால் யூத தெய்வம் யாஹ்வே மனிதனை உருவாக்கியது என்று கருதி வரும் கிறிஸ்த்துவர்களும் இதே மாதிரி கருதிவரும் இதர யூத-கிறிஸ்துவ-முஸ்லீம்களும் அதிர்ச்சி அடைந்திருக்கிறார்களா என்று தெரியவில்லை.
பல யுகங்களாக மனிதன் இருந்துவருகிறான் என்று இந்துக்கள் கருதுகிறார்கள்.
இந்த செய்தியை உதாசீனம் செய்ய வைக்க, கிறிஸ்துவர்கள் தெருமுனையில் பாவிகளே என்று மேலும் அதிக சத்தத்துடன் கத்துவார்கள். பஸ்ஸிலிருந்து பார்க்கும்போது கொஞ்சம் பரிதாபத்துடன் அவர்களை பாருங்கள்.
Oldest hominid discovered is 7 million years old: study
Wed Feb 27, 5:58 PM ET
CHICAGO (AFP) - French fossil hunters have pinned down the age of Toumai, which they contend is the remains of the earliest human ever found, at between 6.8 and 7.2 million years old.
The fossil was discovered in the Chadian desert in 2001 and an intense debate ensued over whether the nearly complete cranium, pieces of jawbone and teeth belonged to one of our earliest ancestors.
Critics said that Toumai's cranium was too squashed to be that of a hominid -- it did not have the brain capacity that gives humans primacy -- and its small size indicated a creature of no more than 120 centimetres (four feet) in height, about the size of a walking chimp.
In short, they said, Toumai had no right to be baptised with French researcher Michel Brunet's hominid honorific of Sahelanthropus tchadensis -- he was simply a vulgar ape.
Toumai's supporters used 3D computer reconstructions to show that the structure of the cranium had clear differences from those of gorillas and chimps and indicates that Toumai was able to walk upright on two feet, something our primate cousins cannot do with ease.
If Toumai is truly an early human, that means that the evolutionary split between apes and humans occurred far earlier than previously thought.
And pinning down his age is key to redrawing the evolutionary map.
"The radiochronological data concerning Sahelanthropus tchadensis ... is an important cornerstone both for establishing the earliest stages of hominid evolution and for new calibrations of the molecular clock," Brunet wrote in a study which will appear in the March 4 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Thus, Sahelanthropus tchadensis testifies that the last divergence between chimps and humans is certainly not much more recent than 8 Ma (million years ago.)"
Toumai also probably lived "very close in time to this divergence contrary to the unlikely 'provocative explanation,' which recently suggested a 'possible hybridization in the human-chimp lineage before finally separating less than 6.3 (million years ago)," the authors concluded.
If Toumai -- the name means "hope of life" in the local Goran language -- is accepted as a human, the implications are profound.
The fossil was found some 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles) west of the Great Rift Valley. If that is still seen as humankind's ancestral home, it implies the early hominids ranged far wider from East Africa, and far earlier, than previously thought.
The discovery also implies hominids evolved quickly from apes after they split from a common primate ancestry.
Hominids are considered the forerunners of anatomically modern humans, who appeared on the scene about 200,000 years ago.
Still unclear, though, is the exact line of genealogy from these small, rather ape-like creatures to the rise of the powerfully-brained Homo sapiens.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
இகிபோ: சுவிசேச கூட்டம் போட்டு அல்லேலூயா கத்துபவனை கர்த்தர் வெறுக்கிறார்
கூட்டம் போட்டு அல்லேலூயா கத்துபவன் போலி. தெருமூலைகளில் நின்று பாவிகளே என்று கத்துபவன் போலி.
கிறிஸ்துவன் அறையை மூடிக்கொண்டு, ரகசியமாகத்தான் கும்பிடவேண்டும் என்று கீழ்க்கண்ட வசனம் கூறுகிறது.
Matthew 6:5-6
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father in secret shall reward thee openly.
கிறிஸ்துவன் அறையை மூடிக்கொண்டு, ரகசியமாகத்தான் கும்பிடவேண்டும் என்று கீழ்க்கண்ட வசனம் கூறுகிறது.
Matthew 6:5-6
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father in secret shall reward thee openly.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
நூற்றுக்கணக்கான தமிழ் கிறிஸ்துவர்கள் மீண்டும் இந்துமதத்தில் இணைகிறார்கள்
வாழ்க அர்ஜூன் சம்பத்
Tamil Nadu dalit Christians to return to Hindu fold
(Ch. Narendra) Contact Reporter E-MAIL This Story PRINT This Story
Publication Date 29/2/2008 11:16:33 AM(IST)
Alleging discrimination in churches, about 185 Dalit Christian families in Tirunelveli district have decided to reconvert to Hinduism on the occasion of mahasivarathiri, on March 6 at Sri Nellaiappar Temple.
Organised by the Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK), the reconversion ceremony will be held in the presence of about 25 pontiffs from both saivite and vaishnavite mutts.
Says HMK state president Arjun Sampath, “This is the first time such a reconversion ceremony is taking place on a mass scale in Tamil Nadu. We want to make it clear to the converted Dalits that it is possible to reconvert to Hinduism. This ceremony will serve as a springboard for many discriminated dalits of other faiths, whose forefathers were Hindus, to embrace their original faith again.”
According to Naresh Ambedkar, a Dalit Christian and a member of the reconversion ceremony committee, though 185 Dalit Christian families have openly expressed their willingness to reconvert, another 100 or more families, had also volunteered, but did not want their names to be disclosed.
All of them were from Palayamkottai, Radhapuram, Sankarankoil and Thaalaiyoothu in Tirunelveli district and Sathankulam in Thoothukudi district.
.Ambedkar says, “Of the 300 families, 250 are Roman Catholics coming under the Catholic Diocese of Palayamkottai and the rest belong to CSI and Pentecostal churches.” These Dalit Christians claim that several forms of discrimination in their dioceses had forced them to opt for Hinduism.
Ambedkar alleges, “Although the missionaries obtain huge funds from abroad saying they would help our community, the funds really do not help in improving our status.” He wants the diocese to come out with a white paper on the utilisation of funds.
Alden, another Dalit Christian of Thaalaiyoothu, said, “Two generations ago, our ancestors converted from Hinduism to Christianity to get rid of the crude practice of untouchability. But the very purpose has been defeated.
We are still discriminated against on the basis of our caste. The practice of burying the dead in separate cemeteries is a classic example of caste bias. So our family of seven, including four women, has decided to return to our parent religion.”
Aware of similar caste discrimination in Hinduism, he says, “There is not going to be much of a difference. Still, we prefer to reconvert as we see Hinduism as a way of life. At least, we will be able to enjoy the benefits of reservation if we reconvert to Hinduism.”
There are four priests among those who are getting reconverted, claims Mr.Sampath. Meanwhile, the HMK has made preparations for the reconversion ceremony, which it prefers to call “Return-to-parent- religion festival.”
Sampath says, “Pontiffs will perform rituals for those returning to their original faith at the Nellaiappar temple. They will sprinkle the holy water from the river Ganges on them to endorse their entry into the Hindu fold.”
However, the organisers are now awaiting permission from the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment to conduct the ceremony at the temple. “If the government does not allow us to perform the ritual, we will accomplish it on Dr.Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on April 14 at a mandapam,” they said.
Tamil Nadu dalit Christians to return to Hindu fold
(Ch. Narendra) Contact Reporter E-MAIL This Story PRINT This Story
Publication Date 29/2/2008 11:16:33 AM(IST)
Alleging discrimination in churches, about 185 Dalit Christian families in Tirunelveli district have decided to reconvert to Hinduism on the occasion of mahasivarathiri, on March 6 at Sri Nellaiappar Temple.
Organised by the Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK), the reconversion ceremony will be held in the presence of about 25 pontiffs from both saivite and vaishnavite mutts.
Says HMK state president Arjun Sampath, “This is the first time such a reconversion ceremony is taking place on a mass scale in Tamil Nadu. We want to make it clear to the converted Dalits that it is possible to reconvert to Hinduism. This ceremony will serve as a springboard for many discriminated dalits of other faiths, whose forefathers were Hindus, to embrace their original faith again.”
According to Naresh Ambedkar, a Dalit Christian and a member of the reconversion ceremony committee, though 185 Dalit Christian families have openly expressed their willingness to reconvert, another 100 or more families, had also volunteered, but did not want their names to be disclosed.
All of them were from Palayamkottai, Radhapuram, Sankarankoil and Thaalaiyoothu in Tirunelveli district and Sathankulam in Thoothukudi district.
.Ambedkar says, “Of the 300 families, 250 are Roman Catholics coming under the Catholic Diocese of Palayamkottai and the rest belong to CSI and Pentecostal churches.” These Dalit Christians claim that several forms of discrimination in their dioceses had forced them to opt for Hinduism.
Ambedkar alleges, “Although the missionaries obtain huge funds from abroad saying they would help our community, the funds really do not help in improving our status.” He wants the diocese to come out with a white paper on the utilisation of funds.
Alden, another Dalit Christian of Thaalaiyoothu, said, “Two generations ago, our ancestors converted from Hinduism to Christianity to get rid of the crude practice of untouchability. But the very purpose has been defeated.
We are still discriminated against on the basis of our caste. The practice of burying the dead in separate cemeteries is a classic example of caste bias. So our family of seven, including four women, has decided to return to our parent religion.”
Aware of similar caste discrimination in Hinduism, he says, “There is not going to be much of a difference. Still, we prefer to reconvert as we see Hinduism as a way of life. At least, we will be able to enjoy the benefits of reservation if we reconvert to Hinduism.”
There are four priests among those who are getting reconverted, claims Mr.Sampath. Meanwhile, the HMK has made preparations for the reconversion ceremony, which it prefers to call “Return-to-parent- religion festival.”
Sampath says, “Pontiffs will perform rituals for those returning to their original faith at the Nellaiappar temple. They will sprinkle the holy water from the river Ganges on them to endorse their entry into the Hindu fold.”
However, the organisers are now awaiting permission from the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment to conduct the ceremony at the temple. “If the government does not allow us to perform the ritual, we will accomplish it on Dr.Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on April 14 at a mandapam,” they said.
கிறிஸ்துவத்தில் இணையவைத்து என் வாழ்வை நாசமாக்கிவிட்டார்கள்- தற்கொலை செய்த பெண்ணின் கண்ணீர் கடிதம்
'டீன் ஏஜில் ஒரு பெண்ணுடைய மனதில் ஆயிரம் ஆசைகள் இருக்கும். அந்த வயதில் கிறிஸ்துவ மதத் தில் இணைய வைத்து என் ஆசைகளை பறித்து விட்டார்கள். என் வாழ்க்கையை பறித்து விட்டார்கள். கிறிஸ்து வர்களை, மதம் மாற்ற அனுமதிக்காதீர்கள். அவர்களை இந்த நாட்டை விட்டே ஓடஓட விரட்டுங்கள்.'
இதுவே தற்கொலை செய்துகொண்ட பஞ்சு ஆசாரி-ராஜேஸ்வரி தம்பதி யின் மகள் கமலாவின் கடைசி கடிதம்.
நீங்கள் என்ன செய்யப்போகிறீர்கள்?
இதுவே தற்கொலை செய்துகொண்ட பஞ்சு ஆசாரி-ராஜேஸ்வரி தம்பதி யின் மகள் கமலாவின் கடைசி கடிதம்.
நீங்கள் என்ன செய்யப்போகிறீர்கள்?
மதமாற்றம் செய்வதற்குத்தான் சேவை முகமூடி- போப்பாண்டவர் அறிவிப்பு
மதமாற்றம் செய்வதற்குத்தான் சேவை முகமூடி- போப்பாண்டவர் அறிவிப்பு
Philanthropy Isn't Enough, Insists Pope
Urges Pastors to Be Concerned With Formation
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 29, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Workers in Catholic charitable organizations must reflect evangelical love, not mere philanthropy, says Benedict XVI.
The Pope affirmed this today when he received in audience participants in the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, who are meeting to reflect on the theme: "Human and Spiritual Qualities of People Who Work in Catholic Charity Institutions."
The Pontifical Council Cor Unum coordinates and promotes the world's Catholic institutions of assistance and volunteering.
The Holy Father told them, "Charitable activity occupies a central position in the Church's evangelizing mission. We must not forget that works of charity are an important area in which to meet people who do not yet know Christ, or who know him only partially. It is right, then, that pastors and those responsible for pastoral charity work [...] should concern themselves with the human, professional and theological-spiritual formation" of people who operate in this field.
"Those who work in the many forms of charitable activity of the Church cannot, then, content themselves just with offering technical services or resolving practical problems and difficulties," he continued. "The assistance they provide must never be reduced to mere philanthropy but must be a tangible expression of evangelical love."
Charity workers, the Pontiff explained, must be, "above all, witnesses of evangelical love." They achieve this "if the ultimate aim of their mission is not that of being social service operatives, but of announcing the Gospel of charity."
"Following Christ's footsteps," he added, "they are called to be witnesses of the value of life in all its expressions, especially defending the life of the weak and the sick, following the example of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta who loved and looked after the dying, because life is not measured in terms of efficiency, but has value always and for everyone."
Ecclesial charity workers, Benedict XVI added, are also "called to be witnesses of love, of the fact that we fully become men and women when we live for others, that no one must die and live for themselves alone." And, he concluded, charity workers "must be witnesses of God, who is fullness of love and invites us to love."
Philanthropy Isn't Enough, Insists Pope
Urges Pastors to Be Concerned With Formation
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 29, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Workers in Catholic charitable organizations must reflect evangelical love, not mere philanthropy, says Benedict XVI.
The Pope affirmed this today when he received in audience participants in the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, who are meeting to reflect on the theme: "Human and Spiritual Qualities of People Who Work in Catholic Charity Institutions."
The Pontifical Council Cor Unum coordinates and promotes the world's Catholic institutions of assistance and volunteering.
The Holy Father told them, "Charitable activity occupies a central position in the Church's evangelizing mission. We must not forget that works of charity are an important area in which to meet people who do not yet know Christ, or who know him only partially. It is right, then, that pastors and those responsible for pastoral charity work [...] should concern themselves with the human, professional and theological-spiritual formation" of people who operate in this field.
"Those who work in the many forms of charitable activity of the Church cannot, then, content themselves just with offering technical services or resolving practical problems and difficulties," he continued. "The assistance they provide must never be reduced to mere philanthropy but must be a tangible expression of evangelical love."
Charity workers, the Pontiff explained, must be, "above all, witnesses of evangelical love." They achieve this "if the ultimate aim of their mission is not that of being social service operatives, but of announcing the Gospel of charity."
"Following Christ's footsteps," he added, "they are called to be witnesses of the value of life in all its expressions, especially defending the life of the weak and the sick, following the example of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta who loved and looked after the dying, because life is not measured in terms of efficiency, but has value always and for everyone."
Ecclesial charity workers, Benedict XVI added, are also "called to be witnesses of love, of the fact that we fully become men and women when we live for others, that no one must die and live for themselves alone." And, he concluded, charity workers "must be witnesses of God, who is fullness of love and invites us to love."
சூரியனில் மேரி மோசடி தொடர்கிறது: மேலும் பல குழந்தைகள் குருடு
டூரில் அழைத்துச்சென்று குழந்தைகளை சுடு மணலில் முட்டிக்கால் போடவைத்து சூரியனையே பார்த்து அதில் மேரி என்ற யூத தெய்வம் தெரிகிறதா என்று குழந்தைகளை கொடுமை படுத்துகிறார்கள் மிஷனரிகள்.
இதில் மேலும் பல குழந்தைகள் குருடாகியிருக்கின்றன
'Mary in Sun' Fraud- Missionaries arranging School Tours!
28/02/2008 15:29:02 HK
Erumeli: The Missionaries who propagated the fake news of witnessing ‘Mary in Sun’ is now cashing it by arranging Pilgrim Tours from schools to dupe innocent Kids.
Even after making many children already blind, (Fraud of 'Mary in Sun’ left many partially blind http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=5646&SKIN=K ) Missionaries are still fooling the naive .
Missionary Schools in Kanchirapally, Meenachil, Mundakayam areas are forcing even Hindu and Muslim Children to accompany their so called Pilgrimage. Kids are directed to kneel down under hot Sun on bare rocks and asked to pray Jesus by looking Sun. The shadows appearing if looked up on Sun are made believed as ‘Mother Mary’ by the nuns accompanying them!
Although Health Department hosted a Notice Board over there like a Statutory Warning in a pack of Cigarette, “ Looking Sun with Naked Eyes will Cause Blindness” , No strict action has yet taken by Education Ministry, Home Ministry to book those who harm the visual acuity of students and using such dubious ploys to attract naive Hindu kids towards Christianity. Associated with this there is a fraud shop which sells some oil and the Students are encouraged to drink that drug by paying 10 Rupees !
Hindu organisations in the area decided to counter such fraud measures of Christian Missionaries in the area aimed at converting the Naive and Innocent.
இதில் மேலும் பல குழந்தைகள் குருடாகியிருக்கின்றன
'Mary in Sun' Fraud- Missionaries arranging School Tours!
28/02/2008 15:29:02 HK
Erumeli: The Missionaries who propagated the fake news of witnessing ‘Mary in Sun’ is now cashing it by arranging Pilgrim Tours from schools to dupe innocent Kids.
Even after making many children already blind, (Fraud of 'Mary in Sun’ left many partially blind http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=5646&SKIN=K ) Missionaries are still fooling the naive .
Missionary Schools in Kanchirapally, Meenachil, Mundakayam areas are forcing even Hindu and Muslim Children to accompany their so called Pilgrimage. Kids are directed to kneel down under hot Sun on bare rocks and asked to pray Jesus by looking Sun. The shadows appearing if looked up on Sun are made believed as ‘Mother Mary’ by the nuns accompanying them!
Although Health Department hosted a Notice Board over there like a Statutory Warning in a pack of Cigarette, “ Looking Sun with Naked Eyes will Cause Blindness” , No strict action has yet taken by Education Ministry, Home Ministry to book those who harm the visual acuity of students and using such dubious ploys to attract naive Hindu kids towards Christianity. Associated with this there is a fraud shop which sells some oil and the Students are encouraged to drink that drug by paying 10 Rupees !
Hindu organisations in the area decided to counter such fraud measures of Christian Missionaries in the area aimed at converting the Naive and Innocent.
மறைந்த எழுத்தாளர் ஸ்டெல்லா புரூஸுக்கு அஞ்சலி
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ஸ்டெல்லா புரூஸின் வார்த்தைகளில்
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நன்றி அம்பலம்.காம்
எங்கள் காதல்
காதலுடன் நினைத்துப் பார்க்கிறேன்!
காதலை ஆன்மிக வேள்வியால் மடை மாற்றியவர் ஸ்ரீ.ஆண்டாள்... காதல் ஸ்தூலம் சார்ந்ததில்லை என்பதற்கு ஆண்டாள் நாச்சியாரின் கதையே சான்று. காதல் என்ற மகா உண்மையை உயிரோட்டமாகக் கொண்டிருப்பதாலேயே திருப்பாவையும்; நாச்சியாரின் திருமொழியும் சாகாவரம் பெற்றிருக்கின்றன
காதல் கதைகள் எழுதுவதில் கெட்டிக்காரரான எழுத்தாளர் ஸ்டெல்லா புரூஸ் தான் எழுதிய 'அது ஒரு நிலாக் காலம்' நாவல் அனுபவத்தைச் சொல்கிறார்.
என்னுடைய 'அது ஒரு நிலாக்காலம்' நாவலில் விவரித்துச் சொல்லப்பட்டிருந்த சம்பவங்கள், முப்பது வருடங்களுக்கு முன்பு வாழ்க்கையில் எனக்கு நடந்து முடிந்துவிட்ட சில அனுபவங்களின் தொகுப்புத்தான். அன்றைய காலகட்டத்தில்; அந்த அனுபவங்களையெல்லாம் நினைபடுத்திப் பார்த்துக் கொண்ட தொடக்கத்தில் அவையெல்லாம் ரம்மியம் மிக்க நிலாக்காலமாய் மனதிற்கு தோன்றியிருந்தாலும் கூட; இன்று அந்த காலகட்டங்களில் இருந்து முழுவதுமாக விலகி; வெகுதூரம் இடம் பெயர்ந்து வந்துவிட்ட பின்; மேலும் மேலும் பற்பல அனுபவங்களும் விரிந்து பரந்த சிந்தனைகளும் இணைந்து கொண்ட பின் எனக்கு மொத்த வாழ்க்கை என்பதே ஈடு இணையற்ற நிலாக்கால விகசிப்பாகத்தான் ஒளிர்ந்து மிளிர்கின்றது.
நிலாக்கால அழகு என்பது நிஜமாகவே சொற்களின் வர்ணனைகளுக்கும்; எண்ணத்தின் விவரிப்புகளுக்கும் அப்பாற்பட்டது. மந்தகாசமான அந்த எழிலையும் வார்த்தைகளாலும் வர்ணனைகளாலும் அப்படியே என் எண்ணத்தால் பிரதிபலித்துக் காட்டிவிட்ட ஒரே காரணத்தால்தான் 'அது ஒரு நிலாக்காலம்' நாவல் இத்தனை வருடங்கள் சென்ற பின்பும் வாசித்தவர்களின் மனங்களில் இன்றும் அழிய முடியாத அழுத்தமான இடத்தைப்
பெற்றிருக்கிறது. இதன் பொருள்-பொய் அற்ற நிஜமான தொனியில்; நிஜத்தை நிஜமாக மட்டும் சொல்லப்படுகிற
எந்த ஒரு சிறிய; அல்லது பெரிய நிறமும் அழிய வொண்ணாத அமரத்துவத்தைப் பெற்று விடும் என்பதுதான். எத்தனையோ தேசங்களில்; எத்தனையோ மொழிகளில் நிஜத்தை இம்மியளவும் நீர்த்துப் போகாமல் பதிவு பண்ணிக் காட்டப்பட்டிருக்கும் பற்பல காதல் அனுபவங்கள் எல்லாமே அமர காவியமாய் நிலைபெற்றிருப்பது இந்த அடிப்படையில்தான்.
என்னுடைய பதினைந்தாவது வயதில் நான் படிக்க நேர்ந்த ஆங்கில எழுத்தாளன் சார்லஸ் டிக்கன்ஸின் காதல் அனுபவங்களும்; காதல் இம்சைகளும் என்னுடைய இந்த அறுபதாவது வயதிலும் மறக்க முடியாத படிமங்களாய் இருக்கின்றன. வறுமைக் கோட்டுக்கும் கீழ்பட்ட இளமைப் பிராயத்தில் காதல் வயப்பட்ட பெண்ணின் நட்பைப் பெற முடியாத சார்லஸ் டிக்கன்ஸ்; மிகப்பெரும் எழுத்தாளனாக புகழும் பொருளும் பெற்றுவிட்ட பிற்காலத்தில் - இளமையில் தனக்கு கிடைக்காமல் போன அதே பெண்ணை நோக்கி; தணிந்து போகாத அதே காதல் தாகத்துடன் ஓடிய அந்த காதல் ஓட்டத்தில் மானசீகமாக நானும் கலந்து கொண்டேன். அந்த மானசீக ஓட்டம் குறிப்பிட்ட பெண் ஒருத்தியை நோக்கிய ஓட்டமாக இல்லாமல்; காதல் என்ற மகா உண்மையை நோக்கிய
ஓட்டமாகவும் என்னுள் ஓர் பிரவாகம் புறப்பட்டது.
அந்தப் பிரவாக ஓட்டத்தில் நான் சந்தித்த; மூழ்கி எழுந்த காதல் «க்ஷத்திரங்கள் எண்ணற்றவை. நேசித்த காதல் அர்த்த நாரீச்வர ஜீவன்கள் பற்பல. மேற்கத்திய சாஸ்திரிய சங்கீத மேதை பித்தோவனையும் அவனின் காதல் மங்கை ஆஸ்திரிய ராஜவம்ச தெரலேயையும் பற்றி எத்தனையோ இரவுகள் தூங்காமல் வாசித்துக் கொண்டிருந்தேன். இசை விற்பன்னன் ஷைக்காவ்ஸ்கி - டெஸிரி காதல் இம்சைகளையும் சோகங்களையும் இரவு பகல் பாராமல் வாசித்துக் கொண்டிருந்தேன்.
இந்த வரிசையில் நூற்றுக்கணக்கான ஜீவன்களைப் பற்றி குறிப்பிட்டுக் கொண்டே போகலாம். அம்பிகாபதி அமராவதி இல்லையா... லைலா மஜ்னு இல்லையா... ரோமியோ ஜூலியட் இல்லையா... எல்லாவற்றுக்கும் மேலாக மாதுஸ்ரீ. ஆண்டாள் இல்லையா? காதலை ஆன்மிக வேள்வியால் மடை மாற்றியவர் ஸ்ரீ.ஆண்டாள்... காதல் ஸ்தூலம் சார்ந்ததில்லை என்பதற்கு ஆண்டாள் நாச்சியாரின் கதையே சான்று. காதல் என்ற மகா உண்மையை உயிரோட்டமாகக் கொண்டிருப்பதாலேயே திருப்பாவையும்; நாச்சியாரின் திருமொழியும் சாகாவரம்
பெற்றிருக்கின்றன.
நிலாக்காலம் காதல் கதையை எழுதியப் பிறகு எதிர்பாராத மற்றொரு பின்விளைவு என்னவென்றால் காதல் அனுபவத்தைச் சொல்லவந்த நவீனமே பல திசைகளில் இருந்தும் என்னை நோக்கிய காதல் தாக்கங்களை ஊற்றாய் பீறிட வைத்து விட்டன. அந்தக் காதல் தாக்கங்கள் என்னை குதூகலப்படுத்தவில்லை. அந்த ஊற்றுப் பெருக்குகள் என்னை உற்சாகப்படுத்தவில்லை. மாறாக அவை என்னை ஸ்தம்பிக்கச் செய்துவிட்டன. கடும் மன இம்சையில் ஆழ்த்தி விட்டன. பெண்களின் காதல் வெளியீடுகள் - நிஜமான அன்பிற்கும்; அந்த அன்பின் அடிப்படையில் அமையும் நிஜ உறவின் உறுதுணைக்கும் ஏங்குகிற ஏக்கத்தின் பெருமூச்சுகளாகத்தான் எனக்குத் தெரிந்தன. பலராலும் உணரப்படாமல் பல பெண்களின் அடிமனங்களில் இத்தகைய ஏக்கப் பெருமூச்சுகள் புகைந்து கிடக்கின்றன. இந்தப் புகைச்சல்கள் மகிழ்ச்சியை நசித்து விடுகின்றன. நீண்ட புகைச்சல்கள் முரண்பாடுகளை ஏற்படுத்தி ஆண் - பெண் உறவை சேதப்படுத்தி விடுகின்றன. இதன் சேதாரங்கள் நாளுக்கு நாள் அதிகரித்து வருவதாகத் தெரிகிறது. என்னைப் பொறுத்தவரையில் இன்றைய நமது வாழ்க்கை அமைப்பில் மிகப் பெரும் விசனம் இதுதான். இந்த விசனம் முடிவுக்கு வர வேண்டும். இதற்கான ஒரே திறவுகோல்-TRUE LOVE.
-ஸ்டெல்லா புரூஸ்
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