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“There are hidden facets to the sorry episode of the Babri Masjid that also implicate others”

THE LIBERHAN Report can be excused for its longwinded vacuity as also the time it took to see the light of day. But the more hilarious aspect of the aftermath of the tabling of the report is the manner in which politicians of various persuasions have reacted to it. All of them have come up with their own version of the truth. In Indian politics, truth never prevails, but all that prevails is true.

Kolkata, December 08: She could well have become the empress of India. But history chose to traverse a different course and Begum Sultana, married in the great family of Mughals, now lives in a slum in Forshore Road in Howrah with a monthly pension of Rs 400.

The British arrested Bahadur Shah Zafar and packed him off to Rangoon following the great uprising of 1857. It was in Rangoon that Bahadur Shah’s great grandson Bedar Bakht was born in 1920. Soon after, Bedar was brought to Kolkata by his parents. He continued to evade British sleuths till India gained Independence.

Afifa Ammar’s face turned livid when she heard the conversation between the driver and one of the passengers sitting next to her about the congregation of Muslim worshipers for eid prayer less than two weeks ago.

“They closed the whole street because they have some kind of Muslim festival and they were praying,” the passenger said with her eyes rolling.

“I just don’t know when we will learn the lesson about those people,” the driver answered angrily.

Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency.

Historians will indeed take a poor view of the national leadership in the critical days of 1992: a Prime Minister who was either naïve or incompetent and least interested in performing his Constitutional and legal duties: an opposition leader, who was, to say the least, a hypocrite, who had conceptualized and mobilized the people through his Rath Yatra and incited their fanaticism and then called 6 December, the saddest day of his life: a senior colleague of his who was not only a practitioner of ambiguity but a master of double talk; a Chief Minister who swore false affidavits; a political p

Discrimination against Muslims continues to grow in America, where Islamophobic rhetoric is used to smear Muslims and undermine their continuous strive for inclusion, according to a report by America’s largest Muslim civil rights group.

“There is an increase in civil rights cases, the highest reported to CAIR since the foundation of this report,” Nihad Awad, National Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told.

The group released earlier Thursday its 14th annual report on the state of Muslims civil rights in the US.

Occupied Jerusalem, December 04: The European Union accused Israel on Thursday of actively pursuing the annexation of Arab east Jerusalem and undermining hopes for peace with Palestinians, a confidential report obtained by AFP revealed.

The annual report drafted by the EU heads of missions in Jerusalem accused Israel of implementing in 2009 an intricate policy which includes expanding Jewish settlements and demolishing Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem.

Even though after 25 years hundreds of thousands of survivors of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the world’s worst industrial disaster, plagued by innumerable diseases continue to suffer incessantly the governments of the day instead of helping them out to lessen their pains think their prime duty is to downplay the whole episode to present a goody-goody picture before the world at large on 25th anniversary of the tragedy.

Even though after 25 years hundreds of thousands of survivors of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the world’s worst industrial disaster, plagued by innumerable diseases continue to suffer incessantly the governments of the day instead of helping them out to lessen their pains think their prime duty is to downplay the whole episode to present a goody-goody picture before the world at large on 25th anniversary of the tragedy.

Some moments are seared into the collective consciousness of the nation like 26/11. The utter helplessness came back to haunt on the first anniversary of India’s most wounding terror strike, but with it was a sense of resolve as thousands prepared to gather in various cities to remember the dead and also hope for a terror-free tomorrow.

Is the Burka Barbie bad for young girls and their self image? Apparently the famous auction house Southerby’s in London does not think so. It has sponsored an auction of a number of Barbies dressed in Burkas for auction.

A Burka is a head to toe costume worn by some traditionally devout Muslim women designed to conceal every part of their bodies, expect for the eyes. In the months after 9/11, during the liberation of Afghanistan from the Taliban, the Burka was seen by many in the West as a symbol of

A Muslim family sits across of me in café, in a largely Muslim Asia country. An older woman shyly hunches over and desperately trying to avoid eye contact with the giant plasma screen TV, blazing loud music on the popular music video channel, MTV. The scantily dressed presenter introduces her ‘top song’ for the week. Beyonce, dressed in so very little, annoyingly reiterates that she is “a single lady.” The old woman’s son is mesmerized by what he sees. He pays no attention to his mother, young wife or even his own son who wreaks havoc in the coffee shop.

Pakistan will face a “demographic disaster” if it does not address the needs of its young generation, the largest in the country’s history, whose views reflect a deep disillusionment with government and democracy, according to a report released here on Saturday.

The Next Generation, commissioned by the British Council and conducted by the Nielsen research company, drew a picture of a deeply frustrated young generation that feels abandoned by its government and despondent about its future.

The so-called city of white tents can accommodate millions of pilgrims for six days (during Dul Hijjah 8-13) as they complete their Haj rituals. (The Teflon-coated tents can withstand temperatures of up to 700 degrees Celsius.) Mina covers an area of 650 hectares consisting of vast plains, valleys and mountains. It is surrounded by high and steep mountains in the north and south and by Wadi Muhasar in the east.

Dear Mr. President,

You will probably not read this letter due to your busy schedule and the huge number of messages you receive from Presidents, Kings, Princes, Sheiks, and Prime Ministers. Who is a Palestinian academic from Gaza, after all, to have the guts and write an open letter to the President of the United States of America?

Most prominent TV channels have special coverage of the Haj pilgrimage, and thousands of viewers from all over the world tune in to Saudi TV’s live broadcast of the pilgrimage through satellite channels and the internet.

The sight of over 3.5 million believers from every nation of the world, united in their intention and actions, dressed in the same simple, unstitched white garments, calling out the Talbiyah (Here I am O Allah, Here I am!) going through the various stages and rituals of the Haj has been known to move even the most apathetic of viewers.

Children’s Day is to celebrate “childhood”. On Children’s Day tribute is payed to all children in the world. Children are loved by one and all. They win over our hearts with their angelic eyes and innocent smiles. It makes one realise that maybe that’s the way God wanted us to be.

Spokesmen of Maoist extremism have recently expressed regret for beheading a police officer and explained their actions as a defence of the oppressed. Their comrades’ brutality, they say, is an aberration. They cite instances of state violence to justify actions they claim are undertaken in self-defence. There is more to this than meets the eye. Maoist theory holds that India is a semi-colonial polity with a bogus constitution that must be overthrown by armed force. The comrades view all their actions as part of a revolutionary war.

A Jewish rabbi has issued a book giving Jews permission to murder non-Jews, including babies and children, who may pose an actual or potential threat to Jews or Israel.

“It is permissible to kill the Righteous among non-Jews even if they are not responsible for the threatening situation,” Rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro, who heads the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in the Yitzhar settlement in the occupied West Bank, wrote in his book “The King’s Torah.”

He argues that goyem (a derogatory epithet for non-Jews) may be killed if they threaten Israel.

A virtually unstoppable spate of suicide attacks and bombings has shaken the nerves of residents of Peshawar, the capital of the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP), hampering the cultural, social and business activities in the city.

“My nerves and confidence have been totally shattered, especially after the ongoing wave of terrorism which has rendered the city an unlivable place,” Hashim Khan, who lost two family members to a recent car bomb, told.

“Life has become totally miserable here. We have stopped coming out of our home unnecessarily.”

Several Muslims who have served or are currently serving in the military say the tragic deaths of 13 soldiers in Fort Hood, Texas, at the hands of Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan is an individual action that does not represent them, insisting that Muslims remain an integral part of the US military.

“There’s nothing we [in the military] can do about it,” Robert Salaam, a former Marine who reverted to Islam after 9/11, told IslamOnline.net.

“What Maj. Hasan did does not represent us,” he told IOL confidently.

Discussing a report by software industry group Nasscom which says that 75 percent engineering students in India are unemployable, education experts here Saturday said that the Indian higher education system must give skill building and practical training equal importance as academics to give them an edge.

A.D. Sahasrabudhu, director of the College of Engineering, Pune said that one of the major reasons why engineers, even from reputed institutes, are not easily employed is because they lack hands-on skill.

During a meeting with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, Mahmoud Abbas rejected her request to resume peace talks with Israel, senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.

“We are witnessing pressure from the Americans and a number of Arab elements to stop conditioning the renewal of negotiations on the halting of settlements,” Ynet quoted an unnamed Palestinian source.

Erakat, however, said Abbas rejected the US offer due to Israel’s refusal to “include a complete freeze of settlement activity” in a recent deal reached with US envoy George Mitchell.

Over recent days, cries of “Al-Aqsa fi khatar” (the Al-Aqsa Mosque is in danger) have crammed the vestigial, all-too-narrow public space in the Arab world. Despite the iron-fist policies of unpopular Arab leaders—buttressed by imperial Western nations—the popular outbursts witnessed in the aftermath of the sacrilegious storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque once again symbolized the very much living spirit that exists within the Ummah.

Mumbai: The popular notion is that Muslims who hold on to their identities are the ones who get isolated. However, Islamic scholars across the globe are trying to deal with this issue.