Just Another Fake Miracle

Not to be out done by Jesus, Mo also makes an appearance to his beloved followers in a small town in Pakistan, where the residents are claiming that a foot print has appeared mysteriously that belonged to their prophet. The link to the video of this ‘miracle’ is below:

Needless to say, people have gone bonkers over this. Apparently what happened is that during the celebration of the birth of Prophet (called Eid Milad un Nabi), the residents of this village dug a hole in the ground and filled it with twigs and charcoal in order to use it as a makeshift stove to make traditional dishes for this occasion. Later that night, a woman claimed that she saw something glowing move at that place and voila, a miraculous footprint of their beloved prophet was born!

Obviously some people have hit a jack pot, since the place has now become a very sought after attraction and thousands are thronging there to see the ‘miracle’. Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, a scientist and an activist, is the only rational voice in the myriad of debauchery. He has written an article that tries to debunk this episode as fraud and broadly provides some rational non-supernatural reasons for the ‘miraculous foot print. His article can be read here.

This reminded me of a 1960 movie directed by Satyajit Ray titled ‘Devi’ (Hindi for goddess) or the currently running TV series by the same name on an Indian TV channel. The theme in both is same: a girl is deemed to be an incarnation of a goddess which helps in changing the fortune of the family as people start bestowing gifts to her. It happens to be a very popular phenomenon in South Asia where poor and destitute people are waiting for some divine intervention to help them solve their problems and relieve them of misery. Where it is pure foolishness on the part of those who are eager to believe such stories, it is pure wickedness on the part of those who fabricate such tales and reap benefits from the consequences.

Why Ground Zero Mosque is Wrong

Am I the only one who seems to miss the point of this? I am not only surprised but shocked at how the responsible authorities in New York could in their right frame of mind approve such a project. It makes me wonder, what exactly were they thinking, or more importantly what were they smoking?

This is wrong on many levels and those who suggested such a proposal should be ashamed of themselves as well. The so-called moderate Muslims can go about ranting that what happened on September 11, 2001 has nothing to do with Islam and that it was carried out by a very few misguided people but it would perhaps never change the fact that those who flew the planes into Twin Towers were indeed ‘misguided’ by the teachings of Islam. Besides being insensitive to those who suffered in the attack and the city of New York there are several other implications as well.

As much as I detest the fanatical elements of Islam, I have equal repugnance for those who label themselves as ‘moderates’. Feisal Abdul Rauf, the man behind the Cordoba Initiative says that people have been complaining about the lack of moderate voices of Islam and suggests that this mosque and community center will represent that voice. However, these apologists have picked a wrong place to raise the pulpit. Even for a person like me who has never visited the city of New York, any image of the Manhattan skyline brings back the nightmarish images of that fateful day. Instead of raising a monument for the memory of those innocent victims and brave firefighters who perished, the memory of Twin Tower will be putrefied by a multimillion dollar structure paying homage to a bigoted ideology.

Even if we overlook the lack of political correctness, there are still other implications which are slightly graver. It is beyond any doubt that countries like Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan are havens for nurturing jihadist, however, in some cases the inoculation of militants has taken place in countries like USA and UK. Names like Collen LaRose (aka Jihad Jane), Michael Finton and recently arrested Faisal Shahzad most probably received their first taste of jihadist doctrine on American soil. This Islamic center in the heart of New York, like several other Islamic centers around the world will also receive donations from other Islamic countries, most notably Saudi Arabia which follows the most orthodox brand of Islam. And it is a matter of simple economics that once the money starts pouring in, it also sets the direction of organizational goals.

Quite ironically the project has been named Cordoba, after a city which marked the zenith of Muslim empire and their jewel in the crown. Legend has it, that when they were driven out of Spain, the Arabs in shame untied their turbans which to this day they let hanging loose over their heads. It should not come as a surprise that once the mosque is opened in fall of 2011, there will be celebrations in various part of the world to rejoice the victory of Islam in the US of A. Almost 10 years ago the horrific events that took place in the same spot did send a proverbial ‘Mexican wave’ in most part of the Islamic world and next year the same emotions will be displayed in those very geographical locations.

The devil is so lame!

This shayateen (Arabic for devil) guy is pretty lame and quite disappointing I must say. I always thought if you put devil and a girl in the same room you might end up with some very wild orgy, but no that didn’t happen. Quite disappointing, as I said!

I have to admit that the girl did look a bit hideous at the end of this video, but that was because both she and the devil (who I think is Darth Maul’s half brother) need to take some make-up 101 courses! But she does get brownie points for being a good obedient Muslim girl, since she followed all the orders of the male character in the video.

Question: What does Poland and Islamic countries have in common?

Answer: The blasphemy law!

The Polish authorities are going to prosecute the singer Dorota Rabczewska aka Doda for saying that she believed more in dinosaurs than in a book written by people who drank too much and smoked herbal cigarettes (i.e. the Bible). And this has pissed and offended the Catholics. That’s a shame, because I thought Europe was a little bit more liberal than Islamic nations!

The downside is that freedom of speech takes another blow and this will allow other wing-nuts to draw parallel from to justify their actions when they will be “offended”. On the bright side, well, at least nobody is shouting “Death to Doda!”

By the way, I think Ms. Dorota was a bit harsh on booze and weed. I think they are not all that bad.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s “Nomad” – An Interview with Guardian

Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s new book titled “Nomad: A Personal Journey Through The Clash Of Civilisations” will be released on 13^th of May. This book is a follow up to her previous work titled “Infidel” and proposes that Christianity should act as a role model for Muslims in order to progress towards enlightenment and critical thinking. Here is an interview she gave to The Guardian.

Though, I am a great admirer of her because she has displayed enormous courage and strength throughout her life and has survived to tell the tale. Despite facing serious threats to her life, she continues to pursue the fight. However, personally I do not think that it is wise to replace one set of dogmatic ideals with another one, even though I do admit that for most part Islam is the main problem world faces today. However, it would be naïve to say that Christianity is the way out of it.

Her argument is that as compared to Islam & Muslims, Christianity and Christians are more tolerant towards criticism:

” If you compare the way Muslims take offence at perceived insults that are not insults, but are just a critical way of looking at their religion, then I start to ask myself, why are Muslims so hypersensitive to criticism and why don’t they do anything with it except to respond by denying it or playing the victim? And I’ve come to the conclusion it’s because of the gradual indoctrination – from parents, teachers – that everything in the Qur’an is true; Muhammad is infallible, you have to follow his example and defend Islam at all times, at all costs. Instead of going along as most people are doing now and saying, OK, let’s refrain from criticizing Islam, let’s refrain from calling Islamic terrorism Islamic, I think we should do the opposite”

She is obviously right in her observation that Muslims take their scripture to be infallible and that it is considered to be the duty of all Muslims to defend religion. And this is again why these very same people are going to look despicably at Christianity, because for them the “last words of god” have already been provided to them. In my opinion they will again oppose the idea of looking up at Christianity (the infidels) as a role model and the opposition will have the same ferocity as those opposing criticism of Islam.

Her rational for promoting Christianity is that there are people who are reluctant to abandon faith and for such folks she suggests enlightened Christianity that separates “not just church and state, but knowledge and church”. There are sects within Islam as well which offer a ‘spiritual solution’ for example, Sufisim which is based on non-violent concept. Then why not promote this sect in order to counter the fanatical breed which might sound less offensive to them.

She has however made some statements in the interview with which I agree completely regarding her strong belief in liberal values. She asserts her strong belief in the rights of individuals in a society saying:

“I am talking about  a denial of rights to an individual within a community: a girl’s genitals were being cut; a girl was being denied education, forced into marriage; a gay guy has to hide from his parents that he’s gay otherwise they’re going to do something to him. That is what liberalism was all about. It is offensive to me if a group of people deny rights to an individual human being in the name of their religion – and they want the rest of us to leave them alone? No way”

With all the death threats and dangers she faces because of her opinions she still believes that it is still a better life that she could have as a woman in an Islamic country, because:

“Even with protection, even with death threats, I can publish, I can travel and I can live the life that I want, and not the one my parents want, or some imam somewhere thinks I should live.”

Dawkins: If science worked like religion

I guess this is an old analogy but still found it funny, especially the last part about ‘fatwa’.

pee proves it!!

Well, well..Talk about gender discrimination, hilarity & pseudo-scientific study. I guess this guy can pee all over himself and then just sprinkle a few drops of water!!

Judgment day for Pakistani militant

Today the lone surviving terrorist, Ajmal Kasab, of the Mumbai terror attack of 2008 has been found guilty of murder and waging war against India. In November 2008, he along with 9 other Pakistanis crossed border into India and unleashed reign of terror and mayhem which left 166 people dead and many other injured. The trial even in the presence of strong forensic evidence and CCTV footage of the culprit, took over a year to complete and now Kasab waits on death row. If he is executed this will be first execution since 2004 in India.

Mohammed Ajmal Kasab

This whole episode took several twists and turns in which first Pakistan denied that the terrorists were its citizens (which was later proved and publicly accepted by Pakistani authorities) and many in Pakistan including government, media pundits and its citizens continued to rant that it is a plot set by Indians themselves to defame Pakistan and Islam (when have I not heard this lame response). Ajmal Kasab himself changed his own statements a couple of times first pleading guilty, then not guilty and then finally again reverting back to his original statement.

The trial was an important one for India since the emotions were high amongst its citizens regarding this issue and also for political reasons. And what is important is the fact that despite harboring sentiments of vendetta the legal process was followed. Tax payers’ money was spent in keeping this criminal safe from mobs who would have wanted to lynch him for murdering their loved ones. There are still those who are recovering from the aftermath of those events and then there are those who will never be able to recover from this incident. In the end, sanity and justice prevailed over anger and sentiments. And this is the process that is supposed to differentiate us from the barbarians.

Note: Even though, India has its own share of shameful acts towards religious minorities, lower order Hindu castes and women, mainly by right wing Hindu extremists, the above post is only meant to highlight the positive and mature approach in these events.

Problems with fence sitters

Although not unexpected it is still quite a pathetic display by the majority of Islamic leaders in Pakistan. The group comprising of 150 leaders of the influential and widespread Deobandi school of thought held a rare gathering but refused to conclusively condemn terrorism, militancy and suicide attacks. The purpose of this gathering according to some “was to organize the movement for enforcement of Shariah through peaceful and democratic means” while others believe it was sponsored by government “to issue a fatwa or religious edict censuring militants”. However, the result of this meeting was the issuance of the following statement:

“Whatever is happening in Pakistan or Afghanistan today is a reaction to the American policies, its increasing influence and interference in Pakistan and our government’s inability to understand this fact and side with the West.”

Right, blame it on others so you yourself do not have to take any responsibility for your own actions. Even though I am not a supporter of the ongoing military operation, primarily due to the fact that it is resulting in a huge amount of civilian ‘collateral damage’ and secondly because there are still elements within the Pakistan Army who have strong connections with the militants. The second point is also evident from the fact that the recent gathering of Deobandi leaders included heads of various organizations that have been banned due to their involvement in militant activities. Plus the warm ties the Pakistani military and its ruling elite has maintained with these militants has hardly diminished in any sense. In such circumstances it is absurd to justify any number of civilian causalities that are currently occurring.

It is quite obvious that any edict given against the actions of the extremist by any group may not actually have a positive impact, however, in a heavily religiously indoctrinated country like Pakistan it is a starting point. Such a decree will not end the maddening fanaticism but it will help in at least creating a negative opinion amongst the masses which might hamper newer generations of suicide militants. Furthermore, a unanimous declaration against militant jihad might also have encouraged opening channels of debate and dialogue, even if so in the longer run. Debates can only be initiated once the rational members of these societies consider that it is safe and conducive to engage in such activities which will in turn aid in helping many others to question dogmatic ideas. The initial step however, in this direction has to start from denouncing of the radicalism and extremism at a larger scale and pluralistic levels.

Bill Maher on extremist muslims

Bill Maher is spot on..and funny as well!