Friday, 31 May 2013

The Cult Of Music In Hinduism
Only when you enter a bhajan function or kirtan gathering you realise how important music is in Hinduism. As they say, Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life. And music is a natural expression of life. That is why, worshipping of God is also done through music in Hinduism. For Hindus, singing and music is an intensely religious act. There are many ways in which, music forms a cult in Hinduism. Here are some of the main forms of music associated with Hinduism.

Forms Of Music In Hinduism: 
(i) Aarti: An aarti is a rhythmic song sung while you are praying to God. Aarti basically refers to a process where you take a source of fire around the idol of the God you are praying to. Along with the circular motion of revolving the fire around the statue of God, a song is sung. The people standing usually give chorus to the aarti and clap their hands in union. This process promotes a sense of belonging in the gathering.
(ii) Bhajans: Bhajans are usually sung in praise of a God to invoke a deity. Bhajans and kirtans are usually done on special occasions like Navratri. Sometimes, people sing bhanjans to pass time at night when they are keeping awake. Bhanjans too have the same purpose as aartis; they promote a sense of community.
(iii) Ragas: Ragas are part of classical music. Gods have their own favourite ragas devoted to them. There is also a special raga devoted to each season and good. The Goddess of music Saraswati presides over these ragas.
(iv) Ballads: Ballads in Hinduism are much like the ballads of old English poetry. They are usually sung in praise of a deity. In Hinduism, ballads are usually dedicated to particular avatars of gods. For example, Vishnu will hymns in his honour but his avatars Ram and Krishna has ballads referring to their glories. These are some of the forms in which music is integrated into Hinduism. Which of these is your favourite form of religious music?

Courtesy: Bold Sky 

Thursday, 30 May 2013

UAE’s efforts on religious freedom praised
Abu Dhabi city gleaming in the evening light. Abu Dhabi
is the capital and second most populous city in the
United Arab Emirates (UAE), after Dubai. It is also the
seat of government of the emirate of Abu Dhabi.
Photo: Wikitravel
US Department of State report hails efforts to protect religious freedom in practice
Abu Dhabi, May 30, 2013: The US Department of State, in its International Religious Freedom Report for 2012, has praised the efforts of the UAE to protect religious freedom in practice and freedom of religious belief.

The recently-released report noted that the constitution of the UAE guarantees the freedom to exercise religious worship in accordance with established customs, provided that it does not conflict with public policy or violate public morals as Islam is the official religion of the UAE.

It further noted that the constitution of the UAE stipulates that all citizens are equal before the law, without discrimination between citizens on grounds of religious belief.

The UAE government follows a policy of tolerance toward followers of major religions who can exercise religious worship without interference from the government.


Courtesy: Gulf News
Iranian American in Iran-backed plot to kill Saudi ambassador gets 25 years
This courtroom sketch by Christine Cornell shows
Iranian-American citizen Manssor Arbabsiar, center,
as he pleads guilty in October, 2012 at New York
Federal Court to plotting with the Iranian military
to kill the Saudi ambassador to United States.
Photo: Washington Post
An Iranian American used-car salesman from Texas at the center of a bizarre plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Manhattan to 25 years in prison.

Mannsor Arbabsiar, 58, had pleaded guilty in October to a charge of murder-for-hire and two counts of conspiracy for his role in attempting to orchestrate the 2011 bombing assassination of Adel al-Jubeir while the ambassador dined at Cafe Milano, an upscale Georgetown restaurant.

Prosecutors said Arbabsiar was recruited by a cousin who was a senior official in the Quds Force, which in 2007 the Treasury Department designated a terrorist supporter, according to court papers. The group is part of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is closely aligned with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

On Thursday, the State Department said there was a “marked resurgence of Iran’s state sponsorship of terrorism” in 2012, through the Quds Force and other outlets. In its annual report on worldwide terrorism, the department said Quds “is suspected of directing planned terrorist attacks in Georgia, India, Thailand and Kenya in 2012,” along with the 2011 plot.

Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, linked Arbabsiar to Iran. “Arbabsiar was an enemy among us — the key conduit for, and facilitator of, a nefarious international plot concocted by members of the Iranian military,” he said. “Our commitment to using every resource we have to root out, prosecute and punish people like Arbabsiar, who act as emissaries for our enemies, remains unflagging.”

Arbabsiar, a serial failure in business, seemed an unlikely conspirator and Iran denied any involvement in the plot. But prosecutors said he made calls to a Quds Force official after his arrest that the FBI secretly recorded. And despite persistent financial trouble, he made a $100,000 down payment on the $1.5 million fee demanded by a man he thought was a Mexican drug cartel associate who would carry out the bombing. In fact, the purported assassin was a confidential source for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

During a trip to Iran in the early spring of 2011, Arbabsiar’s cousin, Abdul Reza Shahlai, told him that he wanted him to hire someone who could kidnap the Saudi ambassador. Arbabsiar, who lived in Round Rock, Tex., apparently told his cousin and others that he knew people involved in the narcotics business.

Arbabsiar made a number of trips to Iran in 2011 and the plot evolved into a planned assassination. Prosecutors, in arguing for the maximum 25-year sentence, said Arbabsiar understood that any bombing would result in mass casualties but didn’t care.

“No big deal,” he said when given an estimate of 100 to 150 potential casualties at the restaurant, according to the government.

Arbabsiar was arrested in September 2011 after he was refused entry to Mexico and placed on a flight that routed him through New York.

Gholam Shakuri, Arbabsiar’s principal contact in Iran, also was indicted and remains at large.

Defense lawyers had asked U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan to impose a 10-year sentence. They said their client suffered from bipolar disorder and experienced hypermanic episodes. They said his cooperation after his arrest demonstrated “sincere remorse.” Prosecutors said he stopped cooperating.

“Deterrence is of supreme importance” Keenan said. “Others who might have financial or political purpose in engaging in acts of violence against the United States or its interests must learn the lesson that such conduct will not be tolerated.”

Courtesy: Washington Post
Iran amends law on stoning to death for adultery
Iran has reportedly amended its internationally condemned law on stoning convicted adulterers to death to allow judges to impose a different form of execution.

The controversial practice, in which stones are thrown at the partially buried offender, has provoked outcries from human rights organisations, international bodies and Western countries urging Iran to abandon it.

An article of Iran's Islamic new penal code, published earlier this week, states that, "if the possibility of carrying out the (stoning) verdict does not exist," the sentencing judge may order another form of execution pending final approval by the judiciary chief.

The article does not explain what is meant by the possibility of stoning not existing.

In Iran, executions are normally carried out by hanging.

Under Iran's interpretation of Islamic Sharia law in force since its 1979 revolution, adultery is punished by the stoning of convicted adulterers.

Women are buried up to the their shoulders, but men only up to their waists. They are spared if they manage to free themselves before dying.

Murder, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking are also punishable by death in Iran, which has one of the highest annual execution counts in the world, alongside China, Saudi Arabia and the United States.


At least 150 people may have been stoned in Iran since 1980, the International Committees against Execution and Stoning said in 2010.


According to local media, MPs had removed stoning altogether from the bill that they adopted. But the hardline Guardians Council of clerics and jurists, which must approve all legislation before it enters into force, reinserted it, with the new amendment.

The United Nations has urged Iran to ditch stoning as a method of execution, with its experts saying last year that adultery does not constitute a serious crime by international standards.

World criticism reached a strident pitch in 2011 when reports said a married woman, Sakieneh Mohammadi Ashtiani, was about to be stoned over "illicit relationships" with two men.

Iran halted the stoning, but Mohammadi Ashtiani, sentenced in 2006, is serving a 10-year sentence on separate charges of complicity in the murder of her husband in a lovers' spat.

Her stoning could still be carried out. In December 2011, a local judicial official said that judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani had decided "to wait to get the view of other religious scholars" before making a final decision.

The last reported case of stoning was in 2009, when an unidentified man was stoned to death in the northern city of Rasht.

That came despite a directive in 2002 by then judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi to suspend the practice. His call failed to force any changes to the penal code.

Edited for Telegraph.co.uk by Barney Henderson

Courtesy: The Telegraph 
Florida executes man who raped, murdered 10-year-old
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A convicted child molester condemned for the 1990 rape and murder of a 10-year-old Florida girl has been executed at the Florida State Prison.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott's office said 56-year-old inmate Elmer Carroll was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. Wednesday at the prison in Starke.

Carroll had been convicted of first-degree murder and sexual battery in the rape and strangling death of Christine McGowan. The girl lived with her family next door to a halfway house for homeless men where Carroll was staying in Apopka.

During Carroll's two decades on death row, his lawyers argued he was too mentally ill to stand trial or be subjected to the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court denied that petition.

Carroll previously had been imprisoned twice for indecent assault on a child.

Courtesy: USA Today

Wednesday, 29 May 2013

Researchers turn cement into metal
~~By Tona Kunz
May 27, 2013: In a move that would make the Alchemists of King Arthur's time green with envy, scientists have unraveled the formula for turning liquid cement into liquid metal. This makes cement a semi-conductor and opens up its use in the profitable consumer electronics marketplace for thin films, protective coatings, and computer chips.

Photo: Close-up visualizations of (A) the HOMO and (B) LUMO single-particle electron states in the 64CaO glass. Both states are spin-degenerate, and h1 labels the cavity (cage) occupied by LUMO. Yellow and magenta stand for different signs of the wave-function nodes. (C) Simulation box and the electron spin-density of the 64CaO glass with one oxygen subtracted at h2—that is, with two additional electrons. The two electrons have the same spin and they occupy separate cavities, h1 (boundary, also shown in B) and h2 (center, location of removed oxygen), which are separated by 12 Å from each other. (D) Cage structure around the spin-density of one electron cor- responding to the h2 cavity (close-up from C). Al, gray; Ca, green; O, red. Credit: ANL
"This new material has lots of applications including as thin-film resistors used in liquid-crystal displays, basically the flat panel computer monitor that you are probably reading this from at the moment," said Chris Benmore, a physicist from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory who worked with a team of scientists from Japan, Finland, and Germany to take the "magic" out of the cement-to-metal transformation. Benmore and Shinji Kohara from Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute/SPring-8 led the research effort.

This change demonstrates a unique way to make metallic-glass material, which has positive attributes including better resistance to corrosion than traditional metal, less brittleness than traditional glass, conductivity, low energy loss in magnetic fields, and fluidity for ease of processing and molding. Previously only metals have been able to transition to a metallic-glass form. Cement does this by a process called electron trapping, a phenomena only previously seen in ammonia solutions. Understanding how cement joined this exclusive club opens the possibility of turning other solid normally insulating materials into room-temperature semiconductors.

"This phenomenon of trapping electrons and turning liquid cement into liquid metal was found recently, but not explained in detail until now," Benmore said. "Now that we know the conditions needed to create trapped electrons in materials we can develop and test other materials to find out if we can make them conduct electricity in this way."

The results were reported May 27 in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the article "Network topology for the formation of solvated electrons in binary CaO–Al2O3 composition glasses".

The team of scientists studied mayenite, a component of alumina cement made of calcium and aluminum oxides. They melted it at temperatures of 2,000 degrees Celsius using an aerodynamic levitator with carbon dioxide laser beam heating. The material was processed in different atmospheres to control the way that oxygen bonds in the resulting glass. The levitator keeps the hot liquid from touching any container surfaces and forming crystals. This let the liquid cool into glassy state that can trap electrons in the way needed for electronic conduction. The levitation method was developed specifically for in-situ measurement at Argonne's Advanced Photon Source by a team led by Benmore.

The scientists discovered that the conductivity was created when the free electrons were "trapped" in the cage-like structures that form in the glass. The trapped of electrons provided a mechanism for conductivity similar to the mechanism that occurs in metals.

To uncover the details of this process, scientists combined several experimental techniques and analyzed them using a supercomputer. They confirmed the ideas in experiments using different X-ray techniques at Spring 8 in Japan combined with earlier measurements at the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source and the Advanced Photon Source.

Courtesy: Phys.org
IITians teach madrasa teachers physics, maths
~~Seema Chishti
Thirty maulanas are attending the 5-day workshop
in Taleemabad, near Jamia Hamdard
New Delhi, Sun May 26 2013: A team of physicists from IIT-Delhi is conducting a five-day workshop to teach the subject to madrasa instructors in Taleemabad, near Jamia Hamdard. Speaking to a class of 30 madrasa instructors-turned-students, Vipin Tripathi, Dr Sanat Mohanty and Dr Pawan Kumar began their workshop by talking about bridges. The earnest maulanas, from Delhi and Faridabad, participate enthusiastically, as they are asked to figure out why a corrugated sheet makes for a sturdier bridge than a plain one. Principles like elasticity are explained effortlessly as instructors talk of building a bridge in a village.

The metaphor is carefully chosen, as Dr Sanat Mohanty, an IIT professor, tells them that the idea is to respect differences.

"There are several ways of handling oppression. We need different tools to tackle it. Just sheer power is sometimes not enough. We need to enhance our capabilities, understand and improve critical thinking among youngsters and allow them to play with complex ideas, theories, be able to distinguish right from wrong and handle injustice. And build bridges with people different from us," he says.

Teaching the madrasa instructors is one of many such initiatives piloted by Sadbhav Mission, a 24-year old organisation working for peace and amity by enhancing the skills of those considered marginalised, helping them find virtue in education, beyond careers, and to enable them claim their rights.

Led by former IIT professor Vipin Tripathi, who has done similar work in Gujarat, Bhagalpur and Azamgarh, Sadbhav Mission's objective is to de-jargonise mathematics and science and use fundamental principles, to help teachers, who live in neglected areas, discover a sense of liberation in science and strengthen rational thinking.

After two days of physics and engineering, there would be three days for mathematics, where principles of banking, accounts, elementary calculations of profit and loss and plotting graphs would be explained, enabling those present to manage small businesses and organise their lives.

Ismail Ghazi of Hamdard Education Society, who has organised this workshop, said: "Several people, who have only attended a few workshops, have set up computer training schools, small training centres, or even helped their students organise household accounts or manage their shops better."

Naeem Azhar, a mathematics teacher at Milli Model School in Abul Fazal Enclave who attended the workshop, said: "I have learnt some new ideas on how to explain complex things to students."

Yamuna Vihar-based Shaoor Ahmed of the Shiksha Adhikar Abhiyan, says: "We have to start a movement that makes the government ensure that India is educated, irrespective of class or community."

Courtesy: The Indian Express
Islam's War of Annihilation Against Hindus
India besieged.
~~By Arnold Ahlert
A thought-provoking essay written by Narain Kataria, president of the Indian American Intellectuals Forum, sounds a familiar alarm. "Hinduism Faces Eclipse" reveals that "the anti-Hindu forces within and without India are working in tandem on an insidious mission to destroy our civilization and culture, and obliterate Hinduism from the Indian soil." Kataria further contends that Indians are not facing terrorism, but worldwide jihad, which he calls a "fully globalized franchise...working overtime to destroy all non-Muslim nations."

Muslims currently comprise 20 percent of India's 1.2 billion population, the rest of which is overwhelmingly Hindu. But as Narain points out, Indian Muslims have engaged in a series of attacks on Hindu citizens, temples, religious festivals and unarmed pilgrims. He reminds us that a month after the 9/11 attacks in the United States, a proclamation was issued on Al Jazeera television promising that "Hindu India" would also be targeted for jihad. Two months after that, a suicide squad assaulted India's Parliament House in New Delhi on December 13, 2001, killing 9 and wounding 18.

Since then thousands of terror attacks have besieged India. The city of Mumbai alone has been terrorized on four separate occasions. On March 12, 1993, 13 separate explosions in various parts of the city killed 257 and wounded more than 700. Most of the terrorists involved received arms and training in Pakistan, and Indian authorities contend the Pakistani intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was actively involved as well. On July 11, 2006, a series of pressure-cooker bombs exploded on commuter trains, killing 209 and wounding over 700. Once again, the ISI was involved, along with the Pakistani Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba, and the Students' Islamic Movement of India, according to Mumbai police. On November 26, 2008, another wave of terror attacks perpetrated by Muslims targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish center, a tourist restaurant and a crowded train station. Another 166 people were killed and more than 300 were wounded. And on July 13, 2011 three separate bomb blasts killed 26 and injured 130.

As recently as July 2012, riots in the state of Assam initiated by Muslim infiltrators from Bangladesh resulted in at least 74 deaths. Several Hindu women were raped and then chopped into pieces during the attacks.

Kataria blames these and other atrocities on "India's decadent culture of political correctness and pock-marked 'taqaiyah' of 'paid news,' when no national leader dare muster the courage to speak truth." The New York Times echoed that assertion when they covered India's 2008 election campaign, noting that the nation's fight against terror is "complicated by a political landscape in which parties vie for Hindu and Muslim voters' loyalty." Kataria told FrontPage that the Indian government "doesn't understand Sharia," and that the "politicians are afraid of Muslims" because they have organized highly effective political blocs, capable of removing anyone who would even suggest India is under Islamic siege.

The blocs' ultimate purpose? "Muslims want to finish India as soon as possible," contends Kataria.

Incrementalism is one of the key strategies employed by the Islamists. Thus it is no surprise Sharia courts have been successfully established in various parts of the country, including Hyderabad, Patna and Malegaon. As recently as two weeks ago, a Sharia court was set up in terror-scarred Mumbai by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB). Sounding familiar rhetoric, AIMPLB secretary Maulana Wali Rahmani contended that Sharia courts do not complete with India's civil courts. "On the contrary, Shariah courts will lower the burden of the civil courts where thousands of cases are pending and the judges are overworked," he said.

Incrementalism is further explained by Times of India senior journalist Ramesh Khazanchi, who cites a series of events, including the banning of "Vishwaroopam," a film critical of Islam, in Tamil Nadu theaters; the blacklisting of author Salman Rushdie at various literary festivals; and the war-mongering of the Owaisi brothers, leaders of  the Muslim group Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), who have threatened Hindus with annihilation, as more evidence that the "aggressive Indian Muslim has thus been emboldened by the state."

Kataria notes that Hindus have ignored previous warning signs of such aggression, citing a 1986 court case involving the arrest and prosecution of two Hindus, who published and circulated a poster containing 24 Quranic "ayats" under the heading, "Why Riots Take Place in the Country." The 24 ayats commanded Muslims to fight against the followers of other religions. The prosecutors submitted that they were distorted versions of what was said in the Quran. Yet the judge ruled in favor of the two men, noting that the ayats were accurate. Kataria explained that neither the Muslim community nor the Delhi government ever filed an appeal against the ruling. "It is high time that the partisan members of the NAC (National Advisory Council) read the aforesaid historical judgment and the relevant ayats of the Quran to understand the growing cult of communal violence, even after partition of the country," Kataria contends.

The partition to which Kataria refers is the division of India in 1947 into Pakistan and India, after the nation gained independence from Britain. The division was along sectarian lines and, as the official break-up grew closer, a religious civil war ensued. The "Great Calcutta Killing," during which 5,000-10,000 people were killed and some 15,000 wounded, was precipitated by the Muslim League, which sponsored a "Direct Action" program containing 23 points promoting jihad against Hindus.

In 2011, Kataria addressed that part of his nation's history. "India was partitioned in 1947 on the basis of two-nation theory as propounded by the Muslim League Party," he explained. "Pakistan was immediately declared as an Islamic state. The corollary of that action was that India should have been declared a Hindu state. But that did not happen. It was a monumental blunder committed by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Congress Party." He then explained why such a solution was necessary. "Secularism, as practiced in India, has become synonymous with the Hindu-bashing, while Hinduism has become a dirty word in the lexicon of country's 'secular' fundamentalists."

Speaking with FrontPage, Kataria reveals that his feelings about Islam remain unchanged. He spoke of being born in Pakistan, "where I was threatened with death if I did not leave." He claims he has seen "Muslims rape and kill with my own eyes," even as he "watches Islam capturing countries one by one." Although he has made America his home for the last 45 years, he remains highly concerned about his country, which he fears is heading towards a religious-based civil war. In his essay, he explains that such a war is "likely to be powered by the twin factors of fast growing jihadi attacks and galloping increase in the proportion of the Muslim population." Regarding the latter reality, he believes that the combined Muslim population of the Indian sub-continent will be greater than that of Hindus within the next thirty to forty years.

Kataria is highly critical of those in positions of power. "Unfortunately despite centuries-old violent encounters with jihadi Islam neither the Indian government, nor the comatose Hindu leadership, have learnt any strategic lesson," he writes. "Time has come for Hindu leaders and masses to remember Arnold Toynbee's famous quote: 'Civilizations die from suicide, not murder.' Time has come to face the jihad courageously and stop sleep walking towards [the] suicide cliff."

Kataria worries that the United States is walking towards the same cliff, for the same politically correct reasons. "I do not want the US to be destroyed by Islam," he told FrontPage. When asked if so-called moderate Muslims were equally worrisome, he scoffed at the notion. "There is no such thing as a moderate Muslim," he contended. "That means you don't follow the Koran." He believes all true Muslims are "soldiers," and that the Koran "teaches violence."

There is no question that Kataria's views conflict with the prevailing ethos promoted by the Obama administration. One is left to wonder how long Americans will countenance Obama and company's polar opposite approach, one that consists of such realities as labeling the slaughter of American GIs by Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood as "workplace violence," the grim determination to keep the word "Islamic" from being attached to the terror perpetrated at the Boston Marathon, or the scrubbing of law-enforcement training manuals of language that accurately depicts the threat we face from global jihadism.

Those who might find some of Kataria's views offensive might consider how they would feel if terrorist attacks were being perpetrated in America at the same rate they are being perpetrated in India. Kataria worries that someday America will also be subjected to semi-regular terrorist attacks perpetrated by an increasing population of home-grown Islamic terrorists. We ignore his warnings at our own peril.

Arnold Ahlert is a columnist for FrontPage Magazine

Courtesy: The Patriot Post
The Muslim Jihad Against Hinduism
~~By Narain Kataria (http://narainkataria.blogspot.com)
Photo, Courtesy: History of Jihad
28--5--2013: The conquest of India by Islamic invaders is a long and dreadful narrative of multiple ferocious wars between the invaders and the valiant Hindu Rajas who ruled over different parts of India during medieval times. The barbaric invaders, including Muhammad Ghauri and Babur, took morbid delight in building towers of the skulls of slaughtered 'kaffirs' (read Hindus), a stark fact, proudly recorded by a number of Muslim historians in great detail. Most braveheart Hindu rulers zealously defended their motherland, their subjects and above all their honor at a terrible cost; unlike the Arab conquest of the Persian empire within a short span of two decades and similar fate of Byzantine empire and smaller kingdoms of central Asia. In sharp contrast, the Islamic invaders had to fight multiple tortuous, gut-wrenching battles for centuries to subjugate the Hindus. The resistance offered by the masses to invaders and freebooters was formidable indeed. Occasionally there were some traitors, too, like Raja Jaichand of Kannauj, whose name has become synonymous with treachery.

The hostility between two kingdoms, namely the Chauhans of Rajasthan and Gahadwala Rajputs of Kannauj was a major cause of the defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan in 1192. Had the armies of two gutsy Hindu rulers stood united in the battle of Tarain, the invading armies could have been defeated.

The atrocities committed by Muslim rulers on Sikhs of Punjab and Marathas in south were horrendous. Jahangir had murdered the fifth Sikh Guru Arjan Dev in a most diabolical manner. The epitome of courage Arjan Dev was made to sit on a hot plate and hot sand was poured on him to torture him to death. Later on Aurangzeb, the cruelest of all Muslim kings not only beheaded Guru Tegh Bahadur, but also murdered four gallant sons of Guru Gobind Singh. Two elder sons, Sahibzade Ajit Singh and Junjhar Singh attained martyrdom in 1704 during the battle of Chamkaur Sahib, while the younger sons Fateh Singh and Zorawar Singh were bricked alive in 1705 at Sirhind by Faujdar Wazir Khan, under orders of Aurangzeb.

Starting with the invasion of Sind by Muhammad bin Qasim in 712 A.D. the next 900 years witnessed a relentless onslaught by hordes of Muslim invaders pouring in through Khyber and Bolan passes. Among the barbaric murderers and freebooters were Mahmud Ghazanvi, Muhammad Ghauri, Babur, Ahmad Shah Abdali and Nadir Shah. In fact, Guru Nanak has given in the Babur Vani a vivid description of the atrocities committed by invaders on the hapless Hindus of Punjab and north-western India. According to the eminent historian, Will Durant, "the Mohammedan conquest of India is perhaps the bloodiest story of history". He calls it a discouraging tale, for its only lesson was that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace could be overthrown at any time by barbarians invading from without and multiplying within." [Source: Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Part I, p. 459].

A detailed narrative of the tyranny and atrocities committed by Muslim invaders was given by a well known Muslim author and thinker, Rizwan Salim, who wrote in The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, on December 28, 1997, an article titled, "What the invaders really did?" justifying the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992. Rizwan Salim highlighted that the wrecking of Hindu temples went on from the early years of the eighth century to well past 1700 A.D. a period of almost 1000 years. [Source : The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, December 28, 1997]. Every Muslim ruler of Delhi (or Governor of the Province) spent most of his time fighting the Hindu kings in the north and the south, the east and west. Rizwan continues emphasizing that "savages at a very low level of civilization and no culture worth the name began entering India from the early eighth century onwards. Islamic invaders demolished Hindu temples, destroyed unaccountable sculptures and idols, plundered innumerable palaces and forts of the Hindu kings, killed vast number of Hindu men and carried off Hindu women. This story, the educated - and lot of even the illiterate Indians - know very well. The history books recount it in a remarkable detail. [Source: Ibid].

Barely 66 years after independence, India's Hindu identity and centuries old ethos are again in grave peril. Sharply growing attacks on innocent Hindu citizens, their temples and targeting of unarmed pilgrims going to Amarnath and Vaishnodevi and repetitive attacks on Hindu festivals are clear pointers to the rising crescendo of a virulent jihad being waged against Hindus of India. Soon after Al Qaeda's attack on twin towers on September 11, 2001, a proclamation was made on Al Jazeera Television channel in October 2001 that in addition to the Christians and Jews, henceforth the so-called 'Hindu India' will also be the target of Islamic jihad. Within two months of that announcement a determined and indoctrinated group of Pakistan-trained Jihadis (including Afzal Guru and several others) attacked the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001. Thereafter thousands of terrorist attacks have been made across the country from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari. The avowed goal of jihadi warriors has been to destroy the faith of Hindu masses by terrorizing them in a bid to destroy their resolve to fight back - a strategy ordained in their scriptures and elaborately explained by a retired Pakistani Brigadier S.K. Malik in his book, The Quranic Concept of War. Unfortunately, the two most important facts that a regular jihad has been declared against Hindus of India, and that terrorism will be used as strategic tool in this holy war have been kept under wraps by political leadership and mainstream English media.

In India's decadent culture of political correctness and pock-marked 'taqaiyah' of "paid news", when no national leader dare muster the courage to speak truth, it fell to the lot of that irrepressible police officer, K.P.S. Gill , to speak out boldly in September, 2006, at a gathering of college students in Mumbai that the jihadis were trying to destroy the Hindu civilization. Gill's bluntspeak was indeed a timely warning. It is time, we Indians, smelt gunpowder rather than smelling coffee. We must realize that the dice of terror is heavily loaded against us on many counts, both internally and externally. Sandwiched as we are between the two terror factories of Pakistan and Bangladesh, the millennia-old Hindu civilization is under siege. Yet the ruling political dispensation continues to blame the peace-loving Hindus of unleashing 'saffron terror' against the Muslim minority. Although the sacred saffron color has been the traditional symbol of the valor and sacrifices of Hindus and Sikhs in defense of our motherland, today it is used in a pejorative sense by vote-bank besotted politicians and our 'paid media'. They don't understand that freedom-fighters had placed 'color saffron' on top of Indian tricolor to boost and promote the spirit of sacrifice among Indians. These anti-national dimwits need to be reminded that it was not for nothing that Sardar Bhagat Singh sang, "Mera rang de basanti chola" to his mother while he stood in Death Row. A clumsy attempt is being made to pass a law titled 'Prevention of Communal & Targeted Violence Bill'. The bill is being pushed in the Parliament to harass the majority community by blaming them for the rising crescendo of communal riots across India.

In her seminally researched tome, 'The Politics of Communalism', published in 1989, Zenab Banu, a Muslim scholar, had analyzed 74 cases of Hindu-Muslim riots which occurred between 1953 and 1977. She found that in 75 percent cases the rioting had been started by the Muslim community. To comprehend what causes communal violence, the National Advisory Council (NAC) and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson are advised to read Zenab Banu's scholarly book.

    Equally relevant for understanding the cause of fast-rising communal tension in India and abroad is the judicial verdict pronounced by Z.S. Lohat, Metropolitan Magistrate of Delhi on July 31, 1986, in a case under sections 153-A and 295-A IPC filed by Delhi police against two Hindus, Indra Sain Sharma and Rajkumar Arya, for publishing and circulating a poster in Hindi citing 24 ayats of the Quran under the caption, 'Why Riots Take Place in the Country'. The ayats cited in the poster were taken verbatim from an authentic edition of the Quran translated in Hindi and published by a Muslim scholar, Mohammed Farooq Khan of Maktaba al-Hasnat of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh. In his book the author had provided the original Arabic text of the Quran, along with Hindi and English translations reproduced in parallel columns. On the basis of a complaint lodged with the police the two Hindu activists were arrested and charged under Sections 153-A and 295-A of the Indian Penal Code for circulating 24 ayats of the Quran which commanded the Muslims to fight against the followers of other religions. The ayats of Quran cited by the two accused persons were 9.5, 9.28, 4.101, 9.123, 4.56, 9.23, 9.37, 5.5, 33.61, 21.98, 32.22, 48.20, 8.69, 66.9, 41.27, 41.28, 9.111, 9.58, 8.65, 5.51, 9.29, 5.14, 4.89 and 9.14.

The poster further added that "there are numerous other ayats of the same sort. Here we have cited only twenty-four ayats. Obviously these ayats carry commandments which promote enmity, ill-will, hatred, deception, fraud, strife, robbery and murder. That is why riots take place between Muslims and non-Muslims in this country as well as (the rest of) the world." The poster claimed, "In the above mentioned twenty-four ayats of the Quran Majid, Mussalmans are commanded to fight against the followers of other faiths. So long as these ayats are not removed (from the Quran), riots in the country cannot be prevented.

On behalf of the government the Assistant Public Prosecutor argued that the ayats at serial No. 2,5,9, 11 to 19 and at serial No.22 in the poster were either not in the Quran, or that they were distorted version of the ayats in the Quran. The accused, however, rebutted the arguments of the government prosecutor and asserted that the ayats cited by them were part of the Quran and had been taken verbatim from the book of Mohammed Farooq Khan and these do exhort the Muslims to fight against the followers of other faiths. They submitted that so long as these ayats continued to be part of the Quran Majeed, communal riots in India cannot be prevented.

After hearing both sides and discussing their arguments, the learned Metropolitan Magistrate discharged the two Hindus, Inder Sain Sharma and Rajkumar, on the ground that prima facie there was no case made out against them. No charge could be framed against the two accused persons because the ayats reproduced in the poster were found to be true and correctly reproduced. The learned Magistrate stated in his order, "I have personally compared the disputed ayats with Quran Majeed (translated in Hindi) with notes by one Mohd Farookh Khan and found that the most of the ayats have been reproduced in the poster in the original form as is available in the Quran Majeed". The learned Magistrate concluded, "In view of the above discussion, I am therefore of the view that there is no prima facie case against the accused as the offences alleged against the accused do not fall prima facie within the four corners of Sections 153-A /295-A." The aforesaid judicial verdict clearly endorsed the view that certain ayats in the Quran have the potential to create communal violence! It is a matter of record that no appeal was filed against the historic judgment by the leaders of the Muslim community on whose complaint the two Hindus were arrested and prosecuted by the police. Apparently they knew very well that their holy book did preach hatred and violence against non-Muslims and for that reason they dare not challenge the judicial verdict by appealing to the High Court. Equally important is the fact that the Delhi government, too, did not think it prudent to file an appeal against the judgment and allowed the judicial truth to remain on record unchallenged. It is high time that the partisan members of the NAC read the aforesaid historical judgment and the relevant ayats of the Quran to understand the growing cult of communal violence, even after partition of the country !

The proposed law, invented by NAC, gives the right to veto exclusively to the minority community in matters concerning communal violence by defining them as 'the group' and by vesting extra-constitutional powers in a seven members super-outfit called the National Authority for Communal Harmony. This super-outfit comprising four members of the minority communities (including the Chairman and the Vice Chairman, both belonging to the minority community) has been assigned the responsibility for directing and overseeing the administration of the proposed vicious legislation. The deliberate inclusion of a provision sidelining the majority community in constituting the so-called National Authority shows the immense distrust in the majority community and aims at promoting hatred against them. Interestingly the term 'group" used in the bill applies only to the minority groups (both religious and linguistic). The draft bill does not make even a cosmetic pretense of protecting the so-called majority against violent attacks by members of the 'group'.

The Bill aims at making the police, including the process of investigation, subservient to the whims of the minority-community-dominated National Authority. It is common knowledge that most communal riots cannot be controlled easily by the meager manpower presently available at a police station in India, or for that matter, even in a district. Worldwide there is a norm of at least 225 policemen for one lakh (one hundred thousand) of population. But in India the ratio of police to the population ranges between 125 to 150 per one lakh (one hundred thousand) of the total population. Despite repetitive jihadi attacks across the country and fast-paced spread of communal politics by vote-bank-besotted politicians, India remains the least and most ineffectively policed country. As against a measly manpower of 15-16 lakh policemen spread across 35 States and Union Territories, today the number of privately organized security guards in India stands at nearly 54 lakhs !

Apparently the members of the NAC of Sonia Gandhi do not know that every riot, especially a communal conflagration, erupts suddenly like a tornado and rips through its trajectory at a furious pace. Thereafter the storm of violence tends to slow down mostly on fourth or fifth day, after reinforcements are mustered and positioned. The NAC ought to know that it takes considerable time to collect additional manpower and procure reinforcements. The proposed Bill unfairly aims at penalizing the police officers and district magistrates on the bogus and trumped-up charge of partiality. Frankly, no member of the NAC appears to have the faintest idea of the anatomy and dynamics of riots. Nor are they aware of the ferocious momentum of riots and their un-anticipatable trajectory. They have no idea, absolutely none, of the methodology of riot control, much less any clue about the real cause of the mischief. None of the members of the NAC appears to have any "hands-on" experience of controlling a communal riot! Before embarking upon the anti-constitutional path chosen by them to blame Hindus for every riot, they will do well to learn a thing or two from the London riots of August 2011 which rapidly spread to nearly two dozen cities and could be controlled only after substantial reinforcements were spread across the riot's trajectory and its furious pace had slowed down on the fifth day!

It is time that every Hindu and Sikh realizes that his ancient civilizational identity is under siege both internally and externally. The Hindu identity of India is under serious demographic threat, perhaps far more perilously than the Christian identity of Europe which continent is likely to become Muslim dominated in another 50 to 60 years. As pointed out by late Mari Bhat and Francis Zavier, two well known demographers, in a research study "the fertility of Muslims, which was about 10 per cent higher than that of Hindus before independence, is now 25 to 30 per cent higher than the Hindu rate". Furthermore, they disclosed that during the next 95 years (i.e., by 2101) the Muslim population will grow by 130 per cent, while that of Hindus will grow by only 50 per cent, even though Hindus will continue to remain the majority community. The following two major demographic trends are clearly visible:

i) First, any time between 2051 and 2071 the combined Muslim population of the sub-continent (i.e., India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, all counted together) will exceed the total Hindu population of the sub-continent; and

ii) Second, by 2101 India will have a large number of Muslim majority districts in the country, spread out across nearly ten States, including Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

The definitive clue to the alarming demographic crisis likely to engulf India in near future is written across Statement 7 on page xlii of the Census 2001 Religion Data Report which provides the details of religious composition of 0-6 years old cohorts. An analysis of the 0-6 years old children (cohorts) reveals the following facts:

a) Although in 2001, Muslims constituted only 13.4 percent of India's population, their percentage in 0-6 years group was higher than Hindus by 21 percent thus giving them a headstart advantage of 7.6 percent in the matter of reproduction when these cohorts enter reproductive age, say any time after 2011 and beyond.

b) It is well known, even officially admitted, that the acceptance of family planning among Muslims was 25 percent lower than among Hindus. The result: from 2015 onwards for the next three decades the growth rate of Muslims will be much faster than what has been witnessed during the last three decades.

c) Out of 35 States and Union Territories (listed in Census 2001 Report), the percentage of 0-6 years Muslim cohorts is higher than that of Hindu cohorts in as many as 31 States and Union Territories (excepting Madhya Pradesh and Sikkim and 2 Union Territories of Andamans & Nicobar Islands and Daman & Diu where Hindu cohorts have a marginal advantage).

d) Due to fast declining proportion of Hindu cohorts, in the coming decades the percentage of youthful component among Hindus and Sikhs will go down substantially, while the youthful component of Muslims will remain much higher. That could spell trouble, as highlighted by Huntington, because aggressive youthful jihadis could overwhelm the sedate, introvert and ageing non-Muslims.

And moving forward let us look at another siege within - an equally challenging one. Due to sheer collapse of governance across the country, Pakistan's ISI has been able to establish a mammoth network of several thousand fifth-columnists to whom may be added several lakh sympathizers, including some Jaichandi politicians. They facilitate frequent jihadi attacks. And propelled and sustained by the double-barreled oxygen cylinder of foreign money and mega publicity, a powerful pro-terrorist lobby has been thriving which poses a sinister threat from within. This pro-terror cabal was seen in full cry against the nation's security apparatus when Isharat Jahan, a Lashkar-e-Tayeba mole, was killed in an encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. The same lobby was into overdrive in an unseemly bid to seek clemency for Afzal Guru, the kingpin of Pakistan's jihadi onslaught on India's Parliament. Its malefic influence was manifestly visible during the visit of U.S. President, George Bush, to India in the first week of March 2006. No sane person could have imagined that the second publication of prophet Muhammad's cartoons in some European journals in February, 2006 , and the subsequent visit of the U.S. President in March, 2006, there will be widespread eruption of violent demonstrations in the Muslim streets of India. Mindless violence was unleashed by mobsters against members of the Hindu community which had nothing to do with the provocative cartoons which first appeared in the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, in September 2005. This onslaught, however, was entirely in keeping with the long standing tradition of pro-terrorist groups venting their ire on the majority community instead of protesting against the real culprits. The scale of violence witnessed during visit of George Bush in several cities and towns like Hyderabad, Lucknow, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar conclusively demonstrated massive radicalization of the Muslim community. In many cities prior preparations had been made to unleash violence on unsuspecting citizens. While hurling foul invectives at the visiting U S President, the demonstrators carrying aloft photographs of bin Laden unashamedly lionized him and eulogized the cult of suicide bombings. But the major targets of mobsters were Hindu shop-owners and passers-by.

As if responding to the praises showered on bin Laden and his tribe of suicide bombers, within the next four days the jihadis struck with a vengeance on Tuesday March 7, 2005, at the famous Sankatmochan temple in Varanasi. The three bomb blasts in the most sacred temple town of Hindus, easily comparable to what Mecca is to Muslims, resulted in death of 20 worshippers and injuries to nearly another 100 innocents.

The most shameful and ignominious jihadi attack on India was the Mumbai Massacre of 26th November, 2008, during which the corporate capital of India was kept hostage for 3 days which was relayed across the world by 24/7 T.V. channel. But the worst aspect of the tragic narrative was that the Indian Mujahideen had circulated an e-mail on July 8, 2008, in which they unequivocally threatened the Hindus thus :

"(O Disbelievers) . We are guiltless of you and whatever worship beside Allah, we have rejected you and there has arisen between us and you, enmity and hatred for ever - unless you believe in Allah and Him alone (Quran 60.4) [Source: The Rise of Jihad, e-mail of Indian Mujahideen cited on the Wikipedia].

After quoting chapter and verse from Quranic verses in Arabic, the e-mail commanded the Hindus to convert to Islam in English in the following words:

"O Hindus! O' disbelieving faithless Indians! Haven't you still realized that the falsehood of your 33 crore dirty mud idols and the blasphemy of your deaf, dumb, mute and naked idols of Ram, Krishna and Hanuman are not at all going to save your neck, Insha-Allah, from being slaughtered by our hands". [Source: Ibid].

What the Hindus of India are facing today is not terrorism. It is something much worse and sinister. It is jihad proper, raw and gory in its medieval and macabre form, launched by Pakistan. Time has come to speak out openly that a regular jihad is being waged to annihilate the centuries old civilizational ethos of India. On July 2005 a group of Lashkar goons tried to storm Ramjanambhoomi temple. Luckily they were killed by the alert CRPF contingent protecting the most sacred Hindu shrine. The unending series of attacks on Hindus and their temples, religious festivals and centers of excellence have all the trappings of a regular jihad ordained in their scriptures, as claimed by terrorists in their innumerable e-mails. Even though the soft Indian state and benumbed media invariably try to conceal the truth, the reality can no longer be denied. The repetitive targeting of the places of worship of Hindus and their festivals are part of a bigger design, perhaps a global design of jihadis to overrun India.

Over the years the terror groups, now deeply entrenched within India, have sent innumerable messages through regular bomb blasts and senseless killings that they will not allow the Hindus to live peacefully in their ancient homeland. Their avowed objective is to convert India into Dar-ul-Islam. Irrespective of the changing colors of the ruling political dispensation, the response of Indian government to the growing menace of jihad has been absolutely timid and weak-kneed - at times even cravenly submissive. Even after two long decades from their forced exile from Kashmir the five lakh Hindu refugees have not been able to return to their ancient homeland.

The real tragedy, however, is that despite centuries old barbaric encounters with jihadi Islam, neither Indian government, nor the Hindu society has learnt any lessons. In sharp contrast to the timid response of the Indian state, the USA, the UK and many European governments have displayed better understanding of the threat by taking on the jihadi groups in a no-nonsense manner. The effete response of Indian government and their failure to decode and analyze the jihadi matrix is both intriguing and deplorable. In openly trying to kill the so-called infidels and obliterate the civilizational ethos of Hindus the jihadis draw sustenance from the Preamble of Al Qaeda which proclaims that "Islamic governments have never been and will never be established by peaceful solutions and cooperative councils. They are established, as they have always been, by pen and gun, by word and bullet, by tongue and teeth". That is the real, raw and destructive face of militant Islam, now aggressively trying to overwhelm, subvert and subdue India.

Despite shenanigans of naysayer secularists, a feeling has grown in the Hindu community that India is moving in the direction of a religion-based faultline conflict, or civil war. Till recently the low-key discourse about the likelihood of a civil war erupting across the country was confined to hush-hush conversations in the drawing rooms of Luteyn's New Delhi and sun-kissed lawns of South Delhi. For a change, the simmering discontent among Hindus caused by relentless targeting of their temples and religious identity spiraling into a civil war was brought out boldly 6 years ago by the editor of The Economic Times, by initiating a debate on this politically shunned subject. Despite divergent views expressed by the three experts selected by the editor, including Ved Marwah, a former Commissioner of Police, Delhi, who also held gubernatorial posts, Prof. Neerja Gopal Jayal of JNU and Dr. Ajai Sahni of the Institute of Conflict Management, no one ruled out the possibility of a civil war engulfing the country.

Ordinarily a serious subject like the growing threat of civil war should have first received attention of prominent strategic analysts and mainstream politics-oriented newspapers and journals because lately it has been regularly alluded to at informal gatherings not only in the national metropolis, but even in many other cities and village towns. But the prevalent culture of political correctness afflicting our comatose middle class and leading lights of English media dare not bring out of closet this burning issue.

The much feared civil strife, spiraling out of the growing communal divide, is likely to be powered by the twin factors of fast growing jihadi attacks and galloping increase in the proportion of Muslim population. Anyone having his ears close to the ground can hear the rumblings of the coming civil strife in many parts of the country. The outbreak of communal clashes between Bodos of Assam and Bangladeshi infiltrators, the subsequent riots in Ranchi, Lucknow and Mumbai which led to sudden flight of thousands of innocents from Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Mumbai to the north-east, caused by the hostility of Muslim mobsters are like straw in the wind pointing to the fearsome civil war like conditions erupting in several sensitive cities and States.

In the sensitive and populous State of Uttar Pradesh there have been repetitive eruptions of communal riots, numbering 27 within a span of few months. (http://www.indianexpress.com/news/27-communal-riots-in-up-since-sp-formed-govt-cm-admits-in-house/1083234/) Mutual hostility and fear are visible across many rural areas of Muzaffarnagar, Meerut and Ghaziabad districts of the State. Similar conditions prevail not only in most border areas of West Bengal, but in Kolkata city itself which has witnessed frequent sales of Al Qaeda sponsored Jihadi cassettes and CDs. Unless central government comes down heavily on jihadi groups and effectively prevents growing assaults on Hindu temples and centers of excellence, the situation is bound to get out of hand, perhaps sooner than one can imagine.

Yet the Goebblesian falsehood is propagated day in and day out by secularists that Al Qaeda has no followers in India and that jihadis have no support among Indian Muslims? Pray, then who were those fifty thousand mobsters mobilized by the Raza Academy on August 10, 2012, who attacked the police, the media and tried to savage women police officers during an arson-packed riot organized to protest against the so-called atrocities on Rohingyas in Burma and Bangladeshi infiltrators in Assam.

Again who were those thirty thousand momins (Muslims) who clappingly applauded the fiery hate speech of the notorious MIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi on December 24, 2012, at Nirmal in Adilabad (Andhra Pradesh) threatening to kill 100 crore Hindus within 15 minutes, if the police were temporarily divested of their duties for that short duration? According to intelligence sources in numerous terrorist attacks staged in various parts of the country during the last 20 years quite a few thousand fifth-columnists operating in India were involved. Many of them had been trained in Pakistan and Bangladesh. For instance, one of the key ISI mole planted by Jaish-e-Mohammed, Maqbool Hussain, was involved in the July 2005 attack on Ramjanambhoomi temple. He was a resident of Dhubri in Assam and had reportedly spent five years (1992-97) studying in Deoband and had travelled to Bangladesh and Pakistan on forged travel documents to receive training and instructions from his jihadi masters.

Unfortunately despite centuries old violent encounters with jihadi Islam neither the Indian government, nor the comatose Hindu leadership, have learnt any strategic lesson. Time has come for Hindu leaders and masses to remember Arnold Toynbee's famous quote: "Civilizations die from suicide, not murder". Time has come to face the jihad courageously and stop sleep walking towards suicide cliff.

The Hindu leadership must realize that today Jihad is the only fully globalized enterprise across the world. And Messrs. Jihad Inc. have millions of shareholders and franchises in more than 60 countries, including India, who are working overtime to destroy all non-Muslim nations. It is time to act fast and boldly to break out of the ongoing jihadi siege of India. If we don't wake up now, it could be the 'last chance' for Hindu survival, before the threatened mega faultline strife near about 2050 or 2060 A.D. by which time the combined Muslim population of the sub-continent is likely to outstrip the Hindu numbers. That is the bottom line.

Courtesy: Assyrian International News Agency
Botswana man on six death sentences executed
~~By MTOKOZISI DUBE in Gaborone
Tuesday, May 28  2013: A Botswana man who was handed six death sentences for murdering his family after a misunderstanding over food has been executed.

The Botswana Prison Service confirmed that Orelesitse Modise Thokamolemo’s hanging was carried out early Monday morning at Gaborone Central Prison.

The capital punishment came after a death sentence was imposed on him on December 9, 2010 by the Francistown High Court for the offence.

The Court of Appeal last month struck out an appeal against the sentence.

Thokamolemo had approached the Court of Appeal for both conviction and death sentence.

The trial court found that Thokamolemo killed six members of his family, among them his brother and a four-month-old baby using an axe in January 2008.

“After anxious inquiring of mind of this matter, I also find no misdirection by the trial court in considering the effect of dagga taken by the appellant and giving it weight,” Judge Isaac Lesetedi said last month.

Courtesy: Africa Review
PNG death penalty condemned as 'barbaric' by Amnesty International
~~By PNG correspondent Liam Fox, ABC
May 29, 2013: Amnesty International says Papua New Guinea's move to revive the death penalty is "barbaric" and will not deter violent crime.

After a spate of horrific murders and gang-rapes, to make murder, aggravated rape, robbery, treason and piracy punishable by death.

The sentence can be carried out in several ways, including hanging, lethal injection, firing squad, electrocution and "medical death by deprivation of oxygen" or poisonous gas.

Amnesty's Pacific researcher Kate Schuetze says the death penalty is a cruel form of punishment.

"It violates the right to life as well as freedom from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment," she told AM.

"It doesn't matter if a person has been beheaded or burnt in a village or killed by the state. It is just as barbaric."

She says statistics show the death penalty has not reduced violent crime in countries that enforce it.

"If the government is serious about reducing crime, I'd say there's a number of measures which they can take immediately to do that," she said.

"One of them would be to invest in the law and justice sector, including the police force."

PNG has always had the death penalty thanks to its colonial past, but not the means to carry it out.

The amendments to the Criminal Code passed on voices, without a vote required, after a brief debate.

One of those who said "aye" is the member for Manus, Ron Knight.

"I wasn't thinking lightly about this," he said.

"But that horrific murder that happened in the western islands in Manus where a mother was decapitated and raped and her two children - one was about four, one was 13 - they were also slashed to death - the whole community stood behind that and said that they reckon it's about time for the death penalty to be implemented."

As well as implementing the death penalty, the newly-amended Criminal Code has harsher penalties for a range of other offences.

Crimes that can now attract a maximum penalty of life imprisonment without parole include kidnapping for ransom, rape that is not considered to be aggravated and the theft of 10 million kina ($4.4 million) or more.

Parliament also repealed the Sorcery Act, which critics said legitimised so-called sorcery killings.

Courtesy: Yahoo.com

HC stays release of 'Madisar Mami'
The High Court has stayed the release of 'Madisar Mami' which had been censored U/A by the censor board as the title degrades brahmin community (Madisar is the traditional nine-yard sari worn mostly by orthodox Brahmin women). Justice N Kirubakaran stayed its release, however, the film can be be released with a different title, he clarified.

K R Srinivasan, Chennai district president of Tamil Nadu Brahmins Association, filed the writ petition pointing out that the original title of the film was ' Madisar Mami and Madana Mama', said that though the term 'Madana Mama' was deleted during certification, it continues to hold the original title in various websites.

Apprehending that the film would exhibit obscene and defamatory scenes making a mockery of the traditional practices of Brahmins, the association said: "Madisar is a traditional dress of Brahmin women, and it has been criticized in the film. If it is exhibited, the Brahmin community would be denigrated, defamed and degraded in the eye of public. Traditional, cultural and religious practices cannot be a subject matter of ridicule and mockery," it said, seeking an injunction on its release.

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

Caste net: Akhilesh going all out to woo Brahmins
~~By Ajay Uprety
Shrewd alliance: Akhilesh (third, from right)
with Brahmin ministers of his cabinet at a
rally in Lucknow. Photo by PAWAN KUMAR
Election time is also seduction time in India. In Uttar Pradesh, Brahmins are being wooed by the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party because they constitute around 11 per cent of the population in the state.

The SP, led by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, organised a Brahmin sammelan in Lucknow, recently. The occasion was carefully chosen—Parshuram Jayanti; Parshuram is a god revered by Brahmins. At the rally, a major sop was offered to Brahmins—withdrawal of all false cases filed against them under the SC/ST act during Mayawati's regime. “With the support of Brahmins, the party scored a majority in the Assembly polls and we would like to have the same support in future, too. Our party wants to give better results at the national level. Please help us achieve that,” said Akhilesh, at the mass meeting that was attended by prominent Brahmin leaders.

Said a party insider: “The SP will organise 30 such meetings across the state to woo  Brahmins. The party is banking on Muslim and Brahmin voters to get maximum number of seats.” The flip side of the gathering was a tug-of-war between two Brahmin ministers of the party—Pawan Pandey and Manoj Pandey. Supporters of these leaders tried to hijack the podium leading to commotion. Brahmins, nevertheless, were happy. Said Rajesh Dixit, a Brahmin leader: “Brahmins have not forgotten how they were implicated in false cases during Mayawati's regime. We feel safe under the SP.”

Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh had been loyal supporters of the BJP and the Congress, until Mayawati altered the scene. In the 2007 Assembly elections, she doled out 89 tickets to Brahmins and won 206 seats. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, when the BSP won 20 seats out of 80, Mayawati fielded 21 Brahmin candidates. After assuming power in 2007, she announced an array of welfare schemes for the Dalits and ignored the Brahmins. This was one of the reasons that led to her defeat in 2012.

But the BSP, it seems, has learnt its lessons and is busy organising meetings for Brahmins. Addressing a recent convention, its Brahmin leader Satish Chandra Mishra, MP, slammed the state government for the rising crime rate. He alleged that under the SP regime, temples were being taken over by feudal elements.

The BJP and the Congress have ridiculed the Brahmin-wooing by the SP and the BSP. Said Laxmikant Bajpai, state BJP president: “Their sudden love for Brahmins is a big farce. Both these parties have insulted the community many a time in the past.” Said a Congress leader: “The Samajwadi Party has forgotten the principles of Ram Manohar Lohia, whom they adulate. Lohia believed in a casteless society. By organising such meetings, the party is openly violating Lohia's principles.”

Strategic stats:
* Brahmins constitute around 11 per cent of the population in Uttar Pradesh.
* They have a say in 20 of 80 Lok Sabha seats.
* They resort to calculative voting and have been usually loyal to the BJP and the Congress. In the recent past, many of them have started supporting the BSP and the SP.
* In the 2007 Assembly elections, the BSP fielded Brahmins and won 206 seats. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, it fielded 21 Brahmin candidates.
* Lucknow, Varanasi, Allahabad, Mathura, Goverdhan and Ayodhya are Brahmin strongholds.
* Upretis, Sharmas, Mishras, Shuklas, Bhardwajs and Acharyas are some of the prominent Brahmin subsects in Uttar Pradesh.
 
Courtesy: The Week
CP exclusive: Canadian once slated for beheading in Saudi Arabia has been released from prison
 ~~By The Canadian Press  
Mohamed Kohail is shown in an undated family
handout photo. Kohail, a Canadian who was once
condemned to death by beheading, has been quietly
released from a Saudi prison, after almost six
years behind bars.THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Courtesy
of the Kohail Family
May 28, 2013: A Canadian who was once condemned to death by beheading has been quietly released from a Saudi prison, after almost six years behind bars. Documents obtained by The Canadian Press indicate that Mohamed Kohail was freed last December.

The documents from the Department of Foreign Affairs, obtained through the Access to Information Act, are redacted and they do not indicate the circumstances under which Kohail was freed.

His story drew international attention in 2007. The ex-Montrealer was sentenced to death for his alleged role in a fatal schoolyard melee.

He and a Jordanian friend were both ordered beheaded, by sword, for their alleged involvement in the killing of a 19-year-old in a brawl that began with an insult to a girl by Kohail's brother, Sultan.

The brothers have repeatedly said they were acting in self-defence and were not involved in inflicting the fatal wounds during the fight, which had involved dozens of teenagers.

The Kohails' case has bounced around the Saudi legal system.

The country's highest court overturned the death penalty for Mohamed Kohail in 2010. Meanwhile, Sultan Kohail had been sentenced to 200 lashes and a year in prison for being an accessory to the crime, before his case was appealed.

Both brothers remain in Saudi Arabia. And both are currently in legal limbo, awaiting news about any developments in their legal status.

In recent months, the family has kept quiet to allow the case to play itself out in the Saudi justice system. They declined to comment on the latest news.

Courtesy: Ottawa Citizen
Nigeria - the Emerging Terrorist Image
~~By Vincent Obia
Vincent Obia looks at the growing allure of terrorism among some Nigerians
26 May 2013:  For the second time in four years, Nigeria came to international attention Wednesday when the two suspects in the brutal killing of a British soldier, Lee Right, of the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of fusiliers, in the United Kingdom, were identified as British citizens of Nigerian descent. The two attackers, Muhajeed Adebolaja, 28, and his unnamed co-assailant, said to be aged 22, were said to have hacked the 25-year-old British soldier to death with meat cleavers and knives after knocking him down with a car.

A clip filmed by a witness just after the murder showed one of the assailants brandishing his blood-spattered weapons, shouting Islamic slogans and appearing to be declaring his motive. "We swear by Almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day... This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," he shouted in the footage. Both suspects were shot and injured by the British police. They are being treated at the hospital at present, and awaiting prosecution.

On Christmas Day, December 25, 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, also a Nigerian who was then 23, was arrested in the United States for attempting to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 going to Detroit, Michigan en route Amsterdam. Abdulmutallab was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole on February 16 last year.

The trio are Muslim hardliners believed to have links with extremist Islamic organisations. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed to have organised the 2009 attack with Abdulmutallab, who was also found to have connections to Anwar al-Awlaki and had received terrorist trainings. And Adebolaja is alleged to have taken part in the activities of a banned extremist group, al-Muhajiroun.


Nigeria is at present witnessing dangerous terrorist tendencies that seem to have been slowly developing since 2009, when an uprising by the Boko Haram Islamic sect led to clashes with the security forces.

The sect's leader, Mohammed Yusuf, died in police custody under controversial circumstances during the uprising. The terrorist tendencies based on religious ideology, which appear to be establishing Nigeria as an emerging breeding ground for terrorism, are hardly a surprise. From the 1980s, the signs have been palpable. Nigeria has witnessed uprisings based on radical religious ideology. There was the Maitatsine uprising, stirred by Mohammed Marwa, a controversial Islamic preacher, who tried to wage a religious war against the Nigerian state with his increasingly militaristic adherents.

Marwa died in 1980 but his followers continued to cause riots in several places, including Kaduna, Bulumkuttu near Maiduguri, Yola, and Gombe.

Analysts, however, say gradually, with growing youth unemployment, poverty, widespread corruption, weak institutions and executive impunity - the perfect incentives for terrorist incubation - Nigeria is gaining a dubious reputation as an emerging breeding ground for terrorists and suicide bombers. But it is religious fundamentalism of the Boko Haram type-which name means Western education is a taboo-that has bred terrorism the most. When people are indoctrinated into believing that there is salvation for them in killing those that do not share their religious inclination, then the society where such people live is in trouble. Aside the religion-based terrorism in the north, Nigeria is also acquiring a terrible image in its southern parts as an emerging haven for kidnappers.

However, the people indulging in all these terrorist activities are a tiny minority. Most Nigerians are not terrorists, and the tiny minority and their nefarious activities should not be allowed to define us. The two suspects in the Woolwich killing are British citizens of Nigerian descent who have never visited Nigeria before. Also, Abdulmutallab was educated largely in the West and got his religious indoctrination from there also.

Today, the country is in the middle of a potentially protracted anti-terror war. In Nasarawa State in the North-central, a cult group called the Ombatse is on the prowl. The group recently killed over 56 security operatives deployed in Alakkio community to maintain peace. That criminal act and others like the Boko Haram insurgency may not be unconnected to politics. Also, the political class continues to expand the dimensions of the crisis by engaging in acts that increase distrust for the state and its institutions. This further exacerbates the crisis in the land and the terrorist pressures.

Courtesy: All Africa
PNG revives death penalty, repeals sorcery law
SYDNEY: Papua New Guinea pressed ahead Tuesday with a controversial revival of the death penalty, passing laws allowing execution by a range of methods, while repealing its contested sorcery act. The impoverished Pacific nation’s parliament voted to extend the  long-dormant death penalty to cover rape, robbery and murder with new  legislation permitting hanging, electrocution and firing squad executions.
 
Lethal injection and medical asphyxiation — which it did not define —  will also be permitted methods under the law, which will provide the death  sentence for crimes including aggravated rape or gang rape of a child under the  age of 10.

“Which method to be used will be determined by the head of state on advice  from the National Executive Council,” a spokesman for Prime Minister Peter  O’Neill said in a statement.

“These are very tough penalties, but they reflect the seriousness of the  nature of the crimes and the demand by the community for parliament to act.”   

Death sentences are currently in place for treason, piracy and wilful  murder but Papua New Guinea has not carried out an execution since independence  in 1954.

The nation’s parliament also repealed its 1971 Sorcery Act, which  criminalises the practice of sorcery and recognises the accusation of sorcery  as a defence in murder cases.

Any black magic killing will now be treated as murder punishable by death,  following a spate of horrific public executions of women accused of witchcraft.

One was beheaded and another was burned alive while, in separate unrelated  attacks, two foreigners were gang-raped, drawing international condemnation.

Though it criminalises the practice of sorcery — in which there is a  widespread belief in PNG, where many people do not accept natural causes as an  explanation for misfortune and death — the 1971 act had been criticised.

The United Nations and human rights groups said it led to an increase in  false accusations by people against their enemies and gave the notion of  sorcery a legitimacy it would not otherwise have had.

The PNG government received more than 100 petitions from human rights and  other groups across the globe calling for urgent action on the spike in  violence.

Under the new laws kidnapping and theft of 5-9.99 million kina (US$2.25-4.5  million) will have a 50-year jail term without parole, while kidnap for ransom  or theft in excess of 10 million kina will carry a life sentence. - AFP