.... taking it forward ...

Recently through a FaceBook post I came across this interesting piece by Aftab Ahmed. 

To give you a small summary, he has correctly interpreted the concept of 'halal' and 'haram' income and its usage and then he has put up his view on the Babri-Masjid why it doesn't matter, and yet it matters. 

Although he is partially correct that, "Any big or small event where even it seemed remotely that they are being man-handled they (Muslims) erupt." But the truth is its slightly more complicated. 

There is a vision of India. It is of a democratic and multi-cultural country with no single religion being the state's religion -- Nehru's version of India. And that religion should be practiced in the house in a religious place etc. In short religion and state are different. These are people who call themselves 'secular'  and they believe in being diverse. 

Now there is another vision for India. This calls for a single country with homogeneity, as thought by RSS. It has some contradictions but we will not get into it as of now. In this thought process, religion has a very important role, which to an extent is the seed of the conflict.  Watch this video for more clarity on the type of ideology they propagate.

And if anyone is actually interested then they must read the speeches, books, etc. written by M. S. Golwalkar, the second "Sarsanghchalak" (Supreme chief) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. (wiki link).

If that seems like a lot of work then you can read: "TERRIFYING VISION — M.S. Golwalkar, the RSS and India" by Jyotirmaya Sharma. The work is quite scholarly, sometimes dry but worthy of reading for anyone who wants to understand why the Babri-Masjid is more of a Nehru's vs Gowalkar's vision of India. All normal people irrespective of being a Hindu, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Tribal, religions will only be pawns in this ideological game.

p.s. I think Gandhiji and Swami Viekanand too would have sided with Nehru. But then I have not read much of their work and would love to see some light being shown on them.

Abstracts - Antifragile, business, religion, introverts

We are living in such an information heavy world that it takes time and real effort to just chaff through many many bytes and words of garbage information to find something interesting. Off late, I have been thinking of sharing the most interesting pieces of articles on a daily/weekly basis where the topics can be as diverse as possible. Alas, haven't been able to do so until today.

Now I plan to share anything that I find interesting here and I would pollute it with my views while providing for the link so that you can enjoy the actual material.


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A Talk Show : This is an all audio show between Nassim N. Taleb and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman on Taleb's book "Anti-Fragile". It is very interesting and must be heard to understand the overall idea if Taleb. If you don't like reading through his book might at least listen to this.

He has some very interesting perspective as well!!!

"Education inhibits risk taking, this is what I don't like academia" -- Nassim Taleb

Listen carefully all the way to the last question because in the end you might just end up understanding anti-fragile better than Nassim Talem as Daniel Kahneman did when he answered for the last question.

Unpredictability is a great thing in life :)

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Memento Mori

This means "remember your mortality."

As legend has it, the phrase dates back to a conquering Roman general. As the general enjoyed Rome's equivalent of a ticker-tape parade, a slave was tasked with standing behind him, whispering "memento mori" into his ear.

The goal was to keep the general from getting too big a head... and possibly losing it in his next battle (because of lack of humility and lack of respect for risk). 


Something we are taught during school but somehow when we are grown up we tend to forget. No point in writing anything on my own, so just copy-pasted the part that I thought was most important.

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An great interview of Asghar Ali Engineer. 

There are few people I would agree with as much as I do with with Mr Engineer on Islam and freedom. Most people may not get the time to read his articles and go through his views. But at a broader level even watching this video is a good option.

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Introverted Kids Need to Learn to Speak Up at School

An interesting read on why parents should encourage their children to communicate. There are some clues on how but no step by step procedure.

If they seem useless to you, then next time onwards don't look at anything with the heading as "Abstracts"

'12th of Rabi'-ul-Awwal': Eid Milad-un-Nabi

According to the Islamic calender, based on lunar movement. Today (Feb 16, 2011), is 12th of Rabi'-ul-Awwal, it is widely celebrated as Eid-Milad-dun-nabi also known as Mawlid in colloquiol arabic marking the birth of Prophet Mohammad. There are two interesting facts about this celebrated day.

First, he was born and he died on the same day of the Islamic calender, 12th of Rabi'-ul-Awwal.

The second interesting fact is, celebration on the 12th of Rabi'-ul-Awwal started only 400 years after his death.

The topic is covered well in Wikipedia. It is inevitable to conclude that the only reason why the then government encouraged the celebration was to boost the rulers power base, or perhaps it was done to divert public attention.

Whatever, be the cause, it goes without saying that the birth of Prophet Muhammad was the significant event. But the point is that the companions of Muhammad did not observe this event. Also, Muhammad did not observe the birth or death anniversaries of anyone, nor did he advise his followers to observe his birthday. There is not a single instance in any of the biographies where such a celebration is noted.

Considering all of these together, perhaps its best to treat 12th of Rabi'-ul-Awwal as another normal day.

Desertion

Some time back, I was asked a question. "Why is it that when Muslims are beaten up in Israel or in some other country, then there is such hue and cry but the same is not reflected when China does it in Xinjiang’s?"

Well, to be frank, I don't have any straight answer. Although I tried reading and getting some answer somewhere. But there was no success. Based on personal observation there could be multiple factors or a certain combination of these factors.

First of all its not just Xinjiang, most of the countries where there is no freedom of press the report on carnage against the local population does not get limelight. How many countries with no freedom of press has done any reporting?

Then there is "presence factor" or "kinship factor". Allow me to explain with an example. The gulf countries have a sizeable population belonging to India. So even if something is not reported in the media for a few days the information will be transmitted through word of mouth. This may not generate public opinion at a very fast pace.

Similarly, while it is true that most countries claiming to represent the "Muslim Country" did nothing concrete, they did not even lodge a diplomatic protest or condemn it on the international front with the exception of "Turkey". The reason being, Xianjiang has a population which are partially turkic in regions and hence the public opinion of Turkey forced the government to react.

Also one needs to understand on how media covers. When BBC covered the wars in Bosnia or in Chechnya or when it covers Israel/Palestine, its their coverage that makes all the impact. Now in all of these places the reports said the fight is between XYZ and Muslims. If China's or any countries problem is not covered with the same intensity, the impact will not be the same, it mellows down. Add to it ignorance. How will there be any reaction.

There are geo-political mixed with a spice of economic reasons as well. For example, Iran and Pakistan cannot make any statements against China, since it is the Dragon state that protects the two in Security Council.

p.s. It would be a great pleasure if someone can point out other reasons that may have been overlooked

One reason which has not been pointed out or touched above is that of the drawback of the human nature i.e. pride, selfishness, envy, ignorance........