Miscellanea [01 April, 2015 – 30 June, 2015]
06/04/2015
DREAMS
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Tahzeeb/permalink/913173318703760/
The substantive issues here are:
a. can a Muslim see a dream [or can a dream occur to a Muslim] wherein Allah appears personified?
b. if no, why not? If yes, is it good or bad? On what authority?
c. is there any scientific, non-Islamic, evidence to explain dreams showing ruling deities doing one a favour? What might Freud say on this?
d. in the same vein can a Muslim see Mohammed in his dreams?
09/04/2015
MODI’s PATNA RALLY BLAST BY HINDUS?
Is this true? I did not come across such a major piece of news.
Gujarat Congress [and former RSS/BJP] Leader Shankar Singh Vaghela says that the terrorists behind serial blasts at Patna BJP rally had now been found to be Hindus, not Muslims
15/04/2015
MASS ANIMAL SACRIFICE
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Tahzeeb/permalink/918325911521834/
It is the Hindutva that has converted an essentially cruelty/compassion issue into a Hindu-Muslim issue.
It is completely unwise to equate non-vegetarianism with cruelty. It must be distinguished from mindless, mass, barbarous sacrifices for pleasing gods that be.
As long as we accept that survival of human race is a more pressing obligation than preservation of animal life, then some form of non-vegetarianism has to be accommodated – albeit perhaps civilized.
Blind ban on animal sacrifice must involve protection of stray dogs, mosquitoes, birds and swine of flu, rampaging elephants, intruding leopards et al
27/04/2015
ENJOYING A TRAGEDY
What kind of sick minds would such be, if true? There are reports which I could not verify that some folks in Karachi rejoiced on Earthquake in Nepal and India claiming that Allah has punished the Hindus.
For a human being to rejoice at the suffering of another it would take not just mental sickness but extreme cruelty. Gandhi wondered how a human-being could enjoy the humiliation of another. I wonder how could one be indifferent to the suffering of another?
09/05/2015
[In reply to a FB Post at https://www.facebook.com/groups/Tahzeeb/permalink/930401446980947/
This is no more than smart marketing for the builder. Sadly, though, this reflects the reality on the ground.
1. Where else do the Muslims go?
2. Does the ‘mainstream’ allow Muslims to integrate with them? Even in Mumbai, even celebrities like Shabana Aazmi found it difficult to buy property in mainstream locality. Remember what happened to the Muslim who dared to buy a bungalow in Hindu society in Bhavnagar? The VHP got it cancelled. Ditto mohalla after mohalla, city after city. Modi did nothing to prevent ghettoization. Indeed, he caused it.
3. What is happening right now in Vadodara? The municipality allotted to the evacuees from a place acquired by it, land near a Hindu locality. The Hindus rose in protest, and the municipality has since transferred them to a large Vadodara Muslim ghetto.
[On a personal note, and that is not my usual practice:
Where did I go to live, giving up my first house in Khanpur, a Muslim locality of Ahmedabad, after merely a few months of stay? To Vastrapur – a nearly wholly Hindu locality, where I built my own house with love and passion, where for half a kilometre there lived no other Muslim. What happened? My relative’s house was completely gutted, barely sparing their lives. I had to abandon mine, despite persistence for some time, when the goons threatened my builder and he begged me to leave – way back in 1992. All this when I was virtually the de facto president of the society and enjoyed the love and affection of my neighbours. I had to move to another area with about 1% Muslim population. And come 2002 I had to leave even this little sanctuary, and had to move to the Muslim ghetto of Juhapura.
Who ghettoized me? WHO MOVED ME TO A MUSLIM GHETTO?? INDEED, WHO IS MAKING INDIA’S GHETTOS???
20/06/2015
YOGA – GOOD BUT NOT SUFFICIENT
As someone
– who has been practicing Yoga regularly for years and benefits immensely from it today
[- who attended a fortnight’s Transcendental Meditation course at a very young age]
– who organized Yoga training for hundreds of Muslims of Juhapura, Ahmedabad several years ago
.. I can only welcome Yoga promotion.
However, as a rationalist I must caution that Yoga is not the cure-all solution / panacea it is being presented as. And it certainly is not acrobatics or circus that some show it as.
Yoga has its limitations. And it certainly cannot substitute scientific physiotherapy, much less allopathy and other contemporary scientific medicinal procedures.
[In reply to a FB Comment, for YOGA – GOOD BUT NOT SUFFICIENT
In my mind I was wondering what should have been a responsible government’s priorities:
Recall Satyameva Jayate programme on Generic Medicine, and for instance, the Rajasthan Medical Corporation’s magnificent work. Almost 300 common use medicines are given away for free to the poor there. But in most of the other states – and most certainly in Gujarat – these are all priced. And worse, substituted by their branded cousins.
The UPA was working on earmarking a huge budget on healthcare and was specially working to place a large number of drugs in the generic list.
But we the ungrateful people of India did not realize the importance of these scientific and sincere approaches, and are drawn in by flamboyance and one-up-manship.
Someone like Konchadi Vasanth Pai would better inform us on what could have been a better spend by saving on this huge extravaganza.
27/06/2015
MUSLIM TERRORISM ON THE RAMPAGE
Three major terrorist attacks took place in three continents, today. Any guesses who were the terrorists? Yes, MUSLIMS, all these. Condemning this is now pretty boring. Nothing short of swift death sentence to the killers may stop this barbarism.
By the way, who were most of those murdered? Again, yes, MUSLIMS. At least this should alert the community to the dangers of fanaticism.
