Political Compass

Try out this quiz at http://politicalcompass.org
My political compass :
Economic Left/Right: -5.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.36

Palestinians have access to the beach...

Palestinians get access to the beach for the first time since the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza strip .Despite living so near to the sea shore,they did not have access to the sea thanks to the occupation
link

On Sania Mirza

Recently The Times of India had a news item on the ulema's criticism of Sania Mirza

I share conservative Muslims' ambivalence on Sania Mirza
I find myself supporting Sania Mirza and hoping that she wins sometimes . Why do I do that ?
Is it because of the feeling of Assabiyyah (tribalism) because she is an Indian Muslim ?
But yes the tennis dress she wears does violate traditional Islamic guidelines on modesty.Any practising Muslim who has a feel for the letter and spirit of the Shariah will corroborate that.The ulema are only doing thier duty by pointing out what is wrong with her dress .Now the ball is in her court Sorry I could'nt just resist this :-)

Anyway only Allah knows her intentions and whether she is a devout Muslim or not .
As expected , progressives like Feroze Mithiborwala could not resist making a jab at the Darul Uloom Deoband .The Darul Uloom Deoband ulema are well known for their ultra orthodox stand .Despite the recent controversies associated with the Darul Uloom Deoband ,I still have great respect for the ulema .I believe they have have much greater Taqwa than me . It is neccessary for us to be linked with Sunnah - the tradition of the Prophet (PBUH) and keep a perspective on preparation for the Akhirah (Day of Judgement ) through the ulema .

On chauvinism

George Monboit has an excellent post on patriotism ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1545421,00.html

The Friedman Watcher

Siddharth Varadarajan has a review about Thomas Friedman's new book
http://svaradarajan.blogspot.com/2005/08/im-sorry-but-worlds-still-round.html

Read The Guardian's review here
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1487965,00.html

Now Amir Taheri goes after beards and Hijab :
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1072-1709661,00.html

He argues that "Growing a beard has nothing to do with Islam"
He seriously needs to do some research
See for instance :
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503543064

http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/nuh/beard.htm

http://www.understanding-islam.com/related/text.asp?type=question&qid=708

I won't even talk of Hijab because much has been already been said on the issue.

Worth reading stuff in Today's Guardian ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/comment/story/0,16141,1536885,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1536780,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1536779,00.html

Thomas Friedman yet again

Read what Thomas Friedman has to say today in The NYTimes
Why does he continue to repeat inflammatory quotes in his articles ?
Also note that he quotes from MEMRI
For the truth about the israeli propaganda site - memri read interesting info here link
As an aside I did not like his new book .He is rather selective in his interpretation .For example he says globalization started off in 1492 Ancient India had trade links with West Asia and East Asia.The Islamic civilization was the first global civilization.Thus the Arab traveller Ibn Batutta could travel from present day Morocco to India and beyond and not feel totally a stranger.
link

more on this later ...

science_religion

science_religion

Read the interview of Science Reporter Editor Biman Basu here
http://www.vigyanprasar.com/comcom/inter30.htm

Scientific American is now being published in India by the India Today Group Yippee !!!
http://www.sciam.co.in
However it is very expensive - Rs 100 a copy.
Now when is the New Scientist coming to India ? http://www.newscientist.com
For a long time there has been a lack of general science magazine(s) in India.
Science Reporter published by CSIR is the only one around.
Sometime back Science Today (later 2001) used to be published by (I think) the Times of India group but was dicontinued. The rest (Junior Science Refresher ,Junior Science Digest etc...) are sundry competition magazines which are full of MCQs for IIT -JEE and other competitve exams.

For those interested in understanding the relationship between Islam and science
look for Nuh Ha Meem Keller's article(s) on www.masud.co.uk
Harun Yahya also writes on these topics .

introduction

I am a alumnus of AMU ,aligarh and working in the IT industry for the past 5 years ....
In these pages I will post my thoughts on issues of my interest
world affairs ,Islam ,history and IT