Goodbye USA. Hello India. India needs you.
lsk...@hotmail.com
----Original Message Follows----
From: vik...@na.ko.com
To: Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 09:30:37 -0400
Subject: Goodbye USA. Hello India. India needs you.
Sushim ji is our VHP karyakartha who left to India for Good.
- Vijay
"Arun Kankani/CDR/BSM/MCI" <Arun.K...@MCI.Com>
on 05/06/98 02:45:29 PM
Sushim Mukerji, writes:
Subject: Goodbye USA. Hello India. India needs you.
It is time to say goodbye. I will head for India in two weeks after
thirty years in the USA to work full time for SEVA programs of
Vishwa Hindu Parishad in India.
On this Visitors' Feedback section, I had the honor of reading
Partha Banerjee, who frequently attacks the whole Sangh Parivar with
gusto, repeatedly claiming at the same time his past membership with
RSS. Perhaps he stresses his alleged RSS connection to prove his
credibility. Myself, on the other hand, have a completely different
perspective on the Sangh. I never belonged to the Sangh, and yet
today I have taken an early retirement (voluntarily, on my own
terms; can be checked relatively easily), and will plunge headlong
into Sangh programs in India.
I was introduced to VHP/RSS in the USA. I never knew them during my
days in India. In the USA, aside from my engineering job, I have
spent twenty years performing priestly duties for the Hindu
community (Delaware, New Jersey, and now S. Carolina). I attended
secular functions arranged by various Indian groups during the last
thirty years. It was only in VHP/RSS meetings that I never heard
any offensive ethnic jokes/comments about "other" Indians. In Sangh
meetings alone have I heard Bande Mataram sung for all its entire
length, not by someone from Bengal, but by singers from Tamil Nadu,
Maharashtra or Punjab.
In our younger days in India whenever we talked about a resolute
character, we thought of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. But that was
then. Imagine my surprise when I heard someone from Karnataka
discussing Vidyasagar to the children at a youth camp in New Jersey
organized by VHP of America. I heard Sangh people from Nasik
talking inspiring tales on Brahma Bandhav Upadhyay in youth
conferences in the USA. These Sangh people never said anything bad
about anyone, inspired everyone by their conduct, and ran all
programs professionally. Impressed! Yes, I was impressed with the
practices of Sangh family. They acted when others talked.
As a citizen of India, it is only common sense that I would rally
around the safety and integrity of my country. I found the Sangh
people to be uncompromisingly Indians. This should be mere
elementary requirement for the citizens of India. Yet I found the
pan Islamic group and the communists of India lacking on this very
basic issue. Thanks to many contributors of this Visitors'
Feedback, I found, they always look the other way if the
infiltrators and the aggressors of India meet their political and
religious color. In my simple mind I fail to understand that
rationale, and I like to see them banned in Indian political scene.
Naturally I gravitated toward the Sangh.
These days, thanks to CalOnLine, I came to know how much lower
Shyama Prasad Mookherjee can be dragged down. I remember how
reverently people, with no political affiliation, used to refer to
him as a person of strong character and integrity. Many well known
writers, such as Pramatha Nath Bishi, described how the people from
the inner circle of Rabindranath Tagore, themselves literary
stalwarts, used to respect S.P.Mookherjee for his natural ability to
judge literary talents. So, when I read how mercilessly Shri
S.P.Mookherjee is being smeared today by many contributors at
CalOnLine, I have no difficulty seeing through their perverted
political motives.
I myself have organized Support-a-Child program for VHP of America
for the past fifteen years. More than a thousand children from
backward families have been benefited by this program. Children
from families shunned by the fabled middle class of India, get safe
home, receive good education and medical help with such a program.
I personally know many Sangh workers in India who, inspired by the
call of Swami Vivekananda, have given up their careers to be engaged
in Seva for the poor. These Swyam Sevaks go to remote areas, live
with our poor folks, offer them education and medical help. It has
been a mantra for the anti Sangh people to accuse Sangh for the
assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, as if these accusers themselves are
the followers of Gandhiji. Nothing can be further from the truth.
I met many Sangh organizers who proudly follow the teachings of
Gandhiji, and perform seva for the underprivileged in his name.
They themselves run so many free hostels in India for the deprived
children in the name of either Gandhiji or Vivekananda, because
these two names bring hope to anyone.
So much has to be done for the education, health care, job
opportunities for the underprivileged in India. It is not enough to
just say that today's children are tomorrow's leaders. Who is going
to rally around those little leaders, and cheer ? You and I, who
else! I like to see children from the poverty ridden areas of
Bharat Varsha grow up as normal children with playground to play,
food to eat, school to learn. Otherwise these children become
fodder for social miscreants. I am going to India to become part of
the colossal effort to pull them up. I invite you to join. We need
money. But more than that, we need determined people. What good is
education if it is wasted on war of words ? Can you donate your
services, your knowledge for the poor in India? Can you spare your
precious vacation to teach skills free of charge to the impoverished
? Can you build facilities for drinking water ? Ask yourself what
can you do to build a better India, and then act. I will wait for
you in India.
-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading
S.L.
great post! Thank you.
**************************************************8
Mo <11305...@compuserve.com> wrote in message
<356b5fca...@news.clara.net>...
> Thoughts of a Hindu 'fundamentalist'
Mo
lsk...@hotmail.com
>Date: Fri, 8 May 1998 14:25:22 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Chanakya...@atl.sita.int (Chanakya Ganguly)
>To: lsku...@hotmail.com
>Subject: LAW IN PAKISTAN
>
>http://www.indiaconnect.com/ashourie.htm
>
>WHEN THE LAW IN PAKISTAN TAKES ITS USUAL COURSE
>
>Article 25 of our Constitution, as we know, provides "(1) Subject to public
>order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this Part, all
>persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right to
>freely profess, practice and propagate religion...." Correspondingly,
>Article 20 of the Constitution of Pakistan provides, "Subject to law, public
>order and morality, (a) every citizen shall have the right to profess,
>practice and propagate his religion...." There are differences of course :
>the Indian Article guarantees the right to "all persons" -- not just to
>citizens -- the Pakistan provision limits it to citizens; the former
>subjects the right to health, the latter does not have this restriction; the
>Pakistan Constitution subjects the right to "law", ours subjects it to other
>provisions of the Part on Fundamental Rights alone. In some ways, the
>differences are important -- and that reference in the Pakistani Article to
>"law", we shall see, has had far-reaching consequences. But when they are
>compared to the contrast that prevails in the two countries in practice,
>these differences are in the second order of smalls.
>
>True, Article 20 of the Pakistan Constitution guarantees to every citizen
>the right to profess, practice and propagate his religion. But the Preamble
>of the Constitution declares, "Whereas sovereignty over the entire Universe
>belongs to Almighty Allah alone, and the authority to be exercised by the
>people of Pakistan within the limits prescribed by Him is a sacred trust;
>And whereas it is the will of the people of Pakistan to establish an order
>-- .... Wherein the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance
>and social justice, as enunciated by Islam, shall be fully observed; Wherein
>the Muslims shall be enabled to order their lives in the individual and
>collective spheres in accordance with the teachings and requirements of
>Islam as set out in the Holy Quran and the Sunnah...." Contrast the Indian
>enunciation : sovereignty vests not in Allah etc., but in the people, the
>limits they are to observe are not those set by Allah etc., but by the
>Constitution.
>
>Other provisions of this Islamic Constitution make the limits specific and
>operationally binding. Article 2 declares, "Islam shall be the State
>religion of Pakistan." Article 2A provides that "The principles and
>provisions set out in the Objectives Resolution [ of the Constituent
>Assembly of Pakistan ] .... [ these are the subsumed in the Preamble alluded
>to above ] are hereby made substantive part of the Constitution and shall
>have effect accordingly." Article 31 makes it incumbent upon the State to
>enable the Muslims to order their lives according to the Quran and the
>sunnah. Article 227 goes the farthest in operational terms and binds the
>State to ensure that "All existing laws shall be brought in conformity with
>the Injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah...., and
>no law shall be enacted which is repugnant to such injunctions."
>
>Thus, Jinnah's last minute efforts to set the country he had wrested on to a
>secular course notwithstanding, step by "constitutional" step the country
>became in word a theocracy. Two consequences flow immediately. First, the
>rhetoric, history, "principles" of that religion come to constitute the
>standard for judging every proposal, a group that argues its position on the
>ground that it is fighting to ensure that those "principles" prevail in
>practice is able to put every other group on the defensive. And sooner
>rather than later, anything and everything which has or can be dressed up as
>an element of the State religion or as a lemma that follows from an
>essential of the State religion, becomes a part of the laws of the country
>-- no group can in the end withstand the pressure towards ordering the
>affairs of State and society according to that feature.
>
>Now, overriding adoration of the Prophet, the belief in propositions such as
>the one that he was the final prophet are the foundational notions of Islam.
>Similarly, the Quran is explicit, it is emphatic as can be both in
>denouncing over and over again heretics, apostates, infidels, and insisting
>that they must be given only two options -- they must either submit and
>accept Islam or be annihilated. So, while Article 20 of the Pakistan
>Constitution guarantees more or less what the corresponding Articles in our
>Constitution guarantee, the course law -- and the Pakistan Constitution
>itself -- has taken in the two countries has been the direct opposite.
>
>In a State such as ours, in a culture such as that of the Hindus, the
>religion of a person is what that person says is his religion : when a
>Census enumerator comes to your house, he comes with the specific
>instruction to record as your religion whatever you say it is. But in
>Pakistan, as Islam had been adopted as the religion of the State, it became
>both the right and the duty of the State to define who was a Muslim. Within
>just a year or so of the adoption of the Constitution, the predictable next
>step got taken. In September, 1974, another clause was added to Article 260
>of the Constitution. The addition decreed,
>
>"A person who does not believe in the absolute and unqualified finality of
>the Prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon him) the last of the Prophets or
>claims to be a Prophet, in any sense of the word or of any description
>whatsoever, after Muhammad (peace be upon him), or recognizes such a
>claimant as a Prophet or a religious reformer, is not a Muslim for the
>purposes of the Constitution or law."
>
>By definition, therefore, the Ahmadiyas were declared to be non-Muslims.
>Whether they claimed to be Muslims, whether the forms of worship etc. they
>followed were Islamic or not, that became immaterial. In fact, such
>assertion by them, the practice of those forms of worship now became an act
>by which they were deliberately flouting the provision of the Constitution !
>And it became the duty of the State to ensure that such disregard for the
>Constitution did not continue. The scales had thus been inevitably -- and
>predictably --inverted.
>
>Zia took the next "logical" step, the next predictable step. What was the
>point of having that definition in the Constitution declaring the Ahmadiyas
>to be non-Muslims, if no penal consequences followed upon their continuing
>to claim to the contrary ? ! In April, 1984, therefore, came the notorious
>Martial Law Ordinance XX. This added sections 298B and 298C to the Pakistan
>Penal Code. These new sections read as follows :
>"298b. Misuse of epithets descriptions and titles, etc., Reserved for
>certain holy personages of places :
>"(1) Any person of the Qadiani group or Lahori group (who call themselves
>'Ahmadis' or by any other name) who by word, either spoken or written, or by
>visible representation: (a) refers to or addresses, any person, other than a
>Caliph or companion of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), as
>'Ameer-ul-Mumineen', 'Khalifa-tul-Mumineen', 'Khalifa-tul-Muslimeen,
>'Sahaabi' or 'Razi Allah Anho'; (b) refers to, or addresses, any person,
>other than a wife of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), as
>'Ummul-Mumineen'; (c) refers to, or addresses, any person, other than a
>member of the family (Ahle-bait) of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
>him), as Ahle-bait; or (d) refers to, or names, or calls, his place of
>worship as 'Masjid'; shall be punished with imprisonment of either
>description for a term which may extend to three years, and shall also be
>liable to fine.
>
>"(2) Any person of the Qadiani group or Lahori group (who call themselves
>'Ahmadis' or by any other name) who by words, either spoken or written, or
>by visible representation, refers to the mode or form of call to prayers
>followed by his faith as 'Azan', or recites Azan as used by the Muslims,
>shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which
>may extend to three years, and shall also be liable to fine.
>
>"298c. Person of qadiani group, etc., Calling himself a Muslim or preaching
>or propagating his faith :
>"Any person of the Qadiani group or the Lahori group (who call themselves
>'Ahmadis' or by any other name), who, directly or indirectly, poses himself
>as a Muslim, or calls, or refers to, his faith as Islam, or preaches or
>propagates his faith, or invites others to accept his faith, by words,
>either spoken or written, or by visible representations, or in any manner
>whatsoever outrages the religious feelings of Muslims, shall be punished
>with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three
>years and shall also be liable to fine."
>
>Notice the steps : Islam is made the State religion; that makes it necessary
>to define what Islam means; next, Islam is defined to be this and not that;
>by the definition which is adopted Ahmadis automatically become non-Muslims;
>consequently, when they say they are Muslims, they are defying the
>Constitution, when they use the same greetings as are customary among
>Muslims, when they call their place of prayer a Masjid, when they pray as
>Muslims do, they are deceiving others, they are posing to be what, by
>definition, they are not !
>
>Cases upon cases began being filed against Ahmadiyas under these two new
>sections. That was in 1984. Two years later, the Pakistan Penal Code was
>again amended. Section 295C was added. It read as follows :
>"295-C : Use of derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet.
>Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or
>by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles
>the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be
>punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to
>fine."
>
>Notice that this too was an inevitable, predictable step in the descent :
>Islam had been adopted as the religion of the State; Islam is in its essence
>the idolization and adoration of the Prophet; therefore, it became the
>bounden duty of the State to shield the name and repute of the Prophet.
>
>By these steps, not only did the Ahmadiyas become non-Muslims by definition,
>whatever they did came by definition to constitute a crime. Recall that
>Article 20 had allowed restrictions on the freedom of religion on the ground
>of public order. But now under section 298B and 298C, for an Ahmadiya to be
>prosecuted and convicted it was no longer necessary that something he had
>done should actually have resulted in disorder. It was no longer necessary
>that what he had done should have been intended to or actually outraged the
>religious feelings of some Muslims. The mere doing of those things
>constitutes a crime, the courts decreed. Each step is no more than a
>consequence of the definition contained in the preceding step, they decreed.
>And the restrictions do not curtail the religious rights of the ones who
>have been defined out of Islam, all that has been circumscribed is the
>likelihood of their outraging the religious feelings of true Muslims !
>Notice the reasoning of the Federal Shariat Court in Mujeeb-ur-Rahman v.
>Federal Government of Pakistan. The Ahmadiyas had challenged Ordinance XX as
>violative of Article 20 of the Constitution. But, the Court decreed, the
>Ordinance is just "consequential to" the 2nd Constitutional Amendment by
>which the Ahmadiyas were declared to be non-Muslims. And the precise
>restrictions which had been incorporated in the Penal Code were no more than
>"consequential to" that definition. The Court laid down,
>
>"The impugned Ordinance is consequential to the Constitutional Amendment of
>1974 by which the Qadianis.... were declared non-Muslims in accordance with
>the dictates of Islamic Sharia.... The prohibition against calling their
>places of worship as masjid or calling azan for prayer is thus consequential
>to the declaration of Ahmadis or Qadianis as non-Muslims or prohibition
>against [ their ] posing them[selves] as Muslims. The Qadianis can call
>their places of worship by any other names and call the adherents of their
>religion to prayer by use of any other method. This does not amount to
>interference with the right to profess or practice their religion.... the
>prohibition against propagation of the religion of Ahmadis is not contrary
>to the Quran and sunnah of the Holy Prophet ( PBUH )." [ 1984 Pakistan Law
>Decisions, Federal Shariat Court, p. 137 ]
>
>And just as predictably, that the Ahmadiyas were guilty of blasphemy too
>followed by definition ! Islam is the religion of the State, veneration for
>the Prophet is the sine qua non of Islam, that the Prophet was the last of
>the prophets is an essential attribute that establishes his uniqueness,
>therefore anyone who believes that someone after him too received messages
>from Allah etc. is by definition defiling the name of the Prophet. He is
>therefore by definition guilty of blasphemy. And that crime is to be
>punished, section 295C said, "with death, or imprisonment for life, and
>shall also be liable to fine."
>
>But surely, the option to a court to punish the man to life imprisonment
>showed a want of zeal, a shortfall in the commitment to Islam. Whenever
>blasphemy cases came up, therefore, the mullahs packed the courtrooms, they
>surrounded them and raised a din to heaven : nothing short of death, they
>insisted.
>
>The next step was therefore not long in coming. In 1991/92 the Federal
>Shariat Court ruled that under the Shariat death alone was the permissible
>punishment for blaspheming the name of the Prophet. Government could have
>filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the decision. But that would
>have opened it to the charge of being soft in its commitment to Islam. The
>National Assembly could have amended the Pakistan Penal Code to strike out
>the words "or imprisonment for life", but that would have invited further
>censure from western countries and human rights organizations who had become
>increasingly critical of these clauses -- specially since they had become to
>be used against local Christians. As the time limit allowable passed, the
>decision of the Federal Court became law. Therefore, while the words of
>section allow the option of life imprisonment, death is the only punishment
>the courts can decree for the person they find guilty of blasphemy.
>
>And by definition, the very belief of the Ahmadiyas constitutes a
>denigration of the Prophet. QED.
>
>That is how things have progressed thus far. But clearly that cannot be the
>end. In 1993 a Bill was introduced to extend the law to include in blasphemy
>anything that defiles the name of the Prophet's family and his companions.
>As the Shias regard the first three Khalifas to have taken the mantle
>illegitimately, as they censure Aisha for having aided them, as the tabarra
>they hurl during their processions consists of the strongest possible
>denunciation of these personages, under the Bill they too shall become by
>definition guilty of blasphemy. The movement to have them cast out of the
>community of Muslims, to have them declared a non-Muslim minority has
>already become a major, murderous movement throughout Pakistan.
>
>Once the Shias are out, the Zikris shall be a trifle.
>
>And then the Ismailis.
>
>And of course the Bahais....
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
lsk...@hotmail.com
>Date: Fri, 8 May 1998 13:26:49 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Chanakya...@atl.sita.int (Chanakya Ganguly)
>To: lsku...@hotmail.com
>Subject: Religion & Universalism
>
> People Living in Glass Houses Should Not Throw Stones!
> ======================================================
>Most of these objectors rise from the ranks of either the begotted
>Christians or the more fanatical section of the Muslims. Without
>understanding the true spirit of their own religions for, no true religion
>ever exhorts its adherents to be cruel to others and much less the Eternal
>Religion, they resort to mudslinging. They seem to forget that the old adage
>People living in glass houses should not throw stones applies to them
>admirably!
>
>Every religion has two forms : the higher and the lower. The former is meant
>for the few highly evolved souls who are really the salt of the earth. The
>latter is only a concession to the ignorance of the masses, who will thus be
>led gently from lower truths to higher truths. It is always easy for any
>intelligent crook to compare the higher form of his faith with the lower
>ones of others and get away with the conclusion that all religions except
>his are Paganism and hence false ! It is this crooked chauvinism that the
>Hindu abhors and never the higher forms of any religion or its truly great
>votaries. The heart of the true Hindu goes out to the Man on the cross, who
>exclaimed even at that hour, Father ! Forgive them ; for they know not what
>they do! The true Hindu is all admiration for the great Prophet of Arabia
>who literally transformed a barbaric People into a well knit moral society.
>But he can never tolerate the small minded fanatics who try to poohpooh
>every other faith.
>
>Swami Abhedananda, a brother disciple of Swami Vivekananda clearly draws a
>distinction between the Christianity of Jesus and the Churchianity of the
>fathers. He declares that whereas the Hindu has no hesitation to accept the
>former which is a true religion of the heart, he can never accept the latter
>which is nothing but organised dogmatism.
>
>It is interesting to note that an almost similar distinction is drawn
>between Islam and Mohammedanism by Sir Ahmed Hussain "I make a difference
>between Islam and Mohammedanism. The latter is not pure Islam. It has
>forgotten the spirit of Islam and remembers only the letter of the law." He
>continues : "Please remember that there are many men and many minds and
>there are likely to be as many religions, as many conceptions of God, as
>many notions of His attributes and as many ideas of the beginning or end of
>things as there are thinking minds." What a catholic approach !
>
>Just read this passage from the Quran "Sight perceives Him not, but He
>perceives men's sights ; for He is the knower of secrets, the Aware" (Sura
>vi. 104). It appears like a perfect echo of the statement in the
>Kenopanishad! (I.7)
>
>However, the generality of the Christian missionaries and the bigots among
>the Muslims fail to understand these higher sentiments and take to the
>tactics of hitting below the belt. They seem to be alienating themselves
>from the main current of our country, its culture and tradition, and
>misleading the ignorant masses into fantastic ways of thinking, ultimately
>leading to denationalisation and disintegration. The following observation
>of Dr. Radhakrishnan is very pertinent in the present context : "Latterly,
>however, a curious notion has got hold of our, strange to say, educated
>Mohammedan brethren, that by transferring their allegiance to the faith of
>Islam, they become the descendants of the Moors of Spain and the Caliphs of
>Baghdad. They regard themselves as culturally and socially distinct from
>their Hindu fellow countrymen. We do not change our whole mental make up,
>simply because we change our intellectual beliefs or religious convictions.
>To change one's creed is not to cut oneself off from the past of one's
>country or its ideals." If at all, this is an understatement.
>
>It is an undeniable historical fact and Prof. Arnold Toynbee himself
>subscribes to this view that Christianity and Islam have seldom been content
>to follow the practice of live and let live and that both of them have been
>responsible for some of the bitterest conflicts and the cruelest atrocities
>that have disgraced history. V. O. Ogt in his Cult and Culture condemns the
>unbending arrogance of Muslims and Christian missionaries in their claims of
>revealed authority and laments that religion will meet with disaster unless
>it universalizes its own conception of Revelation to embrace the future as
>well as the past (p. 70).
>
>The Bible and its doctrines have received a very rough treatment at the
>hands of the Biblical scholars. Summing up the results of such criticism,
>Vivan Phelips says that :
>
> 1. The creation story of the Old Testament is a myth ;
> 2. The concept of virgin birth of Jesus is a late interpolation and that
> Joseph was his real father;
> 3. Jesus was a man who was gradually raised to god hood ;
> 4. The resurrection of Jesus is a concoction and even St. Paul is silent
> on it ;
> 5. The Gospels are not credible and trustworthy narratives.
>
>Thus we see that the main foundations of Christianity as propounded by the
>Church have been demolished ! It is significant that Vivian Phelips warns
>his readers by saying : "These criticisms are, I repeat, the work not of
>anti Christians, but of Christians who have devoted themselves to Biblical
>research and who are among the greatest living experts in that sphere of
>knowledge." The author has rendered signal service to us by providing in
>this very book the grudging admissions by orthodox church leaders, of this
>criticism ! J. M. Robertson's book Christianity and Mythology clearly admits
>that some of the Gospel stories were borrowed from the incidents in the
>lives of Krishna and Buddha.
>
>Often, the god hood of Jesus is sought to be proved on the basis of the
>miracles he was supposed to have performed. If Jesus is to be accepted as
>divine just because of his miracles, why not accept Rasputin the rascal monk
>also as equally divine? In fact these miracles are dismissed as artificial
>delusions of magic by Johan Gottifried Eichhorn.
>
>According to the Old Testament, God created man out of earth and woman out
>of man's rib ! People are born and die only once. However, their souls will
>be patiently waiting in the graves for the final day of Judgment. On this
>day God will weigh the sins and merits of each and every individual in a
>balance and put them into heaven or hell fire eternally depending upon their
>balance amount of merit or sin ! Not even twentieth century science has
>succeeded in making these discoveries
>
>No rational being will ever accept such theories. An unbiassed comparison of
>these with the Hindu ideas on the same topics will clearly show up who is
>superstitious and who is scientific and rational. "I am no Hindu, but I hold
>the doctrine of the Hindus concerning a future state to be incomparably more
>rational, more pious and more likely to deter men from vice, than the horrid
>opinions inculcated by Christians on punishments without end" thus wrote Sri
>William Jones to Earl Spencer.
>
>Now, let us turn to Islam. The doctrine that Islam is the only true
>religion, Allah is the only true God and that Muhammad is the last and the
>best of prophets is as ridiculous as saying to a thirsty man. "if, and only
>if, you draw water from this particular well, call it as pani and drink it,
>your thrust will be quenched and not otherwise !" In fact, broad minded
>intellectuals like Sir Ahamed Hussain who were devout Muslims, rebelled
>against such narrow bigotry and candidly declared :" (There is) one and only
>one God who is Infinite and Absolute, who hath neither beginning nor end and
>who is not conditioned or limited by anything whatever. Yezdan, Ishvara,
>Jehovah, God, Allah are the names in different languages of the same
>Infinite and Absolute God." What a beautiful echo of the Rig Vedic
>statement, "Truth is one, sages call it by various names !"
>
>Islam has staged a mighty rebellion against idolatry and worship of man.
>However, a glance at the place occupied by the stone of Kaaba and the
>prophet Muhammad in Islam would suffice to convince anyone that what was
>driven out of the front door has come back through the back door ! It will
>be interesting and instructive to quote Will Durant here : "Many of its
>worshippers believe that this stone (of Kaaba) was sent down from heaven and
>perhaps it was a meteorite .... Within the Kaaba, in pre Moslems days, were
>several idols representing gods. One was called Allah, and was probably the
>tribal god of the Quarish ; three others were Allah's daughters ....
>Mohammod .... destroyed the idols in and around the Kaaba, but spared the
>Black Stone, and sanctioned the kissing of it." He continues : Pious pagan
>Arabs, long before Mohammed, had trekked to the Kaaba. Mohammed accepted the
>old custom because he knew that ritual is less easily changed than belief ;
>and perhaps because he himself hankered after the Black Stone ; by yielding
>to the old rite he opened a wide door to the acceptance of Islam by all
>Arabia.... As Islam spread to distant lands only a minority of Moslems
>performed the pilgrimage ; even in Mecca there are Moslems who haven't ever
>made a ritual visit to the Kaaba."
>
>The conclusion is obvious !
>
>Thus we can go on multiplying our criticisms of other religions. Maharshi
>Dayananda Saraswati has already done it in a much more devastating way in
>his Satyartha Prakasha. But such an approach may not help anyone. What is of
>importance is a serious and sincere attempt to emulate the great ones, be he
>a Christ or a Mohammed, a Rama or a Krishna or a Buddha, and make our lives
>blessed.
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
M. Ranjit Mathews
lsk...@hotmail.com wrote:
> Remember JFK's Cuban crisis ? [ The then USSR had submarines fitted
> with nuclear missiles in Cuba and the USA reacted sharply. It has been
> much feared as the worst nightmare ever to happen after WW-II ] The
> need of the hour is to ...
Actually, it started with US missiles in Turkey, which was countered by
Soviet missiles in Cuba. JFK called Kruschev's bluff and the rest is
history.
lsk...@hotmail.com
Dear Friend,
Please take a minute to read this email in full.
This was the reply I got for what I sent, which can be had at
http://members.tripod.com/~lskumar/tosenators.html.
The political scenario has changed drastically in the past 48 hours.
The sweeping sanctions against India by the world community, notably,
USA, Japan, Denmark are already up on the cards. Why ? India tested
H-Bomb recently. [ Should the test have been made some 130 miles west
of Pokhran ? :-) May be the desired results would have been achieved
while testing stages itself !!! Just kidding !! :-) :-) :-) ]
God forbid another 'live' nuclear attack anywhere on this planet.
The soverign right of India to protect its citizens, defend its
borders, safegaurd its territory and ensure peace in all frontiers
has taken utmost importance in the light of some heated debates and
unnecesary controversies in the last month. India is surrounded by
hostile neighbors on all sides. The world community, which talks of
values and ethics, esp. in nuclear testing, has always turned a blind
eye to China's nuclear policies and the blatantly terrorist support
by fundamentalists in Pakistan, and its secret weaponisation program.
Remember JFK's Cuban crisis ? [ The then USSR had submarines fitted
with nuclear missiles in Cuba and the USA reacted sharply. It has been
much feared as the worst nightmare ever to happen after WW-II ] The
need of the hour is to ...
1. write to every congressman/congresswoman/senator in the USA to
highlight India's H-Bomb testing in clear unmistakable terms.
2. highlight the border tensions India has with Pak and China.
3. inform them that pakistan has illegally occupied Kashmir and also
ceded some of this territory to China illegally, in turn for
China's support in building missiles.
4. the repeated statements of Pakistanis about their nuclear program
is a cause for worry, as they always think they speak for the
cause of the entire muslim world.
5. highlight the utter lack of response from the US admn. inspite
of it fully knowing the support Pak extends to terrorists in
Kashmir and elsewhere.
6. let all these people know why the west wants to impose sanctions
when none such were issued against china and france. we all know
that the so-called-sanctions against china are only a farce and
the trade-economics forces US to turn a blind eye to see to it
that the sanctions indeed do work. ask these senators why USA
sold recently hi-tech equipments which could be used for dual
purposes - both for weather and military.
thank you
-LSK http://members.tripod.com/~lskumar
[ I welcome any constructive criticisms on the above topic ]
----Original Message Follows----
From: geo...@coverdell-cms.senate.gov
Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 15:16:35 -0400
To: lsk...@hotmail.com
Subject: Internet response from the office of Senator Paul Coverdell
May 11, 1998
Mr. Suresh L. Kumar
8601 Roberts Drive
Apartment 2-5
Atlanta, Georgia 30350
Dear Mr. Kumar:
Thank you for contacting me regarding religious persecution in
India by the Pakistanis. I apologize for the delay in responding to
your concerns.
I appreciate your sharing your concerns on this very important
issue with me. We are in the process of reviewing and researching
this matter further. Please be assured that my staff will keep me
apprised of any developments.
The religious freedom nurtured and defended by democracies around
the globe is under attack by a few select nations with little regard
for individual liberty. That is why I have cosponsored the Freedom
from Religious Persecution Act which would apply sanctions to nations
who pursue a policy of religious persecution or allow such persecution
to continue.
Under this legislation, the United States could enact a variety
of penalties against offending nations including a ban on all domestic
exports, the elimination of all non-humanitarian aid, and the denial
of U.S. visas to individuals who carry out, order, or oversee
religious persecution. Additionally, the Freedom from Religious
Prosection Act would extend and impose further trade and economic
sanctions against Sudan, a long offending nation. These sanctions
would stay in place until it could be determined that Sudan has
substantially eliminated religious persecution and no longer supports
international terrorism. The United States must offer real moral
leadership in the fight to extend basic rights to people around the
world, and I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this
important legislation.
Again, thank you for contacting my office. Hopefully, our
continued vigilance and pressure on the governments who persist in
religious persecution will bring peace to these ravaged areas.
Sincerely,
Paul D. Coverdell United States Senator
PDC/prw