biography of Prophet Muhammad (SM) by Karen Armstrong in high demand
VognoDuut750
by Swakat Hossain and Sofies Verden by Jostein Gaardex translated by
G.H.Habib and Islam:
Natural craving for books continue
By A.T.M.Nurun Nabi
Tue, 14 Feb 2006, 05:50:00
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I intercepted a head-covering woman in front of a bookstall in the Ekushey
Book Fair (EBF) on Friday evening and said, "What does bring ye here?" She
looked up and said, "I intend to buy a copy of Bukhari Sharif provided the
price is affordable.
This renowned book of hadith is now available in one volume in the
bookstalls. It is originally divided into 11 volumes. In order to bring it
to the doors of the quenching people, the learned men summarized 11 volumes
just for one. To a question, a salesman of Solemania Book House said, "Human
craving for the books on religion has been increasing day by day. Many a
buyer asks for a copy of the biography of the Prophet Muhammad (SM) and the
Quran Sharif. The sale position is better than the corresponding days of the
last year." Solemania Book House is an inspiration for those having thirst
for knowing Islam.
Tablig-e-Kutubkhana gave identical view and added that the people being
tired of the mechanised civilisation want to get rid thereof and they find
it in the books on religion. They have now realised that the true practice
of the Islamic law and principles can give human beings relief from
monotonous life." Friday being weekly holiday, people from all walks of life
swarmed to the book fair to express their solidarity and integrity with
nationalism. They had to stand in queue, which stretched to beyond the TSC,
DU in the north and Doel Chatar in the south. None of them showed any kind
of resentment at the system; they were rather patient. Ruma, a student,
said, "I am proud of our adherence to the discipline we need to advance
ahead. An undisciplined nation is sure to suffer. Our acceptance of the
system with patience proves that proper guidance is the prime need of the
country."
The most amazing and valuable explanation came from a member of Bangladesh
Police. I spoke to him and two others standing on the footpath of the TSC
Sarak. He said, "21st February is a red letter day in the history of the
world as no other nation shed blood for mother language. This day reminds us
of our glorious past and rouses us from hibernation.
The poets, the writers and the litterateurs get an opportunity to market
their new books and help our present generation to know the unknown. We are
of the opinion that the book fair like this could be organised at the
district headquarter also."
On the long queue, he said, "People's cooperation indicates that we are in
truth a disciplined nation. We are not unrestrained."
The idea of holding book fair at the district level can be judiciously
considered.
A RAB man inside the book fair said, " It gives us pleasure to perform duty
here, as all those who come are mostly educated and make no problem. We are
happy to be posted here." But how many of the students and the educated
circle are conscious of their doings in time of national crisis and know the
genesis of the language movement?
Sadly, highest five percent have concrete knowledge while 95 percent are in
the dark. They gather here, spend time gossiping, look to and fro and then
leave for home, said a visitor. "The Ministry of Education, the Cultural
Affairs Ministry and the Bangla Academy should take joint initiative to
write the history of language movement from the 12th century. There is no
scope to evade, to sidetrack and to ignore the truth," said a college
teacher on condition of anonymity. Organising the book fair has been part of
our culture, and there is no ground to deny its impact on our
socio-political life. It increases the spirits of nationalism to fight
against hegemony and imperialism.
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) is a stall with research
books on the country's economy. Upward Occupational Mobility Among Female
Workers in Garment Industries of Bangladesh, published in October 1997 by
Protima Paul Majumder and Sharifa Begum is one of them. Role and Problems of
Public Financial Institutions in the Recovery of Loans: Case Studies of the
Nationalised Commercial Banks by Dr. Rahman Sobhan and Md. N. Ehsan Sharif
are a very good book.
Men looking after the interests of the stall said, "The sale position is not
satisfactory."
Salma Akhter who lives in Italy is now in Dhaka. I let not the opportunity
to talk to her. She bought a novel by Victor Hugo. She said, "The number of
the Bengali-speaking people in Italy is small comparing in the USA and the
UK. I we are alone, I reminiscerate our past, days in Bangladesh. I am very
glad being able to come to the book fair."
Quantum Foundation was found collecting blood from the healthy and sound
persons free of cost. It had collected till Friday afternoon 471 bags.
According to a figure supplied by the foundation, the country needs for
hundred thousands bag per year.
Three volunteer social organisations of the country that collect blood from
the volunteers are Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, Sandhani and Quantum
Foundation. On the quality of giving blood, it was said that the age group
between 18-45 was entitled.
Swadesh, a book stall, said, "Books on science fiction has the best demand.
Besides that, the biography of Prophet Muhammad (SM) by Karen Armstrong
translated by Swakat Hossain and Sofies Verden by Jostein Gaardex translated
by G.H.Habib and Islam: A short history by Karen Armstrong have received
good response from the buyers." Hamidia Library said that the sale position
was not up to the expectation due to poor site.. However, three books, one
on Karbala tragedy titled Shahadate Hossain, second one is Gunah Maf
Samparke Rasulullah's Shuvo Sangbad and third one is Shane Najul have
received good response from the buyers.
Those who love to have the photograph of Dhaka before hundred years or more
than that, may go to Bangladesh National Museum stall. Photographic Album of
Old Dhaka will help the readers quench the thirst for knowledge. Another one
Introducing Bangladesh National Museum is also a precious book. Those who
are confused as to the access of drawing and paintings to Islam may go
through Historic Dhaka City: Evolution and Probability by Dr. Iftikharul
Awal, Islamic Art Heritage of Bangladesh and Bangladesher Islami Shilpokala
both by Enamul Haque. The book fair tries to give the new generation an idea
about their doings both as students and afterward life.
Torpedo
http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/02/15/d602151306103.htm
Taliban vows to step up attacks in Kabul
Bomb kills 4 Gis
Reuters, Spin Boldak
Afghanistan's Taliban guerrillas are gaining strength and will step up
attacks against government and foreign troops when spring comes next month,
a Taliban commander said yesterday.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for a blast on Monday that the US
military said killed four troops.
The Taliban said nine Americans were killed and US forces were helpless in
the face of such attacks.
The soldiers died on Monday in Uruzgan province, one of the hotbeds of an
insurgency launched by the Taliban after they were removed from government
in a US-led operation four years ago.
An exchange of small arm and rocket-propelled grenade fire erupted after the
explosion, and the coalition called in helicopters and planes to help the US
and Afghan forces on the ground, a coalition statement said.
"Taliban attacks will further increase with a decrease in the winter cold,"
a former Taliban governor of Kandahar province, Mullah Mohammad Hassan
Rahmani, told the agency by satellite telephone from an undisclosed
location.
Fighting in Afghanistan traditionally eases off during the winter when
mountain passes get snowed under.
But violence has surged in recent months, including 15 suicide blasts since
November, as Nato members led by Britain, Canada and the Netherlands prepare
to expand their peacekeeping mission.
"VognoDuut750" <VognoD...@zilmore.com> wrote in message
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LA Times
February 15, 2006
The West as scapegoat
By Max Boot
WHY ARE SO many Muslims so enraged by a handful of cartoons published
in an obscure Danish newspaper? It's not enough to point out how the
governments of Egypt, Syria and Iran are stoking the protests in a
cynical ploy to deflect Western pressure for democratic reform and to
curry favor with Islamic radicals. Their strategy wouldn't be so
successful if it didn't resonate with deeply ingrained attitudes among
the Muslim multitudes.
I got an earful of those views last week in Kuala Lumpur while
attending a conference sponsored by New York University and the
Malaysian Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations. The ostensible
subject was: "Who Speaks for Islam? Who Speaks for the West?" We never
did answer those questions, but the infidel attendees did get a red-hot
blast of indignation from the Muslim participants, who hailed not only
from East Asia but also from Europe, North America, Africa, the Middle
East and South Asia.
Even though all of the Muslim delegates were intellectuals, activists,
politicians and other movers and shakers, they resonated with the rage
of the dispossessed. With considerable justification, they fulminated
against the backwardness of the Islamic world compared to the West.
With considerably less justification, they blamed their frustrations on
the West.
If only I had a ringgit for every time some delegate complained that
the plight of the Palestinians showed the world's anti-Muslim bias. One
attendee even had the gall to claim that Israel is allowed to violate
U.N. resolutions while no Muslim state has that luxury - at the very
moment Iran is thumbing its nose at the United Nations! This was
coupled with ritualistic denunciations of other anti-Muslim offenses
- from the real (Russian repression in Chechnya) to the farcical (a
Pakistani academic blamed the CIA for creating Islamic fundamentalism
in his country).
Naturally the United States got scant credit (except from one Bosnian)
for repeatedly waging war to free Muslims from oppression. Instead of
being thanked for saving Muslims from genocide in places such as
Kosovo, the U.S. was denounced for committing genocide against them.
Other complaints abounded - the global financial system is biased
against Muslim countries such as Indonesia (which was hurt by the
1997-98 Asian financial crisis); the propagation of knowledge is
dominated by American universities such as Harvard and Yale; the U.N.
Security Council has no permanent Islamic member; and on and on.
Of course, blaming the U.S. for the world's ills is not an exclusively
Islamic phenomenon, as one non-Muslim attendee from Austria proved by
complaining that Hollywood had destroyed the European film industry.
(Pity those poor Europeans - forced by evil American capitalists to
watch movies they hate.) But such whininess is particularly pronounced
among the large number of Muslims who have never come to grips with the
subservient position they have occupied in world affairs since
Napoleon's 1798 invasion of Egypt.
IN RECENT years, some Muslims, notably the authors of the 2002 U.N.
Arab Human Development Report, have been acknowledging internal
problems - a lack of freedom, honest government, gender equality,
scientific research and education - that have turned their societies
into global also-rans. But in Kuala Lumpur there wasn't much
introspection in evidence. Most attendees - and I suspect their views
are broadly representative of the Muslim world as a whole - preferred
to rant against supposed Western oppression.
The cartoon brouhaha not only confirms this victimization legend, it
assuages the shame many Muslims feel over the atrocities committed in
their name by Osama bin Laden & Co. To hear many Muslim attendees talk,
you would think there is no difference between a cartoonist who injured
no one physically and terrorists who kill thousands of innocent people.
The trope of the conference seemed to be: "We have our extremists ...
and you have yours." Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami took
this argument to its logical conclusion by equating American
neoconservatives with Al Qaeda. As if Paul Wolfowitz were plotting to
crash hijacked aircraft into Tehran office buildings.
The most depressing aspect of the whole cartoon affair is not the
intolerance for press freedom exhibited throughout Muslim lands. It is
the willingness of so many Muslims - even those who would never burn
a consulate or threaten a newspaper editor - to scapegoat the West
for their own failures. Muslim nations will never make any progress
unless they stop focusing on the offenses, real or imagined, visited
upon them by the outside world and start looking within for what ails
them.