I really thankful that I'm in Canada.

Just see what has happened in Karnataka yesterday.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taslima Nasreen's article was published in two
newspapers and riots broke out. Two people were
killed and now the publishers are facing police cases.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?233670

opinion
Let's Think Again About The Burqa
The Quran does prescribe purdah. That doesn't mean
women should obey it.
My mother used purdah. She wore a burqa with a
net cover in front of the face. It reminded me of the
meatsafes in my grandmother's house. One had a net
door made of cloth, the other of metal. But the objective
was the same: keeping the meat safe. My mother was
put under a burqa by her conservative family. They told
her that wearing a burqa would mean obeying Allah.
Women too have sexual urges. So why didn't Allah start
the purdah for men? Clearly, He treated them on unequal terms.


And if you obey Allah, He would be happy with you and not
let you burn in hellfire. My mother was afraid of Allah and
also of her own father. He would threaten her with grave
consequences if she didn't wear the burqa. She was also
afraid of the men in the neighbourhood, who could have
shamed her. Even her husband was a source of fear, for
he could do anything to her if she disobeyed him.

As a young girl, I used to nag her: Ma, don't you suffocate
in this veil? Don't you feel all dark inside? Don't you feel
breathless? Don't you feel angry? Don't you ever feel like
throwing it off? My mother kept mum. She couldn't do
anything about it. But I did. When I was sixteen, I was
presented a burqa by one of my relatives. I threw it away.

The custom of purdah is not new. It dates back to 300 BC.
The women of aristocratic Assyrian families used purdah.
Ordinary women and prostitutes were not allowed purdah.
In the middle ages, even Anglo-Saxon women used to cover
their hair and chin and hide their faces behind a cloth or similar
object. This purdah system was obviously not religious. The
religious purdah is used by Catholic nuns and Mormons, though
for the latter only during religious ceremonies and rituals. For
Muslim women, however, such religious purdah is not limited
to specific rituals but mandatory for their daily life outside the
purview of religion.

A couple of months ago, at the height of the purdah controversy,
Shabana Azmi asserted that the Quran doesn't say anything
about wearing the burqa. She's mistaken. This is what the Quran says:

Tell the faithful women that they must keep their gaze
focused below/on the ground and cover their sexual organs.
They must not put their beauty and their jewellery on display.
They must hide their breasts behind a purdah. They must not
exhibit their beauty to anybody except their husbands, brothers,
nephews, womenfolk, servants, eunuch employees and children.
They must not move their legs briskly while walking because
then much of their bodies can get exposed. (Sura Al Noor 24:31)

Oh nabi, please tell your wives and daughters and faithful
women to wear a covering dress on their bodies. That would
be good. Then nobody can recognise them and harrass them.
Allah is merciful and kind. (Sura Al Hijaab 33: 59)

Even the Hadis --a collection of the words of Prophet Mohammed,
his opinion on various subjects and also about his work, written
by those close to him-- talks extensively of the purdah for women.
Women must cover their whole body before going out, they
should not go before unknown men, they should not go to the
mosque to read the namaaz, they should not go for any funeral.

There are many views on why and how the Islamic purdah started.
One view has it that Prophet Mohammed became very poor
after spending all the wealth of his first wife. At that time, in Arabia,
the poor had to go to the open desert and plains for relieving
themselves and even their sexual needs. The Prophet's wives
too had to do the same. He had told his wives that I give
you permission to go out and carry out your natural work.
(Bukhari Hadis first volume book 4 No. 149). And this is
what his wives started doing accordingly. One day,
Prophet Mohammed's disciple Uman complained to him that
these women were very uncomfortable because
they were instantly recognisable while relieving
themselves.
Umar proposed a cover
but Prophet Mohammed ignored it.
Then the Prophet asked Allah
for advice and he laid down the Ayat (33:59)
(Bukhari Hadis Book 026 No. 5397).

This is the history of the purdah, according to the Hadis.
But the question is: since Arab men too relieved themselves
in the open, why didn't Allah start the purdah for men?
Clearly, Allah doesn't treat men and women as equals, else
there would be purdah for both! Men are higher than women.
So women have to be made walking prisons and men can
remain free birds.

Another view is that the purdah was introduced to separate
women from servants. This originates from stories in the Hadis.
One story in the Bukhari Hadis goes thus: After winning
the Khyber War, Prophet Mohammed took over all the
properties of the enemy, including their women.
One of these women was called Safia. One of the Prophet's
disciples sought to know her status. He replied: If tomorrow you see
that Safia is going around covered,
under purdah, then she is going to be a wife. If you see
her uncovered, that means I've decided to make her my servant.

The third view comes from this story. Prophet Mohammed's
wife Ayesha was very beautiful. His friends were often
found staring at her with fascination. This clearly upset
the Prophet. So the Quran has an Ayat that says,
Oh friends of the prophet or holy men,
never go to your friend's house without an
invitation. And if you do go, don't go and ask anything
of their wives. It is to resist the greedy eyes of friends,
disciples or male guests that the purdah system came
into being. First it was applicable to only the wives of
the holy men, and later it was extended to all Muslim women.
Purdah means covering the entire body except for the eyes,
wrist and feet. Nowadays, some women practise the purdah
by only covering their hair. That is not what is written
in the Hadis Quran. Frankly, covering just the hair is
not Islamic purdah in the strict sense.

In the early Islamic period, Prophet Mohammed started
the practice of covering the feet of women. Within 100
years of his death, purdah spread across the entire Middle East.
Women were covered by an extra layer of clothing.
They were forbidden to go out of the house, or in front of
unknown men. Their lives were hemmed into a tight regime:
stay at home, cook, clean the house, bear children and
bring them up. In this way, one section of the
people was separated by purdah, quarantined and covered.

Why are women covered? Because they are sex objects.
Because when men see them, they are roused. Why should
women have to be penalised for men's sexual problems?
Even women have sexual urges. But men are not
covered for that. In no religion formulated by men are
women considered to have a separate existence, or as
human beings having desires and opinions separate
from men's. The purdah rules humiliate not only
women but men too. If women walk about without
purdah, it's as if men will look at them with lustful
eyes, or pounce on them, or rape them. Do they
lose all their senses when they see any woman without burqa?

My question to Shabana and her supporters, who
argue that the Quran says nothing about purdah is:
If the Quran advises women to use purdah, should
they do so? My answer is, No. Irrespective of which
book says it, which person advises, whoever commands,
women should not have purdah. No veil, no chador,
no hijab, no burqa, no headscarf. Women should not
use any of these things because all these are instruments
of disrespect. These are symbols of women's oppression.
Through them, women are told that they are but the
property of men, objects for their use. These coverings
are used to keep women passive and submissive.
Women are told to wear them so that they cannot
exist with their self-respect, honour, confidence,
separate identity, own opinion and ideals intact.
So that they cannot stand on their own two feet
and live with their head held high and their spine strong and erect.

Some 1,500 years ago, it was decided for an
individual's personal reasons that women
should have purdah and since then millions of Muslim
women all over the world have had to suffer it.
So many old customs have died a natural death,
but not purdah. Instead, of late, there has been a
mad craze to revive it. Covering a woman's
head means covering her brain and ensuring
that it doesn't work. If women's brains worked
properly, they'd have long ago thrown off these
veils and burqas imposed on them by a religious
and patriarchal regime.

What should women do? They should protest
against this discrimination. They should proclaim
a war against the wrongs and ill-treatment meted
out to them for hundreds of years. They should snatch
from the men their freedom and their rights. They
should throw away this apparel of discrimination
and burn their burqas.

(Nasrin, a Bangladeshi writer, currently lives in Calcutta)
=====================================

Very Interesting Comment from a person on the
Taslima Article:

Your letters column proves your stand on Muslims issues.
As an editor you are aware that when any Hindu issue is
discussed, Muslims never interfere in it. But what happens
when any Muslim issue is discussed? It is this attitude
which irritates the Muslims. Interference by any community
in the affairs of any other community is to say the least
unwanted. If we Indians refrain from this, it will be better.

V.M. Khaleelur Rahman
Chennai, India

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http://expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Two+dailies+booked+for+Taslimas+writing&
artid=|hcZbCSIE|M=&SectionID=b7ziAYMenjw=&
MainSectionID=b7ziAYMenjw=&SEO=Tasleema+nasreen,
+violence&SectionName=pWehHe7IsSU=

Two dailies booked for Taslima's writing

IANSFirst Published : 02 Mar 2010 08:59:55 PM IST
Last Updated : 02 Mar 2010 10:17:46 PM IST

BANGALORE: Police Tuesday filed cases against two
local dailies in Karnataka for carrying an article based
on Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen's novel that
sparked clashes and riots in two towns Monday, claiming
two lives and injuring many.


We have booked cases under sections I53A, 153B
and 295A of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) against both
the newspapers for provoking the public and causing
misunderstanding between two communities,\\\\\\\\
Bangalore additional police commissioner A.M. Pujar
told IANS here.

The first case was booked against Kannada Prabha,
a Kannada daily of The New Indian Express Group (South)
from Bangalore, for publishing a translated version of
Taslima's article in English based on her novel
Lajja Feb 28 in the Sunday supplement under
the heading: Parda o Parda.

The second case was booked against Siasat, a Urdu
daily published from Bangalore, for a follow-up story
March 1 stating that an article based on the
views of Taslima was published in a Kannada
daily against the social custom/practice of
wearing burqa (veil) by Muslim women.

Both the newspapers carried an apology
in Tuesday's issue on the front page for publishing
the article and the follow-up story.

The police also visited the newspaper offices late
Monday and served notices to their publisher,
editor and manager, directing them to carry an
apology in Tuesday's issue and explain reasons
for publishing the articles.

We only carried a news report stating that
such an article was published in Kannada Prabha
by lifting the matter from some English website
a Siasat editor told IANS on condition of anonymity.
There was no intention to provoke or incite the
public to react or protest, he added.

Kannada Prabha's Sunday magazine section editor
Venkateshwara Rao said his office was looking
into the matter and he had no comments to make.
We have no comments to make. We are looking
into the matter. The editor and publisher will reply
to the notice served by the police, Rao said.

Kannada Prabha editor Shiva Subramanya was not
available for comment.

Section 153A applies for promoting enmity between
different groups on ground of religion, race, place
of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts
prejudicial to maintenance of harmony by words,
either spoken or written.

Section 153B applies to imputations, assertions
prejudicial to national integration by words either
spoken or written.

Section 295A applies to deliberate and malicious
acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any
class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs .
by words, either spoken or written.

Under these sections, the accused are liable to be
punished with imprisonment for a three-year term,
which may extend to eight years, or with fine, or with both.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our Man FMH is now a Qatari Citizen, while many a
Indians are unhappy that FMH had to flee. Similar
riots happened when Salman Rushdies novel was
released in India, the Da Vinci Code novel/movie
was released in India and in other occasions with
the same writer Taslima Nasreen.

Incidentally FMH has the WORLD RECORD IN THE
MAXIMUM PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION filed
against any individual which was 900 and he
was hit with law suits in every nook and corner of India.

There are no cases registered against FMH for hurting Hindu
sentiments, while there are umpteen police cases against
people who protested his paintings.

http://expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=‘M+F+Hussain+denigrated+Indian+culture’&
artid=LqQPDQ|0kAQ=&SectionID=lMx/b5mt1kU=&
MainSectionID=lMx/b5mt1kU=&SectionName=
tm2kh5uDhixGlQvAG42A/07OVZOOEmts&SEO=Hussain
‘M F Hussain denigrated Indian culture’

Express News ServiceFirst Published : 01 Mar 2010
10:26:50 AM ISTLast Updated : 01 Mar 2010 11:54:57
AM IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Bharatiya Vichara Kendra
director P. Parameswaran has criticised painter
M.F. Hussain for consistently denigrating Indian culture.


In a press release issued on Sunday in the background
of the news that Hussain had accepted Qatar nationality,
Parameswaran said that in the name of artistic
freedom Hussain had painted Hindu gods and
goddesses and even Bharat Matha in a manner,
which deeply hurt the sentiments and sensibilities
of patriotic Indians.

That M.F. Hussain has accepted Qatar nationality
is good news, good for him and good for India. He
got what he desired and lost what he hardly deserved,
the statement said.

He had to leave India because of the intense
anger of his misusing artistic freedom. Now,
he is free to utilise his newly-won nationality
to make full commercial benefit of his negative
artistic talents while staying abroad, the statement
said. A number of human right activists are
raising a hue and cry against the denial of
M.F. Hussain’s fundamental right to live in India.
Their argument is that he has done only what has
already been in vogue in India a long time back.

In many Hindu temples, figures have been painted
in an obscene manner. But it must be remembered
that great Indian patriots like Swami Vivekananda
have openly condemned such paintings and described
such paintings as degenerate and not representing
true Indian art. Nobody now admires them and
no artist reproduces such paintings except Hussain,
the statement said. It was against such paintings
that the great Indian artists Raja Ravi Varma produced
hundreds of portraits of Hindu gods and goddesses
and won worldwide acclaim, the statement said.
It was an act of sheer arrogance on the part of the
Kerala Government that it recently decided to honour
M.F. Hussain by giving him Raja Ravi Varma award.

It is another matter that they could not succeed in
this nefarious attempt due to public protest and
judicial intervention, the statement said.

The “righteous indignation!’’ of the human rights
activists in the case of Hussain is to be seen in
comparison to to their silent acquiescence of the
Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama half-a- century-old
exile in India. Hussain had to leave India for
denigrating Indian culture, whereas Dalai Lama
was forced to leave Tibet in order to protect and
practise the millennium-old tradition and culture of Tibet.

It will indeed be interesting to watch if Hussain
utilises his freedom as a Qatar national to produce
paintings of Islamic symbols in the manner in
which he has been painting Hindu icons and symbols.
That would also show how genuine is his secularism
and the independence of his vociferous supporters
in India, he said.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Sunny Leone a true Canadian DESI now back in India !.

Now the newspaper office has been burnt down.

It is very interesting whether these 30 people have a
name like Bal Thackrey, Raj Thackeray, Muthalik, RSS,
VHP, Bajrang Dal ?.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/mangalore-office-of-kannada-prabha-burnt-down/110953-3.html

Mangalore office of Kannada Prabha burnt down
CNN-IBN
Published on Tue, Mar 02, 2010 at 22:25, Updated on Tue,
Mar 02, 2010 at 23:05 in India section



Bangalore: The office of Kannada newspaper Kannada
Prabha in Mangalore was burnt down by a mob on Tuesday
night for publishing an anti-burqa allegedly written
by controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen.


Police say a group of 30 people came to the office
of Kannada Prabha in Mangalore, vandalised the office,
broke furniture and accessories.


The mob then set the office on fire and fled.


The Kannada Prabha office was ransacked by unidentified
people. They threw a kerosene bottle in the office which
led to the fire. There have been no injuries but office and
property have been damaged. The office was ransacked
at 2115 hrs IST today (Tuesday), said Mangalore SP
Dr Subramanyeshwara Rao.


The Mangalore office of another Kannada newspaper
Jaya Kirana was also attacked.

Unidentified people threw stones on the office and
broke the computers. There have been no reports of
anyone sustaining any injuries, said Rao.


Karnataka Police have increased security to all the offices
of Kannada Prabha across the state. Security has also
been given to the journalists of the newspaper across
Karnataka


Kannada Prabha had published the article in its Sunday
supplement on February 28 claiming that the article was
reproduced from a book written by Taslima Nasreen.


But Taslima on Tuesday denied writing any article for a
Kannada newspaper.


The article has sparked off violent protests in many parts
of Karnataka including Shimoga and Hassan towns.


Two persons died and four others were injured in Shimoga
district during violent protests against the article.


One person died when police fired at a mob and another
other succumbed to injuries sustained in stone pelting,
police said.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Sunny Leone a true Canadian DESI now back in India !.

Again the tread is going no where. This is just a plain wish for an event and you guys are jumping on SS/MNS. Don't you have respect for the wishes and courtesy to reciprocate the wishes!!

I am locking this tread now.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
A Proud Indian Canadian