Strange Bedfellows.



Al Salamu 'Alaykum.
It is said that Politics makes strange bedfellows. One such mismatched pair is of the RSS ideologue KC Sudarshan and the Shi'ite Maulwi Kalbe Sadiq of the AIMPLB. The two met in Lucknow to "push for electoral reforms". The news piece is here:

RSS ideologue and Muslim cleric bat for electoral reforms

By Faisal Fareed, TwoCircles.net

Lucknow: Former Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief KC Sudarshan and Dr Kalbe Sadiq vice-president of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) met on Sunday in Lucknow and agreed on pushing and campaigning for electoral reforms.
In a joint statement, both of them urged the countrymen to place country's interests before religion. Issuing an appeal they stated that people should vote for a candidate during elections on the basis of his qualification and clean background and not on religious lines. Sudarshan also favored election by majority (with 50% votes) and also right to recall.
During the parleys, the two leaders focused mainly on Hindu-Muslim unity with Dr Sadiq stating that certain shlokas in Gita convey the same spirit as Quran's verses. "I accompanied an Iranian delegation during a visit to a temple in Varanasi. I translated a shloaka from Gita inscribed on the gate in Persian to the delegation. They were surprised as there were Quran's verses with same meaning," he said to which Sudarshan nodded his head.
http://twocircles.net/2011oct31/rss_ideologue_and_muslim_cleric_bat_electoral_reforms.html

Wa'laykum Salam.

The Price Of Torching Mosques.

The Price of Torching Mosques

Burning Rage

by JONATHAN COOK

Counterpunch

OCTOBER 12, 2011

Jewish far-right groups responsible for a series of arson attacks on West Bank mosques over the past year broke dangerous ground last week when they turned their attention for the first time to holy places inside Israel. A mosque was torched, followed days later by an attack on Muslim and Christian graves.

In each case the settlers left their calling card – the words “Price tag”, indicating an act of revenge – scrawled on their handiwork.

None of the recent attacks against Palestinians has led to prosecutions. The so-called “Jewish division” of the Shin Bet secret police, which is charged with solving such crimes, is known to be more than half-hearted about pursuing investigations. Like many state institutions, including the army, its ranks are filled with settlers.

Paradoxically, a recent report from the Shin Bet warned that Jewish terror networks were not only flourishing in the hothouses of the West Bank’s settlements but growing bolder because of this impunity.

The desecration last week of a mosque in the Bedouin village of Tuba Zangariya, in northern Israel, should not therefore have been a surprise. It was followed at the weekend by the despoiling of two cemeteries in Jaffa, next to Tel Aviv.

The goal of the settler movement is to destroy any hope of a two-state solution, which is seen as limiting the Jewish people’s right to all of the land promised by God. Egged on by an ever larger number of rabbis, the hardliners in this camp are too blinkered to understand that Israeli leaders, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have already voided the peace process.

It was no coincidence that the torching of Tuba’s mosque came in the wake of an application last month to the United Nations by Mahmoud Abbas to recognise Palestinian statehood. The Palestinian Authority president raised the stakes, and so too did the settlers – by this time including Israel’s Palestinian Arab minority, a fifth of the population, in their “price tag”.

The Jewish extremists’ new strategy is apparently to stoke hatred and violence on both sides of the Green Line. As has been noted by Jafar Farah, the director of the Mossawa Center, an Arab Israeli advocacy group, the intention is to drain any residual support among Israeli Jews for a Palestinian state by persuading them that they are in an apocalyptic struggle for survival.

The target was carefully chosen in this regard. Tuba is one of a few fervently “loyal” Arab communities in Israel. While many Bedouin were expelled during the 1948 war that created Israel, the tribes of Tuba and Zangariya had an area next to Jewish communities set aside as a reward for fighting alongside Israel’s armed forces.

Deprived of jobs and facing the same discrimination suffered by the rest of the Arab minority, many young men still serve, like their grandfathers, in the Israeli army. After the mosque attack, a community leader boasted to an Israeli reporter: “We were among the founders of the state of Israel.”

But as news of the mosque’s desecration spread, enraged youth burnt government buildings, fired their army-issue rifles into the air and clashed with police. The settlers’ dream of setting the Galilee ablaze briefly looked like it might be realised.

Last Saturday, following the attack on Jaffa’s graves, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a nearby synagogue in reprisal, further inflaming tensions.

Netanyahu was among those who denounced the mosque’s torching, but the logic of his approach to the peace process accords with the militant settlers’. He and his far-right foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, have created a climate in which the narrative of an epic Jewish battle for survival sounds plausible to many ordinary Israelis.

Like the settlers, Netanyahu opposes the emergence of a meaningful Palestinian state; he too implies that the world’s anger at Israel is fuelled by anti-Semitism; and he too wants to reopen the “1948 file”, a historical reckoning in which the Arab minority’s status as citizens would be reappraised.

And like the settlers, Netanyahu approaches peace with an iron fist that demands at best Palestinian capitulation, and suggests at worst a future in which a second wave of ethnic cleansing might be necessary to “finish the job” of 1948.

Celebrations in the occupied territories at Abbas’s UN move – a solitary act of defiance by the Palestinian leader – will quickly sour as it becomes clear that the US and Israel are in no mood to make concessions. The question is: what next? Despite the best efforts of Netanyahu and the hardline settlers to shape the answer, it may not be to their liking.

With no hope of statehood, Palestinians will have to devise their own new strategy for coping with the reality of an apartheid system in which the Jewish settlers become their permanent neighbours. Trapped in a single state ruled over by their occupiers, Palestinians are likely to draw on the experience of their cousins inside Israel.

Israel’s Arab community has been struggling with marginalisation and subordination within a Jewish state for decades. They have responded with a vocal campaign for equality that has antagonised the Jewish majority and resulted in a wave of anti-Arab legislation.

The two Palestinian communities, both confronting a harsher future under Israeli rule, have every incentive to develop a unified platform and struggle jointly – and more powerfully – against an overarching regime of Jewish privilege.

Their response could be tit-for-tat violence – that is certainly what the settlers would prefer. But a more effective and likely long-term strategy is a civil rights movement much like the ones that fought against Jim Crow laws in the US and against apartheid in South Africa. A simple rallying cry, voiced to a world exasperated by Israel’s self-destructive behaviour, would be “one person, one vote”.

Netanyahu and the settlers hope to subdue Palestinians with the establishment of a Greater Israel. But as the conflagration of mosques suggests, they may ultimately achieve the opposite. By reminding Palestinians on either side of the Green Line of their common fate, Israel may yet unleash a force too powerful to control. The price tag – this time demanded by Palestinians – will be high indeed for the Jewish supremacists.

A version of this article first appeared in the National, Abu Dhabi.

Why Are Blacks Turning To Islam?



Al Salamu 'Alaykum.

Black conversion or "reversion" to Islam is not new; it has been taking place in the African diaspora since time immemorial. However, I looked deeper into the phenomenon to find out why a growing number of Black Britons, especially younger ones, are embracing Islam. Although I am not a Muslim, I have always been interested in Islam – three of my all-time heroes, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X and Jamaican singer Prince Buster were Muslim converts, and I was intrigued by the way Islam inspired all three to transcend their respective vocations to become icons.

What surprised me at the start of my study was that very little of any substance had been written about a religious phenomenon which first came to public prominence in the dubious form of Michael de Freitas, a Trinidad-born, UK-based lapsed Catholic. As Michael X and then Michael Abdul Malik, he was at the forefront of the race equality struggle in Britain during the 1960s. It was this stark lack of information that encouraged me to write a book, something that involved painstaking research and innumerable interviews in cities and towns with a growing Black Muslim presence.

One of the first issues I became aware of was the fact that many converts feel uncomfortable with the term "black Muslim", as they regard themselves as part of a worldwide community of believers who do not recognise "race". However, others are less reticent about associating their blackness with being a Muslim, and believe that Islam is the "natural religion of black people" and provides the means for full "spiritual, mental and physical liberation" from an oppressive system designed to subjugate them.

My research reveals that there is no one, straightforward reason for conversions, but a plethora of theological, emotional and cultural motivations. Practically all those interviewed suggested that Islam had given their lives meaning and woken them from a spiritual malaise. Others said that their faith provided inspiration and strength to engage with a society they regarded as corrupted by materialism and moral relativism. And for those whose lives had previously been errant, Islam's decisiveness on a range of religious and socio-cultural matters had given them a focus and an anchor. Equally, many of the women interviewed suggested that the Islamic focus on modesty had liberated them from the rampant fashion-related consumerism that objectifies all women, and sexualises pre-pubescent girls.

What I also found of real interest was the fact that the vast majority of those interviewed had some previous connection to Christianity, either as former church attendees or through having relatives with firm ecclesiastical connections. This differs from white converts who tend to have no previous religious experience.

I also found that the aforementioned Malcolm X had influenced many black folks, particularly men, to consider Islam. In many respects brother Malcolm's life reads like a blueprint for the majority of those with whom I spoke. He was bright child who was brought up as a Christian, but was failed by an institutionally racist society. As a result he became a delinquent who subsequently fell foul of the law. While incarcerated he embraced Islam (in the form of the Nation of Islam) and this turned his life around , resulting in him becoming one of the most eloquent, courageous and uncompromising spokespeople for black civil and human rights.

Black Muslims in this country, just like in the US, have also gained a reputation for "cleaning up" the lives of those involved in crime, drugs and gang violence, and many of those I spoke with were recipients of this remedial work. As a result, these beneficiaries were never bashful about sharing their beliefs with those of others faiths or none, and it would be true to say that black converts are often in the vanguard of efforts to proselytise. Having said that, my book includes contributions from Black Muslim doctors, academics, students, artists, sportsmen and musicians. The latter are important because Muslims are increasingly using the musical genre of hip-hop to promote Islamic teachings, and it is worth noting that many of the leading hip-hop artists are Muslims.
Black Muslims are mindful that both 9/11 and 7/7 have placed their faith under a microscope with converts singled out for particular scrutiny. However, all those interviewed showed a commitment to walking "the straight path" and believed that sections of the media made too much of the so-called impressionability and/or susceptibility of converts to the wiles of "preachers of hate".
Finally, I would say that Islam is providing a spiritual alternative among those who would generally have looked to Christianity for answers to life's great questions. My book is an attempt to find out more about a phenomenon that is enriching Britain's religious landscape, and should hopefully be a catalyst for greater discussion and study.

Black Muslims in Britain: Why are a growing Number of Young Black people Converting to Islam? is published by Lion Hudson

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/oct/05/black-muslims-islam

Sarandon Calls Benedict A Nazi.

Al Salamu 'Alaykum.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress and social activist Susan Sarandon was reported to have called Pope Benedict a Nazi during a public discussion at a U.S. film festival in New York, provoking criticism from both Catholic and Jewish groups.

The movie star, who won an Oscar for her role in the 1995 anti-death penalty film "Dead man Walking" actress, said she had sent a copy of the book on which the movie is based to the pope.

"The last one. Not this Nazi one we have now," she was reported as saying by New York newspaper Newsday.

The remark was made on Saturday in an interview conducted by fellow actor Bob Balaban about Sarandon's career that was part of the Hamptons Film Festival.

Newsday said Balaban gently chided Sarandon for the remark but she repeated it.

Sarandon's Hollywood agent did not respond to calls for comment on Monday.

German born Pope Benedict, formerly Joseph Ratzinger, was briefly a member of the Hitler Youth in the early 1940s when membership was compulsory, the Vatican has said. He deserted the military during World War Two and has said that as devout Catholics, his parents rejected Nazi ideology.

Sarandon, 65, who was raised in New York as a Roman Catholic, is known for her support of causes ranging from hunger and AIDS to opposing the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The "Thelma and Louise" star was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1999.

The New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights called Sarandon's remark "obscene" and said in a Monday statement that her "ignorance is willful."
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which fights anti-Semitism, called on Sarandon to apologize to the Catholic Community.

"Ms. Sarandon may have her differences with the Catholic Church, but that is no excuse for throwing around Nazi analogies. Such words are hateful, vindictive and only serve to diminish the true history and meaning of the Holocaust," the ADL said in a statement.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

http://news.yahoo.com/susan-sarandon-calls-pope-benedict-nazi-report-203917195.html

Mujahidin Attack US Base In Afghanistan.



Al Salamu 'Alaykum.
KABUL: Militants assaulted the gate of an American base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, striking before dawn with rocket-propelled grenades and a vehicle packed with explosives.

All four attackers were killed as well as two truck drivers parked nearby, said provincial Police Chief Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh. Two Afghan security guards were wounded.
The attackers failed to breach the gate of the base in Panjshir province’s Rakha district, though they did hit a security tower with a rocket-propelled grenade, said provincial Police Chief Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh.
Three of the men attacked on foot, shooting, while a fourth detonated the explosives-laden vehicle outside the gate, Jangalbagh said. The blast hit two fuel tankers which were waiting to enter the base, killing the Afghan drivers inside. All four of the attackers were killed and two Afghan security guards were wounded, he said.
A NATO spokeswoman confirmed the attack but said there were no American deaths or injuries and no significant damage to facilities.
“There was a complex attack attempted, but it was repelled,” Capt. Ebony Calhoun said. She said the guards’ wounds were not life-threatening but they had been evacuated to a larger US base for treatment. The base houses a provincial reconstruction team — a mix of military and international civilians who work to improve provincial governance, services and infrastructure.
Jangalbagh said there was some damage to the base, but it was unclear how much. The base houses a provincial reconstruction team — a mix of military and international civilians who work to improve provincial governance, services and infrastructure.
The Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message sent to The Associated Press.
NATO downplayed the significance of such spectacular strikes on Saturday, presenting figures that showed headline-grabbing assaults account for only 1 percent of attacks in Afghanistan and that militant activity is down overall.
Insurgent attacks between January and September were 8 percent lower than the first nine months of 2010, according to figures supplied by a senior official with NATO forces who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the information.
But while violent attacks are down overall, assassinations have increased 60 percent for the same period with 131 people killed so far this year, according to the official.
And while NATO reports little change in civilian casualties over the nine-month period, figures from the UN show an increase in civilian deaths.
Many of the highest profile attacks have been perpetrated by the Haqqani network, a Taleban-allied group operating out of Pakistan, according to NATO.
Eleven out of the last 15 attacks in Kabul came from the Haqqanis and were directed and organized out of Pakistan, the NATO official said.
The Panjshir attack followed on the heels of violence Friday which left at least 30 dead across Afghanistan.
NATO reported Saturday that 23 insurgents were killed in five separate operations throughout the east. In the largest strike, seventeen insurgents were killed in an airstrike in Kunar province. The remaining six deaths were in operations in Wardak, Kunar and Ghazni provinces.
In southern Afghanistan, a suicide bombing killed three Afghan border police officers and one civilian. The bomber blew up his explosives-packed car Friday afternoon while it was being inspected at a checkpoint.
The explosion happened in Spin Boldak, near the Pakistani border, in the early evening, said Gen. Abdul Raziq, the head of the border police in the south.
The checkpoint had been set up because of an intelligence warning that an attack was imminent, provincial government spokesman Zalmai Ayubi said.
Three NATO service members were also killed Friday in separate attacks, according to statements from the military coalition, making 11 killed so far this month and at least 464 since the beginning of the year.
http://arabnews.com/world/article518398.ece

Israel Zangwill:Quotes.



Israel Zangwill was a prominent Anglo-Jewish writer often quoted in the British press as a spokesman for Zionism and one of the earliest organizers of the Zionist movement in Britain who visited Palestine as early as 1897.

Famous Quotes

Israel Zangwill, who had visited Palestine in 1897 and came face-to-face with the demographic reality. He stated in 1905 in a speech to a Zionist group in Manchester that:

"[Palestine is] ALREADY TWICE AS THICKLY POPULATED AS THE UNITED STATES" (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 10)

And he also added :

"Palestine proper has already its inhabitants. The pashalik of Jerusalem is already twice as thickly populated as the United States, having fifty-two souls to the square mile, and not 25% of them Jews ..... [We] must be prepared either to drive out by the sword the [Arab] tribes in possession as our forefathers did or to grapple with the problem of a large alien population, mostly Mohammedan and accustomed for centuries to despise us." (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 7- 10, and Righteous Victims, p. 140)

In 1920, Israel Zangwill clearly acknowledged the existence of Palestinians, but not as a people since they were not exploiting Palestine's resource. He said:

"If the Lord Shaftesbury was literally inexact in describing Palestine as a country without a people, he was essentially correct, for there is no Arab people living in intimate fusion with the country, utilizing its resources and stamping it with a characteristic impress: there is at best an Arab encampment." (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 6)

Zangwill also wrote in an article published in "Voice Of Jerusalem" in 1920, that Palestinians' cultural "backwardness" as a justification for the removal of the population. He stated:

"We cannot allow the Arabs to block so valuable a piece of historic reconstruction ..... And therefore we must generally persuade them to 'trek.' After all, they have all Arabia with its million square miles .... There is no particular reason for the Arabs to cling to these few kilometers. 'To fold their tents and silently steal away' is their proverbial habit: let them exemplify it now." (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 14, and Righteous Victims, p. 140)

In a public meeting in 1919 Zangwill made a remark about the Palestinian Arabs:

"many are semi-nomad, they have given nothing to Palestine and are not entitled to the rules of democracy." (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 14)

http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Famous-Zionist-Quotes/Story646.html

Top 10 Religious Scandals.

Al Salamu 'Alaykum.
The top 10 religious(read Christian and sexual) scandals in recent history. Counting backwards from 10 to 1:

10. BRIAN JOSEPH SPILLANE.

Molesting girls in the confessional box and raping hypnotised boys were parts of a pattern of “rampant pedophilia” by a former priest accused of sexually assaulting youngsters, a Sydney court has been told.
Brian Joseph Spillan, a former chaplain at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst, has been charged with 29 counts of indecently assaulting 11 males and females, and others bringing the total number of charges to 146.
Some of the witnesses mentioned that Mr. Spillane:
* sexually assaulted both boys and girls between 1971 and 1990 during his time at both St Stanislaus boys’ school in NSW’s central west and St Anthony’s parish at Marsfield, in Sydney’s north
* had group sex in the shower block
* anal intercourse and group rape at the Bathurst boarding school
* hypnotised boys for the purpose of having sexual intercourse with them
* assaulted a number of girls, climbed into bed with them and simulated or attempted to have sex with them.


9. TONY ALAMO.

At first glance, Jeanne, Amy, Nikki and Desiree are bonded by the horrors they say they experienced as children. Jeanne, Amy, Desiree and Nikki were born in the Tony Alamo Christian Ministry, which, some say, is a cult.
In the 1980s, Alamo, a self-proclaimed prophet of God, had thousands of devoted followers in the United States, including the parents of Joanna, Amy, Desiree and Nikki. “When Tony would say that God spoke to him, everybody believed it,” says Jeanne.
Ex-followers say that by the end of 1990 Alamo was living in compounds extensively with more than a dozen women, some of whom he called his “spiritual wives.” Although no legal documents were signed ever, Juana says that when she was 15 years old (Alamo was 59 years old and his pastor at the time), she was forced to become his spiritual wife and have sex with him. Amy said she started when she was 14. Desiree said Alamo made her spiritual younger wife when she was only eight years old. Nikki said she was 15 when he realized Alamo planned to make his next “wife.” Nikki escaped from the enclosure and Alamo fled before she had the opportunity to act.
Alamo is now serving 175 years in prison.



8. FATHER CLODOVEO PIAZZA.

Brazilian prosecutors said Father Clodoveo Piazza, an Italian priest who ran an award-winning shelter for homeless children in Brazil, has been charged with sexually abusing boys for years and allowing visiting foreigners to exploit the children. Piazza, now working as a missionary in Mozambique, was charged along with another former director of the nonprofit group Fraternal Help Organization, a private group based in Salvador.
Lidivaldo Britto, chief prosecutor for Bahia state in northeastern Brazil, said at least 10 boys were sexually abused over several years while Piazza ran the group.


7. ALASKA DIOCESE.

The Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks and representatives of almost 300 alleged victims of clergy abuse have agreed on a settlement of almost $10 million.
Complaints of sexual abuse of a minor have been filed in recent years against the diocese, with some allegations dating back 50 years.
The diocese filed for bankruptcy protection last year and all proceedings are overseen in bankruptcy court in Anchorage.

6. REVEREND RICARDO MUNOZ QUINTEROS.

A Catholic priest and his girlfriend are accused of soliciting sex from young girls, including one who later bore his child, investigators said Wednesday.
The Rev. Ricardo Munoz Quinteros, 55, found the youths with the help of his girlfriend, Pamela Ampuero, who photographed the minors and sent him the pictures over the Internet, investigator Jaime Graffigna
said.
Munoz offered his victims up to $90 to be with him, Graffigna alleged. The priest stayed silent as he was led from jail to the courthouse Wednesday. The public defender assigned to his case entered a plea of not guilty.
The Catholic bishop in Melipilla, Enrique Troncoso, said he was shocked by the report and promised to open an investigation. Munoz was suspended from his duties as a priest.
The priest has been charged with abusing three girls, ages 14, 16, and 17, Graffigna said.
Ampuero, 33, the mother of two children fathered by Munoz, has been charged with peddling the sexual services of minors, Graffigna said.
One of the victims also bore the priest’s child, prosecutor Cristian Caceres said.
Munoz served in Melipilla, 40 miles (70 kilometres) northwest of Santiago. His alleged victims are from the nearby town of Curacavi.

5. LUIZ MARQUES BARBOSA

Brazilian television network SBT broadcast a tape of Luiz Marques Barbosa (83) in bed with a 19-year-old that was widely distributed on the Internet. The station said the video was secretly filmed in January 2009 and sent anonymously to the network. Barbosa was detained in april out of fear he would flee the country.

4. JUAN JOSE SANTANA.

A Catholic priest who fled home to Uruguay and was defrocked after a nun accused him of raping three children in Bolivia has been living with his family for more than a year – with the full knowledge of Uruguayan church officials – despite an Interpol warrant for his arrest.
Bishop Pablo Galimberti, whose diocese in Uruguay includes Salto, confirmed the story.
“Yes, the report is correct,” Galimberti told The Associated Press. “It involves Juan Jose Santana, who I don’t know personally, but yes, he’s accused of abusing minors.
“He lives shut up in his house, and presumably has psychological problems,” Galimberti added. “I recall that a priest in my diocese who knew about the case figured out where he lives and went to see him to offer professional help, but he rejected it.”

3. MARCIN STRACHANOWSKI.

A Polish priest accused of sexually abusing a former altar boy in Rio de Janeiro and turning his parish home into an “erotic dungeon” has surrendered and is now in police custody, a public safety official said Saturday.
State prosecutors have accused Marcin Michael Strachanowski of handcuffing the 16-year-old former altar boy to a bed three years ago in the parish house where the priest lived and threatening to kill the youth if he spoke of the abuse.
Judge Alexandre Abrahao Dias said that investigators found “erotic material sent to the victim via Internet to seduce him” and that the priest also took other youths to the parish house, “which he converted into a kind of erotic dungeon where he submitted them, often with the use of handcuffs, to orgies.”


2. FRANCOIS HOUTART.

A Belgian priest has confessed to a child sex-abuse accusation that came to light during a campaign to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work fighting globalization’s impact on developing countries.
The confession was published in a Belgian newspaper Wednesday and confirmed by the organization the priest founded, deepening a sex-abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church in the country. After a spate of accusations this year, the church in September published the harrowing accounts of more than 100 victims of clerical sex abuse, some as young as 2 when they were assaulted.
In October, after supporters of 85-year-old Francois Houtart began working to nominate him for the Nobel, a woman contacted the nonprofit organization he founded and said the priest had abused her brother 40 years ago, according to its director, Bernard Duterme.
Houtart resigned the next month from the board of Cetri, which publishes reports critical of developed nations’ actions in the Third World, Duterme said.

1. TONY WALSH.

The first complaint against him was made two days after he was appointed a parish priest in Ballyfermot in 1978 but nothing was done.
Walsh was permitted to continue as a priest even though a report to the Archdiocese in 1988 describes him as ‘a very disturbed man who is always going to be dangerous.’
Archbishop Dermot Ryan knew of the abuse by 1984 – as did Monsignor Richard Glennon, Fr Michael Cleary and a number of other priests – one priest felt matters were being ‘hushed up’. The next year Monsignor Richard Glennon met Walsh, where not only did he deny nothing, he also admitted to another case the Church knew nothing about.
He was moved out of Ballyfermot to Westland Row – the report concludes ‘to avoid further scandal’.
The complaints continued including one from the housekeeper in Westland row who found her clothes – as well as syringes and condoms in Walsh’s room – and saw boys leaving it.
Ten years after the first complaint, the Church authorities sent him to the UK for treatment. The report described Walsh as ‘a very disturbed man’ who ‘is always going to be dangerous’ and ‘could not be let near schools, children, confession etc.’ But Walsh continued as a priest and continued to abuse.
The report says he fought the penal process at every stage and even though it found in 1993 he should be dismissed – Rome allowed his appeal and he remained a priest. Archbishop Desmond Connell wrote to Rome and begged the Pope to dismiss him.
In January 1996 – 16 years after the first complaint – he was finally dismissed as a priest.
He was given €10,500 severance pay but continued to represent himself as a priest.









Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilayhi Raaji'un.
May Allah guide the followers of this filthy faith to Islam.
Wa Salamu 'Alaykum.

India: Land Of Paradoxes.

In June this year, a Brahmin priest trying to return to India from Chicago, was taken into custody for committing visa fraud. It is alleged that he charged $30,000 to assist at least 33 Indians enter the US on an illegal basis as religious workers. It was news that did not make any headlines anywhere, even though stories circulating in Indian circles claim that visa fraud in temples is quite common. Fraud, bribery, corruption, money laundering and gambling seem to be a common occurrence in the country that may very well become one of the leading economies in the year 2011. With GDP growing at a rate of almost 9 per cent a year, a work force 467 million strong and a stable democracy, India is hailed as a beacon of hope for emerging economies all over the world.
Yet, the country that exports 12.3 per cent of its products to the USA, hides behind its robust economy, a dark reality that not many like to talk about, not even those who stand for human rights and dignity. With 37 percent of India's population living below the poverty line earning less than one dollar a day, and the other 38 per cent earning slightly over $2 a day, the country is also the murder capital of the world. In 2008 Indians killed 32,719 fellow citizens, more than any other place on the planet. On an average 1.75 million crimes are committed in India every year with some 80 percent remaining unsolved.
Despite the fact that India is considered an IT capital, more than a million girls are killed before or after birth as they are considered a divine curse on the family. Some 47 percent of Indian girls are married before their legal age, and the world is baffled at this mass pedophilia in the name of tradition. The National Human Rights commission reported that, two out of three married women suffer regular domestic violence with no recourse to justice. Dowry deaths are common with as many as five married women burned or killed each day, some 60 cases of rape take place daily and some 45 per cent women are slapped, kicked and sexually molested in public places or in families annually. Even Brahmin (upper caste of India) dominated religious institutions are not free from degrading women. The Devdasi system (female religious servants) is legally banned in India. Yet Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, two of India's southern states practice it forcing some 45 percent of girls to work as prostitutes with reportedly free services to religious leadership. Honor killings are on the rise even in large metropolitan cities such as Delhi, where a young adult girl was proudly beaten to death by her relatives because she had a romantic relationship with a boy outside her caste.
In the country that hails constitutional equality as its hallmark, some 160 million people are considered untouchables, no matter what title is given to them. In scriptures they were called untouchables. In the 19th century when many of them started changing their castes by accepting Buddhism, Christianity or Islam, they were called children of god and now Dalit. For almost 5,000 years, they have lived a life of institutional inequality being treated worse than animals. A cow draws much more respect in the streets of India than a Dalit, who is forced to live at the periphery of civilization. Regardless of the labels, they remain at the lowest rung of Indian society with an average of two Dalits assaulted daily; three of their women raped every day, 14 of them murdered weekly and 60 of their houses torched monthly.
Exploitation of the tribals that constitute seven percent of the Indian population is even worse. No amount of constitutional guaranteed has restored their dignity to them. Some 52 per cent of Indians are considered as belonging to backward castes with little resources to live a decent life.
Despite the fact that India is changing dramatically, corruption is rampant in all walks of life. It is said that corruption is a billion dollar strong industry in India with everyone from the top to the bottom trying to make money for legitimate work. The worst environmental disaster in India that took place in Bhopal in which thousands of people were killed and millions still suffer the consequences, the owner was absolved of his murderous act because the politicians and bureaucracy reportedly greased their palms with millions of dollars. Had this incident taken place in any European country, the world would have come upside down. Yet, not many world leaders talked about it.
Religious violence that once witnessed the destruction of a Masjid in the early 1990s is a scar that India can never erase. It is now being revealed that one of the prime ministers of India and several cabinet level ministers were involved in the mass frenzy against the Masjid. Despite the fact that Gandhi, India's best known world leader sacrificed his life for non-violence, violence is rampant in every walk of life. Some 80,000 Kashmiris have been killed in the Indian side of Kashmir since 1981. Despite the talk of tolerance, the intolerance towards Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Animists, and people of so called lower caste is evident. There is not a religious minority that does not have a story of discrimination and injustice to tell. Several Christian workers were burned alive by Brahmin led groups who forced several state governments to pass legislation against religious freedom. The rate of return for world’s leading bankers is so high that it makes no difference to them if the cost is human life or human misery. Capitalism in its brutal force is shaping the future India.
India, the land of growth is also the land of regression. Illiteracy, injustice, inequality, crimes, murder, caste and religious violence and corruption are so rampant that no one can escape it.
Why is there so much paradox? Why is it that in Bombay, the financial capital of India, the world's largest slum exists in front of a religious leadership that sings praises of gods 24 hours? The corruption of religious leadership is so widespread that rituals, even those involving death, the Brahmin religious hierarchy charges hundreds of thousands of rupees. Many places of worship are oozing money and gold, while outside the temples thousands sit hungry. They are not even allowed to come inside as they belong to a lower caste.
Why is it that a Dalit boy's eyes were plucked because he drew water from a well reserved for higher caste Brahmins? Why is it that the secular democratic India has failed to take care of its poor, neglected, marginalized people?
Thousands of explanations are offered to either cover up or justify the situation, yet the political and social elite of India fail to acknowledge the reality by projecting an image of the country that is far from factual. The world's leading human rights organizations are silent on the institutional degradation of dalits. The State Department turns its eyes the other way. There are two Indias. One that is for the elite, upper caste, English educated individuals. This India is insensitive to the plight of people. It bathes in corruption and cruelty and is totally indifferent to the other India. This India draws its supporters from all religions and linguistic groups. It uses  religious ritualism to purify itself from the crimes against humanity. It prefers to give part of its resources to its religious leaders than to the people who are suffering. But there is the other India that is for the poor, uneducated, lower castes, minorities and marginalized. This India has the dispersed majority and it has been exploited for centuries by the upper caste rulers.
Brahmanism, not Hinduism, is the dominant ideology that has kept the great divide and injustices alive in the name of gods and goddesses. People born with their pre-determined status; low and high, promote the Brahmin elite of India. Despite the fact that they are only three percent of India's population they have ingrained this idea of this institutional inequality in the mind of the people to such an extent that even Christianity and Islam could not escape the scourge of casteism. God is responsible for inequality and we are only the true servants of god, argue the scriptures. Based on this ideology, millions are consigned to the life of ignominy. They are forced to do menial jobs reserved for their generations.
In big cities like Delhi, the sight of Dalit women, children, men and older people carrying human waste in a basket placed on their head is common. Brahminical teachings codified in Manu Smruti clearly define rules for lower caste and untouchables demanding subjugation to higher castes. The rules are as specific as suggesting that certain parts of the body must be chopped off if a lower caste individual uses a space reserved for upper caste. Even in 2010 the untenability is prevalent to the extent that if the shadow of an untouchable is cast on the food of an upper caste, it is destroyed. Even though the urbanization has caused some changes in the attitude of the people, the situation in the rural areas and private homes in urban areas is practiced widely.
The Brahmin elite in alliance with India's merchant class have provided the resources to perpetuate inequalities under the name of gods. "It is the mind of a Brahmin politician and the money of a Baniya (the merchant caste) that is responsible of much of India's inequalities and violence," once expressed one of the prominent Indian Dalit leaders.
Violence in religious scriptures against Dalits, and people outside the caste people is abundantly reinforced by priests and so called holy men on a daily basis in the length and breadth of India. This explains the violence and injustices prevalent in all sectors of Indian society. How can one expect to respect the other when one is reminded daily that the other does not have an existence and the purpose of other's life is only to serve Brahmins as the world is created for him and him alone? Gujarat 2003 is a great example where more than 2,000 Muslims were killed under the very eyes of a political leader who reportedly remain indifferent to the life and property of its citizens.
The Brahmin ideology is preserved in politics and society through outfits that are created to defend the religion of Brahmins. The Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) whose leaders once advocated a Nazi like solution for India's minorities, who advocated caste hierarchy and whose volunteers were reportedly responsible for the assassination of Gandhi has penetrated all sectors of Indian civil society. With militancy as part of its philosophy and with support from its outfits in the USA, Europe and the Gulf, the organization has amassed enormous power in India. It is reported that the RSS supporters in the USA donated huge sums of money to the destruction of the Babri Masjid. The RSS sympathizers are present in almost all major political parties including the Communist parties. RSS has great designs to rule over India through its political outfit known as Bharatiya Janta Party, many of whose leaders presided over the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
Nevertheless, the majority of Indian voters, have rejected this racist organization. Its ideology is based on racial and religious superiority and this is perhaps the most dangerous organization that exists in our world today. It is anti-Christian, Buddhist, Jew, Sikh. Its supporters have rewritten a version of history that promotes the notion of Brahmin superiority. The organization speaks for India, yet is controlled by a specific Brahmin caste that is considered highest among the Brahmins. It openly trains its members in militancy and its members have been reportedly involved in the killing of minorities and Dalits. A careful review of its literature would reveal that everyone that does not fit into its ideological fold deserves to be eliminated but in a way that is not visible and known.
For the majority of the years since independence in 1947, India has been ruled by the Nehru dynasty and the future perhaps also belongs to the emerging young great-grandson of Nehru, India's first prime minister. Nehru's Congress party has often played the divide and rule game betraying the secular principles and often supporting the RSS ideology in secrecy.
Many Indians who understand the RSS militancy and the danger posed by its philosophy believe that the emergence of the Rahul Gandhi, son of India's former assassinated Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, brings a fresh air of hope. India's poor and marginalized people hope that Rahul will not promote the caste politics and will refrain from the divide and rule game that his party has successfully played. There are millions of Indians, educated and fair minded who are tired of the RSS and chauvinistic politics that the Brahmin leaders of India have often promoted. They want an India that respects human dignity, that respects its neighbor's right to live in peace, that does not interfere in the politics of other countries, that allows its minorities to live in peace and above all that allows its poor and marginalized to have the opportunities to come out of the circle of poverty and injustice they have been living for centuries. They are looking for a leadership that does not discriminate people in the name of caste and religion and that promotes harmony among different sections of society and that fights crimes and violence against women and minorities.
The seeds of that leadership exist in India, but who will cultivate and water those seeds is something that only time will tell.

*****

Dr. Aslam Abdullah is editor in chief of the weekly Muslim Observer and director of the Islamic Society of Nevada.
http://www.iviews.com/articles/Articles.asp?ref=IV1012-4409

The Talmud On Non-Jews.

Let's see what the Jewish Talmud teaches the Jews concerning the non-Jewish majority, i.e. those who are not part of Jahve's "Chosen People":

  "The Jews are called human beings, but the non-Jews are not humans. They are beasts."
- Talmud: Baba mezia, 114b

"The Akum (non-Jew) is like a dog. Yes, the scripture teaches to honor the the dog more than the non-Jew."
- Ereget Raschi Erod. 22 30

"Even though God created the non-Jew they are still animals in human form. It is not becoming for a Jew to be served by an animal. Therfore he will be served by animals in human form."
- Midrasch Talpioth, p. 255, Warsaw 1855

"A pregnant non-Jew is no better than a pregnant animal."
- Coschen hamischpat 405

"The souls of non-Jews come from impure sprits and are called pigs."
- Jalkut Rubeni gadol 12b

"Although the non-Jew has the same body structure as the Jew, they compare with the Jew like a monkey to a human."
- Schene luchoth haberith, p. 250 b

"If you eat with a Gentile, it is the same as eating with a dog."
- Tosapoth, Jebamoth 94b

"If a Jew has a non-Jewish servant or maid who dies, one should not express sympathy to the Jew. You should tell the Jew: "God will replace 'your loss', just as if one of his oxen or asses had died"."
- Jore dea 377, 1

"Sexual intercourse between Gentiles is like intercourse between animals."
- Talmud Sanhedrin 74b

"It is permitted to take the body and the life of a Gentile."
- Sepher ikkarim III c 25

"It is the law to kill anyone who denies the Torah. The Christians belong to the denying ones of the Torah."
- Coschen hamischpat 425 Hagah 425. 5

"A heretic Gentile you may kill outright with your own hands."
- Talmud, Abodah Zara, 4b

"Every Jew, who spills the blood of the godless (non-Jews), is doing the same as making a sacrifice to God."
- Talmud: Bammidber raba c 21 & Jalkut 772

http://radioislam.org/islam/english/toread/jewras.htm