The 390-Euro Man: A Pakistani Slave’s Path to Freedom
By Hasnain Kazim spiegel.de On the day Hanif Masih is to be freed after spending half of his life as a slave, the 28 year old rubs olive oil into […]
Height of Deception and Brutality by C.I.A. Torture Report
Source: NY Times: The long-delayed report, which took five years to produce and is based on more than six million internal agency documents, is a sweeping indictment of the C.I.A.’s operation and oversight of a program carried out by agency officials and contractors in secret prisons around the world in […]
De-radicalizing the Muslim Youth in the West
De-Radicalising the Muslim Diaspora in the West By Taj Hashmi December 07, 2014 SEVERAL Bangladeshi-British youths have recently been indicted in Britain for their alleged links with the ISIS. Twenty-year-old Mahdi Hassan — whose parents had migrated from Bangladesh — was one of the six former students of […]
TERRORIST GROUPS: Swiss Parliament bans Islamic State, al-Qaeda
Both houses of parliament have voted to ban the al-Qaeda and Islamic State terror groups in Switzerland. The House of Representatives followed the Senate’s lead on Monday and voted 184 to 0 in favour of the ban. It prohibits participating in or supplying the banned organisations as well as distributing […]
The only constitution the world needs is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Epigraph: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of […]
Trying to instill an economic collapse upon Moscow and Tehran,
Source: Daily Times: One cannot resist speculating whether the US-Saudi oil alliance is intentional or a convenience of interests. If it is explicit, then clearly this alliance is trying to instill an economic collapse upon Moscow and Tehran, almost similar to what the US and Saudis did to the leaders […]
ISIS‘rules’ laid out in an awful new list of dos and don’ts, from treatment of virgins to reasons for beating.
Source: The Daily Beast: Question 5: Is it permissible to have intercourse with a female captive immediately after taking possession [of her]? If she is a virgin, he [her master] can have intercourse with her immediately after taking possession of her. However, is she isn’t, her uterus must be purified […]
Malaysians must stand for rationality in discourse on race and religion
Source. UCA News It might be a little, but not too late, to finally see some prominent Malays speak up against the national discourse on race and religion that has been going pear-shaped recently. Twenty-five of them, retired top civil servants and personalities that helped Malaysia to punch above its […]
Learning to govern religion democratically in Indonesia
Source: UCA News.Com While some activists feel that the best regulation of religion is the least regulation of religion, this is not the policy of most states. Most states, including most democracies, are heavily involved in the management of religion. These democracies manage to synthesize their commitments to individual human […]
Toronto: Disgruntled customer throws snake at Tim Hortons
Disgruntled customer throws snake at Tim Hortons employee who refuses to dice his onions Postmedia News | December 8, 2014 2:40 PM ET More from Postmedia News Charles Hamilton / Postmedia NewsAfter a dispute over diced onions on a breakfast sandwich, two men threw a garter snake over a counter towards […]
Thought-provoking ideas in religious studies
theguardian — Pupils from St Marylebone school, London, attend a multi-faith assembly in church. It would be a grave disservice to students “to ditch religious studies in school” (Loose canon, 5 December) and to trivialise multifaith religious education as “mushy relativism” is unjust. Educators from Bosnia visiting our comprehensive school […]
Islam and Extremism: Two Different Pictures
Tikkun Daily Blog: Thomas Friedman wrote a recent article for the New York Times in which he extensively quoted a Muslim turned Christian Arab activist, Brother Rachid. According to Rachid, President Barack Obama should […]
Syrian Hebrew Bibles Could Spark Ownership Dispute
Huff Post: JERUSALEM (AP) — Two decades after Israeli spies helped Syrian Jews whisk ancient Hebrew bibles from Damascus to Jerusalem, Israel’s national library asked an Israeli court on Monday to grant it custodianship over the manuscripts — a move that could spark an ownership battle over some of the […]
Bold Modi tackles Muslim Kashmir head on
Epigraph: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of […]
The Denial of Religious Freedom Yields Worse Conditions for Women and Atheists
RNS: PRESS RELEASE: In a concise but wide-ranging interview, Brian Grim, president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, discusses the adverse impact for women, atheists and society in general when religious freedom is denied. watch: Rather than religious freedom being in contradiction with other basic human rights, Grim describes how they all advance or […]
Israel’s parliament dissolves amid political upheaval
By Michael Schwartz and Catherine E. Shoichet Jerusalem (CNN) — Israeli lawmakers voted to dissolve the nation’s parliament Monday amid mounting political upheaval. The bill dissolving the 120-seat Knesset passed […]
Egypt is sad, but also hard to read
Summary by Rami G. Khouri It is tempting to make definitive judgments about the meaning of the extraordinary stages of Egyptian political life since then, but also reckless. The economy, real incomes and job-creation all remain insufficient in the face of the Egyptians’ basic needs, while the population continues to […]
Abdul Basit Qamar Baqapuri receives York West Centennial Citation Medal
It is great honor for the community that Mr. Abdul Basit Qamar Baqapuri received Canadian Medal Award on 100 Years Celebration of York West Region of Ontario. The ceremony was held on December 6, 2014 at the Nile Academy Toronto. In this special public event distinguished VIPs and guests were […]
Pakistan: A Slave’s Path to Freedom
Pakistan needs a Lincoln to abolish slavery By Hasnain Kazim, Der Spiegel Dec 8, 2014 Diego Ibarra Sanchez/ DER SPIEGEL For more than 16 years, Hanif Masih worked as an indentured servant in a brick factory in Pakistan. Then, an aid organization purchased his freedom. Though he remains extremely poor, […]
Harry G. Brinton: Fight extremism with hospitality
Abraham is the father of all three of these monotheistic faiths, and he is renowned for his hospitality. Christians, Jews and Muslims can all counter extremism by making hospitality a central part of their religious practices. As people eat, worship and work together, they discover that strangers really are not so […]