Modi faces day in US court

Source: Asia Times: The US State Department has declared that Modi, as India’s head of state, receives sovereign immunity from US lawsuits, even if they allege human rights violations he committed as an individual while Chief Minister of Gujarat. Attorneys for the victims beg to differ, and a US Superior […]

Do you know the difference between a Holocaust and a holocaust? The Armenians do Despite what some sub-editors might think, the genocide of 1.5m Armenian Christians in 1915 was not a holocaust

BY ROBERT FISK, THE INDEPENDENT What’s in a name? Let’s start with the Persian Gulf. Or the Arabian Gulf. Or just the Arab Gulf. I’m indebted to reader (and surgeon) Ross Farhadieh for complaining to me last week about my use of “The Gulf” – bland, dull and historically anaemic […]

Qur’an lesson for today: 309. Commandment – when they are with him on some matter of common importance which has brought them together, go not away until they have asked leave of him

309. Commandment – when they are with him on some matter of common importance which has brought them together, go not away until they have asked leave of him [24:63] Those only are true believers who believe in Allah and His Messenger, and who, when they are with him on […]

Christianity and Islam

Epigraph: “The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is Reason. I have never used any other, and I trust I never shall.”  Thomas Paine, One of the Founding Fathers of USA       President Recep Tayyip Erdogan personally presented his gift, an edict of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, […]

Sex and the Saints

Source: NY Times: WHEN ushered into the master bedroom of the Mormon patriarch Brigham Young at his winter home in St. George, Utah, a few years ago, I felt duty-bound to ask an obvious question: Where did the other women sleep? Other women? The church tour guide blushed, and laser-stared me […]

Ferguson Illuminates Our Racism

Source: NY Times: WASHINGTON — WHEN Ferguson flared up this week after a grand jury failed to indict the white police officer Darren Wilson for killing the unarmed black youth Michael Brown, two realities were illuminated: Black and white people rarely view race in the same way or agree about […]

Pope Francis had turned towards Mecca

Source: ET Like Francis, Benedict had turned towards Mecca in what many saw as a stunning gesture of reconciliation between Islam and Christianity. A Vatican spokesperson described Francis’ gesture as a “silent adoration”, using a term for religious reverence, making clear he did not perform a prayer. He then toured […]

The Shahi Imams of India

The ‘Shahi Imams’ – Imperial Spiritual Leaders Of India       By C.M. Naim NOV 26, 2014 Saudi Arabia is a kingdom, and has had several Kings during the last 100 years, but it does not have a ‘Shahi Imam’, nor had one before. Even the men who lead […]