While trouble sleeps, arrogance wakes it up.

this @#$%^&*&& better keep his bald head out of any further trouble !

Those cowards! How dare they kowtow to fanatics!

I am disappointed.

I am disappointed that some one can not express his views or write about a particular subject and get it published because some people threaten the publisher. Be it Salman Rushdie or some one else. I detest gagging.

I feel that Islam is strong enough to withstand any criticism. I also feel that those who say that Islam comes into danger with slightest criticism to itself, The prophet or Holy Quran are misguided, misinformed, intolerant and very much away from the essence of the true religion. You may correct me, if I am wrong.

Hindu Gods and Goddesses have been criticised, ridiculed and insulted even in their own times. Their greatness does not diminish with others opinion. Fanaticism in Hinduism is of recent origin. I have no objection if you criticise them day in and day out. My faith does not get affected due to say, the nude paintings of M.F. Hussain because I have seen much more explicit stone carvings in the temples of Khajuraho and other places. Its only a Hindu who worships Shiv Ling across the world and Parvati’s Yoni at Kamakhya, Assam (the private parts of Lord Shiv and his wife Parvati) and her breasts at Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. You may call us ignorant, stupid or whatever you wish to; it does not matter.

If you do not know, a Hindu wedding is not complete unless Shehnai is played and the bride’s hands are full of green bangles. Both the Shehnai player and the female supplying the bangles are Muslims and are an integral part of our village custom.

Gandhiji said ”Allah ishwar tero naam” because for him Allah and Ishwar (the invisible God) were same. They are same for us. There is a diference between Ishwar (Allah) and Bhagwan (God). We don’t have a problem whether one worships Allah, Ishwar, Bhagwan, Christ or some one else. The problem starts only when you start insisting that only a particular way, only a particular ritual, only a particular custom of a particular faith is superior, universal, and applicable to all and that is FINAL and others have to accept it without questioning, without debate, without argument, without getting convinced, by force or get eliminated. That is terrorism. That is my objection, dear baby.

If I have not been able to clarify, it is my inability and not of my religious faith, dear lady.

I have not thrust greatness on the critic or those showering abuses on others; be it human beings or religious symbols or people with whom our opinions may differ. I have confined my comments to the freedom of expression.

If muslims believe that anything said against the Holy Quran or The prophet is an abuse; then I may say it is their intolerance. Others may disagree with me.

To the best of my knowledge and belief, Salman Rushdie is a Muslim. Salman has criticised the publisher for not publishing the book containing references to prophet’s six year old wife. Obviously, Salman, a muslim does not consider that criticism, if any; an abuse to the mother, as you wish to project. What I mean to say that the opinion amongst Muslims is also divided on what is disrespect and what is not and what can be called fair criticism? Your views are contrary to that of Salman Rushdie, a muslim himself.

The prophet married a female 15 years older than Him. On her death, he married 11 females in 14 years including a child. He also married his son’s wife. To me, the prophet is as worthy of worship, reverence and respect as any religious head should be. I do not feel that the prophet was an opportunist, a child molestor, a womaniser or an incest. Others may not agree with me. You may call it disrespect and wish to punish the critics without trial whereas I may not; because Lord Krishna had 16,000 wives. His lover Radha and other females with whom He had Ras-Lila married others. His own queen Rukmini was engaged to prince Shishupal and when she sent a love letter to him at Dwarka he came all the way to Nagpur from where she eloped with Him on the pretext of going to a temple. He was also intrumental to incite and encourage His friend Arjun to run away with His sister Subhadra. I have told you these stories not to mean any disrespect to our Gods or your prophet.
What I wish to say that with the advent and spread of knowledge, people will read and intrepret our history in their own fashion. Our religion which includes yours too, can with stand any pressure, onslaught, criticism or disrespect by others because religion is a matter of faith, after all.

In recent times, I saw the same intolerance in Sikhism when Dera Sachha Sauda chief Baba Ram Rahim dressed up as Guru Gobind Singh and riots broke out in parts of Punjab, Haryana and Jammu region. It foxed me because Ramlila is enacted during Dussera festival where people dress up and play the characters of Ramayan including Lord Ram and Hindu sensibilities don’t get hurt.

The point is, religion is all a lie. That people are willing to live, die and kill, not to mention choke expression, for a big, stupid lie... What a travesty.

Further, I feel no particular need to offer respect to outdated superstitions that condradict modern science at every turn. The only reason criticism of religion meets such an emotional response is because it cannot be defended with logic.

What ”scientific proofs” are to be found in the Quran?

Further, I scoff at your claim that modern scientific people are inclined to religion, ANY religion. Only a tiny fraction of those who’ve won the Nobel Prize for Science are religious.

As for living with science vs. religion... Every time you use your PC, watch TV - even turn on a light - you are proving the validity of scientific thought. The only thing that will prove the validity of religious thought is a miracle. And when did anyone last (or ever?) see one of those?

Enough of your zealotry, Fariha. This is not the place to preach.

Still waiting on those scientific proofs to be found in the Quran...

But whoever said I was a liberal, or had liberal beliefs?

All this love, hate and opening of hearts - this is just emotional nonsense and proves nothing either way. If a person loves a lie, that doesn’t make it true.

That Muslims use the tolerance of Western societies to spread their religion, then go on to criticise that tolerance for religious reasons, is the very essence of hypocrisy. Stop doing that and I will have more respect for your religion.

Further, I see no problem with being biased towards reason, logic and rationality. That ”bias” is largely what defines the civilized person over the superstitious primitive.

I have seen the miracle of God at many places be it a Church, Masjid, Dargah, temple and also at other non religious places. In Hindu scriptures it is called Siddhi. Baba Aslam of Osmanabad district of maharashtra pulls out the heart of a person with his naked hands without any instruments, takes impression on a blank paper (like X-ray, cleans the heart of the patient with bare hands and puts it back without even a drop of blood falling. people wait for months to get his appointment and there is a long queue at his small hut. The miraclous cure has been videographed and scientists are foxed. Science can;t explain it. but nthen science can’t explain many things, even simple things as to how breast is full of healthy nutritious milk the moment a female delivers a child?

India has such people in abundance who are beacons of their religion. The Khidmatgar at the Dargah of Munde Shah Wali Shah Baba is a Hindu named Roshan Bhosle. He prays in Chaste Arabic while Hindu devotees pray with folded hands in reverence and respect. The person who discovered the holy cave of Amarnath is a Muslim, whose family was ferrying tourists and helped them pray at the shrine.

You may not understand what I want to say, but I understand what you wish to say. I know what I have said. Please do not jump to conclusions on what i did not say and may never have meant to say. My request is, please do not put words in my mouth.

Many a times, I disagree with you because we may be holding divergent views on the subject. But I have no intention to hurt you or offend you. You are a devotee of the Lord and I love you, lady.

I’d like to see evidence of this Baba Aslam of Osmanabad, Ramesh, sounds very interesting. I would say however, that lack of a scientific explanation for something is not proof of anything else.

As for lactation, I would be surprised if there is not a well-established biological process behind it. I’m no medical expert but I would imagine the hormonal changes brought on by pregnancy trigger milk-production in the breasts. Hardly supernatural.

Dear Boucher

here is the info of the scientific truths in Quran mentioned 1400 years ago which the modern science has just discovered recently.

http://www.sunnahonline.com/ilm/quran/qms.pdf

Regards,

”Science without Religion is lame, Religion without Science is blind” -Albert Einstein .

Dear Mr Ramesh, did you know that not all that we write and talk qualifies as freedom of expression just as is the case that not all we think is right? As a human being, I believe you have made wrong decision in your life yet you have also made so many right ones as well so have we all. This aspect of good and right applies to every aspect of human life be it in what we do physically or otherwise. The wrong and right always coexist and that’s we are always challenged to choose. In most cases we desire to choose what is right for us and try as much to sideline what we believe is wrong for us. This again applies on both individual and societal levels.
Now if you agree with me, then what I have just said above applies to Salman Rushidie’s works. Yes, this also applies to freedom of expression in that Rushidie can have both good and bad information. In this case, Rushidie was once a gain tying to publish something that would not be beneficial to the world community meaning his writings were potentially dangerous not only to Muslims, but the world as a whole.
Honestly, I don’t think we need to people like Rushidie who seek divide humanity in the name of freedom of expression. What the world needs today are writers who provide us with developmental material. Material that can create greater understanding and respect between humanity and bring us much more closer as a single human family but not the divisive ones like Rushidie. Personally, I partly work for and organization known as “Media for Peace and religious tolerance”. We aim at creating an understanding between world religious groups through the use of Media so that we can create a peaceful world.
But it’s so unfortunate that we have people like Rushidie who want to the world for a ride all the time. You guys will agree with me that in this era of Globalization and knowledge outburst, we should not play prey to dangerous divisive minds like Rushidie’s.
All this guy (Rushidie) seems to think and do, even in his evening ages (old age) is simply creating dangerous and unwanted religious and social division and anarchy between world citizens. This is bogus and dangerous and Rushidie ought to know that the world is moving faster than his thoughts.
Now to you Mr Boucher, I hope you have checked out on the links Fariha supplied you.
Ask me for some lessons on the relationship between for instance Islam and modern science and I will provide with hope that you have the zeal to observe and understand. You know I also feel so disappointed in you that you can think like flat, similarly like Rushidie. Without disgracing you, I would not like to think you are among the few misguided individuals who think the world is flat.
If for instance – which I know is true- you have never thought or known that religious books -especially the Quran- had strong and proven links to science, sorry, not every body thinks or is ignorant about this like you are.
Yet at the same time, you surprise me by your belief in modern Science, which is good and I respect it but Boucher, learn to respect what others believe in. Even in technology, there is good technology and there is potentially bad one. Should we, for instance encourage everybody to manufacture nuclear weapons in the name of national defence or just because its technology? If not, then why should we simply allow crazy people like Rushidie to publish all potentially dangerous material in the name “Freedom of Expression”, hell, no! The world does not work that way.
Hooray, the decision made by Random House is one of the finest things to happen to me and humanity this year before another one – Ramathan- comes my way soon.
No one really needs Rushidie’s garbage, good it was buried!

The only reason such works are ”dangerous to the world” is because Islamic intolerance is dangerous to the world. Books don’t kill people, bombs and bullets kill people. And if Muslims don’t like the book, no one says they must read it!

As for division, humanity is naturally divided. It’s when we attempt to force people together that the trouble starts. We in the West should be free to pursue freedom of expression within our own borders, while respecting the right of the Islamic nations to their own practices within their borders.

Further, just because scientific facts filtered into the Quran - and no one denies how scientifically advanced the Arabian cultures were - that does not prove religion is on an equal footing with science. Science asks answerable questions, religion provides questionable(?) answers.

As far as I’m concerned, Random House are cowards. Luckily other publishers with more backbone have taken up the publishing of the book (which I believe is not by Salman Rushdie in the first place).

Yes Arvind, I agree. For the record, I don’t have anything against Muslims. I’m not a religious man but I respect them as fellow human beings. I don’t think what the West has done in terms of invading and redistributing their territory is right either. George Bush is just the latest in a long line of idiots to treat them poorly and offend them. Quite honestly, I can’t blame them for being angry and even hostile because of such things. I certainly would be if the situation was reversed.

I think, for the sake of peace, we should just get out of each other’s hair. The West tries to enforce its ”freedoms” on Muslims and Muslims try to enforce their ”justice” on the West. Neither side wants the other’s culture which is rather sad, as I think we can learn a lot from each other.

I for one would quite like to see some of the strong moral values of Islam take root in the West. We are far too lax when it comes to promoting what is right and punishing what is wicked. We would also do well to unify and strengthen ourselves with a shared belief, as do many Muslims. However, this is not to say that I want Islam itself in the West, at least not to the degree that it seeks to ”convert” our society.