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Lord Krishna and St. Valentine’s Day #14

Urstruly this is my answer to your query .Dont forget to note what M/S Saxenna has to say which btw is no relation to fanatic RSaxenna on chowk :-))


This Valentines Day message is brought to you fromhttp://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-India-Valentines-Day.html?pagewanted=print&position=top

February 14, 2003
Indian Couples to Mark Valentine`s Day
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 7:03 a.m. ET

BOMBAY, India (AP) -- Gangs of Hindu nationalists roamed the markets of Bombay on Friday, threatening to burn down shops selling cards and gifts for Valentine`s Day, which they say goes against traditional Indian values.

Activists also marched to the state legislature building in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state, and set fire to a heap of Valentine`s Day cards. Handwritten notes in the Hindi language were pasted on card and gift shops with the warning: ``Valentine`s Day is against our culture. It is obscene and against our tradition.``

Hindu nationalists claim the Western holiday promotes promiscuity, and in recent years they have marked the day by trashing shops, burning cards and chasing hand-holding couples out of restaurants.

``Valentine`s Day is against the ethics and culture of Indian society,`` said Bal Kalsekar, a leader of the nationalist Shiv Sena party, which is based in Bombay.

Police guarded markets to prevent confrontations between Hindu nationalists and sweethearts wanting to buy Valentine`s Day cards. There were no immediate reports of violence.

Kalsekar visited Satyam`s, a big stationery shop in central Bombay on Friday and said the anti-Valentine campaign had been successful.

``If we see anyone flouting our ban, we will set the cards on fire and break up the shop,`` Kalsekar said.

Some shop owners had pulled Valentine`s Day cards off the shelves to avoid trouble.

``I may make a small profit by selling cards, but if they break the shop windows my losses will run into thousands,`` said P.M. Shah, who runs a stationery store in Ghaptkopar, an eastern Bombay suburb.

Despite the protests, scores of young couples milled around the restaurants and gift shops in central Lucknow, exchanging cards and flowers.

``It`s our day,`` said Kamna Saxena as she and her boyfriend Nitin Sharma had coffee in a crowded restaurant. ``How can anyone be against love?``

What Would Baynard Rustin Say?
THERE IS NO RESPITE FOR INDIANS OR NON MUSLIMS FROM NIGHTMARES OF HARASSMENT BY THE INS & AIRPORT CHECK PONTS

The following is from Toronto Star dated February 14, 2003, from
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035777769334&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154



TORONTO STAR
Canadian in passport fiasco
Humiliated by immigration staff
JIM RANKIN
STAFF REPORTER

A Toronto woman coming home from India says she was pulled aside at Chicago`s O`Hare Airport, accused of using a fake Canadian passport, denied consular assistance and threatened with jail.

In tears and desperate, Berna Cruz says she told U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) officers she didn`t want to go to jail. She told them she had to get home to her two children and was expected to be at work the next day at a branch of a major Toronto bank where she works as a loan officer.

Instead of jailing her on Jan. 27, an INS officer cut the front page of Cruz`s passport and filled each page with ``expedited removal`` stamps, rendering it useless.

She was photographed, fingerprinted, barred from re-entering the U.S. for five years and immediately ``removed.``

Not to Toronto, but to India, where she had just spent several weeks visiting her parents.
It took four days, and help from Canadian officials in Dubai and a Kuwaiti Airlines pilot, to get her back home.

``It was a total abuse,`` Cruz said in an interview with the Star. ``I want to see them punished for this and bring some justice.``

This week, Cruz sent a letter, along with a sworn affidavit, and the INS removal documents to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham.

The letter arrived at the Prime Minister`s office yesterday, and staff had not had a chance to look into the story. But Foreign Affairs spokesperson Reynald Doiron confirmed yesterday that staff in Dubai issued Cruz an emergency passport and assisted in getting her home, via London.

``We`re going to bring her case to the attention of the State Department in Washington, request an explanation on the INS refusal to grant at least one phone call to Ms Cruz, and we`ll see what the American response is going to be,`` Doiron said last night.

A full report is also expected from a Canadian official in Dubai and will be incorporated into the query that will be sent to the State Department, said Doiron.

A spokesperson for the INS in Chicago said she needed time to look into Cruz`s story but did say that officers have the authority to use expedited removals when passengers have no documents or are carrying documents that are suspected to be fraudulent or tampered with.

``We have very high-tech technology out there to detect these kinds of tampered documents,`` said Gail Montenegro. ``Also, any individual who expresses an interest in speaking with their consular official, we grant that. We do it over the phone. We do it all day. We do it any time that request is made.``

Montenegro said Cruz is welcome to file a complaint and that the INS takes complaints about officer conduct seriously.

Cruz feels she was harassed because of the colour of her skin. She says the INS officers humiliated her, and Canada, by refusing to allow her to contact Canadian authorities.
Her ordeal began shortly after her flight from India, via Kuwait, arrived in Chicago the night of Jan. 27. With about two hours to spare before her connecting flight to Toronto, she had to first clear U.S. customs and immigration.

At the counter, she says an INS officer told her the picture on her passport looked ``funky.`` She was brought to a room where other passengers were being checked. They all seemed to be people of colour, she says. She says she noticed that a passenger from her flight who spoke Punjabi had also been pulled aside.

Cruz insisted the passport was real. INS officers, she says, said otherwise and became abusive.

Cruz was born in Trivandrum, India, and immigrated to Canada in 1994. Five years later, she became a citizen and traded in her Indian passport for a Canadian one. Her birthplace is noted in the passport, and it`s the same passport, she says, the INS officers suspected was a fake.

An officer, says Cruz, suggested she had bought it in Sri Lanka and asked how much it cost her.

Cruz says an officer also asked here why her surname was not ``Singh`` and commented that it was clever of her to use a Spanish name. Cruz, who is separated from her husband, says she told the officers that her maiden name is Fernandez. It`s not uncommon for Indian-born people to have Portuguese surnames, but the officers didn`t seem to care, she says.

``They said, `You better tell the truth because we know this is not a valid Canadian passport. We`ll throw you in jail,``` Cruz recalled.

An officer, she says, held the passport up to a light on the ceiling, flipped through pages and said there were ``chemicals`` on it that indicated it was fake.

What`s odd, says Cruz, is that the passport hadn`t been doubted when she was leaving Toronto, via the U.S., for India, and on previous trips to Boston, New York and Spain.
Cruz says she tried to show the officers other identification she had in her purse, but they weren`t interested. ``I was trying to explain to them, but they didn`t want to listen to anything, they didn`t want to see anything.``

As many as five INS officers were involved in the questioning, said Cruz.

``They just gave me two options: end up in jail (and wait several days to speak with Canadian officials) or take the flight. I pleaded with them to get in touch with the Canadian embassy, or if I could make a call, and they said no.``

She says she was hurried on to a flight destined for India, via Kuwait. The captain of the Kuwaiti Airlines flight had been handed her altered passport by American officials and, mid-flight, asked Cruz what had happened.

Her valid Indian visa was also stamped by the INS, which Cruz felt would make it difficult for her to even re-enter India.

The pilot agreed she could not go back to India with a destroyed passport and told her he would take care of the mess once on the ground in Kuwait.

``He was very, very helpful.`` Cruz spent three days in Kuwait City while Canadian officials at the Dubai consulate sorted out the mess and issued an emergency passport.

When Cruz didn`t arrive home and missed work, her family in India and Toronto became worried and, without knowing what had happened, a family member told her boss that she was sick.
Two days later, the pilot who helped Cruz had his daughter phone Cruz`s employer to tell them what had happened. But with two different stories, and no word from Cruz herself, her employer took her off payroll and assigned her desk to someone else.

The work problems have since been sorted out, although she did not want to name the bank she works for.

But Cruz says she hasn`t found a way to deal with the range of emotions she`s now feeling.

``It`s really hard. I can`t get sleep at nights,`` she said. ``I can`t really do anything. It`s been a week since I really cooked for the kids.``

Cruz says she wants the Prime Minister to speak out publicly about the incident in the hope other Canadian citizens do not receive similar treatment.

``It`s horrible. It was humiliating,`` said Cruz. ``What I felt was that it was total discrimination, racism.``

Goats, Terrorists, and the People Who Love Them #3 by tahmed32 on February 13, 2003 11:22am PT
Your article indicates very well the wretchedness of this custom of slaughtering of animals. This dispatch of a goat, a cow or a camel ``in God`s way`` in hopes of winning ``sawab`` is no different from a criminal bribing the thanedar with chicken.
One day muslims will understand what religion and islam are all about, and stop these pagan rituals.
----------------------------------------------------------
Tmamoud

It will be much better & convenient if you had the atleast half the guts of Qadiani & declared your own religion with all the valentine & fox trot included to suit your taste .

The Infidel Why all that communalism in Ismat Apas stories.This only ended up making her hindu herself .

We never hated hindu nor had [problem living with hindus & to day i am proud as peacock Muslims love to be Muslim.


Ismat chugtai on the other hand was creamated like a Kafir ,married a Kafir ,total mind rejected everything about islam from concept to hijab to Qurbani to Ramadan like many here on chowk .

Goats, Terrorists, and the People Who Love Them #11 by sobiaa on February 13, 2003 1:51pm PT
I could never get the idea behind ``qurbani``. Nobody is really sacrificing anything. Its just a big show off for your neighbours and relatives. The only good it does is leave permanent marks on children`s minds to haunt them later on in life.
------------------------------

I also dont get where did the muslims in Pakistan gone to ....that they do not know about Hajar Sarah Abraham,Isaac & Ishmael ??????????


Dunce the day your statement is true the collective i.q. of mohterma would be .5 & the men who nurture & reproduce you no more than 1 (one )


In a world where milion vietnameses were slaughtered on t.v. camera to be replayed again & again not in your mind but to your vision,how is killing animal has become scarring???????????? .


Men have hunted for time immemorial but only since19 41 they have killed as many HUMANS as after Naga Saki Hiroshima atomic bombing or Pot Poh massacre .

All of sudden everybody is claiming emotional distress of burn from Mac Donalds hot coffee MIILIONS more than the physica lscarring from the local burn.

What are you Mom ke gudiya & who asked you to come out of the house if you dont have the courage & grit what it takes to be to equal to men .?

Rightsizing of the Armed Forces 3/02/06/international/asia/06RUSS.html?th

Putin Meets Pakistani, Ending Long Breach

By MICHAEL WINES

OSCOW, Feb. 5 ? Ending a 30-year diplomatic estrangement, the presidents of Pakistan and Russia met in the Kremlin today and pledged a fresh start to relations after decades of alliances with each other`s sworn enemies.

But the reconciliation was tempered by the Kremlin`s announcement that President Vladimir V. Putin had telephoned the prime minister of Pakistan`s still-bitter enemy, India, apparently to reassure him that today`s meeting would not affect their close ties.

Mr. Putin and Pakistan`s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, signed a handful of diplomatic and cultural accords at today`s two-hour session, which ran more than twice its scheduled length. Mr. Putin hinted that the two nations would sign new economic agreements on Thursday.

They also discussed the Iraq crisis, and Mr. Putin said afterward that the two had agreed that the United Nations Security Council ``should play a central coordinating role in resolving international problems.``

While both men said that increasing trade was a primary goal of their meeting, terrorism is clearly the force that has driven the warming in their relations. Pakistan and Russia have found themselves allied with the United States in the effort to curb terrorism in central and south Asia, on Russia`s southern flank, and Mr. Putin called today for the two nations` law-enforcement agencies to cooperate more closely on terrorism issues.

General Musharraf addressed a major Russian concern by acknowledging in an interview that fighters from Russia`s separatist Chechen republic had been allied with the Taliban in Afghanistan, and that representatives of Chechen guerrillas would not find sanctuary in Pakistan.

``We will not permit anybody who organizes terrorist acts to visit Pakistan,`` he said in an interview in the Moscow daily Izvestia. ``That does not apply to Chechens alone.``

Today`s discussions were also said to have centered on Pakistan`s dispute with India over Kashmir, the India-controlled region claimed by both nations. Mr. Putin was reported to have urged General Musharraf again to stanch the flow of Islamic guerrillas over the so-called line of control, the shaky cease-fire zone separating Pakistan and disputed Kashmiri territory held by India.

Russia and Pakistan have not been friendly for years. But judging by the quips the two men exchanged today, things went well. Mr. Putin said he was not surprised the meeting ran well past its scheduled end. ``

Snakes And Ladders #4 by FarzanaVersey on January 15, 2003 10:09pm PT
Ras:
What is the difference between religion and militancy? They both `terrorise` people into belief systems/ideologies, and its practitioners do feel committed to them with similar fervour. Just as we do not brush all religions under the carpet for the fashion in which they are interpreted, we need to look at terrorism as an offshoot of the failure of a System. No terrorist thinks he is a professional. But many have made religion their vocation.

The fact that innocents are being seen as suspects reveals that terrorism is not your regular daytime job with unpaid overtime.

Regards,
Farzana
-----------------------------------------------------------
F.V.-

``Terrorism`` is tool which with all due humility of Islam i beg to inform you was NEVER attributed to have been invented by Islam by any reputable historian that i know of .

Terorism of Indians against the British was there befiore 1947 .In fact still in the British proceedings of the parliament Netaji Subhash Chander Bose`s Name is proudly listed as one of the famous terrorists under the british crown.

The red Brigade ,The Black Panther (of afro American U.S.A.) of course not to speak of ShivSena ,RSS,VHP, Bajrang Dal just b/c India doesnt declare them doesnt make them any less to the Indian muslims.
If it was not for the World Trade center as target ,we would still be living a complascent life with terrorists as occasional IRA bombing in London or Killings by LTTE in South India of Indian Priime Minister ,Gas attack in Tokyo Japan sub Way ,Blowing of Federal bulding by Timothy Mc Veigh Anti federal govt dissident ,David Koresh perishing with women & children of his twisted Christianity .......

Terrorism by itself pre dates not only 9/11 but ISLAM itself ask any jew he will tell of thechristian terrorising jews in Europe when Islam had not even entered the picture !

How can somthing which EXISTED prior to its uinception can be ATTRIBUTED to it .Hope fully i can later tell you how IT (Terrorism) isnt part of us .

Snakes And Ladders #13 by stuka on January 16, 2003 8:03am PT
``Today, if you are foreign born you are a suspect. Brown pigmentation and a beard are certainly unhelpful.``

What the hell is this?? I do not see any Mexicans being off-loaded because they are brown skinned. Neither have I faced any problem, nor for that matter have I heard of fellow Indians getting hassled

A mexicam can easily made to look like Indians or EASTERN or Islamic/c majority of muslims are fom EAST .

I have never seena Mexican LOOK LIKE islamic b/c of lack of islamic beard,& other attire etc.etc.
---------------------------------------------------------

Stuka

Its not only RAS a Pakistani Muslim but many American Indian Non muslims who are protesting against American Policy .I dont take it personally your democratic right to support the official policy just as any other red blooded no less Americans right to criticize this government be it Pakistani or anyother.

Neither have i been suspected with very Islamic foreign name .But i cant gurantee if another person with my look & name wont be more suspect in Police surveillence or in Line up or when the spot light is on you .I am lucky to be off the spot light just like many Hindu Indians have been UN lucky to have been caught in murderous path of rascist Americans red neck white Supremecist what have you .

Snakes And Ladders #17 by arjun_m on January 16, 2003 8:43am PT
#13 by stuka on January 16, 2003 8:03am PT

++
What the hell is this?? I do not see any Mexicans being off-loaded because they are brown skinned. Neither have I faced any problem, nor for that matter have I heard of fellow Indians getting hassled.
++

this is just an extension of the pakistan = islam mentality..
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arjun +STUKA
To be fair to RAS ,he says Brown colour & a beard to go with it DOES NOT HELP .

He does not say all brown are suspects.


Moreover HE IS RIGHT ,did not post 9/11 continue to see numerous attacks on Sikhs ,Hindu Indian students of u.Mass. Boston ,Business owners Sodhi bros. of Arizona /Nevada ........To ordinary Americans still foreign mean UNLIKE WHITE EUROPEAN OR AFRO AMERICAN .If you dont believe me ttry to go with a FOB from Somalia & the way he /she can be accepted as American by being African will amaze you despite being a naturalised citizen yourself for many years.
Being Indian is no protection either ,Just ask the guy from Hyderabad AYUB who was mistakenfor terrorist for 9 months before allowed to eave for India

Snakes And Ladders #15 by sadna on January 16, 2003 8:43am PT
WHat can a poor Pakistani cab driver do? First his `betters` like Ras who call him Abdul derisively drove him from his country because their egotistic clinging to policies like Kashmir (`drink to success of jihadis`) didnot allow him to earn a decent living to feed his family in his homeland. Then their egostical clinging to policies like Kashmir(`Kashmir runs in our blood`) made him a suspect in the eyes of US law enforcement. Even now, when the poor cab driver is in deep s_t faced with deportation, his nonAbdul betters blame him for his predicament and are not pleading his case, they are pleading for Kashmir.
And these nonAbduls call themselves spokemen for Muslims. HAHAHA.

-------------------------------------
SADNA

I know your stance on Kashmir .I dont think like Steven Hawkins attempt to find one theory to explain every thing ,you in your Kashmir centric views ,can`t tie global Palestine ,Iraq,Israel,OIL,all due to Indo Pak Kashmir dispute .I dont think world blames ONLY pakistan for Kashmir .India is equally to be blamed.

Snakes And Ladders #7 by kashaziz on January 16, 2003 6:52am PT
First of all, we as muslims are not allowed to make friends with kuffar. We should realize this fact else we will get more and more ``zillat`` from them.

Have you ever P O N D E R E D that just may be it is not LITERAL .

How can any common sense individual take such literal transliteration of where ever this is to mean that .Did not Mohommed himself invite & was invited by Kuffar or nonmuslims of his time???????????????????????

Death #50 by keshto on January 10, 2003 1:14pm PT
FAISALUNO:

ISLAM IS A CULPRIT HERE WRT WOMAN.

Muslim woman was doomed just when prophet mohammed uttered his first sura.

QOUTE

#50 Keshto

Shaitan Iblis ...

If you want to hear pound for pound comparision of Hindu womens right to Muslim women i can post it .


You & Arjun_m have shown enough monkeying around with taking unbstantiated jibe by cheap web sites.WHAT DO YOU THNINK THE WEB PAGE IS LAST WORD ON TRUTH??????

It is important to realize that religious knowledge has been produced within patriarchal states and societies and almost exclusively by men.

Women and Religious authorities in Islam
1/8/2003 - Religious Social - Article Ref: IC0301-1821
By: Dr. Asma Barlas
IslamiCity* -

How do Muslims define religious authority, what does it take to be acknowledged as a religious authority, and what interpretive powers accrue to religious authorities? Several Muslim and non-Muslim scholars were invited to address these and related questions at a conference hosted by the Institute of Islamic Studies at the Free University of Berlin from 5-8th December 2002. In the end, we could not arrive at shared conclusions due to differences of opinion between us, but the dialogue was productive in that it allowed us to debate issues that Muslims often don`t reflect on. What follows is a synopsis of my position as I presented it in Berlin and also explore at some length in Believing Women in Islam: Un-reading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur`an (University of Texas Press, 2002).

....

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

Asma Barlas is associate professor and chair of Politics at Ithaca College, New York

Notes:

1- Wheeler, 88

2 - Josef van Ess, ``Verbal Inspiration? Language and Revelation in Classical Islamic Theology,`` in Stefan Wild (ed.), The Quran as Text, Leiden, Brill, 1996: 189

3 - Tarif Khalidi and Qasim Zaman offer excellent critiques of this.

Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/

USA and Muslims #30 Hey Arjun_M

Still Pakistan is considered an Ally of 50 yrs by America than divorced lady from old Brezhniv & likes Indira oops India

US refuses to criticise Pakistan over North Korea claims
==================================

Agence France-Presse
Washington, 

The United States on Monday refused to directly criticise key anti-terror ally Pakistan, as a row raged over reports that Islamabad supplied ``axis of evil`` member North Korea with nuclear weapons technology. The White House stuck to a formulation which suggests that Washington believes Pakistan aided Stalinist North Korea in the past -- but has not done so since signing up to President George W Bush`s anti-terror campaign.

``I think that September 11 changed many things, and a new government, if you will, and Pakistan is not always doing things that they used to do,`` said Bush`s spokesman Ari Fleischer.

``And so, times have, indeed, changed. Not everything that took place years ago gets repeated today,`` he said, noting, to support his contention of changed Pakistani behaviour, that Islamabad had dropped its former support for the Taliban.

``What took place on September 11 changed many things, certain things happened under different governments in Pakistan in a time period not represented by Pakistan today.

Standing Up to a Bully US refuses to criticise Pakistan over North Korea claims
==================

Agence France-Presse
Washington, 
The United States on Monday refused to directly criticise key anti-terror ally Pakistan, as a row raged over reports that Islamabad supplied ``axis of evil`` member North Korea with nuclear weapons technology. The White House stuck to a formulation which suggests that Washington believes Pakistan aided Stalinist North Korea in the past -- but has not done so since signing up to President George W Bush`s anti-terror campaign.

``I think that September 11 changed many things, and a new government, if you will, and Pakistan is not always doing things that they used to do,`` said Bush`s spokesman Ari Fleischer.

``And so, times have, indeed, changed. Not everything that took place years ago gets repeated today,`` he said, noting, to support his contention of changed Pakistani behaviour, that Islamabad had dropped its former support for the Taliban.

``What took place on September 11 changed many things, certain things happened under different governments in Pakistan in a time period not represented by Pakistan today.