Al-Qaeda in America {Taliban were never anti-america, anti-christian, or anti-anyone. }

---if such is the case, then was the plan (thankfully scrapped) to make non-Muslims wear badges somewhat reminiscent of what the Jews wore in concentration camps a friendly gesture??? And what happened to Afghani women during the tenure of the Taliban...women not being able to work...was that done because the Taliban respected women as their equals?
Obviously, the Taliban were anti-something, or someone.

In Search of Peace and Flowers {while the whole world demonstrated, Muslims sat at home}

oh really? And what about the Egyptian Muslims, and the Palestinian Muslims who marched side by side with Israelis in Tel Aviv? And what about the countless Muslims who marched in London? Oh yeah...while the whole world demonstrated, Muslims sat at home.

Ras, good sentiments here, and good reporting...thank you!

What Would Baynard Rustin Say? rehan
i often wonder myself how the cause of non-violent protestors can create potent images in a global context...or even a local context. One would think that thousands of people gathered in and around Pioneer Square protesting against war and crimes against humanity is potent enough (or even one person, for that matter) no matter how we dress, but `tis not the case. One image that always stands out for me at the protests i`m part of is this man with a black and white `kufiya` wrapped around his face, wearing a gas mask and carrying a flag of Che Guevara with `Hasta La Victoria Siempre` printed on it.

and speaking of using bodies for protest: a friend of mine was talking about this elderly lady who lives outside of London and so much wanted to make it to the protest happening in London this weekend. Since circumstances prevent her from going there, she said she would make her protest known by going and lying prostrate in the middle of the road!

This world needs more and more people like Rustin! It is a question of our bodies afterall, and the violence that is wrought upon them.

love, ana xo

Goats, Terrorists, and the People Who Love Them Binoo
reading this...i`m this much closer, *leaving a narrow gap between thumb and index finger* to becoming a vegetarian :-)
lve. ana

p.s...haven`t been to your blog in a few days...aankh ab kaisi hai?

might one ask if this is an older article, why it`s on the top of the first page (rather than the more recent article)? I noticed this with one of the cricket articles as well. Has there been yet another format change at Chowk that i don`t know about?
Just being curious about matters of no consequence (a la The Little Prince)
--ana

The Test Neil,
this was quite entertaining...nice work!

whoooaaah....
thanks for the translation!

:-)

--ana

PM...
{Right now, I`d just like to remind some good folks here (gullu, ana, TAhmed) of what the best course of action is w.r.t barking dogs. }

----ummm, let me guess, would that be let barking dogs lay or sleep or whatever??? :-)

US Attack on Iraq: Just Do It! there is something wrong with this article in that paragraphs repeat themselves...it needs to be fixed.

bundchungal...
thank you so much for that piece of information about Dina being a fake. Have noted it and disposed of such information immediately, considering there are so many of us who are fakers and troublemakers, including yourself.
Let me take you down cause i`m going to...
Chowkberry fields,
nothing is real...
and nothing to get hung about
Chowkberry fields forever....

*with profound apologies again to The Beatles*

--ana

Living Abroad shah.
LOL. mbenzenglish is one of his avatars as well...but i dunno about the rest either. I think Lajwanti may be also!
And it`s AAmir...to type it as aamir would confuse him with hamara apna aamir ansari, who does not sound anything like 12-head!

sameeroo...
why is it that a person between the age of 18-22 should not be loyal in love relationships? who is to say that a person that age doesn`t have the maturity of someone your age, or my age? Is it really a matter of expecting someone to be a certain way at a certain age? There are countless people between ages 40-70 who still act with incredible immaturity when it comes to relationships. I know some of these people personally! this then begs the question of what is immature and what isn`t. Anyway...four years is a long time to be in a relationship...and regardless of whether she should have known he wouldn`t make it permanent or not, it doesn`t make the pain any less real, even if she was the `innocent` one here.
this article IS totally subjective...it`s about her relationship with this guy...i don`t think this was intended to be an objective analysis. Yes, I think her first paragraph is quite generalizing, but all through my many college years, I have run into some desi guys who do have misconceptions about goriyaN, and not just goriyaN but East asian girls, african-american girls, all girls. The things I have heard come out of their mouths...*sigh* And clearly desi men are not alone in their misconceptions.
We can all read this and say she should have done this, she should have done that, or one should do this. This is afterall, brought here for us to comment on. I think this also brings up issues of objectification...which she would have experienced with men from any other ethnic background, not just South Asian men. But I wonder if anything was meant to be `deduced` from this article other than the fact that love doesn`t always conquer all, and we still have a lot to learn about each other as people. I think Dina hasn`t learned quite everything about `South Asians` be they men or women...and it would be unfortunate if she felt she had. We, afterall, haven`t learned all that much about each other either.

Living Abroad rsax...
yaar, i don`t have the stomach..or the patience to list his 20+ nicks...perhaps we`ll point them out as they appear, howzatt?

tahmed ji....please, please don`t encourage waqar to stay for some well-deserved fun...hai hai, vaatever could you be theeenking???!!! ;-)

Living Abroad maria...
what i think you`re missing is perhaps a little bit of history in regards to AAmir (and his other nicks...we do call him 12-head afterall)...
this man will misinterpret, and give his own take on what your post means...he will also read your post and respond in a way where a straight line is not something that is connected by two dots, but something altogether screwy. And if you continue interacting with him, at some point he will call you names. Such is the role of our resident Chowk beast!
I thought since you appear to be a recent visitor to Chowk, it would be fair to warn you -- you continue trying to reason with him at your own risk! :-)
regards,
ana

re my post #29, of course i meant to say nor do you know that someone from a `good` Muslim family would NOT have been sexually involved...hopefully everyone knew that. :-)

waqaralisheikh sahib...
pardon me...but you are not in any position to judge whether it was right for Dina or anyone to be sexually involved prior to marriage. Nor do you know that someone from a `good` Muslim family would have been sexually involved prior to marriage. And why just say a `good` Muslim girl..should it not apply to a `good` Muslim man as well??? Nor is is any of your business to repeatedly say that she should convert to Islam. And what if Dina had converted to Islam...what difference would it have made? I know of women who have converted to one faith or another..be it Islam or another faith of their partner, only to have the relationship not work. No one should HAVE to convert to a faith to marry someone...one converts to a faith because it speaks to them, because they believe in its precepts. Dina is a Christian woman. If she believes in its precepts, then why the hell should she convert to Islam? I don`t think she would have asked for him to convert to Christianity.

Remember what Dina said at the end..Kindness, respect and compassion are virtues also taught by Islam. If this is true, and I am not a Muslim so I don`t know, then it`s quite sad that you appear to possess none of these virtues. If you did, you would not be generalizing against Hindus, and saying all sorts of lies and stink about tahmed and shankar. You feel that tahmed has been lying about you, and twisting your words...he has no need to twist your words sahib...they are twisted to begin with. So why don`t you do us all a favor and show some respect? As I have said at another board, we are all visitors and guests here at Chowk, and most of us are guilty of showing our worst side...you are no less guilty of that.