A New Kind of Charity this Ramadan With relevance to Ramadan and Giving I share my renditions of verses 2.261:265 of Qur'an: (please note power of metaphor in the last two paras)

"That which you give in God’s name
Is like a corn with seven veins
Each one having a hundred grains
God gives in abundance to whom He wills
He knows all and is bountiful

When you give something in God’s name
And abstain from tacking any disdain
God rewards you with no constraints
No fear befalls you or regrets remain

A kinder word, a fault forgiven
Is better than alms with disdain given
God needs not a thing from you
His grace suffices with plentitude

Believers, do not mar your giving
With gibes, jeers and acts derogating
Nor indulge in giving like those
Who give but for the sake of show
And in God they have no believe
Nor that there will hereafter be

Semblance of such people is a rock
Which for a while is covered with a moss
But if a shower of rain over falls
All is washed away leaving the rock
As bare and hard as it always was
They gain nothing by what they do
God does not guide those who are not true

But those who give to please God
And to strengthen their soul and thoughts
Their semblance is like an orchid on a hill
When there is rain it doubly yields
And if no rain falls, they are watered by dew
All your acts the Providence knew"

Qur'an: 2.261:265

Honor Killings in Babakot Re: # 10 crazyghan,
I don't think anyone is saying that religion (for some or many) does not incite violence or does not exclude women etc.
At least, my belief is that one learns from religion what one’s temperament wants to learn or one’s education allows one to learn. All religions are mired in contradictions and paradoxes. That is the nature of it. Why? It is long discussion. For now, I just want to comment that the core wisdom of every religion is forgotten in the superficial details.
When I read those verses which I referred (where such crimes are mentioned) I see the glimpse of the core message. The verses which were related to day to day affairs of that time, the one which you referred, must be seen in its historical context.
The point which comes across looking at the whole life and character of the Prophet and the message which is discerned by reading the Sacred Text of Quran all leads to one thing: Sanctity and respect of life, in every shape and form.
Islam at its inception did give women many rights which were not available to them before Islam. That is the spirit of Quran. If we follow the spirit, we will always want to move forward, not go backward. We cannot read Quran just in literal way. Having said that, I agree many do read Quran in a very literal fashion. That mixed with level of education and understanding, and all other socio-political problems, such literal readings and misunderstanding about the real message of Quran become a deadly weapon in the hands of backward looking and / or power hungry people.
Lastly, the verses you have referred still cannot be said to justify the acts like killing of infants or women. As I said these verses must not be seen out of context.
I know then there is discussion about context and permanence etc., which is a long discussion with possibly no resolution. Therefore I usually tells myself, that I learn from Quran what I want to learn and what it wants to teach me. And I never have felt that it ever wanted to teach me violence or chauvinism.

Bihar & Louisiana: A Poem thanks for your comment nkg, ravi.
nkg, would you mind giving some details of how do you think that it is man-made, and what better could have been done in Bihar?
Sorry, that the website you referred for newspaper I could not read, though I intend to learn Hindi letters some day soon.

There is no ‘honour’ in killing HP, though you bring an interesting perspective but what do you say on this:
1. If there were problems in land reforms elsewhere, does that mean that the land reforms have no value AT ALL?
2. Is the lesson from those experiences is that let the feudal lords keep the progress a hostage?
3. How otherwise we can move forward? (Even for the growth of Capitalism, landlords' grip has to be loosened. It happened naturally (intrinsically) in the West. It cannot happen that way in the East anymore.)
4. What is the road to progress otherwise - even to capitalism?

The political philosophers and economists have to come up with solutions. We cannot just say that it is of no use.

Honor Killings in Babakot # 7: Further to my previous posts, following are the references in Qur'an to the said subject (as far as I know):
6.140
6.151
16. 58-59
17.31
62.12
81.8-9
Also, kindly let me know about the interacts (URL or article (s))where you had such discussion. I am interested to see what transpired. Thanks

Honor Killings in Babakot Re: # 7 philosopher, your note is heartwarming and I am grateful for that. I am happy to hear the voices like yours and MatloobZaman's. There are not very many and therefore are precious. Qur'an is our common humanity's heritage. Misunderstandings about it make my heart bleed. But I try to understand it for myself. I do feel urge to share my understanding and feelings about it through my renditions or comments. Therefore, such feedbacks and any constructive criticism is most welcome.
Regarding the subject of killing their children, Qur'an mentions this, 5 more times in addition to the earlier reference. One instance is in the powerful Surah "At Takweer (Overthrowing) which was posted by Viqram on his iLog. I am sure you will enjoy that too.
http://www.chowk.com/ilogs/68667/35288
"When the female (infant), buried alive, is questioned -
For what crime she was killed;" - Quran (81: 8 -9) Tr. Yousaf Ali

Honor Killings in Babakot Re: # 2 MatloobZaman,
Thank you for your encouraging comments.
I share my renditions of Quran to share the sheer elation which I feel by doing that.
I keep doing the renditions as I read Quran - for me the best way to read Quran - as that way its living energy is transferred, which otherwise, in a passive reading may not as much transferred, at least in my case.
When I see a response like yours - it is doubly uplifting and it spurs me to do more. I am deeply indebted for that. In my iLog's I have posted some other renditions:

http://www.chowk.com/ilogs/68624/47644 - Al Qadr and Al Falaq
http://www.chowk.com/ilogs/68220/47644 - Al Asar
http://www.chowk.com/ilogs/67515/47644- Al Quariah
http://www.chowk.com/ilogs/68666/47644 - a poetic response on the two verse of Al Falaq

Your feedback is appreciated if you so incline to have a look. If you find any areas requiring improvement, I will be glad to hear.

I do not call this work as translations for a reason, as of course, you understand.

Mutaal Mooquin

Honor Killings in Babakot Re: # 2 MatloobZaman,
Thank you for your encouraging comments.
I share my renditions of Quran to share the sheer elation which I feel by doing that.
I keep doing the renditions as I read Quran - for me the best way to read Quran - as that way its living energy is transferred, which otherwise, in a passive reading may not as much transferred, at least in my case.
When I see a response like yours - it is doubly uplifting and it spurs me to do more. I am deeply indebted for that. In my iLog's I have posted some other renditions:

There is no ‘honour’ in killing Honour killings and women treated as cattle has not much to do with politics (even if a politician is involved) or with religion (even if mullahs are involved in that). It has more to do with the society as whole and culture of that society.
Ours is a deeply feudal society which has not been able to get itself free from the shackles of values of a medieval mindset. Even the people living in cities or educated in universities belonging to our society display one form or other of that mindset.
The elite of military and industry all basically comes from a deeply feudal background and culture. Ancient feudal values are ingrained in their genes. This clutching hold of feudal values is everywhere with different intensities. In cities and even so called liberated classes, it is in a different form. That can be observed for example the way some interacts happen here on Chowk.
But of course, in the real backward rural areas, its atrocious grip is deadly. This hold has never been broken because - because the backbone of feudal lords has never been broken by any government in Pakistan.
All these bastard feudal lords have been supported by consecutive military regimes as well as so called civilian governments – no government abolished feudal system – rather allowed it to prosper. So the culture of brutality and humiliation of masses, at the peril of Pakistan’s stability and welfare flourished. On top of that, religion has been used to justify or defend such gender based atrocities.
For Pakistan to move forward the first and fundamental step to take is to abolish feudalism - to put limit to how much land one can hold. This is not an old socialistic idea – every sensible nation in modern times knows importance of this fundamental step for progress. Only this step can release the energy of 80% or so rural population of Pakistan. Only this step will eliminate that power which hold people hostage to ancient traditions. That fundamental step will start the process of fundamental change. No one talks about this important principle.
These incidents remind us to look deeply into the root cause of our problems. We must examine and analyze things to get at the root cause of these things. We must spread education, spread ideas which are useful and informative and talk about possible solutions at same time we talk about the problems and the reasons for the problems. We may differ but we must have debates and dialogues about solutions as well as problems.
Hail to the writers who bring up such important topics for information and discussion. Hail Beena Sarwar.

Save Me From Charismatic Leaders! Re: # 67 tahmed32, I appreciate for your thoughtful response.

I don't think there is any fundamental contradiction which need to be reconciled between my two posts . It is true that one could be said to be from right brain and the other from left. But don't we need both parts of our brain to really understand things in their totality. I know first we need to analyze, but then we do need to synthesize. And that is where both brains are needed. David Thoreau said, knowledge comes in flashes (meaning not just in details).

Anyway, the point is that the feelings I expressed about Obama's presidency are personal. Having said that, I do think that we make decisions by a mix of logic and emotion. This fact can't be denied. Examples are everywhere. True, planes and such engineering and scientific work cannot be done by emotions only, but even in those emotions (passion) and imagination have been driving the logic and inquiry in many cases. Einstein’s ideas about light came from his ridiculous feelings of his traveling over the beam of light.

What I was trying to say that the two ideas one being objective about political matters, and the other being subjective about Obama's presidency, do not contradict, because I am not presenting my subjectivity as an argument. That subjectivity is expressed in spite of the argument. Politics is not a feat of engineering. Politics does involve both parts of our brains no matter how much we want to be objective. And that subjectivity is part of the bigger objective truth.

Therefore I can analyze to see where I will cast my vote in the best interest (not in US of course - I don't live there) of civil society, but I may still have personal reasons for wishing that my candidate does not win. It must be called paradoxical-irony. The world is full of paradoxes and ironies and sometime they combine like hydrogen and oxygen to make something new.

And talking about terminologies, I did not use empiro-imperialists for neo-cons. Empire building will not stop no matter who is at helm of affairs until the helm is a helm of an empire. This is an "American Century", words from neo-cons lexicon. The words may change in a democratic government but this still will remain an American Century for foreseeable future – definitely not going to change in next 4 to 8 years – no matter how much slogan of CHANGE is drummed up. Probably Bill Clinton was right when he said, Obama's is the biggest fantasy. Still I would like that Obama wins, but I dread for the regrets which many will have later.

Honor Killings in Babakot “When they hear the news of a daughter born
Their face turns dark, with grief they are torn
By the ill they see in the good news
With shame from people they hide and muse
Will they keep this shame or bury it in the dust
Both are evil choices and choose they must”

Qur'an 16: 58 -59 (lamenting and capturing the atrocious act of pre-Islamic Arabs when they used to bury their daughters at their birth - rendition by me)

Save Me From Charismatic Leaders! Re: # 49 tahmed32,
My assertion might have been simplistic as the topic is so big that many books can be written on this. I add here just a few more remarks.

I know West has made important contribution, in all fields of life, from science to art, from culture to politics. Its contribution has been part of its material progress. And the material progress has been through empire buildings. Empire building is a curse that humanity has not learned to avoid. With progress or rather hand in hand with progress comes this curse.

I do admire your passion for defending the good aspects of the West. In a way, it does express a part of my convictions. But at the same time we cannot discount the fact that with material progress comes this curse of desire to control and exploit the resources from all over the world. That is why in every phase of the history there have been empires who brutally tried to control the rest of the worlds. Ours is an American Century. That is all.

I have no hostility towards any empire. Being hostile to an empire is as being hostile to let us say a tornado or to an ice-age. It is a phenomenon beyond our control. All we can hope to do is to better understand mechanism of this phenomenon and come up with some practical solutions to channel the energies towards the benefit of all humanity.
Truth always lies somewhere between the two extremes, beyond the paradox, beyond black and white.

Regarding half-baked ideologies which you have disdained, I agree the one you have cited are extremely misguided attempts which have been fundamentally attempts in each of those particular geo-political entities to solve their issues. The Islamic one is the worst as it has drained all good energies of meaningful progress in those areas. However, there have been better attempts to solve their issues through still half baked ideologies, for example former USSR and in China. The question fundamentally is that is it better to make an attempt to change things or accept the status quo.

Regarding basket case analogy - to me in the final analysis the whole world is a basket case because of our extreme immaturity. This world is run by "boys in suits" as one of my colleague used to say.

Save Me From Charismatic Leaders! Re: # 43, there are no better words than how you have described the gist of the matter in a succinct and brimming metaphor.
BHO ...."is their lubricated condom."
and this is shamefully ironic. I just cringe at the idea of seeing a black (almost a Muslim) to be sacrificed on their altar. Call it genetic stuff or leftist sympathy, or what, I don't want to see Obama winning - though personal feelings aside - it may be good for history - as it will expose further true face of empiro-imperialists.
thanks for your input

A New Kind of Charity this Ramadan an interesting and important topic - we really need a lot of education on making goood choices for our donations. it is true most often we go by emotions and it is so very critical to watch for that. this article will help in that direction. thank you

Alcohol and Teenagers: A Lethal Mixture "Just being a teenager in this country is hard enough"
speaks volumes.
the article is really a good description of a sorry dilemma
cheers ...

Save Me From Charismatic Leaders! Re: # 36, It is a double failure (of expectations, we may say). Thanks for asking, if you wish to discuss this aspect in more detail, we have to do at some other time. I am getting ready for morning's ardous journey.