RELIGION BASED POLITICS - AN APOLOGY OF DEMOCRACY
This is election time in India and communal talks are selling like hot cakes. Omar Abdullah of National Conference has negated Islamic intolerance in Kashmir valley by telling that Kashmir has given Kashmiriyat to the world. Shazia Ilmi, the Aam Admi Party leader, has told that Indian Muslims are not sufficiently communal. Azam Khan, the fire brand Samajwadi Party leader from Uttar Pradesh has threatened Modi for his Hindu agenda. Lalu, Mulayam, Sonia, Nitish and Mamata have branded Modi as mass murderer of Indian Muslims.
DANCE OF DEMOCRACY - THE INDIAN STYLE
India is dancing with democracy. The General Election of the national Parliament is on. One will lose count of total number of political parties (excluding independent candidates) fighting in the election. However, all the political parties have aligned into three groups, viz: BJP led NDA, Congress led UPA and other parties not aligned to NDA or UPA. The last group is most complex and fluid and no one knows which constituent party of this group will behave in what way after the election results are out.
MALIK SAHAB & SULTANA - I SHALL NEVER FORGET YOU
I was selected for the volleyball and cricket teams of school when I was a student of eighth standard. Malik Sahab was our Games Teacher. He was commonly known as Malik Mia. Malik Sahab had no connection with game of any type in remotest way; but he was our Games Teacher. His only role, I observed, was to ask the Chowkider to open the store-room and give us the necessary games materials when required. Malik Sahab was a clean shaven, without skull cap and pant-shirt wearing fair and good looking gentleman.
BANGLADESH & SAUDI ARABIA
Section 57 of ICT (Amendment) Act-2013 of Bangladesh has made Technology (ICT) Act-2006 ridiculous by allowing law enforcement authorities to arrest any person without warrant. According to Article 57; sub-sections (1) and (2) of the Act, any inflammatory write-ups deliberately published in electronic media on sensitive religious issues to hurt the religious belief can be considered as a crime and those responsible can be slapped with a 10-year imprisonment and a fine of Taka 10 million. It also suggested that the crime is non-bailable.
MY FRIEND AZIZUR
I had a class mate during my school days named Azizur Rehman. To me, in those days, he was Muslim and I was not supposed to eat anything from him. Otherwise I would become Dharmobhrosto. There were a few more Muslim students in our class also. I simply found them very different from rest of us (Hindu boys) in terms of wearing short pajama, skull cap and use of odd words which were not my Bengali. So far I remember, I neither loved nor hated them.
A breath of fresh air
On my recent trip (Feb/March, 2014) to Bangladesh, I came across a moderately new university by the name Khwaja Yunus Ali University (KYAU), which gave me a renewed hope and confidence in the propriety of educational establishments and academic excellence in Bangladesh. But before I go into the details of this university, let me set out the prevailing situation in the higher education system in Bangladesh.
NAME GAME IN SAUDI ARABIA
The love birds across the world, in past half a millennium, have been vouching with "What's in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet;". But the name did matter then as it does now also.
WHY NOT ALLOWED TO ADOPT?
'Adoption' of child in Islam is mainly guided by the socio-economic dimension. It is primarily viewed as an act of charity. It is the social obligation of supporting the orphans. In Islam adopted boy or girl becomes 'na-mehram' on reaching adulthood. Adopted boy/girl cannot inherit the property of adoptee parent(s). Taken to the extreme, the adopted boy or girl can marry daughter or son of his/her adoptee parent(s). The whole picture negates the emotional bondage and legal rights of the adopted child and the adoptee parent(s).
MR. JINNAH HUMILIATED
The history of modern Indian sub-continent is not complete without Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Jinnah's political stature, particularly among Muslims, was as high as Gandhi's among Hindus. From 1939 to the time of partition of India in August 1947, Jinnah relentlessly and forcefully fought for a separate nation for the Muslims of undivided India. He almost single handedly took away Pakistan from the jaws of Congress. He was a very hard bargainer in political arena also and Congress leaders understood that very dearly. A thoroughly Westernized person, he preferred to be addressed as Mr. Jinnah.
RELIGION & MORALITY" - TEACHING IN SCHOOLS OF BANGLADESH
The subjugation of women by men is due to men's hedonistic possessiveness and control freak attitude over women for their stronger physical power. Dozens of references can be given from religious texts of Hinduism and Islam to justify that they describe/advocate and preach sexual, economic, emotional, social and physical exploitation of women by men. In the question of morality and social behaviors in other spheres also many references can be given to hang these two religions as main culprits. Thus religion and morality are neither interdependent nor interlinked.