Cherry Blossoms

Converts wished silenty for Christianity and its terrors

Sat, 19 May 2007 09:42:20 -0400

Catholic Arrogance finds outlet in its Pope.
The Oft used excuse of Rapists is that the victim 'asked for it'.

The Pope's assertation that the Indigenous Natives of America who were converted by force and coercion after largescale massacres, rape and looting were actually 'silently longing' for all this, is no better than a rapists' apologetics.

Indigenous leaders in Brazil have reacted angrily to Pope Benedict's comments that their predecessors had willingly converted to Christianity.

One Amazon Indian leader, Jecinaldo Satere Mawe, said the Pope's remarks had been arrogant and disrespectful.

Pope Benedict XVI told Latin American bishops in Brazil that American Indians had been "silently longing" to become Christians 500 years ago.

The Pope has now returned home after his five-day trip to Brazil.

The Vatican has made no further comment.

'Wrong and indefensible'

The BBC's Emilio San Pedro said the Pope had said the Christianisation of the region had not involved an alienation of the pre-Colombian cultures.

Our correspondent said Pope Benedict also made no mention of the violent history that followed or the documented decimation of native cultures in favour of the Christian model Conquistadores and other Europeans colonisers.

He said the comments had even been criticised by the Catholic Church's Indian advocacy group in Brazil, which described the Pope's statement as wrong and indefensible.

Vishnu Murti of Ancient Rus

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 14:27:45 -0500

An ancient Vishnu idol has been found during excavation in an old village in Russia's Volga region, raising questions about the prevalent view on the origin of ancient Russia.

The idol found in Staraya (old) Maina village dates back to VII-X century AD.

Staraya Maina village in Ulyanovsk region was a highly populated city 1700 years ago, much older than Kiev, so far believed to be the mother of all Russian cities.

"We may consider it incredible, but we have ground to assert that Middle-Volga region was the original land of Ancient Rus. This is a hypothesis, but a hypothesis, which requires thorough research," Reader of Ulyanovsk State University's archaeology department Dr Alexander Kozhevin told state-run television Vesti.

Dr Kozhevin, who has been working in Staraya Maina for last seven years, said that every single square metre of the surroundings of the ancient town situated on the banks of Samara, a tributary of Volga, is studded with antiques.

Prior to unearthing of the Vishnu idol, Dr Kozhevin has already found ancient coins, pendants, rings and fragments of weapons.

He believes that today's Staraya Maina, a town of eight thousand, was ten times more populated in the ancient times.

It is from here that people started migrating to the Don and Dneiper rivers around the time ancient Russy built the city of Kiev, now the capital of Ukraine.

An international conference is being organised later this year to study the legacy of the ancient village, which can radically change the history of ancient Russia.

Artificial Blood Replacement completes trials

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 19:58:54 -0500

Oxycyte, an artificial blood replacement desiged for critical and trauma care, carries oxygen 50 times as effectively as normal human blood.

Oxycyte has recently completed trials and emerged as a promising way to get the all critical oxygen to the brain tissues in Trauma and Reanimation scenarios.

BUYING SYNTHETIC
A wonder drug, perhaps, but one with caveats. Most of those in the artificial-blood world, like Steven A. Gould, the CEO of Northfield Laboratories in Evanston, Illinois, have hedged their bets on the more common hemoglobin-based substitutes. Northfield’s PolyHeme, for instance, has recently completed its last clinical trial; the company is now compiling its data for the FDA to review.

“The benefit of hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers is that oxygen is loaded onto them when we’re breathing room air,” Gould says. That is, hemoglobin-based substitutes work just like our own blood. To get the full effect from Oxycyte, on the other hand, a patient breathes in 50 to 100 percent oxygen four hours before receiving it and for 12 hours after it’s infused (air contains 21 percent oxygen). “That’s a logistical limitation,” Gould says, “and in general, it’s preferable not to breathe supplemental oxygen if it can be avoided.”

Most of today’s ambulances carry oxygen on board, as do military rescue helicopters, so the problem isn’t getting a tank of air to the patient. It’s the risk of inhaling supplemental oxygen for too long. Scientists know that pure oxygen increases the number of free radicals in our bloodstream, which can damage tissues and membranes, but the long-term severity of that damage is unknown. Spiess believes that Oxycyte could still work at even lower levels of oxygen, or even with room air, but he hasn’t yet been able to test out either of those scenarios on humans.

And there are other, undeniable side effects. In past PFC studies, patients were found to experience a transient swelling of the liver as it absorbed the oily molecules of the PFC; some patients demonstrated a decrease in platelet count, which can hinder the blood’s ability to clot; and some suffered short-term flu-like effects. Spiess has a quick response to concerns like these: “If you’ve been hit in the head or you’ve been shot or you’re having a stroke, you don’t sweat the flu-like symptoms.” All drugs have some measure of toxicity, Spiess says. It’s simply a case of the good outweighing the bad.

Although the sample size is far too small to be statistically definitive, it seems that VCURES’s brain-injury trial may be an example of just that. By August, the hospital had enrolled all of the eight patients it needed to complete the Phase II study. Even at the best trauma centers in the world, the mortality rate for TBI victims is one in three. Of the eight patients Spiess and Bullock treated with Oxycyte, only one died. The recovery process for the surviving patients has been unusually smooth.

Extraordinarily so, in Bess-Lyn’s case. After regaining consciousness two weeks after the accident, she recovered movement in her paralyzed right side and was ultimately deemed well enough to leave rehab a week earlier than predicted. She is expected to make a full recovery. Meanwhile, Spiess and Bullock are busy designing a larger trial that will bring their oxygen therapy to emergency rooms across the country—perhaps as soon as next year.

Turmeric Prevents Rheumatoid Arthritis, Bone Loss

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 20:40:19 -0500

Turmeric, an established Ayurvedic Anti-Inflammatory drug was the subject of a study which threw up interesting facts.. and results.

An ancient spice, long used in traditional Asian medicine, may hold promise for the prevention of both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis, according to a recently completed study at The University of Arizona College of Medicine.

Turmeric, the spice that flavors and gives its yellow color to many curries and other foods, has been used for centuries by practitioners of Ayurvedic medicine to treat inflammatory disorders. Turmeric extract containing the ingredient curcumin is marketed widely in the Western world as a dietary supplement for the treatment and prevention of a variety of disorders, including arthritis.

At the UA College of Medicine, Janet L. Funk, MD, working with Barbara N. Timmermann, PhD, then-director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Arizona Center for Phytomedicine Research at the UA, set out to determine whether (and how) turmeric works as an anti-arthritic. They began by preparing their own extracts from the rhizome, or root, of the plant, providing themselves with well-characterized materials to test and to compare with commercially available products. (Dr. Timmermann since has joined the faculty of the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan.)

Dr. Funk and her colleagues then tested in animal models a whole extract of turmeric root, only the essential oils, and an oil-depleted extract containing the three major curcuminoids found in the rhizome. Of the three extracts, the one containing the major curcuminoids was most similar in chemical composition to commercially available turmeric dietary supplements. It also was the most effective, completely inhibiting the onset of rheumatoid arthritis.

Dr. Funk, an endocrinologist in the UA Department of Medicine, says this study provides several noteworthy "firsts." Completed with the researchers' own prepared, well-defined extracts, the study represents the first documentation of the chemical composition of a curcumin-containing extract tested in a living organism, in vivo, for anti-arthritic efficacy. It also provides the first evidence of anti-arthritic efficacy of a complex turmeric extract that is analogous in composition to turmeric dietary supplements.

The significance, she explains, is that translating the results of trials such as these to clinical use depends on accurate information about the chemical content and biological activity of the botanical supplements available for use. This work paves the way for the preclinical and clinical trials needed before turmeric supplements can be recommended for medicinal use in preventing or suppressing rheumatoid arthritis.

However, as many of Indian indegeneous herbs and traditional remedies are being studied with added interest, the chances of Indian traditional medical system being absorbed and ultimately done with, looms large.
If our experiences with Basmati and Neem are any indications, this overt take over of Traditional Indian Knowledgebase will go unchallenged, while Indian Government will spend its attention over ways to talk to Pakistan amidst continued terror attacks and retrograde minority appleasement policies.

In this regard, the pioneering work by Mr. Rajiv Malhotra of Infinity Foundation needs mention.
Rajiv Malhotra is single handledly fighting a long drawn process by Westerners taking over Indian tradions and lore, assimilating it and then claiming them as their own..

Westerners appropriate Indic ideas through a process which Rajiv Malhotra has called the U-Turn. In its basic form the U-Turn Theory states that a member of the dominant Western culture first whole-heartedly learns the Indic tradition. He or she, for a variety of reasons, then repackages it and projects the knowledge gained from India from within his/her own culture. The next thing you know is that s/he claims these ideas were always an integral part of Western culture. Some, but not all, also start demonizing the source Indic traditions using a lot of pretexts, such as calling them “world negating” or accusing them of “human rights” abuses. As an example, Malhotra has examined on how Jung appropriated much from Indic thought – including key ideas of collective unconscious, archetypes, and synchronicity – but did the classical U-Turn from Indic thought. In all, Malhotra has done 50+ case studies of such U-Turns, and each has its own story as to why and how it was done. U-Turns have played animportant role in shaping Western ideas, literature and popular culture; yet they are typically ignored in discussions on the history of ideas. The U-Turn Theory also explains that many Indians internalize the Western adaptations of Indian culture and re-import them into India: For instance, Tantric healing is more fashionable as “energy healing” or as reiki; yoga’s return to India’s Westernized middle class owes a lot to the West’s adoption of it; and Western research on cognitive science and neuroscience includes yogis who are mere “subjects.”

From: Science Daily

Lancet wades into politics marsh... Again?

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 23:50:00 -0400

The Lancet is no stranger to controversy. In fact it courts the worst kind of it - Political!

Perhaps its its high impact factor that nudges it and its left-leaning editor into taking up issues such as the Iraq war, but seriously, does it really serve its stated mission?

Advancing medicine, by delivering superior education, reference information and decision support tools to doctors, nurses, health practitioners and students.

Oh yeah.

The Lancet's history of serious wobbling started with its publication of a paper in 1998 which tried to link MMR Vaccine with Autism! The last I heard about it, the controversy is still on. The Jan 2006 scandal of the fabricated 'Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and the risk of oral cancer: a nested case-control study' was enough for the Vancouver Guidelines to be updated with new guidelines and ethical consideration rules.

The 2004 Controversial estimate of Iraq war's death toll of Iraqis of the Lancet brought it into the mainstream glare of critical 'fact checking' crowd online...
And now, they come up with this:

"About 100,000 Iraqi civilians -- half of them women and children -- have died in Iraq since the invasion, mostly as a result of airstrikes by coalition forces, according to the first reliable study of the death toll from Iraqi and US public health experts. "

The Guadian discusses it and writes:

100,000 Iraqi civilians dead, says study
About 100,000 Iraqi civilians - half of them women and children - have died in Iraq since the invasion, mostly as a result of airstrikes by coalition forces, according to the first reliable study of the death toll from Iraqi and US public health experts.
The study, which was carried out in 33 randomly-chosen neighbourhoods of Iraq representative of the entire population, shows that violence is now the leading cause of death in Iraq. Before the invasion, most people died of heart attacks, stroke and chronic illness. The risk of a violent death is now 58 times higher than it was before the invasion.

Last night the Lancet medical journal fast-tracked the survey to publication on its website after rapid, but extensive peer review and editing because, said Lancet editor Richard Horton, "of its importance to the evolving security situation in Iraq". But the findings raised important questions also for the governments of the United Sates and Britain who, said Dr Horton in a commentary, "must have considered the likely effects of their actions for civilians".

Pro-Choice Vs 3D Imagery

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 20:04:07 -0400

With the advent of 3D imagery of unborn babies, the debate between Pro-Choice and Pro-Life Camps just got notched up into an entirely new level of appeals to emotions and rationalism from either sides.

One can harly dismiss the powerful real time images of fetus moving, sipping amniotic fluid or even 'exhibiting emotions' with smiles... And the pro-lifers are having a difficult time convincing the public that these gestures and clear signs of life is just nothing but fasiculations of muscle bundles with no 'live human' behind it.

Well, that would apply to anybody under deep Anaesthesia as well, I should add...

Ultrasound images which show 12-week-old foetuses sucking their thumbs and walking in the womb are dangerously misleading, a group of scientists warned today.

The 3D images of unborn babies apparently behaving in a similar way to newborns raised questions over whether the upper limit for abortions should be reduced form 24 weeks.

From:

Solar Pyramids in Ukraine Discovered

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 19:30:00 -0400

Pyramids Older Than Egyptian Allegedly Found in Ukraine

Archaeologists in Ukraine have unearthed the remains of an ancient pyramidal structure that pre-dates those in Egypt by at least 300 years. The stone foundations of the structure, which probably resembled Aztec and Mayan ziggurats in South America, were discovered near the eastern city of Lugansk.

It is thought they were laid about five millennia ago during the early Bronze Age by animists who worshipped a sun god. The “pyramid” is in fact a complex of temples and sacrificial altars topping a sculpted hillside with steps on its sides.

Nobel Price for Medicine announced

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 19:08:37 -0400

"This year's Nobel laureates have discovered a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information,"

Americans Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine Monday for discovering a powerful way to turn off the effect of specific genes, opening a new avenue for disease treatment.

"RNA interference" is already being widely used in basic science as a method to study the function of genes and it is being studied as a treatment for infections such as the AIDS and hepatitis viruses and for other conditions, including heart disease and cancer.

Fire, 47, of Stanford University, and Mello, 45, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, published their seminal work in 1998.

RNA interference occurs naturally in plants, animals, and humans. The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, which awarded the prize, said it is important for regulating the activity of genes and helps defend against viral infection.

Quake Money for Terrorists!

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 11:52:45 -0400

When a massive earthquake stuck North East Pakistan including the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, bleeding hearts of India setup email and internet campaigns to collect and send money for relief.

I had written then on various fora that this money can easily fall into wrong hands since many news reports have been filed on how the Kashmiri Terrorist Groups have geared upto provide assistance in distribution of relief material.

A number of candle-kissers had vehemently protested at the apparent lack of sensitivity on my part.

Today, my stance vindicted with the following news report, I sit back at my Geckoid Headquaters, and contemplate on how India would be if we had a quantatively lesser number of undescended gonads around:

‘Quake money’ sent to Pak used to finance UK plane bombing plot
Aug-13,06

KARACHI: Money sent to Pakistan for quake rehabilitation was used to fund the Heathrow bomb attack plot that was foiled by British authorities following inputs from their Pakistani counterparts, if an investigation by a leading Pakistani daily is to be believed.

According to the Daily Times, the Muslim Charity of UK remitted a huge amount of money to three individuals in three different bank accounts in Mirpur, Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in December last year as earthquake relief.

But the money in the three accounts in Saudi Pak Bank, Standard Chartered and Habib Bank Ltd was solely for the purpose of financing the foiled bomb plot, the paper said. According to the report, two of the recipients are British citizens of Kashmir origin while the third is an Islamabad-based builder, also of Kashmir origin.

Officials said all three have been arrested, but it is still not known whether the three had any links to militant organizations such as the Al Qaeda or Lashkar-e-Toiba.

An official said UK National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit authorities asked them to carry out ‘discreet enquiries’ about large sums of money being transferred by charities to accounts in Pakistan.

Source: New Indian Express
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEL20060812034835&Page=H&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=420

Nosocomial Bug's genetic makeup decoded

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 00:05:41 -0400

CLOSTRIDIUM DIFFICILE, Clostridium difficile (C.difficile), a toxin producing, spore forming anaerobic bacillus causes both sporadic and epidemic nosocomial diarrhea. Illness may range from mild watery diarrhea to life-threatening colitis. An antecedent disruption of the normal colonic flora followed by exposure to a toxigenic strain of C. difficile are necessary first steps in the pathogenesis of disease. Diagnosis is based primarily on the detection of C. difficile toxin A or toxin B. First-line treatment is with oral metronidazole therapy. Treatment with oral vancomycin therapy should be reserved for patients who have contraindications or intolerance to metronidazole or who fail to respond to first-line therapy.

Earlier we were accousted with 'Two Studies Report New, Resistant Strain of Clostridium difficile'.

Two studies published in the December 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine report on a new, resistant strain of Clostridium difficile.

"C. difficile is a gram-positive, anaerobic, spore-forming bacillus that can cause pseudomembranous colitis and other C. difficile–associated diseases," write L. Clifford McDonald, MD, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, and colleagues. "Recent reports suggest that the rate and severity of C. difficile–associated disease in the United States are increasing and that the increase may be associated with the emergence of a new strain of C. difficile with increased virulence, resistance, or both."

"A previously uncommon strain of C. difficile with variations in toxin genes has become more resistant to fluoroquinolones and has emerged as a cause of geographically dispersed outbreaks of C. difficile–associated disease," the authors write. "The increasing use of fluoroquinolones in US health care facilities may have provided a selective advantage for this epidemic strain and promoted its widespread emergence.... If this epidemic strain continues to spread and to contribute to increased morbidity and mortality, it will be important either to reconsider the use of fluoroquinolones or to develop other innovative measures for controlling C. difficile–associated disease.

Recently, the genome of this super-bug has been decoded. It is anticipated that this decoding will help us understand the methods by which the bug derives its genetic variation that lends it its capacity to resist antibiotics.

How hospital bug can evade attack

Scientists have decoded the genetic make-up of a bacterium responsible for many hospital-acquired infections - and shown why it is so difficult to tackle.

Clostridium difficile caused more than 44,000 infections in the UK in 2004 - mostly among the elderly.

Researchers found it can chop and change its genetic structure very easily - maximising its ability to neutralise attack by antibiotics.

The Sanger Institute study is published in Nature Genetics.

The Islamic Perfidity

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 13:14:17 -0500

The hypocrisy of Muslims is overwhelming. On one hand, they violently protest against cartoons that dipict Mohammad. On the other hand, they have no qualms in destroying religious structures of other religions since the very birth of Islam.

Pakistan had apparently protested the Taliban's destruction of the priceless Bamiyan Buddhas. But behind the facade, they had actually assisted in destroying for eternity.

The perfidity is unbelievable!

Swiss documentary on Afghanistan: Pakistani, Saudi engineers helped destroy Buddhas

WASHINGTON: The Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan were destroyed by the Taliban with the help of Pakistani and Saudi engineers.

According to an account published here on Saturday, a local Afghan told the makers of a Swiss documentary on the giant statues which had stood there, carved in the side of a mountain for hundreds of years, had been destroyed by engineers from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The dynamiting of the statues took place in March 2001. Swiss documentary filmmaker Christian Frei, who has made several documentaries that have won praise at various international film festivals, shot 'The Giant Buddhas' in Afghanistan. The film is due to be shown at the National Gallery of Art in Washington on 26 March.

The Taliban went ahead with the destruction of the giant statues, revered for centuries, because they considered them "offensive to Islam". They ignored appeals from around the world, including UNESCO and an appeal from the then Government of Pakistan, made, it would appear now, more "for the record" than any serious intent to stop the Islamist zealots from destroying what the rest of the world considered mankind's heritage.

Taliban minister of information Qudratullah Jamal said in a statement later, "The destruction work is not as easy as people would think. You can't knock down the statues by dynamite or shelling as both of them have been carved in a cliff. They are firmly attached to the mountain." Museums and governments around the world kept hoping until the end that the Taliban would desist from committing what the rest of the world saw as an act of "cultural sacrilege" but they were adamant in their resolve.

A delegation from the Organisation of the Islamic Conference went to Kandahar to urge the Taliban leaders to change their mind, but was turned down. The Taliban information minister was quoted at the time as saying, "We would repeat to them as we have to other delegations that we are not going to back away from the edict, and that no statues in Afghanistan will be spared." UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also urged the Taliban not to go ahead but was rebuffed. Koichiro Matsuura, the head UNESCO, said the agency would continue efforts to salvage other Afghan relics targeted for destruction. "It is abominable to witness the cold and calculated destruction of cultural properties which were the heritage of the Afghan people, and, indeed, of the whole of humanity," he said in a statement. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak dispatched the Grand Mufti of Egypt to Afghanistan to plead with the Taliban rulers to spare the statues but his emissary had no success either. Zahi Hawas, the man in charge of the plateau holding the great pyramids outside Cairo, said at the time, "They are making bad publicity about Islam - and Islam has nothing to do with what is happening in Afghanistan."

Xuanzang, a 7th century Chinese monk, pilgrim and chronicler, travelled to Bamiyan and wrote a graphic description of the statues. He even mentioned a giant "sleeping Buddha" in the area, but no trace has been found of that in modern times

This happens to the moderates

Sun, 19 Mar 2006 12:16:12 -0500

Abdel Karim Suliman who was featured here earlier has been expelled from his university for expressing his views on his blog.

And when everybody wonders why aren't we hearing the moderates in the Islamic world speak out!

Abdel Karim Suliman, the Egyptian blogger who was arrested then released for his controversial views, was expelled from his university Al Azhar.

Abdel Karim Nabil Suliman [AKA: Kareem Amer] is a 22 year-old Egyptian student of law at the Azhar University in Egypt (Largest Islamic University in Egypt and the Islamic world), Damanhour Campus, and a women-rights activist. He also maintains his own blog where he posts articles expressing his views on the need for political reform as well as reforming Islam.

On Wednesday March 15th, 2006 Karim wrote on his blog under the “Events of Al Azhar Inquisition” saying:“Yesterday, I went to my college in Damanhour to attend the disciplinary council I was referred to because of my views and articles that I post online, the accusations ranged from defaming Islam to atheism to libel against the grand Imam of Al Azhar and some of the university scholarsKarim adds: (They simply turned criticism into libel and defamation, they considered the criticism of terrorist teachings as a derogatory act against religion), Karim went on to say ”

“ I did not try to deny the writing of these articles that they took as an incriminating evidence, but rather I insisted that they are my personal product despite their warnings that by admitting so, I might face many consequences”

On March 17th, 2006 the semi- official Algomhuria Egyptian newspaper published the following:“Professor Hamdi Shalany, PHD., Dean of the School of Islamic Sharia and Law in Damanhour decided to expel the student Abdel Karim Nabil Suliman for perpetrating acts and writings that defames religion in addition to defamation and libel against the grand Imam of Al Azhar The disciplinary council has submitted a copy of the investigation documents for public prosecution”.

Swami Ramdev comes out unblemished

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 15:31:27 -0500

Vrinda Karat, the Commie Henchwoman had accused Swami Ramdev of using human and animal parts in his ayurvedic preparations.

BBC reports:

A leading Indian yoga guru has been cleared of mixing human bones and animal parts in his medicines.

Uttaranchal state Health Minister Tilak Raj Behad told the BBC Swami Ramdev's medicines contained no objectionable ingredients and were purely herbal.

He said four samples of medicines were sent to Shriram Institute of Industrial Research in Delhi, which is recognised by the Indian government.

Swami Ramdev had described the allegations as a conspiracy.

Bone powder

The institute submitted its report last week after testing the samples.

The state government had set up an enquiry into the charges made against Swami Ramdev by Vrinda Karat, a leader of the Communist Party of India.

The BBC's Shalini Joshi in Dehradun, the Uttaranchal state capital, says Swami Ramdev's popular yoga classes are watched in hundreds of thousands of Indian homes every day.

Ms Karat alleged that ayurvedic medicines from his Haridwar-based pharmacy contained human bone powder and animal parts.

Pipes and Chadha unmask CAIR

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 10:50:33 -0500

Daniel Pipes and Sharon Chadha reveal CAIR's terrorist roots while it masquerads itself successfully as a civil rights group.

CAIR is the same vicious group that protested the visit of Gujrat's Chief Minister, Narendra Modi from visiting the United States.

The Middle East Forum :

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), headquartered in Washington, is perhaps the best-known and most controversial Muslim organization in North America. CAIR presents itself as an advocate for Muslims' civil rights and the spokesman for American Muslims. "We are similar to a Muslim NAACP," says its communications director, Ibrahim Hooper.[1] Its official mission—"to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding"[2]—suggests nothing problematic.

Starting with a single office in 1994, CAIR now claims thirty-one affiliates, including a branch in Canada, with more steadily being added. In addition to its grand national headquarters in Washington, it has impressive offices in other cities; the New York office, for example, is housed in the 19-story Interchurch Center located on Manhattan's Riverside Drive.

But there is another side to CAIR that has alarmed many people in positions to know.

Photochor Khan - The Story of Dr. Khan, the Father of Pakistani Nukes

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 22:53:05 -0500

http://media.putfile.com/Photochor

By Rudradev, a BRF regular!

Wow. A lady psychologist has a Mullah by his beard. What a toss!

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 14:04:11 -0500

Reported first on LFG, courtesy MEMRI.

Arab-American Psychologist Wafa Sultan: There Is No Clash of Civilizations but a Clash between the Mentality of the Middle Ages and That of the 21st Century

Following are excerpts from an interview with Arab-American psychologist Wafa Sultan. The interview was aired on Al-Jazeera TV on February 21, 2006

Wafa Sultan: The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations. It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century.
It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship.
It is a clash between human rights, on the one hand, and the violation of these rights, on other hand. It is a clash between those who treat women like beasts, and those who treat them like human beings. What we see today is not a clash of civilizations. Civilizations do not clash, but compete.

Cherian Dead!

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 13:50:00 -0500

Prof. T. J. Cherian, the grand old man of Indian Cardio-thoracic surgery has apparently committed suicide at his residence. He was 86.

This is truely a shocking news. What drove Cherian to this extreme step at this advanced age isn't known clearly yet. But it does throw focus on the stress that medical professionals are subjected to by the profession as well as the society.

He will be remembered for a long time.

He chose to die by hurling himself from his apartment comes as a mystery too. He could have injected himself... maybe police investigations would not pre-conclude this as a closed case suicide and explore other alternatives too.

His death was reported in the Indian Express today on page 3.

I am sad that his death was not important enough for the media people to merit a front page single line mention.

On the other hand, if a bollywood actress or someone similiar had died, it would be front page matter for sure.

Such is our society which does not tire of navel-gazing!

RiP.

Blood, the Insatiable thirst of Blood

Sat, 18 Feb 2006 07:35:55 -0500

Some fanatic Moslems are carving for human blood and have already started to offer huge prices for it.
The latest is Haji Yakub offering a princely sum of 51 Crore Ruppees for the Head of the Danish Cartoonist. (yes, they think there is just one of them)

Rs 51cr for cartoonist’s head: Haji

Lucknow, Feb. 17: Haji Yakub, a Samajwadi Party minister in Uttar Pradesh for minority welfare and the Haj, has announced a cash reward of Rs 51 crores for the head of the cartoonist who had made the offensive cartoon of Prophet Muhammed.

The insulting cartoons were first published in a Danish newspaper, and then republished in other European newspapers, sparking off Muslim indignation and anger across the world. Haji Yakub added that the person who brought him the head of the cartoonist would be given gold equivalent to his weight.

“The person who has insulted the Prophet does not deserve to live and anyone — irrespective of his nationality — who eliminates the cartoonist will be rewarded with a cash prize of Rs 51 crores and gold equivalent to his weight,” the minister said while addressing a gathering of Muslims who were demonstrating in Meerut on Friday to protest against the offensive cartoons.

Although the minister said he had made the announcement not as a minister, but as an “honest Muslim”, he later said that he had made the statement after consulting the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Mulayam Singh Yadav, aka Mullah Singh is a notorious minority-ass-kisser who leaves no chance to worship the muslim votebank to gain political power. Haji Yakub a minister from Mullah Singh's Samajwadi Party, by issuing this R. 51 Crore Supari/Death rewards for 'the cartoonist's head' (as if only ONE cartoonist drew those cartoons), has brought shame to India as a tolerant society.

If this kind of death call had been issued by, say, the VHP against the obnoxious Husein for painting Goddesses in the nude, it would have brought shrill, vocal and agitative protests from the pseudo-secular camp and the leftists. Yet, when every time fanatic blood thristy Moslems bay for somebody's head, our Indian p-secs and leftists seem to sympathise with them.

The Moslems have this nasty habit of imagining themselves to be victims everywhere and that Islam is in danger from every side and therefore, violences is warranted.

Let us see what the tinted glass, the size of a Cola-Cola bottle bottom, wearing Press has to say about this issue in the days to come....

Oceans and atmosphere have existed from the very start!

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 08:01:04 -0500

Earth may be older than previously thought

URL: http://english.pravda.ru/science/earth/76044-0

Earth took present shape approximately 4.5 billion years ago. Its original appearance has not changed ever since. The planet became suitable for conceiving and developing life forms from the very first minutes of existence. An international team of scientists has recently announced that a number of theories about the continental crust being melted out of water, which covered the earth completely at the early stages, are erroneous.

In short, the story of the discovery stems from a find in the Jack Hills mountain range in Western Australia. The range is considered the oldest on Earth, it is 4.4 billion years old. Scientists found a rare-earth metal hafnium in combination with the crystals of zirconium. A radio-isotopic analysis revealed that the continental crust had formed 4.4 billion to 4.5 billion years ago i.e. right after the birth of the planet. It was previously thought that the continental crust had melted out of the oceanic one.

“Looks like Earth assumed form in the wink of an eye,” says Dr. Steven Moizcis, one of the researchers, at the University of Colorado . “All present-day concepts concerning history of the formation of Earth will have to be revised if the supposition proves correct. Scientists will probably have to thoroughly study the civilizations of Atlanteans and other forefathers. Those civilizations looked totally fictitious in the past. Assuming that a protein life form had existed on Earth several billion years ago, those civilizations no longer look otherworldly,” says Moizcis.

A study conducted by Dr. Moizcis-led team indicates that water came into being on the earth’s surface about 4.3 billion years ago. Contrary to the previous theories, water did not condense from the atmosphere 3.8 billion years ago. According to Dr. Moizcis, oceans and atmosphere have existed from the very start and Earth was fit for living in those prehistoric times.

Pakistani Muslims Call upon Allah to Bless Hitler

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 07:53:56 -0500

Pakistani woman holds a placard in Islamabad on Wednesday 15 February 2006 during a joint rally by Doctors, Lawyers and Engineers, under the umbrella of Pakistan Professional Forum, to protest against those countries that published cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad. Three people, including a 7-year-old boy, were killed Wednesday 15 February 2006 in continuing violent anti-cartoons protests across Pakistan despite appeals by the central government for calm. EPA/T.MUGHAL

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