imra-usa.org

New Synagogue, Berlin,April 2005/Andreas Praefcke)

When shoppers in New York, London or Paris come across kosher food in their neighbourhood supermarkets, it’s just one speciality product among many. When the same thing happens in Berlin, it’s a statement.

Berlin’s Jewish community, decimated by the Holocaust, has been steadily growing since Germany reunited in 1990. Thousands of Jews have moved in, synagogues, schools and shops have opened and some young rabbis have been trained and ordained. But presence isn’t the same as acceptance. In a city weighed down by memories of its Nazi past, even small signs that Jews are a part of normal daily life again take on deeper meaning.

One such sign appeared last month when a local supermarket began selling kosher food. Stocked on shelves and in freezers next to other German and imported goods, the food prepared according to ancient Jewish dietary laws is presented like any other product.

Yehuda Teichtal, a Brooklyn-born Hasidic rabbi who advised the Nah und Gut (“Near and Good”) supermarket on its selections, is thrilled to see this in Berlin. “This was the centre of darkness and evil, where the Nazis planned the extermination of Europe’s Jews, and now you can go into a normal supermarket and there’s a sign that says kosher,” he said.

“The Nazis failed. Where do you find Hitler and Eichmann now — on Wikipedia. Where do you see Jewish life in an open way — on the streets of Berlin!”

Read the full story here.

.

Follow FaithWorld on Twitter at RTRFaithWorld

Subscribe to all posts via RSS

FaithWorld

SRK as G One: Indian movie Superhero

I have just watched Shahrukh Khan’s ambitious movie Ra One. I am not going to say that either it’s a great movie or a bad one. But yes it’s entertaining.

I do regret reading so many reviews before watching the film. I should have gone straight walked to the cinema hall rather than getting influenced by others’ opinionated views that do affect us. As I’d got influenced, I don’t want to do the same.

For the critic in me, it could be a ‘long video game’ or a ‘Bollywood-Hollywood synthesis with a touch of Rajinikanth style stunts, new age techniques and the Indian kitsch’.

For the child in me, it was engaging, interesting—at times scary [yes there is very much a child in me, the one who has read Phantom and Mandrake in Hindi-English Indrajal comics, as much as Tilism Hoshruba in Urdu], and riveting for the last half-an-hour.

For the youngster in me, it was a movie that offered a new story, perhaps the tale not woven well, no great music and lacking the finesse of real great movies. But despite the flaws, it does seem to work by the time it ends. At times, you get a feeling that everything was too surreal and you think that it was a tad too predictable.

The real action is in the last 30 minutes or so. Yes, the train scene is clear imitation of Rajinikant’s Endhiran [Robot] and for that lift-up there is a tribute [it was much needed] to ‘Rajini Sir’ from Shahrukh in the midst of the movie.

Amazing Animation: G One stops the train that has ran into Mumbai VT!

Now, an admission, I have never been a die-hard Shahrukh Khan fan. I belong to the generation that grew up on Amitabh Bachchan.

But lately I have realized that the country is divided in people who either love him or simply hate him.

I belong to neither of the sides. Many friends say that they just don’t like him, his facial expressions irritate them or that his acting puts off.

I think SRK cleverly saw the void–the need for an Indian movie superhero, and being aware that children like him more, he took the plunge. He got the role tailor made for him, putting all the ingredients of a masala movie, and then launched the publicity blitz.

Some other hero may not have carried this kind of sci fiction sort of computer game movie. It needed SRK, who has been with us for the last 20 years and has come to symbolize popular culture, to lift it. To his credit, he manages to pull it off.

Though we have had TV serials like Ramayana and Mahabharat where divine & mythical  characters were seen burning the devil with deadly rays and fighting while flying in air or even the genie tales, but trying it in a mainstream movie in India was always risky.

Chammak Challo enlivens movie. All other songs are forgettable in Ra One

That probably seemed easier with characters like Flash Gordon or Fauladi Singh in the comics or animation heroes in ‘He Man’ series or the ‘Superman-Batman’ movies.

So you can give credit to SRK for his attempt in making the movie and trying to play a superhero.

The story goes like this: The kid wanted his father to make a computer game where the villain is more powerful than the hero. The father obliges but the villain Ra One comes out of the game to kill the father [the programmer--Shahrukh Khan] and then hunts for the player [Lucifer].

Aah, I am again reminded of my childhood. Do you remember the Mandrake series where his half-brother, the often faceless, Lucifer [Cobra or Vishdhar], comes back to settle old scores. Remember the hood without face in some comics!

Did the script writer had memories of that popular comic series in his mind and took the name from there? The two sides of the same coin: one good, the other evil. Sorry I again drifted from the subject and went back from movies to the world of comics.

I have always been bad at video games. Always found tough to graduate to the next level. So the last 20-odd minutes, provided some thrill when G One has to reach a particular level and then overcome his capabilities to fight with Ra One, the powerful monster, and defeat him.

In between there are a few comical scenes, the presence of Satish Shah, SRKs accent as a Tamilian, the animation scenes, the sole popular song Chhammak Chhallo where Kareena might allure you with her curves and cleavage, until the racy end. SRK’s piercings and the airport scene maylook gross but it could be appealing to his gay fans.

G One gets ready for the final battle with Ra One

In the meanwhile, there is some melodrama and tragedy, ‘Funny scenes’, which are perhaps not as funny.

The ‘crotch scenes’ every now and then, that appeared repetitive. Also there was a widowed Kareena Kapoor’s ‘Karva Chauth’ episode with SRK’s robotic lookalike from the game.

Finally G One wins. SRK was long dead but the animated SRK, G One, dies fighting and then resurfaces at the end, a la Hollywood movie style so that there could be a possibility of the sequel in future.

So go and watch the movie with an open mind. There is chance you may genuine like it or might return dazed, feeling as if you are just back from the virtual world. But don’t go by self-appointed critics’ opinionated reviews [what about this one?].

Rediff.com had nearly half-a-dozen articles and pieces on Ra One in the first two days itself. Strangely, contrary to their style [they carry two reviews--one positive and a harsh reviews], almost all of them trashed the movie and even termed it a flop on the first day.

I think I would have enjoyed a bit more had I not read some much about the film. The hype perhaps led to this and it’s a double-edged sword anyway as expectations were raised too much. What do you expect of a movie, after all?

A Crumbling Mumbai Railway Station: That’s the Best Scene in the Film

I don’t think every flick can be a masterpiece that could be rated high on all parameters.

There was visual delight, the ultimate being the crumbling scene of Mumbai CST [earlier VT], a hallmark of computer generated animation.

Box office reports suggest the movie is earning enough of crores to keep him in race for Bollywood’s top slot.

Do we, the cine-watchers, need to think in terms of hit or flop, when the film has just been released! I think I am not disappointed after watching the movie. It was different and it did entertain me. In the end, it was victory to good guy, which most of us like.

Isn’t that enough! What’s your verdict?

Any post on this blog must not be reprinted or republished
on any other website or blog. If, at all, you are publishing
any excerpt or part of the article, please give proper credit
and link.

An Indian Muslim’s Blog: News, Views & Urdu Poetry Website

Photo Credit: Anno 1404 Wiki

I oftentimes am asked questions that can best be answered when I take on the persona of the Grand Vizier.

Today the following query was posed to Ask the Vizier (℠): “Is it true that Muslims are not permitted by their religion to take non-Muslims as friends?”

The inspiration for this question comes from the Quran:

bayynat.org, AL-MAEDA

Sura 5, Verse 51:

“O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.”

Seems straightforward enough. Most people who read this verse think it means that Muslims are not allowed to have non-believers as friends, but is this true?

A Muslim will give two answers to this question:

1. To an infidel he will answer that this verse applies to Muslims during a time of war, that Muslims are warned not to take non-Muslims as allies. But does this make sense? During a time of war shouldn’t one automatically know not to take enemy combatants as allies? In addition, aren’t there situations where other Muslims are also enemies, not just Jews and Christians? Didn’t Iraq and Iran go to war in the 1980s?

   If this verse applied to warning Muslims to be careful who they took as allies, shouldn’t they be warned not to make alliances with any enemy, Muslim or non-Muslim alike?

2. To other Muslims the answer is rather simple: No, Muslims are not permitted to take infidels as friends – here is a Muslim website:

   Islam Question and Answer, Can a Muslim be a sincere friend to a kaafir?

   I have questions about Islam; can you explain them to me? Is it permissible for a Muslim to be a sincere friend to a person who is not Muslim?.

   Praise be to Allaah.

   It is not permissible for a Muslim to make friends with a mushrik or to take him as a close friend, because Islam calls on us to forsake the kaafirs and to disavow them, because they worship someone other than Allaah. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

   “O you who believe! Take not as friends the people who incurred the Wrath of Allaah (i.e. the Jews). Surely, they have despaired of (receiving any good in) the Hereafter, just as the disbelievers have despaired of those (buried) in graves (that they will not be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection)”

   [al-Mumtahanah 60:13]

   This was also the teaching of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).

   1 – It was narrated from Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri (may Allaah be pleased with him) that he heard the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say, “Do not keep company with anyone but a believer and do not let anyone eat your food but one who is pious.” (Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 2395; Abu Dawood, 4832. Abu ‘Eesa al-Tirmidhi said: this hadeeth is hasan. It was also classed as hasan by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Tirmidhi, 2519).

   Abu ‘Eesa al-Khattaabi said: Rather he warned against keeping company with anyone who is not pious and against mixing with them or eating with them, because eating with a person instills friendship and love in the heart.

   He said: do not make friends with anyone who is not pious; do not take him as a companion with whom you eat and chat.

   (Ma’aalim al-Sunan, Haamish Mukhtasar Sunan Abi Dawood, 7/185, 186).

   2 – It was narrated from Samurah that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Do not live among the mushrikeen and do not mix with them, for whoever lives among them or mixes with them is not one of us.” (Narrated by al-Bayhaqi, 9/142; al-Haakim, 2/154. He said, it is saheeh according to the conditions of al-Bukhaari. The hadeeth was also classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in al-Silsilat al-Saheehah, 2/229 with its corroborating reports).

   But it is permissible to deal with them in a kind manner in the hope that they might become Muslim.

There you have it. If you, as a non-Muslim, believe that you have Muslim friends, you are deluding yourself. They are merely dealing with you in a kind manner in the hope that one day you might convert to Islam. You are not their friend and can never be a friend (unless you convert).

It is important to understand that non-Muslims are doomed to hell-fire; why in the world would Muslims be friends with those whom Allah has cursed for their unbelief?

Here is a friendly smiling Muslim:

Some of my readers will recognize the happy face of Times Square car bomber Faisal Shahzad. I have no doubt that a few infidels mistakenly assumed he was their friend.

Planck’s Constant

AL SIEBERT, author of Survivor Personality, said something interesting in his book, and I’ve been thinking about it for awhile now. The book is about what personality traits survivors hold in common. Siebert has studied survivors of POW camps, concentration camps, plane crashes, boats sinking, etc. He’s made this study his life’s work. Here’s the quote, and then I’ll tell you what I’ve been thinking:

“Bob Mitchell, a marine who fought first on Bataan and later on Corregidor, told me that many of the POWs who gave up were unable to cope with the cruelty and hostility directed toward them by the guards. He said that many prisoners tried to influence the guards by feeling upset, expressing pain, pleading, or trying to win them over. When this didn’t work, they had nothing left. Many gave up and died.”

Siebert’s main quest with his research is to discover what survivors do that non-survivors do not do. In the case above, the non-survivors didn’t change their strategy when they could see it wasn’t working.

Now here’s what I was thinking: Most people I know who don’t want to believe Islam is a political and supremacist ideology are good-hearted people. They believe we should all just get along, that killing is a bad thing, and that even hurting someone is bad and it should never be done. They are kind to dogs. They recycle their trash so as not to make things harder for future generations, etc.

I am overgeneralizing here, but I’m not too far off with this characterization. These good-hearted people don’t want to believe there are millions of fundamentalist Muslims in the world who would like nothing better than to cut off their heads. It’s unthinkable. Maybe these fundamentalists just need some clean water and enough to eat. Maybe they’ve been abused in the past. Maybe they just need to be understood.

These are all perfectly good strategies for normal interactions between healthy people within a liberal democracy with a good police force and an overwhelming majority of law-abiding citizens.

When you want to work out your differences with someone, and you have a disagreement or anger between you, it’s a pretty good strategy to talk and try to come to some kind of mutually-acceptable compromise. That’s one kind of strategy and it works very well in a particular context. The problem is, it doesn’t work in every context, nor with every person.

One of the traits Siebert found common among survivors is the ability and willingness to change strategies. Siebert discovered it is one of the most universal traits survivors have that non-survivors do not have: They are flexible enough to see the strategy they’re using isn’t working in a particular situation, and they’re able to come up with something else.

Those who can’t do that in some situations die.

Flexibility means being able to be kind in some circumstances, and cold-blooded in others if it is necessary. It means being able to be cooperative with some people, and more competitive or even hard-nosed with others if it seems necessary.

A lack of flexibility means you’ll run out of options for some situations.

I think that’s what is happening with at least some blind multiculturalists. They don’t realize that the strategies they might normally employ do not work with someone who is hell-bent on murdering us all for no other reason than we’re not Muslims.

That kind of ruthlessness is hard to fathom for most people, I think, and multiculturalists seem even less willing to even entertain the possibility. They think there must be some other explanation. And because they think people can’t really be that way, or that a large group of people or a religion can’t be that way, they don’t understand the why anyone would criticize Muslims.

If you can’t understand the strength and intensity of the ruthlessness arrayed against western democracies, then you can’t understand the need to defend against it.

Those who can fully grasp the ruthless intentions of orthodox Muslims will recognize how profoundly indifferent they are to pleading, expressing pain, feeling upset, or trying to win them over with appeasements.

We need to use some other strategy if we are to survive. My guess is that in a serious situation such as a concentration camp, the people who are now multiculturalists would be the kind of people who would die first. Peaceful, cooperative strategies don’t work against ruthlessness, and those who aren’t flexible enough to change their strategies are less likely to survive.

Even with ample flexibility, ruthlessness is almost impossible to deal with successfully. I squirmed while I watched a Frontline program called Target America. It showed the clumsy, incompetent attempts of one American president after another trying to deal with Islamic terrorism.

I said ruthlessness is almost impossible to deal with successfully, but that’s not really true. Ruthless terrorists would be easy to deal with if you were willing to be equally ruthless yourself. But it is very difficult to deal with within the parameters of humanity and human rights.

The jihadis, of course, are aware of the West’s ethical restraints and so they tailor their strategies for us. Their strategies are carefully designed to put us in double-binds where we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t. And where we make a horrible mistake no matter what we do. Orthodox Muslims constantly do their best to give us Sophie’s choice.

The most obvious response is against our code of ethics, and any other response is inadequate.

You can watch the Frontline program online. It is painful to watch the presidents try (and fail) to deal with the jihadis’ double-binds. The presidents just wanted the problem to go away. They were all seeking a short-term, quick-fix solutions, and refused to see this for what it is: A global, long-term strategy of millions of orthodox Muslims who will do anything to gain a political advantage, with the ultimate aim being something that to most westerners is unthinkable: An Islamic world.

I like Western civilization. I like normal interactions between healthy people within a liberal democracy with a good police force and an overwhelming majority of law-abiding citizens. I like not having to settle differences with my fellow citizens with violence. But I hope the island of civilization within which we live our lives doesn’t blind too many of us to the fact that there are still people in this world who think differently and that different strategies than we’re used to may sometimes be required.

Citizen Warrior

A majority of American Roman Catholics feel strongly about the sacraments and traditional church values such as caring for the poor, but they may not agree with the church teachings on topics such as abortion, same-sex marriage and maintaining a celibate, male clergy, a survey has found.

The “Catholics in America” survey of Roman Catholics published by the National Catholic Reporter found 86 percent said Catholics can disagree with aspects of church teaching and still remain loyal to the church.

“Stated in simplest terms, Catholics in the past 25 years have become more autonomous when making decisions about important moral issues; less reliant on official teaching in reaching those decisions; and less deferential to the authority of the Vatican and individual bishops,” according to the study led by William D’Antonio, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America.

The weeklong survey was conducted online with a representative sample of 1,442 Catholic adults beginning on April 24 (Easter Sunday), and had a 3.5 percentage point margin of error.

“It is noteworthy that helping the poor is almost as core to Catholics’ identity as their belief in Jesus’ resurrection, with 67 percent rating this dimension of Catholicism as very important,” the survey said.

Seventy-three percent said belief in Jesus’ resurrection was very important to them personally.

By contrast, 40 percent said the church’s teachings opposing abortion are very important to them, and even fewer said church teachings opposing same-sex marriage and the death penalty were very important to them.

Large majorities said that a person can be a good Catholic without going to church every Sunday, without obeying the church hierarchy’s teaching on birth control, without their marriage being approved by the church, and without obeying the church hierarchy’s teaching on divorce and remarriage.

The survey found a high level of commitment to the church among 19 percent of Catholics, many of them older, down from 27 percent 25 years ago. Another 66 percent said they were “moderately” committed.

Photo: People attend the funeral mass for Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic at St. Michael’s Catholic Cathedral (STRINGER/Aug 31 2011)
Catholics, the largest U.S. denomination, make up a stable 24 percent of the American population thanks to an influx of Hispanic immigrants.
 
In 1987, when the first such survey was conducted, 86 percent of American Catholics were white and 10 percent Hispanic. Hispanics now make up one-third and their numbers are expected to grow. Blacks, Asians and others make up 5 percent.
 
In 1987, 62 percent of Catholics were married; in 2011 54 percent were married with another 10 percent living with a partner.
 
On the issue of maintaining a male, celibate clergy in light of a priest shortage, 46 percent said it was not important at all, while 21 percent said it was very important. And 62 percent indicated support for women in the role of priests.
 
Many expressed doubts about the credibility of the church hierarchy’s handling of the clergy sexual abuse crisis, and 7 percent said they personally know of someone who was abused by a priest and 12 percent know a priest accused of abuse.

FaithWorld

Photo Credit: rescuenc.com

I have been trying for weeks to get Comcast Internet installed in my soon-to-be new jewelry store in Toms River, New Jersey.

The first time I called I was told that all we needed to do was plug our router into the existing cable connection and they would turn us up.

Well, that did not work so they scheduled a service call for a few days later, We waited all day for the installers to arrive. Near the end of the day we called to complain that no one showed up. However, we were informed that the installers said that they had come by but that no one was at our place. This is the lie they told their bosses so they could goof off for a few hours at some bar while they were collecting their exorbitant pay for work not done.

Now on the second service call a few union men showed up but told us that they could not do the installation because they did not have a boom. Without it, they could not connect us.

We scheduled another installation. On the third visit the installers said the exact same thing: no boom. We scheduled for a new install again.

On the fourth visit (today) we were told by the installer that he was a residential installer and that he couldn’t help us because we were a business. We pleaded with him to connect us anyway because this was the fourth time we drove one hour each way from Bayonne to Toms River to wait just for a cable installation.

He said he couldn’t help us because he didn’t bring a ladder. We told him we had a ladder that we used to get on the roof. But he said our ladder was not a union ladder and that if he fell off a non-union ladder he would not get compensated for any injury sustained.

That was the final straw. We cancelled the service – how can we do business with a company that employs such worthless idiots?

Would you believe, a few days earlier we received our first monthly bill from Comcast for Cable Internet Service even though we never had a successful installation. This is what you get when companies are forced to use union thugs as employees.

I should mention that this technique of making sure the job isn’t done in one visit is employed by every union in America so that three times as many employees are needed to get the job done, read my article Verizon Union – Fraudsters and Extortionists.

By the way, my phonecard company has more than half a million customers using our service every day and we do not employ a single union worker and we never will. I would rather pay an illegal immigrant twice the union wage than hire a union worker who in reality costs three times as much to do the same job. And best of all, I don’t have to buy a union ladder, whatever that is, or employ 9 union morons to set it up.

Planck’s Constant

BREAKING From Atlas Shrugs:

No Mosques At Ground Zero

(Rached Ghannouchi, head of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, speaks at a news conference in Tunis October 19, 2011/Zoubeir Souissi)

Tunisian Islamist leader Rachid Ghannouchi is seen by many secularists as a dangerous radical, but for some conservative clerics who see themselves as the benchmark of orthodox Islam — he is so liberal that they call him an unbeliever. His Ennahda party won Tunisia’s first free elections, 10 months after an uprising brought down ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who had banned the group and imprisoned Ghannouchi before he took up home as an exile in London.

The party said on Tuesday it had won more than 40 percent of seats in Sunday’s election, pledging to continue democracy after the first vote that resulted from the “Arab Spring” revolts sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. “There will be no rupture. There will be continuity because we came to power via democracy, not with tanks,” campaign manager Abdelhamid Jlazzi said.

Ghannouchi’s moderate brand of Islamist thought, which matured during 22 years in exile in London, led in part to him once being deported from Saudi Arabia when he tried to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. He stands out in the Islamist spectrum — which ranges from the political ideologues of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood to puritanical Salafists in Saudi Arabia — for his view that there should be no bar on women or non-Muslims as head of state since citizenship must take priority over Islam.

“Salafis, Wahhabis and even some Brotherhood don’t like the guy, some might even say he’s a ‘kafir’ (apostate),” said an Egyptian friend of Ghannouchi’s from his years in London, who did not want to be named.

Acquaintances describe Ghannouchi as a formerly left-leaning Arab nationalist who like many Arab intellectuals shifted toward political Islam in the 1960s and 1970s during stints of study in Cairo, Damascus and Paris. As with most leaders in the political Islam movement, Ghannouchi is not a cleric by training, though he is a member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars headed by Qatar-based Egyptian cleric Yousef al-Qaradawi.

The clerics of petrodollar power Saudi Arabia view Ennahda as lightweight, said Mohsen al-Awajy, a Saudi Islamic thinker who often debates with Ghannouchi at Muslim Scholars Union meetings. “The conservatives here will resist those outside who are more open and modern. But we shouldn’t look to those who are trying to undermine him,” he said, noting that Saudi authorities once deported Ghannouchi when he arrived to make pilgrimage.

Read the full story here.

.

Follow FaithWorld on Twitter at RTRFaithWorld

Subscribe to all posts via RSS

FaithWorld

Muslims in India are as diverse as India herself. Islam in India – a movie in two parts by Prashun Bhaumik.

Indian Muslims

THIS TUESDAY, October 25th, in Washington, D.C. is a roundtable and press event for the Open Fuel Standard Act. You’re invited. And we urge you to ask your representative to (at least) send one of their staff members to attend. This is an important, informative hour and a half event that none of our leaders should miss. (Contact information for your Members can be found here and here.)

The event has two parts: A one hour roundtable moderated by Anne Korin, and a half hour press event with Representatives John Shimkus and Eliot Engel.

The roundtable will have several guests for the panel discussion, including Robert McFarlane, Brigitte Gabriel, Bob Dinneen, and Greg Dolan. A special guest — NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace — will also be speaking.

Read, download, or print a flyer for the event here: OFS Roundtable and Press Event Flyer. Get these to anyone you know in the D.C. area, including all the Hill Members who will listen to you.

To RSVP the event or find out more, contact Representative Shimkus’ Legislative Director Grant Culp at grant.culp@mail.house.gov.

Citizen Warrior