Butterfly Effect

So, a newspaper publishes cartoons in Denmark and people die in Nigeria. Some people really have too much pent-up rage and too little outlet to channel it, don’t they! I have got to wonder if by now non-Muslims are not chilled by this apparent “pan-Islamic” solidarity then when will they wake up. It is also really funny to go to see “secularists” who will denounce Hindutva-vadis and Fundamentalist right-winger Christians in a hearbeat falling all over themselves to justify this behavior. If nothing, it exposes the hypocrisies of the “multiculturalists” who really believe fundmanetalism truimphs.

update: Here are some interesting thoughts on religion via Althouse -

Mr. Dennett, anticipating the outrage his comparison will make, suggests that this how religion works. People will sacrifice their interests, their health, their reason, their family, all in service to an idea “that has lodged in their brains.” That idea, he argues, is like a virus or a worm, and it inspires bizarre forms of behavior in order to propagate itself. Islam, he points out, means “submission,” and submission is what religious believers practice. In Mr. Dennett’s view, they do so despite all evidence, and in thrall to biological and social forces they barely comprehend.

When you think about it, I don’t see much difference between religion and socialism. Both concepts require the individual to submit to a group-think as absolutely as possible. There is no room to maneuver or question the authority. I wonder is that is the reason why religion and socialism are anathema to each other - they are both essentially competing for the same resource - gullible individuals who somehow believe that the only way they can make themselves better is by submitting to the will of others.

Tea Review - Coconut Pouchong

Just got my packet of 4 teas from Golden Moon Tea yesterday. I had been real anxious about it, since I ordered a few new flavors this time that I was really eager to try. The 4 teas I got were White Licorice (I had tried this before and loved it), Coconut Pouchong, Snow Sprout and Orchid Temple Oolong.

The Coconut Pouchong intrigued me because I am a big fan of young coconut milk. I love the delicate flavor that is so refreshing and takes me back to carefree summers in India. This tea promises to be a delicate blend of green tea with the nectar of young coconut, so I didn’t have to think twice before adding it to my shopping cart. Just opening the tin and whiffing the aroma of coconut was enough to put me in a heady trance. It is definitely not very subtle to smell, though the brewed tea translated into a very nicely subdued coconut flavor. It was not in the least as overpowering as the initial scent of the leaves had been and I highly recommend this tea as a blend of all the health benefits green tea has to offer with the awesome taste of young coconut that only adds and does not overwhelm the taste of the green tea.

The price is $15 for the tin of loose-leaf tea. Considering the fact that the tea can be rebrewed upto 3 times and you only require very little tea at a time to make a satisfying cup, I consider the price extremely reasonable.

Caution: Remember not to over-brew the tea. That will only release the bitterness of green tea and intensify the coconut flavor. Kills the deal, really.

Hitchens Fan Club

Sign me up for one - Cartoon Debate - The case for mocking religion. By Christopher Hitchens

Therefore there is a strong case for saying that the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, and those who have reprinted its efforts out of solidarity, are affirming the right to criticize not merely Islam but religion in general. And the Bush administration has no business at all expressing an opinion on that. If it is to say anything, it is constitutionally obliged to uphold the right and no more. You can be sure that the relevant European newspapers have also printed their share of cartoons making fun of nuns and popes and messianic Israeli settlers, and taunting child-raping priests. There was a time when this would not have been possible. But those taboos have been broken.

Which is what taboos are for. Islam makes very large claims for itself. In its art, there is a prejudice against representing the human form at all. The prohibition on picturing the prophet-who was only another male mammal-is apparently absolute. So is the prohibition on pork or alcohol or, in some Muslim societies, music or dancing. Very well then, let a good Muslim abstain rigorously from all these. But if he claims the right to make me abstain as well, he offers the clearest possible warning and proof of an aggressive intent. This current uneasy coexistence is only an interlude, he seems to say. For the moment, all I can do is claim to possess absolute truth and demand absolute immunity from criticism. But in the future, you will do what I say and you will do it on pain of death.

I refuse to be spoken to in that tone of voice, which as it happens I chance to find “offensive.”

I agree with all of the above - word-to-word!

Muslims and inclusion

Here is an interesting link I found via Desipundit - Shobak: Outsider Asians - I don’t know who wrote this and I am still in the process of reading through this paper that claims to investigate the depiction on Muslims in India via three blockbuster movie - Sarfarosh, Mission Kashmir and Fiza. For those who don’t realize it, one of the movies was directed by a Christian, one by a Muslim and the other by a Hindu. The main character in Sarfarosh is a Hindu played by a Muslim, in Fiza the main characters are two Muslims played by Hindus and in Mission Kashmir, they are a Muslim played by the son of a Hindu and Muslim and a Muslim played by a Hindu. Quite interesting when you put it that way isn’t it - the entire intermingling of cultures, relegions…

Anyways, here was a passage that stood out me as I was reading it -

As the police take their position against Amaan, he begs his sister to shoot him, saying, “I died a long time ago on the streets of Mumbai. Let me die with honor.” And Fiza pulls the trigger. In this complex and heart rending climax, Fiza stands for the assimilated Muslim and Amaan for that trajectory beyond the pale of normality. In their dialogue honor can be taken ironically to mean both living by the duties of the proper minority citizen and dying with the cry of those who will never be allowed into the nation.

Can you tell what is askew in the picture? What the heck is an “assimilated” Muslim in India? How can someone who can trace their origin in the country centuries back (I am talking about most Indian Muslims here) be anything but native? What kind of a mindset looks at them as some kind of other that needs to assimilate into the nation instead of implicitly being of the nation?

And then there is this doozy - “Similarly, in Mission Kashmir the drama centers on the possibility of Muslims being included in the nation.” Well, we want to include them in our nation and along with the Hindus and Budhhists who also call the region home. Kashmir is not all about Muslims, y’know!

Ok, I am done - I am not going to read any further - inspite of stuff like “In Mission Kashmir, Altaaf is that element of infection that challenges the fantasies of immunity that animate contemporary discourses of Indian nationalism.” (yeah, really! Indians feel very immune..from what?), I was willing to give this article a chance. I was willing to read with an open mind and try to understand the author’s perspective and where he was coming from - this made me stop - “(constellated around such bogeys as “jihadi terrorism,” the internal Muslim “threat,” cross-border infiltration, and global and Asian balance of power, etc.),” So, according to this guy, “Jihadi Terrorism” is just a made up thing - why don’t we tell that to the school teachers beheaded in Thailand, the clubbers blasted apart in Bali and numerous such instances where the only link seems to have been the belief in fanaticism. Before putting the internal Muslim “threat” in scare quotes, I invite the author to examine the speeches given by Islam’s luminaries in public places such as Delhi’s Jama Masjid against India. Of course, cross-border terrorism just never, ever happens in India - no one obviously crosses over to kill migrant Hindu workers in Kashmir - it is all just a bogey, you children!

It really bothers me when people still talk of accepting Muslims in India as if they were immigrants - people forget the shared history - the shared trauma - the not-so-distant past whose painful memories still have not completely faded from the Indian psyche. Why is it that there are only Hindu nationalists and not Muslim nationalists? Don’t Muslims feel proud of their India? Why is every single article aimed at pointing fingers at someone or the other while conveniently forgetting there is another side to every story? I am absolutely tired of this. In my opinion, not every Muslim in India is guilty until proven innocent the same way not every Hindu-oriented program considered somehow discriminating against Muslims.

The author also very conveniently glosses over the fact that each of the movies mentioned also feature nefarious Indian Hindu characters as well as virtuous Muslim characters. There is an incredible amout of effort dedicated to striking a balance between religious reality and religious frenzy in the movie that is sadly lacking in the author’s papers. It is almost like he had a set of ideologies and was trying to work backwards to prove them from movies, no less. Think about it - think about to my first paragraph that outlined the main characters and the actors and directors of the movies and it will be clear how the author could not have been any more wrong.