The Quran or the hadiths are not to be recommended, since anyone reading it, is seriously in danger of losing one’s mental balance :). Witness the goings on in NWFP, Afghanistan for instance. The below link is also interesting
http://in.rediff.com/news/2008/jan/17shave.htm

Nice to meet someone who has read the Quran! Me too..Quran, parts of the Hadith, several biographies of Muhammad, excerpts from ex-Muslims Anwar Shaikh, Ibn Warraq, and love Ali Sina’s site (faithfreedom.org)…

Everyone should do some islamic reading..people, *at least* go to the faithfreedom.org site..it will open your eyes so wide that it will be hard to close them ever again!

Guys,
I am not a religious person but have become extremely interested in comparing religions of this world. Not because I am an Indian or Hindu by birth I find Hinduism
to be taller than other religions but its exhortation of the pursuit of truth all your life (one of the basis of Hinduism) attracts me. Everything is symbolic and
not literal. Everything conveys a profound meaning and thereby establishes truth. Take a look at the following observations

1. Holy Trinity : Brahma(Creator), Vishu(Sustainer) and Shiva(Destroyer). This is true of anything in this universe. Anything will have to be created, sustained and destroyed. Nothing can escape this phenomenon.

2.Planets exist and orbit around Sun and there is no mention of Earth being the centre-of-the-universe-and-also-flat nonsense unlike like the semitic religions. Old Testament, New Testament and Quran hold a view that Earth is the centre of the Universe and it is flat. Remember what happened to Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo in
particular. And that alone shows they do not represent truth. In fact Hinduism talks about 7 Oceans,7 continents, 7 days in a week, 7 musical notes,7 seasons, 7 phases of life, 7 heavenly bodies(Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were excluded as they were not visible to the naked eye 3000 years ago. Of course Pluto is officially not a planet) etc.

3. The universe and hence Earth are 6000 years old according to Christians and their Bible. 23 October 4004 BC(there are conflicting dates but all point to 6000
years ago)is supposed to be the day( at 9 AM in the morning ) God began with Genesis. This is also not representative of truth because these books never mention dinosaurs(for obvious reasons) and they are definitely not 6000 years old. Hinduism never puts any date but only says that everything is a cycle conforming to creation, sustenance and destruction. However it says that whole universe was created 5 billion years ago and that tallys with Big Bang Theory.

4. Adam and Eve were supposed to be the first human beings created by God according to all three semitic religions. Now that again is not representative of truth. If incest and adultery are sins, according to these religions, then Adam and Eve give birth to Cain and Abel and human race should have stopped there!!!!. It didn’t and how? The only woman was Eve and mother of two boys. I do not want to dwell on how procreation took place thereafter. How can God do something like this?

5. As I mentioned earlier everything is symbolic in Hinduism. Swastika represents all the eight directions. Likewise 108 respresents another profound aspect. 108 is
an important number and is no of times people chant Gayathri mantra or provide offerings to God. It represents the mean distance between the heavenly bodies. The mean distance between the Earth and the Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Sun while the mean distance between the Earth and the Moon is 108 times the diameter of the Moon.The message is: just as heavenly bodies are in harmony with each other human beings should also endeavor to be in harmony with each other. One of the most civilized things that emerged out of this harmony is vegetarianism.

6. Can you name any culture or religion in the world that worships work(by-product of which is money) and education? Would any of us trample or step on a book or
money? I see many westeners and middle eastern guys do that. We wouldn’t. Why? Because we value these things like God because without which you are nothing in this
world and can do nothing worthy in this world: in one word Karma. This aspect will defy time and space. This is true 4000 years ago and will be true 4000 years
hence.

7. Matha Pitha Guru Devo. First is Mother who gives us life, next is Father who provides for us, Guru who enlightens us and makes us worthy and then comes God. Isn’t that a wonderful truth in human society. Would you ever worship and respect a parent is doesn’t do his/her duty?

8.Now let me come to the contentious aspect of Hinduism( I oppose castesism tooth and nail). And we all know it is based on the work we do. But there is a bigger
truth behind it. Hinduism doesn’t endorse caste by birth even though many would cite Manu Smriti. Manu is not representative of Hinduism and Hinduism doesn’t ordain
castesism. But how can a religion that talks of truth perpetuate anything so badly discriminatory. Think about this: take any modern, advanced, developed country
like UK for instance.

A. There are people who apply their brains and pursue reasearch, advancement of new technology, teaching etc. They are responsible for the forward movement of any
human society. In effect they continually learn and apply. Foundation of this education is mostly while we are brahmacharis. Brahmachariam is essential to focus on
education and that is why mostly we finish our education before we get into matrimonial relationships. This is how traditional gurukul used to work.

B. People who bear arms to enforce law and order or defend the country’s borders

C. People who run the economy for providing jobs for masses and ensuring the circulation of money. They have a passion for trade, commerce and industry.

D. There are people who do not fit into any of the above owing to the fact that they do not pursue education, do not have the courage to bear arms and do not possess
the drive to earn money. There are about 15% of UK’s population that lives on benefits and other doles from government. They neither possess the relevant skils nor
are willing to acquire them.

A human society will be composed of these four groups of people and this is a truth. This will defy time and space. Any competing thoughts about this fact are

welcome.

Hence there is no hard and fast rules on how Hindus should see/feel God. That is why you have many forms of Gods. They are all symbolic and eventually represent the

Holy Trinity. As always there are facts and those require revision(like the nine planets although Rahu and Kethu might have meant Uranus and Neptune. I do not know)
with new ideas but fundamental truth remains the same.

First was the 1989 fatwa from Ayatollah Khomeini that sanctioned the killing of Salman Rushdie, the British author of The Satanic Verses, a controversial book on the origins of the Quran.

Then came the “unclothed sex” fatwa that annuls the marriage of a couple who take off all their clothes when having sex,

while the third banned the Japanese Pokemon games because they encourage gambling, which is forbidden in Islam.

In fourth place was the fatwa issued by some Pakistani chieftains that polio vaccines are a Western conspiracy to spread infertility amongst Muslims.

In another poll conducted by IslamOnline.com, the breastfeeding fatwa edged out the fatwa on flogging journalists issued by Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam Sheikh Sayed Tantawi and the sacredness of the prophet’s urine by Egypt’s Mufti Sheikh Ali Gomaa.

Gomaa’s statement that the prophet’s apostles used to seek blessing by drinking his urine was no less provocative. Gomaa actually cited an incident when a woman drank the urine and the prophet told her “this stomach of yours will never see hell.”

In May, Dr. Ezzat Atiya, head of Hadith (Prophetic Tradition) Department at Al-Azhar University, told AlArabiya.net that women should breastfeed their male co-workers so they can be alone in a closed office space.

“Breastfeeding an adult man five times makes it legal for the woman to sit alone with that man at a closed workplace. This way, the woman can take off her veil in front of her work-mate without being in violation of Islamic rulings,” Atiya said.

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/01/03/43722.html

Read Arun Shourie’s book on Fatwas. Forgot the title, but you can google it. There’s stuff in there which are direct quotes from the mullavi’s book. Stuff like, can one eat mutton if someone had got “cute” with the lamb without contraceptives? And so on.

No comments. It is profound.