Archive for December, 2005

Indian Festivals: Diwali

< ![CDATA[This is perhaps the most well-known of the Indian festivals: it is celebrated throughout India, as well as in Indian communities throughout the diaspora. It usually takes place eighteen days after Dusshera. It is colloquially known as the “festival of lights”, for the common practice is to light small oil lamps (called diyas) and [...]

Ex-Chinese Minister jailed for graft

< ![CDATA[International
Ex-Chinese Minister jailed for graft
BEIJING: A former Cabinet Minister was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison in China’s highest-level corruption case since a deputy chairman of Parliament was executed in 2001. A Beijing court convicted Tian Fengshan, the former Minister of Land and Resources, of taking 4.4 million [...]]]>

Italians “dumping grandparents”

< ![CDATA[Barbara McMahon— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
The number of Italian grandparents living alone because their families do not want them is increasing.
ITALY’S IMAGE as a family-centred society has taken a knock with the revelation that thousands of grandparents spent a lonely Christmas in hospital because their families did not want them at [...]]]>

Shock, awe and Hobbes have backfired on neocons

< ![CDATA[Richard Drayton— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
THE TRAGIC irony of the 21st century is that just as faith in technology collapsed on the world’s stock markets in 2000, it came to power in the White House and the Pentagon. For, the Project for a New American Century’s ambition of “full-spectrum dominance” — in which [...]

Islamic Banks in the West

< ![CDATA[Islamic Banks in the West
By Owen Matthews
You are a pious Muslim with a few million in oil dollars to invest. So would the perfect Islamic bank for you be Citigroup, perhaps, HSBC?
Actually, yes. Giant Western banks,or rather, their Islamic subsidiaries—are leading the market for financing that complies with Qur’anic laws forbidding lending money for […]

The Hajj and Islam

< ![CDATA[Hajj-The Basis for Human Unity
Commentary by Sayyid Qutb, Translated by Adil Salahi
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Pilgrimage to the House is a duty owed to Allah by all people who are able to make the journey. As for those who disbelieve, Allah is in no need of anyone in all the [...]

11 Indian MPs expelled for cash-for-questions scam

< ![CDATA[11 Indian MPs expelled for cash-for-questions scam
K.V. Prasad
BJP, BJD stage walk out in Lok Sabha; punishment disproportionate to offence, says L.K. Advani
WITNESSING HISTORY: The expulsion of 11 MPs on Friday for taking bribes to raise questions highlights the need to restore public trust in elected representatives. These visitors were privileged to witness an act [...]

The influence of Muslim literature in US

< ![CDATA[Islamic verses
The influence of Muslim literature in the United States has grown stronger since the Sept. 11 attacks
Jonathan Curiel, Chronicle Staff Writer
America’s best-selling poet is not Billy Collins, whose folksy, humorous work won him two terms as U.S. poet laureate. It’s not Robert Frost, the four-time Pulitzer Prize winner whose reading at John F. [...]

Most U.S. buildings echo Islamic Design

< ![CDATA[Most U.S. cities have buildings with echoes of Islamic design
Jonathan Curiel, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, November 28, 2004
In 1961, a year before designing the World Trade Center towers, American architect Minoru Yamasaki completed a much smaller project that would influence the look of his new creation in New York City.
The project was 6,000 miles away, [...]

Introduction to Islamic art

< ![CDATA[by Zarah Hussain
Meaning and beauty in Islamic art
The mirror of Islam
Art is the mirror of a culture and its world view.
The art of the Islamic world reflects its cultural values, and reveals the way Muslims view the spiritual realm and the universe.
For the Muslim, reality begins with and centers on Allah.
There are, however, strong [...]

America’s first Muslim stamp

< ![CDATA[
America’s first Muslim stamp
The United States Postal Service has acknowledged the contribution Muslims make to their country by issuing a commemorative stamp.
The Eid stamp commemorates the two most important festivals—or eids—in the Islamic calendar: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
On these days, Muslims wish each other “Eid mubarak,” the phrase featured in Islamic calligraphy on [...]