Dear Mahathir - By HarisIbrahim.

Dear Mahathir 

Malaysian Insider reports  that you had "defended the social contract, the so-called unwritten agreement between the Malays and the non-Malays during independence, by affirming that without the agreement, Malaysia would not have been formed". 

They quoted you : "If there was no social contract, the terms and conditions of allowing citizenship to non-Malays would have not taken place. One million outsiders were given citizenships at the time." 
 
Now,  this quote from you got me curious. Let me tell you why.
 
I conferred with my aunt, who confirmed that my maternal great grandfather, Eliathamby, of whom I've written previously in a posting entitled "The land that my forefathers helped build", would have left Ceylon and arrived in what is now West Malaysia, around 1870. He died well before the conclusion of that social contract that you spoke of, so my great grandfather would not have come within those 'one million outsiders' who acquired citizenship at the time of independence in 1957.
 
My maternal grandfather, Vellupillay T. Williams, never lived to see the formation of Malaya so he, too, did not make up the 'one million outsiders'.
 
Enough of my family tree. Let's look at yours.
 
I got this from a blog, Malaysiana :
 
Perhaps, the most famous Malayalee to land in George Town was Iskandar Kutty, a merchant who married a Johor-Riau wife Siti Hawa Iskandar. They became the proud parents of Alor Star's top public school Sultan Abdul Hamid College's founder-principal and Kedah's royal educator Datuk Mohamad Iskandar.
 
Mohamad was the school teacher of Tunku Abdul Rahman. He and his wife Datin Wan Tempawan Wan Hanafi from the Kedah Bendahara's (Prime Minister's) clan, were the proud parents of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's Father of Modernisation and fourth Prime Minister.
And this from Malaysia Today :
 
Born in December 20, 1925, Dr Mahathir hailed from the state of Kedah, at the capital of Alor Star, whose father was a school teacher. His father was Indian who migrated from Kerala, who married a malay lady and sold banana fritters during the second world war. His early education was through vernacular school and at theSultan Abdul Hamid College in the city.
 
My question, then, Doc, firstly, is whether your father was amongst the 'one million outsiders'?
And when did you become 'Malay', Doc?
 
When did you move from being a son of an Indian who migrated from Kerala to a Malay?
Not that I care, but when?
 
Speaking of Malay, do you remember your "Malay Dilemma", Doc?
Do you remember what you said about the problem of inbreeding amongst the Malay community, and that whole business of genes? Back then, who had heard of this thing called DNA?
 
Who had ever imagined that science would one day make it possible for all of us to trace our genealogy?
Guess what, Doc? It seems, based on all this new DNA scientific knowledge, that there's no such thing as a Malay race.
 
It would seem that you've gone from being a son of an Indian who migrated from Kerala to a 'does not exist'.
 
Just like that! My cyber buddy, Michael Chick, has written extensively on this matter, in a three-parter in Malaysiakini. HERE, HERE, and HERE.
 
See what Michael writes in his final part :  "The people Malaysians call 'Malay', are actually only a tiny sub-component of the much larger Austronesian group. And all Austronesians are the end-product of extensive inter-breeding between the Taiwanese and Dravidic Indians. All this has finally been irrefutably proven by independent DNA testings from world-class faculties".
 
I've never been very good at all these sciences, Doc, but if you're any better, and you think Michael's cocked-up big time in his conclusions, why don't you take him on?
 
Damn, I digress.
So when and how did you become Malay, Doc?
 
Because of the definition of 'Malay' in the Federal Constitution, Doc? Article 160 (2)? That right?
So, right up until the last moments before Tunku'sdeclaration of independence, you were the son of an Indian who migrated from Kerala, and moments later you were magically transformed into a Malay?
And is not the definition of Malay in Article 160(2) stated to be for the limited purpose where the word 'Malay' appears in the Constitution?
 
But really, Doc, I don't give a toss whether you hold yourself out as Malay or the son of an Indian who migrated from Kerala.Whatever turns you on.
 
What pisses me off is this Bumi-non Bumi crap.
November 19th, last year, The Star reported on Najib's balik kampung to Makassar in  South Sulawesi . 
You can read the report HERE. 
Courtesy of The Star, Najib is reported to have said : "I feel like I am returning to my roots," and, when asked to comment on the possibility that some people might view the fact that he had roots here in a negative light, Najib said: "I am not apologetic about it. This is my family history and I am proud of it."
 
According to the report, Najib said he was the direct descendant of Bugis royalty who migrated to Pahang in the 18th century.
 
Well, at least this Malaysian is not ashamed of his roots!
Now, you know that aunt I mentioned earlier?
 
You know her. Aunty Rasammah.
I googled her name yesterday and this is what is written of her in Wikipedia.
"Rasammah Bhupalan, also known as Rasammah Naomi Navarednam or Mrs F.R. Bhupalan is a renowned Malaysian freedom fighter and social activist. Born in 1927, she has championed causes such as the anti-drug abuse movement, women's rights, education and social justice causes. Rasammah was one of the earliest women involved in the fight for Malaysian (thenMalaya ) independence. She joined the Rani of JhansiRegiment, the women's wing of the Indian National Army, to fight the British. She served in Burma duringWorld War II.
 
As founder president of the Women Teacher's Union , she fought for equal pay for women teachers and tried to bring disparate teachers' unions under an umbrella.
 
The former school principal was the first Asian representative of the World Confederation of Organisations of the Teaching Profess ion for two successive terms. She was also very active in the National Council of Women's Organisation (NCWO) and Pemadam.
 
She was a teacher in the Methodist Boys' School,Kuala Lumpur from 1959 to 1964 and was the principal of the Methodist Girls School, Kuala Lumpur for 13 years from 1970 until she retired in 1982. On 11th November 2007, Mrs.Bhupalan was one of the few veteran teachers who were invited to attend MBSSKL's 110th Anniversary Celebration Dinner. The dinner was specially organized to honour all the former and current teachers of the school".
 
Quite frankly, I think the write-up in Wikipedia does little justice to all that Aunty Rasammah has done for this country. But that is another matter.
 
More importantly, Doc, why are you, the son of an Indian who migrated from Kerala, and Najib, the descendant of Bugis who migrated from Sulawesi , Bumiputra, whilst Aunty Rasammah is not?

IT IS WELL KNOWN THAT MAHATHIR IS A RACIST AND A DISCIPLE OF NAZISM. READ HIS BLOG AND YOU WOULD BE REAFFIRMED.
WHILE RETIRED FORMER US PRESIDENT CLINTON IS DOING NOBLE SERVICES AROUND THE GLOBE, MAHATHIR IS BUSY INFUSING IN HIS BLOG WITH WORDS OF ANGER, RACISM (HE IS AN AVID PROPONENT OF "MALAY SUPREMACY" WHICH HE COINED, I BELIEVE) AND NEGATIVE VIBES.

NOTHING IN HIS BLOG CONTAINS WISDOM NOR NOBLE IDEOLOGY THAT WOULD CONTRIBUTE TO HELPING THE POOR; NOR IN HELPING TO FOSTER A STRONGER BOND AMONG THE RACES IN MALAYSIA.

IS HE A GREAT LEADER? YOUR VERDICT IS AS GOOD AS MINE.  

source : internet. 

Maha Bhaaratham 

The Mahabharata tells the story of two sets of paternal first cousins--the five sons of the deceased king Pandu (the five Pandavas and the one hundred sons of blind King Dhritarashtra--who became bitter rivals, and opposed each other in war for possession of the ancestral Bharata kingdom with its capital in the "City of the Elephants," Hastinapura , on the Ganga river in north central India. What is dramatically interesting within this simple opposition is the large number of individual agendas the many characters pursue, and the numerous personal conflicts, ethical puzzles, subplots, and plot twists that give the story a strikingly powerful development.

The five sons of Pandu were actually fathered by five Gods (sex was mortally dangerous for Pandu, because of a curse) and these heroes were assisted throughout the story by various Gods, sages, and brahmins, including the great sage Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa (who later became the author of the epic telling this story), who was also their actual grandfather (he had engendered Pandu and the blind Dhrtarastra upon their nominal father's widows in order to preserve the lineage). 

The one hundred sons of the blind king Dhartarashtra, on the other hand, had a grotesque, demonic birth, and are said more than once in the text to be human incarnations of the demons who are the perpetual enemies of the devotees of the lord. The most dramatic figure of the entire Mahabharata, however, is Sri Krishna who is the supreme personality of Godhead himself, descended to earth in human form to reestablish his devotees as care takers of the earth, and who practice Dharma. Krishna Vasudeva was the cousin of both parties, but he was a friend and advisor to the Pandavas, became the brother-in-law of Arjuna , and served as Arjuna's mentor and charioteer in the great war. Krishna Vasudeva is portrayed several times as eager to see the war occur, and in many ways the Pandavas were his human instruments for fulfilling that end.

The Dhartarashtra party behaved viciously and brutally toward the Pandavas in many ways, from the time of their early childhood. Their malice displayed itselfwhen they took advantage of the eldest Pandava, Yudhishthira (who had by now become the ruler of the world) in a game of dice: The Dhartarashtras 'won' all his brothers, himself, and even the Pandavas' common wife Draupadi They humiliated all the Pandavas and physically abused Draupadi; they drove the Pandava party into the wilderness for twelve years, and the twelve years of exile had to be followed by the Pandavas' living somewhere in society, in disguise, without being discovered.

The Pandavas fulfilled their part of that bargain by living out side the kingdom, but the evil leader and eldest son of Dhartarashtra, Duryodhana , was unwilling to restore the Pandavas to their half of the kingdom when the thirteen years had expired. Both sides then called upon their many allies and two large armies arrayed themselves on 'Kuru's Field' (Kuru was one of the eponymous ancestors of the clan), eleven divisions in the army of Duryodhana against seven divisions for Yudhishthira. 

Much of the action in the Mahabharata is accompanied by discussion and debate among various interested parties, and the most famous dialog of all time, Krishna Vasudeva's ethical lecture and demonstration of his divinity to his devotee and friend Arjuna (the Holy Bhagavad Gita appeared in the Mahabharata just prior to the commencement of the world war. Several of the important ethical and theological themes of the Mahabharata are tied together in this Gita, and this "Song of the Blessed One" has exerted much the same sort of powerful and far-reaching influence in the Vedic Civilization that the New Testament has had in the Christian world. 

The Pandavas won the eighteen day battle, but it was a victory that deeply troubled all except those who were able to understand things on the divine level (chiefly Krishna, Vyasa, and Bhishma the Bharata patriarch who was symbal of the virtues of the era now passing away). The Pandavas' five sons by Draupadi, as well as Bhimasena and Arjuna Pandava's two sons by two other mothers (respectively, the young warriors and Abhimanyu, were all tragic victims in the war. Worse perhaps, the Pandava victory was won by the Pandavas slaying, in succession, four men who were like fathers to them: Bhishma, their teacher Drona , Karna (who was, though none of the Pandavas knew it, the first born, pre-marital, son of their mother), and their maternal uncle Shalya (all four of these men were, in succession, 'supreme commanders' of Duryodhana's army during the war). Equally troubling was the fact that the killing of the first three of these 'respected elders,' and of some other enemy warriors as well, was accomplished only through ' trickery', most of which were suggested by Krishna Vasudeva as absolutely required by the circumstances.

The ethical gaps were not resolved to anyone's satisfaction on the surface of the narrative and the aftermath of the war was dominated by a sense of horror and malaise. Yudhishthira alone was terribly troubled, but his sense of the war's wrongfulness persisted to the end of the text, in spite of the fact that everyone else, from his wife to Krishna Vasudeva, told him the war was right and good; in spite of the fact that the dying patriarch Bhishma lectured him at length on all aspects of the Good Law (the Duties and Responsibilities of Kings, which have rightful violence at their center; the ambiguities of Righteousness in abnormal circumstances; and the absolute perspective of a beatitude that ultimately transcends the oppositions of good versus bad, right versus wrong, pleasant versus unpleasant, etc.); in spite of the fact that he performed a grand Horse Sacrifice as expiation for the putative wrong of the war. These debates and instructions and the account of this Horse Sacrifice are told at some length after the massive and narrative of the battle; they form a deliberate tale of pacification that aims to neutralize the inevitable reactions of the war.

In the years that follow the war Dhritarashtra and his queen Gandhari , and Kunti , the mother of the Pandavas, lived a life of asceticism in a forest retreat and died with yogic calm in a forest fire. Krishna Vasudeva departed from this earth thirty-six years after the war. When they learned of this, the Pandavas believed it time for them to leave this world too and they embarked upon the 'Great Journey,' which involved walking north toward the polar mountain, that is toward the heavenly worlds, until one's body dropped dead. One by one Draupadi and the younger Pandavas died along the way until Yudhishthira was left alone with a dog that had followed him all the way. Yudhishthira made it to the gate of heaven and there refused the order to drive the dog back, at which point the dog was revealed to be an incarnate form of the God Dharma (the God who was Yudhishthira's actual, physical father), who was there to test Yudhishthira's virtue. Once in heaven Yudhishthira faced one final test of his virtue: He saw only the Dhartarashtra Clan in heaven, and he was told that his brothers were in hell. He insisted on joining his brothers in hell, if that were the case! It was then revealed that they were really in heaven, that this illusion had been one final test for him.

End.

Source: Indian Knowledge System

The Deception called Islamic Banking!

Two years ago, in my book Chasing a Mirage, I had explained the unethical and unislamic nature of Sharia Banking. I am sharing this part of the book for all to read and understand the subject without reading it filtered through the rose-coloured prism of the liberal media that seems fascinated by the exotic nature of the claims.

Read and reflect.

Tarek

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Sharia Banking: An expose

Tarek Fatah

Excerpt from "Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State

Family law is not the only place where the introduction of sharia law is being sought in Canada. While Islamists may have suffered a setback in their attempt to introduce sharia law in this country, they have not accepted defeat. In fact, their plan is to introduce “sharia” in any form, wherever it would gain acceptance as a legitimate part of the Western lexicon.

The recent attempt to obtain government validation and funding of sharia-based private Islamic schools in theprovince of Ontario almost sneaked in, but for a public outcry. Sharia-compliant music, sharia-sanctioned soccer, sharia-based health practice (in which physicians refuse to treat patients of the opposite gender)—you name it and the Islamists are trying to push some aspect of sharia into our lives. However, the one area where their efforts are making the most ground is in sharia banking, where they have the help of some extremely powerful allies.

On one hand Islamists have made common cause with such figures of the left as London Mayor Ken Livingstone and maverick British MP George Galloway, denouncing capitalism as the source of all ill. However, a closer examination suggests Islamists are also lining up with such icons of global capitalism as Citibank NA, HSBC Holdings PLC, and Barclays PLC, which have all endorsed sharia banking and started offering Islamic financing products to a vulnerable Muslim population.

While sharia-style family law was essentially promoted by imams and the mosque establishment, sharia-based banking is being promoted by well-heeled Muslim bankers and investment lawyers, who are driven not by teachings of the Prophet but the lure of profits.

The Globe and Mail reported in May 2007: “Several Canadian financial institutions are preparing sharia-compliant mortgages, insurance, taxi licensing and investment funds to help serve the country’s fastest-growing part of the population.” Promoting it of course is a prominent Muslim corporate lawyer with close ties to Canada’s Conservative Party, Walied Soliman. A lawyer at Ogilvy Renault LLP, Soliman told The Globe, “I expect it [sharia banking] to grow exponentially in Canada in the next couple of years.”

He confessed that the promotion of sharia banking has become a priority practice area for his firm.

This push from Muslim banking executives working inside the corporate world has had some success. Most big Canadian institutions are treading carefully, and not all are jumping on board. The Globe reported that while the Royal Bank of Canada quietly tested a sharia finance product a few years ago and didn’t find enough market interest, other Canadian banks, smelling easy pickings, are lining up to wear the Islamic mantle. Scotiabank and Toronto- Dominion Bank have been quietly considering whether to start offering sharia-compliant products as part of the big banks’ strategy to reach out to a growing “immigrant population.” I doubt very much if Hindu, Sikh, and Chinese “immigrant” Canadians are excited at the prospect of halal banks.

The promoters of sharia banking are Islamists, and their target is to control the Muslim population and segregate them from the rest of the world, one bank account at a time. With every mortgage signed, the family has to take ownership of sharia and disown the rest of society as the impure moneylenders.

While Scotiabank and TD officials were rubbing shoulders with two hundred delegates at a Toronto Islamic Finance World conference in Toronto in summer 2007, Canada’s Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), which regulates financial institutions, said their staff was being pushed to brush up on the fine points of sharia law to cope with the anticipated expansion of Islamic financial services in Canada.

Normand Bergevin, managing director at OSFI’s approvals and precedents division, told The Globe that several people on his staff were learning about business plans, legal structures, accounting methods, types of governance and other issues related to Islamic finance. He told the newspaper: “It’s fairly new to us.

There’s not a whole lot of experience here in terms of supervising or even understanding the different types of products. They all have little twists on them that make them very unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.” Guess who is going to fill the knowledge gap and find jobs in high places of Canada’s financial watchdog?

While Canada’s banks salivate at this supposed untapped niche market, one Muslim-owned financial institution with strong marketing and social links to most Islamist events in Canada has been doing a brisk business.

Omar Kalair, the chief executive officer of UM Financial, has said demand for his group’s sharia-compliant products has been so great that UM has stopped all marketing and has a five-thousand-person waiting list of people who want to switch over from conventional mortgages to ones that are sharia-compliant. Kalair however admitted that from among the 200,000 Muslim households in Canada, his target is the capture of 2.5 percent of this market, and that too with the help of one of the big five banks.

Origins of Sharia Banking

Islamic banking traces its roots to the 1920s, but did not start until the late 1970s, and owes much of its foundation to the Islamist doctrine of two people: Abul Ala Maudoodi of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan and Hassan al-Banna of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. While these two pillars of the Pan-Islamist movement propagated jihad and war against the West, they also recognized the role international financial institutions could play in carrying out their political objectives.

Since 1928, when it was created, the Muslim Brotherhood has placed a high emphasis on the creation of a so-called Islamic economic system. Banna and his successor Syed Qutb even laid down principles of Islamic finance. Millard Burr and Robert Collins in their bookAlms for Jihad claim that the Muslim Brotherhood watched, waited, and learned the management of money that was essential to finance a worldwide organization devoted to spreading their Islamist ideology.

But the theory was only put into practice once the US-backed Pakistani military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq overthrew the government of Z.A. Bhutto and established sharia law in Pakistan, forcing the country’s public-sector banks to run their operations based on Islamic principles and without the role of interest.

The proponents of Sharia banking rest their case on many verses of the Holy Quran, which in their interpretation outlaw any business or personal financial transaction involving interest. There is no unanimity among the Muslims who, in voting with their feet and chequebooks, have overwhelmingly rejected banks that operate in a supposedly interest-free environment. Most Muslims can see through the fog of deception, but we are a billion strong worldwide, and even if a small minority falls prey to the Islamist

propaganda, there is lots of money to be made.

Quranic verses that address the question of the role and the question of loans and debts include:

• Al Baqarah (2:275): “God hath permitted trade and forbidden usury.

Those who after receiving direction from their Lord, desist, shall be

pardoned for the past; their case is for God [to judge]; but those who

repeat [the offence] are companions of the Fire: They will abide

therein [forever].”

• Al Baqarah (2:276): “Allah does not bless usury, and He causes

charitable deeds to prosper, and Allah does not love any ungrateful

sinner.”

• Al Baqarah (2:278): “O you who believe! Be careful of (your duty to)

Allah and relinquish what remains [due] from usury, if you are

believers.”

• Al Baqarah (2:280): “If the debtor is in a difficulty, grant him

time Till it is easy for him to repay. But if ye remit it by way of

charity, that is best for you if ye only knew.”

• Al Nisa (4:161): “And their taking usury though indeed they were

forbidden it and their devouring the property of people falsely, and

We have prepared for the unbelievers from among them a painful

chastisement.”

• Ar Rum (30–39): “And whatever you lay out as usury, so that it may

increase in the property of men, it shall not increase with Allah; and

whatever you give in charity, desiring Allahs pleasure—it is these

[persons] that shall get manifold.”

From these Quranic verses it is abundantly clear that the Quran is addressing the rich money lenders to show compassion towards the borrower and give him or her more time to pay back the loan. In fact the Quran suggests to the lender that it would be far better if the money lender forgave the loan altogether.

To suggest that the onus of complying with sharia rests on the weaker borrower is obscene and against the spirit of equity in Islam. I say this because what the imams and self-styled scholars of sharia banking are proposing makes it easy for the wealthy to be pious simply by not having to do anything, while the poor who need to borrow are told to stay away from banks that lend.

Once more we see an example of Islam attempting to bring justice to the poor while Islamists make it difficult for the poor to access funds they don’t have. Today, owners of Islamic banks are billionaires—the practitioners of sharia banking are among the richest men in the world,* while the vast majority of Muslims still struggle to eke out a living beyond one dollar a day. Sharia banking fattens the bottom lines of the imams, the bank owners, and the lawyers who pull out their best to Islamicize anything that sustains their handsome hourly rate.

Every translation of the Quran into the English language has rendered the Arabic word riba as “usury,” not “interest,” yet Islamists have deliberately portrayed bank interest, the cost of borrowing money, as usury. For Islamists, there should be a cost to renting a car and renting a DVD, but when renting money for a period of time, there should be no cost of this capital. Instead, Islamists have created exotic products with names that are foreign to much of the world’s Muslim population

This is where interest can be masked under the niqaab of Mudraba, Musharaka, Murabaha, and Ijara.†

Whereas interest is the charge for the privilege of borrowing money, typically expressed as an annual percentage rate, usury is the practice of lending money and charging the borrower interest, especially at an exorbitant or illegally high rate.

Two senior Muslim banking experts-turned-authors have written scathing critiques of sharia banking: Muhammad Saleem has labelled the practice as nothing more than deception, while Timur Kuran has suggested that the entire exercise was “a convenient pretext for advancing broad Islamic objectives and for lining the pockets of religious officials.”

Why Canadian banks would contribute to this masquerade is a question for ordinary Canadians to ask.

Muhammad Saleem is former president and CEO of Park Avenue Bank in New York. Before that he was a senior banker with Bankers Trust, where among other responsibilities he headed the Middle East division and

served as adviser to a prominent Islamic bank based in Bahrain.

In his book Islamic Banking: A $300 Billion Deception, Saleem not only dismisses the founding premise of Sharia and Islamic Banking, but says: “Islamic banks do not practise what they preach: they all charge interest, but disguised in Islamic garb. Thus they engage in deceptive and dishonest banking practices.”

He writes:

“Proponents of Islamic banking say that Islam bans all interest. But an understanding of pre-Islamic and Islamic history and keeping in mind the context would lead one to conclude that what the Quran bans is usury, not interest. Usury can be defined as interest above the legal or socially acceptable rate. Phrased differently, usury is the exploitative, exorbitant interest rate.”

Islam’s essence is its quest for equality and social justice. Muhammad Saleem says that any banking or economic system that purports to be “Islamic”—including the current crop of Islamic banks—should answer two questions: By supposedly staying away from interest and sharing risks with their clients, were they able to help make the economic system more just, fair and equitable, and honest?

While Saleem goes to great lengths in exposing the intellectual  dishonesty surrounding the marketing of sharia-compliant banking, Professor Timur Kuran, who taught Islamic Thought at the University of Southern California, mocks the very idea.

 In his brilliant book Islam and Mammon: The Economic Predicaments of Islamism, Kuran writes:“There is no distinctly Islamic way to build a ship, or defend a territory, or cure an epidemic, or forecast the weather.” He says the effort to introduce sharia banking “has promoted the spread of anti-modern currents of thought all across the Islamic world. It has also fostered an environment conducive to Islamist militancy.”

Secondly, were these banks able to promote economic development in the Muslim world? In the words of Saleem: “Sadly, the answer is a resounding no. There is absolutely no evidence that the Islamic banks have made any contribution in either of these two areas.”

The fact is that China and India, two countries that have had some measure of success in alleviating poverty and enhancing development, have outpaced all the Muslim countries put together despite their enormous natural resources and strategic locations. Sharia banking may not have alleviated poverty or generated economic development, but it has been a boon to the mullah class on one hand and, on the other, to the yuppie Muslim bankers and investment lawyers who have created a niche for themselves at the expense of the larger Muslim masses.

Saleem, who saw the functioning of Islamic banking from the inside, writes:

“In promoting the establishment of Islamic banking, the Sharia scholars have played a critical role. Lacking any knowledge of banking, economics and for many even Islamic history, in interpreting riba, they have confused interest with usury. . . . Secondly, as Sharia advisers to Islamic banks, they have blessed many transactions as Islamic—meaning non-interest bearing—when in fact they are clearly charging interest, but interest payments are masked.”

Dozens of Islamic scholars and imams now serve on sharia boards of the banking industry. If Canada’s TD Bank, BMO, and RBC join the league, it will be interesting to see how the ultra-left Trotskyite allies of the Islamists view their partners hobnobbing with the bankers atop Toronto’s TD Tower.

Moreover, a new industry of Islamic banking conferences and forums has emerged, permitting hundreds of sharia scholars to mix and mingle with bankers and economists at financial centres around the globe. In the words of Saleem, who attended many such meetings, they gather “to hear each other praise each other for all the innovations they are making.” 

The Toronto conference promoting sharia banking and Islamic investments was part of this worldwide touring circuit that allows banks to keep the sharia scholars pampered and well looked after. There are at least five international conferences every year and these have been going on annually for the past twenty-five years. Saleem estimates that the cost of each conference exceeds $2 million and so far more than $200 million has been spent just keeping the sharia banking circuit alive.

He cites one example of how sharia scholars only care for the money they get from banks, and are willing to rubber-stamp any deal where interest is masked. Saleem describes one such incident as “comical”:

"I have first hand seen comical cases where the sharia scholar of an Islamic bank only spoke Arabic, but a lending officer only spoke English and Urdu. A particular financing transaction was structured in English with such terms as x% over LIBOR.** So we had an interpreter who would translate from English to Arabic, explaining this convoluted transaction to the Sharia advisor. It was at times painful and other times comical to watch the proposal being presented to this religious scholar for his blessings to ensure that it was consistent with the principles of sharia. The “sharia scholar,” elderly and partly deaf, had little experience in modern banking and finance. However, mindful of the fact that the bank was paying him a generous retainer, he gave his blessing to the deal, after being fully made aware that the bank wanted to do this deal, even though from the look on his face it was obvious that he could not tell the difference between a trade deal and a leveraged buyout transaction.

In the name of Islam, what amounts to deception and dishonesty are being practised while ordinary Muslims are being made to feel that their interaction with mainstream banks is un-Islamic and sinful. As the Muslim banker asked: “Through various devices—mostly cosmetic—[Islamic] banks end up with virtually no risk. If Islamic banks label their hamburger, a Mecca Burger, as long as it still has the same ingredients as a McDonald’s burger, is it really any different in substance?”

Muhammad Saleem laments the fact that few people are exposing the deception of this exercise in the name of Islam. “We should be able to point out the failures and shortcomings of Islamic banking and economics without being accused of being anti-Islamic,” he says. Perhaps Scotiabank, the RBC, BMO, and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions will pay heed to this former banker’s words of caution.

The sharia-banking charade is a sad indictment of the Muslim community. Islamic banking is not some resurrection from a golden period—it is a 20th- century creation that flies in the face of reason, logic, and the spirit of Islam, yet is being thrust on us for no fault of ours.

-------

* “The reason [why they are so wealthy] was a two-page report on the wealth of 15 ruling dynasties, seven of which are Arab,” Refaat

Jaafar, managing editor of Dubai- based Forbes Arabia, told Reuters. In October 2007, Forbes Magazine reported on the wealth of 15 ruling dynasties, seven of which are Muslim. Saudi Arabia banned the issue after it ranked Saudi King Abdullah third, behind the rulers of Brunei and the United Arab Emirates.

† Arabic names given to various banking products.

** LIBOR is the London Interbank Offered Rate, much like the US Federal

Bank rate or the Bank of Canada rate.

source : mukto-monadotcom

10 reasons to celebrate Diwali

The origin of Diwali dates back to periods, when there was little or no writings and knowledge used to be transferred through generations, purely by listening, memorizing, and then speaking it out to someone else. Thus the process continued.

The origin of Diwali lies in different and varied legends and mythologies of the Hindu scriptures, mostly the Puranas. However, all of them have a single commonality, they all depict the triumph of the good over the evil.

You can read below for some of the most accepted views of the origin of Diwali or compare with all the views of origin and history of Diwali is given.

The sparkling "festival of lights" Diwali, is celebrated all over the world with great piety and enthusiasm. But do you know the reason behind the jubilations? You'll probably be amazed to learn that there

are not one, but several reasons why we hold Diwali celebrations every
year.

Go over ten mythical and historical reasons why Diwali (Deepavali) is
celebrated annually.

1) Goddess Lakshmi’s Birthday:
On this very Diwali day, the Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi is said to have been incarnated from the depth of the bottomless ocean. The Hindu scriptures tell us that both Devas (gods) and Asuras (demons) were mortal (Mrita) at one point of time. Seeking a deathless condition (Amarattva), they churned the ocean to seek
Amrita, the nectar of immortality (an event mentioned in the Hindu scriptures as "Samudra-manthan"), during which a host of divine celestial objects came up. Prime among these was Goddess Lakshmi, the
daughter of the king of the milky ocean, who arose on the new moon day (amaavasyaa) of the Kartik month. She was subsequently married to Lord Vishnu on the same darkest night of the year and brilliant lamps were
illuminated and placed in rows to mark this holy occassion.

Hence the association of Diwali with Goddess Lakshmi and the tradition of lighting of lamps and candles during the festival. To this day, Hindus celebrate the birth of the goddess Lakshmi and her marriage to
Lord Vishnu on Diwali and seek her blessings for the coming year.

2) The Legend of King Mahabali :
The Bhagavata Purana (also known as Srimad Bhagavatam), the most sacred Hindu text, reveals how on a
Diwali day Lord Vishnu, in his fifth incarnation as Vaman-avtaara, rescued Lakshmi from the prison of King Bali during the Treta Yug. Bali, or rather King Mahabali, was a powerful demon king who ruled the
earth. Powered by a boon granted to him by Lord Brahma, Bali was invincible and even gods failed to defeat him in battles. Although a wise and perfect king otherwise, Mahabali was violent in his ways with
the Devas (gods). On their insistence, Lord Vishnu disguised himself as a short Brahmin and approached Bali for some charity. The righteous and benevolent King couldn't refuse the Brahmin's offer and was
tricked into giving up his kingship and wealth (of which Lakshmi is said to be the Goddess). Diwali marks this overcoming of Mahabali by Lord Vishnu and this is another reason why Goddess Lakshmi is
worshipped on Diwali. In Kerala, the festival of 'Onam' is celebrated around the month of
August to mark this legend.

3) The Killing of Narakasura:
The Bhagavata Purana tells us about Narakasura, an evil demon king who had managed to acquire awesome powers. Unrivalled in prowess, he conquered both the heavens and earth and was tyrannical in his reign. Addicted to power, he even stole the earrings of Aditi, the heavenly mother goddess, and usurped some of her territory. When Lord Vishnu was incarnated as Krishna in the Dwapara Yuga, he killed Narakasura on the day preceding Diwali and rescued 16,000 women whom the demon had imprisoned in his palace. The deliverance from the terrible Narakasura was celebrated with much grandeur, a tradition that continues to this day. However, another version of the story credits Lord Krishna's wife Sathyabhama as the one who eliminated Narakasura. It is said that Narakasura could only be killed by his mother Bhudevi and as Satyabhama was an incarnation of the same Bhudevi, she only could kill him. Before death, however, Narakasura realized his mistake and requested a boon from Satyabhama that everyone should celebrate his
death with colorful light. To commemorate his death, the event is celebrated in some parts of India as Naraka Chaturdasi, two days before Diwali day.  

4) The Return of the Pandavas:
The great Hindu epic ‘Mahabharata’ reveals that it was ‘Kartik Amavashya’ (the new moon day of the Kartik month) when the Pandavas appeared from their 12 years of banishment as a result of their defeat in the hands of the Kauravas at the game of dice (gambling). The five Pandava brothers, their mother and their
wife Draupadi were honest, kind, gentle and caring in their ways and were loved by all their subjects. To celebrate the joyous occassion of their return to Hastinapura and to welcome back the Pandavas, the
common people illuminated their state by lighting bright earthen lamps everywhere. And the tradition is maintained to this day.

5) The Victory of Rama:
The great Hindu epic ‘Ramayana’ describes how Lord Ram (the incarnation of Lord Vishnu in the Treta Yug) conquered Lanka after vanquishing the evil King Ravana and after passing a period of of fourteen years in exile returned to his capital Ayodhya on a new moon day of Kartik with wife Sita and brother Lakshman. To celebrate the homecoming of their beloved king, the people of Ayodhya burst crackers, lit up their houses with earthen lamps (diyas), and decorated the entire city in the grandest manner. Year after year this
homecoming of Lord Rama is commemorated on Diwali with lights, fireworks, bursting of crackers and merriment. The festival gets its name Deepawali, or Diwali, from the rows (avali) of lamps (deepa) that
the people of Ayodhya lit to welcome their King.   

6) Coronation of Vikramaditya:
It is also said that Vikramaditya, the legendary Indian king famed for his wisdom, valour and magnanimity was coroneted on the Diwali day following his victory over the Sakas in 56 BC. This was marked by a grand celebration which is still maintained annually. One of the greatest Hindu monarchs, Vikramaditya ruled the greatest empire in the world from modern-day Thailand in the east to the borders of modern-day Saudi Arabia in the west. Diwali, thus, apart from being a religious festival also has a historical
association.

7) The Enlightenment of Swami Dayananda Saraswati:
Diwali also marks the auspicious occasion when on a new moon day of Kartik (Diwali day)
Swami Dayananda Saraswati, one of the greatest reformers of Hinduism attained his nirvana (enlightenment) and became Maharshi Dayananda, meaning the great sage Dayananda. In 1875, Maharshi Dayananda founded the Arya Samaj, "Society of Nobles", a Hindu reform movement to purify Hinduism of the many evils it became associated with at that era. Every Diwali, this great reformer is remembered by Hindus all over India.

8) The Enlightenment of Vardhamana Mahavira:
For Jains, Diwali commemorates the enlightenment of Vardhamana Mahavira(the
twenty-fourth and last Tirthankaras of the Jains and the founder of modern Jainism) which is said to have occurred on Oct. 15, 527 B.C. This is one more reason to engage in Diwali celebrations for pious
Jains and other than the purpose of commemoration, the festival stands for the celebration of the emanicipation of human spirit from earthly desires.

9) Special Day for the Sikhs:
For Sikhs, Diwali holds a special significance for it was on a Diwali day that the third Sikh Guru Amar
Das institutionalized the festival of lights as an occasion when all Sikhs would gather to receive the Gurus blessings. It was also on a Diwali day in 1619 that their sixth religious leader, Guru Hargobind
Ji, who was held by the Mughal Emperor Jahengir in the Gwalior fort, was freed from imprisonment along with 52 Hindu Kings (political prisoners) whom he had arranged to be released as well. And it was
also on the same auspicious occasion of Diwali when the foundation stone of the Golden Temple at Amritsar was laid in 1577.

10. Goddess Kali:
Kali, also called Shyama Kali, is the first of the 10 avatars (incarnations) of Goddess Durga, Lord Shiva's consort. According to legend, long ago after the gods lost in a battle with the demons, Goddess Kali was born as Kal Bhoi Nashini from the forehead of Goddess Durga. Said to be a personification of Nari Shakti (female power), Kali was born to save heaven and earth from the growing cruelty of the demons. After killing all the devils, Kali lost her control and started killing anyone who came her way which stopped only
when Lord Shiva intervened. The well-known picture of Ma Kali, with her tongue hanging out, actually depicts the moment when she steps on the Lord and repents.

That momentous day has been commemorated ever since and the main purpose of celebrating Kali Puja is to seek the help of the goddess in destroying evil both external and internal to us as also to get her
blessings for general happiness, health, wealth, and peace.


To conclude, there are several reasons behind Diwali celebrations and almost every region of India has its own reason to observe the occasion. All of these however, matters little to the festival itself. Whatever the cause behind its celebration, Diwali is undoubtedly a national festival of India, and the aesthetic aspect of the festival is enjoyed by most Indians regardless of faith.

Happy Deepavali to everyone!

source: theholidaysport

Pancreatic Cancer: Risk Factors 

Early symptoms vague

The sad news of the death of Steve Jobs has brought pancreatic cancer into the headlines. 

The Apple co-founder underwent surgery in 2004 for an islet cell neuroendocrine tumour, a rare and less aggressive type of pancreatic cancer. 

This - and excellent medical care - is probably why he lived so long with the disease. 

Each year, more than 7,500 people in the UK are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and around 6,500 die of it. 

Of the most common cancers, it has the worst survival rate. 

Just three per cent of patients live for five years or more after being diagnosed with the disease, a figure which has remained static over the last 40 years. 

UK pancreatic cancer survival figures also lag behind other European countries, as well as the US, Canada and Australia, according to a recent report by charity Pancreatic Cancer UK. 

In countries such as Canada and Australia, reported survival rates are double those of the UK. 

Part of the reason is that the disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose in the early stages.

Some of the most common early symptoms - stomach pain, nausea, jaundice, weight loss, fever - can be caused by several other conditions. 

However, the Study for Survival report, based on the experiences of nearly 1,000 patients, found that more than 50 per cent of pancreatic cancer patients experience symptoms up to a year before being diagnosed, with nearly a third of all patients making five or more visits to the doctor. 

By the time they are diagnosed, the disease is often in its advanced stages, which can limit treatment options. Risk factors Age Pancreatic cancer is more common in older people. 

Eight out of ten people who develop the disease are aged over 60. 

Smoking Smoking increases your risk of a number of lethal diseases, including pancreatic cancer. 

Up to one in five pancreatic cancers may be linked to smoking cigarettes, cigars or chewing tobacco. 

Blood group People with the blood groups A, A/B or B are more likely to develop the disease than people with blood group O. 

Medical conditions Diabetes may be linked to an increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer. 

Chronic pancreatitis has been shown to raise the risk of developing the disease. 

Hereditary around one in ten cases of pancreatic cancer are thought to be caused by inherited genes which predispose them to developing the disease. 

People who are already at risk of a number of familial cancer syndromes linked to faulty genes are at a greater risk of pancreatic cancer. 

These include breast cancer associated with the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, familial atypical mole melanoma, hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer, familial adenomatous polyposis, and Peutz-Jeghers syndrome. 

Prevention A healthy lifestyle can help to reduce your risk of cancer, including pancreatic cancer. 

Limit saturated fat and sugar, eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables each day, try to maintain a healthy weight and keep physically active. 

There is some evidence to suggest that lycopene (found in tomatoes) and vitamin C may help protect against pancreatic cancer.