What is Islam?

Aisha

Now this is a good Article. Shabaash.

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...good one, aisha...esp. liked this line:...``And above all, because my maker is outside Islam as much as she is within.``

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there are good reasons to avoid pig.. but mainly having to do with fat content and such. maybe there is lean pig meat as well.

the halal concept is very much in evidence in south east asia (malaysia and singapore). one interesting side effect has been that south indian vegetarian fast food restaurants (komalas) are very popular with malay muslims. Cos the veggie food is guaranteed halal and obviously has no chance of coming into contact with any kind of meat. Off on a digression: the Komalas concept (outdoing macdonalds with the fast food concept, with far more variety and mostly healthy) if and when it makes it to the US cities should be hugely popular.

the hindus avoid beef for a different reason (i.e. more to do with the sacredness of the cow).. If Islam avoids it because it is unclean then maybe it is time for a rethink.

warpster

eater of cows, pigs, snakes, etc.

Finally a good article from AFS. Its time all of us started criticising the bs of our own religions than feeling ``holier than thou``.

Hindus dont eat beef! It is the most ridiculous, arcane, stupid aspect of our religion. Could some ``pure`` hindu tell me why? My very rudimentary understanding of my own religion tells me ``because cow is like our mother, she gives us milk!``. Fortunately for me, my liberal brahmin parents could`nt answer that question to my satisfaction, so I had the privilege of consuming beef, loads of it, as I was growing up. When my grandma would wrinkle her nose in disgust as I was enjoying beef, I would LOOOVE to tell her ``just pretend that the meat came from a bull, dadima``. Apparently my grandparents had this weird idea of not wanting to eat the meat of Nandi`s brothers & sons.

India is OVERRUN by these wretched, mangy creatures!. You step on their cowpies & they block traffic as if they own the frikking road. One day my poor Amby hit a cow, in the middle of the night. I was more concerned about the bonnet of my Amby (which now looked like a tent) & had a fight with a gathering crowd because they were more concerned about a dead cow.

Worse than that, some stupid Pakistanis actually believe we hindus drink cow urine!

Goddamned hindu mullahs are more concerned about banning ``cow slaughter`` than seeing hindus starve!

Isi baat per hindustan hamesha maar kha jaata hai, yaar.

A fine article indeed! I agree that American-Muslims have totally confined themselves to Pig and Wine. Don`t Eat Pig, and Don`t Drink Wine! Wear clothes which make you look like Talibans in Public places and teach your children to FEAR Allah rather than to love Him. That is all what is on the minds of American-Muslims. Standing on JFK when a PIA flight has landed is quite an experience. You see all these DESIS, some of whom are wearing hitched shalwars and topis, and above all have humongous beards. Now I can understand why Pakistanis were rounded up when they were trying to catch Talibans!
Good Job!
Keep Writing!

Actually, in NY, Judaism is the best thing that happened to pigs.

Islam is the best thing that happened to pigs.

...wow, i didn`t know you could write so many words on any topic without being compelled to somehow drag india in...congratulations...

Actually some of the versions of Islam I`ve seen worldwide are fairly easy and low on the (more publicised) guilt trip angle. Concept of religion as a means to enable societies to let their hair down every now and then comesup. So why then do we consider Islam to be stern, joyless, dark, dank?

The Central Asian Islam used to rock, maybe still does, try to keep up with the footwork of their dances. The festivals in the now Islamic (but previously Hindu, and before that Buddhist - all in 300 years) Brunei are as loud as some of our Hindu ones here, and the most popular Islamic festival is a simple derivative of Diwali. Shambhu and Jhule Lal and Sufi acolytes sway together come full moon nights at the Dargah near my home in South Delhi to some of the raunchiest qawwalis you can hear which simultaneously praise the maker.

Are biryani, kababs, symbols of guilt?

I don`t think Islam is on a guilt trip. The practitioners may be. But then, remember as recently as the `70s, the Church frowned on oral sex as well as Jesus Christ Superstar?

Eat pork or not, or beef for that matter, got to do with mad cow and brain disease. But hey, it is time that Islam came out from behind the perception of being guilt trip. So who is going to carry that first santoor, or veena, or sitar, or guitar, or keyboards . . . and put the verses of the Kuran to modern music?

After all, who can forget the song ``purdeh mein rehene do, purdah naa uthaoh . . . purdah jo uth gaya to . . . etcetc . . . allah meri tobaa allah meri tobaa . . .``. No guilt trip in that bump and grind, sure . . .

SWINE OR SUPINE

Another spineless gutless verbiage from another educated pakistani . Instead of facing the reality of what islam is today, boldly declaring and trying to change some of the practices of islam like jiahd is killing of kafirs, heres is an expat pakistani collecting the secular values she has acquired and trying to palm them of as asal islamic values. Only aspect she exposes is the inborm fatwafobia, the burden of every pakistani that prevents any kind of reform of the pak society.

As the thousand storm out of the pak mdrasas seeking out the kafirs, hindus in temples or christians in mosques, here is an educated pakistani turning a blind eye to the guiding principles of islam to the most of pakistanis, the notion of jihad, the killing of kafirs.

Simply pathetic, a shear waste of the chowk space.

Sorry for using your board. I just wanted to point out that Shaheen Sehbai`s South Asia Tribune is writing about Bilal Musharraf`s Chowk submissions.

http://www.satribune.com/archives/oct7_13_02/opinion_bilalmusharraf.htm

OUCH!! lol. What an article!! Still rolling on floor laughing...

Good one Aisha! Gets u at the jugular and then some... LOLOLOL...

warpster - muslims do not `not consume` pork, because it is unclean...they don`t consume it because Allah forbade it....is there anywhere where it is said `Pork is forbidden because it is unclean, etc etc`` ..no its not...modern science has discovered a health aspect behind this, but this should not be confused with why it isn`t eaten in the first place...

The article confuses choice with process. The Muslim mind tends to filter everything through religion. Its a complex maze starting with the Quran, Hadith, the 4 Imams with culture thrown in for extra credit. Discarding that whole process in favor of personal comfort may make one proclaim one`s religion as a `national religion` but does little to make the individual steps in the process more rational and `user-friendly`.

later
-sac