Color-Blind Love Re: # 90
as i said its only my personal observation there are some white professional women who are married to pakistani men, but they are few in numbers.

Color-Blind Love I wonder what’s the figure for inter-religious marriages between hindus and muslims in India. Recently I read there are 100’s of jewish women in isreal married to arab men. In the UK some ethnic groups have a high marriage rates to white, but Pakistanis are lagging behind due to religious-cultural reasons. According to last census there are around 200k mixed south asian/white.

Color-Blind Love There is one downside to the inter-racial marriage and that is DESIS could be bred out eventually. The other thing I’ve observed is western girls who marry desis men are mostly from the bottom strata of society, very few are from middle class or professional background. Looking at it from the positive side inter-racial marriages would promote racial harmony and there would be less racial tension in the future.

Socialist Yuppies 3: The Jihadi i see someone is taking the mickey of bradford again, but reality is bradford is one of the most beautiful cities in UK and one of the top tourist destination.

Zardari Rev 2 Re: # 37
Bulleya
Let us hope your optimism is well founded, it’s too early to arrive at any conclusions.
I personally feel there are good people at the junior level in all the parties but, unfortunately they haven’t been allowed to come through, one reason is that there is no internal democracy in the parties, the other is that democracy hasn’t been allowed to run its course in Pakistan by the army. If Pakistan can achieve Turkish style democracy in a decade that would be something maybe EU should take note and help.

Zardari Rev 2 Back to democrazy Pakistani style

All the opportunist politicians have gathered under the leadership of granddaddy of all the thieves zardari , without any consideration for principles or ideology they have jumped on the gravy train, personally I can’t see it lasting long this grand coalition, because zardari will demand the lion’s share of anything and everything.

My Top Ten Novels by Desi Writers it's true many desi writers have won prizes but very few have made it to the best sellers list. khalid husseini is probaly an exception.

American Muslims and Presidential Elections 2008 Why don’t they vote for islam zinda bad party, breed like rabbits and live happily ever after

Daily Express: Father of 11 quits his £27,000-a-year job to make more on benefits
By Chris Riches
A TEACHER has given up work to stay at home with his wife and 11 children because he is better off living on benefits.
His new life of leisure also gives Mohammed Salim more time to devote to his Islamic political party - which is campaigning against the Government.
Amazingly, a large part of his income is now Jobseeker's Allowance - even though Salim admits he quit his £27,000-a-year post teaching maths and science only because he was fed up with the travel and pay.
In all, he receives £29,096 a year in handouts doing nothing - except for biting the hand that feeds him and planning to father a 12th child for taxpayers to support.
Salim, 50, said at his fivebedroom home in Rochdale, where he lives with his wife Noreen, 35, and ever-growing brood: "I'd be up at 5.30am with the kids then have to go to work.
Stressed "I'd be sat in traffic for hours and I felt like I'd done a day's work by the time I got there, I was so stressed.
"It's nice to be at home with the kids and for Noreen to have a hand."
The family receive £19,000-ay ear Jobseeker's Allowance - even though Salim is not looking for one - £6,600 child benefit, £2,496 in free school meals and £1,000 council tax relief.
They own a mini-bus to ferry them all around, have two TVs and a computer, plus a garden full of brightly-coloured toys.
Noreen has never worked since marrying Mohammed, who is her cousin, when she was 16.
The couple admit that they do not use contraception.
Salim explained: "It says in the Bible and the Koran to go forth and multiply, and that's what we'll do. I see my children as a gift from God." In fact, his only worry is how he will send them to university.
He said: "I think it's important for them to enjoy themselves.
It's a shame, because when I went it was free."
Salim moved to Britain from Pakistan in 1966, when he was just eight. Now he runs his own political party, Islam Zinda Baad Platform - or Long Live Islam.
He said: "I set it up to protest about the war in Iraq and the NHS. Muslims believe we should look after each other and wealth should be shared.
"That is what is great about Britain. In Pakistan the government does not look after you."
The TaxPayers' Alliance said: "It's utterly wrong to choose to quit a productive job and freeload off the taxpayer. The system is obviously fundamentally flawed.
"This man's decision is deplorable but the welfare state should never put the temptation in front of him."

What is Hinduism? A Personal View Like most religions Hinduism hobbles ambition and progress. I believe at one time it really degenerated into rituals and stigmas until reformers came along, it is much easier to reform than islam. The big challenge now is the political hindus, separate Hinduism from nationalism.

Pakistan\'s Universities - Problems and Solutions Hamid

Muhammad’s maths might be weak, but I think his heart was in the right place, to advocate some inheritence for girls 1500 years ago must have been a revolution.

Some muslims and certain cultures to this day do not give even a penny to girls.

Pakistan\'s Universities - Problems and Solutions There are numerous problems facing Pakistan, education is just one of them.

UK universities are full of academics from India, east Europe, and even iran, Pakistan.

The question arises why doesn’t UK train its own, instead of poaching from others.

Al-Andalusia … Decline of a Plural Culture The moral of the story is that in order for muslim societies to prosper they need to be plural otherwise, they tend to degenerate just as hindus once did, modern success stories such as Malaysia, dubai are due to them being plural even though non-muslims, foreigners are treated as second class citizens. I think dubai is trying to be a modern day al-andulas with its architecture, promotion of arts, building of universities, they are building a $11billion canal for just aesthetic reasons and dozens of artificial islands.

Al-Andalusia … Decline of a Plural Culture Re: # 107
According to historians most resettled in morocco, their culture survived for some centuries but, they couldn’t recreate the glory and the majesty of Moorish Spain but, ofcourse spain went on to become the superpower of its days with the discovery of Americas because of the knowledge it had learned from the moors.

Al-Andalusia … Decline of a Plural Culture The last sigh of the moor
At length the weeping train reached the summit of an eminence about two leagues distant which commanded the last view of Granada. Here they paused for a look of farewell at the beautiful and beloved city, whose towers and minarets gleamed brightly before them in the sunshine. While they still gazed a peal of artillery, faint with distance, told them that the city was taken possession of and [148] was lost to the Moorish kings forever. Boabdil could no longer contain himself.
"Allah achbar! God is great!" he murmured, tears accompanying his words of resignation.
His mother, a woman of intrepid soul, was indignant at this display of weakness.
"You do well," she cried, "to weep like a woman for what you failed to defend like a man."
Others strove to console the king, but his tears were not to be restrained.
"Allah achbar!" he exclaimed again; "when did misfortunes ever equal mine?"
The hill where this took place afterwards became known as Feg Allah Achbar; but the point of view where Boabdil obtained the last prospect of Granada is called by the Spaniards "El ultimo suspiro del Moro," or "The last sigh of the Moor."
As Boabdil thus took his last look at beautiful Granada, it behooves us to take a final backward glance at Arabian Spain, from whose history we have drawn so much of interest and romance. In this hospitable realm civilization dwelt when few traces of it existed elsewhere. Here luxury reigned while barbarism prevailed widely in Europe. We are told that in Cordova a man might walk ten miles by the light of the public lamps, while centuries afterwards there was not a single public lamp in London streets. Its avenues were solidly paved, while centuries afterwards the people of Paris, on rainy days, stepped from their door-sills into mud ankle-deep. The dwellings were marked by beauty and luxury, while the people of Europe, as a rule [149] in that semi-barbaric period, dwelt in miserable huts, dressed in leather, and lived on the rudest and least nutritive food.
The rulers of France, England, and Germany lived in rude buildings without chimneys or windows, with a hole in the roof for the smoke to escape, at a time when the royal halls of Arabian Spain were visions of grace and beauty. The residences of the Arabs had marble balconies overhanging orange-gardens; their floors and walls were frequently of rich and graceful mosaic; fountains gushed in their courts, quicksilver often taking the place of water, and falling in a glistening spray. In summer cool air was drawn into the apartments through ventilating towers; in winter warm and perfumed air was discharged through hidden passages. From the ceilings, corniced with fretted gold, great chandeliers hung. Here were clusters of frail marble columns, which, in the boudoirs of the sultanas, gave way to verd-antique incrusted with lapis lazuli. The furniture was of sandal- or citron-wood, richly inlaid with gold, silver, or precious minerals. Tapestry hid the walls, Persian carpets covered the floors, pillows and couches of elegant forms were spread about the rooms. Great care was given to bathing and personal cleanliness at a time when such a thought had not dawned upon Christian Europe. Their pleasure-gardens were of unequalled beauty, and were rich with flowers and fruits. In short, in this brief space it is impossible to give more than a bare outline of the marvellous luxury which surrounded this people, recently come from the deserts [150] of Arabia, at a time when most of the remainder of Europe was plunged into the rudest barbarism.
Much might be said of their libraries, their universities, their scholars and scientists, and the magnificence of their architecture, of which abundant examples still remain in the cities of Spain, the Alhambra of Granada, the palace which Boabdil so reluctantly left, being almost without an equal for lightness, grace, and architectural beauty in the cities of the world. Well might the dethroned monarch look back with bitter regret upon this rarest monument of the Arabian civilization and give vent, in farewell to its far-seen towers, to "The last sigh of the Moor."

Al-Andalusia … Decline of a Plural Culture Pluralism is back with a vengeance in Europe, because it needs migrant labour, due to declining birth rate. Germany is offering $30k reward to mothers who give birth to a child. Pak-panjabis are migrating in their thousands, legally and illegally that has the potential to transform panjab. There will be some tensions, because Europe is the birth place of modern nation state, one people, one language, one religion and one culture, the right wing groups would like to keep it that way.

This Pyre Will Burn…! I am afraid the lot of sind’s peasantry may not improve for a long time to come, they are 50 years behind Punjab, unfortunately they have no tradition of emigration abroad. A lot of the improvement we see in Punjab are the result of remittances from overseas. They only hope is if there is a massive industralisation as in china, then there would be plenty of jobs and prosperity, waderas would lose their power also.

I myself have known three sindhis, two doctors and a businessman all three were hindus.