Barackface: Muslim

Showing posts with label Muslim. Show all posts

Monday, January 19, 2015

The Psychological Underpinnings Of The Caste System

Caste AS (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hinduism is 10,000 years old. But the caste system is only 1,000 years old. Why did Hinduism after existing for 9,000 years suddenly feel the need for a caste system?

When Modi became Prime Minister he said India after a gap of 1,000 years had thrown the yoke and is now ruling itself. Well, I guess that is plus minus 50 years. Because India became independent over half a century ago. But what is plus minus 50 years when you are talking in terms of thousands of years.

When a Hindu India got invaded by Muslim rulers the religion developed this strangest thing called the caste system. Hindus broke themselves up into all sorts of castes and sub-castes. The unity was broken. I call it self hate. The colonization was internalized. And the caste system was born.

That is to say now creating a casteless Hinduism is essential to Hindu freedom. Hindus are not free unless the caste system is completely dismantled. This requires coming up with casteless last names. This requires Hindus marrying Hindus regardless of caste background. I think the RSS people have work cutout for them.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Ghar Wapasi Nahin, Full Blown Conversion

Symbol of Hinduism, white and golden version. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Hindu fanatics in India who are disturbing Modi's development focus by the whole ghar wapasi thing --- they should muster their strengths and do the real thing. They should organize global campaigns, go to all continents, create a major online presence, and go everywhere on the planet to teach people who are eager and willing to learn more about Hinduism and possibly convert and become Hindu. The RSS should create a missionary wing, and do this. Go outside India, go outside South Asia.

Religious freedom is a fundamental human right, like free speech. Stop second guessing Hindus who converted to other religions. Try converting people from other religions into Hinduism. I feel like there are not enough Hindus on the planet. And it is a great religion. Spread the word out.

I have a question. What caste will you place those new converts into? Or will you create a new casteless kind of Hinduism? It is about time.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Saif Ali Khan On So-Called "Love Jihad"

Saif Ali Khan: Intermarriage is not jihad, it is India

I know intermarriages because I am a child of one and my children are born out of it. Intermarriage is not jihad. Intermarriage is India. India is a mix. Ambedkar said the only way to annihilate caste is intermarriage. It is only through intermarriage that the real Indians of tomorrow can be truly equipped to take our nation forward with the right perspective. I am the product of such a mixed marriage and my life has been full of Eid and Holi and Diwali. We were taught to do adaab and namaste with equal reverence. ..... My children were born Muslim but they live like Hindus (with a pooja ghar at home), and if they wanted to be Buddhist, they would have my blessing. ...... We are a blend, this great country of ours. It is our differences that make us who we are. We need to get beyond mere tolerance. We need to accept and respect and love each other. ..... There are different laws for Hindus and different laws for Muslims. This is bound to create trouble. ..... I think we should have one law for all Indians, a uniform civil code, and we should all think of ourselves as one nation. ...... I stopped believing in the Tooth Fairy first, then Santa Claus, and finally, I really don’t know what I feel about a personal god. But I believe in love and in trying to be good and helping the world. I don’t always succeed and then I feel bad. My conscience is my god, I think, and it tells me that that one tree in Pataudi near which my father is buried is closer to god than any temple, church or mosque.

Monday, October 06, 2014

War On Terrorism And Drones And Android Phones And India

Description: A Ku Klux Klan meeting in Gainesville, Florida, Dec. 31, 1922. Source: http://www.displaysforschools.com/history.html. Portion: Reduced from original size so it is no longer suitable for reproduction. Purpose: To illustrate the article Ku Klux Klan. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In geometry you define a point, you define a line as the shortest distance between two points, and so on to complex theorems. I take a similar approach to the War On Terrorism. As soon as 9/11 happened I equated it to Pearl Harbor. The Cold War ended, and this was a beginning to something new of the same magnitude.

Some of the postulates.

9/11 was Pearl Harbor to a new Cold War like era. It was the beginning of a new Front.
Freedom rings in every human heart. Democracy is thus not an American export. But the external conditions in any given country can be hostile to democracy, to freedom. America being the oldest democracy carries the historic weight on its shoulders. America has no bigger goal in the world than a total spread of democracy. That is why it was born. That is also in the best interests of the country.
India being the world's largest democracy and by now the third largest economy after China and America is America's natural ally. India is the new Britain. There are almost as many Muslims in India as in Pakistan. Only Indonesia has more Muslims. The Muslims in India have lived under a democratic republic for close to 70 years now. That is a long, ongoing experiment. But it is also a criticism of democracy that Muslims in India, like African Americans in America lag behind in every socio-economic indicator.
The War On Terrorism concludes when all Muslim countries have become full fledged, functioning democracies with regular free and fair elections, multiple political parties, minority rights, individual rights, and the major institutions of democracy.
In some countries democracy will arrive by conquest. That is almost always a bad idea.
In most countries democracy will arrive because people rose up and came out into the streets.
Can all this happen on its own? Or does America have a role? America has a huge role. America can be that catalyst that makes it happen much faster than it otherwise will.
Iraq was not a functioning democracy when the ISIS rose up. It has become an electoral Shiacracy in the aftermath of Saddam, which was a Sunni dominated dictatorship.
America toppled Saddam fast. But it did a poor job of nurturing democracy in the country. America did not get the bang for the buck, after over a trillion dollars spent, over 100,000 Iraqi lives lost, over 5,000 American lives lost.
Special forces are better than traditional combat forces, because they employ similar tactics to the terrorists. But special forces can not be the primary weapon.
The primary weapon in this war is the cheap Android phone that gets internet access beamed from the sky.
Google and Facebook both have working prototypes on which they plan on spending a billion dollars each. They are going to get a ton of drones up in the sky, above airplanes but below satellites.
The most important thing the American government can do is spend more than 100 billion dollars to rapidly scale out this Google/Facebook effort to blanket the entire planet with internet access from the sky. And flood the target countries with cheap Android phones, and cheap solar battery chargers. Dictator after dictator will topple. Terrorist groups that number in the thousands will look like insignificant minorities like the Michigan militia or the Ku Klux Klan in the Pacific Ocean of two billion Muslims.
But right now the US government is putting zero effort into this. Why? Because the military-industrial complex has a grip on the US government, directly as well as through the command they exert over public opinion. If the War On Terrorism only has military solutions, then that industry keeps making its hundreds of billions. And off we go.
The current debate on net neutrality in DC should tell you how naive and hopeless the tech industry is in DC. This net neutrality debate should not even be happening. But is happening. The tech industry should admit to its utter failure in DC. They need to go head on and compete with the military-industrial complex in DC. Because there is a War On Terrorism that needs to be taken to its logical conclusion. The fewer lives that are lost in the process, better it will be. Muslim lives are as valuable as Christian lives, believe it or not.
Drones from the sky, Android phones on the ground. That is one. The biggest political move Washington could make is to turn India into the new Britain. Muslims in India are best positioned to act as ambassadors of democracy across the Islamic world. On this India count as well America has so far failed.
This drone thing, this India thing. These would be proactive. But reacting to the ISIS is reactive. That is more expensive, and less effective. Much more expensive, and much less effective. You can cut down the ISIS in size in a very expensive way, and still not have managed to spread democracy anywhere.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

So Called War On Terror

English: The Ethnic composition of Muslims in the United States, according to the United States Department of State based on the publication of Being Muslim in America as of March 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cold War, War On Terror
Hillary's Drastic Move

The resolution to the War is when moderate Islam is the mainstream Islam across the Muslim world.

Every time white people have acted racist - I am thinking colonialism, apartheid, segregation - they have quoted from the Bible. Considering racism is not exactly past tense yet, I believe we are still awaiting the arrival of moderate Christianity.

To think your way is the only way is not tolerant, not moderate. And there are concrete repercussions.

There is an ideological angle to the War On Terror. And that ideological angle is no sideshow, it IS the biggest angle.

Surprisingly (or not) India is the way to that moderate Islam. It is the largest democracy. It is an unhappy truth that Muslims in India are like African Americans in America. Having a Muslim president in India, or a black president in America has not fundamentally changed that. India has a larger Muslim population than every Arab country. Indonesia might be the only country with more Muslims.

In that democracy you see a fermentation. The current ruling party in India is in a war of words as to why there is a separate civil code for Muslims. They argue for a uniform civil code for all citizens. What's that debate all about? Participating in that debate would be a good use of dollars.

But then you have an arms industry in America - Colombia specializes in drugs, America in arms - that needs to sell weapons. And so the country sees nails in every direction. And so you don't see American money spent on things that would truly make the difference in the War On Terror.

Tuesday, April 01, 2014

Nitish And The Survey Game

Bihar famine 1966-67. a village near Patna (Photo credit: gusthed)

Bihar pollscape: Nitish in a spot of bother, banking on Muslim vote

"Ye toh BJP ke saath rahne wale neta hai, in pe trust kaise kijiyega (He has been with the BJP, how can you trust him?)," I asked a young Muslim youth standing in the front row at a rally.

I was not prepared for the answer he gave. "Hum log ke liye ye apne pucch main aag laga liye hai, ab Lanka jalana baki hai kewal (He has risked his government for us, now he will take on Modi for us)," he said.

Not that the youth was speaking for all Muslims across Bihar but he certainly was echoing one of their thoughts.

Nitish has bet his political fortune on the minority youths like him, rather on Muslims in general, and if even more than 50 per cent Muslims echo the same sentiments as this guy, then Bihar may throw a very surprising result, upsetting most surveys.