Myrtus

Fatwa against terrorism

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Indian Muslims condemn terrorism

A conference attended by thousands of Muslim clerics, scholars and community leaders in India has endorsed a religious ruling against terrorism.

The ruling or fatwa was issued earlier this year by an Islamic seminary.

It said that Islam rejected all kinds of bloodshed and the killing of innocents for selfish and politically motivated gains.

This is great!

Now let's see a universal fatwa against terrorism co-signed by every Muslim cleric who wishes to keep his job and continue practicing his profession in good faith, for the good of mankind and for goodness sake.

News Flash: Fatwa against terrorism

I guess better late than never, but let's be honest, Islam does not mean "peace".

Muslim seminary issues fatwa against terrorism - Asia, World - The Independent

A Muslim Indian seminary which is said to have inspired the Taliban has issued a fatwa against terrorism, insisting that Islam is a religion of peace.

Senior clerics from the 150-year-old Darul Uloom Deoband issued the edict saying they wished to wipe out terrorism. "Islam rejects all kinds of unjust violence, breach of peace, bloodshed, murder and plunder and does not allow it in any form," said the rector, Habibur Rehman, to the cheers of thousands of students. Many held placards saying "Islam means peace", while others chanted.

"The religion of Islam has come to wipe out all kinds of terrorism and to spread the message of global peace," Mr Rehman added.

The Deoband institute was established in the aftermath of the 1857 uprising against British rule, an uprising that was brutally suppressed by the imperial forces. Highly influential, it controls thousands of smaller seminaries and madrassas around the world, from Britain to Afghanistan.

Of Britain's 1,400 mosques, about 600 are run by Deobandi-affiliated clerics. Seventeen of the UK's 26 Islamic seminaries follow Deobandi teachings, which produce about 80 per cent of all domestically trained Muslim clerics.

Analysts say the move to speak out against terrorism would be welcomed by the overwhelming majority of India's 140 million Muslim population, many of whom believe the image of their religion has been tarnished by the actions of a small number of people.

The richest Muslim businessman in the world

The man is worth 17 billion dollars!

Premji_worlds_richest_Muslim_entrepreneur

Financial daily 'Wall Street Journal' has written a front-page profile on chairman of India's third largest IT exporter Wipro, saying Premji defies all the conventional wisdom about Islamic tycoons - he does not hail from the Persian Gulf, did not make his money in petroleum, and does not wear his faith on his sleeve.

"Azim Premji has tapped India's abundant engineering talent to transform a family vegetable-oil firm, Wipro Ltd, into a technology and outsourcing giant. By serving Western manufacturers, airlines and utilities, the company has brought Premji a fortune of some $17 billion," the report said.

Good for him!  OK, so we know he has a good sense for business, now let's hear the real secret of his success.

"We have always seen ourselves as Indian. We've never seen ourselves as Hindus, or Muslims, or Christians or Buddhists," Premji told WSJ in an interview.

Afghans seek Indian sperm donors

Afghans 'visit India sperm banks'

Doctors in India's oldest semen bank say that a growing number of couples from Afghanistan are visiting the country to look for donor sperm.

Unable to conceive, these couples look to Indian semen banks for help as India is the only country in South Asia where the banks are located.

Afghan couples tend to prefer sperm donated from Kashmir as they come from a similar ethnic stock.

India has 10 sperm banks in a country where the population is over a billion.

If war and exposure to stress cause hormonal disturbances that can lead to fertility problems, why doesn't it affect females the same way it affects males?

Scary

Looks like Liz Hurley did not mind her Indian manners and now she may have to go to jail for it.

Father-in-law wants Liz Hurley jailed

Under India's penal code, it is an offence to hurt the feelings of any of India's religious groups and it carries a maximum penalty of three years' imprisonment.

Rent-a-Wife

Women are fast becoming a hot commodity in India.  Nope, I am NOT kidding.

Some husbands in western India are renting out their wives to other men, cashing in on a shortage of single women available for marriage, according to a news report Monday.

Atta Prajapati, a farm worker who lives in Gujarat state, leases out his wife Laxmi to a wealthy landowner for $175 US a month, the Times of India reported, citing unidentified police officials. A farm worker earns a monthly minimum wage of around $22. Laxmi is expected to live with the man, look after him and his house, and have sex with him, the report said.

The Times said this was not an isolated incident in the western state, and that several men rent their wives to other men on a month-by-month basis.