2007 Weblog Awards - Blog Of The Day Awards - Multifaith Hall of Fame

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Blog of the Day Awards for Sunday January 21, 2007

Previous award: SOB HALL OF FAME

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European Hindus oppose German call for swastika ban - Faithwise Review of the Week

European Hindus oppose German call for swastika ban - Reuters, London, January 16, 2007, HindustanTimes.com » World » Europe » Story
Hindus in Europe are joining forces to oppose German calls for a law across the European Union banning the display of Nazi symbols, saying the swastika symbolises peace and not hate. full story
image soruce: Hindus start campagne - Hands off our sacred Swastika - Stop E.U.C. ban on Swastika - Swastika - The Symbol of the Buddha

Ardh Kumbh: When sins get washed away

Over one lakh people get lost at the Kumbh, By Alistair Scrutton

The tree that binds Hindus and Muslims, 'The Hindu' Wed, 17 Jan 2007, Barrackpore, UNI:

Faith has done what politics failed in Azamchanditala, an epitome of secularism. At a time when Hindus and Muslims are fighting over their places of worship, Azamchanditala in North 24 Parganas is a welcome exception. Here people of both communities offer prayers at the same place. Three trees--a fig, date and banyan--have grown from a single point and thousands of devotees from both communities have been thronging it for decades to offer prayers to the trees by tying threads with a piece of earth to the branches. The first day of the Hindu month of 'Magha'(mid-January-mid February), has been observed here as an auspicious day and people celebrate it with an annual fair.
''It is beleived that if one ties threads on these branches then all their desires are fulfiled,'' a devotee said. ''Many believe that the place is the abode of both 'Azam'(Allah) and Goddess Chandi,''
Khardah-based doctor K K Biswas, who had been visiting Azamchanditala temple ith his wife for years, said. According to folklore a Hindu king and a Muslim nawab had halted at this spot while travelling in their mercantile ships along the Sonai river, that flowed through this place a few centuries ago, after goddess Chandi ordered them in their dreams to offer pujas. Since then the spot was named 'Azamchanditala', a point of assembly for Hindus and Muslims, a local, Letu Thakur said. ''We do puja and say our namaz together. There is no ill feeling. We are one religion here,'' declared Md Sheikh, who had come from Kolkata for his 'mannat'. He further added, ''there are no priests here, the devotees perform their pujas themselves by offering water and milk at the base of the trees.'' A saint meditating on the premises said, ''I don't know about he pujas but at least the trees are being fed everyday.'' A fair is also held here each year with people of both the religions participating with full enthusiasm. ''It is the only common fair of both Hindus and Muslims. It binds us together. We are one here,'' said an enthusiastic Abdul Rahim. ''We pray, eat, celebrate, dance and enjoy together,'' Subir Das, a businessman who comes here every year with other traders for a brisk business in the fair, said.

Burkini swimsuit covers all angles for Muslim women, MadeleineCoorey, Wednesday, January 17, 2007
What do you get when you cross Australian beach culture with a desire to remain clothed in a way acceptable to Muslim women? If you're designer Aheda Zanetti, you get what she says is the world's first two-piece Islamic swimsuit, the burkini.

Religion in the news, BENJAMIN HARVEY, Associated Press
ISTANBUL, Turkey - It's Sunday and prayer leader Bektas Akkaya is twanging a Turkish version of the electric banjo, working some 200 members of this country's largest religious minority into a trance.
Women in headscarves slap their knees, sway to the music and wipe tears from their eyes. A young man swings his arms wildly and beats his chest, his head gyrating like a bobblehead doll until he collapses.
Here, there is no imam, minaret or call to prayer. But for an estimated 20 percent of Turkey's 71 million people, this is Islam.

Muslims "get" globalisation, but does it get them? By Mehmood Kazmi, January 17, 2007 Daily Star, Egypt

Teacher's anti-Israel resolution angers Jewish group, parents, splits union January 17, 2007 - COLIN PERKEL, Macleans.ca

UK, Canada Ran Neck and Neck in 2006 Race to Exterminate Religious Freedom
By John-Henry Westen, LifeSiteNews.com Wednesday January 17, 2007

Climate change unites science and religion, 17:29 17 January 2007, NewScientist.com news service, Phil Mckenna

Islamic graves vandalised in Belarus cemeteryJanuary 17, 2007 Edition, Daily News

Here, Hindus go for nikah, Muslims for vivah

News from the city of the birth place of Lord Krishna

Press Trust of India
Mathura (Uttar Pradesh, North India), HindustanTimes.com January 11, 2007

In a unique marriage ceremony, five Hindu and five Muslim couples entered into wedlock according to the traditions of both religions in a show of communal harmony.
"The aim of this programme is not only to promote communal harmony but also to crusade against dowry," District Magistrate TN Singh said.

While a Hindu priest was solemnising the Hindu marriages, a qazi was performing the nikah (signing of marriage contract in Islamic tradition) on the same platform.

The ceremony had been organised by the Indian Welfare Society.

Mathura Municipal Board Chairman Shyam Sundar stressed on the need of organising such programmes at a large scale annually for better understanding between the two communities.

Each couple has been given articles of daily use worth Rs 50,000. Every member of the society observed fast and broke it after the kanya daan was over, Mohammad Naqeem Qureshi, founder of Indian Welfare Society, said.

Mathura is known for its communal harmony since long. The common wall between two shrines (Idgah and temple Keshav Deo) at Sri Krishna Janmasthan bears testimony to the harmony and culture of this pilgrim city.

There are Hindus who observe Roza (fast during month of Ramzan) and Muslims who consume any cereal only after they have bathed in the holy river Yamuna.

The group had earlier organised eye camps for both the communities.

See also

A belifnet Story, a Hindu-Jewish Couple: Marriage of True Minds

Rumi on marriage

from the 'Fihi ma fihí' : Discourses of Mawlana Jalal'ud-din Rumi, as translated by A.J. Arberry:

"The way of the Prophet is this: It is necessary to endure pain to help rid ourselves of selfishness, jealousy and pride. To experience the pain of our spouses’ extravagant desires, the pain of unfair burdens, and a hundred thousand other pains beyond all bounds, so the spiritual path can become clear. The way of Jesus was wrestling with solitude and not gratifying lust. The way of Mohammed is to endure the oppression and agonies inflicted by men and women upon each other.

If you cannot go by the Mohammedan way, at least go by the way of Jesus, so you will not remain completely outside the spiritual path.

If you have the serenity to endure a hundred buffets, seeing the fruits and harvest that come through them, or believing in your hidden heart,
'Though in this hour I see no harvest of these sufferings, in the end I will reach the treasures,' you will reach the treasuries, yes, and more than you ever desired and hoped." source: hakim, Why do men get married? More on Rumi's Wedding Poems

Prayer: Meditation, Salat, Yoga - Prospects for Interfaith Dialog

This post is continuously updated, last updated: 25 Feb, 2012





Art is prayer made visible
Music is prayer made audible
Dance is prayer embodied
But the greatest art we practice
Is the art of compassion
Which is prayer in action and service
by Gina Rose Halpern

Punchline:
Muslim prayers have physical benefits: study

NB. The above is the result of an extensive, expensive and very creative study.
What happens to a tiny little book (most probably inexpensive, done by voluntary research and has detailed analysis and pictures), published from Baroda, India in 1976. See the details, Namaz: The Yoga of Islam. (31 pages). Ask me for more details of the publisher or author contact info. mt2222 @ yahoo . com

On the same shelf:

In Queens, Clearing a Path Between Yoga and Islam, By SARAH MASLIN NIR, NYTimes.com

The “Yoga” of Islamic Prayer by Karima Burns, MH, ND