The Brave Pedestrian

I had this conversation with a Hindu friend who wanted every Indian child and adult to compulsorily say, "Bharat Mata Ki Jai". "If they don't say it, then it means they are unpatriotic, and they don't love India. Anybody who doesn't love India should get out and go to Pakistan or wherever," she said. And so we had an argument, which went like this: I: For Sunni Muslims, bowing before or even imagining any deity other than Allah feels sinful. So the idea of saying "Bharat Mata" makes them very uncomfortable. You know that, right? She: Since when does an atheist like you sympathize with people's religious feelings? And what is the harm if Hindus, Muslims and everyone else is compelled to express love publicly for our motherland? We must all be patriotic and love and respect India, who is like our mother. I: Personifying India is a very Hindu thing to do. We tend to personify and worship anything, and it comes natu...

Aurangabad, 8 th November, 2016: In many religious communities, the priestly class exploits the common people , who are powerless to speak out. Take the instance of about 80 Khoja families ( Ismaili muslims from Gujarat who are followers of Aga Khan ) who are fighting for their fundamental right to worship peacefully in Aurangabad. Their oppressors are Aziz Abdullah Surani who is a local priest called Mukhi and Samir Ramzanali Moti, who is a local priest called Kamadia . The previous Mukhi Ramzan Sher Mohammad Charaniya, and some others who are higher-ups in the Ismaili community, are also part of this religious-economic scam. (Incidentally, Aziz Abdullah Surani is the co-producer of a recent Bollywood release called Chalk N Duster starring Juhi Chawla and Shabana Azmi.) In December 2015, the priests locked the decades-old Fazalpura jamatkhana or community prayer hall, in order to force Aurangabad's Khoja families to worship at an unauthorized under-construction stru...

Paradise contains 72 virgins for Muslim men, but what about Muslim women? The Quranic answer: All the pleasures of Paradise such as kinds of food, beautiful scenes, houses, and clothes, will be equally for men and women. The only thing that is for men alone in Paradise is the Hoor (divine maiden or virgin). Some women may inquire why women are not promised male hoors. The answer seems to be: because women long for adornment and jewels more than they hanker after sexual pleasures ! According to scholar Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen, “Allah mentioned the wives of Paradise because men naturally seek them, which is not the case with women. Therefore, Allah did not refer to the husbands of women in Paradise, but this does not mean that they will have no husbands there; rather, they will have human husbands.” It is specified that a woman who died after marriage will be with her husband in Paradise. A woman whose husband died, and she did not remarry until her death, will also ...