Saturday, April 15, 2006
'Salman Khan paying for being a celebrity'
Posted online: Saturday, April 15, 2006 at 1323 hours IST
Shilpa Shetty has been a close friend of Salman Khan and is relieved that the actor has finally been bailed out of troubled waters from the Jodhpur Jail where a lower court sentenced him to five years rigorous imprisonment for killing a Chinkara and the actor had to spend three nights in the Central Jail.
According to her, Salman is paying for being a celebrity and the judicial court proceedings are being affected by a 24/7 trial by media. “It’s annoying what the media is doing. In an endeavour to raise their TRPs, TV channels go to any length to tarnish an actor’s image. It seems that in our country, only the actors can make the maximum headlines,” she says.
A couple of years ago, Shilpa was at the receiving end of a non-stop media barrage about the allegations made by a Saree manufacturer from Surat (She was the brand ambassador) that her parents had employed the services of a small time gangster Fazlur Rehman for getting money from the businessman for breaching the contract.
“Be it in my case where my parents were falsely implicated, Salman’s trial or Aamir Khan’s marriage, trial by media is unfair. One realizes over a period of time that one has to pay a heavy price for being a celebrity. I didn’t speak to a couple of TV channels for a year till they apologized. Firstly, they malign you, then they go in a guilt,” she states.
Aamir Khan blasted the media recently in an exclusive interview to Tehelka where he labeled “Media is a monster.” What’s her opinion on his stand? “I think if someone has to marry and has to tackle journalists and photographers sitting on trees to pry into the proceedings, then he is bound to react. If you marry tomorrow and have to be at the receiving end of such behaviour, then even you’ll lose your cool,” she says
So, what do you think Bollywood should do to safeguard their privacy? “I think there ought to be some association that looks after the interest of the artistes. Someone should so something about it. Media should remember that even we are human beings and have a right to privac y,” she says.
Source: expressindia.com
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=66131
Shilpa Shetty has been a close friend of Salman Khan and is relieved that the actor has finally been bailed out of troubled waters from the Jodhpur Jail where a lower court sentenced him to five years rigorous imprisonment for killing a Chinkara and the actor had to spend three nights in the Central Jail.
According to her, Salman is paying for being a celebrity and the judicial court proceedings are being affected by a 24/7 trial by media. “It’s annoying what the media is doing. In an endeavour to raise their TRPs, TV channels go to any length to tarnish an actor’s image. It seems that in our country, only the actors can make the maximum headlines,” she says.
A couple of years ago, Shilpa was at the receiving end of a non-stop media barrage about the allegations made by a Saree manufacturer from Surat (She was the brand ambassador) that her parents had employed the services of a small time gangster Fazlur Rehman for getting money from the businessman for breaching the contract.
“Be it in my case where my parents were falsely implicated, Salman’s trial or Aamir Khan’s marriage, trial by media is unfair. One realizes over a period of time that one has to pay a heavy price for being a celebrity. I didn’t speak to a couple of TV channels for a year till they apologized. Firstly, they malign you, then they go in a guilt,” she states.
Aamir Khan blasted the media recently in an exclusive interview to Tehelka where he labeled “Media is a monster.” What’s her opinion on his stand? “I think if someone has to marry and has to tackle journalists and photographers sitting on trees to pry into the proceedings, then he is bound to react. If you marry tomorrow and have to be at the receiving end of such behaviour, then even you’ll lose your cool,” she says
So, what do you think Bollywood should do to safeguard their privacy? “I think there ought to be some association that looks after the interest of the artistes. Someone should so something about it. Media should remember that even we are human beings and have a right to privac y,” she says.
Source: expressindia.com
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=66131
Delhi police investigating Jama Masjid blasts
April 15, 2006 15:23 IST
A day after the twin explosions at the Jama Masjid, Delhi police sleuths were piecing together evidence from the blast site to trace the perpetrators of the attack. Forensic experts were examining samples collected from the site of the blasts, which left 13 people injured.
"The explosives used in the blast were of a very crude nature," police sources said, adding that they were examining all angles in the investigation.
Delhi police Commissioner K K Paul met Union Home Secretary V K Duggal Saturday morning to apprise him about the situation in the aftermath of the blasts.
Meanwhile, security at the Jama Masjid was tightened and metal detectors were in place at its three gates in view of the blasts. Delhi Police and Central Reserve Police Force personnel were deployed in large numbers at the 17th century mosque.
Preliminary investigations revealed that potassium chlorate and sulphuric acid were used to trigger the explosion. Nuts and bolts were added to the mixture to cause injury.
"The intention behind the explosions was to create panic in the city," police officials said, adding that Delhi has been the target of terror attacks for quite some time now and as many as 51 terrorists have been arrested in the national capital since January 2005.
A high alert has been sounded in the capital and police officials heightened vigil at religious places and vital installations in wake of the twin explosions.
Source: rediff.com
http://us.rediff.com/news/2006/apr/15delhi.htm?q=np&file=.htm
913 persons 'reconvert' to Hinduism in Orissa
Chakapad (Orissa), April 10: Amidst cries of 'Jai Shri Ram' and blowing of conch shells, 913 persons, said to be Christians, were reconverted to Hinduism at a huge congregation organised by the Sangh Parivar even as the VHP called for a total ban on conversion in the country.
The reconversion ceremony was conducted on the second day of the 'Hindu Mahasabha' where VHP bigwigs made fiery speeches The reconverted persons, who belonged to 150 families, were blessed by the Sankaracharya of Puri, Swami Nischalananda Saraswati.
Speaking on the occasion, VHP International President Ashok Singhal demanded that the centre should enact a law to completely ban conversions from Hinduism. However, there should not be any restriction on Christians if they wanted to return to their 'mother faith of Hinduism', he said while refusing to acknowledge as conversion the return of the people to Hinduism from Christianity.
Preachers of the Christian faith should be thrown out of the country, the VHP leader demanded. "There is no need for anyone to teach religion to the people of this country as Indians are religious anyway," he said.
Families from 16 villages of Sonepur, Bargarh and Balangir districts were reconverted, Binoy Bhuyan, Pradesh Pramukh of the Dharma Jagaran Samiti, an affiliate of the RSS, said.
VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati was also present at the 'Sudhikaran Yagya' conducted on the occasion, they said.
Several Hindu organisations, including Dharma Rakhya Samiti, Dharma Jagaran Samiti and the Arya Samaj, were involved in the ceremony, Bhuyan said.
Source: NewKerala.com
http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=34290
The reconversion ceremony was conducted on the second day of the 'Hindu Mahasabha' where VHP bigwigs made fiery speeches The reconverted persons, who belonged to 150 families, were blessed by the Sankaracharya of Puri, Swami Nischalananda Saraswati.
Speaking on the occasion, VHP International President Ashok Singhal demanded that the centre should enact a law to completely ban conversions from Hinduism. However, there should not be any restriction on Christians if they wanted to return to their 'mother faith of Hinduism', he said while refusing to acknowledge as conversion the return of the people to Hinduism from Christianity.
Preachers of the Christian faith should be thrown out of the country, the VHP leader demanded. "There is no need for anyone to teach religion to the people of this country as Indians are religious anyway," he said.
Families from 16 villages of Sonepur, Bargarh and Balangir districts were reconverted, Binoy Bhuyan, Pradesh Pramukh of the Dharma Jagaran Samiti, an affiliate of the RSS, said.
VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati was also present at the 'Sudhikaran Yagya' conducted on the occasion, they said.
Several Hindu organisations, including Dharma Rakhya Samiti, Dharma Jagaran Samiti and the Arya Samaj, were involved in the ceremony, Bhuyan said.
Source: NewKerala.com
http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=34290
Dalai Lama seeks to improve Islam's image
Matthai Chakko Kuruvila, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Saturday, April 15, 2006
The Dalai Lama, a powerful icon for peace worldwide, will gather with influential American Muslim leaders in San Francisco today to help refashion Islam's image in the United States.
Concerned that Muslims are unfairly demonized in American popular consciousness, the world-renowned Buddhist leader hopes to help show Islam in what he sees as its truest form, one of peace.
"The enemy is not out there,'' said Tenzin Dhonden, the Dalai Lama's emissary for peace. "The enemy is within you. ... How we see religion is in our mind. But religion itself is the truth: peace and harmony."
The hurdles are numerous.
Polls in Muslim countries have shown that some Muslims think of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a good thing, said Muslim scholar Sheikh Hamza Yusuf. Co-founder of the Zaytuna Institute in Hayward, Yusuf advised President Bush in the days after the attacks.
He also noted that polls have revealed that some Americans support bombing Mecca, Islam's holiest city.
"Who are the extremists?" he asked. "It's all of us. There's no 'us' versus 'them' here. We've got extremists on both sides. If we let extremist agendas chart the course for us on both sides, we're headed for a very, very frightening world."
Speakers at today's invitation-only event at the Mark Hopkins Hotel, "Gathering of Hearts Illuminating Compassion," say violent images of Islam are sensationalized by a selective news media.
They say the faith of the vast majority of the hundreds of millions of Muslims worldwide bears no relation to the beliefs of terrorists who claim religious authority.
"That's not Islam," said Jack Kornfield, a prominent Buddhist teacher and founder of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County. "Those are extremists and crazies. Quite honestly, you find that in every tradition. Right now, our media is highlighting that." Kornfield is not participating in today's event.
Even though Buddhist-Muslim relations are at the center of the gathering, organizers are emphasizing an even broader understanding of faith: that all religions are the same at their core.
This message plays well in the religiously diverse Bay Area, where believers of all faiths often adapt aspects of other traditions.
Organizers also plan to address the rise of fundamentalism in many religions, which they say can turn beliefs into political tools.
"It is hijacked religion that causes violence," said Huston Smith, an author and former professor at four major universities and a speaker at today's event.
"In warfare, you need power,'' said Smith, a Berkeley resident. "Therefore, you have to believe that God is on your side and you are an instrument of God to do his will through warfare and fighting and the laying down of lives. The flip side of that is that the enemy is the demon, the axis of evil."
The conference, limited to roughly 500 people, will consist of presentations by scholars and religious leaders.
In addition to Yusuf, they will include Imam Mehdi Khorasani, a spiritual leader born in Karbala, Iraq, who guides a 6,000-member congregation in Fairfax, and the Rev. Alan Jones, dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, an Episcopal church.
"As long as we are quiet and not trying to explain, the danger and misunderstanding remains," said Khorasani, whose invitation to the Dalai Lama prompted today's gathering.
Khorasani comes from a line of Iraqi Shiite clerics, though he tries to avoid that sectarian label.
The Dalai Lama, whose own story is one of religion and politics intertwined, has for decades advocated nonviolence.
Forced into exile from Tibet in 1959 after the Chinese government violently suppressed an uprising there, the Dalai Lama is familiar with the idea of occupation -- the concept that rallies Muslim resistance in Israel, Iraq and the Indian state of Kashmir.
The Dalai Lama now lives in Dharamsala, India, but his call for peaceful resistance to China helped earn him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
The gathering's speakers say they hope the event, however philosophical, will plant a seed for the future. But what it will accomplish long-term may be unclear.
"His Holiness (the Dalai Lama) is marshalling us to do our best,'' said Smith, the religious scholar. "We cannot see the full consequences. We just try to set the trajectory."
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/04/15/MUSLIM.TMP
Muslim film festival in NY is shouting to be heard
15 Apr 2006 07:00:16 GMT
By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK, April 15 (Reuters) - More than 30 movies from the Arab and Muslim world will be playing at a week-long New York film festival, but will anybody be watching?
The Alwan Film Festival, created by a nonprofit group in lower Manhattan, features several well-known Middle Eastern directors. The films tackle timely subjects like the war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Afghanistan.
With American troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and the West's relations with the Muslim world perhaps the defining challenge of the decade, those involved in the festival want to help Americans learn what the "Muslim world" is all about.
"It's very important that Americans of all backgrounds come and see the films, especially on the event of the fifth year after 9/11," said Bader Ben Hirsi, a British-Yemeni director whose film opened the festival on Friday.
"It's important to see what the Middle East really is. I watch TV here and it's completely different from the Middle East I know," Hirsi said.
But the films are playing at just three lower Manhattan cinemas and the small festival has barely registered on the media radar of the city, coming as it does just before the much bigger Tribeca Film Festival whose program also boasts a substantial number of films from the Muslim world.
Hirsi said he hoped the festival would draw a diverse audience. "It would be nice, but I don't think it will be. I think the people that will turn out will probably be Arab Americans or Arabists," he said.
COMEDY, POLITICS, SEX AND PHILOSOPHY
While several of the Alwan Festival films focus on current affairs, Hirsi says his is a "bittersweet romantic comedy" -- the story of a wealthy young man who is about to get married to a woman he has not met but who falls in love with another woman.
"A New Day in Old Sanaa" is the first feature film made in Yemen, Hirsi said. It was a struggle to make it because of the bureaucracy, funding problems, misunderstanding and suspicion in Yemen, and even an actor getting stabbed, he said.
"I thought the hard part was over but the thing that really I just can't get is, we had incredible reviews ... and we've seen people charmed by this film. But sales agents and distributors don't (get it), and they can't believe it," he said.
"They just don't don't know what to do with it. It's not what they expect from the Arab world."
Highlights of the April 14-23 festival includes "Zaman: The Man from the Reeds" by Amer Alwan, the story of a father's journey from the marshes where he lives to Baghdad to search for a medicine to cure his adopted son.
Another Iraqi film, "Ahlaam" by Mohamed al-Daradji, is set in the days before and after the fall of Baghdad and is the story of a young girl locked up in a mental institute after her husband was arrested under Saddam Hussein. She is freed when her hospital is destroyed by a bomb and she roams the streets amid the chaos of the fall of the city in April 2003.
"Pakistan's Double Game" documents reporter Sharmeen Obaid's travels around her country to ask ordinary citizens what they think of their government's alliance with the United States and backing for its "war on terrorism."
A box office hit in Egypt, Saad Hendawi's "State of Love" is a post-9/11 love story looking at Arabs in the West.
"Sex and Philosophy" from Iran is about a man who decides to introduce his numerous mistresses to each other.
Hirsi said his film's budget was $1.4 million. The films generally have small budgets compared, of course, to Hollywood productions.
Sherif Sadek, one of the curators of the festival, said the ubiquity of American media and culture meant people in the Middle East understood more about America than vice versa.
"There seems to be a one-way street where Americans send information out but it's not receiving information, so hopefully this can provide a different point of view to the mistakes out there and the images being flashed on TV every day," he said.
Hirsi said there was a new wave of film makers from the Muslim world aiming to attract audiences beyond their own borders. "Everybody is frustrated seeing how Western media are depicting the Arab world," he said.
"It's Arab voices coming out for the first time now as opposed to voices from the West on the Arab world. Its Arab film makers saying 'This is our world.'"
Source: Reuters AlterNet
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14184142.htm
By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK, April 15 (Reuters) - More than 30 movies from the Arab and Muslim world will be playing at a week-long New York film festival, but will anybody be watching?
The Alwan Film Festival, created by a nonprofit group in lower Manhattan, features several well-known Middle Eastern directors. The films tackle timely subjects like the war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Afghanistan.
With American troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and the West's relations with the Muslim world perhaps the defining challenge of the decade, those involved in the festival want to help Americans learn what the "Muslim world" is all about.
"It's very important that Americans of all backgrounds come and see the films, especially on the event of the fifth year after 9/11," said Bader Ben Hirsi, a British-Yemeni director whose film opened the festival on Friday.
"It's important to see what the Middle East really is. I watch TV here and it's completely different from the Middle East I know," Hirsi said.
But the films are playing at just three lower Manhattan cinemas and the small festival has barely registered on the media radar of the city, coming as it does just before the much bigger Tribeca Film Festival whose program also boasts a substantial number of films from the Muslim world.
Hirsi said he hoped the festival would draw a diverse audience. "It would be nice, but I don't think it will be. I think the people that will turn out will probably be Arab Americans or Arabists," he said.
COMEDY, POLITICS, SEX AND PHILOSOPHY
While several of the Alwan Festival films focus on current affairs, Hirsi says his is a "bittersweet romantic comedy" -- the story of a wealthy young man who is about to get married to a woman he has not met but who falls in love with another woman.
"A New Day in Old Sanaa" is the first feature film made in Yemen, Hirsi said. It was a struggle to make it because of the bureaucracy, funding problems, misunderstanding and suspicion in Yemen, and even an actor getting stabbed, he said.
"I thought the hard part was over but the thing that really I just can't get is, we had incredible reviews ... and we've seen people charmed by this film. But sales agents and distributors don't (get it), and they can't believe it," he said.
"They just don't don't know what to do with it. It's not what they expect from the Arab world."
Highlights of the April 14-23 festival includes "Zaman: The Man from the Reeds" by Amer Alwan, the story of a father's journey from the marshes where he lives to Baghdad to search for a medicine to cure his adopted son.
Another Iraqi film, "Ahlaam" by Mohamed al-Daradji, is set in the days before and after the fall of Baghdad and is the story of a young girl locked up in a mental institute after her husband was arrested under Saddam Hussein. She is freed when her hospital is destroyed by a bomb and she roams the streets amid the chaos of the fall of the city in April 2003.
"Pakistan's Double Game" documents reporter Sharmeen Obaid's travels around her country to ask ordinary citizens what they think of their government's alliance with the United States and backing for its "war on terrorism."
A box office hit in Egypt, Saad Hendawi's "State of Love" is a post-9/11 love story looking at Arabs in the West.
"Sex and Philosophy" from Iran is about a man who decides to introduce his numerous mistresses to each other.
Hirsi said his film's budget was $1.4 million. The films generally have small budgets compared, of course, to Hollywood productions.
Sherif Sadek, one of the curators of the festival, said the ubiquity of American media and culture meant people in the Middle East understood more about America than vice versa.
"There seems to be a one-way street where Americans send information out but it's not receiving information, so hopefully this can provide a different point of view to the mistakes out there and the images being flashed on TV every day," he said.
Hirsi said there was a new wave of film makers from the Muslim world aiming to attract audiences beyond their own borders. "Everybody is frustrated seeing how Western media are depicting the Arab world," he said.
"It's Arab voices coming out for the first time now as opposed to voices from the West on the Arab world. Its Arab film makers saying 'This is our world.'"
Source: Reuters AlterNet
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14184142.htm
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
First Muslim sorority hopes to form chapters across USA
By Donna Leinwand, USA TODAYMon Apr 10, 7:17 AM ET
Christine Ortiz slips quietly from the Muslim prayer room on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and into a group of squealing young women. Some of them are Ortiz's Muslim sisters, the undergraduate pals who embraced her when she converted to Islam from her family's Roman Catholicism.
Less than a year after she graduated from MIT, Ortiz, 23, has returned to campus on a chilly night to help introduce them to a new concept in Muslim sisterhood: the first Muslim-oriented sorority, Gamma Gamma Chi.
The sorority, which was formed last year, has no campus chapters but is trying to drum up interest with informational meetings across the nation. It aims to be a sorority unlike almost all others by adhering to principles of Islam: no alcohol and no casual mixing between men and women.
Ortiz is a member of Alpha Phi, one of five traditional sororities at MIT. She says she wants her Muslim girlfriends to have the sorority experience without having to compromise their religious values. In theory, the existing sororities' policies are in line with Muslim beliefs, but in reality, she says, the sorority culture at MIT and other campuses "unfortunately is based on men and alcohol."
Muslim women at MIT, the University of Kentucky, Rutgers, the University of Maryland-Baltimore and the University of Southern California have expressed interest in Gamma Gamma Chi, says founder and President Althia Collins, who owns an educational consulting business in Alexandria, Va.
Collins and her daughter Imani Abdul-Haqq, both Muslim converts, created the sorority in 2005.
The MIT gathering attracted 13 women - five in traditional Muslim head scarves and loose-fitting clothes but most with uncovered hair and typical campus attire of jeans and sweaters.
"I never felt attracted to sorority life," says Tania Ullah, 20, a junior from New York City. "Aside from the drinking and partying, which I don't do, I didn't feel comfortable with pledging loyalty to the principles."
'We're already a close-knit group'
Collins and Abdul-Haqq's idea for a Muslim sorority reflects both the increasing presence of the religion on U.S. campuses and the growth of multiculturalism, says Denise Pipersburgh, a lawyer in Newark, N.J., and president of the National Multicultural Greek Council.
The National Panhellenic Conference represents 26 historically Caucasian sororities and women's fraternities with 3.8 million members. The National Panhellenic Council, which represents four historically black sororities and five men's fraternities, has 1.5 million members. The first Latina sorority was formed in 1975, and Asian-American Greek organizations have existed since the 1920s.
At the MIT session, the Muslim women, whose majors include brain and cognitive sciences and chemical engineering, seem intrigued by the idea of their own sorority. But they also are skeptical.
"An Islamic sorority is almost an oxymoron, isn't it?" asks Tasneem Hussam, 20, a junior from Centreville, Va.
Muslims are active at MIT, where the Muslim Student Association on the 10,200-student campus regularly attracts 200 people to its dinners. All of the women at the presentation belong to the association.
"We're already a close-knit group," Hussam says. "I'm a little unsure about how necessary it is to have a sorority."
Tayyba Anwar, 18, a freshman from New York City, wonders how she'll explain the sorority concept to her parents and persuade them to let her join Gamma Gamma Chi.
"They'll say, 'What is this? Is it good or bad?' " Anwar says. "To me, it sounds like a respectable thing."
Ortiz notes that Greek life is a big part of MIT. "Once they are organized, it'll give Muslim women a face and voice on campus," she says.
Ultimately, none of the MIT students submitted applications to Gamma Gamma Chi.
'An American phenomenon'
The Muslim women at MIT say they rarely suffer from discrimination or isolation on campus. Panhellenic President Shannon Nees, 20, a junior from Hatfield, Penn., says they would be welcome in any of MIT's five sororities.
"MIT is a very diverse group of people," Nees says. "None of the sororities discriminate."
Abdul-Haqq says Gamma Gamma Chi, unlike traditional sororities, will allow Muslim women to feel more comfortable without compromising their Islamic beliefs.
Abdul-Haqq recalls trying to join a sorority at Bennett College in Greensboro and fearing she might be required to dress immodestly while pledging. "I don't wear short sleeves," she says. "I wear my hair covered. I felt put off from the beginning."
Collins and her daughter have sent e-mails to Muslim student groups and received enthusiastic responses, but no campus has signed up the 10 to 15 members needed for a chapter.
"We have to keep in mind that sororities are really an American phenomenon," Collins says. "A lot of Muslims come from Middle Eastern and South Asian backgrounds. This is not a part of their experience."
The sorority has collected the names of 200 women who have expressed interest in joining. The sorority, Collins says, would also welcome non-Muslim women who support its mission.
Xenia Tariq, 19, a freshman at Kentucky whose family moved to the USA from Pakistan, attended the sorority's recent seminar in Lexington and applied to join. She has been spreading the word among her Muslim girlfriends and hopes the university will have a chapter by fall. "I guess the appeal was that it is the first ever Muslim sorority," Tariq says. "I was thinking this is going to be really cool and groundbreaking, and I wanted to be a part of it."
Source: USA Today via Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060410/ts_usatoday/firstmuslimsorority...
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