Islam and Women

Dr. Younus Shaikh

Dr. Younus Shaikh, Pakistani Rationalist and founder President of the Rationalist organization of Pakistan, "The Enlightenment", who was once sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan, writes on Islam and Women.

I

Dr. Younus Shaikh
Dr. Younus Shaikh

Before the advent of Islam, the pagan Arab women generally enjoyed a respectable status in society; many of them including Khadija - the first wife of the prophet of Islam, had the right to engage in business and choose or dismiss their husbands in a matrilineal fashion; they took part in most activities of war and peace including public worship. In female oriented Arab paganism, goddesses had special status; in Mecca, the female goddess Al-Uzza, in Taif the goddess Al-Lat and in Medina the goddess Manat were the most popular deities, and their statues were most revered while the statue of the stern Allah was almost neglected.

Arab pagan poetry was mostly concerned with the beauty and grace of their women, and the glory of their tribal values in peace and war. And it was only in one predator tribe of Mecca that the evil custom of burying alive of the daughters prevailed. It was highly unusual for a man of pre-Islamic Arab society to have more than one wife in his house; and it is quite certain that polygamy was introduced and encouraged by the prophet after the revelation of Islam. Women were to produce as many Muslims as possible. This ultimately resulted in the degradation in the status of the married woman in the Islamic society. Whereas the pre-Islamic Arab custom allowed many looser forms of marriage on the matrilineal and matri-local tradition that gave the woman freedom and liberty as full human being, however the artificial rules of Islamic nikah reduced marriage to mere sexual and social slavery.

The prophet of Islam, before prophethood, opposed the burying alive of the newborn daughters; he was eager to work for a woman and gladly married a divorced woman. The early Islam continued with most of the pre-Islam tribal traditions; there were no hijabs or veils for women of Madina; and at a later date only the nine wives of prophets were restricted in their social intercourse as their home was constantly full of visitors. However the prophet's women sex-slaves were not restricted in any such manners.

Indeed, the semi-transparent half-face- veil (hijab) was actually a very old custom originating in the Assyrian times, a status symbol and a mark of social distinction for the free women. The pre-Islamic pagan Arab woman of the cities often wore the fashionable semi-transparent half-face veil but the tribal women never did.

Later, Islam added measures for "the preservation of modesty for women" -like casting down their eyes in public, concealing their breasts and jewellery and the likes. However, these restrictions were later extended by the followers of the prophet far beyond his original intentions as expressed in Koran, and remained more or less a permanent fixture of Muslim life thereafter.

Later on, however, the insecurity of early Islam gradually added to the exclusion of women, and 100 years later, by the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Haroon ur Rashid, women became merely sexual toys and breeding machines; and as married women they were merely maid servants- mere man's social appendages. Moreover, as female sex-slaves, women were freely bought and sold in open markets of all Islamic countries, and loaned, rented or bestowed as gifts to friends. The prophet himself bestowed women sex-slaves to his favourites. There was no limit to the number of slaves one could own; one of the companions of prophet Hazrat Zubair Ibn ul Arvan, for example, had 1000 men-slaves and 1000 women sex-slaves. Islam took the woman as the land tilled by the man where he spilled his seeds.

The prophet himself took part or guided nearly 100 wars or raids or attacks for plunder. After him, his followers continued the offence. The fierce Islamic tribal Bedouins with centuries long experience of ruthless and cruel tribal warfare proved to be the worthwhile shock troops of Islam. After Iraq, Syria fell to the Islamic Empire in 634 CE. Despite surrenders, great massacres took place at many places; thousands of men were slaughtered and women and children sold into slavery; monasteries were ransacked, monks and villagers were slain and nuns were raped. After the conquest of Egypt, many of its towns were put to sword and their entire population wiped out. Great massacres also occurred in Cyprus and North Africa. The Roman province of Iraq, the Syrian province of Iran, and the conquered Iran brought hundreds of thousands of men-slaves, women sex-slaves, and the vast fertile lands of these once mighty and civilized countries where the women had been held in high respect e.g. the Manichaecian Iraq, the Pharonic Egypt and North African Civilizations.

As in Egypt and Iran, wherever the conquering Islamic Bedouins armies went, they destroyed the local civilization's cultures, imposed their Islamic tribal medievalism recklessly murdering men and degrading women to perpetual sexual slavery. In short, the Islamic tribal Bedouins and barbarians did the same to the surrounding higher civilizations what the Roman barbarians did to the highly civilized ancient Greeks. Meanwhile the Islamic Bedouins continued to raid and abduct the European women for Islamic slave markets during all these Islamic centuries. The conquest of Syria forced the conversion of thousands of Christian priests to Islam, who changed their religion but not their profession: they became the stern anti-feminine Islamic mullahs and not only continued their religious magic and rituals but also continued the essentially Christian medievalism under Islam.

In short, as a result of these conquests, destructions and imposition of Islamic tribal medievalism, societies under the Islamic Empire went further than any other in their total exclusion of women from political power and social influence. Islamic legislation went far beyond anything the prophet had originally dreamed of in his tribal religiosity in cheating women of their rightful place in society and in matters of inheritance. Where originally the Koran gave women the right of inheritance, the Islamic mullah invented the legalized institution of Waqf- the religious foundation, to exclude the daughters and their descendents from inheritance. Though the Koran does give the right of inheritance to women, she continued to be a minor; usually uneducated needing a guardian in father, husband or the son. Indeed, the status of women in Islam is theoretically exalted but utterly deplorable in practice.

Multiplying number of harems (residing place for the female sex-slaves), finally institutionalised under Caliph Al-Walid II, emphasized the inevitable degradation of womanhood under Islam. Haroon ur Rashid, the Islamic Caliph (ruler) had 2000 female sex-slaves, Caliph Mutwakkal had 4000 female sex-slaves; and every mullah, official or soldier of Islamic state had some men-slaves and women sex-slaves belonging to the conquered civilization nations. Not being allowed to learn, experience or think for herself, it is no wonder that there are hardly very few outstanding women in 1600 years of Islamic history, and those who by chance or by the force of the ancient pre-Islamic customs came into light or in the corridors of power were sooner or later eliminated on the orders of some pious and religious Islamic mullah.. Indeed, Islam's violent anti-feminism have been as nefarious as Christianity's burning of hundreds of thousands European women as witches in 15th, 16th and 17th century. The female hating instruments of the Islamic Empire, the mullahs and the Caliphs, continued to promote degradation of women under the formal and sordid Islamic legal code of Shariah, the final seal on the complete subjection of the female element.. The modern history of Islam is merely the continuation of the Islamic tribal medievalism, only the technology , phraseology and the façade is modern.

II

"Indian sub-continent suffered the humiliation and destruction under Islam, as did Africa. The Islamic General Mohammad Bin Qasim decimated great Buddhist and Hindu civilizations. Acting on the orders of a representative of the Islamic Caliph, Governor Hijaj Bin Yousaf (who was a deadly enemy of the Hazrat Ali and Hazrat Hussein's family-some of whom have taken refuge under the Buddhist monarch Raja Dahir in Sindh), Mohammad Bin Qasim conquered the kingdom in 712 CE. His Islamic plunderers and looters demolished temples, shattered sculptures, plundered palaces and killed thousands. It took his Islamic army three days to slaughter the inhabitants of Debal, their women and children were taken into slavery. Later on he pardoned many prisoners and tried to establish a just rule of law which enraged the very Islamic and murderous Governor Hijaj Bin Yousaf; therefore Qasim again reverted to the Islamic barbarity and massacred between 6-16 thousands in Brahiminabad, their women and children were sent to Arab Islamic slave markets.

This was the beginning of the destruction of the classical ancient Indian civilization, and start of the medieval age of Islamic darkness in India. The 11th century witnessed another Islamic murderer and plunderer, Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi an agent of Islamic Caliph, who utterly ruined the great Indian civilization and looted and plundered most of its wealth. Fifty thousand Hindus were massacred in just one of his attacks at Somnath; he invaded India more than 17 times. Thousands of Hindu men and women were sent to the Islamic Afghani slave markets. The highly cultured and civilized daughters of the noble Hindu families were sold to the illiterate, un-cultured and barbaric Afghanis for equivalent of just one Frank (Pound/Dollar) each. After every Afghani Muslim had four wives each, there were lots of surplus women left; to that the evil Islamic mullahs responded with an ingenious translation of Koranic verses proving that Allah allowed each Muslim to marry 18 women at a time along with an unlimited number of women as concubines. Soon the new military instruments of the Islamic Caliph, the Turks and the Moguls followed, decimated captured Delhi and turned whole of India into a grand open-air slave camp. Sultan Firoze Shah Tughlaq- an Islamic Turk ruler had 100,000 men-slaves and thousands of female sex-slaves in his harem; the pious Islamic Mongol (Mogul) Emperor Shahjehan had 15,000 female sex-slaves and concubines for his personal harem. Indeed, the Islamic Turk invaders and rulers did the same in India as they did in Armenia-the whole races of peoples were exterminated. (However, credit must be given here to the agnostic and secular-minded, humanist Mogul Emperor Akbar the Great who refused the title of "the King of Muslims" and preferred to be called "the shadow of God"- for his God, he declared (in accordance with the mind and language of his age), is the beneficial deity and protector of all-Hindus, Muslims and other races of humans and creatures alike. He gave up his faith in Islam and tried his genius in creating a pluralistic religion comprising traditions of all the prevalent religions and ideologies of India. He even invited the Christian Jesuits priests from Goa to his ideology-discussion-palace but could not swallow their childish Jesus-son-of-God myth).

The medieval Islamic Empire of the Turkish Osmania Caliphate disappeared after Axis defeat in the World War I and with the rise of the Turkish secular hero Mustafa Kemal Pasha. However, it soon metamorphosed into the modern Saudi Islamic spiritual Empire. It is noteworthy that while the very Christian Holy Roman British Empire of the West required standing armies to control the bodies of men in all its colonies, the theocratic Saudi Islamic spiritual Empire of the East depended on the standing army of clerics-Mullahs and Imams-stationed in mosques to control the minds of men-the social, cultural spiritual and psychological control. It is true that Islam dismantled the old Arab tribal loyalties and some of its taboos and traditions; however it created a new tribe in the name of Islam with prophet himself as its chieftain and his family and tribe-Hashmis and Quresh acquiring an elevated and sacred status- a replacement of old medieval tribe with a new theocratic tribe. However, it essentially continued many of the ancient pagan rituals of worship as well as many of its old taboos and traditions. The tribal blood loyalties were replaced with the new tribal religious loyalties. At intellectual level Islam is merely the continuation of the medieval Jahiliya (Ignorance) in the holy garb of Islam- the Islamic Jahilia (the Islamic Medieval Ignorance). Modern Islam is, indeed, merely a continuation of that medieval tribal ignorance and mental backwardness.

Since the advent of the Saudi oil, petrodollars started to support the Islamic extremist movements all over the world and continue to do so. The Saudi petrodollars have created thousands of Islamic centres for social and political control and propaganda- the mosques-all over the world; 1000 mosques were built in the USA only in just last few years. Islamic brainwashing and political propaganda continues in these mosques and madrassas-the religious schools, as well as through the Islamic newspapers, magazines, radios and televisions. All kind of extremist Islamic terrorism and fundamentalism emanates and flows from the " Kernel of Evil- the Epicentre of the ugly Islamism-the Saudis". For Allah of the Saudis makes submission to Islam obligatory for all humans. Those who refuse their submission to Allah or differ from the Saudi version of Islam are called the Satan's party, and must be eliminated by Saudis or their paid and brainwashed zombies-the Muslims- called the Allah's party. Saudi Arabia is in fact the worst example of Islamic medievalism, and mental, social backwardness. Slavery was legal in Saudi until 1960s when it was officially abolished on the personal request of the non-Muslim US President J F Kennedy! However, it continues in new names: the foreign female domestic servants-the private property of the Islamic Bedouin barbarians. Saudi petrodollars continue to support the extremist and fundamentalist mullahs, and continue to lure the Islamic states into the barbarity of the Islamic medieval Shariah laws, and the Saudis continue to spread Islamic mullah terrorism and Islamic theocratic totalitarianism all over the world."

Iran basically an Islamic spiritual colony, is the godfather of the Shiite Islamic terrorism,( Saudi Sunnis are an Islamic sect like the Christian Catholics while Shiites are like the Protestant Christians). This Allah's government in Iran is the most evil religious state today. Torture, murder and Islamic absolutism- an Islamic version of Hitler's Nazism, Stalin's Communism and Mussolini's Fascism combined. There were 5,195 political and religious executions only in 1983 alone! Few years ago a bill was presented in Iranian Parliament asking that in according with the tradition of Islamic prophet, marriage should be allowed with 9 years old girl child! Human rights are definitely not allowed to exist in the Islamic Iran, where according to the English language Radio Iran, the Holy Spirit of imam Khomeni hovers over Iran all the times. Women have been hanged on suspicion of sexual crimes. Even proved virgins have been sent to gallows, however, they are hanged only after being raped, as Iranian Islam does not allow hanging of virgins. Iran had used its oil money in the interest of Islamic revolutions all over the world, and continues to do so.

Algeria, known for its Islamic civil war continues with its Islamic horrors. Islamic absolutism and totalitarianism is imposed with guns and slaughters in the interest of religion of Islam. Men are usually killed for their religio-political crimes while women are killed just for the crime of being a woman in an Islamic country. Thousands were islamically raped and more than 500 were killed only in 1993. Women have been killed for not wearing hijab (veil) or refusing to do so when imposed, for refusing to engage in Iranian-style temporary marriage, for being married to foreign men, and for working and living alone. The victims have been as young as 9 years and as old as 69 years. Women are often raped and tortured before being slaughtered. Thousands find themselves imprisoned in Islamic camps for no legitimate reasons. It is worth mentioning that women had a respectable status in society before the conquest of Algeria by Islam.

Egyptians, heir to the great Pharonic and Alexandrian civilizations continue to suffer the chronic evil of Islam. Known for the miseries of hijab and female genital mutilation, Egypt is also a centre of child prostitution for the wealthy Saudi Islamic Bedouins. In Egypt, four out of five women are forced to wear some kind of hijab. Female genital mutilation is very common; up to 73% in Cairo and 95% in rural areas. In 1995 a shaikh (religious dignity) of Al-Azhar University Cairo issued a fatwa (the religious decree or bill), which reportedly announced the procedure pf Female Genital Mutilation as "laudable practice that does honour to women"; and stating that it was, a religious duty as important as praying to Allah.

Sudan had a long history of Islamic conquest and repression. Islamic totalitarianism and barbarity continues to this day. Recently, Sudan was brutalized by the Saudi-backed Gen.Numeri's Islamic fascism. In 1992 a religious decree-fatwa-was issued that gave justification to the military onslaught against the non-Muslims. Islamic barbarism and genocide continues in Darfur to this day.

Indonesian Islamic army mass-murdered 200,000 East Timurian non-Muslims before East Timur got its independent. The country is known for its extreme religiosity, corruption, ethno-religious problems and Islamic extremism.

Pakistan, an experimental laboratory of Islam, had turned into a horror. Notwithstanding the hundreds of thousands of rapes, abductions and murders under the watchful eyes of the very Christian administration of the Holy Roman British Empire at the time of religious division of the Indian sub-continent in 1947 by the Christian British Empire, when half a million people were forced to migrate, Pakistan has never made any certain move towards civilization. Pakistan is a centre of Islamic fundamentalism, extremism and terrorism. Pakistan's very Islamic army invaded her province of East Pakistan in 1971, killing hundreds of thousands of Bengali Muslims and non-Muslims and raping half a million women ranging 9-69 years in age, in its attempt to create a half breed Pak-Bengal race which would be loyal to Islam and Pakistan. In 1974 Pakistan army invaded its province of Baluchistan resulting in similar calamities. In 1980 Islamist General Zia ul Haq introduced further islamization under the Saudi pressure for introduction of the medieval and tribal Islamic Shariah.. Along with the compulsory public prayers, there were brutal Islamic laws for the very natural sexual acts and for the presumed blasphemy: the repressive Hudood Ordinance and the infamous Blasphemy laws. Thousands of innocent women continue to suffer under these and other Islamic fascist laws for mere allegations. Raped women had been sent to gallows for the crime of being raped. (Islamic Shariah is the only system of law, which punishes the victims: Fatemollah). Pakistani state has proved to be a willing and sinister instrument of the evil Islamic mullah fascism and terrorism. Pakistan created the hated Afghan Taliban and many other such organizations in Afghanistan. Similar organizations continue to flourish in Pakistan and try to create a totalitarian and fascist Islamic state. Despite all tall claims of fight against Islamic terrorism, the evil continues to flourish. Pakistan is undoubtedly a major source of supply for the Iraqi terrorism. Illicit drug trade continues with the blessings of the Islamic mullahs and the ISI (the Islamic Military Intelligence). There are Islamic prostitution centres in every Islamic city of the Islamic Pakistan where abducted and non-Muslim women are forced to suffer. The secular, liberal and rationalist intellectuals continue to suffer in Pakistan like the victims of the infamous Christian inquisition of medieval Europe. While the Christian churches burnt the heretics, Islamic mullahs get them indicted for Blasphemy.

Eternal vigilance is the price of civilization.

III

While fundamentalism, superstition, ignorance, lack of human rights, female genital mutilations, forced seclusion of women within their houses and in their hijabs; religious extremism, fundamentalism, suicide-bombing and Islamic terrorism continue to be the hallmarks of the Muslim states and societies under the influence of the Saudi Islamic Spiritual Empire of the petro-dollars or Iranian Shiite area of influence under its Shiite oil-money; it is high time for the civilized world to wake-up from the stupor of multi-culturism and blind tolerance of the organized intolerance; for the disease is spilling herein already. Many of the acts of the Islamic states and societies, organizations and individuals are barbaric and medieval; the beheading of the innocent hostages, death penalties and murders for religious reasons; chopping of hands and feet; stoning to death of women for getting raped or on accusation of natural sexual intercourse; honor-killing on mere suspicion, suicide-bombings and acts of terrorism; these are indicative of a deep-seated disease. Murder on the name of a merciful Allah is mere hypocrisy.

The rise of Saudi-sponsored extremist Islam is a danger to civilization everywhere. All extremist Muslims are potential terrorists and Allah's soldiers. There should be no tolerance for this religiously organized intolerance against liberalism, human rights and women's equal status and other manifestations of our civilization. Muslims in civilized and democratic societies should be required to take the oath of loyalty to the state and democracy. Political right to vote to those whose political loyalties are located in some far off desert is not only harmful but also suicidal for the state as well as for the very ideology and system of democracy. Political right to vote for those who wish to destroy the very system of democracy? Think again, Ladies and gentlemen.

There is no place for optimism for a liberal Islam. Nearly all Islamic states and states have failed to appreciate the basic human rights of their people, their women and their minorities. Saudis and Emirates are the worst offenders; and are the financial godfathers of fundamentalism, extremism and Islamic backwardness everywhere.. Nearly every Islamic country is dangerous not only for itself but for the world as a whole. Pakistan, for example, after supplying Iran and with Korea with nuke-secrets continues to offer the dangerous technology; Vietnam and Brazil are the new customers. The nuke-terrorist Dr. Abdul Qadir Kahn is safe, well protected and facilitated by the State of Pakistan, with full impunity, of course.

You civilized people! Yesterday you refused to acknowledge the dangers inherent in the rise of the Christian Nazi and Communist ideologies. Yesterday you supported Islamic Taliban even when they trampled rights of their women under their feet. Your refusal to confront militant Islam today may cost us more dearly than our individual lives-our cherished achievement -our civilization. Beliefs have consequences-the centrality of Islam to mental, social, intellectual and cultural backwardness; organized offences against women and minorities; fundamentalism, extremism and modern terrorism are impossible to deny. "Religions of peace and tolerance" are mere empty words.

Islam is an organized crime against humanity!

India: Miss World in trouble with astrology

When one of the most beautiful women in the world gets ready to marry, curiosity is running high. In case of Aishwarya Rai , one of the top most Indian actresses and former “Miss World”, people may be a bit disappointed though: the chosen one is just an ordinary mud pot! Seriously, the lady is going to have a full-fledged Hindu marriage with priest and parents and pujas and all the rituals and ceremonies, just to become a mud pot’s wife. That is a proposal of her astrological advisers, as you may have guessed, and since beauty does not prevent gullibility (and obviously even her university education did not help much), she is all set to succumb to it.

Of course, the story will not end there. The young widow – because the poor bridegroom will be brutally broken into pieces before the marriage is consumed – will soon proceed to her second wedding. Actor Abhishek Bachchan is already in the queue. And that will then also be her last one, if the astrologers are to be trusted. Ash, as fans fondly call her, is a manglik , allegedly born in a special astrological constellation that is spelling misfortune for her potential husband. “In her horoscope, Rahu is placed in the 12th house which signifies marital problems”, says Pandit Sridhar Pandey in the holy city of Varanasi , who had the great ideas with the mud pot and is performing all the pujas that Ash and the rich and famous Bachchan family have to undergo these days.

If a man, who is not a manglik himself, marries a manglik woman, he is risking his life, claim the astrologers. Indian newspapers use to have special advertisement columns “Manglik bride searches for manglik groom”. Still many manglik girls from devout Hindu families find it difficult to get married.

India deserves a (more) dignified and responsible President

Sanal Edamaruku
Sanal Edamaruku
President, Indian Rationalist Association and
Rationalist International

The poet-President & the “creator of the universe”

India’s President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam has been the chief guest during the glamorous birthday show of controversial godman Sai Baba on 23rd November 2006. It is shameful and outrageous that the Indian President pays respect to a saffron charlatan, who exploits the gullible by claiming that he can produce ‘holy ash” from thin air, cure all illnesses, has created the universe and other nonsense more. It aggravates the case against President Kalam that he did not content himself with performing a kind of public relations routine, but went out of his way praising and glorifying the charlatan.

“I have immense love for Sai Baba”, Dr. Kalam said in his speech at Sai Baba’s headquarters in Puttaparthi . “I penned a poem in my mother tongue to greet Sai Baba on his birthday.” And he was not ashamed to read his poem (in a Telugu translation of the Tamil original) publicly to the cheering crowd of Sai Baba devotees. The rather embarrassing piece glorified Sai Baba as a glittering lighthouse and symbol of goodness. Because of Sai Baba’s presence, the President of India rejoiced, the earth was the most blessed planet in the solar system.

This is not only extremely silly and in bad taste. It is moreover irresponsible and undignified to a degree that is not compatible with the august office of the Indian President. President Kalam has misrepresented India and betrayed the trust of her people. India deserves a (more) dignified and responsible President.

India’s President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam & Satya Sai Baba
India’s President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam & Satya Sai Baba

The scientist-President & the exposed miracle man

It is deplorable that there are still many poor people in India, who are deprived of basic education and who don’t have any opportunity to develop scientific literacy. They are easy prey for frauds, fanning their fears and raising their hopes with “miracles” and promises of magical solutions for all problems. Miracle mongers and faith healers are inflicting a dangerous disease upon the weakest section of Indian society and have to be stopped by all means. It has to be one of the primary tasks of human development in India, to help the victims of superstition and blind belief to break the shackles of their archaic mindset and join the twenty first century.

Besides being the Indian President, Dr. Abdul Kalam is seen as one among the most prominent scientists of India and has raised great hopes for a better future, guided and protected by science. His concept “Vision 2020” promises to lead India smoothly into the orbit of the developed world. If a man of this stature and position uses his influence to come to the rescue a scandal-tainted godman, he commits a serious and unpardonable betrayal.

The children’s President & the alleged child abuser

In recent years, Sai Baba has hit international headlines as the center of another scandal. The aging godman stands accused of sexual abuse of minors among his devotees. Numerous cases of victims from India and abroad have come to light. Though Indian authorities seem still far away from opening a trial against the well-connected offender, too many victims and witnesses - mainly from Europe and USA - have broken their silence to further ignore his crimes. Some of their statements are recorded in articles that appeared in the London based The Daily Telegraph and in the film documentary "Seduced by Sai Baba", produced by the Danish State Television. In 2000, UNESCO washed its hands off Sai Baba by deciding neither to sponsor nor take part in a conference it had been planning to organize along with the Institute of Sathya Sai Education (ISSE, Thailand) and The Flinders University Institute of International Education (Australia), in Puttaparthi, India.

But all this seems not enough to stop President Dr. Abdul Kalam from publicly praising the fallen saffron star to the skies and lending him the shield of national honor to cover his shame. It is a shocking and somewhat macabre picture to see President Kalam, who loves to show himself in the company of children and cultivates an image of the great friend, promoter and protector of India’s youth, quite unperturbed and in such cordial relations with the man, who is held responsible for using his godly image to commit cruel and inhuman sexual abuse against hundreds of helpless minor devotees.

Philanthropy? A letter to the Indian President

Tainted and defeated, Sai Baba found a new avatar. One year back, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, fans announced his transformation from miracle-man to philanthropist. Sai Baba's trust , which claims to be "the biggest NGO in the world after the United Nations", has allegedly spent millions of Dollars for drinking water, hospital and school projects around Puttaparthi (Andhra Pradesh) and in Bangalore (Karnataka). His down-to-earth development work is winning Sai Baba "even the hearts of non-believers", hoped his supporters.

In December 2005, I have written a letter to President Dr. Abdul Kalam, which was never answered. It demanded criminal investigations against Sai Baba. "If Sai Baba's social development projects are meant to be indulgence to nullify his crimes, this procedure is unprecedented and unacceptable", I wrote. "It is a shame for India that well-founded accusations and numerous reputed witnesses against Sai Baba are ignored without any investigation. Do saffron clothes make an offender untouchable for the law? Do we have to tolerate that political protectionism raises its head so boldly, mocking India's democracy?" I asked in my letter.

Spending a part of the great fortunes, swindled out of the gullible by pretending to have supernatural powers, for social development around his ancestral village doesn't make Sai Baba a great philanthropist. It is a well-known strategy of dacoits and gangsters, to build themselves a strong support base and a safe haven by winning the total loyalty of "their" villagers at home. Hasn't the cocaine mafia in Colombia done the same with their comparatively modest means? By the way, isn’t it a matchless irony that Sai Baba spends money, obtained by claiming the power to cure all illnesses, for super-specialty hospitals? Sai Baba himself, when he recently fell ill, preferred to be treated in one of his modern hospitals instead of relying on his own magic.

The people of India have a basic right to receive drinking water, appropriate medical care, education etc. It is the duty of any government to provide these essential goods. And it is an utter humiliation, if people are forced to receive their dues as alms from the hands of a "philanthropist" who expects them to bow theirs heads in front of him and praise his generosity. The situation becomes worse, if the government leaves the citizens in dependency of a "philanthropist", who is a criminal and a megalomaniac, and claims that he has supernatural powers and even created the universe. Sai Baba's birthday has become a day of national shame for India with a section of leading politicians, scientists and artists at the feet of a charlatan and alleged child abuser. If they express their devotion, because they are personally weak and gullible people, we have to ask ourselves why we don't elect confident, efficient, strong and intelligent politicians instead. If they do so because they want to celebrate the "benevolence" of a politically well-connected fraud and alleged criminal, they are deeply corrupt.

Saint or Sex Maniac?

The Two Kanchi Sankarachariyars, Jayendrar and Vijayendrar, who are now accused No: 1 and 2 respectively in a murder case of Kanchee- puram, have behaved like sex-maniacs according to letters written by Sankararaman, who was said to have been murdered by their hirelings.

According to certain published $ items, the behaviours of both of the Sankarachariyars has come to light. The $ report is given below:

The police have started to dig out the sex complaints made against the Sankarachariyar. They are now making secret enquiries to ascertain about the ladies with whom the Sankarachariyar was said to have connections as found in the letter written by Sankararaman.

In one of the letters written by Sankararaman, it has been described that the Kanchi Sankara Madam has become the harem of Sankarachariyars. Jayendrar was described as an ‘Arab Sheik’ by Sankararaman for his sexual affairs with ladies.

There is a boy named Ananthu, the brother of the Telegu youth Prakash, living in America. Jayendrar used to read the pornographic magazines and books sent by this boy and practically enjoyed sex life as described in these books, it was alleged in the letter of Sankararaman.

It is alleged that Jeyandrar used to have sex with one Prema, nicknamed as Panparak, the wife of Natarajan in a peculiar way. All these sexual acts will be enacted in the presence of her husband. This fact was revealed in the letter written by Sankararaman in a false name of Somasekara Pandian.

It was also alleged in the letter that Jayendrar has arranged for the construction of a hospital for a lady doctor with whom he was having sexual affairs. In this letter, Sankararaman revealed and expalained in detail giving the list of ladies with whom Jayendrar was haviang sexual affairs. Villupuram Kanagavalli, Mumbai Prema, Thangammal, Vijaya, Tirupathi Aunty, Mythili, Thambaram Baby, Leela and there is no end for such a list.

The police is now making investigations and have started enquiries with all these ladies mentioned in the letters of Sankararaman with whom Jeyandrar was said to have been having sexual affairs. It is also reported that another set of sexual cases are being processed and Jayendran can be arrested again based on these allegations.

(Source: Malai Murasu : 22-2-2005)

[In the year 1983, in the book ‘Saint or Sectarian’ our Editor, K.Veeramani, hinted these kinds of their moral turpitude.

Now we are happy the police, through its investigations, brings these things to light.

The Dravidar Kazhagam’s Women’s Wing has agitated a few weeks back demanding to book them under the Indian Penal Code for thse criminal acts! ]

Theism - an obstacle to social progress

Levi Fragell
Former President , IHEU, London

All who are here - and humanists, atheists and freethinkers all over the world - are filled with grief and sorrow after the enormous disaster which struck this part of the globe in the middle of the festivities called Christmas,the celebration of the birth of the Christian god. But our despair is mixed with anger. Why should an immense catastrophe again hit the poorest ones, those who had to build their simple homes close to the seashore to feed their families and earn their living. Why do always the worst catastrophes - those not caused by civilisations, but by the so-called acts of God - why do they hit so hard on the world’s underprivileged? Those who live in houses of mud and clay; the old ones who cannot escape in time; the bedridden; the small children, playing on the beach. They are just as nice, honest and god-fearing as the rich people, living in stronger houses, made of solid brick, reinforced with iron rods and sheltered from cyclones and floods. Why should their gods punish them again and again for just being poor?

Why the poor suffer more?

Don’t the suffering million ask the same question? Of course they do. But they give the wrong answers. Or, more correctly - they are given the wrong answers by their religious leaders: bow your head, go down on your knees. Nobody can understand the ways of the Almighty, but he loves you so much. Just pray more, bring more sacrifices - so next time he may rescue you from evil and loss.

Such words may comfort individuals. But the religious answers do not give comfort to all. Every holocaust creates atheists. The stumbling block of unjust suffering becomes a step to new insight; If there is an almighty god, he cannot be good. A circle can not at the same time be a quadrangle. The god concept becomes meaningless. After the second world war, where millions of Jews were exterminated, thousands of Jews became atheists. Without having statistical evidence - I feel sure it exists somewhere. _ I do think there are more atheists among educated Jews than in any other ethnic community. One of them is the famous scientist Sir Herman Bondi, who has meant so much to the Atheist Centre here in Vijayawada.

But what is the atheist response to the natural catastrophes? Of course we will comfort the suffering, show compassion and give help - as the Indian Atheist Centre has done again and again during floods and earthquakes. But the basic, functional and long-term atheist and humanist response goes even further, beyond the humanitarian efforts. It consists of two questions and one appeal : The first question is : What can we - the world - learn from the catastrophe? And the second : What can we do with the knowledge we obtain? And the appeal is : Do it!

It may still be too early to draw conclusions about what we can learn from the recent disaster. But humanists will never turn their back to what has happened and hope to better luck next time. We want to know. We have to learn. May be what we learn will concern the forecast technology, the warning systems, the information channels, the international rescue awareness and potentials etc. If this kind of matters are problems that must be solved, the atheist and humanist appeal is : Do it! Stop producing bombs to some time, and develop the technology that can save lives. Make sure that electronic warning systems are upto date also in the third world, that satellite communication, land-based transmission and broadcast systems are distributed fairly throughout the world. And build safe houses to the poor, before you build religious cathedrals.

Criticism of Theism

Should the atheists blame the theists - those who belive in god - for the social and political shortcomings in this world ? Not at all - as individuals. Religious people have usually been among the first to help and support the victims of disasters. My parents were Christians, and both of them were nicer, more moral, more contributing to their neighbourhood than I will ever be. It is a fine and difficult balance to accept god believers as freinds on one hand - and criticise Theism on the other. It is necessary to make clear what in theism you crititcise. My own criticism of theism includes the following three parts of the theistic tradition, all three of them etymologically and semantically connected to the word theism.

The first one is Theology, which is the teaching or the doctrines about god, based on so called holy-scriptures. These doctrines claim to be the absolute truth about scientific matters, for instance the origin of the Universe, they explain the meaning of life for all and everybody and give the final laws and rules to moral behaviour. As secular knowledge and human experience accumulates, the religious doctrines often become more and more dysfunctional - inhuman and suppressive. The conditions for women in many theology-based cultures are one example. Social development is obstructed and natural human needs are neglected. For more than two thousand years humanists and philosophers in India, Greece, Rome - and later on all over the world - have attacked theology as the absolute truth. This has been a major contribution to the civilisation. Criticism of theology is still extremely important for the future welfare of millions.

Stop producing bombs to some time, and develop the technology that can save lives

Another effect of theism is theosophy, the wisdom from god. I am not particularly thinking of The Theosophical Society, established here in India by Madame Blavatsky. But she exemplifies the tradition. She insisted that she got her wisdom, her knowledge, in a supernatural way via her Masters in the Himalayas. Thousands of sect-leaders have insisted that they have had the same kind of revelations, through visions, dreams and encounters with angels and holy ghosts. Some of these experiences have had enormous consequences, like the Mosaic religion, Christianity and Islam. More often the followers have been more limited in number, but sometimes very harmful. In Sweden we have recently had murders based on claimed revelations from god. Since the 1970s the New Age movement has been highly influenced by the mysticism of theosophy. So called alternative and spiritual science has been promoted often as the result of supernaturally channelled wisdom. And secular science has consequently been rejected.

The third negavice effect of theism is theocracy, which means a state or a society ruled by god. A state can be a democratic and a relatively open society even where theology has a high standing and even where the culture is influenced by theosophical irrationality. But in a theocracy democratic ideas are banned, the religious laws are the civil laws, the rulers are the priests, the judges are theologians, the executors are deacons.

Together are these three fruits of theism an obstacle for human progress - and a possible danger for our civilisation. Examples are the role of religion in nationalism, imperialism, the biblical fundamentalism in The Middle East, the “Gott mit uns” doctrine in most religions etc. We should not overtook the danger of nuclear, biological or chemical attacks based on religious insanity. Manmade disasters may be worse than any earthquake.

But today’s question is : Can atheism also contribute to reducing the effects of natural catastrophes? I would not be a humanist if I did not think so. How? We do not belive in the final Apocalypse, willed and arranged by any god. We do not accept theologically-based restrictions on scientific research. We know that a civilisation that can explore moons and planets, get rid of polio, clone life and send a picture from this audience directly to my wife in Norway from my mobile - also can protect fishermen, their wives and children from extinction on the shores of the Indian ocean. I do not think any human effort can prevent the earth to quake or the volcanoes to erupt. The nature will always get the last word, and in a few billions of years our planet will collapse and the molecules disappear into the endless eternal Universe. But till then the godless minority will fight dogmatism and superstition on all levels of society to improve life for humankind, transcend the irrational obstacles for human progress. But let us get President Bush out of the scientific laboratories.

(From : Atheist - Feb., 2005)

Bakti is either foolishness or fraudulence

Periyar E.V.Ramasamy

What is Bakti (devotion to God)? Going to temples and worshipping idols, being deep in meditation, applying either Naamam or Viboothi on the forehead, being loyal to the Brahmins and making them presents in cash and kind, reading Ramayana, Mahabharatha, Bhagavatha, various Puranas etc, and listening to religious discourses are deemed by Brahmins as the activities of the devotees.

Going to temples and other places of worship, undertaking pilgrimage to holy places, reciting psalms, hymns or devotional songs are considered to be the activities of real devotees.

When they speak about Bakti, they refer only to some such activities. It has no relation to intellectual activity or to any of the human values and qualities like morality, honesty, gratitude, being helpful, uprightness etc. They do not refer to the good qualities we have to follow while dealing with others.

If the above qualities had been propagated among the people as essential ones to be adhered to, we would not find among them so much of indiscipline and dishonesty.

We see people putting on religious marks on their foreheads (like Naamam or Viboothi), going to temples, performing poojas at home, chanting various names of gods, etc. They are lauded as activities of true devotees. But we are not able to find among them even a fraction of qua-lities like honesty, morality, upright-ness etc. What is the reason?

Generally devotion to God is nothing but sheer selfishness; it is of no use to others. Even if any benefit accrues due to Bakti, it accrues only to the concerned individual, and no one else is benefitted by it in any way.

But if a person cares for ethics and is honest, those values will make him / her a respectable one and benefit those among whom that person lives.

If a person is lacking in his devotion to a deity (Bakti), it does no harm to others. But if a person’s behaviour is unethical and if he is not honest, will it not harm those around him, make them miserable and to suffer loss, and give them mental agony?

Conduct or behaviour that is basically harmful (essentially injurious) to others is unethical and dishonest.

All Gods, every one of them, are capable of only forgiving or punishing the scoundrels who harm the people. They are incapable of preventing a being or a person causing misery to other beings or persons.

When a person, who has harmed others, is punished, it may help to prevent him / her repeating the same kind of behaviour. But in what way God can compensate the affected person for the suffering caused or the harm done? Even if the affected persons are good devotee, they meet with the same result. God does not help them in any way.

Is the practice of devotion to God capable of atleast improving the character of a peson? Or is it helpful in preventing harm being caused to others?

So I ask: Is not the practice of Bakti a foolish, fraudulent and useless activity?

Blind Faith

Nearly eleven years after Lord Ganesha sipped milk and sent millions across India into a frenzy, idols of Goddess Durga and Lord Siva began sipping milk in Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday 20th August, creating mass hysteria in the entire town.

The news of the deities sipping milk in Bareilly emanated from a temple in the centre of the town on Sunday morning where a woman devotee offered milk to the idol and found the same disappearing from the bowl. By afternoon, news began pouring in that deities in other temples were also accepting milk and, within hours, people started queuing up to offer milk and watch the miracle.

Bareilly SSP Anand Swarup said that in view of the huge crowds that were turning up at the temples, the police had been deployed to maintain law and order in the town.

Shalini Saraswat, a house wife who visited a Siva temple in the afternoon, told that she had experienced the miracle herself. “This is God’s way of asserting his presence in our world. We are moving away from religion - that is why He asserts his power from time to time. Whether it is the sea water turning sweet in Mumbai or gods sipping milk - it is an assertion of the Almighty. I have seen the miracle myself and there is no reason for me not to believe it,” she said. It may be recalled that on September 21, 1995, Ganesha idols across the world had started sipping milk, sending Hindu devotees into a tizzy.

Hundreds of people began queuing up at temples in the capital, Delhi, following reports that the idols have began “drinking milk”. Long queues were reported outside temples in Mayur Vihar, East of Kailash and elsewhere in the city.

In Patna, the rumour that idols of Siva and Durga were “drinking milk” in a temple at Bhavar Pokhar area spread like fire. The phenomenon was reported from other temples also. A large number of women were seen queuing up before various temples in the city wearing yellow sarees.

However, scientists said the phenomenon that occurred was due to capillary action as the surface tension of milk pulled the liquid up and out of the spoon before gravity caused it to run down in front of the statue.

Religion is business - Any doubt?

Inniah Narisetti



See what is happening in Tirupathi, Vatican,
and Mecca. Here are interesting things as
example:
The devotees who visit Tirumala Tirupati Lord Venkateswara have to pay:
Rs. 120 for Suprabhatam
Rs. 200 for Archana
Rs. 1000 for Kalyanotsvam
Rs. 1000 for Arjita Brahmotsvam
Rs. 3000 for Vasantostvam
Rs. 120 for Ekantaseva
Rs. 2500 for Astadasapaadapadmaraadhana
Rs. 5000 for Tiruppavada
Rs. 150 for Kasturi ginne
Rs. 100 for Nijapaada darshan
Rs. 220 for Thomalaseva
Rs. 1000 for Archanantara Darshan
Rs. 1000 for Arjita Brahmotsvam
Rs. 1000 for Dolatsvam
Rs. 1000 for Sahasra Deepalankarana
Rs. 3000 for Vishesha puja
Rs. 5000 for Sahasrakalasabhisekam
Rs. 750 for Purushabhisekham
Rs. 300 for Punuguginne
Rs. 12250 for Vastralankara Seva
Rs. 3500 for Pushpayagam
Rs. 2500 for Theppotsvam
Rs. 2000 Abhideyaka Abhishekam
Rs. 5000 for Padmavathi Parinayam
Rs. 1000 for Pushpa Pallaki
Rs. 3000 for Koyil Alwar
Rs. 3000 for Thirumanjanam
Rs. 5000 for Pavitrotstvam
Rs. 10,00,000 (Rs. Ten lakhs only) for Udayastamaana Seva.
This is only a tip of the iceberg.
Apart from this the devotees shave their heads and offer the hair which is auctioned and sold for huge amounts. Devotees also put money, and jewellery in the Hundi which is sorted out daily and enormous amounts accumalate. Laddus, Vadas are sold to the devotees. Guest rooms also earn good amount of income.
In the name of religion the income is not taxed and exemptions are made. It is time to remove all exemptions to all religious bodies, temples, churches, Mosques, Gurudwaras, jain mandirs, Buddhist asramas, ashrams, and treat all the properties on par with any other citizen.
Government should stop helping religions on the pretext of equal treatment of all religions. Leave religion to private affair, but tax all the religious properties, apply ceiling limits, and made no exception to religion under any circumstances. That will be observing the constitutional spirit of promoting scientific temper In the name of minorities also no religion should be exempted from taxes, and all should be answerable to the public. Where ever money and property is involved, it should be treated as religious business only and should be treated on par with other businesses.
No secrecy should be allowed in offering donations to religious bodies. It leads to enormous corruption and evading income tax showing false source of income etc.

Why I rejected Religion

BY
Steeve Cooper
[Excerpts from The Rewards of being an Atheist published in The Australian Atheist of December, 2004 are given below.]

The following are some of the realisations which made me finally and totally abandon the notion of Christianity and its God.

1 .The Bible is a faulty source of knowledge. It contains hundreds of serious contraditons, scientific impossibilities, immoralities, absurdities, unfulfilled promises, inaccuracies and obscenities. Here is just one example. The Bible states that God cannot lie. Num 23:19 . Prov. 12:22. Heb. 6:18. It also states that God sends lying spirits, 2 Thess 2:11. 1 Kings 22:23. So we learn thatGod does lie by proxy.

2. The basis of Christian thought is that Jesus died a substitutional death for the sins of mankind, ‘thus cleansing them from all sin.’ It is unjust to charge an innocent person with the crimes of someone else. Equally, it is a travesty of justice to attribute the virtue of someone else to a guilty person. Yet this is the Christian doctrine, which sprang from the ancient Hebrew belief, in animal sacrifices for the sins of the people. It is convoluted ancient Hebrew reasoning unworthy of intelligent human beings.

3. The Christian religion relies on unprovable propositions:

a) that there is a supreme creator God;

b)a human person has an eternal soul;

c) the memory and guilts of this life can be transferred to another existence.

When there, the sins of mankind may be punished in a never-ending hell-fire. So the whole basis of Christianity is unscientific ancient superstitions and colossal cruelty.

4. The Christian religion diminishes human dinity by dependence on an unscientific myth. It tends to rob a person of the most important asset of self-esteem or self-worth by regarding him/her to be unworthy by him/herself. In its plae it offers borrowed virtue. It must first convince a person of unworthiness before offering the supposed imputed virtue of Jesus. The religion denies that human virtue is purely a human quality and a facet of our innate social nature. Religion always encourages dependence on a divine instead of human potential.

5. The Christian religion is an elitist anti-social doctrine equal to tribalistic racism. It divides people into believers or the damned. Its history is full of cruelty, wars and suffering. Christians, Jews, Muslims all worship the same God. Not only have they killed each other, they fight their own kind in the name of the same God. Millions have died because of belief in God. The American psychologist Dr. Eric Fromm said:

“There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as the moral indignation which permits anger, envy and hatred to be acted out under the guise of virtue.”

This cerainly applies to the Christian religion.

6. The Christian faith is founded on two basic beliefs. The first is that an almighty god does indeed exist; that he must be obeyed and worshipped before he will bestow his favours upon his supplicants. The second basic belief is that the spirit of mankind lives on after death, that there is another rewarding life beyond the grave.

These two basic notions stand together. If either god or life after death is not true, the whole structure of religion must collapse. Yet there is absolutely no scientific proof that either assumption is true. This is scary stuff! These two beliefs have been accepted by hundreds of billions of people for thousands of years. But that does not make those conclusions true.

conflict, I automatically became a humanist. We are all social animals who enjoy the company of other social animals. It is part of our innate natural heritage and becomes easy for us to show compassion, be honest with each other, tolerant and friendly to all people and gain approval by obeying the laws of the country.

Herre are some rewards for being an atheist:

An atheist becomes a peson of worth in his or her own right. There is no place for any borrowed pseudo-virtue.

He or she becomes king or queen of his or her own life and part of the social community.

One is not accountable to priests or any religious leader.

One acquires intellectual and emotional freedom, lack of guilt and no fear of death.

One gains personal honesty and freedom as a complete human being free from inner conflicting opinions.

A person believes in one’s own virtue, gaining personal maturity and integrity.

It is a way of living a socially, acceptable life in harmony with other human beings about us.

One looks to science and common sense reason to answer uncertainties.

When I was rid of religious.