“What kind of woman is willing to share her husband?” By Jemima Khan

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Editors

Jemima Khan investigates why more and more Muslim women in Britain are choosing to become “co-wives”.

She was introduced to her husband by a friend. She says that at first she was hesitant. “I was like, ‘No, I can’t do it. I’m too jealous as a person. I wouldn’t be able to do it.’ But the more that time went on and I started thinking about it, especially more maturely, I saw the beauty of it.”

Photograph: Getty Images

“She confesses that “if he was to stay all the time I’d love it”, but says that having time off “is definitely beneficial in some ways as well”. She has “more freedom” to see her friends and her family, and it is a relief “not having a man in your face half the time, when you are cranky, and he can go somewhere else and you can manage the kids on your own”.

“According to Mizan Raja, who set up the Islamic Circles community network and presides over the east London Muslim matrimonial scene, women are increasingly electing to become “co-wives” – in other words, to become a man’s second or third wife. As I reported last year in the New Statesman, Raja gets five to ten requests every week from women who are “comfortable with the notion of a part-time man”. He explained: “Career women don’t want a full-time husband. They don’t have time.” So couples live separately, a husband visiting his wives on a rota. Click link for full article;”

http://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/religion/2013/04/what-kind-woman-willing-share-her-husband

Posted by F. Sheikh

Boston Bombing:Thank goodness it wasn’t . . . fill in the blank!

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Editors

A worth reading article by Kathleen Parker in Washington Post. After the bombing, every ethnic group was praying and hoping that the perpetrators do not belong to their group. The author writes;

“As the manhunt for the Boston bombers reached its climactic conclusion, Americans of all hues and backgrounds heaved a sigh of relief. Thank goodness it wasn’t . . . fill in the blank:

● a white Christian from the South;

● a dark-skinned Muslim foreigner;

●an illegal Latino immigrant.

Thank goodness.

The marathon bombers, officials say, are of Chechen background. Huh? Is that, like, in Czechoslovakia or something?

. The mere fact that the brothers, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, were connected to Islam was sufficient for some to justify holding all Muslims in suspicion.

The relief, meanwhile, was that “our” demographic group wouldn’t this time be blamed. Even darker-skinned Muslims, familiar with group demonization following 9/11, reportedly were relieved.

Whom do we hate when the enemy is a composite of our own diverse ecosystem? When “them” is “us?”

Even a tiny percentage of 1.5 billion Muslims, or 21 percent of the world’s population, who have embraced jihad is enough to give pause. Moderate Muslims share that pause

Once we begin to discriminate in the assignment of rights to citizens and legal residents based on their thoughts, religious affiliation, assemblage — or our own assumptions — we risk becoming our own worst enemy. Click link below for full article;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kathleen-parker-the-terror-of-not-knowing/2013/04/23/ee4c4f58-ac46-11e2-b6fd-ba6f5f26d70e_story.html

Posted by F. Sheikh

‘The Boston Bombing: Made in the U.S.A ‘ By Wilson Brissett & Patton Dodd

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Editors

You could almost hear the sigh of relief from some quarters when the perpetrators behind the Boston Marathon bombings and its aftermath turned out to be adherents of radical Islam.

The Tsarnaev brothers’ violence is not just a religious phenomenon, but an American one.

Calling what happened in Boston “Islamic violence” is comforting, because it renders it immediately recognizable to post-9/11 minds, and locates the source of the violence outside of American society. A more unsettling but more accurate account of the Tsarnaev brothers would see them as merely the latest incarnation of a figure as old as the United States itself: the isolated individual lost in the social and cultural whirlwind that is secular American modernity, who sees salvation in the absolute moral clarity of an idiosyncratic collection of beliefs, and decides that he would rather resort to violence than countenance any concession to a complicated, ambiguous social reality.

William James, the American pioneer of the scholarly study of religion, would call Wieland’s behavior not religious violence, but “fanaticism.” In his 1902 book The Varieties of Religious Experience, James argued that, for the fanatic, “piety is the mask, the inner force is tribal instinct.” Where Nietzsche had observed and analyzed Christianity’s supposed preoccupation with the vengeance of the powerless against the powerful, James used this specific form of hostility, calledressentiment, to account for the violent inclinations we see from isolated pretenders to “saintliness” — people whose real faith is in the invulnerability of their self-made system of beliefs more than in any traditionally and communally observed God.

Fanaticism is not religion pushed too far. It is tribalism without a tribe. And it can be a particular risk with the geographical and cultural dislocation attending the American experience of immigration, whether for the Wielands of Saxony or the Tsarnaevs of Dagestan. Read Full article by clicking on .http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/the-boston-bombing-made-in-the-usa/275510/

Posted by F. Sheikh

My Travels: Beauty of Vietnam & Cambodia

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Editors

( By. F. Sheikh) In Hanoi we attended a Water Puppet Show. it was beautiful show with mix of local and Indian Music.Few Pictures from show;

Water Poppet Show in Hanoi

The Puppet Handlers

The Puppets and Puppeteers

Musicians at Water Puppet Show

About three hour drive to the east of Hanoi is a beautiful bay, Ha Lang Bay. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We took overnight cruise of Bay.

Halong Bay

Beautiful view

Barbecue and Grill Night at the Ship

Beach along Halong Bay

In the Halong Bay is a Boat village. It has its own school on boats and volunteers come from mainland to teach. They were relocated to mainland but could not survive and came back.

Boat Village in Halong Bay

Boat Village

Grocery Shop on a boat

Temple for Boat Village Residents

Supporting Foams, Children playing

Small Cruise Ship in Halong Bay

Centuries Old water made Cave in Ha Long Bay

After this we flew to Da Nang, Hoi An and Hue , in South Vietnam. These are beautiful towns.

Theater inside the Palace in Hue

Palace In Hue-in decay. Some parts destroyed by bombing during the war

Temple in Da Nang

An other view of Military Watch post in Da Nang

Deserted American Military Watch post on Hills of Da Nang

View of Da Nang valley from Watch Post

Traditional Dance Show in Hue Hotel

Taditional Dance in Hue Hotel

Transporting Gravel on Boat in Da Nang

From Hue, we flew to Saigon. Everywhere in Vietnam and Cambodia the hotels and service was great. The tourist areas has clean bathrooms and Guides always keep bottled water with them to offer you whenever you need it.Food is great.

Hotel in Hue at night

Delicious Soup served in Coconut Shell

Dish with beautiful display

General Post Office in Saigon

Bride and Groom-Western Style wedding in Saigon

The North Vietnam Hanoi usually has traditional weddings as below;

A wedding ceremony in Hanoi in traditional dresses

The major transportation in Vietnam is scooters;

Young Adults enjoying afternoon drinks outside cafe in Hanoi, using tiny stools. Main mode of transportation in city is scooters

Young Adults enjoying afternoon drinks outside cafe in Saigon, using tiny stools. Main mode of transportation in city is scooters

The visit to Vietnam War Museum is in separate article. From Saigon we flew to Phnom Penh, Cambodia and then to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Angkor temple in Siem Riep, Cambodia

Monkeys near the Angkor Temple in Cambodia

Tap water flowing through hill in Cambodia- Still people consider it Holy Water

Tap water flowing through hill in Cambodia- They all know it is tap water, but still people consider it Holy Water

Tourists relaxing in the Temple in Cambodia in 100* degree heat

Palace in Cambodia. The Emperor is mostly out of country to China

Palace in Cambodia

Fish Pond In The Palace

Traditional Dance with Indian culture touch in Siem Reap Cambodia

Traditional Dance in Siem Reap Cambodia

Backyard of Hotel in Cambodia (Siem-Reap)

Pond in Hotel Backyard in Siem Reap, Cambodia

All Lexus Trucks and Cars parked in front of a restaurant in Phnom Penh,Cambodia

From Siem Reap, Cambodia, we flew to Kuala lumpur, Malaysia. Tokyo, Singapore and Kualalumpur in separate article.

Politics Of Vietnam & Cambodia

Vietnam

Vietnam is ruled by a single Communist Party but only 5% of the people are its members. The people openly complain about corruption and are longing for Democracy, but generally they seem happy and feel the country is progressing in right direction. They complain about Chinese, who are a tiny minority, but control most of the businesses. There is a conflict with China on South China Sea Rights. In recent years they are warming up to the Americans.

Cambodia

Cambodia has Constitutional Monarchy with Parliamentary System. The general public also seem happy with the new investments from the West. But they are still bitter about the Americans because they believe America supported Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge to oust the Emperor Sihanouk who was supporting the Vietcong during the Vietnam War. Khmer Rouge killed about one million people out of about eight million population. People still narrate the horror stories of Pol Pot. Cambodians speak warmly of China.

Posted by F. Sheikh

Thinkers' Forum USA

A Site for Intellectual Empowerment and Exchange of Ideas

Monthly Archives: May 2013

“What kind of woman is willing to share her husband?” By Jemima Khan

Boston Bombing:Thank goodness it wasn’t . . . fill in the blank!

‘The Boston Bombing: Made in the U.S.A ‘ By Wilson Brissett & Patton Dodd

My Travels: Beauty of Vietnam & Cambodia

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