Communalism is the New Nuremberg Defense

"I didn't want to be communal"

"I was only obeying orders"

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/edwest/2014/08/i-didnt-want-to-appear-racist-is-the-i-was-only-obeying-orders-of-our-age/

US Seeks Coalition Against ISIS

In a reprise of recent history, the US is now calling for a global coalition against ISIS (those whom they built up before, just like they did with Taliban):

http://time.com/3227918/john-kerry-isis/






Doesn't this look like recent history repeating itself all over again? How such a large superpower can blatantly commit another blunder again, so soon after the previous one, just defies belief.

China Transitioning to New Model

China is going through a precarious transition, as its previous basis for stability dries up:

Quick notes: Healthier lunch, Barack's strategy...

• What???: India Asks PepsiCo to Help Make School Lunches Healthier



• Fast-tracking destruction? Activists alarmed over NDA dismantling environmental regulations



• India should learn: Sri Lanka orders removal of mosque



• Grand mom knew: 5 Ways Gut Bacteria Are Good for More Than Just Your Gut



• Obama's strategy:

Of course we don't have an #ISIS strategy yet! http://t.co/XxWEbc8LmR #Obama pic.twitter.com/hwWAaTWdt6
— Anne Bayefsky (@AnneBayefsky) August 30, 2014




• Green mobility: Helsinki’s Plan to Make Private Cars Obsolete



• Pedal power: why cycling to school is good for learning and the planet



• Throw some light: Has Science Fully Explained Sunshine?



• Physics Experiment May Prove Our Universe Is A Two-Dimensional Hologram

Pak Army to Demolish Hindu Temple, Evict Community

The Pak army is showing its sectarian focus again, by demolishing an old Hindu temple which is the lifeline of Hindus in the district there:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-28970845

'Soft Coup' by Military in Pakistan

Pakistan's military may have just pulled off a 'soft coup' against PM Nawaz Sharif - all according to the military's plan:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/08/28/the_pretender_to_pakistans_throne_imran_khan_nawaz_sharif

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/murder-charges-filed-pakistan-pm-25161330

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/08/29/did-a-soft-coup-just-happen-in-pakistan/

RoP Rape Gangs

A grooming conviction is one where a series of men who know each other are convicted for their systematic actions in luring a child (a schoolgirl) into sexual activities, often leading to a life of rape and prostitution.

Multiculturalism, Islam and Child Sex Slavery  

Grooming Gang Convictions (1997-2014)

Date      Town    First name Surname age
11/1997 Leeds  Mohammed Rashid 21
11/1997 Leeds  Abid Sadique 21
02/2005 Keighley  Shabir Ahmed 32
02/2005 Keighley  Munwar Khan 30
04/2006 Blackpool  Puppy Parmar 31
04/2006 Blackpool  Sandeep Chauhan 28
06/2007 Oldham  Shahzad Masood 33
06/2007 Oldham  Mohammed Suleman 39
08/2007 Blackburn  Zulfqar Hussain 46
08/2007 Blackburn  Qaiser Naveed 32
11/2007 Sheffield  Ayad Mahmood 35
11/2007 Sheffield  Aziz Hamed 24
08/2008 Oldham  Shofiqul Islam 21
08/2008 Oldham  Shamim Ahmed 21
11/2008 Manchester  Mirza Baig 35
11/2008 Manchester  Mohammed Ditta 39
11/2008 Blackburn  Ian Hindle 32
11/2008 Blackburn  Andrew Wells 49
04/2009 Blackburn  Imran Pervez 27
04/2009 Blackburn  Zaheer Khan 24
07/2009 Skipton  Mohammed Zackriya 21
07/2009 Skipton  Mohammed Taj 37
07/2009 Skipton  Mohammed Shabir 36
07/2009 Skipton  Shafaq Hussain 21
02/2010 Rochdale  Ajmal Afridi 19
02/2010 Rochdale  Imtiaz Syed 20
02/2010 Rochdale  Tayub Hussain 19
02/2010 Rochdale  Mustafa Arshad 17
02/2010 Rochdale  Mohammed Raja 20
06/2010 Nelson  Azeem Shah 23
06/2010 Nelson  Tabassum Shah 24
08/2010 Rochdale  Asad Hassan 28
08/2010 Rochdale  Mohammed Basharat 28
08/2010 Rochdale  Mohammed Atif 29
08/2010 Rochdale  Aftab Khan 31
08/2010 Rochdale  Abid Khaliq 30
08/2010 Rochdale  Mohammed Safi 31
08/2010 Rochdale  Ahmed Noorzai 29
08/2010 Rochdale  Mohammed Khan 26
08/2010 Rochdale  Najibullah Safi 32
09/2010 Preston  Mohammed Moosa 24
09/2010 Preston  Faisal Ghani 25
11/2010 Rotherham  Razwan Razaq 30
11/2010 Rotherham  Umar Razaq 24
11/2010 Rotherham  Zafran Ramzan 21
11/2010 Rotherham  Mohsin Khan 21
11/2010 Rotherham  Adil Hussain 20
11/2010 Derby  Abid Siddique 27
11/2010 Derby  Mohammed Liaqat 28
11/2010 Derby  Mohamed Rehman 26
11/2010 Derby  Faisal Mehmood 24
11/2010 Derby  Akshay Kumar 38
11/2010 Derby  Naweed Liaqat 33
11/2010 Derby  Farooq Ahmed 28
11/2010 Derby  Graham Blackham 26
11/2010 Derby  Ziafat Yasin 31
08/2011 Accrington  Amjad Hussain 38
08/2011 Accrington  Shahid Hussain 34
08/2011 Accrington  Tanveer Butt 39
03/2012 Telford  Shamrez Rashid 20
03/2012 Telford  Amar Hussain 21
03/2012 Telford  Jahbar Rafiq 28
03/2012 Telford  Adil Saleem 20
03/2012 Telford  Amer Choudhrey 20
05/2012 Rochdale  Kabeer Hassan 25
05/2012 Rochdale  Abdul Aziz 41
05/2012 Rochdale  Abdul Rauf 43
05/2012 Rochdale  Mohammed Sajid 35
05/2012 Rochdale  Adil Khan 42
05/2012 Rochdale  Abdul Qayyum 43
05/2012 Rochdale  Mohammed Amin 45
05/2012 Rochdale  Hamid Safi 22
05/2012 Rochdale  Shabir Ahmed 59
05/2012 Bradford  Shabir Ahmed 39
05/2012 Bradford  Munwar Khan 42
02/2013 Ipswich  Surin Uddin 31
02/2013 Ipswich  Mohammed Sheikh 31
02/2013 Ipswich  Hamza Ali 38
03/2013 Birmingham  Raja Khan 23
03/2013 Birmingham  Adeeb Sultan 27
03/2013 Keighley  Shazad Rehman 30
03/2013 Keighley  Bilal Hussain 23
05/2013 Oxford  Kamar Jamil 27
05/2013 Oxford  Akhtar Dogar 32
05/2013 Oxford  Anjum Dogar 31
05/2013 Oxford  Assad Hussain 32
05/2013 Oxford  Mohammed Karrar 38
05/2013 Oxford  Bassam Karrar 34
05/2013 Oxford  Zeeshan Ahmed 28
07/2013 Barking  Naeem Ahmed 25
07/2013 Barking  Nabeel Ahmed 24
07/2013 Barking  Hassan Raza 24
07/2013 Manchester  Shamin Uddin 26
07/2013 Manchester  Giash Uddin 27
07/2013 Manchester  Robert Jackson 23
08/2013 Leicester  Aabidali Ali 39
08/2013 Leicester  Rakib Iacub 20
08/2013 Leicester  Wajid Usman 21
08/2013 Leicester  Hamza Imtiaz Ali 28
08/2013 Leicester  Bharat Modhwadia 25
08/2013 Leicester  Chandresh Mistry 37
10/2013 London  Mohammad Shabbir 34
10/2013 London  Muhammad Shabbir 25
11/2013 Rochdale  Mohammed Abubaker 32
11/2013 Rochdale  Freddie Kendakumana 27
11/2013 Rochdale  Roheez Khan 27
11/2013 Rochdale  Chola Chansa 33
11/2013 Rochdale  Abdul Huk 37
12/2013 Middlesbrough  Ateeq Latif 17
12/2013 Middlesbrough  Shakil Munir 32
12/2013 Middlesbrough  Sakib Ahmed 19
01/2014 Peterborough  Hassan Abdulla 33
01/2014 Peterborough  Zdeno Mirga 18
01/2014 Peterborough  Jan Kandrac 17
01/2014 Peterborough  Renato Balog 18
01/2014 Peterborough  anon ? 14
01/2014 Leeds  Mohammed Hussain 28
01/2014 Leeds  Shah Miah 28
01/2014 Leeds  Harris Uddin 30

FrontPageMag: ‘Easy Meat’: Inside the World of Muslim Rape Gangs

The most important article I've ever written. I hope it can make a difference. http://t.co/1hZ9UJIGdi
— Ruzwana Bashir (@ruzwana) August 29, 2014

Fwd: The Rise of Ideological Jihadists by tufail ahmad in OPEN

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: sanjeev nayyar

The Rise of Ideological Jihadists 21/8/14.

Tufail Ahmad is a former journalist with the BBC Urdu Service and Director of South Asia Studies Project at the Middle East Media Research Institute, Washington DC

 

http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/voices/the-rise-of-ideological-jihadists

 

Almost all terror attacks in Jammu & Kashmir and elsewhere in India could be attributed to the Pakistani military's Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, as well as to major Pakistan-based terror organisations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad. Wait, that is no longer the case. India is now witnessing the rise of a new generation of jihadists, who identify themselves with groups based in the Middle East. They are motivated by the ideology of jihad— both through social media networks as well as by local recruiters—and are not sponsored by Pakistan. As per intelligence estimates that appeared in the media in July, up to 80 Indian Muslim youths are reportedly fighting alongside jihadists in Iraq and Syria. The argument that Indian Muslims are not part of Osama bin Laden's global jihad now stands invalidated by the turn of events.

In the summer of 2013, a new anti-India group began coming to the fore: Ansar ut-Tawheed Fi Bilad Al-Hind (Supporters of the Islamic Monotheism in India). It released a number of videos in which nearly a dozen youths from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh were shown training somewhere in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. On 18 July this year, the 20th of the fasting month of Ramadan, a jihadi account on Twitter released a photograph of Anwer Bhatkal, a relative of Indian Mujahideen co-founder Riyaz Bhatkal, announcing his death while fighting in Afghanistan.

These Muslim men are being recruited both internally in India and from abroad. As reported by journalist Praveen Swami, four Muslim youths from the suburbs of Mumbai— Arif Majeed, Fahad Sheikh, Shaheen Tanki and Aman Tandel— flew on May 23 for Baghdad as part of a group of 22 Shia pilgrims and joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the terror group headed by jihadist commander Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. A few youths from Tamil Nadu who were based in Singapore were recruited by jihadists and are now fighting in Syria, notably Fakkurudeen, who took his wife and three children to the jihadist battlefield. In addition to the ideological jihadists who may or may not be recruited by Pakistan- based groups, the arrest in April—along with the Chennai train blasts in May—of Sri Lankan national Shakir aka Zakir Hussein by Chennai police revealed transnational terror links involving Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan and Malaysia to target Israeli and US consulates in Bangalore and Chennai, hatched by Pakistan's ISI and involving a Pakistani diplomat in Colombo.

On 29 June, an audio statement was issued by Al-Baghdadi. He declared himself as the Caliph, or head of the Islamic State, and demanded bai'yah (an oath of fealty) from all Muslims. Among the jihadists, the position of Caliph, known formally as Emir- ul-Momineen (Leader of the Faithful Muslims), was until now held only by Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban leader from Afghanistan. Al-Baghdadi's ISIS has released a global map where it aims to enforce the Islamic sharia rule. The map includes the land of Khorasan, which covers Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka.

+++

THE JIHADIST THREAT TO INDIA IS REAL

Al-Baghdadi is considered a terrorist by all good-intentioned people in the West and the East, including by a large number of Islamic clerics across the world—except by Indian cleric Maulana Salman Al-Husaini Nadwi. In early July, Nadwi, an Islamic scholar at the Nadwatul Ulama seminary of Lucknow, wrote an open letter greeting him on his assuming the role of Caliph. In the letter sent via messaging service WhatsApp and in later statements in Hindi and Urdu, Nadwi referred to Al-Baghdadi as Emir-ul-Momineen and prayed—'May Allah protect you', spoke of 'good news of victories' in Iraq, urged jihadist organisations in Syria to sink their differences and forge unity, and advocated that Muslims 'abide by' the Emir-ul- Momineen 'if he follows Allah's sharia'.

... deleted

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India Hedge Funds Soar Due to Modi

Indian hedge funds have been the best performers this year, due to strong belief that PM Narendra Modi will revive India's economy:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-26/india-hedge-funds-are-world-s-best-performer-on-modi-the-hero-.html

Rotherham Scandal: 1400 Children Sexually Abused By Pakistanis

Local police in UK were afraid to investigate because they might be called communal:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28939089

She also found the majority of perpetrators were of Pakistani heritage.

Revealing details of the inquiry's findings, Prof Jay said: "It is hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that child victims suffered."

She said she found examples of "children who had been doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally violent rapes and threatened they would be next if they told anyone".

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/may/14/child-grooming-sexual-abuse-race

Quick notes: Vietnam's offer, Choking on plastics...

• High time: India examining Vietnam's South China Sea oil blocks offer



• Privatization of profits, socialization of losses: Coalgate verdict needs to be welcomed



• Choking the oceans with plastic: The real challenge is to combat an economic model that thrives on wasteful products and packaging, and leaves the associated problem of clean-up costs.



• Learning from China? Competition panel slaps Rs 2,545 cr fine on carmakers. The margins on spares sold through authorized dealerships are often as high as 100 per cent.



• AAPcrook: Dead AAP member and RTI activist seen in Bangalore, Nepal. Wife too believes that he had faked his death to live with another woman.



• Refuse to be clubbed with Pakis:

Wednesday's Mirror front page... Horrific betrayal of 1,400 children http://t.co/ANBYQCVDCm pic.twitter.com/gchITHilW5
— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) August 26, 2014

Fwd: Time for India to use its Soft Power in China

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Vaidyanathan R <vaidya@iimb.ernet.in>
Date: Mon, Aug 25, 2014 at 11:48 AM
Subject: Time for India to use its Soft Power in China
To: Vaidyanathan R <vaidya@iimb.ernet.in>

 

http://prof-vaidyanathan.com/2014/08/22/time-for-india-to-use-its-soft-power-in-china/

 

Time for India to use its Soft Power in China

VIF India .org                                 22-08-14                      Prof R. Vaidyanathan

 

 

July 2014 is an important month for global economics and China. It is the first time in recent history that China has overtaken USA in GDP [adjusted for purchasing power parity or PPP] and has become number one country in the world according to Euromonitor¹. Now the order is China/USA/India/Japan in terms of GDP at PPP. Of course in per capita terms, USA has ten times more gross income than China given the population size of the latter.

Still China's growth has been phenomenal and in the next two decades, it is poised to become numero uno even in nominal terms out running USA. This has implications for India from an Asian perspective and also we need to formulate our strategy about China. Traditionally in the last few decades, we have been looking at China using US or UK lens. This is due to the fact that we have not developed many China centers all over India. Hence we have few experts who understand their language and try to look at China with Indian glasses rather than Anglo-Saxon lens.

The major change that is taking place in China is not related to their growth rates and Three Gorges Dam and the shopping malls and Olympics stadia. That is a typical Western way of viewing China. The main change is in religious affiliation and assertion of Islamic followers and development of large scale underground Church. The middle classes have given up rice [perceived to be for the illiterate poor] and are embracing Christianity since it also helps in job mobility particularly in global companies where the heads could belong to the same Church. The Muslim population is less dispersed and more concentrated in specific locations like western part But there is also a growing interest in China about its past. The Ming dynasty tombs in Beijing which are made in marble were painted in red color during the great cultural revolution of the sixties and even today laborers are washing it to make it back in to white color without success. The guides are not reluctant to talk about it. The ten handed Buddha in the Summer Palace of Ching dynasty near Beijing has significant relationship with our idea of Lord Vishnu who destroys evil and even this is mentioned clearly. More importantly, China is opening what are called Confucius Institutes in more than fifty countries which is similar to British Council efforts but more focused on China's ancient wisdom. . The first thing we should learn is to stop looking at China with Western glasses.

The economic boom in China has given rise to issues related to their faith/religion and associated things. First and foremost, China is facing a severe separatist [called splitters by Chinese] in their western region namely Xinjiang by Uighurs. The region is populated by followers of Islam religion and seeing unrest for the past two decades. But recently it has reached violent proportions. For instance, early last week Chinese claimed that at least 100 have been killed in disturbances in that region². Not only that, some portion of the Uighurs has carried the battle to Beijing itself. In other words, one form of regional separation combined with Islamic terrorism has become a major problem in China. There are also reports that the Islamists are taking shelter in the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

On the other hand, China is also waging a battle with "unrecognized" Church in its territory. Once a hub of Christianity, worshippers in Wenzhou fear their faith is facing its biggest threat since the Cultural Revolution³. The recent visit of the Pope to South Korea as part of his engaging Asia has fuelled concerns in China since China has its own church and does not recognize Papal authority.

"By my calculations China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon," said Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule.⁴ But for China, both the Abrahamic religions are alien to its culture going back several thousand years. So they are trying to revive "Confucianism" by encouraging the study of it as we'll as opening several centers to propagate it. Buddhism is their ancient religion and Hindu influences are significant.

The keynote speech by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China- Hu Jintao to the 17^th Party Congress in October 2007 – devoted a paragraph to religion. He stressed that religious people including priests, monks and lay –believers played a positive role in the social and economic development of China. Hence religion is not any more the opiate of the masses. The state controlled Xinhua stresses that there must be freedom of belief. It says that religion can play an important role in realizing a 'harmonious society" which is the new political role of the party⁵. That is the main issue we at India should be interested in. A 2007 study conducted by two professors of China Normal University based on more than 4500 people concluded that more than 300 million people namely 31 percent are religious and more than 60 % of those are in the 16-40 age group. The number of followers of Christianity has increased to 12 % from a low of less than 8% in the nineties.

This last fact is interesting since a huge underground Church has developed in China and
Zhao Xiao, a former Communist Party official and convert to Christianity, thinks there are up to 130 million Christians in China.⁶. This figure is much more than the official figures of 21 million –16 million Protestants and five million Catholics. If the latter figure is true—which is corroborated by other like Pew Forum –then there are more Christians in China than the Communist Party membership which is pegged at 74 million in the last count.

Thus, a significant change that is taking place in China pertains to religion. The economic growth bereft of spiritual underpinnings in the context of death of Marxism is going to be a great challenge for China and India as an elder brother should facilitate orderly transformation based on our common shared ancient wisdom. Let us remember that China is also a multi-cultural and multi religious society but interested in our shared past. In the words of Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA [1938-1942] "India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without having to send a single soldier across her borders."Ship loads of Sanskrit and Pali original works taken away by Chiang-Kai-Shek from mainland to Taiwan bear testimony to it. These are exhibited in the Taipei museum even today.

Hence, India should be sending Sri Sri Ravishankar/Mata Amirtanandamayi / Swami Ramdev/ Pramukh Swami/Sankaracharyas/Vaishnavite Seers and other spiritual leaders, Bharatha Natyam experts, musicians, other artists in hundreds to China to " Conquer and Dominate" by our soft power. We need to print millions of copies of Ramayana and Mahabharata and our Puranas and Gita and Jataka stories in all modern Chinese languages and widely make them available. The CDs of Mahabharata and Ramayana etc. can also be given free. We should start some fifty Bharatiya Vidya Bhavans in China. Actually China needs this more than USA even though all our soft power is currently on show in the USA. We should create a fund of at least Rs.1000 crore for this effort. There is a statue of Kalidasa in the Shanghai theatre unveiled by the theater academy. I do not think of any metro in India including the so called "cultural capital" Kolkata, having a statue of Kalidasa. At Kolkata, the Theatre street became Shakespeare Sarani and not Kalidasa Marg!

We should strategically recognize the weak point of China and also the need of its masses in the absence of Communism. Many a Chinese even today believe that their next birth should be in India to reach salvation. Culture and religion are not taboos any more.

There are other issues. Officially China recognizes or permits only five religions namely Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, Protestantism and Catholicism⁷. Hence we should take steps to include Hinduism as one of the permitted religions. The Indian Government should take appropriate steps in this regard. The point is that our soft power in culture is interwoven in a tapestry form with the religion. You cannot separate it howsoever one tries it. Carnatic Music without Bhakti is neither music nor art. But our Government of all hues has never raised this issue with the Chinese.

The strategy should be to envelop China with music, dance, art, Yoga. Ayurveda, spiritual texts like Ithihasas, Gita, Puranas etc and capture the hearts of the middle classes as we have done for centuries.

The second issue is related to our own mind-set. We tend to look at China either through the Western spectacles or through local Marxist spectacles—which have more thick glasses. We need to come out of it. Even when invitations come to Indian spiritual leaders, the Government of India remains unenthusiastic and indicates its dis-interest in the false assumptions regarding China's political orientation. The policy formulators are still living in the sixties and seventies while as China is undergoing a gigantic social crisis due to material prosperity and spiritual vacuum. Unfortunately, as a Chinese colleagueof mine at Shanghai University commented last year, "both our countries are ruled by rootless deracinated foreign educated wonders that do not have any idea of the civilizational roots or the cultural richness of our lands." Hopefully now it should have changed!!

China is enthusiastically waiting. To quote late B K S Iyengar, the doyen of yoga, "Mr. Iyengar told The Hindu during a visit to Beijing that he saw China as a future home for yoga. When he travelled to Guangzhou to give a lecture, he was stunned to find that organisers had rented out a stadium – more than 1,300 students had come to listen to him".⁸

But this is the opportunity to us since it is better to have a competitor and neighbour sharing the past cultural commonness. This will be very useful when the world is going to have two super powers from Asia unlike the conflict of last century between two super powers—USA and USSR- who did not have any shared cultural roots.

China is at the threshold of change. It is yearning for spiritual solace. Many groups and sects from Western countries [with or without permission] are trying to spread their influence and message—since this is an opportunity for them.

Are we ready to undertake such a mission?

Endnotes

1.     [http://blog.euromonitor.com/2014/07/china-overtakes-the-us-as-the-worlds-largest-economy.html]

2.     [http://www.dw.de/china-revises-uighur-unrest-figures/a-17828475].

3.     [http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/05/china-christianity-wenzhou-zhejiang-churches].

4.     [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10776023/China-on-course-to-become-worlds-most-Christian-nation-within-15-years.html]

5.     [Asia Times Online July -3 -2008].

6.     [The Economist 2^nd October 2008]

7.     [Government White Paper on Religions, 1997]

8.     [http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/india-to-open-yoga-centre-in-china/article6229124.ece]

---

Published Date: 22^nd August 2014, Image source: http://deskofbrian.com/
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Vivekananda International Foundation)

 

 

  ____________________________________________   

  R.VAIDYANATHAN                                       

  PROFESSOR OF FINANCE                                           

  INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

  BANNERGHATTA ROAD                              

  BANGALORE

  INDIA --560076

  TEL: 91-80-2699-3086

  FAX:91-80-2658-4050

  e mail:vaidya@iimb.ernet.in

 

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sent from samsung galaxy note, so please excuse brevity

backgrounder on isis

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/islamic-terror-group-rose-to-power-by-filling-the-void-created-by-political-and-religious-chaos/story-fni0cx4q-1227033540285?nk=8ba946ad42ad6adbf977cacb70b34cfc

--
sent from samsung galaxy note, so please excuse brevity

isis sold 700 yazidi women for $150 each

Julius Mandrake ‏@juliusmandrake_ 5h

Iraq. ISIS sold 700 Yazidi women for $150 each in a public slave auction. http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/08/islamic-state-forcibly-circumcises-christian-men-sells-700-yazidi-women … pic.twitter.com/vqY993kgYF

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isis forcibly circumcises assyrian christian men and women in mosul without anesthetics. women then sold for $150

Ali Sina ‏@AliSinaOrg 33m

ISIS forcefully circumcised Assyrian Christian men & women in Mosul without anesthesia. Women are sold for $150 each pic.twitter.com/ttdFvKcChp

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background report on ISIS

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/islamic-terror-group-rose-to-power-by-filling-the-void-created-by-political-and-religious-chaos/story-fni0cx4q-1227033540285?nk=8ba946ad42ad6adbf977cacb70b34cfc

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Quick notes: Putin on Syria, K-Pop...

• Was Putin right about Syria? "Mercenaries from Arab countries fighting there, and hundreds of militants from Western countries and even Russia, are an issue of our deep concern. Might they not return to our countries with experience acquired in Syria?", Putin wrote last September in NYT.



• Kicking serious butt: The Kurdish women are intimidating and fierce. They have already proven successful in helping to retake a crucial strategic site, the Mosul dam, in “the biggest blow to the radical Sunni group yet."



• The Rice Bucket Challenge: Charity that is relevant to India.. Did you know that 93% of ALS patients are Caucasian?



• You can now be arrested for sharing “objectionable” content in Karnataka



• South Korea, exporting padres and pop-culture:

Amazon May Start Testing Drone Deliveries in India

Amazon may try to pilot its drone-delivery program in India, due to legal barriers faced in the USA:

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-testing-delivery-drones-in-india-2014-8

Furthermore, perhaps India with its dilapidated road and transport infrastructure, may be more suited for drone-deliveries than the US.

India and Japan to Sign Defense Agreement

The first visit by newly elected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan will see both countries signing an agreement on defense cooperation:

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/modi-tokyo-trip-india-japan-historic-defence-pact/1/378676.html

Modi Puts DRDO On Notice Over Failures

PM Modi is said to be very dissatisfied with the performance of the DRDO, and wants to see the organization implement reforms to improve its success rate:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Narendra-Modi-extremely-unhappy-with-DRDOs-failure-to-meet-deadlines-in-delivering-products/articleshow/40768843.cms

Quick notes: 'Genocidaire' of masses, Scorched birds...

• ISIS is Islamism without its palatable wrappings: "Islam is not just the ‘opium’ of the masses as Marx has said but their genocidaire".



• In Iraq, U.S. is spending millions to blow up captured American war machines.



• Female Kurdish Fighters are a big problem for ISIS extremists



• Solar plants scorch birds in mid-air: Quest for clean energy sometimes has inadvertent environmental harm.



• For Bharatiyas, religion is all about experience:
  
  Hinduism is defined by me as re-enactment of sacred narratives, i.e. participatory and not just theoretical knowledge. Yoga is not an act of watching someone else do asanas, nor is meditation, nor yagna.
  
  Note that TV Ramayana killed the live enactment of Ramlila that had been continuously performed in every village as the theater of nation building.
  
  It is possible that one day some stupid "development" plan by the government might broadcast Kumbh Mela live from multiple locations, making it unnecessary to go to the Mela itself. Similarly all yatras might become virtual yatras available to you sitting on the couch at home drinking your chai. Would that be Hinduism or simply infotainment?
  
  If you understand the importance of this, then you will know what kinds of examples I need to help my yagna: Rajiv Malhotra 

IS Jihadis selling Yezidi women for $10

The early Moslem invaders of India similarly sold captured Hindu women into sexual slavery in the bazaars of Baghdad and Damascus.

I know of Hindu Swamis who go disguised as Moslems to cattle 

markets in India to buy and rehabilitate in Goshalas - cattle that are otherwise headed for Halal slaughter.

Would it be possible for someone to go "buy" these Yezidi women and then set them free? I'd be willing to "buy" freedom for several of them. 

No organization anywhere seems to care about their fate - least of all the Dhimmis in Indian Paliament who were exercised about Gaza, sniffing stale Rotis during "Roza" and the P.M allegedly not greeting Moslems on Eid (when he actually greeted them).

Are the IS traffickers insistent upon selling the infidel women to fellow Jihadis only?

http://pamelageller.com/2014/08/islamic-state-selling-captured-yazidi-girls-10.html/

Afghan Sikh Refugees in Shipping Container

A shipping container opened at a dock in the UK was found to be containing Sikh refugees from Afghanistan:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-28827133

Quick notes: Repeat story, Muslim neighbor...

• Obama administration shows little urgency for stemming Islamists



• History could repeat: ISIL could pose threat to US, Europe, officials say



• Wait, it is happening already: Jihad arrives in Germany



• This happened to Hindus too: Their Muslim neighbors aided in Yazidi slaughter



• ‘Paid seats’ rattle Left parties in Kerala



• 71 Virginians:







Colonizers all:

Christian Europeans and Arab Muslims, two major colonizers. Both privilege "master race". Non-Arab Muslims 2nd class, as non-wht Christians.
— Sankrant Sanu सानु (@sankrant) August 13, 2014



• Manjul Bhargava: The Musical, Magical Number Theorist . . H/T: Jatin



• Intel fixed one of the biggest problems in wearable tech with its new Smart Earbuds

Bye bye, Nehruvian Stalinist Planning commission

This is a brilliant move by the Prime Minister Narendra bhai Modi. Dismantling a relic of the Nehruvian Stalinist era Soviet style planning commission - which only bestowed upon us the infamous Nehruvian rate of growth, apart from serving as a parking spot for various leftist malcontents, career bureaucrats and corrupt sycophants of the Nehru-Ghandy dynasty.

Christist evangelical saboteurs in a Maoist Burka such as the  obnoxious 

Binayak Sen were rehabilitated in the Planning commission to head a committee on health - after the Indian judiciary awarded him a life sentence for 

sedition, but let off after a vociferous campaign by foreign diplomats, Nobel laureates etc.

It gives me personal satisfaction that this anti-national thug is now unemployed.

The judicial process concerning his seditious activities should now resume and be pursued to its logical conclusion.

more on yazidis, other isis victims

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2723712/Persecuted-Iraqis-chased-ISIS-finally-reach-Syrian-refuge-camp-perilous-trek-border.html

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sent from samsung galaxy note, so please excuse brevity

RBI's Rajan Takes on Crony Capitalists

RBI's Raghuram Rajan has taken aim at crony capitalism, which he believes is sapping India's economic strength:

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-08-12/taking-on-india-s-crony-capitalists

NRI Math Prof Wins Fields Medal

Manjul Bhargava, Prof of Mathematics at Princeton, has been awarded the Fields Medal, considered to be the 'Nobel Prize for Mathematics':

http://www.business-standard.com/article/beyond-business/a-professor-who-sees-common-thread-in-sanskrit-music-and-mathematics-114081400051_1.html

Modern day redux of Islamic expansion: Yazidi genocide

The barbaric genocide of the Yazidi people by Jihadis in Iraqi Kurdistan is exactly how Islam conquered and enslaved various infidel peoples during its expansion. 

This is how the Hindus were enslaved, raped and converted by the medieval Jihadi armies - indeed, this is what the Owaisis, the Azam Khans, the Madanis, the Omar Abdullahs etc. have planned for contemporary Hindus.

The Owaisis have explicitly stated as much - with complete contempt for the authority of the Indian state and surprising immunity from the law, so far.

As I see it, the Indian armed forces are the only thing standing in between the Hindus and Jihadis within India and outside.

Why doesn't the Modi Sarkar expand the Indian armed forces - doubling or tripling their strength? It would contribute to national security in dangerous times and also solve many other problems - unemployment, lack of education etc. 

The world is standing by letting this outrage against the Yazidi people happen virtually unchallenged. These are peaceable people being massacred for the sole reason that they are not Moslem.

I wish there was something we could do to help them in their calamitous situation.

@karyakarta1992: Yazidi lady Member of Iraqi Parliament collapses in tears after calling upon World to Rescue the Yazidis.  

http://t.co/sBTwIeeAH3

Fwd: Celebrating India - 2014

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: kanniks@kanniks.com
Date: Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 7:39 AM
Subject: Celebrating India - 2014
To:

Upcoming Events   November 8, 2014 Shanti - A Journey of Peace, Atlanta.   November 22, 2014 Sharad - A Celebration of Spring - Tampa, Florida     My Facebook Page   My Youtube Page  Dear Rajeev, Greetings.  Join us in celebrating the 67th anniversary of India's independence.   'Mahavakya' is a short musical video presentation of  timeless ideas from India that celebrate the oneness of creation and the interconnectedness of all of life. This heritage is a source of pride for all people of Indian origin and for all of humanity. Please share this video  with all your family and friends.    Thank you. Kanniks Kannikeswaran Mahavakya - Timeless Wisdom from India     Thanks you so much, Kanniks www.kanniks.com  Unsubscribe / Change Profile

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sent from samsung galaxy note, so please excuse brevity

Asians Rush to Embrace India, While West Vacillates

Asian applications for Indian visas have shot up as businessmen and other race to come to India, while in the meantime Western visa applications have remained flat:

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/west-exits-japan-korea-seize-opportunity-india-n174036

Quick notes: Eurabia, Holy Rubble...

• Exodus: Why Europe's Jews Are Fleeing Once Again



• Holy Rubble: Islam's most holy relics are being demolished in Mecca



• Kashmir: A rare 1,300-year-old stone Durga that disappeared from a small temple in Kashmir at the height of militancy in the mid-1990s has been located at a Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.



• All about genetically modified food: India’s exports of agricultural products have risen from Rs 1,87,000 crore to Rs 2,32,000 crore to Rs 2,68,469 crore in the last three years . It has been achieved without GM crop and food exports.



• Arab imperialism a.k.a Islam:

Both Western imperialism & 7th century Arab imperialism from Mecca are bad. Why do my fellow Pakistanis prefer to be victims of the latter?
— Ali A. Rizvi (@aliamjadrizvi) August 8, 2014

yazidis

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2721415/JONATHAN-KROHN-My-glimpse-horror-despair-besieged-Mount-Sinjar.html

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sent from samsung galaxy note, so please excuse brevity

Fwd: ISI plans to use US, UN to tar Modi

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ravi
Date: Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 12:57 PM
Subject: ISI plans to use US, UN to tar Modi
To:

http://www.sunday-guardian.com/news/isi-plans-to-use-us-un-to-tar-modi

ISI plans to use US, UN to tar Modi

The aim is to convince the international community that Government of India is intolerant and neglectful of minorities, women and Dalits in particular.

MADHAV NALAPAT  New Delhi | 9th Aug 2014

Prime Minister Narendra Modi akistan's spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, in a series of meetings held in late July and early August, decided to "fire on the shoulders of the US and the UN" to tarnish the reputation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sources within London, New York and Geneva say that the plan is to ensure the further penetration by the ISI, and its auxiliary elements, of groups which will be used to paint India as a semi-fascist state. The aim is to convince the international community that Government of India is intolerant and neglectful of minorities, women and Dalits. The ISI is trying to ensure that the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva begins discussion on a complaint, which the Pakistan agency expects will get filed this year. The complaint will be by the US-based Coalition Against Genocide (CAG) and will contain strictures against the Modi government. According to a Washington-based expert, "16 of the 47 key NGOs (forming the CAG) have received partial or complete funding from the ISI", directly or through channels in the Gulf Cooperation Council and friendly contacts in western countries. "Nine of the CAG's key NGOs have extensive linkages with the Pakistan-American community, which is riddled with ISI sympathisers." These NGOs are leading the charge against India. Although some effort has gone in the past to spotlight cases of anti-Sikh violence, the focus has shifted since the Narendra Modi-led NDA II government took office on 26 May. The effort now is to manufacture testimony and contrive evidence to show that India is a country where three human rights violations are rife. These are (i) violence against women (ii) human trafficking and (iii) "genocide" of Christians and Muslims, all of this by Hindus. According to a London-based source, through its global network "the ISI has funded the travel of 247 individuals from India to Washington, Geneva and other capitals from 2007 to 2011". The purpose of such travel was to ensure that "testimony created and vetted in advance by ISI-linked individuals was given by such Indian nationals in the US Congress, the European Parliament and the UN Human Rights Council. Such assertions, the ISI colonels expect, will intensify already ongoing efforts to "depict India as a fascist state killing minorities and the disadvantaged in a systematic manner". The speed and depth of Modi's diplomacy towards the SAARC countries has alarmed the ISI, which for the past 16 years has watched Delhi's footprint become fainter and fainter in the region. "The warming of relations with Sri Lanka and Nepal has been particularly worrisome for the colonels in the ISI", warned a London-based analyst, adding that "even worse is the fact that the public in both countries is now becoming more India-friendly". According to his colleague, "the warmth with which Modi's diplomacy was greeted by the Sinhala majority in Sri Lanka (which till now has been wary of India) and the cordiality with which even the Maoists greeted the Indian PM while he was in Kathmandu has sounded a warning to the ISI", which till now has found a welcome mat in both countries, largely because of the distaste of large sections of the population towards India, the Buddhist majority in Sri Lanka and the Maoists in Nepal. A key official in Geneva warns that "since 26 May 2014, individuals across India are being located by ISI cutouts". These are those willing to present "black" (i.e. manufactured) testimony on the three human rights issues mentioned earlier. Another source from the same location claimed that "a mass grave relating to the Khalistan insurgency, which contained more than 50 bodies had been discovered in 2011 in Haryana" but that "the US administration had ensured that this be suppressed, as it did not want to embarrass the Congress Party", which was in power in both the state as well as at the national level (when the incident was alleged to have taken place). Systematic efforts spread over years to discover mass graves of Muslims in Gujarat were abandoned in 2011 as futile, clearly because none existed. These sources say that the objective of the ISI's operation is to "character assassinate Prime Minister Modi by making NGOs penetrated by the ISI and its auxiliaries ensure that issues of genocide, violence against women, discrimination against Dalits and human trafficking enter the formal agenda of the UNHRC by mid-2015 at the latest". Efforts directed at the US Congress and the European Parliament have also been intensified. A source said that the UK-based Channel 4 "will soon air a documentary about Singrauli in India", which will paint the Modi government as being intolerant. Two individuals were named in this context, Krishan Gopal and Hugo Ward. However, these assertions could not be independently verified. "The sizeable pro-Pakistan lobby in the US State Department and the Cold War residue of anti-India policymakers are working together with elements in contact with the ISI to ensure that hearings take place on Capitol Hill by mid-2015 at the latest that would bring together dozens of individuals with a coordinated message, that India is a hell on earth for minorities, women and Dalits", according to a London source. The source adds that the ISI has a budget of $34 million to fund (through hidden affiliates) the stay and travel of the more than 300 individuals from India who have been selected to present perspectives before these organisations. It may be remembered that much of the funding for such "black" operations comes from the narcotics trade and from printing counterfeit currency, especially Indian rupees. Sources in Washington warn that the ISI, along with the pro-Pakistan lobby and its allies of convenience amongst religious fundamentalists in the US, angered by various anti-conversion laws "has enough influence to ensure that staffers on Capitol Hill and agencies such as the US Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF), the European Parliament or the Geneva-based human rights organisations call only those who present a negative view on the Modi government", a key official predicted, adding that "at such hearings, the other point of view is never heard". Another tack agreed upon by the ISI colonels at the meetings was to ensure that more cases get filed in US courts against key political figures in India (connected with the Union government) on the grounds of human rights abuses. Such a process has become possible because of the extra-territorial International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) passed by the US Congress a decade ago. This law gives US courts the power to accept a complaint from a national of any country against the leader of any other country, and is an extraordinary example of the way in which the US Congress believes itself to be the successor to the British Empire, "where the sun never set". Interestingly, India has been lumped together with Afghanistan and Russia as a Tier 2 country under the law, rather than a Tier 1 country that (US authorities hold) upholds religious freedom. In a Tier 2 country, violations of religious freedom are held to be present in two of the following three heads: "systematic, egregious and ongoing", and placing a country under such a watch-list may open the door for sanctions against it by the US. While US President Barack Obama rolls out the red carpet for Prime Minister Modi, the colonels in the ISI are looking towards other branches of government in the US to go into overdrive in the coming months against the NDA government on the issue of rights and freedoms. They are also mining their contacts to ensure that similar allegations against India get taken up in the European Parliament and at Geneva. In this task, they have the advantage of years of penetration of NGOs dealing with such matters in the US and European capitals, groups that have scarcely received attention in India, although they fund the stay and travel of hundreds of Indian nationals each year on missions to caricature this country as a state which systematically discriminates against minorities, women and the underprivileged. "The ISI plan is to ensure that a torrent of negative hearings take place in Washington, Brussels and Geneva by mid-2015, so that the diplomatic outreach of the Modi government can be blunted", the London-based source warned, adding that "thus far, Indian officialdom has concentrated on its peers rather than the broader civil society, where the ISI has been much more successful in gaining access and influence", ironically, especially in those dealing with human rights.

--
sent from samsung galaxy note, so please excuse brevity

Fwd: Are Iraq's Vanishing Pagan Yezidis the Hindus' Last Dharmic Cousins in the Middle-East ?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ravi
Date: Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 12:42 PM
Subject: Are Iraq's Vanishing Pagan Yezidis the Hindus' Last Dharmic Cousins in the Middle-East ?
To:

The Yezidis are a small community (about 6 Lakhs in number). They believe in reincarnation, pray in the direction of the rising and setting sun, and consider fire as a sacred element used in their ceremonial worship.

The Yezidis consider trees as sacred, and revere "blue" as the colour of their Supreme Deity (who is represented by a Peacock). They claim descent from Indians who migrated westward a few thousand years ago.

Their spiritual masters lead celibate lives. They teach their spiritual tenets to their disciples by oral tradition.

Their temples have familiar shikara/gopuram-like shapes, while images of "serpents" guard their temple doorways. Their society is composed of endogamous castes.

More about their current plight here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJoZqWcqZCs

Their genocide by Islamists is ongoing for the past 1400 years and has reached the final stages now: http://www.yeziditruth.org/yezidi_genocide

Last week, 500 Yezidis were killed, 400 women taken as sex-slaves and 200,000 driven out of their villages by the Islamic State (ISIS) in Northern Iraq.

About 50,000 Yezidis are dying of starvation, heat and thirst on a remote mountaintop in Sinjar.


    
  



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Here is a recent Facebook post by:

Vrndavan Brannon Parker Acbsp  

August 8, 2014 

The Yezidi People worship a Blue 'Son of God' also known as the 'Peacock Angel'. They avoid wearing dark blue because it is "too holy". They themselves testify that they originated in India.

As stated on their website http://www.yeziditruth.org/ "Since the Yezidis originated in India, the Hindus' manifestation of Tawsi Melek is naturally very close to the Peacock Angel of the Yezidis."

In Dec 2013 and Jan 2014, I published 2 groundbreaking articles in Hindu Today Magazine written by Yezidi activist and scholar Nallein Satana Al-Jilwah Sowilo. They provide a rare insight into one of the world's most ancient living traditions.

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http://www.timesofoman.com/Columns/2168/Last-pagans-of-Iraqi-nation

Last pagans of Iraqi nation BYSANJEEV SANYAL    |    AUGUST 09, 2014 , 6 : 22 PM GST     Share

With US President Barack Obama belatedly ordering air strikes and humanitarian airdrops of food and relief supplies to refugees in northern Iraq, the world is finally taking action against the Islamic State. Within a few months, the extremist group, which until recently called itself the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, has taken control of large parts of both countries, where it has proclaimed a new "Caliphate." But the real reason to fear the Islamic State is not its lust for power; it is the systematic, cold-blooded way in which its members are erasing the region's social, cultural, and demographic past. Within a few weeks, the Islamic State has virtually eliminated an entire section of Muslim and Christian populations from the areas it controls. The city of Mosul, home to one of the world's oldest Christian communities, no longer has any Christians left. Priceless Assyrian artefacts have been publicly destroyed in a campaign against idolatry. Indeed, the Islamic State has not even spared the co-religionists who do not adhere to their extreme interpretation of Islam. A number of revered shrines have been demolished, including one said to be the Tomb of Jonah. As terrible as all of this is, the worst of the persecution has been aimed at the Yezidi, an ancient religious group that lives among the Kurds. They number less than a half-million, and two-thirds of them live around Mosul in northern Iraq. The rest are scattered across neighbouring countries like Syria, Armenia, and Turkey. More recent immigrant communities are to be found in Germany and the United States. Although influenced over the centuries by Christianity and Islam, the Yezidi religion has ancient pagan roots that go back at least to the late Bronze Age. Interestingly, their beliefs have many similarities with Hinduism — for example, they believe in reincarnation, say their prayers facing the sun at sunrise and sunset, and even have a system of castes.  They also worship Tawûsê-Melek, the peacock angel — a bird that is found in the Indian sub-continent but not in Yezidi lands. While the origins of the Yezidi are uncertain, cultural and genetic evidence suggests that they may be remnants of Indian tribes that migrated west in the second millennium BC. There is considerable evidence of Indian links with the Middle East during the Bronze Age. For example, Zoroastrianism, the religion of ancient Iran — to which Yezidi religious beliefs have been linked — is closely related to early Hinduism. Over the centuries, the Yezidi have been dubbed as "devil worshippers," and have suffered relentless persecution, which was especially extreme under the Ottoman Turks in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A series of massacres killed hundreds of thousands and almost led to their extinction. Under Saddam Hussein, the Yezidi were not subjected to overt religious persecution, though they remained under pressure to Arabize their culture. Matters have since taken a turn for the worse. In April 2007, gunmen dragged 23 Yezidi men from a bus and shot them dead. Four months later, a series of coordinated car-bomb attacks killed at least 300 more, including women and children. The Yezidis now face their greatest crisis ever. The Islamic State gave the Christians of Mosul the choice to convert, pay the jizya or leave. The Yezidi have been given no such choice and are killed on sight as "devil worshippers." The Yezidi heartland around Mosul is now largely under the Islamic State's control. The small town of Sinjar, the only place in the world with a Yezidi majority, fell in the first few days of August as Kurdish fighters were forced to withdraw. Reports of large-scale massacres are trickling in.  Many refugees escaped into the mountains, where they are trapped in shrinking enclaves. Hundreds are said to have died already of thirst and starvation.  The most sacred Yezidi pilgrimage site at Lalish runs the risk of being demolished. Sadly, there has been little media outrage at the predicament faced by the Yezidi. Perhaps the US airdrops and promised strategic interventions, together with a possible coordinated operation by Kurdish forces (rearmed by the US), may rescue the survivors, but it appears unlikely that they will be able to return to their homes soon. Centuries ago, the last Zoroastrians fled to India to avoid persecution. Their descendants, the tiny Parsi community, still live there.  Today, who will give refuge to the last pagans of Iraq?  - Project Syndicate

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From: http://ajitvadakayil.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-yazidis-of-iraq-ethnic-cleansing-by.html?showComment=1407668832374

Their symbol is a lamp with a peacock on top. 

Below: Hidden Yazidi temple 

Below: This same type lamp was used in my wedding 30 years ago .

Below video:  Check out their holy relic of a lamp with a peacock on top -- exactly the same as the lamp I am lighting above-- only  difference it is smaller, and they have to bend to kiss it .

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http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/iraq/140803/islamic-state-captures-sinjar-yazidis

Tracey SheltonAugust 3, 2014 19:35

Subscribe to Tracey Shelton on Facebook

There are reports of the Islamic State executing dozens of Yazidis

The Yazidis in northern Iraq are used to being persecuted, but this attack was bad. The Islamic State captured Sinjar, forcing thousands from their homes.

 

Internally displaced persons from Sinjar arrive in Lalish, northern Iraq, after the Islamic State invaded their city on Aug. 3, 2014. (Tracey Shelton/GlobalPost)

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LALISH, Iraq — Sunday afternoon, they began to arrive.

Just hours after Al Qaeda-inspired extremists, known as the Islamic State, invaded their hometown Sinjar in northern Iraq, a steady flow of newly displaced families poured into the holy city of Lalish.

Sinjar is a predominantly Yazidi town which had been under Kurdish control since the Iraqi army fled in June. The semi-autonomous Kurdish territory in Iraq now shares a border with the self-declared caliphate under Islamic State control.

Yazidis, who have been persecuted for centuries, adhere to a pre-Islamic faith linked to Zoroastrianism. Their religion is shrouded in mystery, but most Muslims consider them "devil worshippers."

On Sunday, one man sat in the courtyard of a temple in Lalish, his face expressing anguish. He was unable to speak. The man next to him explained: "They captured his whole family," he said. "They made his wife and daughters cover their hair and faces. Then they made them renounce their religion and swear allegiance to Mohammed. After that, they killed them all."

The man had been away from his home at the time of the attack. When he tried to return, he was informed of the executions by his companion who dragged him from the scene as thousands fled to the homes of relatives or to the temple, which is now sheltering thousands.

The United Nations says 200,000 civilians, most of them Yazidis, have fled Sinjar and warned of a burgeoning "humanitarian tragedy." While the majority of Sinjar's population is Yazidi, there are also some Arabs and Assyrian families.

The Islamic State (IS) began shelling Sinjar and several surrounding villages in the early hours of Sunday. By midday they had entered the city. Many of the men from Sinjar stayed to fight, while locals say the Kurdish peshmerga forces, who had been protecting the city, fled. An estimated 600,000 Yazidis remain in Iraq. Lalish, which houses the tomb of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir, the main figure of the Yazidi faith, is normally a place of pilgrimage and worship. Today, it became a camp for internally displaced people. While Kurdish media reported that peshmerga reinforcements were on their way, Islamic State members tweeted their victory over the towns of Zumar, Sinjar and Wana. "IS will extend to Bashika, and Shahan — cities of the Satan worshippers — and Qaraqosh, Tul Kef in the next few hours God willing," read one tweet shared with the hashtag #_ولاية_ نينوى. The victories mark the second straight day of losses in the area for Kurdish forces, who had seized control in June after the Iraqi army fled. "The IS attacked us by mortars and bombs," said one woman in Lalish, who asked not to be named. "When they entered the city they were covering their faces. They killed so many people. I saw the bodies. I saw so many people die …" she said, trailing off in tears. Those arriving in Lalish said all the women and children who were able to fled. "They are killing everyone," said 16-year-old Evan. "The Sunnis are OK, but the Shia and Yazidis they are killing, even women and children." "Some families escaped to the Sinjar mountains, but they hit them with mortars. I think they are all dead now. I saw the explosions," Evan said. Arian, a young boy from the city of Bashika, said many of the families were fleeing his city fearing they may be next. "My aunt was in Sinjar. They were coming here by car but the IS blew out their tires. I've been trying to call her back, but she is not answering her phone," he said frantically. Local media are so far reporting 100 deaths, including 30 executed in Sinjar city. Anger over the abandonment by Kurdish forces was high. "They told us they would send reinforcements," said one man, himself a member of the peshamerga forces. "All the Kurds left and it was just us trying to fight. No one came. We had no choice but to run too." In the village of Asyan, fleeing families took shelter in the homes of friends and relatives. A man who had served as the bodyguard of the head of the Iraqi police force in Mosul, before the IS takeover there, said most Yazidis had already fled the city due to almost annual mass killings of Yazidis carried out by Sunni extremists. Of the handful of families that remained, he said all managed to escape with their lives. "When the IS came, we had to escape in secret," he said, adding that personally they wanted him dead on two counts, for his religion and his work. "We left all our weapons, uniforms and vehicles behind so we looked like civilians. We know the back streets and managed to escape." The conversation was interrupted by a frantic Skype call — a sister living abroad, pleaded for the family to leave the entire district and flee to Erbil. "In every home there are two or three families," said Dilshad Sluyman, a resident of Asyan who is also hosting Yazidis who fled Sinjar. "They all left everything behind, but the worst thing is not the killing but forcing us to become Muslim. This is worse than death." Sluyman said many of those who fled said women were being forced to convert and then kidnapped by the IS. Man were executed directly. "But this attack is not new for us. It has happened 72 times already," he said, referring to both modern and ancient history. The Yazidi community was almost wiped out by massacres at the hands of Ottoman Turks and Muslim Kurdish in the 19th century.  In April, 2007, a bus carrying workers from a textile factory in Mosul was Hijacked. Muslims and Christians were released. The 23 remaining Yazidi passengers were executed. In August that same year, two trucks loaded with explosives almost wiped out two entire Yazidi villages killing more than 500. In August, 2009, two suicide bombers targeted a cafe in Sinjar, killing 20 and wounding 30 more. The Yazidi faith, which predates Islam, is a closed religion. Converts are not accepted, and neither is intermarriage with other faiths. They revere the archangel Melek — who Muslims identify as Shaitan or Satan — who refused to bow down to God. But unlike the Satan of Christian and Muslim faiths, their Melek was not renounced by God and they believe evil exists only the hearts of wrongdoers, not in the form of a fallen angel. As IS continues to push forward through the night, the Yazidi community is bracing for the worst. "All people are sad for those killed and disturbed also because no one knows what will happen. We hear from many people they may be here in three or four hours. We are afraid they will destroy our temple," said Dilshad Sluyman. "They believe that if they kill one of us it's like an automatic visa to heaven." -------------------- http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-lalish-isis-threatening-destruction-2014-8 Visit The Holy City Of The Iraqi Religious Minority That ISIS Is Threatening With Destruction ALLAN SMITH     AUG. 8, 2014  Stringer/Reuters The Islamic State, otherwise known as ISIS, currently has the Yazidi people at their mercy. As many as 40,000 people, most of which are from Iraq's Yazidi religious minority, are trapped atop Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq. The U.S. has reponded to the crisis with limited air strikes against ISIS targets. The mountain is cut off from food and water. Although the U.S. intervention changes the calculus, there's still a danger that starvation or dehydration will ravage the Yazidis trapped on the mountaintop.  Some Yazidis who managed to flee the area have taken refuge in the city of Lalish — an important place of pilgrimage for members of the faith. Lalish is an intense and deeply spiritual holy city. Here are pictures of one of the most important places for a religious group threatened with genocide. This Yazidi cleric walks through the main temple in Lalish. The Yazidi faith dates back thousands of years, and the religious group is no stranger to persecution. Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters Here is the same Yazidi temple from the outside. Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters These Yazidi women wash their faces with holy water from a spring within the Lalish temple.  Sasa Kralj/Reuters This woman kisses a monument in front of the Yazidi temple. During the Yazidi summer feast festival, 15,000 people typically make the pilgrimage to Lalish. Sasa Kralj/Reuters A Yazidi worshipper is blessed by a cleric during the fall festival of Eid al-Jamma. Stringer/Reuters Yazidi worshippers engaging in a prayer ceremony during Eid al-Jamma.  Stringer/Reuters Here, Yazidis pay their respects within the Lalish temple. The Yazidis were victims of the worst terror attack of last decade's Iraq War, when suicide bombings killed more than 400 Yazidis in 2007. Stringer/Reuters -------------- 'They have vicious plans for them': Fears for hundreds of Yazidi 'slave' women captured by ISIS fanatics in Iraq  Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2719698/President-Obama-authorises-airstrikes-Iraq-defend-civilians-Islamic-militants-swarming-country.html    Already dozens of Yazidis - whom ISIS have denounced as devil-worshippers because of their ancient beliefs which predate both Christianity and Islam - have been murdered since the extremist fighters overran the town of Sinjar yesterday. Up to 50,000 terrified Yazidis - half of them children - have sought refuge from the bloodshed in the barren mountain range to the north of their hometown as their hunters close in.  But there they face an impossible dilemma - try to get to the Turkish border and risk being captured and killed by insurgents, or remain on Mount Sinjar without food or water in the searing heat, hoping aid will somehow get through. Many have already died of hunger and thirst as they struggle to survive on just the food they could carry in temperatures exceeding 42C. Photographs have emerged of Yazidi men carrying the limp bodies of dozens of young children either too exhausted to continue or killed by ISIS militants, who in turn have posted pictures online of themselves posing next to dead Yazidi men. The dead men's wives were reportedly kept as trophies to be gifted to unmarried jihadist fighters. +32 Innocent: Yazidi Iraqis on Mount Sinjar carry the limp bodies of children as they flee their ISIS hunters. Up to 50,000 terrified Yazidis - half of them children - have sought refuge from the bloodshed in the barren mountain range to the north of their hometown. But there they face an impossible dilemma - try to make it to the Turkish border and risk being captured and killed by insurgents, or remain on the mountain without food or water in the searing heat in the hope that aid will somehow get through +32 Ruthless: An ISIS fighter poses next to a dead Yazidi. ISIS have denounced the Yazidis as devil-worshipers on account of their ancient set of beliefs and have issued them with an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a religious fine, flee their homes or face death -------------------- Search Results Scrambling Down an Iraqi Mountain, Yazidi Families Search for ... New York Times-1 hour ago Families from the Yazidi minority who had fled ISIS fighters gathered at the Nowroz refugee camp in Syria. Credit Adam Ferguson for The New ... Islamic State Killed 500 Yazidis, Buried Some Victims Alive Huffington Post-12 hours ago Yazidi MP: We Will Rescue All Kurdish Yazidi Refugees on Sinjar ... International-BasNews-Aug 9, 2014 Iraqi official says 100s of Yazidi women held captive by Islamic State ... Opinion-U.S. News & World Report-Aug 8, 2014 Islamic State Kills at Least 500 From Iraq's Yazidi Minority: Baghdad In-Depth-Newsweek-9 hours ago Who are the Yazidis? Blog-Washington Post (blog)-Aug 8, 2014 ►► RT ►► euronews ►► euronews Newsweek The Guardian NBCNews.com Explore in depth (9,258 more articles) The genocide 6000 miles away: America's Yazidis watch and wait ... Vox-Aug 9, 2014 Sheikh and his family are Yazidi, part of an ancient religion with about 600,000 adherents around the world, mostly in Iraq. About 200 Yazidi ... Fears Remain For Yazidis Still Trapped In Mountains Huffington Post-18 hours ago Several thousand Yazidis were reported on Saturday to have reached safety in Kurdish-controlled areas of Iraq and Syria. Yazidis -- who follow ... Thousands Of Iraqi Yazidis Flee To Syria After Kurds Open Safe ... Huffington Post-Aug 9, 2014 Kurdish forces rescued 5,000 Yazidis who were stranded on Sinjar Mountain in Northwestern Iraq and had been in danger of dying of thirst, ... Escape from death mountain: Stranded Yazidis rescued by Kurdish ... Daily Mail-18 hours ago Hundreds of Yazidi refugees who were stranded on a barren mountainside in Iraq, surrounded on all sides by bloodthirsty Islamic State fighters ... Iraqi Official: Hundreds Of Yazidi Women Held Captive By Islamic ... Huffington Post-Aug 9, 2014 BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of women from the Yazidi religious minority have been taken captive by Sunni militants with "vicious plans," an ... Islamic State kills 500 Yazidis, burying some alive, claims human ... Sydney Morning Herald-8 hours ago Baghdad: Islamic State militants have killed at least 500 members of Iraq's Yazidiminority, burying some alive and taking hundreds of women ... ISIS killed 500 Yazidis, buried some alive incl women and children ... RT-20 hours ago "We have striking evidence obtained from Yazidis fleeing [their ancient home city of] Sinjar and some who escaped death, and also crime ... Kurds open escape route for some trapped Yazidis Sydney Morning Herald-22 hours ago Near Makhmour, Iraq: Buoyed by US airstrikes, Kurdish peshmerga fighters said they pushed back an attempt by the Islamic extremists to ... A Very Brief History of the Yazidi and What They're Up Against in Iraq The Wire-Aug 8, 2014 As the Islamic State militant group continues to seize more parts of Iraq, they also continue to drive out the members of the Yazidicommunity.   Iraq crisis: German Yazidi community stage demonstration BBC News-Aug 9, 2014 The US has carried out airstrikes in an attempt to stem the advance of the IS in Iraq, and carried out air drops of supplies to the Yazidipeople on . Iraq's Yazidi minority has long been singled out for hatred CBC.ca-Aug 9, 2014 "Accounts of Yazidi origins were particularly malleable to varying political agendas," says a paper by Christine Allison of the University of Exeter ... Iraq crisis: Isis militants 'buried alive Yazidi women and children' in ... The Independent-by Adam Withnall-18 hours ago Militants in north-western Iraq have buried women and children alive during their offensive against the Yazidi ethnic minority, according to Iraq's ... Too little too late for Iraq's Yazidi minority? Al-Arabiya-1 hour ago This is not the first time militants have attacked the Yazidicommunity. In 2007, more than 400 were killed in suicide bomb attacks. The al-Qaeda ...

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