The world is crazy-as usual

November 7, 2004

The world is crazy-as usual !

Indian communists want to Tax Religious (read Hindu) Institutions andspiritual cum religious leader wants to reform Nepal's Maoists while Sri Lankan Sufis are Attacked For Spreading "Hindu" Ideas NEW DELHI, INDIA, November 4, 2004: Leftist parties have mounted pressure on the UPA government (ruling coalition led by the Congress Party) to impose a cess (tax assessment) on all religious institutions to fund rural development projects. The proposal is part of the Left's tax-reform blueprint to be discussed with the government before the budget exercise for the next fiscal. The Left has already sounded out finance minister P. Chidambaram about its tax reform agenda, which includes a cess slap on incomes of religious institutions. Sources said the issue figured at a meeting between Communist Party of India (see their web site http://www.cpofindia.org/) leader Gurudas Dasgupta and Chidambaram on Monday. Even a nominal cess can fetch US$400 to 600 million annually, said Left sources. They cited religious places like Vaishno Devi temple, Lord Venkateshwara Temple, Tirupati and Golden Temple, Amritsar, where annual income from offerings and assets are "very large."

Ananada notes: no mention of christian or muslim places of worship--are they not amongst the rischest in the world?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Plans to Reform Nepal's Maoists

KATHMANDU, NEPAL, November 4, 2004: An Indian spiritual leader who has followers worldwide plans to reform Nepal's Maoist insurgents with love and a breathing technique. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the 46-year-old founder of the Art of Living Foundation in India, who preaches conquering anger and other negative emotions through philanthropy and breathing practices, was in Nepal on a three-day visit to spread the "message of love and harmony." The long-haired bearded guru, whose followers have been working with inmates in prisons in India, South America and Africa, met village heads from Nepal's Terai region to discuss starting training camps in the plains to bring out leadership qualities in Nepalese youth and give them a "sense of direction." The guru said that among those he met in the southern district of Birgunj, his first port of call in the Himalayan kingdom, were young men associated with Maoist rebels. People who join militant movements usually harbour great stress and fear, which impede thinking and forgiving, Ravi Shankar said. Revenge becomes the dominant theme in their lives. "But inside every culprit there is a victim crying for help," he told IANS. "So when the victim is helped, the culprit disappears."

Teachers from the Art of Living Foundation, Ravi Shankar said, have been holding meditation courses for outlawed Maoist organisations in India that have close links with Nepal's Maoists. "These people have zeal, energy and courage," he said. "If they are given a positive direction, they could do a lot. Stress, fear, anxiety and distress make > them turn to violence and wrong ideology motivated by revenge. "The breathing techniques help them calm down and think in a more productive manner. After undergoing the sessions, they tell me they were wrong to use violence." Ravi Shankar says his followers taught the Sudarshan Kriya, a breathing technique that improves physical and mental energy and creates harmony, in a prison in Mumbai where the inmates included people imprisoned for alleged links with Al Qaeda. "After the course, they said 'we were taught we will go to heaven after we die if we kill'," the guru said. "'But you have taught us we can get heaven here'."

Sri Lankan Sufis Attacked For Spreading "Hindu" Ideas COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, November 6, 2004: Life in the Muslim stronghold of Katthankudy in eastern Sri Lanka was brought to a standstill for five days recently as the orthodox Jamiat- ul-Ulema indulged in violent protests against a "Sufi" group, which was allegedly spreading "Hindu" ideas. The followers of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema demolished the Rahmaniya and Ibrahimiya madrasas (theological schools) in Katthankudy, alleging that these schools, run by the Sufi preacher AJ Abdur Rauf Mowlavi, were spreading Hindu ideas and rituals among the Muslims, especially the young. What happens in Katthankudy is critical for Muslim society and politics in Sri Lanka because it is the only completely Muslim town in Sri Lanka. Set in the eastern district of Batticaloa, it is believed to have the largest number of mosques per square kilometer in the world. There are 65 mosques in this small town. In the last ten years, under the influence of the Saudi Arabian Wahabi sect, Katthankudy has become an exceptionally orthodox place in Sri Lanka where practically every woman, no matter of what age group, is shrouded from head to foot. There is also some Pakistani influence with shops and streets named after Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Since the late 1970s, the entrenched > Jamiat-ul-Ulema group has been viewing with alarm the activities of the charismatic Abdur Rauf Mowlavi and his band of Sufis. Rauf Mowlavi's followers say that Sufism is an accepted creed in Islam. The attackers, who are orthodox Wahabis, cannot claim to be the sole arbiters of what is Islamic and what is not. The Wahabis have no right to impose their hegemony on them, they insist. At any rate, Wahabis came to Katthankudy only 10 years ago.

Courtesy:HINDU PRESS INTERNATIONAL A daily news summary for breaking news sent via e-mail and posted on the web for media, educators, researchers, writers, religious leaders worldwide and Hinduism Today magazine rs, courtesy of Hinduism Today editorial staff Visit our archives at http://www.HinduismToday.com/hpi/ Please to our beautiful print edition at http://www.hinduismtoday/.html http://www.HinduismToday.com/hpi/ Contact us at: hpi.

-- _________Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.com

http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup