This article was first published in the print version of the Ceylon today on 24 July 2013 (view online soon) and is in response to an interview of Dr.Ameer Ali published on the Ceylon Today on 19 July 2013 titled ‘Muslims are self-alienating’. The state of Muslims in Sri Lanka has been closely observed over the last few years. ...
I was involved in a twitter argument with someone known and someone unknown about the recent spate of Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka, particularly instigated against Muslims. The argument was that there were certain sections of the Muslim community in Sri Lanka who claim that Buddhists are not entirely to blame for the recent anti Muslim activities, but rather ...
Much speculation has been made of Ed Miliband, the man who many (myself included) feel will be the first Jewish Prime Minister of Britain. Guido Falks tweeted an article from The Jewish Chronicle which says that Ed Miliband claims to be a Zionist. Let’s go through the exact words – “I take anti-semitism very seriously. Any kind of de-legitimisation ...
Evangelicism is quite a common phenomenon in many parts of the world. Evangelicals take many forms and hues, from the hysteric evangelic Christians with their TV shows in the US or Muslim televangelists in many parts of the Muslim world, mostly in South Asia than in the Middle East, like this Muslim loon here who likes to put on ...
President: You all know there are lot of "Munafiqs" among us. Don’t be deceived by them. — Mahinda Rajapaksa (@PresRajapaksa) December 20, 2014 What is this world coming to. For those of you who don’t know, ‘Munafiq’ is arabic for hypocrite, and in Muslim communities around the world, the word has more of a religious bearing than it has ...
I have been trying to write on this matter for sometime, for lack of time and the want to write something coherent without just ranting, I have been keeping away from it. This gentleman from the Jemmiyathul Ulema (Sri Lankan body of Muslim Theologians) gives an excellent analysis of the social, legal and political dimensions of what ‘Halal’ is ...
First published here. A win for independence in Scotland would have led to drastic changes to parliament in the UK including the short-to-medium term irrelevance of Labour A little over half of those who went to bed last Thursday in Scotland, wondering what Friday will hold, woke up to the news that the United Kingdom will remain as it ...
Anoma Pieris from , is an Associate Professor in Architecture at Melbourne University, whom I have had the pleasure of acquainting over the last few years on matters to do with Architectural theory. I have always maintained that Geoffrey Bawa is overrated, and that the propping up of Bawa as an Architect goes beyond his skill as an architect ...
I am actually very busy these days with quite a few things to get out of the way, but this twitter exchange between Andrew Neil of the BBC and Labour MP Tom Watson caught my eye. It started with Andrew Neil tweeting the following : Labour stepping back from wanting Leveson “in its entirety” but still wants people to ...
Quite a few friends had tweeted about this video of Coca Cola seemingly aiming to unite the peoples of India and Pakistan, one person at a time, at least. Personally I am extremely cynical of big money capitalism, of which Coca Cola is the most notable example. Numerous are the instances where Coca Cola has been found to be at ...
Below is an excerpt from my post for The Platform, “Does the Silence of the Sinhalese Signal Complicity”. “There is that scene from Schindler’s List which had a profound impact on me. I had forgotten about it, I never knew it existed, except that it has lain somewhere in the fibre of my brain, dormant, latent, waiting for the ...
This is a boy from Burma who was arrested in Malaysia for not having proper papers. He may well be a Rohingya who fled persecution to Malaysia, though I don’t know. This is one of the most melodious Qur’anic recitations I have listened to, I say this on the authority of having listened to a lot. Please do listen, Muslims ...
More often than not, when one has a view point that is diametrically opposed to what is considered the norm, one is quite easily referred to as a conspiracy theorist, and this is quite sincerely a case of playing the man instead of the ball, to throw a football metaphor. Facts are hardly refuted but the purveyor of the ...
I have a deadline today so I can’t spend more than ten minutes on this post. I was meant to do a year end post on 2012 which I may do soon. But for now, this new video by Youtube I think may go viral. The reason I post this however is that Jehan of Sri Lankan English fame is ...
Clashes have erupted in many parts of Egypt and many offices of the Muslim Brotherhood has been destroyed. Six have now been reported killed with more than 350 injured. The Egyptian liberals and secular elite are largely accepted to have instigated the violence after President Muhammad Mursi made a decree that places him above the judiciary (albeit temporarily) and ...
I was speaking with a close friend of mine who is based in the US but is involved in Bangladeshi politics. We casually discussed among other things the current street protests taking place in Shahbag, Bangladesh where there have been over a hundred thousand protestors taking to the streets and calling for the death of leaders of the Jama’at ...
On the day that it was announced that Sachin Tendulkar had retired from one day international Cricket, a friend had the following as her facebook status – I can’t believe it. This news presenter just said although everyone was saddened by the recent rape case in Delhi, that nothing could match the sadness people are feeling over Tendulkar’s retirement! ...
First published here for The Platform earlier this Ramadan. Being a British Muslim in Ramadan can be an accommodating and amusing experience – and even more so with this year’s programming on Channel 4 I used to work at a prominent architectural practice in central London. Being the only Muslim, let alone the only non-white employee, I stood out ...
Not really the Muslim life, but spiritual life would have been more apt. Also, spoiler alert. I finally managed to watch ‘Life of Pi’ yesterday, I say ‘finally’ like I have been wanting to watch it for sometime now, but no – it was just a spur of the moment decision to go and watch it. I didn’t necessarily have it ...
