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by A. KASIM S. ISLAM

GUWAHATI, INDIA - The Indian media is not getting hot about the war and the prospect of a possible US-UK dominion over the Middle East. This was to be expected of a people who had fought a long and severe crusade against an imperialist regime. While the mainstream media paints pictures of war horrors and deplores American unilateralism, there are voices - voices which are no longer on the fringes of Indian politics - that are saying the war is a good thing and this too, for all the wrong reasons.

Praveen Tagodia, the International Vice-President of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), the organization in the vanguard of the Hindutva political movement, recently commented that India should support the US which is leading a war against a Muslim nation. The VHP remains the most vocal and extreme of the organizations on the Hindu right. Its 40 point Hindu agenda reads like an antediluvian manifesto of bigotry. The organization's basic premise is a historiography that talks in terms of a "Hindu race" and the mythical conception of an ancient "undivided" geographical entity called India- a myth that has been often challenged and blown apart by more reputed historians like Romila Thapar. That India as a nation is a British legacy and that throughout history, the Indian peninsula has been a motley assembly of princely states often at war with one another is a fact the VHP ideologues refuse to consider or even admit.... MORE

NAIROBI, KENYA - Karbala: "Karb" meaning grief and sorrow; "Balaa" meaning affliction. The word is as integral to the Islamic faith as is the word Christ to a Christian. It was the scene where Imam Hussein, one of the grandsons of the Prophet Muhammad was murdered with all but one of his immediate family, in order for Yazid (Enemy of the Shiites) to gain leadership of the Muslim community.

For ten days every year, in the month of Muharram, the martyrdom of Imam Hussein and his family is mourned by Shiite Muslims - mourned with tears, hearts heavy with sorrow and the vigorous beating of the chest with the palm of the hand ("maatam") while chanting the names of Hussein Ali (father of Hussein), and Fatema (mother of Hussein).

Every Muharram, worldly life and concerns come to a stand still for Muslims as prayer meetings are held twice a day, once at afternoon prayers and again after evening prayers, meetings where the story of the battle of Kerbala, more than one thousand three hundred and fifty years ago is retold. And with each maatam beat, the mourner remembers Imam Hussein as he asked his followers to do moments before his death.... MORE




by JAMIE MENUTIS

NEW ORLEANS, LA, USA - Americans like to think of themselves as living in a society that is both free and tolerant. Much of this thought is due to the fact that individual members of society are given the right, by law, to express their individual thoughts, beliefs and opinions without legal repercussions.

I do believe that the majority of American citizens cherish this right and do not want to see it disappear. It is, after all, that thing of beauty within of the American dream - to live free within a society that allows freedom of opinion, religion and speech.

It is disheartening, therefore, to view the biased and intolerant perspective towards dissent and freedom of opinion that the media is presently encouraging in the United States... MORE

QUEENSTOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - I've been having urgent longings to visit places of my youth. I started at Zingquthu where I had not been for close to eighteen years. Zingquthu is where I spent most of the first eight years of my life and is about twenty kilometers outside my home town of Queenstown. I went there, I suppose, to clear my mind from the burden of memory. Tando, my elder brother, and my two sisters came with me on the visit. It all seemed like a dream after an absence of about two decades... MORE





by ROD AMIS

NEW ORLEANS - 4 April, 2003: It seems that I've been bombarded by words this week, rather than producing any myself. Words from people wanting to me read about Mr. Bush's war, words from my employers about The Rod Show, words from Fashionable about the many changes she's making in her life. Meanwhile, nothing bubbles up from the wellspring inside... MORE



by YOU

THE WORLD - From Souzan A., New Orleans, LA,USA:

SUBJECT: great edition

that last two editions of g21 have been outstanding

thank you editor and chief

sa


You must be a quick study. I only put the newest issue up moments ago.

Thanks for your kind words. It's a sad day for me [21 March, 2003]. I was just standing in the center of this room crying about today...

RA... MORE

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(Human Shield JOHN ROSS reports from San Francisco in G21 NEWS; BILLY JACKSON reports on Tibetans of Utah in G21 ASIA; and much more!)

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