Free Republic

APTara Gruber and staff demonstrating a schoolteachers' instruction session. Teachers claim yoga helps students with attention-deficit disorder and may help lower childhood obesity. SAN FRANCISCO -- In Tara Guber's ideal world, American children would meditate in the lotus position and chant in Sanskrit before taking stressful standardized tests.  But when she asked a public elementary school in Aspen, Colo., to teach yoga in 2002, Christian fundamentalists and even some secular parents lobbied the school board. They argued that yoga's Hindu roots conflicted with Christian teachings and that using it in school might violate the separation of church and state....

The following is taken from this weeks VOM Canada's Persecution and Prayer Alert. Over the past week, Indian Christians have been forced to worship Hindu deities in Karnataka state, according to two reports from Compass Direct. According to a November 3 report, when Hindu villagers in Kurumaradikere noted on October 29 that local Christians had not participated in the annual Depavali festival, they demanded that Pastor Naik (39) and the eleven families of his congregation worship Hindu deities as a "gesture of symbolic repentance." At a meeting called by local leaders, they interrogated the pastor about whether or not he...

The FBI says it's all part of an ongoing investigation into a group of Sri Lankans with terrorist plans. The FBI says there were no plans to attack Americans, but that the group, known as the "Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam" was targeting their home country of Sri Lanka. Officials say that terror group is responsible for assassinating a former prime minister of India. The Joint Terrorism Task Force raided the Amherst home. Neighbors say three men were taken out in handcuffs. They say the task force also removed files, a computer and suitcases. While it's not clear what role...

NEW YORK, JULY 22, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Far from fading away in the shadow of modernity and prosperity, religious fervor is, in fact, growing. This is the argument of an article, "Why God is Winning," published in the July-August issue of the magazine Foreign Policy. The authors, Timothy Samuel Shah and Monica Duffy Toft, explain that one of the most recent confirmations of their thesis was the win last January of the Hamas party in the Palestinian elections. After the election, one supporter of Hamas replaced the flag flying over the parliament with a banner proclaiming Mohammad. Soon afterwards the violent...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 27, 2006) – The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) held a press conference today on Capitol Hill to release its much anticipated second annual report on the status of human rights of Hindus in South Asia, Afghanistan and Fiji. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), senior ranking member of the House International Relations Committee, co-hosted the press conference held in the Rayburn House Building. In her remarks, Ros-Lehtinen expressed serious concern over the facts presented in the human rights report and welcomed the document as a crucial resource. Executive Director, Ishani Chowdhury presenting a copy of the Hindu American Foundation's...

A major part of the history of India is characterized by two major foreign rules: the Islamic invasion and the British occupation. The Islamic invasion started with the assault of Muhammad bin Qassim in 712 on the order of Hajjaj, the governor of what is now Iraq, and it took until 1690 for the Muslim rulers to conquer India completely. The fall of Islamic rule started with the British East India Company's capture of Bengal in 1757, during the days of Industrial Revolution in Europe. The British rulers took almost 150 years to capture the entire sub-continent from the hands...

After about 300 years of intense persecution under the Portuguese and the Dutch, the Hindus of Jaffna heaved a sigh of relief when the British took over at the fag end of the 18th century. The era of forcible conversions to Catholicism (under the Portuguese) and to Protestantism (under the Dutch) was over. In the liberal atmosphere created by the British, most converts reverted to their traditional religion, namely, Hinduism. Daniel Poor, a pioneer of the American Ceylon Mission (ACM) noted that with the Dutch yoke off their shoulders, the Hindus of Jaffna returned to "sweet idolatory" and temple building...

Kreeft outlines the main theological and practical differences, as well as the important common elements, between Christianity and Hinduism. There are two basic kinds of religions in the world: Eastern and Western. The main differences between Hinduism and Christianity are typical of the differences between Eastern and Western religions in general. Here are some examples: 1. Hinduism is pantheistic, not theistic. The doctrine that God created the world out of nothing rather than emanating it out of His own substance or merely shaping some pre-existing material is an idea that simply never occurred to anyone but the Jews and those...

Edited translation of an audiotape attributed to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, parts of which were aired by Aljazeera on April 23, 2006. (It is not known where or when the recording was made.) OSAMA BIN LADEN Praise be to Allah, Lord of the world, prayer and peace be upon our prophet Muhammad, his kin and all his companions. Peace, Allah's mercy and blessing be upon you, as I am directing this speech to all the Islamic Umma, to continue talking and urging them to support our prophet Muhammad, and to punish the perpetrators of the horrible crime committed by...

Do you know the difference between Hinduism and Islam??? see this google video: Difference betwwen hindu and a muslim!runtime: 1:36mins, source: google videos video description: The Concept of God in Hinduism and Islam, In the light of sacred scriptures.

Reformist Writer Dr. Kamel Al-Najjar: "If the Muslims are Serious About Presenting the Radiant Face of Islam… They Must… Acknowledge Their Dark Past" In January 2006, the Austrian-Iraqi Association for Development held its first conference on extremism and terrorism around the world, in Vienna. The conference was attended by Arab, Muslim and European researchers, intellectuals and diplomats. In the closing statement, the participants made the following recommendations: to present the humane and rational side of Islam which calls for co-existence and acceptance of the other; to condemn all forms of violence and terrorism; to promote dialogue and cooperation among all...

A man described to be mentally-deranged hammered the much-revered statue of Pra Prom or Brahma creator god at the Hyatt Erawan Hotel and reduced it into pieces before he was lynched to death. A garland vendor said she saw the man standing up on the base of the statue and hammered away the statue into pieces. Only the part of lap and base of the statue were left intact. Its head was broken and fell off to the ground. Officials put up white cloth to hide the statue. The man, who was later identified as Thanakorn Pakdeepol, 27, was assaulted...

On January 12, 2006, Pastor M. Aharon survived a brutal attack at the hands of Hindu radicals in the town of Nizamabad, Andhra Pradesh, located about 300 miles east of Bombay in central India. While he was distributing Christian literature, the pastor of Indian Pentecostal Church, who is in his 16th year of ministry, was mercilessly assaulted by a group of militant Hindus until his face was covered with blood from heavy blows to his mouth and nose. During this violent incident, a mob of over 100 radicals cheered and yelled for Pastor Aharon’s blood to be spilled, inciting the...

"I am so tired of Muslims of blaming 'culture' not the 'religion' for any trouble inside Muslim countries. If you need an example of the falsehood of that statement - look at India and Pakistan. The people are ethnically identical, speak the same languages and eat the same foods. (In fact they were the same country until Muslims demanded they get their own country). Today Pakistan is a military dictatorship and has been for most of its 50 plus year life. Its only claims to fame are killing journalists, operating jihadi camps, beating up women who try to run marathons,...

India (MNN)--Hindu nationalists are making yet another push for a national anti-conversion law in India. Leaders introduced their resolution at the Shabri Kumbh, a 're-awakening' event. It was geared toward getting people to re-convert back to Hindusim. The rally took place last weekend in Western Gujarat State. Open Doors' Jerry Dykstra says there's reason for concern and it means persecution could get worse. "They really want to drive out the Christians. Because they equate Christianity with the West. So, there's a growing national movement by the extreme Hindus to push out Christians." Hindu rally participants expressed concern at what they...

Curfew was imposed Thursday in Leh town and the army staged a flag march following clashes between Muslims and Buddhists triggered by reports of alleged desecration of the Quran at a mosque in Kargil. Thirty-one people have been arrested so far in connection with the clashes, Inspector General of Police (Kashmir Range) K Rajendra told PTI over phone from the Ladakhi capital. Kumar said curfew has been imposed and the army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police were deployed as a precautionary measure. A defence spokesman said the civil administration Thursday sought army assistance in maintaining law and order in Leh following...

The key issue at stake in the battle over the twelve Danish cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad is this: Will the West stand up for its customs and mores, including freedom of speech, or will Muslims impose their way of life on the West? Ultimately, there is no compromise: Westerners will either retain their civilization, including the right to insult and blaspheme, or not.More specifically, will Westerners accede to a double standard by which Muslims are free to insult Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism, while Muhammad, Islam, and Muslims enjoy immunity from insults? Muslims routinely publish cartoons far more...

Malaysia's ethnic Hindus have unveiled what is being described as the world's tallest statue of the deity Lord Muruga outside a limestone cave shrine near the country's largest city. An estimated 100,000 ethnic Indian Hindus watched as a helicopter showered flowers over the gold-painted, 42.7-metre statue late on Sunday at the foot of a hill outcrop that houses the Batu Caves, just outside Kuala Lumpur. Samy Vellu, the works minister and Malaysia's highest-ranking ethnic Indian politician, conducted the official unveiling of the statue at the base of a 272-step stairway leading to the Sri Subamaniar Swamy Temple, located inside one of...

Police in northern India thwarted a plot by Hindu extremists who threatened to burn to death more than 60 Christian converts if they refused to return to Hinduism by Sunday. Members of a Christian movement called Believers Church met peacefully Sunday in the state of Himachal Pradesh, according to Compass Direct, a news service that monitors persecution of Christians. "We were able to meet without incident," said Ramish Masih Battih, the son of Pastor Feroz Masih.

FAITH UNDER FIRE Radicals threaten to burn Christians to death Warn of consequences if they don't reconvert to Hinduism by Sunday Posted: November 17, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com More than 60 Christian converts in northern India will be burned to death if they refuse to return to Hinduism by Sunday, a group of extremists has warned. The radical Hindus severely beat the converts' pastor, Feroz Masih, in a Nov. 4 attack in the state of Himachal Pradesh, accusing him of "forcibly converting" Hindus, reported Compass Direct, a news service that monitors persecution of Christians. Masih sustained internal...