China Bans Fasting for Muslims!!!

China bans fasting for Muslims in Xinjiang

This is an awesome and remarkable steps!

Authorities in China's restive northwestern region of Xinjiang have banned Muslim officials and students from fasting during Ramadan, prompting an exiled rights group to warn of new violenl.
Guidance posted on numerous government websites called on Communist Party leaders to restrict Muslim religious activities during the holy month, including fasting and visiting mosques.
Xinjiang is home to around nine million Uighurs, a Turkic speaking, largely Muslim ethnic minority, many of whom accuse China's leaders of religious and political persecution.

The region has been rocked by repeated outbreaks of ethnic violence, but China denies claims of repression and relies on tens of thousands of Uighur officials to help it govern Xinjiang.
A statement from Zonglang township in Xinjiang's Kashgar district said that "the county committee has issued comprehensive policies on maintaining social stability during the Ramadan period.
"It is forbidden for Communist Party cadres, civil officials (including those who have retired) and students to participate in Ramadan religious activities."

The statement, posted on the Xinjiang government website, urged party leaders to bring "gifts" of food to local village leaders to ensure that they were eating during Ramadan.
Similar orders on curbing Ramadan activities were posted on other local government websites, with the educational bureau of Wensu county urging schools to ensure that students do not enter mosques during Ramadan.

The holy month began in Xinjiang on July 20. The orders to curb religious activities were sent out across the region at different times, some before the start of Ramadan and some afterwards.
During Ramadan, Muslims fast from dawn to dusk and strive to be more pious and charitable.
An exiled rights group, the World Uyghur Congress, warned the policy would force "the Uighur people to resist (Chinese rule) even further."

"By banning fasting during Ramadan, China is using administrative methods to force the Uighur people to eat in an effort to break the fasting," said group spokesman Dilshat Rexit in a statement.
Xinjiang saw its worst ethnic violence in recent times in July, 2009, when Uighurs attacked members of the nation's dominant Han ethnic group in the city of Urumqi, sparking clashes in which 200 people from both sides died, according to the government.

Details here

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/08/201281113456325751.html

Thanks China!!

Earth is the center of the universe.

 

 I stand outside on a clear night.  I look up to the stars and wonder on all the universe beholds.  I see the stars move through the heavens each year.  Once a month, the moon goes through its phases of waxing and waning.  Everyday the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.  It is clear that the earth  is the center of the universe.  It all appears to revolve around our planet. This is what Roman Catholic believes.

We must remember “Copernicus Nicholaus”

He was a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who formulated a heliocentric model of the universe which placed the Sun, rather than the Earth, at the center. Unfortunately, out of fear that his ideas might get him into trouble with the church, Copernicus delayed publication of them.  In 1539, Copernicus took on Rheticus as a student and handed over his manuscript to him to write a popularization of the heliocentric theory, published as Narratio Prima in 1540. Shortly before his death, Rheticus convinced Copernicus to allow publication of his original manuscript, and De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium was published in 1543. Copernicus proposed his theory as a true description, not just a theory to save appearances. Unlike Buridan and Oresme, he did not think that any theory which saved appearances was valid, instead believing that there could only be a single true theory.

It took the accurate observational work of Brahe, the exhaustive mathematics of Kepler, and the mathematical genius of Newton to take Copernicus's theory as a starting point, and glean from it the underlying truths and laws governing celestial mechanics. Copernicus was an important player in the development of these theories, but his work would likely have likely remained in relative obscurity without the observational work of Brahe. It would have been discarded by the wayside, until subsequent investigation brought it back to light. It is likely, in fact, that given Kepler would have independently arrived at a heliocentric theory just in the process of interpreting Brahe's data, and the scientific revolution would have been born anyway. To a large extent, then, Copernicus has achieved his prominent place in history through what amounted to a lucky, albeit shrewd, guess.

It is therefore more appropriate to view Copernicus's achievements as a preliminary step towards scientific revolution, rather than a revolution in itself.

Sharif

 

Battle continued in Bangladesh.

At least four people lost their lives in the clashes between activists of Hifazat-e Islam, backed by Jamaat-e-Islami, and police in the streets surrounding the Baitul Mukarram in the capital on Sunday. Battled continued..

Sample piece of Islamic scholar

Bangladesh Govt.! Release the Writers/Bloggers/Activists

Online activists, writers (bloggers) are getting arrested in Bangladesh just for expressing their view points. Some of them are writing for bringing 1971 war-criminals to justice, some are writing against the ultra-religious elements in the country those are creating many nuances including violence against so called "minority groups" and women - many a times wrongfully under the refuge of a religion. We, the whole democratic and secular world, ask the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina and Bangladesh Govt., to release these peaceful activists/bloggers/writers at once. If not done, if not secularity and freedom of speech are not restored, we are going to take action against Bangladesh Govt. legally and we will not leave any stone unturned… to quarantine this Govt. from the whole educated world. Sign this petition and help stop Bangladesh Govt. to take atrocious steps against its valuable citizens.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Bangladesh_Govt_Release_the_WritersBloggersActivists/?fcyVRdb&pv=2