GO TO SOURCE BOMBAY, INDIA, November 21, 2001: Tension prevailed in the sprawling Borivli National Park on the outskirts of Bombay following the desecration of an illegal temple in the area, police said. The icons of Siva, Parvati, Hanuman, Ganesha and the resting place of a local saint, Khadeshwar baba, were desecrated. Police have taken possession of the icons to…
GO TO SOURCE USA, November 21, 2001: With a spotlight cast on American Muslims since September 11, one simple question has defied a clear answer and become the focus of a politically charged dispute: What is the size of the U.S. Muslim population? Four major Muslim organizations released a study in April that estimated the population at 6 million to…
GO TO SOURCE NEPAL, November 24, 2001: Maoist guerrillas in Nepal have broken a four-month truce by launching attacks on police stations in the west of the country, killing at least 100 people — most of them policemen. The violence comes two days after a senior Maoist leader, Prachanda, said the cease fire could no longer be justified because the…
Source: Times of India SRINAGAR, INDIA, November 19, 2001: While the women of Afghanistan are celebrating the fall of the Taliban, their sisters in the Kashmir valley have also been liberated from wearing a burqa to cover their faces. Quoting Rifat Hyder, a working woman, ” If Afghan women who were covered from head to foot can now remove their…
Source: The Daily Star, November 25, 2001 DHAKA, BANGLADESH, November 25, 2001: A Division Bench of the High Court of Bangladesh yesterday issued a order asking the government to explain within four weeks why it should not be asked to take proper steps to protect the country’s Hindus from terrorist attacks and harrasment. The court will also hear on November…
GO TO SOURCE ESSEX, UNITED KINGDOM, November 24, 2001: A vicar in Essex has banned yoga classes from his church hall because he fears it is not compatible with Christianity. Reverend Dick Farr of St Mary’s Church in Henham, near Saffron Walden, said he became concerned on discovering an aim of the class was to “ascend to a higher spiritual…
GO TO SOURCE CHINA, November 25, 2001: The exact year in which woodblock printing was invented is still very much debated in academic circles because no artifacts or documentary records related to the earliest printing have been discovered. However, a sheet with mantras of the Dharani Sutra, in Sanskrit, printed in the early Tang and unearthed in the suburban district…
GO TO SOURCE BHUBANESWAR, INDIA, November 22, 2001: At least six Hindus have converted to Christianity in Orissa. Kalicharan Behera and five members of his family converted to Christianity in Chapalli village in Kendrapara district but a Hindu organization says the family converted under duress. Subash Chouhan, convener of the Hindu Jagran Sammukhya, claimed that Behera’s in-laws had adopted Christianity…
GO TO SOURCE ORISSA, INDIA, November 22, 2001: The police registered a case on a fresh complaint of damage to a place of worship in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa on Thursday, even as indefinite curfew was clamped in three subdistricts. Damage was caused to a place of worship at Dhoti village. Ten platoons of armed police were maintaining vigil with…
GO TO SOURCE BONGOAN, BENGAL, November 22, 2001: Hundreds of Bangladeshi Hindu families who have crossed the border into India to escape repression at home are refusing to return to their country. To escape any possible move by the Indian authorities to send them back, these families were apparently hiding in a village near the Thakurnagar railway station. Dipali Adhikari…