Understanding contemporary India through Mahabharat’s moral dilemmas, Spiritual Meditations, NewAgeIslam.com

Spiritual Meditations

Understanding contemporary India through Mahabharat’s moral dilemmas

Welcome to Hastinapur- The Mahabharata's timeless appeal

On the subtle art of dharma

Gurcharan Das

Prosperity has indeed begun to spread across India. Happiness, alas, has not. What blacken our days are the insistent reminders of governance failure, hanging over us like Delhi’s smog. I am not only thinking of corruption in its usual sense — of a politician who is caught taking a bribe. My anguish comes from something else—from a recent national survey that found that one out of four teachers in a government primary school is absent and one out of four is not teaching. Another study found that two out of five doctors do not show up at state primary health centres and that 69 per cent of the medicines are stolen. A cycle rickshaw driver in Kanpur routinely pays a sixth of his daily earnings in bribes to the police. A farmer in an Indian village cannot hope to get a clear title to his land without the humiliation of bribing a revenue official. One out of five members of the Indian parliament elected in 2004 had criminal charges against him; one in eighteen had been accused of murder or rape.

http://newageislam.com/understanding-contemporary-india-through-mahabharat%E2%80%99s-moral-dilemmas/spiritual-meditations/d/1774

Ebadi protests against Iran’s polygamy bill, Islamic Sharia Laws, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Sharia Laws

Ebadi protests against Iran’s polygamy bill

Agence France-Presse

Tehran, August 04, 2008

Iran’s Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi on Monday slammed a government bill that would ease polygamy laws for Iranian men, saying it would bring “moral corruption” to society.

The “Family Protection Bill” — due to be discussed soon in parliament — scraps the need for the consent of the first wife if her husband wants to take another spouse. “This law will bring decadence and moral corruption to society,” Ebadi warned in the opening speech of an indoor protest meeting organised by her Defenders of Human Rights Centre.

The bill requires men to provide a judicial permit for a new marriage confirming they can provide financially for the new wife and that both wives will be treated equally.

But Ebadi said that these conditions were not enough, describing the bill a “tyranny” not only against women but also against men. The law implies that “if you have become rich overnight, no matter how, you can legalise your desires,” she said. “Isn’t it an insult to men and wouldn’t it shake the foundation of family?” she asked.

http://newageislam.com/ebadi-protests-against-iran%E2%80%99s-polygamy-bill-/islamic-sharia-laws/d/430

Iraq’s Shiite militia sees its power waning, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Iraq’s Shiite militia sees its power waning

New York Times

Posted online: Monday, July 28, 2008

It is a remarkable change from past years, when the militia, led by the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, controlled a broad swath of Baghdad, including local governments and police forces. But its use of extortion and violence began alienating much of the Shiite population to the point that many quietly supported American military sweeps against the group.

Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki struck another blow this spring, when he led a military operation against it in Baghdad and in several southern cities.

The shift, if it holds, would solidify a transfer of power from al-Sadr, who had lorded his once broad political support over the Government, to al-Maliki, who is increasingly seen as a true national leader.

It is part of a general decline in violence that is resonating in American as well as Iraqi politics — John McCain argues that the advances in Iraq would have been impossible without the increase in American troops known as the surge.

http://newageislam.com/iraq%E2%80%99s-shiite-militia-sees-its-power-waning/islam-and-the-west/d/332