good morning, i am neysan. i am learning.
The Modern Seeker of Truth
A few weeks back i found these two highly amusing mock-up ‘magazine covers’ on theonion.com. One reads: ‘Eastern Religions: Which one is best for your abs?’ and the other: ‘Finding a Religion that doesn’t disrupt your current lifestyle’.
...and yet again they describe so vividly what society’s view on religion is.
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Slow-Dissolving Tablets for the Fast
The Baha'i Fast is coming up in March. No food and drink from sunrise till sunset. It's good.
"Unity Pharmaceuticals" discovers a innovative way to regress spiritually - Fast Tablets!
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Virginity Restoration = Essential Quality?
Hymenoplasty attracted media attention last month in France as a court annulled a marriage on the basis of a husband’s complaint that his wife had falsely promised that she was a virgin – a confession he obtained after furiously waving the new couple’s spotless bedclothes before still-celebrating wedding guests (which is in itself a horrible tradition). The court ruling infuriated everyone from Muslim clergy to feminists, and gynecologists themselves.
Well not only did the husband complain that his wife was not honest towards him, but he also claimed a breach of contract on the grounds that virginity was an ‘essential quality’ of the woman he chose to marry. It sounds too much like having discovered a flaw in the product he was buying. But for whatever he meant, he was quite right about dishonesty. Baha’u'llah Himself answers a question about virginity as a condition for marriage with these words: “The unfulfilled condition invalidateth that which is conditioned upon it.” But then he adds: “However, to conceal and forgive the matter will, in the sight of God, merit a bounteous reward.” That did not happen here… Marriage must not start with lies but be built upon trust and honesty.
Some Muslim clergy were outraged insisting that Islam does not demand virginity as a precondition for marriage, and claimed that the ruling belied the judge’s archaic misunderstanding of the faith and its tenets (I will not touch on the topic of secularism vs theocracy this time). Boy they were wrong. It takes only a second to find relevant verses from the Qur’an.
“And go not nigh to fornication; surely it is an indecency and an evil way.” (17:32)“The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication,- flog each of them with a hundred stripes: Let not compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day: and let a party of the Believers witness their punishment.” (24:2)
The second quotation is particularly interesting because it shows how Baha’u'llah’s commandment to ‘conceal and forgive the matter’ is an evolution of the Islamic tenet.
The French gynecological organization condemned the practice as a ’submission to the intolerance of the past’. Bioethicist Alta Charo squirms over the idea of hymen repair but then says we ought to “put it in the larger context of how far women will go to make themselves marriageable and sexually attractive.” Just what will secular, modern women do to fit their own cultural stereotypes — breast implant, anyone? What will they do to stay employable — face-lift, anyone?”
The procedure has become more common and still other commentators note that this reflects the growing emancipation of women from tradition-rooted communities. Quite ironic though as after having ‘emancipated’ they throw themselves back into traditions.
But this whole big mess had already been solved gloriously by Muhammad with the simple commandment that fornication is not a possibility. We should just simply not have sex before marriage. It feels as though the grey clouds of virginity restoration that were covering my mental sky were cleared by His words. It’s so simple yet solves so many problems. This is also why I refrain from addressing more issues that are related to this topic. It’s enough and thank you God for restrictions.
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Israelis for Palestine: Revolutionizing New Media
Israelis for Palestine is a brandnew initiative by the ever-creative Mideast Youth Network. They utilize new media extensively to gather testimonials and break down prejudices of thousand-year conflicts.
Israeli and Jewish support for Palestinian liberation of Israeli and Jewish oppression is increasingly significant and certainly requires more attention and legitimacy than it currently is given. There are more people, groups and initiatives on the ground than what is known even to the Israeli public itself. We want to give such Israeli individuals and groups who fight for the civil rights of EVERY human rights, regardless of greed, race or religion, a possibility to be heard.
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Gender Gap in UAE Education [More Girls]
Emirati boys are posting lower examination scores and dropping out of high school at a much greater rate than Emirati girls, newly released research shows. The study found that although 70 per cent of Emirati girls enrol at university after high school, the figure for boys is only 27 per cent. In 2007, only five per cent of high school-aged girls failed their final examinations. The rate among boys was twice as high.
via http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091106/NATIONAL/711059868/1133
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