They say that if speaking is from silver, if you like to talk, it is equal to silver, then to be silent is equal to gold because we cannot as a human being control our tongues. And the biggest problem in this world is that people are not able to control their tongues from talking. And the Prophet Sayyidina Muhammad he said, in the meaning of his hadith, tradition, part of the hadith is that “anyone who can guarantee for me,” he is saying, “can guarantee for me his tongue,” he didn’t say “his tongue” but he said, “what is between his jaws, I will guarantee for him Paradise.” Because you don’t know how you might address people and you hurt their feelings.
I heard my master in his teachings to many Muslim and non-Muslim. …As I said, “the place is small but the hearts are big.”
So… the Prophet , I heard my teacher many times was saying that “people might commit sins, too many and they might do things that are not allowed.” It means they might lie or they might cheat or they might because of their greediness, they might raise prices more than it should be, or they might do other things, not listening to the mother or the father or the elders, or not following what they need to follow in their beliefs, all that if you ask repentance, Allah will forgive you. God will forgive you. Anything that is between you and God, Allah swt, you do something wrong and you might take something to your advantage from the rights of your Lord, you repent, Allah is merciful He will forgive you.
As it is said in the Holy Qur’an, “Say [O Muhammad] to the people, ‘If they were oppressors to themselves, let them not lose hope of My forgiveness. I will forgive them, just let them repent.”
God is always merciful. But the problem is that when we hurt the feeling of someone else or we backbite someone else or we spread a bad rumor about someone else, the problem is not that you repent and god will forgive. The problem is that the person you hurt you must ask forgiveness. So there is a problem there. Might be the person you ask will not forgive you. So what happens? You are falling into a valley that has not bottom.
When the Prophet asked his companions about the meaning of bankruptcy, and we have lot of bankruptcy going around today. He asked them, “who is the bankrupt one?” They said, “whoever loses his wealth.” He said, “No, this is not the real meaning of bankrupt.” Although that is what we understand, bankruptcy is whoever lost all his wealth. He said, “No, the bankrupt one is the one who has no good deeds to present to God on Judgment Day.” And the companions said, “even if he is praying and fasting?” and he said, “even if he is praying and fasting, he might not have any good deeds.” They were surprised.
So it means on the Day of Judgment, and it is called judgment like you are judged here in a court, one person accuses the other. So on the Day of Judgment whoever has been harmed he will give from his good deeds to give to you. If he hurt you a lot then all the good deeds he did in his life will be transferred to you. Then he will be left with nothing, bankrupted.
So we said at the beginning that the Prophet Muhammad and Jesus and Moses and Abraham and Noah , all these heavenly religions came to discipline us and to teach how to behave with each other and to be relate with each other. That is the message that we have to carry with us.
Unfortunately many of us they try to hurt the others… in different ways. Look. Some Muslims hurt the majority of Muslims. Why? Because they thought this is their way, so even though they prayed and fasted, as the prophet said, because they hurted the other they are bankrupted in the presence of Allah they have nothing, they deserve punishment. Those who blended or branded or labeled the name of Islam and Muslim as terrorists because of their actions that they killed innocent people, they hurt the whole Muslim community. And not only the Muslim community, but they hurt the whole human race. What do you think the punishment will be on them. It is not going to be an easy punishment.
Antichrist, and we know in the Holy Bible and in the Torah of Moses and in the Holy Qur’an and the holy hadith of the prophet, about the last days we know that Antichrist is coming. Antichrist means the one who does not accept Jesus coming back on earth .it means he does not accept except his own belief. How many Antichrist we now have around this world?
Prophet Muhammad came 1400 years ago and delivered his message and he said, “Tis message will go to the Day of Judgment and in the Last Days Jesus will come back, and him and one of my grandchildren, Mahdi , will come to eliminate injustice.” But before that a lot of confusion that Antichrist will bring on earth before Jesus comes. So Jesus will come to eliminate what the Antichrist is doing.
So how many nowadays can be called “Antichrist on earth” that they are damaging the reputation of Islam and Muslims and against all heavenly messages? And they are coming against all messages and they are coming against every one who doesn’t accept them and the Antichrist will come against the whole world because they don’t accept him, and he will come and conquer one land after another. You found this in Bible in and in the hadith of the Holy Prophet . So he will establish himself in one place and then use that place to take over other places. That is the point of departure, intilaq in Arabic, to take over different places in order to take over the whole world.
And the Prophet said, “His evil power will move from one place to another.” Look today you see these circles of evilness, they are forming circles of evilness and they are doing all kinds of miseries around the world, problems around the world; terrorism around the world; fighting around the world; hijacking now, vessels and boats around the world. All kinds of evil work they are doing and this is because they are inheritors of what the Antichrist is coming with, they are paving the road for Antichrist. That means they are his supporters and we are looking and we are surprised how many of them coming around the world, destroying all kinds of beliefs.
“Antichrist,” the Prophet said, “he will not accept except his own beliefs.” He will say to you “if you accept me ok, if you don’t accept me…” he will eliminate them. And he will eliminate anyone who does not accept his belief and he will use massive elimination. And are we not seeing massive eliminations? Yes, look in Iraq, with suicide bombings. In other countries. And 911, after 911, before 911. Look in Africa how they are fighting. All of that is like a collection of different places around the world, with the same behavior and same ideology. Even if their belief is not Muslim but they are from different religions, but their focus, their belief, is to create confusion on earth either by their speeches or by their actions. Listen to what they say in their speeches. They are fiery speeches. And the Prophet said, “Anyone who can guarantee what is between his jaws … I will guarantee for him Paradise.”
These people we don’t hear from them except threatenings and Antichrist comes with threatenings, he cannot come with other than that. He comes before Jesus , before `Isa . And as I said, he has supporters. These supporters are coming out of their caves now and are spreading this earth with all these kinds of confusion. Unfortunately there is no end for it. The end will come with arrival of Antichrist. Because the evil power always going to be from century to century And in this century it is increasing a lot.
So what we have to do then is, as the Prophet said, “There will coming a time that there will be huge confusions around the world. Like chunks,… You know how you look at the sky at night and you don’t see any stars, there are huge chunks of dark night. He said, “Confusions will be so dark and so huge,” as if someone looking in the sky and seeing huge darkness there, no light. So at that time he said, “there will be lot of confusions around the world.” He said, “the one sitting, the one who is sitting, means sitting at home or sitting looking after his work, and sitting looking after his children and his family is better than the one standing and looking from the window.” He might receives something that might hurt him. The one looking is exposed. The one who is sitting on his chair, he is not looking outside there is no exposure for anything. He is not going to be exposed. He said, “the one who is sitting, is better than the one who is standing the one who is standing better than one walking the one walking on the street is better…?
And he said, “If you get angry at that time, then hit on a stone.” Hit your hand or your stick, it means get your anger out on that stone, until you break your stick. At that time “take your bow and arrow and hit it on the rock.” Don’t involve with anyone as something might hurt you. We are in such days.
That is why one of the companions of the Prophet , Sayyidina `Ali (r), karam-Allahu wajha, wa , he said, “you have to be careful what you are saying and what you want to say.” Today what makes people falling into problems is they have to know what they have to speak and what they have to say. He said, “before you speak judge yourself before you talk anything.”
Does anyone judge himself before he speaks? Look today these talk shows. Did you see any show they didn’t criticize each other? This one criticize this one and that one criticize that one. They say two opinions. What is the benefit? You are making more confusion with two opinions that one says something and that one says another: Who is right and who is wrong? Both consider they are right.
So the best is to keep silent. Study, learn, raise a family. Look at your work and don’t involve yourself too much with issues that don’t concern you. I don’t want to be long, but as he said, Sayyidina `Ali (r):
اعمل لدنياك كأنك تعيش أبداً ، و اعمل لآخرتك كأنك تموت غدا
A`amal li-dunyaka ka-annaka ta`ayshu abadan wa a`amal li akhiratika ka-annaka tamootu ghaddan – do for you lifetime that you are living on this earth as if you are living forever.”
It means be ambitious do what you want to do, but check what you want to say, but try to do the maximum, No problem. But make sure you do for your other life, the afterlife, as if you are dying tomorrow.
So look at the both sides. He said, “look at this world as if you are living forever. But keep in mind you might die tomorrow. You have to keep both sides, as any time you might be called and asked.
So the best in this time is to raise good children and a good family and to as soon as possible to get them married. You cannot leave your children without marriage. Too much temptations. Too much unacceptable acts that might make your children to fall down, as we are seeing outside in the streets, too much between girls and boys with drugs that are ruining their lives. Why? Because we are delaying their studies and we are delaying, we are not encouraging them to finish as quick as possible and then get married. Everyone is saying to wait and wait and wait, until they become 60 years old. Like Sayyid `Ali (r). Are you married.
Just a bit of knowledge on Christmas. The word “Christmas” originated as a compound meaning “Christ’s mass”. It is derived from the Middle English Cristemasse, which is from Old English Crīstesmæsse, a phrase first recorded in 1038. Crīst (genitive Crīstes) is from Greek Khrīstos (Χριστός), a translation ofHebrew Māšîaḥ (מָשִׁיחַ), “Messiah”; and mæsse is from Latin missa, the celebration of the Eucharist. The form “Christenmas” was also historically used, but is now considered archaic and dialectal it derives from Middle English Cristenmasse, literally “Christian mass”.”Xmas” is an abbreviation of Christmas found particularly in print, based on the initial letter chi (Χ) in Greek Khrīstos (Χριστός), “Christ”, though numerous style guides discourage its use; it has precedent in Middle English Χρ̄es masse (where “Χρ̄” is an abbreviation for Χριστός). In addition to “Christmas”, the holiday has been known by various other names throughout its history. The Anglo-Saxons referred to the feast as midwinter, “midwinter”, or, more rarely, as Nātiuiteð (from Latin nātīvitās below). “Nativity”, meaning “birth”, is from Latinnātīvitās. In Old English, Gēola (“Yule”) referred to the period corresponding to January and December; the cognate Old Norse Jól was later the name of a pagan Scandinavian holiday which merged with Christmas around 1000. “Noel” (or “Nowell”) entered English in the late 14th century and is from the Old French noël or naël, itself ultimately from the Latin nātālis (diēs), “(day) of birth”.
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day (Old English: Crīstesmæsse, literally “Christ’smass”) is an annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ, celebrated generally on December 25 as a religious and cultural holiday by billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it closes theAdvent season and initiates the twelve days of Christmastide. Christmas is a civil holiday in many of the world’s nations, is celebrated by an increasing number of non-Christians, and is an integral part of the Christmas and holiday season.
The precise day of Jesus’ birth, which historians place between 7 and 2 BC, is unknown. In the early-to-mid 4th century, the Western Christian Church first placed Christmas on December 25, a date later adopted also in the East.Theories advanced to explain that choice include that it falls exactly nine months after the Christian celebration of the conception of Jesus, or that it was selected to coincide with either the date of the Roman winter solstice or of some ancientpagan winter festival.
The original date of the celebration in Eastern Christianity was January 6, in connection with Epiphany, and that is still the date of the celebration for theArmenian Apostolic Church and in Armenia, where it is a public holiday. As of 2011, there is a difference of 13 days between the modern Gregorian calendar and the older Julian calendar. Those who continue to use the Julian calendar or its equivalents thus celebrate December 25 and January 6 on what for the majority of the world is January 7 and January 19. For this reason, Ethiopia, Russia andUkraine celebrate Christmas, both as a Christian feast and as a public holiday, on what in the Gregorian calendar is January 7.
The popular celebratory customs associated in various countries with Christmas have a mix of pre-Christian, Christian and secular themes and origins. Popular modern customs of the holiday include gift giving, Christmas music and caroling, an exchange of Christmas cards, church celebrations, a special meal, and the display of various decorations, including Christmas trees, lights, nativity scenes, garlands, wreaths, mistletoe, and holly. In addition, several closely related and often interchangeable figures, known as Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas and Kris Kringle among other names, are associated with bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season and have their own body of traditions and lore. Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity among both Christians and non-Christians, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. The economic impact of Christmas is a factor that has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of the world.
Date of celebration
For centuries, Christian writers accepted that Christmas was the actual date on which Jesus was born. John Chrysostom preached a sermon in Antioch c. 386 which established the date of Christmas as December 25 on the Julian calendar since the conception of Jesus (Luke 1:26) had been announced during the sixth month of Elisabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist (Luke 1:10-13) as dated from the duties Zacharias performed on the Day of Atonement during the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar Ethanim or Tishri (Lev. 16:29, 1 Kings 8:2) which falls in September–October.
In the early 18th century, scholars began proposing alternative explanations. Isaac Newton argued that the date of Christmas was selected to correspond with the winter solstice, which the Romans called bruma and celebrated on December 25. In 1743, German Protestant Paul Ernst Jablonski argued Christmas was placed on December 25 to correspond with the Roman solar holiday Dies Natalis Solis Invicti and was therefore a “paganization” that debased the true church. In 1889,Louis Duchesne proposed that the date of Christmas was calculated as nine months after theAnnunciation, the traditional date of the conception of Jesus, which itself was based on a traditional belief that he was conceived and crucified on the same date, 15 Nisan.
In the early 4th century, the church calendar contained Christmas on December 25 and other holidays placed on solar dates: “It is cosmic symbolism…which inspired the Church leadership in Rome to elect the winter solstice, December 25, as the birthday of Christ, and the summer solstice as that of John the Baptist, supplemented by the equinoxes as their respective dates of conception. While they were aware that pagans called this day the ‘birthday’ of Sol Invictus, this did not concern them and it did not play any role in their choice of date for Christmas,” according to modern scholar S.E. Hijmans.
However, today, whether or not the birth date of Jesus is on December 25 is not considered to be an important issue among mainstreamChristian denominations; rather, celebrating the coming of God into the world in the form of man to atone for the sins of humanity is considered to be the primary meaning of Christmas.
Using the Julian calendar
Eastern Orthodox national churches, including those of Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and the Greek Patriarchate of Jerusalem mark feasts using the older Julian calendar. December 25 on the Julian calendar currently corresponds to January 7 on the internationally-used Gregorian calendar. However, other Orthodox Christians, such as the churches of Greece, Romania, Antioch,Alexandria, Albania, Finland and the Orthodox Church in America, among others, began using the Revised Julian calendar in the early 20th century, which corresponds exactly to the Gregorian calendar.
These Orthodox Churches celebrate Christmas on the same day as Western Christianity. Oriental Orthodox churches also use their own calendars, which are generally similar to the Julian calendar. The Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates the nativity in combination with theFeast of the Epiphany on January 6. Armenian churches customarily use the Gregorian calendar, but some use the Julian calendar and thus celebrate Christmas Day on January 19, and Christmas Eve on January 18 (according to the Gregorian calendar).
Commemorating Jesus’ birth
Anbetung der Hirten (Adoration of the Shepherds) (c. 1500–10), by Italian painter Giorgio da Castelfranco
Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary as a fulfillment of the Old Testament’s Messianic prophecy. The Bible contains two accounts which describe the events surrounding Jesus’ birth. Depending on one’s perspective, these accounts either differ from each other or tell two versions of the same story These biblical accountsare found in the Gospel of Matthew, namely Matthew 1:18, and the Gospel of Luke, specifically Luke 1:26 and 2:40. According to these accounts, Jesus was born to Mary, assisted by her husband Joseph, in the city of Bethlehem.
According to popular tradition, the birth took place in a stable, surrounded by farm animals, though neither the stable nor the animals are specifically mentioned in the Biblical accounts. However, a manger (that is, a feeding trough) is mentioned in Luke 2:7, where it states Mary “wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (KJV); the New International Version now translates this, “She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them” (NIV). Early iconographic representations of the nativity placed the animals and manger within a cave (located, according to tradition, under the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem), not a stable.
Shepherds from the fields surrounding Bethlehem were told of the birth by an angel, and were the first to see the child. Popular tradition also holds that three kings or wise men (named Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar) visited the infant Jesus in the manger, though this does not strictly follow the Biblical account. The Gospel of Matthew instead describes a visit by an unspecified number of magi, or astrologers, sometime after Jesus was born while the family was living in a house (Matthew 2:11), who brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the young child Jesus. The visitors were said to be following a mysterious star, commonly known as the Star of Bethlehem, believing it to announce the birth of a king of the Jews. The commemoration of this visit, the Feast of Epiphany celebrated on January 6, is the formal end of the Christmas season in some churches.
Christians celebrate Christmas in various ways. In addition to this day being one of the most important and popular for the attendance of church services, there are other devotions and popular traditions. In some Christian denominations, children re-enact the events of the Nativity with animals to portray the event with more realism or sing carols that reference the event. Some Christians also display a small re-creation of the Nativity, known as a Nativity scene or crèche, in their homes, using figurines to portray the key characters of the event. Prior to Christmas Day, the Eastern Orthodox Church practices the 40-day Nativity Fast in anticipation of the birth of Jesus, while much ofWestern Christianity celebrates four weeks of Advent. The final preparations for Christmas are made on Christmas Eve.
A long artistic tradition has grown of producing painted depictions of the nativity in art. Nativity scenes are traditionally set in a stable with livestock and include Mary, Joseph, the infant Jesus in the manger, the three wise men, the shepherds and their sheep, the angels, and the Star of Bethlehem.
History
The earliest evidence of the celebration on December 25 of a Christian liturgical feast of the birth of Jesus is from the Chronography of 354 AD. This was in Rome, while in Eastern Christianity the birth of Jesus was already celebrated in connection with the Epiphany on January 6. The December 25 celebration was imported into the East later: in Antioch by John Chrysostom towards the end of the 4th century, probably in 388, and in Alexandria only in the following century. Even in the West, the January 6 celebration of the nativity of Jesus seems to have continued until after 380.
Many popular customs associated with Christmas developed independently of the commemoration of Jesus’ birth, with certain elements having origins in pre-Christian festivals that were celebrated around the winter solstice by pagan populations who were later converted to Christianity. These elements, including the Yule log from Yule and gift giving from Saturnalia, became syncretized into Christmas over the centuries. The prevailing atmosphere of Christmas has also continually evolved since the holiday’s inception, ranging from a sometimes raucous, drunken, carnival-like state in the Middle Ages, to a tamer family-oriented and children-centered theme introduced in a 19th-century reformation. Additionally, the celebration of Christmas was banned on more than one occasion within Protestant Christendomdue to concerns that it was too pagan or unbiblical.
Controversy and criticism
Throughout the holiday’s history, Christmas has been the subject of both controversy and criticism from a wide variety of different sources. The first documented Christmas controversy was Christian-led, and began during the English Interregnum, when England was ruled by aPuritan Parliament. Puritans (including those who fled to America) sought to remove the remaining pagan elements of Christmas. During this brief period, the English Parliament banned the celebration of Christmas entirely, considering it “a popish festival with no biblical justification”, and a time of wasteful and immoral behavior.
Controversy and criticism continues in the present-day, where some Christian and non-Christians have claimed that an affront to Christmas (dubbed a “war on Christmas” by some) is ongoing. In the United States there has been a tendency to replace the greeting Merry Christmas with Happy Holidays. Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have initiated court cases to bar the display of images and other material referring to Christmas from public property, including schools. Such groups argue that government-funded displays of Christmas imagery and traditions violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits the establishment by Congress of a national religion. In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Lynch vs. Donnelly that a Christmas display (which included a Nativity scene) owned and displayed by the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island did not violate the First Amendment. In November 2009, the Federal appeals court in Philadelphia endorsed a school district’s ban on the singing of Christmas carols.
In the private sphere also, it has been alleged that any specific mention of the term “Christmas” or its religious aspects was being increasingly censored, avoided, or discouraged by a number of advertisers and retailers. In response, the American Family Association and other groups have organized boycotts of individual retailers. In the United Kingdom there have been some minor controversies, one of the most famous being the temporary promotion of the Christmas period as Winterval by Birmingham City Council in 1998. There were also protests in November 2009 when the city of Dundee promoted its celebrations as the Winter Night Light festival, initially with no specific Christmas references.
Jesus (Isa عيسى)
Jesus and Islamic view of Jesus
Jesus takes up the whole of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) in the Bible, as well as being the focus of the subsequent books of the New Testament.
He appears several times in the Qur’an: in
verses 35-59 of Sura 3: al-Imran (The Family of Imran),
verses 156-158 of Sura 4: an Nisa’ (The Women),
verses 109-120 of Sura 5: al-Ma’idah (The Repast),
verses 16-35 of Sura 19: Maryam (Mary),
verse 50 of Sura 23: al-Mu’minun (The Believers)
verses 57-65 of Sura 43: az-Zukhruf (The Gold Adornments) and in
verses 6 and 14 of Sura 61: as-Saff (The Battle Array).
Reference is made to him several more times.
The Qur’an contains few narratives from Jesus’ life, but does include many brief descriptions in common with the Bible:
Made the dead to live
Is the Messiah (the Christ)
Had disciples
His disciples were successful over disbelievers
Healed the blind and lepers
Filled with the Holy Spirit
Is alive in heaven now
In the Qur’an Jesus is said to have created a bird out of clay and blown life into it; and he is also said to have spoken as an infant in the cradle to defend his mother from the false accusations of fornication. These two narratives are not found in the Bible, but are in the Infancy Gospels (Non-Canonical Gospels).
The Qur’an rejects the Christian view of Jesus, specifically his divinity. According to the Qur’an, Jesus did not ask to be worshipped and Jesus asked people to worship God. Also, according to the Qur’an, God “has no partners” and believing that God took physical form is in of itself a sin.
Ho love of mine.. with a song and a whine.. You’re harsh and divine.. like truths and a lie.. but the tale end is not here.. I’ve nothing to fear.. for my love is yell of giving and hold on… in the bright emptiness.. in a room full of it.. is the cruel mistress ho ho o… I feel the sunrise.. that nest all hollowness.. for i have the way to go.. not come… And i feel so lonely yea.. There’s a better place from this emptiness..
Be helpless, dumb founded, Unable to say yes or no. Then a stretcher will come from grace to gather us up.
We are too dull-eyed to see that beauty. If we say we can, we’re lying. If we say No, we don’t see it, That No will behead us And shut tight our window onto spirit.
So let us rather not be sure of anything, Beside ourselves, and only that, so Miraculous beings come running to help. Crazed, lying in a zero circle, mute,
We shall be saying finally, With tremendous eloquence, Lead us. When we have totally surrendered to that beauty, We shall be a mighty kindness.
I am famous, I was in Big Boss and I am big Sister now lolzzzz
I am beautiful look at me; the question remain a big question?
How soon she will get Asylum abroad?
She can do anything for fame and money?
Am I a good women?
or Am I a good Pakistani ?
If we look at the video we can see how she’s done it and she shouldn’t be denying to the public of Islamic State of Pakistan.
“That was not the first shoot which I have done in my life that I was so excited or something” she contended.
“That is part of my job.”
Veena Malik has vowed to return home despite receiving death threats for allegedly posing nude for the cover of FHM.
The defiant Pakistani actress, who sparked international controversy after appearing ‘nude’ on the cover of the Indian edition of FHM magazine with the initials of the ISI, Pakistan‘s spy agency stenciled on her arm, says that despite the threats she isn’t scared and will return to her home country.
She said: “The things I have done in life, I have the guts to stand by.
“This is my body, and I will take advantage of it if I want to. And it’s a very beautiful body. But I will not allow any man out there to morph my pictures and put it on the cover, just to sell their magazine. They are gaining. I’m losing.”
A man peruses a copy of the controversial December issue of FHM India (Pic: AP)
Malik insists she was wearing a bikini and claims that magazine editors digitally removed her bikini top after the shoot which has led to her father disowning her, death threats and accusations that she has betrayed her country.
She explained: “My choice was a bikini shoot. And I did a bikini shoot. They removed my bikini, later on. It was not a topless, and not a nude, shoot. It was a completely covered shoot,” said Malik. “When the upper portion of the model is completely covered, by the hands, you can’t call it topless.”
The star also hit out at the “stone age” attitudes of Pakistan saying: “I’m living my life on my own terms.
“If somebody does not agree with that, if somebody does not want to understand, it’s pretty OK with me. I did not commit any crime in my life.
“If some mullah on the TV today says shoot the girl, they will shoot me. But the guy who removed my clothes using some technology, at least say something against him.
“This attitude, I’m sorry, is in the society. When they say they have become modern, grown up, that’s wrong. They still live in the stone age.”
Earlier in the week Malik was accused of engineering the whole FHM controversy for a PR stunt – a claim which she denies.
The magazine and Malik are reportedly suing each other for £3m in a bitter exchange of lawsuits
is inability to “put oneself in other peoples’ shoes” and a personality trait which has the characteristic of regarding oneself and one’s own opinions or interests as most important or valid. It also generates the inability to fully understand or to cope with other people’s opinions and the fact that reality can be different from what they are ready to accept despite any change in their personal belief.
In psychology, Egocentrism is defined as:
the incomplete differentiation of the self and the world, including other people,
the tendency to perceive, understand and interpret the world in terms of the self, and
being over preoccupied with ones own internal world.
The term derives from the Greek and Latin ἑγώ / ego, meaning “I”, “me”, and “self”. An egocentric person cannot fully empathize, i.e. “put himself in other peoples’ shoes”. The egocentrics believe everyone should see what they see or that what they see, in some way, exceeds what most other people can see, i.e. “how I see the world now is how the world is”. To them, any different perception than their own is either considered false or non existent.
Jean Piaget (1896–1980) claimed that young children are egocentric. This does not mean that they are selfish, but that they do not have the mental ability to understand that other people may have different opinions and beliefs from themselves.
While definitely there are multitude scale levels of egocentrism, mostly it is found in children and then adolescents. Adults are also susceptible to be egocentric or react in such manners.
Eventually a mentally healthy individual evolves out of most of his or her egocentric habits. Adults unable to do so, if forced to face the issue, will often argue of having changed and widen their perception of the world and of having learned from their past mistakes. Unfortunately, despite a new mindset and a confession, they will still practice the habits of regarding oneself and one’s own opinions or interests as most important or valid and still are unable to cope properly with different frames of reference, opinions or point of views other than their own.
In younger children
It appears that this egocentric stance towards the world is present mostly in younger children. They are unable to separate their own beliefs, thoughts and ideas from others. For example, if a child sees that there is candy in a box, he assumes that someone else walking into the room also knows that there is candy in that box. He implicitly reasons that “since I know it, you know it too”. As stated previously this may be rooted in the limitations in the child’s theory of mind skills. However, it does not mean that children are unable to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. As far as feelings are concerned, it is shown that children exhibit empathy early on and are able to cooperate with others and be aware of their needs and wants. With his colleague Barbel Inhelder, Piaget did a test to investigate egocentrism called the mountains study. He put children in front of a simple plaster mountain range and then asked them to pick from four pictures the view that he, Piaget, would see.
Younger children before age 7, during the so-called pre-operational stage, picked the picture of the view they themselves saw and were therefore found to lack the ability to appreciate a viewpoint different from their own. In other words, their way of reasoning was egocentric. Only when entering the so-called concrete-operational stage at age 7–12, children became capable of de-centering and could appreciate viewpoints other than their own. In other words, they were capable of cognitive perspective-taking.
However, the mountains test has been criticized for judging only the child’s visuo-spatial awareness, rather than egocentrism. A follow up study involving police dolls showed that even young children were able to correctly say what the interviewer would see. It is thought that Piaget overestimated the levels of egocentrism in children.
Egocentrism is thus the child’s inability to see other people’s viewpoints. The child at this stage of cognitive development assumes that their view of the world is the same as other people’s, e.g. a little girl does not understand that taking another child’s ball is wrong because she views the ball as hers.
Examples:
In adolescence
Although most of the research completed on the topic of egocentrism is primarily focused on early childhood development; where in later years of development egocentrism should be declining, there are certainly other views to be had. Another view often discussed on the topic of egocentrism is the egocentrism in the adolescent population. Throughout the development of adolescence the body goes through many mental and physical changes. David Elkind was one of the first to really discover the presence of egocentrism in adolescence and late adolescence. David Elkind argues that “the young adolescent, because of physiological metamorphosis he is undergoing, is primarily concerned with himself. Accordingly, since he fails to differentiate between what others are thinking about and his own mental preoccupations, he assumes that other people are obsessed with his behavior and appearance as he is himself.” This shows that the adolescent is exhibiting egocentrism because he cannot clearly identify another person’s perception. Elkind also created terms to help describe the egocentric behaviors exhibited by the adolescent population such as, what he calls an imaginary audience and personal fable. Imaginary audience refers to the idea that most adolescents believe that there is some audience that is constantly present that is overly interested in what the individual has to say or do. Personal fable refers to the idea that many teenagers believe that they are the only ones who are capable of feeling the way that they do. Egocentrism in adolescence is often viewed as a negative aspect of their thinking ability because adolescents become consumed with themselves and are unable to effectively function in society due to their skewed version of reality.
A study was completed on 163 undergraduate students to examine the adolescent egocentrism in college students. Students were asked to complete a self-report questionnaire to determine the level of egocentrism present. The questions simply asked for the reactions that students had to seemingly embarrassing situations. It was found that adolescent egocentrism was more prevalent in the female population than the male. This again exemplifies the idea that egocentrism is present in even late adolescence.
Results from other studies have come to the conclusion that egocentrism does not present itself in some of the same patterns as it was found originally. More recent studies have found that egocentrism is prevalent in later years of development unlike Piaget’s original findings that suggested that egocentrism is only present in early childhood development. Recent studies have also implied that egocentrism is not universally present in all late adolescence. It greatly depends on the environment in which you were raised or are presently in. It is suggested that in stressful situations for example school that egocentrism can be higher. Also the sort of family life one was raised in could determine the amount of egocentric behaviors present. For example an only child is more likely to exhibit personal fable like behavior because they are constantly focused on, and often believe they are the only ones that matter. Overall this suggests that there are some inconsistencies, or at the very least qualifications, to Piaget’s model of human cognitive development.
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A comparative analysis of the criminal cases involving three young women, two Americans and one Pakistani. The cases of Amanda Knox, Casey Anthony, and Dr. Aafia Siddiqui reveal just how arbitrary and capricious “justice” can be in the U.S. legal system, and how conceptually flawed it can be in the collective mind of the American people (generally speaking).
These three cases also reveal, in very graphic detail, the role that race, class, gender, religion and politics often play in the pursuit of justice in the western hemisphere.
Amanda Knox was prosecuted and convicted in Italy (along with her Italian lover and an African immigrant) for the brutal murder of another young female foreign exchange student. Knox received a sentence of 26 years as a result. Now via the automatic appeals process in European law (a superior quality, in my view, to American law), and the recent decision by an appellate judge to allow an independent review of key forensic evidence that was used to convict her – because the evidence was reportedly contaminated by being mishandled by Italian investigators – Knox has a good chance of winning release in the near future.
(If I were a betting man, I would wage it all on my belief that Ms. Knox will be “legally” cleared and repatriated back to America sooner than later.)
Casey Anthony, a young woman from Florida, was charged in the death of her own child, Caylee Anthony. Despite the damning evidence against her, Anthony was recently found not guilty of the most serious charges in the murder indictment, and convicted only for giving false information to the law enforcement officers who investigated the case. Anthony has now been released to an undisclosed location, and reportedly stands to make a fortune when ever she decides to “tell her story.”
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is a Pakistani national, and committed Muslim woman, who came to the United States at the age of 18 for university study. She excelled academically at the University of Houston, MIT, and Brandeis University. She also distinguished herself as a young leader of the Muslim student organization(s) to which she belonged, and engaged in praiseworthy charitable work in the greater Boston area. Aafia would later become a person of suspicion (post 9/11), return home to Pakistan, and eventually become a target Buy propecia online of a rendition operation (along with her three young children – ages six, four, and six months) in March of 2003.
After five years of secret detention and torture, Aafia would mysteriously re-emerge in a weakened and disheveled state in Afghanistan; she would be shot and seriously injured while awaiting re-interrogation; and soon after be brought back to the United States, in 2008, to eventually stand trial (two years later) for allegedly “attempting to murder U.S. personnel” (FBI and soldiers) in Afghanistan in July 2008.
While Amanda Knox and Casey Anthony (young, white, non-Muslim females) became “tabloid darlings,” Buy lasix online whose trials played out in the public sphere like Reality TV dramas, the trial of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was shrouded under a cloak of near anonymity within the United States – despite the presence of a significant number of reporters in the courtroom each day of the trial.
Both Knox and Anthony misled investigators (aka, repeatedly lied) during their interrogations, while Aafia was forthright from start to finish.
Both Knox and Anthony initially tried to shift responsibility for the crime that they were accused of committing on to an innocent person, and both had strong circumstantial evidence against them. In Siddiqui’s case both thematerial and circumstancial evidence were strongly in her favor; it was the government’s star witnesses that perjured themselves on the witness stand during the trial (although they were never charged with perjury)!
Casey Anthony received an extreme presumption of innocence from a jury that saw a young white female who was facing the death penalty, if convicted. (I predict that the presumption of innocence principle will strongly kick in, post conviction, based on the alleged contamination of evidence, in the appeals process for Amanda Knox.) And while Ms. Anthony had a fair and impartial jurist to preside over her case, Judge Belvin Perry, Aafia Siddiqui had just the opposite.U.S. District Judge Richard Berman was openly biased against Dr. Siddiqui from start to finish.
Anthony’s jury was sequestered in a hotel, cutoff from the outside world; while Dr. Siddiqui’s should have been!The jury in Aafia’s case left the courthouse each day, and were continually exposed to the highly prejudicial, government-fed local media reports that contaminated the court of public opinion; reports that were so unfair and poisonous that they made any prospect for an impartial deliberation process almost impossible.
Anthony’s attorneys were given a lot of latitude in their defense of their client; while Siddiqui’s attorneys were hamstrung (and in the opinion of some observers, allowed themselves to be hamstrung) to such an extent, that the missing fives years of her secret detention were made off limits during the trial!
While Casey Anthony is a free woman (relatively speaking); and Amanda Knox – who has benefited from a growing defense lobby, and American press coverage that has been primarily positive – may soon be a free woman; Dr. Aafia Siddiqui (who is not accused of harming anyone!) received a sentence of 86 years on September 23, 2010, and is now being confined at a notorious institution (known as Carswell) on a military base in Fort Worth, Texas.
The well known peace activist, Cindy Sheehan, made a provocative observation regarding the outcome of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui case, not long after her sentencing: “Even if Dr. Siddiqui did shoot at the Americans, reflect on this. Say this case was being tried in Pakistan under similar circumstances for an American woman named Dr. Betty Brown who was captured and repeatedly tortured and raped by the ISI. Here in the states that woman would be a hero if she shot at her captors, not demonized and taken away from her life and her children. I believe Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is a political prisoner and now the political bogey-woman for two US regimes.”
I couldn’t agree more…and so goes the tale of three accused women.
Iran-Pakistan-China Pipeline – Gateway to the progress of Balochistan
This is what really happening in Pakistan. Wake up call……….
To revenge Pakistan for its involvement in Afghanistan, Russian KGB started its interest and covert operations in Balochistan. Turkmen writer Tariq Saeedi maintains that,” during the Russo-Afghan war, the Soviet Union was surprised by the ability and resourcefulness of Pakistan to generate a quick and effective resistance movement in Afghanistan. To punish Pakistan and to answer back in the same currency, Kremlin decided to create some organizations that would specialize in sabotage activities in Pakistan. One such organization was BLA (Balochistan Liberation Army), the brainchild of KGB that was built around the core of BSO (Baloch Students Organization). BSO was a group of assorted left-wing students in Quetta and some other cities of Balochistan”.
Balochistan became international in 1967 – 69 when Soviet Union, with the help of Iraq and India set-up an Azad Balochistan Movement and put up a person Juma Khan as its leader. He had no following and was running under ground to Iraq and Syria. I believe he died in exile in Syria. It will be recalled that during Mr Bhutto’s rule, the Iraqi Embassy was raided and much of arms and ammunition confiscated said to being supplied by Iraq to the underground in Balochistan. Iraq came under severe criticism in the Arab world for working against such a staunch friend of Arabs as Pakistan. Iraq explained that they were supporting the Iranian Balochis through Pakistan in their enmity with Iran etc. This was the time if I remember correctly when ZAB had undertaken an operation against Baloch Sardars whom he wanted to eliminate to establish democratic leadership. An interesting fact of Balochistan is that while in Pak Balochistan majority is Shia, in Iranian Balochistan majority is Sunni. Iraq was playing the Sunni card against Iran then, as the official story goes. [Dr Samiullah Koreshi] [Baltic Security and Defence Review KGBinAFGH ]
After the Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan, BLA lost its major source of funding and went into darkness until American occupation of Afghanistan in 2001 that provided golden chance to India for its stronghold in Afghanistan under the shadow of Pro-Israeli NATO and US forces. BLA is again on the move with Indian, CIA and Mossad’s support who in return have their own objectives in burning Balochistan. In September 2006, it was reported that, “The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) pumped huge money, into the province, transferred arms and ammunition via Kishan Garh into Dera Bugti, from various routes,”.
Pakistan army claimed to seal the routes of separatists supplies through India and Afghanistan, after high-tech weaponry like surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), 107mm rockets and other lethal weapons were recovered by the law enforcement agencies in the province. But Indian involvement in burning Balochistan was not blocked and Pakistan officials and security analysts continued explaining the involvement and tactic being used for the destabilization of Balochistan. In interviews published in The Post, Separately, Pakistan’s former Army Chief Aslam Beg and ex-chief of ISI General (retired) Hamid Gul both had accused Indian consulates located in Afghanistan and Iran and the United States with fomenting trouble in Baluchistan.
In the joint statement issued after the meeting of Indo – Pak prime ministers in July 2009 in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, Indian involvement in Balochistan’s unrest was first time acknowledged by India and commented Brajesh Mishra, the National Security Advisor and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister in the NDA government, “This is an indirect acknowledgement by New Delhi that India has a hand in what is going on in Balochistan.” Global security Magazine writes, “Most recently, these activities included the stationing of Indian intelligence officers at Zahedan, Iran close to Baluchistan rebel activities in Pakistan. Pakistan charges India with complicity (via Afghanistan ) in the ethnic crises in the two states of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan: Baluchistan and the Northwest Frontier Province. Pakistan complains that the Indian consulates in the border cities of Jalalabad and Kandahar are involved in fomenting insurgency in its Baluchistan province. Amidst increased fighting in January 2006, Musharraf accused India of arming and financing the militants fighting in Baluchistan. New Delhi categorically rejected the allegations. Islamabad banned the separatist Baluchistan Liberation Army as a terrorist organization in April 2006″.
Indians and Israelis have joined hands to act as the mercenaries for Americans to keep Balochistan burning. Ever since the Taliban were ousted from power and foreign troops landed in Afghanistan in late 2001, the Indians have been using the Afghan soil for sabotage and terror acts in Pakistan. The News International, a leading daily in Pakistan, on February 21, 2010 detailed that over a hundred Baloch dissidents have been sent to India by the Indian consulate, located in Kandahar (Afghanistan) for six-months training. These trainees were promised a monthly salary of $ 500 – 1000 upon completion of the training and working for the employer’s objectives. The newspaper report also revealed the command and control of these trainees. Half of them go under the command of Afghan Border Police chief at Spin Boldak while the rest lot to be put under the command of Afghan Police Chief of Shorawak District of Kandahar province.
Do you believe in heaven in above Do you believe in love Don’t tell a lie Don’t be false or untrue It all comes back to you Open fire on my burning heart I’ve never been lucky in love My defenses are down A kiss or a frown I can’t survive on my own If a girl walks in And carves her name in my heart I’ll turn and run away Everyday we’ve all been lead astray It’s hard to be lucky in love
It gets in your eyes It’s making you cry Don’t know what to do Looking for love Calling heaven above Send me an angel Right now
Empty dreams can only disappoint In a room behind your smile But don’t give up Don’t give up You can be lucky in love
It gets in your eyes It’s making you cry Don’t know what to do Looking for love Calling heaven above Send me an angel Right now
Creation is the product of synchronizing our energy with the universe. Once we experience the whole and recognize it, we become aware that we are nothing but the Divine Creative Force.
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