(no subject)
Speaking on the character of Muhammad, (pbuh) Mahatma Gandhi says in (Young India):
"I wanted to know the best of one who holds today's undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind....I became more than convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard for his pledges, his intense devotion to this friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the 2nd volume (of the Prophet's biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of the great life."
- Muhammad in Their Eyes
Graphic Bible Features Superman Jesus
A new, abridged version of the Bible rooted in Manga, the Japanese form of graphic novels, projects Jesus Christ as a tough, dark stranger who arrives in town ready to save the world.
Archaeologists dig up 'oldest' African human sacrifice
The tomb of a 5,500-year-old man surrounded by three sacrificed humans, two dogs and exquisite ceramics were exhumed north of Khartoum by Neolithic expert Jacques Reinhold and his 66-year-old Austrian wife.
Fidel Castro's resignation letter
College Web site posts sex gossip, hate, rumor
The student found his name on the Web site beside a rambling, filthy passage about his sexual exploits, posted by an anonymous student on campus. The young man could only hope the commentary was so ridiculous nobody would believe it.
Movie: George Washington
The story of a group of kids growing up in a depressed rural town in North Carolina, as seen through the eyes of 12-year-old Nasia. After breaking up with her show-off boyfriend Buddy, she withdraws from her delinquent friends and becomes romantically obsessed with a strange, introverted boy named George who is burdened by the fact that his skull never hardened after birth. Tragedy strikes when one of George's friends is accidentally killed and the group, fearing punishment, decides to hide the body. In its aftermath, George is put in the unlikely role as town hero.
(These two recs come from someone else ;))
Book: One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of Travelers Writing about the Muslim Pilgrimage
One Thousand Roads to Mecca is a collection of more than 20 accounts of the Hajj spanning ten centuries. The writers collected in this anthology reflect the geographic diversity of Islam. These pilgrims come from all over the world: Morocco, India, Persia, England, Italy, and the United States. They travel by boat and camel, on foot and horseback and, most recently, by airplane; many suffered all the hardships and dangers attached to a long pilgrimage of months or even years through deserts and over mountains, across lands populated by brigands and thieves. But along with the hazards are descriptions of of Cairo and Damascus at the height of their glory during the medieval period and anecdotes and observations that render the cosmopolitan nature of the pilgrims. In addition to the writings of Muslim pilgrims, there are also several accounts by non-Muslim westerners who, by hook or by crook, gained access to the forbidden city of Mecca and then wrote about it. One Thousand Roads to Mecca is both classic travel literature at its best and a wonderful introduction to the tenets and practices of a frequently misunderstood religion.
Movie: --LIMITED RELEASE-- The Band's Visit
A small Egyptian Police band arrives in Israel. They are suppose to play at an initiation ceremony but instead are left stranded at the airport. The band tries to make their way on their own, only to find themselves in a desolate, small Israeli town, somewhere in the heart of the desert. A lost band in a lost town.
"I wanted to know the best of one who holds today's undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind....I became more than convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard for his pledges, his intense devotion to this friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the 2nd volume (of the Prophet's biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of the great life."
- Muhammad in Their Eyes
Graphic Bible Features Superman Jesus
A new, abridged version of the Bible rooted in Manga, the Japanese form of graphic novels, projects Jesus Christ as a tough, dark stranger who arrives in town ready to save the world.
Archaeologists dig up 'oldest' African human sacrifice
The tomb of a 5,500-year-old man surrounded by three sacrificed humans, two dogs and exquisite ceramics were exhumed north of Khartoum by Neolithic expert Jacques Reinhold and his 66-year-old Austrian wife.
Fidel Castro's resignation letter
College Web site posts sex gossip, hate, rumor
The student found his name on the Web site beside a rambling, filthy passage about his sexual exploits, posted by an anonymous student on campus. The young man could only hope the commentary was so ridiculous nobody would believe it.
Movie: George Washington
The story of a group of kids growing up in a depressed rural town in North Carolina, as seen through the eyes of 12-year-old Nasia. After breaking up with her show-off boyfriend Buddy, she withdraws from her delinquent friends and becomes romantically obsessed with a strange, introverted boy named George who is burdened by the fact that his skull never hardened after birth. Tragedy strikes when one of George's friends is accidentally killed and the group, fearing punishment, decides to hide the body. In its aftermath, George is put in the unlikely role as town hero.
(These two recs come from someone else ;))
Book: One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of Travelers Writing about the Muslim Pilgrimage
One Thousand Roads to Mecca is a collection of more than 20 accounts of the Hajj spanning ten centuries. The writers collected in this anthology reflect the geographic diversity of Islam. These pilgrims come from all over the world: Morocco, India, Persia, England, Italy, and the United States. They travel by boat and camel, on foot and horseback and, most recently, by airplane; many suffered all the hardships and dangers attached to a long pilgrimage of months or even years through deserts and over mountains, across lands populated by brigands and thieves. But along with the hazards are descriptions of of Cairo and Damascus at the height of their glory during the medieval period and anecdotes and observations that render the cosmopolitan nature of the pilgrims. In addition to the writings of Muslim pilgrims, there are also several accounts by non-Muslim westerners who, by hook or by crook, gained access to the forbidden city of Mecca and then wrote about it. One Thousand Roads to Mecca is both classic travel literature at its best and a wonderful introduction to the tenets and practices of a frequently misunderstood religion.
Movie: --LIMITED RELEASE-- The Band's Visit
A small Egyptian Police band arrives in Israel. They are suppose to play at an initiation ceremony but instead are left stranded at the airport. The band tries to make their way on their own, only to find themselves in a desolate, small Israeli town, somewhere in the heart of the desert. A lost band in a lost town.