LEICESTER ISLAMIC STANDARD
More Churches closing in Leicester, this time in Belgrave area.
At a time that has seen more and more Mosques / Masaajid (pl. Masjid) being built across Leicester as the Muslim population grows, Leicester’s Christians are struggling to fill ancient buildings, leading to Christianity dying out where it has been present for nearly 1000 years.
Within weeks, the doors of St Peter’s Church, in Belgrave, will be bolted shut.
Nearby St Gabriel’s Church, on Kerrysdale Avenue, will also close after the Church of England upheld the proposal to decommission the buildings.
At a meeting on Monday at the Church of England’s London headquarters, the Diocese of Leicester was given permission to go ahead with the closures.
A spokesman for the Church Commissioners, responsible for church assets, said they “concluded that the parish only needs one church building”.
St Alban’s Church will be the last remaining church serving the whole of the Belgrave, where dozens of Churches were present only 100 years ago.
Although many people are following no religion, or other religions, Islam remains the fastest growing faith in Leicester, the UK, and the rest of the world.
Instead of being full of old people, are Masaajid are these days full of the young who are often more practicing than their parents or grandparents generation.
We at the Leicester Islamic Standard welcome the dying out of this idolitrous faith in our city and look forward to the day when Islam is the dominant faith over the whole of Leicester, with the law of God enforced for the benefit of all.
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
The U.S. Hunger Epidemic is a Fact, And We Must Act Now
Just one week ago, I wrote a post on an extensive study that concluded that one in five Americans went hungry last year.
Unfortunately, it’s likely I’ll find myself writing quite often about the disheartening food crisis in the United States. Today, a new study, this time by Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief charity, released its own report, Hunger in America 2010.
The data from Feeding America is interesting, because they are associated with 41,600 food banks (and other sorts of feeding agencies) across the country, so their numbers correlate directly with emergency food distribution throughout the United States.
Currently, the organization is providing food to 37 million Americans, including 14 million kids and three million seniors. That means that one in eight Americans relies on Feeding America for food. The charity’s food network says they are feeding one million more people than they were in 2006.
But the following stats are the ones I’ve found most hard to swallow. Since 2006, there has been a 50 percent increase in the number of children who are depending on Feeding America for basic food needs. Thirty-six percent of the households fed by the group’s network have one or more adults working. And while 76 percent of adults who used a food pantry last year were unemployed, 3.2 million of them had lost their job sometime in the preceding 12 months.
What this says is that children are bearing a tremendous brunt of the hunger crisis. And that just over one-third of those going hungry aren’t unemployed — they’re severely underemployed. And of course, two-thirds of hungry Americans don’t have jobs — and many of them lost their income at some point since Wall Street burst in 2008.
The human toll of this recession is astounding. Perhaps even more astounding is how ineffectively our so-called public servants have reacted in the face of such misery. We live in the richest country in the world, and the weakest among us — children, the elderly, the working poor, the unemployed — have experienced little to no relief.
The only good news would seem to be that with eligibility requirements eased and benefits slightly increased for the SNAP/food stamps program, the hunger crisis isn’t as bad as it might otherwise be. There was also a $1 billion increase in child nutrition programs — such as school lunches — last year.
Despite these glimmers of hope, however, we’ve clearly not done nearly enough to help the hungry find access to food in times of need, or better help them feed themselves. Indicative of this, Feeding America said that given the huge uptick in people seeking food from pantries, many sites had to cut food portions and even turn away folks.
How is this possible in our land of plenty? We are the world’s largest exporter of corn and soybeans; we rank among the highest beef exporters, too. I know America has enough food for everybody who lives here.
The Treasury Department and the Fed have been crowing since mid-last year that our economy has “rebounded,” and that for the first time in two years our economy is growing instead of contracting. But all the while, unemployment has remained in the double-digits (10 percent is “low” these days, and of course it underestimates true unemployment and completely disregards the underemployed). And among certain demographics — particularly minorities — unemployment may hit the teens and 20’s this year. Indeed, Feeding America produced data that is consistent with this: blacks and Latinos constitute 34 and 21 percent, respectively, of those seeking food.
We must get food on hungry Americans’ plates. One debate taking place in Washington right now could steer us in the right direction. The question of doubling the Department of Agriculture’s budget to buy surplus commodities for charity feeding programs ought be a no-brainer. No food pantry should be turning people away in their time of dire need.
But we need to get people back to work, too. Fearmongers will yell about frozen budgets and rising deficits, but if we are able to bail out the fools on Wall Street who flushed our economy down the ****ter and if we are able to spend ungodly sums of money each day on unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, then we can bail out the folks who power our economy from the grass-roots up.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. would say, our society is only as strong as the weakest among us. In 1967, he lamented that a nation that encourages “economic exploitation” and “continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” Forty-three years later and what has become of us?
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/...-must-act-now/
Unfortunately, it’s likely I’ll find myself writing quite often about the disheartening food crisis in the United States. Today, a new study, this time by Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief charity, released its own report, Hunger in America 2010.
The data from Feeding America is interesting, because they are associated with 41,600 food banks (and other sorts of feeding agencies) across the country, so their numbers correlate directly with emergency food distribution throughout the United States.
Currently, the organization is providing food to 37 million Americans, including 14 million kids and three million seniors. That means that one in eight Americans relies on Feeding America for food. The charity’s food network says they are feeding one million more people than they were in 2006.
But the following stats are the ones I’ve found most hard to swallow. Since 2006, there has been a 50 percent increase in the number of children who are depending on Feeding America for basic food needs. Thirty-six percent of the households fed by the group’s network have one or more adults working. And while 76 percent of adults who used a food pantry last year were unemployed, 3.2 million of them had lost their job sometime in the preceding 12 months.
What this says is that children are bearing a tremendous brunt of the hunger crisis. And that just over one-third of those going hungry aren’t unemployed — they’re severely underemployed. And of course, two-thirds of hungry Americans don’t have jobs — and many of them lost their income at some point since Wall Street burst in 2008.
The human toll of this recession is astounding. Perhaps even more astounding is how ineffectively our so-called public servants have reacted in the face of such misery. We live in the richest country in the world, and the weakest among us — children, the elderly, the working poor, the unemployed — have experienced little to no relief.
The only good news would seem to be that with eligibility requirements eased and benefits slightly increased for the SNAP/food stamps program, the hunger crisis isn’t as bad as it might otherwise be. There was also a $1 billion increase in child nutrition programs — such as school lunches — last year.
Despite these glimmers of hope, however, we’ve clearly not done nearly enough to help the hungry find access to food in times of need, or better help them feed themselves. Indicative of this, Feeding America said that given the huge uptick in people seeking food from pantries, many sites had to cut food portions and even turn away folks.
How is this possible in our land of plenty? We are the world’s largest exporter of corn and soybeans; we rank among the highest beef exporters, too. I know America has enough food for everybody who lives here.
The Treasury Department and the Fed have been crowing since mid-last year that our economy has “rebounded,” and that for the first time in two years our economy is growing instead of contracting. But all the while, unemployment has remained in the double-digits (10 percent is “low” these days, and of course it underestimates true unemployment and completely disregards the underemployed). And among certain demographics — particularly minorities — unemployment may hit the teens and 20’s this year. Indeed, Feeding America produced data that is consistent with this: blacks and Latinos constitute 34 and 21 percent, respectively, of those seeking food.
We must get food on hungry Americans’ plates. One debate taking place in Washington right now could steer us in the right direction. The question of doubling the Department of Agriculture’s budget to buy surplus commodities for charity feeding programs ought be a no-brainer. No food pantry should be turning people away in their time of dire need.
But we need to get people back to work, too. Fearmongers will yell about frozen budgets and rising deficits, but if we are able to bail out the fools on Wall Street who flushed our economy down the ****ter and if we are able to spend ungodly sums of money each day on unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, then we can bail out the folks who power our economy from the grass-roots up.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. would say, our society is only as strong as the weakest among us. In 1967, he lamented that a nation that encourages “economic exploitation” and “continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” Forty-three years later and what has become of us?
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/...-must-act-now/
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Batak Mian – forgotten patriot who saved Mahatma’s life in 1917
By Manzar Bilal, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: It was 1917 when two top leaders of India’s freedom movement – Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Rajendra Prasad – were on a trip to Motihari, the headquarters of erstwhile Champaran district, to probe the appalling condition of labourers at indigo plantations and to hold an agitation against the British government. This was the first agitation led by Gandhiji in India.
A British manager of an indigo plantation in Motihari invited Gandhiji at a dinner and conspired to kill him through poison. According to the plan, the British manager instructed Batak Mian, his cook, to serve a glass of milk laced with poison to Gandhiji.
But Batak Mian’s patriotism did not allow him to kill Gandhiji. So, he took the glass to Gandhiji but revealed the plot to him. Dr Rajendra Prasad was a witness to it. Thus he saved the life of Gandhiji, the leader who later led the nation for freedom and known as father of the nation. But Batak Miyan had to pay heavily for his patriotism. The manager put him into jail and brutally tortured him. His house was turned into a crematorium and later he and his family were forced out of the village.
It is nothing less than a tragedy that this extraordinary Indian, without whom India’s independence might not have been possible, has completely been ignored. Isn’t it tragic that today Nathu Ram Godse, the man who killed Mahatma Gandhi (on 30 Jan. 1948) is known to all but very few know Batak Mian who saved the Mahatma’s life (in 1917).
On his visit to Motihari in 1950, Dr Rajendra Prasad, who was now first President of India, ordered that Batak Mian’s family be allotted 24 acres of land in recognition of his superb sacrifice. Six decades have passed but the presidential order is yet to be implemented.
The unsung hero Batak Mian died in 1957. Currently, his five grandsons stay with their families at Akwa Parsawni village in West Champaran district. Illiterate, they work as migrant laborers. They have been visiting the government officials in the hope of getting the land but all in vain.
Recently, when President of India Mrs. Pratibha Singh Patil came to know about the dire condition of the family of Mahatma’s saviour, she stepped in to ensure that Mian's grandchildren get the land that was gifted by India’s first President Dr Rajendra Prasad.
President Patil took action after Hindustan Times published a story titled ‘Family of Mahatma’s Saviour in Dire Straits’ on January 22, eight days before the 62nd death anniversay of Gandhiji.
President’s Officer-on-Special Duty (OSD) Archana Datta asked the district magistrates of East and West Champaran to file report on the steps the Bihar government has taken to implement the Presidential order.
According to news reports, West Champaran district magistrate Ramesh Lal has accepted that he got orders from the President’s office to verify and report in this regard.
Following the footsteps of the President of India, Bihar Chief Minister Mr. Nitish Kumar has also taken interest in the matter and directed the Divisional Commissioner, Tirhut, S M Raju to provide help to the family.
It is to be seen whether Batak Mian's grandchildren, who are living in penury, see the presidential promises turning into reality or the matter is left to cool until the next death anniversary of Gandhiji.
http://twocircles.net/2010jan30/batak_mian_forgotten_patriot_who_saved_mahatma_s_life_1917.html
Patna: It was 1917 when two top leaders of India’s freedom movement – Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Rajendra Prasad – were on a trip to Motihari, the headquarters of erstwhile Champaran district, to probe the appalling condition of labourers at indigo plantations and to hold an agitation against the British government. This was the first agitation led by Gandhiji in India.
A British manager of an indigo plantation in Motihari invited Gandhiji at a dinner and conspired to kill him through poison. According to the plan, the British manager instructed Batak Mian, his cook, to serve a glass of milk laced with poison to Gandhiji.
But Batak Mian’s patriotism did not allow him to kill Gandhiji. So, he took the glass to Gandhiji but revealed the plot to him. Dr Rajendra Prasad was a witness to it. Thus he saved the life of Gandhiji, the leader who later led the nation for freedom and known as father of the nation. But Batak Miyan had to pay heavily for his patriotism. The manager put him into jail and brutally tortured him. His house was turned into a crematorium and later he and his family were forced out of the village.
It is nothing less than a tragedy that this extraordinary Indian, without whom India’s independence might not have been possible, has completely been ignored. Isn’t it tragic that today Nathu Ram Godse, the man who killed Mahatma Gandhi (on 30 Jan. 1948) is known to all but very few know Batak Mian who saved the Mahatma’s life (in 1917).
On his visit to Motihari in 1950, Dr Rajendra Prasad, who was now first President of India, ordered that Batak Mian’s family be allotted 24 acres of land in recognition of his superb sacrifice. Six decades have passed but the presidential order is yet to be implemented.
The unsung hero Batak Mian died in 1957. Currently, his five grandsons stay with their families at Akwa Parsawni village in West Champaran district. Illiterate, they work as migrant laborers. They have been visiting the government officials in the hope of getting the land but all in vain.
Recently, when President of India Mrs. Pratibha Singh Patil came to know about the dire condition of the family of Mahatma’s saviour, she stepped in to ensure that Mian's grandchildren get the land that was gifted by India’s first President Dr Rajendra Prasad.
President Patil took action after Hindustan Times published a story titled ‘Family of Mahatma’s Saviour in Dire Straits’ on January 22, eight days before the 62nd death anniversay of Gandhiji.
President’s Officer-on-Special Duty (OSD) Archana Datta asked the district magistrates of East and West Champaran to file report on the steps the Bihar government has taken to implement the Presidential order.
According to news reports, West Champaran district magistrate Ramesh Lal has accepted that he got orders from the President’s office to verify and report in this regard.
Following the footsteps of the President of India, Bihar Chief Minister Mr. Nitish Kumar has also taken interest in the matter and directed the Divisional Commissioner, Tirhut, S M Raju to provide help to the family.
It is to be seen whether Batak Mian's grandchildren, who are living in penury, see the presidential promises turning into reality or the matter is left to cool until the next death anniversary of Gandhiji.
http://twocircles.net/2010jan30/batak_mian_forgotten_patriot_who_saved_mahatma_s_life_1917.html
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