By Mohsin Hamid –
There are more than a billion Muslims in the world, each with an individual view of life. So why are they viewed as a unified group, asks Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist
In 2007, six years after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, I was travelling through Europe and North America. I had just published a novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and as I travelled I was struck by the large number of interviewers and of audience members at Q&As who spoke of Islam as a monolithic thing, as if Islam referred to a self-contained and clearly defined world, a sort of Microsoft Windows, obviously different from, and considerably incompatible with, the Apple OS X-like operating system of “the west”.
Read more in the Guardian
Riz Ahmed as Changez with Kate Hudson as Erica in the film The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Amarasiri / May 20, 2013
Very Interesting Film Maker.
Nair Makes very good thought provoking movies.
See the other movie Water as well.
Also see Being There with Peter Sellers.
Anyway, the current issues of the world can be traced back to WW 1 and WW2, in the Middle East to the Creation Israel, US Interference and the 1967 Arab Israeli War.
The story continues in different locations…
This is the story in Sri Lanka ……
The 64,000 pound Gorilla is Sinhala Buddhist Racism, that was the cause of the Separatist war to begin with, courtesy of Racist Monk Mahanama.
MYTHS.
Sinhala Buddhist Myths, Courtesy Racist Monk Mahanama.
This is not Buddhism, and the Lion race is just another MYTH, among many others, used by the politicians and Monk racists. No Lion genes were found in South Asia among the people.
Need to keep informing about the MYTHS, because the MYTH followers keep rejecting. Even after 470 years after Copernicus, 25% of the Americans still believe the Sun goes round the Earth. What percentage OF SINHALA BUDDHISTS BELIEVE THE MONK MAHANAMA MYTHS?
The Natives and Religions of Sri Lanka
Sinhala Buddhists Monk Mahanama and Tamil Hindus and Racism
1. A fraction of Sinhalese Buddhists now are racists. They were NOT racists to begin with. They were TAUGHT by Monk Mahanama to be racists with MYTHS written to Mahawamsa. This was perpetuated later on by other monks and other racists. In fact, DNA analysis of the so-called Sinhalese will show that they are not much different genetically from the Tamils of South India and Sri Lanka.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinhalese_people
2. Sri Lanka was originally Animist, Hindu and Jain with Veddah, Yakka and Naga people. Even Vijaya and the other immigrants were either Jain or Hindu. Even Lord Buddha’s parents were Hindu.
3. Monk Mahanama and other monks used the kings, and the kings used the monks, to reinforce each other’s position and hegemony and promoted Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism. This has nothing to do with Buddhism. Like Arab Nationalism and Islam.
4. Buddhism and racism became rallying points for the monks and kings. This monk-king axis has nothing to do with achieving Nirvana and rebirth, which are all MYTHS.
Studies looking at the origin of the Sinhalese have been contradictory. Older studies suggest a predominantly Sri Lankan Tamil contribution followed by a significant Bengali contribution with no North Western Indian contribution,[42][43] while more modern studies point towards a predominantly Bengali contribution and a minor Tamil and North Western Indian (Gujarati & Punjabi) contribution.[44][45][46] Multiple studies have found no significant genetic difference between the Sinhalese and the three other major ethnic groups in Sri Lanka (Sri Lankan Tamil, Indian Tamil and Sri Lankan Moor).[43][47][48][49][50][51]
It is debatable whether the Sri Lankan population have genetic links to Far East Asian populations however due to their close links to North East India, there is a likelihood of some traces of East Asian genes.[52]
Original Natives were Vedda, Naga and Yakka, who came from South India.
Veddahs were the First to arrive in Lanka, like the Australian Aborigines and the Native America Indians, After they left East Africa about 70,000 years ago, Yes, the Veddahs are the Original Natives.
Everybody else is an Illegal, Kallathonis.
That includes the Subsequent Migration of Dravidian (Tamil) Hindus and Dravidian Tamil Janins from South India.
That includes the Kalinga-Orissa-Bengali who were Hindus and Jains.
Later Dravidian Tamils.
Later Malayalees.
Later Buddhists.
Later Muslims, the ethnic stock is actually a mixture of Middle Eastern traders who were trading with Sri Lanka before the advent of Islam, called “Yonaka”, and these foreign traders who were mostly Middle Eastern converted to Islam, and got absorbed to both South India and Sri Lanka. So the gene pool of Sri Lanka Muslims contain Middle Easterners, South Indians, native Sinhala, and others. However, it is likely a large percentage of this pool is South Indian, but is not exclusively South Indian.
Later Portuguese
Later Dutch
Later Malays
Later English
Later Estate Tamils.
All these arrivals have one thing in common. Myths.
However, one good thing happened. The genes became diversified, and created a more healthy population, instead of too many birth defects due to inbreeding.
Myths of Rebirth, Nirvana, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory etc.
The monks, priests and mullahs exploited the people, in order for them to stay in power and have hegemony over the people.
In Sri Lanka, Monk Mahanama with his myths tat are being believed by many is the cause of the problem.
It is really sad, that Lanka did not stay Native Veddah all these years.
Religion is the Opium of the masses-Karl Marx. How true today.
Just read
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinhalese_people
Sri Lanka was originally Animist, Hindu and Jain with Veddah, Yakka and Naga people. Even Vijaya and the other immigrants were either Jain or Hindu. Even Lord Buddha’s parents were Hindu.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genographic_Project
HERE IS SOME SPECULATION: You Decide if true or Not True, based on data.
On the way they picked up many MYTHS of Religion, Race,beliefs etc, and these were promoted by those in power or in collusion with those in power.
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/35877.wss
The Genographic Project Confirms Humans Migrated Out of Africa through Arabia
New analytical method approaches the unstudied 99% of the human genome.
WASHINGTON, D.C., – 02 Nov 2011: Evolutionary history shows that human populations likely originated in Africa, and the Genographic Project, the most extensive survey of human population genetic data to date, suggests where they went next. A study by the Project finds that modern humans migrated out of Africa via a southern route through Arabia, rather than a northern route by way of Egypt. These findings will be highlighted today at a conference at the National Geographic Society.
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Pai sali / May 21, 2013
People ask it bz most of them become fundamentalist when they become older and older.
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