Religion Archive

Kerala has long preened itself for being India’s most literate state. According to the 2011 census, almost 96.11 per cent of males and 92.07 per cent of females were literate in the state. But that was 10 years ago. 

Various scholars have argued that Islamist movements emerged in reaction to the failure of state-led modernization projects and to general socioeconomic problems such as youth unemployment and poverty. Yet Islamist movements are not limited to poor countries or to disadvantaged, marginalized groups. In fact, members of these movements are generally highly educated, predominantly in secular fields, as a result of state-led modernization projects. In particular, mainstream Islamist parties are typically led by young men and women who are successful professionals with college or university degrees.

Halal economy is the new term to describe the convergence of Halal industry and Islamic finance which comes from one source- Islam. Muslim consumerism is valued at an astounding 2.1 trillion USD and the numbers are expected to grow. By the year 2050 global population of Muslims will increase from a current 1.8 billion to 2.8 billion. Halal has been accepted global as a product of hygiene, quality, pure, safety and clean.

You think Mother Teresa was a saint, right? Perhaps you also believe she lifted millions of poor people around the world out of poverty. Think again.

Mother Teresa received 120 prestigious awards and honors during her lifetime, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work helping the poor in Calcutta (now Kolkata). She became known as “the saint of the gutters” as a result of her charity work, before being officially canonized by Pope Francis in September 2016.

A number of songs are being uploaded on YouTube and other music and social media platforms that are calling for the genocide of Hindus, Kafirs and beheading of those who commit “blasphemy”. Not only songs but videos of large crowds calling for beheading have been circulating for years. Satyaagrah looked for some songs and tried to understand the message they were conveying. The songs that often have catchy background music have been seen lakhs of times.

In today’s world, spitting is considered an unclean and unhygienic act. There are laws against spitting in public places in many countries around the world carrying huge fines, especially Singapore, where the monetary fine for spitting can go up to $1000. Especially in the post-Coronavirus world, where spitting can also be a vector for the spread of COVID-19, the act of spitting, especially in public places, is looked down upon throughout the world. However, in Islam, spitting carries a special meaning, especially, to ward off the ‘evil spirit’ or ‘Satan’.

While residents in Gurugram are protesting against Muslims occupying public places every week for namaz prayers, Guardian has claimed that those public places are Muslim sites, and the Muslims in India have no place for praying now.

Many Sikhs today continuously try to draw differences between Hinduism and Sikhism. They describe Sikhism as a huge advance over Hinduism. Due to this increasing Hinduphobia among this particular section of the Sikh community, a false narrative is peddled that the Hindus in India were only saved from Islamic invader Aurangzeb’s atrocities and barbarism because the Sikh Guru paid the highest sacrifice for members of ‘other’ religious community and did us Hindus a favour.