Holy Quran confirms latest studies in evolution

I am re-reading the Holy Quran after a small surgery I had recently. I came across the verse:

We made from water
Every Living thing. Will they
not then belive?
Chapter: 21, Verse: 30

A recent book Inner Fish by world-famous palaeontologist Neil Shubin suggests that our ancestors could be fish. The discovery of 375-million-year old fossil fish by Neil Shubin and his colleagues in Arctic led to this inspiring book.

The book scientifically explores the connection between anatomy of human and that of fish. It suggests the invasion of land by fish 375 million years ago.

I was reminded of Dr. Maurice Bucaille's famous book on The Quran and Modern Science which I read when I was in school.

A first of its kind exclusive interview with Balasingham Nadesan, Political Chief, LTTE

In an exclusive interview to this journalist, Mr B.Nadesan, Political Head, LTTE, talks about the need for an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka to thwart the worsening humanitarian crisis. LTTE thanks AIADMK supremo Ms Jayalalithaa for following in the footsteps of her mentor MGR in showing concern for Sri Lankan Tamils.

1. You offered to announce a ceasefire without preconditions. Is it because of the worsening humanitarian crisis or because of the losses suffered by the Tamil Tigers?

Yes, we are insisting for a ceasefire, because Sri Lanka keeps
accelerating its genocidal war. A ceasefire is needed to alleviate the worsening humanitarian crisis and for people to get essential relief supplies. From a politico-military point of view, we will never ask for a ceasefire if we are weak.

2. India offered humanitarian assistance to the war-hit Tamils. Is the assistance reaching the war-affected Tamils?

For our people it is all just a news. I can confirm you that Indian humanitarian assistance have not reached the people who are in real need. But, Peer, didn't a Sri Lankan minister recently say at the Lankan parliament that India has also been a major part of causing humanitarian catastrophe to Tamil people?...

I want to say, instead of sending humanitarian assistance, India can go one step further and do the real needful to prevent this humanitarian catastrophe from happening once and for all.

3. What is the real scene out there? Are you able to inflict equal damages to the Sri Lankan military?

Yes, we are continuously inflicting heavy damages to the advancing special formations of the Sri Lankan military. Therefore, we have confirmed information that, Sri Lanka has now brought inexperienced non-combatant army unites to the battle front. However, militarily speaking, yes, we have lost territories. But, I wouldn't give credit to the Sri Lankan military. It is the international
community’s lopsided policy towards the Tamils that has contributed to our current military setback.

4. Why is the International community not able to act and bring about a ceasefire?

I dont think they are not able to, Peer. The international community has wrongly characterized our struggle for political aspirations as “terrorism.” Moreover, India couldn't identify Tamils as their true friends in this island, and has drawn an unwise foreign policy right now. Consequence of these are, India and the
international community are strengthening the Sri Lankan military directly or indirectly, officially or unofficially and they are going along with this genocidal war on Tamils. Tamil people are appalled to see the international community and India are willing to complicit with Sri Lanka in annihilating the descendants of one of the oldest civilizations on this earth.

5. There was a proposal from India and the US to evacuate Tamils from their traditional dwellings to a military-controlled zone...

Already, Sri Lanka has been uprooting the Tamils from this island for the past 61 years under various guises: be it removal of citizenship, education and employment discrimination to state organized pogroms, race riots to now “war on terror.” Proposing an "evacuation" or asking for a “safe passage” for the civilians is like giving a nod to Sri Lanka’s ethnic cleansing agenda. The international community and India must stop any action towards the negation of the territoriality of Tamils by calling to continue with the uprooting of a reluctant Tamil populace under the guise of an “evacuation”.

Instead they should insist the Sri Lankan government to stop the war, give “safe passage” to independent monitors, aid workers and journalists to come here and see what the will of the people is; whether their choice is living on their land and make a livelihood with dignity and security or detention in internment camps run by the Sri Lankan military.

6. It has been an unprecedented information war with well-oiled propaganda machinery of the Lankan government working with international media to black out the story of the war-affected Tamil civilians.

Sri Lanka Government has barred independent journalists from visiting the areas of intensified conflict. BBC correspondent Christopher Morris who was on special assignment in Sri Lanka left recently following hostile allegations made against him by the Defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse. Even with Sinhala and English media in Colombo, Sri Lanka is enforcing a total blackout by way of intimidation and deaths with impunity. The Sinhala people too are kept in the dark of the humanitarian sufferings and enormous economic price tag that is waiting down the road.

7. Fourteen people have immolated themselves for the cause of Sri Lankan Tamils. But it has not shaken the conscience of the world or the Lankan government.

First of all, on behalf of our nation, I salute all those who have sacrificed their lives for the Eelam Tamil people.

Neither we nor those who sacrificed their lives did expect a genocidal government to be shaken by any sacrifice. They actually sacrificed their lives asking India to act on behalf of the Eelam Tamils; but, India has not respected their sacrifices and acted accordingly.

The World, on the other hand, which still gives a ‘moral’ support to this genocidal war, sees this as happening in the ‘back yard’ of India and wants India to take the lead. As long as the Government of India fails to act properly, Sri Lanka will continue triumphantly and continue to transform Tamil land into a savage killing field.

8. MDMK chief Vaiko and CPI leader D.Pandian convinced AIADMK supremo
Ms. Jayalalithaa to take up Lankan Tamils' cause as a poll plank...

Our beloved legendary Chief Minister M.G.R whole heartedly stood with the Eelam Tamils at all times. He emphasized that Thamizhagam is not only the symbol in bringing all Tamils together but also supported India giving a decisive helping hand in bringing about an honorable life for the Eelam Tamils. We are now elated seeing his envision for Eelam Tamils being followed under the current AIADMK leader Ms.
Jayalalithaa, along with Mr. Vaiko and CPI leaders including D.Pandian in their steadfast support to Eelam Tamils' quest for freedom.

9. What does Indian elections mean for you?

Tamil people are deeply saddened to hear the recent admittance in the Sri Lankan parliament by Minister Nimal Siripala DeSilva that “India has played a major role” during Sri Lanka’s current military campaign on the Tamil land.

We urge the current and future Indian government(s), political leaders, policy makers, academics and the people of India to envision the future and clearly identify India’s true and permanent friends in her crucial southern flank. That is none other than the Tamils of Eelam. India must recognise the Tamil people’s struggle and support the creation of Tamil Eelam; because, Tamils are the natural allies of India - in spirit, culture, tradition and heritage.

Sri Lanka is hoodwinking India and will always entertain forces that are hostile to India within the shores of the island: that has been and is the history. India by going along with Sri Lanka thinking that it is in its best interests is only harming the peace, security and prosperity of the world’s largest democracy for the long run.

10. Is there any progress in your efforts to reach out to Barack Obama's administration and the international leadership?

Key members of President Obama’s administration and the United States legislative branch are beginning to see the cruelty of the Sri Lankan military onslaught and the civilian misery in the aftermath. Hopefully there will be action in the various judicial bodies as well in the near future to curb Sri Lankan atrocities.
President Rajapakse’s army continues to fire into the civilian areas despite Secretary of State Madame Hillary Clinton’s call to not fire into the people. Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative for UN, is supporting UN Security council briefing on Sri Lanka.

We urge the international leadership including Russia and China to do more and act fast to halt the genocidal war by Sri Lanka and help end the humanitarian catastrophe being faced by the Tamil civilians.

11. MDMK chief Vaiko said he was proud of associating himself with the LTTE when the Sri Lankan Army released pictures of Mr Vaiko with the LTTE leaders.

He is a great compassionate man. He has the in-depth understanding of our struggle, and is always an unconditional and unwavering supporter of the Eelam Tamil people. We are also proud to have him as our friend.

12. Renowned Lankan Tamil pop singer Maya Mathangi Arulpragasam has told American Media that the Lankan Tamils are being discriminated against by the government. Do you appreciate her words?

She is a child of our soil and a prominent young member of our vast Tamil diaspora around the world. We all are proud of her, whose support is a great source of strength to Eelam Tamils. The beauty of her humanitarian heart is that she chose to speak for the suffering people fearlessly, knowingly amidst the all powerful Sri Lanka propaganda machinery that demonizes anyone who speaks for the Tamils.

13. A.R.Rahman told the world to choose love over hate on the Oscars dais. Do you read that in the Lankan context?

He is a genius and we wish him well and success in his history making musical journey. As a Tamil, we all were proudly watching him receiving two Oscar awards, and listened to his speech about how he chose ‘love over hate’.

61 years ago our Tamil leaders had not asked for a separate state and chose "unity" and decided to stay with the Sinhalase as one country when British colonialism came to an end. You know how Sri Lanka has been treating the Tamils ever since, starting with the disfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of Tamils immediately after Britain left in 1948 to today’s “war on terror”. This is due to their refusal to cohabitate this island giving equality and dignity to all
the people.

14. Mahinda Rajapaksa has invited TNA parliamentarians, who support the LTTE for peace talks. How do you respond to that?

TNA has refused to meet anyone representing the Sri Lankan government until truce and unhindered humanitarian access is granted to the people of Vanni. No one would have forgotten that it is the same President Rajapakse who has been excluding TNA during his earlier so called peace initiatives.

We are certain that Sri Lanka President Mhinda Rajapkse has no intention to find a political solution for the ethnic conflict. The motive behind this invitation is monetary than exploring a political solution. Unprecedented military spending and also the global economic slowdown has put Sri Lanka to urgently look for financial assistance; international community is slowly stepping up pressure to find a
political solution and Sri Lanka once again wants to hoodwink them; Sri Lankan military campaign is now unexpectedly facing heavy resistance from us and Sri Lanka needs more time. You have to see this invitation in the back drop of these events, Peer.

15. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said, in his letter to Tamil Nadu chief minister M.Karunanidhi, that he has requested Sri Lanka to ensure devolution of power to Sri Lankan Tamils. How do you see this development?

I can assure you that both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi, know very well that Sri Lankan government will not devolve any political power to the Tamil people. That has been the history, and that is what happened to the India architected Provincial council solution as well. Prime Minister Singh should know that India's military-related assistance to the Sri Lankan government is in no way an incentive for the Colombo government to devolve any
political power to the the Tamils, but rather as we witness it would only continue to encourage it to impose its military power on Tamils.

Gandhi and Tamil Nadu

Chennai, Jan 29: Gandhiji has visited Tamil Nadu twenty times between 1896 and 1946. His association with Tamils started in South Africa while practising law. He has visited the interiors of the state and interacted with diverse personalities such as Kanchi saint
Chandrasekara Saraswati and E.V.Ramaswamy Periyar.
“His harijan yatras to the state were spurned by orthodox people. Though the Kanchi Acharya appreciated Gandhi’s devotion to God during the meeting between them in 1927, the Acharya objected to Gandhiji’s politics of inclusion of harijans. But Gandhiji ignored the criticism,” said A.Marx, author of the book Gandhi and Tamil orthodoxy.
Though rationalist leader E.V.Ramaswamy Periyar did not meet Gandhiji after July 1927, Periyar always had high regards for Gandhiji. When Gandhiji passed away in 1948, he suggested that India should be named Gandhistan. He also wanted Indian year and religion named after Gandhi.
It was during his visit to Madurai in 1925, he decided to change his attire to be seen as one with the poor peasants of the country. As he supported the temple entry agitation of the dalits and the OBCs, they were able to enter Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple in 1939 under the leadership of Vaidyanatha Iyer.

Chennai's encounters with the Mahatma

CHENNAI, JAN 29: Chennai's streets reverberate with memories of the
Mahatma. From the Victoria Public Hall near the Central railway station, Thakkar Baba Vidyalaya on Venkatnarayana Road, Srinivasa Iyengar's house in Alwarpet (now Chola Sheraton) to the Marina beach, the city has many bonds with Mahatma Gandhi.
During his first visit to the city in 1896, he spoke of the plight of Indian workers in South Africa at a meeting held in Pachayappan Hall near Parrys Corner. However, he made a more memorable speech at the Victoria Public Hall in 1915 during his second visit.
"Do you know that in the great city of Johannesburg, the Madrasis look on Madrasis as dishonoured if he or she has not passed through the jails once or twice during this terrible crisis that your countrymen in South Africa went through during these eight long years?" he asked in the meeting.
His third visit to the city in 1916 was to mobilise students for the freedom struggle. He addressed the students at the MadrasChristian College and Victoria Hostel.
While his fourth visit was a short one en route Patna in 1917, it was during his fifth visit in 1919, he addressed a gathering of nearly 15,000 people on the Marina beach. He met poet Subramania Bharathi during this visit.
His visits to the city invited both bouquets and brickbats.
His advice to the youth to marry young widows at a meeting in Pachayappan Hall during 1927 was criticized by a section of the local media.
During his last visit in 1946, he stayed at the Hindi Prachara Sabha in T.Nagar and addressed a prayer meeting of nearly one lakh people there.

Chemmozhi Institute limping

Chennai, Oct. 14: The delay in appointment of director and senior executives for Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) by the Centre even after five months of its institution here has raised questions as to whether the Centre is adopting a partisan attitude towards Tamil.
CICT is the pet project of chief minister M.Karunanidhi. He has visited the CICT here six times in the last five months. Originally known as Centre of Excellence for Classical Tamil and was based in Mysore, the institute moved to Chennai in mid-May 2008. The 65 scholars in the institute have made remarkable progress in research on classical Tamil literature and Tamil dialects.
However, the inordinate delay by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in transferring financial and executive powers to the institute makes the employees remain temporary staff and the salaries are delayed every month.
Anyone from across the world can learn Tamil online if one of the ten ambitious projects of this institute takes off in six months as planned. The mission of taking Tamil to the world arena through standardization of 41 Tamil classics from the classical phase (300 B.C to 600 A.D) is almost complete. The dialect research wing is ready with 10,000 new Tamil words through field research across the state.
The delay in appointment of director, registrar and finance officer for the institute has slowed down the decision-making process. Though MHRD sources claim the selection process would begin soon, the temporary basis of employees and delay in disbursal of salaries has weakened the team momentum. Field research is not undertaken to record new vocabulary after the pilot study as decision-making is delayed.
“We work hard to bring out high quality work aimed at establishing the classical nature of Tamil language. We have been working on a specialized library on Thirukkural (ancient couplets) and Tholkappiyam (a grammatical treatise) which will be a one-stop reference point,” said Mr K.Ramasamy, present officer-in-charge and retired director of the institute.
“There is a slowdown as the transition is not complete yet. Dealing with the MHRD is quite difficult and it causes few hardships,” he admitted.

Untold story of the youth behind the bars

Chennai, August 12: International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) called the police’s bluff on the arrests of Muslim youth in Tamil Nadu post-Ahmedabad blasts. In a detailed fact-finding report on the arrests made by the state police after the Bengaluru and Ahmedabad blasts, 13 advocates in the fact-finding team claimed that the arrests were made without any “evidence.”
“Police are spreading news that the arrested Muslim youth have been plotting to blast Anna flyover on Independence Day. That has created panic among the public. We, as lawyers upholding the rule of law, wanted to ascertain the truth after meeting the five Muslim prisoners, their families and the concerned police officials,” said Mr Narayanan, joint secretary of IAPL.
Thirteen lawyers from three human rights organizations including IAPL visited the Muslim youth who are imprisoned post-Ahmedabad blasts for an alleged plot. They also interviewed the family members of the arrested youth and the concerned police officials.
“The police’s claims that the youth are planning terror strikes on Independence Day are false. The false propaganda is aimed at creating Islamophobia and getting more funds for the police force,” said Mr S.Manoharan, general secretary, IAPL.
“The youth are threatened with encounter killings and are forced to give statements according to the whims and fancies of the police. Human rights of the prisoners are violated during the interrogation,” said the fact-finding report.
“Late-night hour raids in the houses of Muslim youth, intimidation of the relatives of the prisoners are clear violation of the rule of law. The state government should order a judicial probe into the recent arrests of Muslim youth to put an end to the false propaganda spread by the intelligence agencies,” added the report.
In the meanwhile, imprisoned Abdul Gafoor’s wife Zeenat Najma petitioned the state human rights commission (SHRC) that her husband was implicated in a false case and sought the commission to order a CBI probe into her husband’s arrest. She said her husband was not a terrorist. Imprisoned Heera’s father Syed Nazeem wrote to the chief minister seeking fair retrial in the case of Heera.

Tamil poet’s family ostracised

Chennai, Jan.20: The culture of alcohol consumption in Muslim societies is being debated across the globe. But when a Tamil writer attempted that six months ago in a literary monthly magazine Uyirmmai published from here, not only the writer but also his family was excommunicated by the local jamaat. Award-winning Tamil poet Mr.H.G.Rasool (47), his wife Ms.Fareeda Begum (45), his children Nasrin (18) and Ruhi Parveen (8) are living amid hostility at their residence in Thuckalay in Kanyakumari district. They cannot attend family get-togethers such as marriages or the annual urs in the local dargah.
Mr.Rasool’s essay was titled “culture of drinking in Islam.” He discussed the culture of drinking in the light of quran, hadith and Islamic history. The teetotaller poet concluded that “mild drinking” was accepted in many Muslim societies and also inferred that “drinking is not a punishable offence in the light of quran.” That was reason enough to “provoke” the local jamaat to the extent of excommunicating him.
“Mr.Rasool has to write an apology letter in the same magazine for having underestimated the intelligence of crores of Muslims in the world,” Mr.Jehabar Sadiq, president of Anjuvannam Peer Mohammadiyya Muslim Association (APMA), the jamaat which ostracised him, told this journalist.
The irony is that Mr.Rasool was Vice-President of APMA jamaat for five years till he was expelled in May 2007 following the controversial essay. “I was not saying anything on my own. I deduced from various available literature that mild drinking is not a punishable offence in Islam,” said the poet.
The poet was under attack from the ulema five years ago for a controversial poem which wanted to know if there were any women prophets in human history.
Social ostracism in Tamil Muslim community meant complete exclusion from community life. “We are psychologically disturbed by the isolation. We are grateful to the relatives and friends who are still standing by us. I hope things will be alright soon,” said Nasrin who is studying second year in a college at Nagercoil, 16 kms from Thuckalay.