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While the world of political Islam continues to be dominated by acts of violence and a separatist agenda, there are signs of reform in the Arab Spring movement. Ayaan Hirsi Ali who has been at the forefront of the reform movement offers an analysis of what's happening and how it could happen faster. Around the world cracks are starting to appear in the world of political Islam. While its leaders remain strong and defiant and while it continues to be characterized by separatism and an agenda of violence, a number of people have questioned its rigid stances - from Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai to Amina Tyler, the activist who posed nude on Facebook to make a point about women's bodies belonging to themselves. Beyond that, political movements across the Middle East - the 'Arab Spring' protests - show that a number of Muslims are increasingly fed up by what they see as a system which is too inflexible, often corrupt and which prevents countries from getting ahead. Author Ayaan Hirsi Ali has long been an outspoken critic of political Islam, specifically its treatment of women. In her books she's told her own story and how she escaped the bonds of a strict Muslim upbringing. In this book she moves beyond the personal story to a more overtly political stance. While women remain her main concern she also addresses Islam's other problems - its emphasis on passivity, its hypocrisy about the modern world, its defensiveness when criticized. Analysing the embryonic protest movements from around the world, she asks what it would take to achieve a reformation - and how long it will take. Views: 241
To protect a child witness Lone Star Justice must prevailWith a killer at large, Texas Ranger Taylor Blackburn must safeguard little Ben Markham—the sole survivor of a mass shooting. But allowing Ben and his beautiful aunt, Sierra Walker, into his life is riskier than Taylor imagined. While he can distract Ben with Christmas planning, Taylor can't ignore how Sierra makes him feel. The only thing harder than protecting them is guarding his own heart... Views: 241
While waiting in the principal’s office, Toby finds a book that lets him travel to another world where he makes new friends. At home he still has to deal with bullies at school, a mysterious librarian, and more trips to the principal. Then he discovers he’s not the only one who knows about the book. His new friends need his help. Can they keep the book from falling into the wrong hands?*This is NOT erotica* This is a love story and a romance. Ashly is a photographer and took this hot, shirtless picture of Jake before they broke up. He hopes they can rekindle the magic and re-take this picture. She thinks he’s despicable. He wants her back…with a vengeance. Ashly Roberts and Jake Connors are barely twenty when they decide to take the proverbial plunge and walk down the aisle to exchange vows in front of the dearly beloved. Basking in bridal bliss, Ashly feels she is living the perfect fairytale, until she’s faced with a runaway groom, dumped at the altar by bad-boy fiancé, Jake Connors. Five years later, Jake steps back into her life, realizing that being a no-show for their nuptials was the worst mistake of his life. A little older and slightly more mature, he is ready to fight for Ashly’s love once again. When Ashly sees him, she can’t deny the attraction she feels, but her hormones are overruled by the horror of what he did to her in the past. Nevertheless, Jake’s most potent weapon, those dazzling baby blues, ignites a spark in Ashly, no matter how angry she wants to be. She cannot deny the spark, and she only hopes the inferno it ignites will not consume her heart again. According to the terms of her mother’s will, Ashly cannot cash in on her inheritance until she and Jake travel to nearly a dozen locations around the globe. The thought of pairing up with her old flame makes her blood boil, but she has little choice other than to put up with her despicable ex. Can Ashly put up with Jake through her globe-hopping scavenger hunt to get her family fortune? Will she ever be able to forget or forgive being dumped on her wedding day? When wounds run so deep, is forgiveness even possible between old lovers? Or is it, “Goodbye!” all over again, after everything is said and done? Views: 237
Jason squeezed the old silver coin and wondered if there really could be a hidden treasure. If only he could find enough money so his family wouldn’t have to move. Time was running out. Then he found an old treasure map and a riddle that pointed to Haunted Cave. But there was more in the cave than just bats. Strange visitors from the past roamed the dark passageways.Many are called...She alone can save the world and become Death's bride.COBWEB BRIDE (Cobweb Bride Trilogy, Book One) is a history-flavored fantasy novel with romantic elements of the Persephone myth, about Death's ultimatum to the world.What if you killed someone and then fell in love with them?In an alternate Renaissance world, somewhere in an imaginary "pocket" of Europe called the Kingdom of Lethe, Death comes, in the form of a grim Spaniard, to claim his Bride. Until she is found, in a single time-stopping moment all dying stops. There is no relief for the mortally wounded and the terminally ill....Covered in white cobwebs of a thousand snow spiders she lies in the darkness... Her skin is cold as snow... Her eyes frozen... Her gaze, fiercely alive...While kings and emperors send expeditions to search for a suitable Bride for Death, armies of the undead wage an endless war... A black knight roams the forest at the command of his undead father… Spies and political treacheries abound at the imperial Silver Court.... Murdered lovers find themselves locked in the realm of the living...Look closer — through the cobweb filaments of her hair and along each strand shine stars...And one small village girl, Percy—an unwanted, ungainly middle daughter—is faced with the responsibility of granting her dying grandmother the desperate release she needs.As a result, Percy joins the crowds of other young women of the land in a desperate quest to Death's own mysterious holding in the deepest forests of the North…And everyone is trying to stop her. Views: 236
Fulfilling a promise to her dying mother, Elise Wright watches over her father as cook on his Great Lakes schooner. But the behavior of a new sailor unsettles her and first mate Nick Clark, who secretly begins investigating. When tragedy strikes, Nick and Elise must rely on their faith and each other as they confront their greatest fears. Views: 232
Is science a kind of magic? Is magic a science all its own? In a world run by technological giant iGoogAmaHoo, only one woman can stop the violent overthrow of society by an evil sorcerer who's seeded the world's tech connection with a magical virus. THESE DARK ELECTRONS is a short story with a breathtaking pace set in a fantastical sci-fi future.A collection of short stories, poems and 'other scribblings' by Sian Turner.Read 'Hot Under the Collar,' a tale of jealousy and its consequences, 'Poor Law,' the story of young Will Thompson's life in a 1903 Cottage Home (or workhouse for children) and what happens when he is unjustly accused of theft, 'Watching,' the story of Luke Peterson's ghostly encounter in the woods, plus other stories, poems and what the author describes as 'other scribblings.' Views: 231
Doctors tell Raj that his son Emret won't survive his illness. As Raj struggles to prepare himself and Emret for the inevitable, he's confronted by Moslin, his son's nurse, who’s been filling Emret’s head with fairytales about heroic quests and powerful disease curing miracles. Emret now thinks that all he has to do is find the mythical Red Tree from the nurse's stories, and he'll live."...a delightfully honest and refreshing tale..." -Amazon Reviewer"...superbly written...full of life and personality..." -Amazon Reviewer"...a gripping fantasy tale that always seems to twist just when you think you know where it's headed." -Amazon Reviewer"A really cool read from an author that I'll be following in the future." -Amazon ReviewerDoctors tell Raj that his son Emret won't survive his illness. As Raj struggles to prepare himself and Emret for the inevitable, he's confronted by Moslin, his son's nurse, who’s been filling Emret’s head with fairytales about heroic quests and powerful disease curing miracles. Emret now thinks that all he has to do is find the mythical Red Tree from the nurse's stories, and he'll live.In an attempt to protect his son from further emotional damage, Raj asks Moslin to stay away from Emret. He returns hours later to find them both missing.He searches the fairytales for clues to where they may have gone and stumbles upon stories that, strangely, he already knows. He saw them in a vision just before his son disappeared. Views: 231
A compendium of the author’s Indian stage and
radio plays:"Slighted Souls" is a poignant love story set in rural
Telangana, beset with feudal exploitation of the downtrodden dalits. Besides forcing
the dalits to toil in the fields as bonded labor without
impunity, the land owning doras had no qualms in reducing the
womenfolk of this ilk as sex slaves in the gadis, which results in an armed rebellion engulfing two young lovers."Men at work on Women at work" is a tragic-comic episode
depicting the fallout of sexual harassment at the workplace in the Indian urban
setting with its traditional cultural underpinnings."Castle of Despair", built on the slippery ground of
man's innate urge for one-upmanship, portrays its facade of falsity on the
grand stage of human tragedy.
The radio play, "Love on Hold", lends voice to the felt
anxieties of a man and a woman as their old flame gets rekindled and the
dilemmas of possession faced by the couple in a conservative cultural
background.Book excerpt from Slighted souls - A political stage play' for a feel of its stage:Scene – 1Voice
Over: Under the British
Raj in India,
the self-indulging Nizams of Hyderabad abdicated the administration of their
vast principality to doralu, the
village heads, letting them turn the areas under their domain
into their personal fiefdoms. While the successive Nizams were obsessed with
building palaces and acquiring jewelry, the village heads succeeded in ushering
in an oppressive era of tyrannical order. Acting as loose cannon from their
palatial houses called gadis, the doralu succeeded in foisting an inimical
feudal order upon the downtrodden dalits.
Besides making these dalits toil for
them as cheap labor without impunity, the doralu
had no qualms in making vassals out of the hapless women folk. What with the
police patels and the revenue patwaris in nexus with the landed gentry
and the moneyed shaukars making a
common cause with the doralu in their
unabated exploitation, their sub-human condition ensured that the dalits were distressed economically, degraded socially and debased
morally. Ironically, lending the
privileged few the muscle power to perpetrate the inimical social order were
their henchmen from the other backward classes. Moreover, given the British
political pragmatism of an indifference to the Indian caste conundrum the
downtrodden dalits had nowhere to run
for cover. Though the merger of their province with
the Union of India brought the curtains down on the Nizams’ two-hundred year
misrule, the exploitation of the rural dalits
by the dora-patel-patwari nexus
continued unabated. And that led to the formation of 'communes' as part of a
peasant movement in July 1948 under the Telangana
Struggle that didn’t take off any way.
On the other hand as the seeds of egalitarianism began to take roots in the
urban Indian soil, in time, these “slighted souls” too began to envision the
dawn of an equitable era for them. However, the nascent upward mobility of the
downtrodden was at odds with the vested interests of the feudal order, and to
nip the dalit moral assertiveness in
the bud, the ‘axis of evil’ saw to it that such were brutalized to make an
example of them.“Slighted Souls” scripts the life of the
downtrodden of Rampur
nearly a decade after the famous but failed peasant struggle of Telangana.
Making cohorts with Muthyal Rao the dora
in oppressing its dalits are Papa Rao
the Police Patel, Rami Reddy the Patwari, Papi Reddy the landlord and
Shaukar Suryam the moneylender. Beginning with the life and times of Yellaiah
and his wife Mallamma this play unfolds the urge of the deprived to unyoke
themselves, and the desperation of the privileged to rein in them.[Curtains up: Mallamma sits in front of
her thatched hut in the dalit mohalla
weaving a bamboo basket. Enter: Yellaiah, and seeing him, she goes into the hut
to fetch some water for him, and he takes over the work.]Mallamma [Back with a glass of water]: Why make
a mess of it maava.Yellaiah [Taking over the glass]: Take it I’m
giving them their due.Mallamma: I wonder how they’re harming you.Yellaiah [Having empted the glass]: Aren’t they
harsh on my darling’s delicate hands? Mallamma [Taking back the glass]: I’m glad
you’re still fond of your old woman.Yellaiah: Who said you’re old dear. I’m ever
scared that some dora or a patel might grab my Malli.Mallamma
[Taking the bamboo
work]: You know it would never be the case.Yellaiah: Well but still.Mallamma:
Leave alone the patels and the patwaris, would the dora ever forget that incident in a hurry? Besides, I’m behind the
bamboo curtain, am I not? Yellaiah: Well who can forget that potential
tragedy turned farce? [He laughs heartily]. But still it hurts to let you toil
day and night.Mallamma: So be it, till our Narsimma becomes a
big officer. Till then, the fact that you care keeps it going. Yellaiah: Where is Sarakka?Mallamma: Wonder why she hasn’t turned up yet.Yellaiah
[Making a move to get up]:
Why not I better check up at her school. Mallamma
[Holding him back]:
Isn’t it enough that you’ve been toiling like a mule all day long. Yellaiah: Why their lot is any day better dear.
They are well-fed by peddollu and
attended by doctors. See, they’ve doctors to look after them but we’ve to put
with the quacks. I hear even their lives are insured these days.Mallamma: Well, mules have a price tag on them,
but what about us. Don’t dalits come
cheaper by the dozen?[Enter: Maisaiah on his way in a hurry.]Yellaiah:
O Maisaiah, where are you running to now?Maisaiah: Running around on Shaukar’s errands,
oh, how I’ve forgot about memsaab. She said she has some work for me before he
returned from Warangal.[Exit: Maisaiah.]Yellaiah: Why, their women too boss over our
men, don’t they? How I wish our Narsimma won’t have to put up with all
that. Mallamma: Why should he as Pantulayya says he’s bright. He feels the same way about our
Sarakka, and Renuka. But I think Renuka
is better than both.Yellaiah: Don’t I know you’re always partial
towards your brother’s daughter.Mallamma: It’s as if I’m a stepmother to your
kids. Yellaiah: Why get hurt dear, I was just joking.
But still our kids are hot heads while she carries a clear head? If not for
you, wouldn’t they have become rebels by now?Mallamma: Whatever, once he sets his mind;
Narsimma is not the one to waver. And Sarakka too is developing the same
traits, isn’t she?Yellaiah: Well, how you’ve been drumming him not
to get distracted from his studies.Mallamma: Why not? You know how we’re undone by
being unpad. I want all three of them
to be well educated. I’ve been hoping that an educated Renuka makes an ideal
wife for our Narsimma. But sadly vadina
seems to have developed second thoughts about giving her to him.Yellaiah: Don’t I see Anasuya is rooting for
Saailu, her good for nothing brother. Well, we can only hope that your brother
Yadagiri puts his foot down for once.Mallamma: But can he do that? Any way, there is
still a long way to go. Let’s see what the future has in store for them.Yellaiah: What a wretched life ours is Malli? We
don’t even have a say in our own affairs. It’s Papi Reddy Patel who’s behind all this. And don’t I see his game plan? Mallamma: Don’t they say woman is woman’s enemy.
Let’s hope Renuka’s fate prevails over vadina’s
whims.Yellaiah: How I wish that happens.Mallamma: I’m quite hopeful, more so as times
are changing.Yellaiah: Wish I’ve your strength of belief
Malli.Mallamma: Maava,
if you want change, you’ve got to dream about it. Yellaiah: How’re we to dream Malli, when life
itself is a nightmare? Oh, how the peddollu
have reduced us.[Enter Sarakka with a slate and a few
school books, and collapses in front of them.]Yellaiah: Malli quick, fetch some water for
Sarakka.[Even as Mallamma brings in some water,
Yellaiah takes Sarakka in his lap. After the mother sprinkles some water on
her, the girl gets up and greedily drinks from the tumbler.]Mallamma: What happened to you my child?Sarakka: I felt thirsty on the way amma. But they didn’t allow me to drink
from their well.Yellaiah: They refuse water to a thirsty child!
Oh, how lowly are these peddollu.Mallamma: Well, their well is full of frogs, yet
they think it gets polluted if we drink from it. What an irony?Yellaiah: Why, being a frog in the well is
better than the bane of being a dalit. Mallamma: Oh, why did God make it so inhuman for
us?Yellaiah: And see their gall; they say its God’s
own will. Isn’t it like rubbing salt on our wounds?Mallamma: He must be a cruel God to say that.
But did He say that?Sarakka: We’re dearer to God, that’s why
Gandhiji said we’re harijan. We’ve
that lesson in our class.Yellaiah: If only Gandhiji lived long enough to
make it true for us.Sarakka: Maastaaru
says God helps only those who help themselves.Mallamma: Who knows another mahatma might be waiting in the wings to pick up the threads?Yellaiah: Having made us anguthachaps all along, mercifully, they’re letting our children
study these days.Mallamma: Well, grudgingly. Whatever, it’s going
to be the turning point for us.[Enter a tired Narsimma with his
schoolbag] Yellaiah: How our poor Narsimma has to walk all
those miles. If only we’ve a high school here.Mallamma: Why’re you so dull my boy? Narsimma: I couldn’t go to school amma.Yellaiah: Why what’s the matter?Narsimma: I was crossing the gadi and the dorasani held me. As their Maali
fell ill, she made me work all day in the garden.Mallamma: Why, when it’s julum on us, the dorasanlu score
no less.Narsimma: And all the while she was yelling,
Narsiga, Narsiga, Narsiga. It’s as if she can’t get my name right.Yellaiah: Well, they think we’re not entitled to
our name even.Mallamma
to Narsimma: Bear all
that for now my boy. Once you’re a B.A., all will call you Narsimma. Yellaiah
to Mallamma: I’ll sell
my shirt to make him a B.A., and it’s my word to you. [There is a commotion outside, and
Sarakka exits.] Sarakka
[Reenters]: Maisaiah mama is being carried on a cart. Shaukar Saab is also there. Yellaiah: Let me find out what’s the
matter. Mallamma: I’ll also come. Lachamma might need me.[Exit: Yellaiah and Mallamma leaving
Narsimma and Sarakka. Curtains down.] Views: 227
In Eat the cookie...Buy the shoes, well known authorand speaker Joyce Meyer brings the issue of balance in our lives to the forefront. Not diminishing the importance of discipline, she lets us know that every once in a while it's okay to get off our structured regimen and enjoy a cookie, buy that pair of shoes you've been eyeballing, or even both! Views: 227
Traveling across the prairie with her father, sisters, and the man her father has promised her hand to in marriage, Lady Amelia Amhurst would have foregone spending the summer of 1875 in America and returned to their regal estate in England-if only her father would release her from the marriage engagement. Amelia finds herself strangely drawn to Logan Reed, the handsome American guide hired to lead them safely to Estes Park in the Colorado Rockies. Despite her aristocratic English breeding, Amelia falls in love with this barbaric country... and with Logan Reed. Will Logan's love and faith in God force Amelia to confront her own firm belief that there is no God? If only God would prove Himself to her... and find a way for her to be Logan's Lady. Views: 224
Delivered on 22 August 2024, Forbes v Baker [2024] WASC 643 represented a turning point in the law as to what it means to be human.Delivered on 22 August 2024, Forbes v Baker [2024] WASC 643 represented a turning point in the law as to what it means to be human.The Deceased, David Baker, was born in unusual circumstances and into a difficult life. Cloned by his father, his genetic code mixed with non-human material, the Deceased died leaving a wife, a lover, and a substantial estate.The Wills Act (WA) provides that a person can make a will. It is alleged by the Defendant, the Deceased's wife, that the Deceased was, by virtue of his mixed DNA, not a "person" for the purposes of the Wills Act.This case represents an important milestone in the developing law relating to reproduction, cloning and humanity. Views: 222
Leopold Classic Library is delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive collection. As part of our on-going commitment to delivering value to the reader, we have also provided you with a link to a website, where you may download a digital version of this work for free. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. Whilst the books in this collection have not been hand curated, an aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature. As a result of this book being first published many decades ago, it may have occasional imperfections. These imperfections may include poor picture quality, blurred or missing text. While some of these imperfections may have appeared in the original work, others may have resulted from the scanning process that has been applied. However, our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. While some publishers have applied optical character recognition (OCR), this approach has its own drawbacks, which include formatting errors, misspelt words, or the presence of inappropriate characters. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with an experience that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic book, and that the occasional imperfection that it might contain will not detract from the experience. Views: 220
On
one hand, this ‘book of logic ‘n reasoning’ appraises the Islamic faith shaped
by the sublimity of Muhammad's preaching in Mecca and the severity of his
sermons in Medina, which together make it Janus-faced to bedevil the minds of
the Musalmans. That apart, aided by “I’m Ok – You’re Ok”, the
path-breaking work of Thomas A. Harris and Roland E Miller’s “Muslim
Friends–Their Faith and Feeling”, this work for the first time ever,
psycho-analyses the imperatives of the Muslim upbringing that has the potential
to turn a faithful and a renegade alike into a fidayēn.
On the other hand, this work,
besides appraising the monumental rise and the decadent fall of Hindu intellectualism,
analyses how the sanātana dharma came to survive in India, in
spite of the combined onslaught of Islam and the Christianity on Hinduism for
over a millennium.
Also, besides providing a panoramic view of the Indian
history, this thought-provoking book appraises the way Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Azad,
Ambedkar, Indira Gandhi, Narasimha Rao, Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi,
Narendra Modi et al made or unmade the post-colonial India.Possibly in a new genre this free eBook is a book
for our times.Contents
Preface of Strife Chapters1. Advent of Dharma2. God’s quid pro Quo3. Pyramids of Wisdom4. Ascent to Descent5. The Zero People6. Coming of the Christ7. Legacy of Prophecy8. War of Words9. Czar of Medina10. Angels of War11. Privates of ‘the God’12. Playing to the Gallery13. Perils of History14. Pitfalls of Faith15. Blinkers of Belief16. Shackles of Sharia17. Anatomy of Islam18. Fight for the Souls19. India in Coma20. Double Jeopardy21. Paradise of Parasites22. The Number Game23. Winds of Change24. Ant Grows Wings25. Constitutional Amnesia26. The Stymied State27. The Wages of God28. Delusions of Grandeur29. Ways of the Bigots30. The Rift Within31. The Way Around32. The Hindu Rebound33. Italian Interregnum34. Rama Rajya
35. Wait for the Savant
Views: 217
The Naked Communist was a best seller in the early 1960s, selling more than 1.5 million copies. It found its way into the libraries of the CIA, the FBI, the White House, and homes all across America and overseas in Spanish and excerpted in other languages.
In this hard-hitting book an urgent need is finally fulfilled. In one exciting, readable volume, the incredible story of Communism is graphically told. We believe this to be the most vivid and comprehensive book on the subject ever published. It contains a distillation of more than a hundred books and treatises on Communism, many written by Marxist authors. We see the Communist the way he sees himself---stripped of propaganda and pretense. Hence the title, "The Naked Communist." Here is explained Communism's amazing appeal, its history, and its basic and unchanging concepts---even its secret time-table of conquest! Vital questions are clearly answered---Who gave Russia the A-bomb? How did the FBI fight the battle of the underground? Why did the West lose 600 million allies after World War II? What really happened in Korea? What is Communism's great secret weapon? Is there an answer to Communism? What lies ahead? Views: 216
A desperate murderer and a downed plane turn a routine prison transfer into a hunt through the rugged Pacific Northwest for US Marshals Madison James and Jonas Quinn. Views: 215
