GO TO SOURCE SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, February 27, 2001: Further information is published in this article about the temple masons, or silpis, working at the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Helensburgh, south of Sydney. According to the men, they have been paid $45 a month in cash for a seven-day week. Another $100 a week is sent home to their families. The…
GO TO SOURCE DEARBORN, MICHIGAN, February 24, 2001: In this Detroit suburb where some grade schools are more than 90 percent Muslim, Dearborn schools do not serve food that meets Muslim dietary rules. This policy has prompted thousands of parents to demand cafeteria food that is “halal,” or permitted under Islamic rules. Halal laws are similar to kosher laws. Like…
GO TO SOURCE KUMBHNAGAR, ALLAHABAD, February 25, 2001: Some of the pilgrims who attended the recently concluded Maha Kumbh Mela would soon receive compensation for injuries sustained during the 42-day-long religious extravaganza, due to the automatic insurance coverage given to every pilgrim. The compensation ranges from US$2,173 to be paid to the relatives of the family who died in an…
GO TO SOURCE PAKISTAN, February 27, 2001: Afghanistan is rebuffing international demands to rescind a government order to destroy all Buddhist statues in the country. Some governments pointed out the statues had not been destroyed under the past 1,200 years of Islamic rule in the region. The Taliban’s ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said on Tuesday, “We don’t care…
GO TO SOURCE SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, February 26, 2001: Indian workers at a Hindu temple in Helensburgh, south of Sydney, have been taken away from the site, where it is alleged they are being paid $45 (US$23.60) a month for their labor. The men are stone masons from the Indian province of Tamil Nadu, working in Australia on temporary visas, who…
GO TO SOURCE JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA, Feb 25, 2001: Former South African President Nelson Mandela has condemned “arrogant” members of the country’s African majority who have suggested that minority groups have no role to play in South Africa. The interview with the Johannesburg-based Sunday Times, came in response to a report in the same paper last week about a prominent…
GO TO SOURCE BIRMINGHAM, U.K., February 22, 2001: Coming from a culture where the marrying of first cousins is acceptable, the practice is prevalent among the Pakistani Muslim community. The only reason these marriages are being questioned by Birmingham health authorities is because of the high mortality rate of children born from these unions. In a community where 80 percent…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, February 2, 2001: The release of Francois Gautier’s book has been postponed till March 14 or 16 march. Contact “source” email for a final date.
GO TO SOURCE SUVA, FIJI, February, 25, 2001: An uproar in Fiji’s Hindu community in the capital over another family being stopped from scattering the cremated remains of a family member along a shoreline, has police saying that they prevented the customary ritual in the interest of the public as the venue is a popular picnic spot. The family of…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, February 22, 2001: If you live on less than ten dollars U.S. per month, a pre-determined arbitrary national cut-off figure, then in India you would be one among 260 million people. However, according to Abusaleh Sharif, chief economist for the National Council for Applied Economic Research, “This is a national cut-off, and this figure…