lets not forget that Afghanistan was captured by King Ashoka and the majority converted to Buddhism. Indeed even NWFP was under Buddhist influence with Taxila being the centre with a university.Most of the relics and monuments were preserved by the British. Only the present fundamenalists and Taliban are out to destroy the ancient Buddhist treasure.
Photos of Masjid jani and motorcycle taxies are good one and speak volumes of Afhgan culture.Very colourful ,just like our own Kashmir.Palace photograph of former Afghan king which is now distroyed, seemed out of context....
RE:Good photos and info.....
by Rajendra Rao on Jul 12, 2008 10:42 PM Permalink
Funny one- 'speak volumes of Afghanistan culture'! What Afghanistan culture? Volume 1 of Afghanistan culture: They sell drugs to the West, Volume 2: and with the money, buy arms to kill others.
Actually- this culture of killing is common all moooselem countries, is it not? Did Afghanistanis invent anything? Brilliant mathematicians?
RE:Good photos and info.....
by balaord on Jul 13, 2008 10:02 PM Permalink
Any place occupied by British becomes a haven of Opium?if you wonder what is the proof? then know this? during colonial era,India was the biggest opicum producer of the world.
Check Historian Amitav Ghosh interview on BBC fo details
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7460682.stm
As to mathematics,if course Afhanistan was land of many greatest mathematicians? Have you heard of Al-Biruni?
He was calculating earth's accelration a thousand years before europe copied that idea and dramtized the whole affair by citing Gallilio as a great scientist for rediscovering things which are known to Muslims several hundred years before
Check Royal Astronmical Society of Hardvard univeristys publication on this
adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1972MNRAS.159..453N
The Earth's acceleration as deduced from al-Biruni's solar data
RE:Good photos and info.....
by Rajendra Rao on Jul 14, 2008 12:19 AM Permalink
The British cultivated Opium for medicinal purposes. They grew lot of opium in India for pain relief. That is fine. But hat was long ago. ho ow produces the most opium? Afghanistan. What do they do with he money" Jihad against civilization.
As for Al- Biruni, this is an excerpt from an Islamic web: "At an early age his fame of scholarship went around and when Sultan Mahmood Ghaznawi conquered Ural, Al-Biruni's homeland, he took al-Biruni along with him in his journeys to India several times and so he had the chance to travel all over India for a period of 20 years. Al-Biruni learned Hindu philosophy, mathematics, geography and religion from the Pandits to whom he taught Greek and Arabic science and philosophy."
Well- during his travels i india, he picked up a lot of mathematical ideas from Hindu scriptures and books. Aryabhatta was the one who predicted sun-centric Earth orbit a 1000 years before Al- Biruni.
We come back to same question- what have Afghanistanis achieve?
RE:Good photos and info.....
by balaord on Jul 14, 2008 05:50 AM Permalink
Had you bothered to see the BBC link,you wouldnt have come up with the mamooth lie of Britishers using Opium for medical purposes. The BBC refrences clearly says,Opicum was the back bone of the Indian economy during British era.
As to Al-Biruni caming to doesnt in any way reduces what he has contributed. Your own excerpt says "in return he taught Greek and Arabic science".just because some one has vistied India doesnt mean his achivements are all because of this.What happened was intellectual exchange!!! Claiming otherwise will be puerile.
RE:Good photos and info.....
by balaord on Jul 14, 2008 09:22 AM Permalink
Just like India,almost all of the Muslim countries were(barring very few such as Iran,Turkey & parts of Saudi ) colonized either by british or french. Their sorry state is primarily attributble to this colonial past. I request you to have a longer memory of the world we live in.It is Islam which gave the 'West' the real civilizational values which it now boasts of. You can read that history from the authentic western outlets itself.
For example check the american government funded Public Broadcasting Service channel - PBS
PBS-Islam - Empire of Faith
pbs.org/empires/islam/innomedicine.html
You can watch some clips here pbs.org/empires/islam/features.html
As to the history of why Muslim countries lost the pace-Check the Yale univeristy online journal on 'How Islam Won, and Lost, the Lead in Science'
RE:Good photos and info.....
by Rajendra Rao on Jul 14, 2008 05:40 PM Permalink
Thanks Balaord.
I know all about PBS- Few years ago, they produced a document on the prophet- funded by rich Arabs, and it was 100% pro-Quron version. There was absolutely no analysis of the real life of the prophet. Yale and Harvard- 2 bastions of liberalism in USA, they lost their credibility with the common man in USA long ago.
Let us say Islam was the bastion of Western civilization, what is happening now? Look at Porkistan- their only aim seems to be to destabilize India. Look at Iran, look at Kuwait (where is democracy after US liberation?), look at Saudis, strict code for everyone. These countries are extremely rich, but where is the investment in science and tech? Why can't Saudi Arabia build MITs, IITs? Why they fund madrassas, promote terror (15 out of 19 of 9/11 terrorists from Saudi Arabia). I meet quite a few Saudis in USA on campuses, they have nothing but hatred for the West and Israel. Why can't Saudi be a beacon of light for secularism?
Now,don't say Muslim countries are like this due to West.
RE:Good photos and info.....
by Rajendra Rao on Jul 14, 2008 07:52 AM Permalink
OK- let us go with your analysis of the greatness of Islamic civilizations, including Afghanistan- I don't live in the past, and neither do you. Show me what Afghanistan stands for now? Show me any Islamic country with a state of the art modern science institute/ university where foreign students flock to. Some of the Indian universitiesare now quite famous, attracting many foreign students.
Whatever happened to 'intellectual exchange' these days with muslims? Are they imbibing science and technology from the West? The proof is in the pudding, I am yet to see a single muslim country, let alone Afghanistan, reach the zenith of human civilization. Look at USA- students from around the world come to study science/technology/art here. That is what I would expect from Islamic countries, who continue to tout their contributions to math, algebra, etc. The reality is,they got the knowledge from others are passed it on. But these days, they are not even doing that. Instead, they have resorted to terror on a massive scale.
RE:Good photos and info.....
by Sumeru dimbhale on Jul 23, 2008 06:41 PM Permalink
you only remember half things..do you know who was Al-beruni, he was traveller into India, and he openly admitted india's superiority in these fields, most of things such as earth's perimeter and acceleration were actually known to Indians and people like Al-Beruni learned it from Indians. Funniest part is that while if you read Al-Beruni ,he openly admits it, but only people like you twist the fact and say ...muslims knew several hundered years ago... My dear friends, they learned from Indians who knew this since thousand years ago.
RE:RE:Good photos and info.....
by Sumeru dimbhale on Jul 23, 2008 06:42 PM Permalink
you only remember half things..do you know who was Al-beruni, he was traveller into India, and he openly admitted india's superiority in these fields, most of things such as earth's perimeter and acceleration were actually known to Indians and people like Al-Beruni learned it from Indians. Funniest part is that while if you read Al-Beruni ,he openly admits it, but only people like you twist the fact and say ...muslims knew several hundered years ago... My dear friends, they learned from Indians who knew this since thousand years ago
RE:Taliban and Osama
by menda vijaya on Jul 12, 2008 12:28 PM Permalink
What is so great about naming someone as tulsi.It is name a plant anyway.I have seen peole with name of Tulip in India. Does that mean she became hollander?It is foolish to spread this kind of sentiment anyway.
RE:Taliban and Osama
by tamil on Jul 13, 2008 04:24 PM Permalink
offcourse Tulsi is not an Indian name its sanskirt which is orginated near Afghan areas (Indus)...
RE:rediff
by PRITESH BOCHIA on Jul 12, 2008 11:40 AM Permalink
can u prove me how this type of post r wastage as u haven't found en reason in other entertainment or en other type of post to be wastage where congress n muslims r glorified...
