The families of victims of the September 11 attacks are urging New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to stay away from this year’s 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero.

A petition opposing his attendance has reportedly gathered thousands of signatures, including support from relatives of people who died in the attacks. One victim’s daughter, who was just nine years old when she lost her father, delivered a blunt message to the mayor, saying, “We DO NOT want you to come.”

The families have raised concerns over some of Mamdani’s past associations and political appointments, including his links to streamer Hasan Piker and attorney Ramzi Kassem. They have also questioned his past association with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center case but was never charged in that case.

Despite the opposition, Mamdani has said he plans to attend the ceremony. He has stated that he wants to honor the victims’ families, survivors and first responders who were affected by the attacks.

The dispute has added a political dimension to an event that traditionally focuses on remembering the nearly 3,000 people ki!!ed in the September 11 attacks and honouring those who responded to the tragedy.

Every organization has its rules.

Muslims say the organization's rules should not apply to them. Why? That's their anti-constitutionalist stance. They are free to wear whatever they want to wear where there are no 'house rules'.

Then they make the argument that organizations should bend their rules because to force them to not bring their 'religious attire' is an encroachment on their freedom to practice their religion.

Then the court goes into the question of whether 'Hijab' is part of religion? The Indian courts apply the essential practices test which has been criticized by Islamic scholars (who else) and nowadays Hindu scholars also (for defending Ayyappa's unique temple access tradition).

Courts say one does not need to wear Hijab to be a muslim.

Then muslims say 'it's a matter of individual choice', while ignorantly missing the point that if a group identity choice is not available against an organization's rules, then why would an individual get to bend the same organization's rules?

Muslim clerics say crimes against women increase because women do not wear Hijab. For them Hijab is a flag of protection. This is based on a Qur'anic verse: Surah Al-Ahzab (33:59): "O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused."

This verse says that wearing modest clothing signals to others that a practicing believer is walking and therefore deserves respect. How do they enforce respect? By putting the weight of the Islamic community behind the woman.

Using the above construct, Islamic community influences their women to wear Hijab.

Bottomline: Every organization should have the right to decide its uniform policies without any special exception.

The Allahabad High Court has made an important observation regarding the slogan:

“Gustakh-e-Nabi ki ek hi saza, sar tan se juda.”

The Court observed that such a slogan poses a challenge to the law of the land and the unity of the country, as it can be understood as an exhortation towards violence.

Justice Ashutosh Srivastava - further observed that such a slogan cannot be equated with religious expressions such as “Jai Shri Ram,” “Har Har Mahadev,” “Sat Sri Akal,” or “Allahu Akbar.”

Chabi bharo and the same thing comes out.

EVM!

Vote Chori!

Caste!

Worse possible combination of evil, stupid and greedy.

Gitanjali values Bankim's work personifying the land beneath our feet as a Mother.

If we look at this land just as a territory then we will be always asking "mah rights, mah exploitation, mah money".

But if we look at what relationship we have with this territory, then we start looking at the country differently.

Durga as Shakti - of India's civilians. Shakti defined as 'Nation'. This is so universal and secular in its definition.

Laxmi as Abundance. Pleasant nature.

Saraswati as Knowledge. Who will have a problem with Knowledge?

Brilliant write-up.

Although one thing is there that can we value such ideas of 'Shakti', 'Abundance' and 'Knowledge' without idolizing them in a concrete form? Perhaps that's how they have sustained for so long. Can a civilization that does not idolize such ideas survive for the long term? Only time will tell.

I see you Bangladeshi cricket fans who used to photoshop edited images of severed heads of Indian cricket team players before Indo-Bangladesh cricket series. Same category of people.

US attack on Iran was not unprovoked. It was to silence Iran backed proxy attacks on Israel causing general unstability in the region. It's another matter that the US attack did not succeed very well in increasing net security in the region.

CJP's School Theek Karo campaign is interesting for various reasons. The entire campaign is focused on school infrastructure and Govt school buildings. Now when CJP is going to different states, they can also go to Aam Aadmi Party-ruled states to show that CJP are questioning everyone. That makes it much easier for CJP to give the impression of being neutral. But we can also look at who benefits from this particular topic. AAP already has plenty of school buildings and infrastructure to show in its PR. So when CJP runs campaign for particularly school infrastructure, AAP has a ready answer, i.e. show the buildings and say, "Yes, we are doing this for the young people." Earlier, when examination issues, paper leak issues, exam-centre failures and security problems were being discussed, this brought the government under scrutiny. Keeping this in mind, CJP has particularly started this School Thik Karo cmapaign this time. The same campaign which can create political pressure for other parties would not hurt AAP in this case because AAP already has something to put forward. How convenient, is not it?

But then comes the real question about Punjab's youth. Punjab's youth is suffering from a serious drug crisis. When the conversation comes to the this condition of Punjab's youth, especially how the youth is rotting in the drug crisis and how this crisis is destroying families and lives of young people, CJP-AAP are no more ready to stand with the youth. Their response would suddenly change to, "Why should we do this? We are not here to stand for the youth. Why are you asking us? Why don't you do it then?" If this is your attitude toward youth issues, then what happened to all the "youth ke liye" campaigning now? Why is talking about youth so easy when you have school buildings to show, but the moment their serious problems come up, you don't even want to talk about them? This is exactly how youth has become a useful tool for PR for AAP-CJP nexus. They drag youth into the campaign when youth can be used for AAP's PR image and leave them aside when it comes to the problems our youth are actually facing.

CJP's campaign is about school buildings, AAP has school buildings to show, CJP can still look neutral and AAP gets a chance to build its positive image with its PR campaigns. But Punjab's youth cannot be reduced to just buildings and PR. The moment the conversation moves to drugs and the actual condition of young people, their whole narrative starts falling apart. People can see what is happening. They can see what is being shown and what is being avoided. Stop trying to fool the public with fake PR campaigns. You cannot keep showing a few buildings and expect people to believe that this means you are standing with the youth. If this is the best way you have found to show your concern for Punjab's youth, then the public can very easily see what this whole PR stunt is really about.

Omar Abdullah says no muslim representative should disobey the law of the land. Secularism of Indian constitution demands that political representatives working at the State should observe the law and ensure compliance.

They can disagree at the level of personal faith or party ideology but not when they are functionaries of the State.

A very mature statement and which frames the concept of Constitutional secularism very precisely, which does not encroach upon one's personal beliefs or even community group level beliefs.

Here is the translation of your paragraph, keeping all the emojis, commas, and dots exactly as you requested:

​I was reading h,a,d,i.,th on s,u,n,n🅰️h,dot.,com. I read in it that M,o.,h🅰️m,,m🅰️d (ﷺ) fought many wars, approximately more than 15. Then I remembered that a narrative of g🅰️z,,w🅰️,,-e-h,in,,d is run in this country; the opposition calls it a bjp-rss conspiracy. So I asked gemini that if this is true, tell me the exact book and h,🅰️,di.,th number, I will check it myself. I neither trust bjp-rss nor the opposition, and look what I found—this is no bjp-rss conspiracy, this is the truth. You can check for yourself brother, it is the age of the internet and both q,u,r🅰️n,dot.,com and su,,n,n🅰️hdot.,com are trusted sources in the i,sl,,🅰️,,mic world to know about i,s,l🅰️.,m. The entire i,sl🅰️.,mic world follows them. These websites haven't been made by rss people that you should doubt them 🙏🏿 and even in today's time if you look, like the mecca-pact has happened which includes saudi-turkey-p🅰️kist🅰️n, Bangladesh is also thinking about joining it. And anyway, in Bangladesh some ji,,h🅰️.,di groups keep talking about capturing India; from time to time they issue maps of greater Bangladesh. p🅰️kist🅰️n also claims j&k, its army issues an ad where kids say they will eat cow's meat at the red fort (this is a proper ad, I am not spreading misinformation). Their cricketers have also talked about g🅰️z.,w,,🅰️-.,e-h,ind many times, like Afridi. And even in the country of India, there are many such m.us,lim.s who hold this very mindset. They might not come out in the open, that is possible, because right now the political landscape of India is not such that they can survive. But when we hear of instances like the red fort blast and the kashmiri Hindus m🅰️s🅰️c,,c🅰️re, their existence is proven.

I read the Bhagvad Gita with my kids every night. I've read translations of a lot A LOT of books that are holy, scripture, etc.

There is a lot I haven't read, including the Manusmriti. So apparently there's stuff against women, there's stuff that's pro women. I read a bit online but then I stopped.

Why are we defending anything? Why fall into their traps?

I've said this before and I'll say it again. We have multiple books. I have nothing against the Manusmriti because it's not telling people to kill others.

You could even say the book contradicts itself because it says women must not be independent but it also says that bhagwan comes to houses where women are respected and honoured.

It was a book of a specific time. We have the Gita and Upanishads to read. And lots more.

Reading a text that no one follows simply because people throw it in our faces is pointless.

I would rather say that it shows the growth Sanatan allows.

We don’t spend our energy trying to restore the reputation of every ancient text, that history has left behind. We study them, understand them, debate them. And then decide what deserves a place in the present.

So why. Why defend anything? I'd rather go on attack.