The Washington Post carries an uplifting story about the counter-counter demonstration in Lebanon on the one month anniversary of Hariri’s assasination. Not to be one-upped by the Hezbollah’s counter protest last week, the Lebanese people showed up in enormous numbers (by some estimates a quarter of the population of the country).

Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese rallied at the grave of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri on Monday to mark the one-month anniversary of his assassination and to intensify pressure on Syria to immediately withdraw its troops from a country that appears split into two rival political camps.

The demonstration covered wind-swept Martyrs’ Square and stretched for blocks into side streets, likely surpassing the size of the rally organized last week in Beirut by Hezbollah, the militant Shiite Muslim movement at the forefront of support for Syria’s three-decade presence here.

In a crowd that Lebanese police officials estimated at close to 1 million people, some demonstrators waved placards that read “100 percent Lebanese,” a direct challenge to Syria’s supporters here and the delicate balance among Lebanon’s sectarian parties that has prevailed since the country’s civil war ended more than 15 years ago.

Slate’s daily news round-up however, points out an interesting sentence buried deep within the story:

Many opposition members contended Monday that Hezbollah’s Beirut rally was populated mostly by Syrian intelligence agents and poor Shiites from the south. “They didn’t come by their free will,” said Charles Kanaan, 23, a systems engineer and Maronite Christian from Beirut. “And they weren’t 100 percent Lebanese. This is free will. This is the real Lebanon.”

In an apparent response, Hezbollah’s satellite channel, al-Manar, focused its coverage of Monday’s rally on the maids from South Asian countries who attended with their employers.

I get it. It isn’t patriotic Lebanese that want the Syrians out of their country. It is those dirty South Asian immigrant maids who make up the majority of the crowd. This is just another example that as bad as FOXNEWS is with their propaganda, it’s still nothing compared to the propaganda machines in the Arab world.

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A high-speed chase down Highway 101 in South San Francisco ended with police killing a man believed to have beaten his spouse. It all took place last week when Kamal Lal punched his wife Shelly in the face following a dispute over a pile of trash. Shelly called 911, and Kamal fled from the scene in his truck. When authorities tracked him down, Kamal led them on a chase at speeds as high as 100 mph. His car eventually ran off the road and into a ditch. Kamal emerged from it and began throwing rocks at CHP officers. When he threatened them with a concrete slab, they pumped him full of bullets. Court records show that Kamal had a history of domestic abuse, and had plead guilty to misdemeanor battery against his wife in 1996. Like many battered spouses, Shelly defended her husband of 16 years:

“Everyone has their problems, but where this went, it totally doesn’t make sense,” said Lal, 37, of her husband. “I’m just mad that he was killed in such a barbaric way”…Lal described her husband as a warm, generous man who loved playing with his son and often bought homeless people meals. She said their relationship was strong enough, she thought, to withstand Sunday’s domestic violence. “It just seemed like a little dispute between husband and wife,” Lal said. [San Francisco Chronicle]

San Francisco Chronicle: ‘It doesn’t make sense,’ says wife of man shot by CHP, Man killed by CHP had battery record

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My initial reaction was, “you have GOT to be kidding me.”

An Indian Muslim charity has laid claim to the ownership of the world’s most famous monument to love, the Taj Mahal.

The Sunni Waqf Board controls all Muslim graveyards in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where the spectacular marble monument is located.

Since Muslims who AREN’T royals are buried at the Taj AND it contains a Mosque, the Sunni Waqf Board has a reason to pursue this obviously innocent and well-intentioned claim.

Whom can we blame for this latest bit of eye-roll-inspiring controversy? Wait for it…

The Sunni Waqf Board (SWB), a Muslim trust, was given ownership of Uttar Pradesh’s Muslim graveyards by the Indian government itself.

Right.

There wouldn’t be some financial motivation for this surprising development, would there? Noooo. Couldn’t be.

Mr Usman said once the ownership issue had been decided, the board would demand that 7% of the total earnings from tickets should be transferred to its coffers.

Here’s my favorite part:

He said the board did not stake a claim to the monument earlier as it had not wanted to enter into any controversy.

They were correct! There is no controversy at all. My ocular muscles (and my potential for disbelief) are taxed. Oh, Shah Jahan…what has your legendary love wrought? Continue reading →

Burglars in Silicon Valley have been targeting desi homes recently, perhaps through property records or personal contacts (thanks, Sonya). If they were truly smart, they’d be looking for the stock options, not yo mama’s mangalasutra:

Of the 50 home burglaries that have occurred in Sunnyvale, Calif., in the last couple of months, 10 have happened in the homes of Indian Americans… [India-West]

Since December, the homes of at least 14 Indo-American families have been burglarized on weekend nights in Silicon Valley. The families fear they are being targeted because of their preference for 22- and 24-karat gold jewelry… “It looks like they know where to look. There are some subcultures in India where it’s pretty common to hide jewelry in the kitchen, and these burglars are also looking in kitchens…”

… they said they wanted to speak out to alert other families — and to tell them to store their jewelry and other valuables in safe-deposit boxes instead of at home. [Mercury News]

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A 52-year-old father from Guyana was beaten by an 18-year-old from Mexico on March 3 and died of a heart attack. Jagat Ram Balram of Queens was a marine engineer in his homeland:

A police source said Roque downed a number of drinks in a friend’s home, then hit the streets of Richmond Hill, confronting residents. After several confrontations, including one with a man who wouldn’t back down, Roque pounced on Balram, who was heading home from his job as a bus mechanic just before 1 a.m., police said.

The 120-pound Roque knocked the victim, who at 5-foot-10, 175 pounds towered over the suspect, to the snow-covered ground in front of Balram’s Jamaica Avenue home, then kicked him into unconsciousness, police said… Roque, who emigrated from Mexico… attends Richmond Hill High School and works as a busboy at nearby Alfies Pizza & Pasta. [MSNBC]

Two witnesses dialed 911 and ran to help Jagat Balram while another good Samaritan chased the fleeing suspect to Jamaica Ave. and 118th St. and flagged down a patrol car… Jagat Balram’s hard-earned savings will now be used to send his body back to South America, instead of bringing his 25-year-old son, Chateran, to New York.  [Daily News]

Keri Dowd, a history teacher at Richmond Hill HS, said Roque had a reputation as having “a discipline problem,” and said a fellow teacher — who had him in her class — said he was “disturbed, violent and aggressive.” [NY Post]

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In an effort to amend the salt tax without breaking the law, on March 2, 1930 Gandhi wrote to the Viceroy, Lord Irwin: “If my letter makes no appeal to your heart, on the eleventh day of this month I shall proceed with such co-workers of the Ashram as I can take, to disregard the provisions of the Salt Laws. I regard this tax to be the most iniquitous of all from the poor man’s standpoint. As the Independence movement is essentially for the poorest in the land, the beginning will be made with this evil.”

On March 12, 1930, Gandhi and approximately 78 male satyagrahis set out, on foot, for the coastal village of Dandi some 240 miles from their starting point in Sabarmati, a journey which was to last 23 days. Virtually every resident of each city along this journey watched the great procession, which was at least two miles in length. On April 6th he raised a lump of mud and salt (some say just a pinch, some say just a grain) and declared, “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire.” He then boiled it in seawater to make the commodity which no Indian could legally produce–salt.

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Following up on my earlier post about Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to speak at the conference of the Asian-American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) meeting in Fort Lauderdale, FL, tipster Anuj G. alerts us to the fact that Chris Matthews of Hardball has canceled his speaking commitment after being pressured by Muslim groups. The New York Sun reports:

A prominent talk show host has canceled a speech to a conference of Indian-American hoteliers after coming under pressure from Muslim organizations and human-rights groups, who said another speaker invited to the meeting has a record of condoning anti-Muslim violence.

The host of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Chris Matthews, announced yesterday that he would not appear as planned on March 24 at the Asian-American Hotel Owners Association meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“Due to a scheduling conflict, Chris Matthews has canceled this appearance,” an MSNBC spokesman, Jeremy Gaines, said. He would not elaborate on the nature of the conflict.

In recent days, Muslim activists and others flooded the network with calls, letters, and e-mail urging Mr. Matthews to distance himself from the group. An Indian official billed as the “chief guest” at the meeting, Narendra Modi, has been accused of tolerating anti-Muslim violence in the state of Gujarat, where he is chief minister.

The president of the Indian Muslim Council-USA, Dr. Ashwini Rao of New York, said he does not credit the official explanation for Mr. Matthews’s action. “Most likely, that’s not correct, because we’ve been talking to him for the last week and a half, at least, and they’ve never said it’s a scheduling conflict,” Dr. Rao said. “I was hoping he’d take a more moral stance.”

There is another interesting twist to this story however. Apparently the way the press found out that Matthews was backing out was via a PENTAGON mailing list. What the heck does the Pentagon have to do with Matthews and Modi?

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