In the mean time what is your opinion on the following verses of the Holy Gita:

�If however, you do not fight this religious war, then you will certainly incur sin, for neglecting your duties, and thus lose your reputation as a fighter�. [Bhagavad Gita 2:33]

�Considering your specific duty as a Kshatriya, you should know that there is no better engagement for you than fighting on religious principles, so there is no need for hesitation.� [Bhagavad Gita 2:33]

Wrong translation!

Krishna advocates fighting for dharma, dharmic principles, and some moron translated “dharma” as “religion” and now mohammad ali is using the wrong translation to imply that the Bhagavad Gita was advocating some kind of religious war like the Quran does.

Krishna is not asking Arjuna to wage war against Jains, Buddhists and Christians or Jews, but fight for dharma and against adharmic people.

There is no need to bring in any kind of context here. The verse is clear by itself, asking people to fight on the basis of dharmic principles.

Is Mohammad Ali trying to say there is no Jihad in Islam? This is a strange kind of Islam, and he must be the only person who believes in it.

An Al-Qaeda-linked terror plot was unearthed by Canadian security agencies on Wednesday, with one of the suspects reportedly hailing from India.

Though police didn’t name the suspects, one of them is said to be 36-year-old Misbahuddin Ahmed who worked as an X-ray technologist at an Ottawa hospital. Reports quoted sources as saying that Ahmed comes from India.

Your above comment is not quite clear in its intent.

Should we change our thinking so as to not look ridiculous? According to a Hindu, God is in all living things. Even in non-living things. We see God everywhere. Christianity thinks God is only in and for Humans.

Should we make more economically sensible decisions – like killing the old cows and using it’s meat and hide? But, this is what the above cited study shows – that the way our society has been traditionally treating cows makes perfect economic sense. Only thing is we express our sensibilities in a more religious language.

Personally, it doesn’t matter to me what other countries think about us. There are so many things in their religions that seem to be ridiculous to us!

Excuse me if I misunderstood you!

How societies care for the welfare of their animals is a measure of how advanced they are as a nation. That is purely a question of ethics because no right thinking people would want to inflict needless pain on animals. In the UK there are very heavy penalties on people who do just that from jail terms to fines.

Even the UK draws a line at preserving the lives of animals. Countless dogs or put down because they have no homes. In India they wander as strays and suffer neglect and abuse. Much the same fate awaits the cow past its useful economic life for which homes are provided by animal welfare charities. Hindu religious sentiment baulks at utilizing for economic benefit as food and for the leather industries. That would make sense for a wealthy economy like the UK which does not make the same choice as India seems to make as regards their cows. When India’s people in many cases are in no better condition than the afflicted cows, this is a policy no sane Indian government should be pursuing. Obviously politics and religion has interceded to skew the argument for the policy that is now pursued.

There is a fundamental issue at the root of the matter. The other major religions of the world make a very clear distinction between the reason with which God has endowed mankind and absented from the animal kingdom. Should Hindus in the 21st century continue to endow the cow and other animals with godly qualities and want to appear ridiculous in the eyes of the world? The highest qualities of Hinduism enjoins Hindus to be free by acknowledging the truth. Which other religion has the epitaph “God is Truth”. Ethics as regards the humane treatment of animals is truth enough for me without importing religious doctrines and sentiments into the issue when they are clearly not necessary.