Jesus Wallpapers - Set 02

Second set of Jesus Wallpapers are given above. Take a look at each of the above nine pics.

As we all know, Jesus loved children in a very special way. Maybe their innocence attracted him a lot. It is evident from his teaching mentioning us to become like children to be in heaven.

Anyway, put one from these as your desktop wallpaper and see the difference.

Jesus Wallpapers - Set 01

Jesus Christ wallpapers are given above and all these nine wallpapers are given as thumbnails so that one can easily select the wallpaper of your choice and view it in its original size. Jesus wallpapers are not rare on the internet, but still, each day people are in search for new and new pictures of Jesus Christ.

These wallpapers will make your desktops God's tool so that you will remember the great sacrifice God himself committed, so as to save mankind.

Yezidi, Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker, Kurd, Mother, Father, Sister, Brother- HUMAN

photos and article by Pruittiporn Kerdchoochuen

The demonstration held on July 15, 2009 by the Council of Yezidis in Germany and co-sponsored by my employer, the Society for Threatened Peoples (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker), outside of Oldenburg in Lower Saxony, was part of a last minute effort to rally support for a Yezidi family threatened with deportation, as well as to raise awareness on the issue in general. Yezidi is a Kurdish religion of Indo-European roots, and most of its followers are Kurdish- speaking originally from northern Iraq. The family of 4 had moved to Germany over ten years ago to escape the oppression and lack of opportunities they face as an ethnic and religious minority in Syria. The 2 children, the oldest having been 3 when the family left Syria and the younger having been born in Germany, speak German, attend German schools and call Germany their homeland. Now that their 10 year visa is up, they are faced with deportation back to Syria, and thus to routine discrimination by a state notorious for its use of torture and mistreatment of minorities.






The demonstration brought together the Yezidi community, their friends and supporters, and human rights activists in the area. Little children, teenagers, parents and grandparents were all present, clad in everything ranging from traditional headscarves to Chucks and low riding jeans. For me, the rally emphasized the "human" in human rights. It served as a reminder that, in the end, we are not merely fighting for some intangible ideals, but for real people: for our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers...

To see more of Pruittiporn's photos of the protest, check out the album by clicking here!

Banning the Burqa?

by Oscar Pocasangre

Today, while checking out the New York Times before starting my work, I stumbled upon an article that gave me a hard case of cognitive dissonance that I'm still trying to resolve. The article discussed how French President Nicolas Sarkozy is leading a campaign to ban the Muslim burqa in France on the grounds that it is demeaning and oppressive for women. Sarkozy argued that France cannot allow for women to continue being prisoners in these garments.

I wholeheartedly agree that women should not be oppressed or kept at the margin of social life. Indeed, women are entitled to be active citizens and nothing should bar them from the day to day happenings of society. But I don't know how I feel about banning a clothing garment that is intimately associated with a religion.

Isn't this - telling people what they can and cannot wear - being too invasive of personal life? Is the French government going too far? Back in 2004, it even banned conspicuous religious symbols from schools. Doesn't this go against Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that "everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance"?

Personally, if the government of my country were to prohibit wearing crucifixes I would feel like my right to manifest and observe my religious beliefs is being violated. I know that a crucifix does not marginalize me, but wearing it is a religious tradition in Catholicism just like wearing the burqa is in Islam. While, I don't know enough about Islam and its practices to say that women who adhere to its religious traditions should wear them, I do feel that if a woman wants to wear it and feels comfortable wearing it, she should be able to.

I do not believe that it is the garment, per se, what is oppressing women. A culture of domineering males who don't allow their wives, daugthers, or sisters to express themselves freely and limit their life opportunities in many different domains is the problem that should be addressed if any change is to be made. Moreover - and I know this sounds idealistic and might border on cliché - we should all make an effort to understand the values of other cultures and religions and recognize that many times they will differ from ours.

R.I.P Dr. Tiller, and thoughts on abortion

- - by Pruttiporn Kerdchoochuen

This summer, I hauled my ass (and some seriously hefty luggage) to the small college town of Göttingen, Germany. I'm hoping to raise my five years worth classroom German from third-grade-prattle level to a functional language skill, by interning at a human rights non-profit called die Gesellchaft für bedrohte Völker, or "the society for threatened peoples."

The organization specializes in advocating for prosecuted and oppressed ethnic minority groups worldwide. I'm working with the Near-Eastern department (my boss is originally can often be heard yelling into the phone in German, Kurdish, Arabic or any of the other five languages he speaks), and am learning a great deal about the Baha'is, Kurds, Ahwazi Arabs and all the other minority groups in that region of the world.

I finally moved into my new apartment today, and while having dinner, my housemate and I started talking to get to know each other better. We began talking about politics and religion, and pretty soon, the topic of abortion came up. While I am adamantly and vociferously pro-choice, my new friend, a med student, is somewhat religious and views fetuses, after two weeks or so, as more akin to living babies, with little beating hearts. But even she agrees that, ultimately, women must have the power to make her own choice, as unsavory as it may end up being.

The power to control one's own body and make decisions regarding one's own health is a fundamental human right. To deprive women of such a right, especially in a case of rape or incest, would be sexist, demeaning, medieval and cruel. To allow poor innocent children to be born to parents who may not want them and may be unwilling to provide adequate care for them would be heartless.

This year on May 31, Dr. George Tiller, a reproductive health physician and medical director of an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas, was gunned down at his church because of his willingness to perform medically necessary late-term abortions. The murder of Dr. Tiller is, simply put, a terrorist act. It is the use of violence for an ideological goal, the use of terror to discourage and demoralize the opposition. And this should not be tolerated. A movement that spawned and, in a sense, nurtured such hatred - I'm looking at YOU Bill O'Reilly - should take a step back and reevaluate itself. This is religious fundamentalism at work, pure and simple: zealotry inspiring violence against those who think differently.

So please, before we go looking elsewhere for those damn terrorists, just take a goddamn look in our own backyard first.