Naseem KM

“the Christmas tree. Do you know where that comes from?” “No idea.” “Saint Boniface decided to ‘christianize’ a ritual intended to honor the god Odin when he was a child. Once a year, the Germanic tribes would place presents around an oak tree for the children to find. They thought this would bring joy to the pagan deity.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Zahir

“Applying the 80:20 rule, I would say that 80 per cent of our youth don’t even care about politics or government. What they care about are their lives—their jobs, their boyfriends or girlfriends and, well, that’s about it. We can call this set of people Self-focused Indifferent Indians.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“Muhammad had become the head of a collection of tribal groups that were not bound together by blood but by a shared ideology, an astonishing innovation in Arabian society. Nobody was forced to convert to the religion of the Quran, but Muslims, pagans and Jews all belonged to one ummah, could not attack one another, and vowed to give each other protection. News of this extraordinary new ‘supertribe’ spread, and though at the outset nobody thought that it had a chance of survival, it proved to be an inspiration that would bring peace to Arabia before the death of the Prophet in 632, just ten years after the hijrah.”
― Karen Armstrong, Islam: A Short History

“the cross. I remember that Cicero referred to it as ‘an abominable punishment’ that inflicted terrible suffering on the crucified person before he or she died. And yet, nowadays people wear it around their neck, hang it on their bedroom wall, and have come to identify it as a religious symbol, forgetting that they are looking at an instrument of torture.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Zahir