For all of those on the South African http://www.bidorbuy.co.za website be very careful. Due to bad coding (as reported by Bradbowlllama on MyADSL ) it is possible for users to obtain your personal email address by simply going through the code.

To give an example:

- Find a user that is selling something you wish to bid on
- Click on the "Community Watch" link
- View the source on the "Report suspicious behaviour" page

Your result should look something like this:

INPUT class="dfont" TYPE=TEXT VALUE="communitywatch@bidorbuy.co.za" NAME="from1" SIZE=55 MAXLENGTH=100 disabled
INPUT TYPE="hidden" VALUE="youraddy@address.com" NAME="from"
INPUT TYPE="hidden" VALUE="otheruser@adress.com" NAME="cc"
INPUT TYPE="hidden" VALUE="123455" NAME="abcde"

As you will see, the email address of the user is easily accessible to anyone, including the hundreds of Nigerian scammers and identity thieves.

For those of you wanting to open an account at BidOrBuy... be very careful

This vulnerability is valid as of 3/4/2008 (Lets see how long it takes them to fix this very serious issue.

I have noticed a couple of eco-friendly posters here mention how much they hate mans advancement in technology, how humanity is like a virus to nature and the usual ra ra from those blokes and dudettes.

I would like those people to consider this point. If life is to exist beyond the life span of our sun it has to find a way to exist outside of the confines of this planet.

The chances of life evolving another life form capable of space travel before there is another major extinction period is pretty slim, so basically humanity may be lifes (as we know it) last chance for survival.

Think about it... imagine humans kill each other off, and no other life form evolves to the level of space travel. Our sun expands or our magnetosphere dies off... and our planet will become sterile. No more life will exist.

Which means (assuming we are the only life out here), that the complete uniqueness of all life... what it went through, all its suffering, all its learning, all its hopes and joy, everything it achieved... would have being for nothing. There would not even be anyone around to remember it.

So for the long term survival of all life. Humanity I believe is a keystone species.

Linux for years has being one of the best quality server operating systems on the market and there are currently more Linux servers on the web than any other operating system. Over the last couple of years, with distributions like Ubuntu pushing into the desktop market, the Linux desktop has come of age.

I was simply amazed at the native driver support that my Ubuntu desktop offered me. My blue tooth dongle, my Skype phone, my USB wireless device, HSDPA modem, my Ipod Nano and flash disks were all picked up automatically by the system and the correct drivers and applications loaded.

I have never seen an operating system with so much support for all my devices right out of the box. The Linux desktop has come of age and is in almost every aspect, superior to its Windows Vista and Windows XP counterparts.

Instead of paying a lot of money for hardware that struggles with the most basic versions of Vista, rather install Ubuntu and get a quicker, faster... superior desktop.

Why not to get a HP product.

I used to be a strong supporter of the HP brand... well at least until HP and Microsoft got into bed and had a child called Vista that really should have being aborted. I used to support HP products because they had reliable hardware, and decent support. I never thought a company could sink its reputation as quickly and efficiently as HP has done.

I ordered 2 HP Pavilion notebook / laptops. They had great hardware specs and they looked stunning, the only problem with them being that they came with Vista installed. For those of you who have not realized it. Vista is designed for really stupid people who like shiny things. Anyways.. back to HP. I think, "well no problem", when I get these laptops in I will purchase two copies of Windows XP professional SP2 and install that and a copy of Ubuntu onto my notebook.

The notebooks arrived and I get all excited. Yay! Two stunning pieces of hardware with decent specs... I will even be able to play the latest games I have, and I was really looking forward to using my notebook. I format the drives... navigate to the HP website... to the section that has the XP drivers for it... only to find... NO XP drivers!!! I nearly fell of my chair in surprise. HP is not supporting the worlds most popular desktop operating system (XP)... you cant be serious? The bastards!

The reason I dont want to install Vista is because its Windows XP in a fancy frock. Its a waste of time, resources and a disgusting insult to anyone with an IQ above that of a retarded rabbit. Even though this notebook had very decent specs (duel AMD, Nvidia chipset, 1GB of RAM)... it completely chokes with Vista Basic, and any hopes and dreams of me running any type of game were quickly being dashed against the rocks of corporate stupidity.

However, the story gets even sicker. I find out that while HP does not support XP for my laptop, they do have the drivers for XP for my hardware, but I only found that out after some digging through their other drivers and similar models. HP are trying to screw its customers into using Vista and that's the only reason why they did not put the drivers up on their website. Must be some great kick backs being paid to HP execs that they're willing to destroy their customers trust for profit.

So not only do you get shafted by Microsoft with a terrible product, but you also now get shafted by HP your hardware supplier because they are more interested in profit than quality or you.

So to all my readers... If you want to get a decent notebook that supports multiple operating systems and would likely meet all your entertainment and business needs... get an Acer. If you want to get a notebook that does not really do much and can only run one operating system.. get an Apple product. If you want a useless doorstop for your office... Get a HP notebook or a government official.

Lastly, if you are looking to download drivers from the HP website... set aside a couple of hours for extremely slow downloads for extremely bloated drivers.

Since my last article I wrote about Russia and its president Putin, things have evolved much further and I have more perspective on why Putin and Russia are behaving like the school yard bullies again. I wanted to write this article about some of the insidious actives Russia has being up to in the last couple of years and how it is abusing its power, but as I learnt more, and as I learnt the politics of each independent state bordering Russia I realised how big and complex the issue is, so I will do my best to condense the information into a useful summary and back story of some of the events.

When Putin came to power, he was young, energetic, strong and sober... (all things Yeltsin was not), Putin not only promised democracy but also strength, and that's what millions of Russians longed for after the chaos of the Yeltsin years. At first almost everyone was happy with this. The Russians had a strong leader that was going to change and modernize their country and the West were happier with a united Russia rather than a divided one (simply because of Russia's immense nuclear stockpile).

However, events where set into motion when a group Islamic religious fanatics attacked the United States by flying passenger aircraft into the Twin Towers in New York on 9/11. Russia's President Putin was the first head of state to contact the United States and President Bush to offer both the condolences of Russia and any support Russia could offer... including allowing forward military bases in central Asia states.

Putin thought that by showing his support, and offering out an olive branch, the United States and NATO would understand the integral border problems it was having with its own religious separatist conflict in Chechnya, and together they would fight Islamic religious extremism. Working along side America and the European Union on such a project with benefit all involved.

Bush took Putin's offer and set up more military bases in central Asia, which in turn angered a lot of powerful Russian leaders who were also concerned about the expansion of Russia's long time nemesis... NATO. In 2002 seven more nations were invited to join and Bush had to fly to St Petersburg to try calm down an agitated Putin. Russian-American relations took a dramatic turn for the worse when Bush ordered the attack on Iraq against the Kremlin's requests.

The United States and European countries were also involved in financing a lot pro-democratic reformation movements in the former Soviet states. These were called to the Color Revolutions and lead to democratic revolutions over autocratic authorising rule such as Ukrainian Orange Revolution and the Georgian Rose Revolution. In all these revolutions the people of those countries spoke and ousted their corrupt pro-Russian leaders for more transparent pro-West democratic leaders as the people of each country took control and responsibility for their futures.

Increasingly Putin felt like a jilted bride with Bush making small concessions while he was at the same time expanding NATO influence over countries that Russia still regarded as its own charges. Russia also considered the eastern expansion of NATO to be in contradiction of an earlier NATO/Soviet Union agreement for NATO not to expand eastwards. To add to this was the fear within Russia's ruling party that pro-west influence may spread into Russia itself, and the FSB (the new KGB) were quick to stamp out the flames of dissent within its own borders so that Russian leaders would not lose control of Russia like what had happened in the Ukrainian Orange Revolution.

In process to wipe out political pro-west opposition from with Russia, Putin moved forward and took control of Russia's Gazprom and its other large corporations and in turn was able to use these companies to further what his future political ambitions. Over half of Gazprom's shares are now owned by the state and its Chairman Demetri Medvedev will be Russia's next president (at the time of writing this article, Russia's 2008 elections are underway, but I still have not seen the official results).

For Putin a strong Russia no longer meant a Russia that would be a worthy partner for America, it meant a Russia that would defend itself against the West and offer a more authoritarian political model.

To put this new attitude into perspective lets have a look at current and ongoing abuses of Russian power, and when you look at the selective use of its authority you will get a better idea of why you should behave more critically to Russia's ruling parties policies and actions;

Let me start with a situation that has been ongoing since 2006 and by yesterdays news, had resurrected its ugly head. With the Ukraine considering halting payment to the Commonwealth of Independent States (a lose collection of states with shared policies that was created to allow a civilised divorce of some previous Soviet Union countries) and its growing support for EU acceptance and NATO defence... Russia has responded. After the Ukrainian Orange Revolution Russia showed its displeasure by getting its state asset Gazprom to cut the gas line that supplies parts of Europe and parts of the Ukraine.

This was done for three reasons. Firstly to punish the Ukraine for its EU ambitions, secondly to try convey a perspective that the 'rebel' republics are too unreliable for the delivery of energy from Russia to Europe (and in so promote the Nord Stream pipeline). At least nine European countries (and these included, France, Germany and Italy) registered a 20% to 33% drop in their gas supply from the Ukraine. Which leads us to the third reason that it very much intertwined with the second reason. To show the European Union that Russia was displeased with the Color Revolutions and Europe's support of democratic and human rights orientated political movements.

The Ukraine was not the only country to suffer this economic and energy supply bullying. Belarus, Moldova and Georgia all had their gas supplies threatened or cut due to their political policies of democratic reformation and accountability. Gas is not the only economic weapon used against neighbouring states that do not follow the Kremlin's demands.

Lithuania, Belarus, Poland and Latvia have had their oil supplies threatened or cut off by Russia. In more stranger abuses of economic power, Poland has being on the receiving end of a Russian ban on imported Polish meat, and Georgia and Moldova have had their wines and mineral waters banned from entering the country.

These changing republics are not just the victims of Russia ability to use its economic power to bully them... recently, when Estonia moved the graves and statue commemorated to honor solders who died during the Soviet era, Russia found a perfect excuse to test its cyber warfare capabilities and in a way showcase them to the world.

On April 27, 2007 a cyber (hacker attack) blasted the online services of Estonian organizations, including the Estonian parliament, telecommunications, banks, ministries, newspapers and broadcasters bringing the countries communications to a grinding halt. While Russia has managed somehow to keep its hand clears of being directly responsible for the attack, experts (including top Russian hackers ... some of whom were involved in the attack), confirmed that such an attack with its sophistication and coordination and the shear use of resources could not have being orchestrated or allowed without Kremlin involvement.

As all these event unfolded, I kept expecting massive resistance to the Russian governments actions by the people of Russia. The Russian people are smart... "any moment now they are going to reign their leaders in and take back control of their country", I thought. I was disappointed. Putin and his party have popular support in Russia as a lot of the Russian populace feel that Putin is putting forward good economic reforms that are helping the country, and that Putin is showing Russian strength by standing up against America and western policies. You see, the sad thing for the people of Russia is some how they equate respect with fear. Russians tend to believe that if the EU and the US fear Russian power and aggression that they will earn respect they feel they deserve.

Its at this moment I have to put the above perception of the Putin supporting Russian into perspective with an analogy. A weak man beats his wife into submission so that the wife respects him out of fear and self preservation. A good man builds her confidence, looks after her feelings and supports and protects her. To me... a Putin supporting Russian is a weak man. I can have no respect for someone who reasons like that.

Not all Russians are for Putin, Russian Grandmaster chess players, heads of business, political opposition parties and many human rights organizations are shouting foul, however their voices are not enough. Critics of Putin are quickly and efficiently ridiculed, abused, threatened and killed.

One can not but compare the economic and political situation of Germany and the end of world war one, and the decline of the Soviet Union after the Cold War. You will also notice a lot of similarities to how Germans felt after world war one, and the feeling of defeat the Russians felt when communism fell.

Hitler was able to convince a country that it could regain its power in the world through economic power and military strength. For a short while... he was not wrong. The Germans, noglastic on the memories of its power and stature before the Treaty of Versailles, quickly stood behind the dreams of Hitler in what they considered was the right way to take their place as again as leaders in (and apparently of) Europe. The same can be seen happening in Russia. The Russian people felt defeated with the fall of the Soviet Union, and the drunken debauchery of its political leaders before Putin came to power. Putin came into power when the corruption and mismanagement of the past left much to be desired and Russia was almost in a state of economic collapse. Putin has managed to take control of the country, and like Hitler is offering the elixir of previous power and strength through economic reform and military might.

There are many many more similarities and warning signs than the ones I have briefly mentioned. Even Hitlers Nazi Youth has a Russian counterpart, the Nashi youth movement (who claimed part responsibility for the cyber attacks launched against Estonia. I am also not the only person to link the similarities between Hitlers Youth and the Nashi Youth.

Perhaps I am being to harsh with comparing Russia's mood and politics to that of Hitlers, but from where I am sitting, I see Putin using Russia to commit attacks on weaker nations... and mostly nations with pro democratic, EU and NATO ambitions seem to be specifically targeted, and I have to wonder why Russia is so scared of the reformation happening in these smaller countries. After all, the reformations have lead to more accountability and transparency in those governments.

My perspective so far based on the balance of evidence is that former secret and security services members have managed to take control of Russia through political manipulation and intimidation after the KGB (now the FSB) failed to take control of Russia in a military coup they attempted. Using the FSB (KGB) to bully big money in Russia assured the compliance of businessman to tow the new Kremlin line, and use of special services skills were used to destroy any real political opposition. Over the last couple of years, Putin has centralised power and has an extremely strong autocratic method of rule.

The old KGB now has control of the Kremlin and Russia, and the people behind this organisation are not going to give up that power easily.

Russia leaders are scared of real democracy and the concept of accountability for one simple reason. To quote Hitler, "You can not keep with a democracy what you have taken with force"

So I woke up this morning to find a "take down" notice in my email inbox, and to be honestly surprised it did not come from Scientologists. It came from some other bottom feeders... Rich criminal defence lawyers that protect the big money of convicted criminals.

Basically these law firms are very happy to accept the blood money their clients make in exchange for their "services". In my mind evil can only happen when good men (and woman) stand by and do nothing and in the case of a law firm like Schillings Lawyers.... they not only do nothing, they for financial reward, attempt to stifle free speech and those critical of the criminals they defend.

In my case, Schillings Lawyers sent a threatening email to my hosts (The full PDF of what they sent me can be found here: http://newz.co.za/blood_money/stupid_legal_notice.pdf . I have hosted it off site so that my current host (The Planet) can not be held liable for it). However, that said, to quote the important bit:

"We understand that you host the website www.pickledbushman.com (“the
website”) and we write to you in that capacity.
We refer to a recent posting appearing on the Website entitled:
“Arsenal football club bought out with blood money” (“the Posting”). The Posting
reproduces an article originally written by Craig Murray. The Posting can be
found via the link:
http://www.pickledbushman.com/index.php/2007/09/27/arsenal_football_club_bought_out_with_bl
The posting is false, indefensible and grossly defamatory of our client. Our client
views this matter extremely seriously"

A quick point to Schillings Lawyers... "labling something as "private and confidential" does not make it so. I have entered into no such contract with your insidious law firm.

The post they are referring to is one in which I wrote about how Alisher Usmanov (a convicted criminal) purchased Arsenal Football Club with blood money he earned while he allegedly built his cartel on drug money, extortion and other illegal activities.

However, this post is not about how siff the guy is (that was the purpose of my last post), but rather the bottom feeders that crow around his money at your expense. If you would like to find out more information about Alisher Usmanov please read this article by Craig Murray (former ambassador) http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2007/09/alisher_usmanov.html .

The information Schillings Lawyers wanted me to remove was a copy of Craig Murray's post I had added at the end of my writing to give people more information about this shady character.

In response to that, I have had to remove the duplication of Craig Murrays article and have it now hosted in a country that is legally safe for it (and therefore out of the jurestriction of The Planet). I have included links back on the post back to the original article in its entirety.

When I used google to research what Schillings Lawyers have being up to... Google came back with a real lot of responses, and it seems that most bloggers that have reproduced that article by Craig have also being threatened by them.

Matt Warden, a prominent political blogger had this to say

"Schillings, a London Law firm, have closed down several prominent political blogs (case study on dealing with the “internet attacker“) by contacting their webhosts, on behalf the new part owner of Arsenal - Alisher Usmanov.

Mr Usmanov’s lawyers have also sent “cease and desist” type letters to a number of other blogs that dare to mention the fact that he has been criticised, including Arsenal Fan Blogs."

http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/2007/09/21/webhost-removes-bloggerheads-and-other-sites-after-legal-threats/

So it appears an all out attack on freedom of speech has being instigated by Alisher and law firm Schillings Lawyers.

It seems that its not only bloggers who are the victims of Schillings Lawyers. It appears that they attempted to take on one of the most important sites on the Internet today, Wikileaks.org. Wikileaks.org is a website dedicated to getting the truth out. For the leaking of important sensitive documents that almost always incriminate those in positions of power.

An article linked to wikileaks.org has this to say about Schillings:

"Have WikileakS.org successfully faced down the notorious legal firm of London based minor celebrity media spin lawyers Schillings, whose attempts to censor UK political blogs backfired so spectacularly over their rich client Alisher Usmanov''s criminal past ?

They were threatening WikiLeakS.org on behalf of the discredited Northern Rock plc, who managed to have the first run on a bank in the UK in over 140 years, and who, together with the inept handling of the crisis by the Labour government, are costing the UK taxpayer billions of pounds."

Original link

As you can see, Schillings Lawyers appears to be on the rampage in their attempts to silence people critical of their criminal clients. I just had a thought about this. From what I can see based on this information at my disposal... Schillings Lawyers clients that have being mentioned in the news and information I have seen... all appear to be very shady and illegal characters or companies that hide behind their blood money and lawyers. I wonder who the rest of Schillings Lawyers customers are, and I have to wonder if all of them are just as guilty of similar or worse crimes than the ones we know of their clients whos crimes we do know.

To me, if someone had to mention to me that they were represented by Schilling Lawyers the first few thoughts would be, "criminal, lots of blood money, dangerous". As you can see in the original legal PDF document sent to me the names of the partners at this infamous law are:

Rachel Atkins
Gideon Benaim
Rob Christie-Miller
John Kelly
Keith Schilling
Simon Smith

I am writing down those names so that history can remember them for the kind of people they are. They are the architects behind Schillings Lawyers and in my mind... are just as guilty as their clients.

There's an old saying, "No single raindrop believes it is guilty for the flood" Nowhere is this more evident than here.

Ive said what I have wanted to say about Schillings Lawyers and their siff tactics and I would suggest that everyone out there watch what this law firm and what their clients are up to, because they are the smoke that indicates that there is a fire.

On a personal note to Schillings Lawyers... should you send a take down notice to me about this post I will be shutting down my hosting account with The Planet, and I will be moving it to South African hosting which will be completely beyond your control. I will also make sure that all information about what you try do to this site and others is well documented for future generations to see.

More reading:
http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2474&Itemid=81
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Murray
http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/2007/09/21/webhost-removes-bloggerheads-and-other-sites-after-legal-threats/
http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/?p=1467

The nice thing about having my own blog is I really can express my own opinion about someone who I think is acting like the back end of a cow in a less than diplomatic maner. In this case the simpleton I wish to expose is a journalist by the name of Lennox Mabaso.

In a recent article on IOL (The Independent online), Lennox played the all popular and over used,'Apartheid card'. The Apartheid card is a lot like the Hitler card, and is only really used in arguments today by journalists with diminished mental capacity, and almost always by a black supremacist racist with no real argument.

Th article written by Lennox was titled, "Apartheid planning resulted in blackout"(4), which is a lie. What Lennox is trying to do here is use racism to try excuse the incompetency of the ANC government for its direct roll in the energy crisis South Africa is experiencing today. Lennox is so blinded by his racism that he seems to have completely missed Mbeki apologizing (1) for the lack of energy which he was warned about several years ago!

The ANC were aware of the looming energy crisis since the early 1990`s and in 1998, the Department of Minerals and Energy released a detailed energy review. It explicitly warned that unless “timely steps [were] taken to ensure that demand does not exceed available supply capacity”, generating capacity would reach its limit by 2007.(2)

This review was completely ignored by the ANC government and not a SINGLE power station was built from the end of Apartheid till 2004. In fact, to make matters worse, a lot of the competent, experienced white staff were racially purged from Eskom.

At the time Apartheid ended South Africa was producing excess energy. So much so in fact that the ANC government decided to mothball a lot of the power stations as they did not believe they were necessary at the time.

Now, as predicted by so many organizations and people... South Africa has run out of energy. However, to blame Apartheid would be naive and ignorant. The power stations built during Apartheid are still the same ones powering the country today. The people who built the power stations during Apartheid did a good enough job that their creations powered the country effectively until 2007. The racial purges, the ANC government and a corrupt Eskom is the reason we dont have power today.

However for people like Lennox... its easier to blame the 'whitey' instead of accepting the truth of the situation.. that the government HE voted into power is responsible for hospitals (also mostly the same ones built during Apartheid), schools, business and residential being without energy today.

Lennox is so blinded by his racial hate that he is unable to see any of this. Instead he seems to use Robert Mugabe as a roll model and blame the white man.

For those of you reading this in the future, the reasons why we have this energy crisis is as follows:

1) Bad governing and planning by the ANC government
2) Racist purges of competent skill and experienced staff from Eskom simple because they are white (due to AA and BEE).
3) Corrupt Eskom officials mothballing any private attempts to produce energy capacity

I think Lennox should follow the advice of Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica and go to bed earlier (due to the power cuts)... so he can get "cleverer" and perhaps contribute an article to the news media that actually has being thought out. (3)

1- http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=vn20080205062606498C840787
2- http://energycrisis.co.za/?p=63
3- http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=695349
4- http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=vn20080205062606498C840787

Hey Beenz, I in response to your last comment. Here is the song I think you are looking for.

Forward:

This is a forum post I did for an academic forum in response to another forumites rather racist comment.

Reason for writing this post:

In a debate about basic human rights.. more specifically, ‘The right to free speech’. I was informed by Sam that because I was a white South African I don’t really have a leg to stand on in regards to matters of racial debate.

Sam was under the impression or trying to convey the impression that basically all the worlds problems and the worlds atrocities are the result of white males (she is an Indian Muslim). When debating the history of her country… India, one of her posts implied that India was a country of roses and bunnies for 800 years before the English came along and colonized the area. Sam has also implied that when other cultures attacked the Asian continent, they were not as destructive as that of European colonization. I understand both these points she made to be wrong.

I believe Sam lacks the perspective to debate this kind of topic with any authority so in writing this I hope her, and others like her will have more information to draw from so as to have an informed opinion.

Working out a date:

The first point of Sam’s I am going to debate is that the 800 years before colonization by the English… everything had being okay in India. I believe this point to be fabricated and distant from the truth. However to go 800 years back was not as simple as I thought it would be. First I had to establish the date with which to work back from.

To be fair on Sam I am not going to take the date of British rule from when the British Crown got control of India in 1858 (British Raj) from the British East India Company with the `Government of India Act 1858’. I am going to go back to 1757 to the Battle of Plassay where the British East India Company defeated Siraj Ud Daulah and a consignment of French troops, and use that to work out the ‘800 years before British colonization’.

So the time period I will be working with is from 957 through to 1757.

Before 957 :

I am going to try to keep this period of History as short as possible as it happened before the time period I was given to work with. In 712 CE Muhammad bin-Qasim lead 6000 cavalry into Hindu controlled territory to crush the Sindhi. In those days, when a town was besieged the capture of towns was usually accomplished by means of a treaty with a party from among his "enemy", who were then extended special privileges and material rewards.

However, Qasim’s superior Hajjaj objected to this method and had the following to say;

“It appears from your letter that all the rules made by you for the comfort and convenience of your men are strictly in accordance with religious law. But the way of granting pardon prescribed by the law is different from the one adopted by you, for you go on giving pardon to everybody, high or low, without any discretion between a friend and a foe. The great God says in the Koran [47.4]: "0 True believers, when you encounter the unbelievers, strike off their heads." The above command of the Great God is a great command and must be respected and followed. You should not be so fond of showing mercy, as to nullify the virtue of the act. Henceforth grant pardon to no one of the enemy and spare none of them, or else all will consider you a weak-minded man.”

So in a communication following the one above, Hajjaj reiterated that all able-bodied men were to be killed, and that their underage sons and daughters were to be imprisoned and retained as hostages.

Qasim obeyed, and on his arrival at the town of Brahminabad massacred between 6,000 and 16,000 of the defending forces

957 to 1757:

Mahmud of Ghazn was an Afgan Sultan who invaded the Indian subcontinent in the 11th century. He was well known for his iconoclasm (destruction of religious icons and symbols) and for the destruction of many Hindu temples such as Mathura. He saw the destruction of these temples and the slaughter of the Hindu’s as act of ‘Jihad’.

Pradyumna Prasad Karan describes Mahmuds invasion as one in which he put "thousands of Hindu's to the sword" and made a pastime of "raising pyramids of the skulls of the infidels"

Mahmud of Ghazni also sacked the second Somnath Temple in 1026, and looted it of gems and precious stones and the famous Shiva lingam of the temple was destroyed and it's fragments taken away to Ghazni where they were used as stepping stones for a mosque.

Shahab-ul-Din, King of Gazni who rules from 1170 to 1206, killed Prithwi Raj, King of Ajmer and Delhi in cold blood. He massacred thousands of the inhabitants of Ajmer who opposed him, keeping the remainder for slavery.

In the Taj-ul-Ma’asir by Hassn Nizam-i-Naishapuri, it is stated that when Qutb-ul- Din Aibak (who ruled from 1194 to 1210) conquered Meerat, he demolished all the Hindu temples of the city and erected mosques on their sites.

In the city of Aligarh, he converted Hindu inhabitants to Islam by the sword and beheaded all those who adhered to their own religion.

Abdulia Wassaf writes in his Tazjiyat-ul-Amsar wa Tajriyat ul Asar that when Alaul- Din Khilji captured the city of Kambayat, he killed the adult male Hindu inhabitants for the glory of Islam, set flowing rivers of blood, sent the women of the country with all their gold, silver, and jewels, to his own home, and made about twenty thousand maidens his private slaves.

Ala-ul-Din once asked his Qazi’, "what is the Mohammadan law prescribed for the Hindus?"

The Qazi replied, “Hindus are like the mud; if silver is demanded from them, they must with the greatest humility offer gold. If a Mohammadan desire to spit into a Hindu’s mouth, the Hindu should open it wide for the purpose. God created the Hindus to be slaves of the Mohammadans. The Prophet hath ordained that, if the Hindus do not accept Islam, they should be imprisoned, tortured, finally put to death, and their property confiscated.”

Sayad Mohammad Latif writes in his history of the Punjab, “Great jealousy and hatred existed those days between the Hindus and Mohammadans and the whole non-Muslim population was subject to persecution by the Mohammadan rulers.”

The first Muslim Empire of India, the Sultanate of Delhi, was established in 1210 CE by Turkic tribes that invaded the subcontinent from Afghanistan. Many temples were looted and destroyed. This includes the destruction of the Somnath.

Muhammad Ghori committed genocide against Hindus at Koi (Aligarh), Kalinjar and Varanasi, according to Hasan Nizami's Taj-ul-Maasir, 20,000 Hindu prisoners were slaughtered and their heads offered to crow

Timur bin Taraghay Barlas was a warlord of Turco-Mongol descent who ruled from 1336 to 1405. He was the founder of the Timurid Empire.

Timur crossed the Indus River at Attock. The capture of towns and villages was often followed by the massacre of their inhabitants and the raping of their women, as well as pillaging to support his massive army. Timur wrote many times in his memoirs of his specific disdain for the 'idolatrous' Hindus.

Timur himself recorded the invasions in his memoirs, collectively known as Tuzk-i-Timuri... and here are a couple of paragraphs out of it;

“In a short space of time all the people in the [New Delhi] fort were put to the sword, and in the course of one hour the heads of 10,000 infidels were cut off. The sword of Islam was washed in the blood of the infidels, and all the goods and effects, the treasure and the grain which for many a long year had been stored in the fort became the spoil of my soldiers. They set fire to the houses and reduced them to ashes, and they razed the buildings and the fort to the ground....All these infidel Hindus were slain, their women and children, and their property and goods became the spoil of the victors. I proclaimed throughout the camp that every man who had infidel prisoners should put them to death, and whoever neglected to do so should himself be executed and his property given to the informer. When this order became known to the ghazis of Islam, they drew their swords and put their prisoners to death.

One hundred thousand infidels, impious idolators, were on that day slain. Maulana Nasiruddin Umar, a counselor and man of learning, who, in all his life, had never killed a sparrow, now, in execution of my order, slew with his sword fifteen idolatrous Hindus, who were his captives....on the great day of battle these 100,000 prisoners could not be left with the baggage, and that it would be entirely opposed to the rules of war to set these idolaters and enemies of Islam at liberty...no other course remained but that of making them all food for the sword.”

It should be noted that Timur had to use 90 captured elephants to take his spoils of precious stones and gems back to his capital Oxus.

Other notable Muslim leaders at the time Qutb-ud-din Aibak and Shams-ud-din Iltutmish were also both Islamic rulers who desecrated and destroyed Hindu holy sites and subsequently built mosque's over the sites.

Firuz Shah Tughluq was the third ruler of the Tughlaq dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. The "Tarikh-i-Firuz Shah" is a historical record written during his reign that attests to the systematic persecution of Hindus under his rule.

In particular, it records atrocities committed against Hindu Brahmin priests who refused to convert to Islam;

"An order was accordingly given to the Brahman and was brought before Sultan. The true faith was declared to the Brahman and the right course pointed out. But he refused to accept it. A pile was risen on which the Kaffir with his hands and legs tied was thrown into and the wooden tablet on the top. The pile was lit at two places his head and his feet. The fire first reached him in the feet and drew from him a cry and then fire completely enveloped him. Behold Sultan for his strict adherence to law and rectitude"

Under his rule, Hindus who were forced to pay the mandatory Jizya tax were recorded as infidels, their communities monitored and, if they violated Imperial ordinances and built temples, they were destroyed. In particular, an incident in the village of Gohana in Haryana was recorded in the "Insha-i-Mahry" (another historical record written by Amud Din Abdullah bin Mahru) where Hindus had erected a deity and were arrested, brought to the palace and executed en-masse.

Vijayanagra was a city flourished between the 14th and 16th centuries, during the height of the Vijayanagar Empire. During this time, it was often in conflict with the kingdoms which rose in the Northern Deccan, and which are often collectively termed the Deccan Sultanates. The period saw brutalities committed by the Muslim Side. In 1565, the empire's armies suffered a massive and catastrophic defeat by an alliance of the Sultanates, and the capital was taken. The victorious armies then razed, depopulated and destroyed the city over a period of several months. The empire continued its slow decline, and its original capital was not re-occupied or rebuilt.

The Mughal Empire was marked by periods of tolerance of non-Muslims, such as Hindus, Christians and Sikhs, as well as periods of violent oppression and persecution of those people. The reign of Aurangzeb was particularly brutal. No aspect of Aurangzeb's reign is more cited - or more controversial - than the numerous desecrations and even the destruction of Hindu temples. Aurangzeb banned Diwali, placed a jizya on non-Muslims and martyred the ninth Sikh guru Tegh Bahadur. The confrontation with the Sikhs saw Aurangzeb and his henchmen commit an endless series of atrocities against Sikhs among them the tortuous execution of several Sikhs including the eight and ten year old sons of Guru Gobind Singh by live-burial.

During his reign, tens of thousands of temples were desecrated: their facades and interiors were defaced and their murtis (divine images) looted. In many cases, temples were destroyed entirely; in numerous instances mosques were built on their foundations, sometimes using the same stones. Among the temples Aurangzeb destroyed were two that are most sacred to Hindus, in Varanasi and Mathura. In both cases, he had large mosques built on the sites.

The Kesava Deo temple in Mathura, marked the place that Hindus believe was the birth place of Shri Krishna. In 1661 Aurangzeb ordered the demolition of the temple, and constructed the Katra Masjid mosque. Traces of the ancient Hindu temple can be seen from the back of the mosque. Aurangzeb also destroyed what was the most famous temple in Varanasi- the Vishwanath Temple. The temple had changed its location over the years, but in 1585 Akbar had authorized its location at Gyan Vapi. Aurangzeb ordered its demolition in 1669 and constructed a mosque on the site.

Aurangzeb also destroyed the Somnath temple in 1706 and Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, at the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama.

Conclusion:

The Prof. K.S. Lal, suggests a calculation in his book 'Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India' which estimates that between the years 1000 AD and 1500 AD the population of Hindus decreased by 80 million.

Will Durant debates in his 1935 book 'The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage';

“The Mohammedan conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. The Islamic historians and scholars have recorded with great glee and pride the slaughters of Hindus, forced conversions, abduction of Hindu women and children to slave markets and the destruction of temples carried out by the warriors of Islam during 800 AD to 1700 AD. Millions of Hindus were converted to Islam by sword during this period.”

Or as Braudel put it;

"The massacres perpetuated by Muslims in India are unparalleled in history, bigger than the Holocaust of the Jews by the Nazis; or the massacre of the Armenians by the Turks; more extensive even than the slaughter of the South American native populations by the invading Spanish and Portuguese."

"The levies it had to pay were so crushing that one catastrophic harvest was enough to unleash famines and epidemics capable of killing a million people at a time. Appalling poverty was the constant counterpart of the conquerors' opulence"

There is no official estimate of the total death toll of Hindus at the hands of Muslims. Estimates have stated that over 13 centuries and over the entire subcontinent, the number of Hindus who died at the hands of the Muslims goes up into the tens of millions. On several occasions, the Bahmani sultans in central India (1347-1528) killed around 80,000-100,000 Hindus in a short period of time, which they set as a minimum goal, during their anti-Hindu campaigns.

I would like to conclude by saying that the Islamic invasion of Hindu civilization was infinitely more bloody than the colonization of India by the British. If anything the colonization of India by the British mostly seemed to have stopped the constant genocide of the Hindus at the hands of the Muslims.

I therefore claim that Sams cultural ancestors decimated the Hindu population far greater than my own English ancestors and her point that everything was fine in the preceding 800 years to British occupation was a fabrication.

Sams point that the British colonization of India was more destructive than the civilizations that conquered India before also to be a fabrication.

The point of this post was two fold. One, to show Sam that the comments she made were incorrect by a long shot… and to show her that every single nation, of every single race, of every single religion is responsible for the most heinous of crimes against his and her fellow man, and that the destruction of civilization and the invasion of other people is not a “whites only” club. Her ancestors have just as much blood on their hands as mine.

People are people, they are all capable of the most insidious of evils and the greatest of kindness`s.