Not least because President Barack Obama spend several years of his childhood there, Indonesia has become a symbol, to the Western media, of Islamic pluralism, liberalism, and progressivism. Consequently, Indonesia is often presented unrealisticly to the Western public. Most notably, attacks on the Ahmadiyah minority, and the rise of fundamentalism, go unreported.

Last week, Canadian-American author Irshad Manji visited the Southeast Asian state to launch the Indonesian language version of her book Allah, Liberty and Love. In the book Manji holds up the country as an example of Islamic pluralism.

Hard line Muslim organizations protested against the author. Hundreds of members of the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI) demonstrated outside the Institute for Islamic and Social Studies (LKiS) Foundation in Yogyakarta, where Manji was speaking. The Jakarta Post reported, “Manji, her assistant and several participants suffered minor injuries as a result of the physical attacks.” Authorities also disrupted her talk at the Salihara cultural center in Jakarta, by questioning the organization about whether it had the proper permit to invite a foreign speaker. Outside, demonstrators denounced her sexuality – Manji is gay.

Certain Counter-Jihad blogs have taken the attacks on Manji as an excuse to dismiss her, Indonesia, and the very notion of the progressive Muslim altogether.  Jihad Watch says, for example

Irshad Manji satisfies the endless hunger of the mainstream media for “moderate Muslims” that they can pretend are representative and mainstream, but in reality her Islam is eccentric, non-mainstream, non-traditional and entirely of her own making. She herself discovered just how much this was the case recently in Indonesia, where she was physically attacked by adherents of the real thing, causing her to reconsider her praise for that vaunted modern, moderate country in her latest book.

As the title of her book, The Trouble with Islam Today, suggests, Manji does not view her positions as mainstream. She believes Islam needs reform, and that it needs to embrace liberal values. Consequently, she rejects the description “moderate Muslim,” referring to herself as a “reformist Muslim.”

Nor is Manji’s interpretation of Islam “entirely of her own making,” since she works with other Muslims in interpreting the faith for the situations that Muslims find themselves in today.

A reformist Koran, translated by Edip Yuksel, Layth Saleh al-Shaiban, and Martha Schulte-Nafeh is also available for free download on her website.

Hard line, Wahabi-inspired, Islam is infiltrating and gaining strength in Asia. Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, and the Maldives are all struggling with Islamist and fundamentalist movements.

However, the situation is not straightforward.

Indonesia officially recognizes only six religions. Among those not officially recognized is the Ahmadiyah faith (often regarded as a heretical Islamic sect), whose mosques have been the frequent targets of attacks.

Even prior to Manji’s visit to Indonesia, and unconnected to it, there had been protests against liberal interpretations of Islam. Since then there have been protests against US pop star Lady Gaga’s planned concert in Jakarta.

However, these protests represent only one side of the situation. Indonesians recently demonstrated against members of the hard line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) from entering their province, shutting down an airport, and forcing their plane to land elsewhere.

In light of recent attacks on the Ahmadiyah, the Indonesia government has been debating a religious harmony bill, aimed at protecting the rights of those of minority faiths. The bill is supported by Deputy Religious Affairs Minister Nasaruddin Umar, among others.

Manji herself may have been the beneficiary of one group of more open-minded and pluralistic Muslims, whether she was aware of it or not. AsiaNews reports that members of Banser, the militia of the Shi’ite Nahdlatul Ulama, protected the headquarters of the Free Journalist Alliance in South Jakarta when she was speaking there. According to AsiaNews, Aan Anshori, a member of the NU, said that Manji “speaks of freedom [Hurriyah], Justice ['Adalah] and social equality [musawwa]. Ideas that these groups [that attacked Manji] do not adhere to.”

Liberal Muslims and those of minority faiths in Asia are facing increasing hostility from Muslim hard liners. This hostility is being instituted at the state level – wth the introduction of restrictions on dress, etc. – and through intimidation and violence by hard line militias and mobs.

It takes courage to recognize, and to draw attention to, problems when the media and governments are keen to paint an unrealistic and superficial picture. Nevertheless, we also need the courage to say the whole truth, and to support those, such as Manji, who helping to shape a pluralistic Islam that is empowering and changing the lives of many young Muslims around the world.

Few of us possess such internal strength, of course. But spirituality has always been especially integral to the martial arts, whether for the individual practitioner or an entire army.

We can leave aside religion and war, whether the Crusades, the teaching of Arjuno by Krishna on the battlefield (according to Hindu teaching), as well as Islam’s notion of Jihad (which is both a military and a personal, internal pursuit — the so called lesser and greater Jihads).

The samurai — who adopted Zen Buddhism for their religion — practiced meditation daily.  And the Buddhist Shaolin Monastery — or Shaolin Temple — is, ultimately, the origin of most Kung fu styles. Many traditional martial arts will encourage their students to practice meditation, and some will even incorporate it into their lessons.

The US army got its first Buddhist champlain in 2008, when  Capt. Thomas Dyer was assigned to the Tennessee National Guard. “Buddhist Soldiers have to deal with issues of livelihood: How do I view myself as a Buddhist and a Soldier who carries a weapon?” says Dyer, who was once a Southern Baptist pastor. “I have developed procedures that help them see themselves as a force for good in the world, protecting what’s beautiful and right. It allows them to promote happiness and reduce suffering in the world. I try to teach those things to Buddhist Soldiers.”

Dyer says that most Buddhists in the US army kept quiet about their faith. But, even if they’re not practicing meditation during their times in the combat zones, once they return home many soldiers are discovering that it can have beneficial effects.

Troops are taking up yoga and meditation to help them cope with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Sometimes reluctantly. One veteran who’s studying at the Heights School of Yoga, told Chron.com, ”I was a little hesitant. Yoga, it’s got a kind of effeminate ring to it to a lot of combat troopers, but it’s really not. I’m 6-foot-2 and 235 pounds, and I’m breaking a sweat.”

According to Chron.com, at Fort Hood the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Center also offers yoga, meditation, Tai Chi, and massage. ”The whole idea of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Center is to take care of the mind body and soul, and that’s to build up resilience, both in our families and our soldiers, so they can endure the many deployments that they’ve been on,” says the center’s director, Chris Haug. “So we call that strong mind, strong bodies.”

“[T]here is mounting evidence that its practice provides benefit to veterans suffering from PTSD,” claims Expedition Balance.  “When practitioners discuss the benefits of practicing yoga, they describe feelings of being grounded and present, gaining an awareness of body and strength, feeling calm and in control of their thoughts.”

Expedition Balance was founded in Houston, Texas, with the aim of helping combat personnel cope with and overcome PTSD. Besides yoga and meditation — which appear to be integral to their courses — they also offer outdoor recreation, peer interaction, art therapy and physical fitness instruction as well as healthy lifestyle education.

The army is now beginning to look at the effects of yoga and meditation on soldiers. “In a preliminary study at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.,” Expedition Balance says, “nine active-duty soldiers with PTSD were able to sleep better and felt less depressed after 12 weeks of yoga practice. They expressed that they felt more comfortable with situations that they couldn’t control, and as a result, felt more control over their lives.”

It seems highly likely that meditation will become a bigger part of the life of many troops, and perhaps will even eventually play some role in army training. Notably, Norwich University was just given a $40,000 grant from Foundations of America “to conduct a study on how to lower stress among rooks,” reports the Norwich Guidon. “One rook platoon is using Transcendental Meditation (TM) twice a day, every day, to see if meditating helps.”

It seems undeniable that meditation does help reduce stress, and that it can and will help many soldiers and veterans cope with PTSD. However, there may be another benefit. During the Revolutionary War with Great Britain, a staggering 42 percent of the American officers were members of the Freemasonic fraternity. George Washington himself encouraged membership, precisely because he believed that the philosophical and semi-mystical society provided a basis for the morals and outlook that soldiers needed. Meditation, Zen Buddhism, and so on, may similarly be able to give men in times of stress and combat the spiritual foundation that they need.

But not every party is in decline in the UK. The rise of the Green Party’s Caroline Lucas, George Galloway of Respect — a kind of Leftist-Islamist coalition — and the United Kingdom Independence Party portends, possibly, the beginnings of a seismic shift in electoral politics, and one that might eventually lead to the collapse of British politics as we know it.

Often portrayed as merely picking up disgruntled voters, who’d prefer to vote Labour or Conservative, the truth is that the majority of people only vote for a small party — that stands much less chance of getting into power, at least in the short term — if they are convinced of its message. With the major parties ignoring the issues, it is, inevitably, the voter with no real interest in, or understanding of, politics that votes for the mainstream today.

Hence, the flip flopping — perhaps the flailing about in desperation — of the majority . Thrown out of power only in 2010 — with talk of it being cast into the “wilderness” – Labour was by far the biggest winner last week, picking up an extraordinary 823 councillors.

But is anyone actually convinced by Labour? No. it is that the public voted against the Conservatives and the Lib Dems this time, just as they voted against Labour last time, at the last general election.

A couple of decades ago, it was the minor parties that had, necessarily, to position themselves with minor issues, such as animal welfare. It was the minor parties that had to rely on negative politics and fear mongering. Now it’s the major parties that have to do this. It’s the major parties that have to keep the attention on minor issues — especially during election time — and it’s the major parties that have to fear monger about the minor parties. The fringe parties — whether on the Left or Right — are the only ones who are free to discuss the existential issues and to express the big ideas, and, consequently, the only ones that can stir any passion among the voters.

UKIP is the party that worries the Conservatives. And with good reason. Recent polls have shown UKIP having risen to become Britain’s third most popular party, just beating coalition partners, the LibDems — many of whose voters — who are on the Left of the political spectrum — have abandoned them. Consequently, the LibDems lost 336 councilors, leaving the party with their smallest number since their founding in 1988.

It’s unsurprising that UKIP is capitalizing on the growing weariness with coalition government. On the one hand, it has undoubtedly picked up a number of protest votes that would normally go to the LibDems. On the other hand, dismayed at Cameron’s and the Conservative’s disinterest in confronting the major issues, voters are increasingly abandoning the party for UKIP — whose policies are, in many respects, like those formerly held by the Conservatives.

Nigel Farage, UKIP’s chairman, told the BBC, “We’re winning some [seats], we’re getting very large numbers of seconds. If we continue this momentum, then next year and the year after we will start to win council seats in real numbers.” In 2010, as the International Business Times noted, the UKIP vote doubled to nearly one million, almost entirely at the expense of the Conservatives. At least partly because of UKIP gains, the Conservative Party did not win an outright majority, and was forced to go into coalition. The still rising UKIP vote could, and almost certainly will, prove even more costly to the Conservatives at the next general election.

Predictably, the Conservatives’ appointed chairperson and mascot, Baroness Warsi, attempted to tie the UKIP gains to relative losses — not of her party or the LibDems — but of the far-Right British National Party. It has become the standard way of doing politics to wave the image of the “BNP” bogeyman before the public’s eyes in an attempt to distract people from the thoroughly obvious failings of the “mainstream.” It is simply the easiest way for lazy politicians to frighten people away from whatever issue they do not wish to discuss, which, in modern Britain, is anything of existential importance — the EU, mass immigration and unemployment, and Islamist terrorism, among other things.

We should not be surprised by the response of the baroness, which only goes to confirm the worst about her party — led by an ideological although unimpressive clique. Warsi will say anything to get elected, and anything else to explain why she never is, and never has been. In her failed 2005 bid to represent Dewsbury, Warsi attempted to capitalize on, if not actually to stir up, anti-gay sentiments. In 2010, the baroness seemed to explain away her inability to get elected by accusing Asians of indulging in electoral fraud. She later changed her mind, suggesting that Islamohphobia was everywhere, and that ordinary Brits had nothing better to do than to sit around the dinner table discussing Muslims.

One might think that Warsi herself could fit rather snugly in a wide variety of extremist movements, but, in reality, like most other “mainstream” politicians, she has gotten as far as she has precisely through not having any real convictions about anything.

We live in an era in which ideology and mediocrity seem inextricably linked. Blinded by a vision of a rainbow but bourgeois utopia — a kind of one world suburbia — mainstream politicians resolutely refuse to get serious on everything from the EU to terrorism. Indeed, many of Britain’s MPs are so mediocre that they are content to see more and more of their powers usurped by Brussels.

The flip flopping will continue. But if the smaller parties are able to articulate, not only the problems facing the country, but, crucially, how the future would be better under their leadership, their vote share will continue to grow, and they will continue to make breakthroughs. But, even on current trends, two decades from now, the shape of mainstream British politics will be radically different.

Bamboo shelters by Ming Tang.

It was a couple of decades ago when I first came across the work of Koji Tatsuno. The work of Tatsuno, a relatively unknown and self-taught Japanese fashion designer, was being shown in Joseph, an upscale fashion store in South Kensington. It would be an understatement to call Tatsuno’s work unusual. One of his dresses was made of coral and another was made of cloth and dried mushrooms, if I remember correctly.

Japanese Aesthetics

Tatsuno was one of several Japanese designers making something of a splash in the UK at the time. Issey Miyake, more famous, had likewise experimented with materials, including treated paper.

Folded in peculiar ways, creating angular shapes — architectural, yet in some respects reflective of nature, perhaps at a microscopic level — Miyake’s work brought traditional Japanese aesthetics into the modern world. He had learned origami, and used that for shaping his clothing. Paper, likewise, has a long history in Japan, and was traditionally used instead of glass for windows, and, of course for the shoji (screen).

Dress by Koji Tatsuno

“Japanese paper gives us a certain feeling of warmth, of calm and repose,” writes Junichiro Tanizak in his masterpiece on traditional aesthetics, In Praise of Shadows [pdf].

Perhaps partly because materials were less diverse, and often drawn from the local environment, whether stone, wood, or pigments for dyes, in traditional aesthetics we find things working together. There is a harmony, whether in Japan or in Britain.

Tanizak compares the Japanese room “to an inkwash painting, the paper-paneled shoji being the expanse where the ink is thinnest, and the alcove where it is the darkest.”

Although we often think about how technology might develop, we rarely pause to try to imagine how the aesthetics of the future might, or should, look. We take, I would suggest, a rather inhuman approach, fitting ourselves in as if an afterthought. The “prefab” houses and box-like buildings of 1960s Britain, almost entirely abandoned today, is only one example of failed architecture: scientific, in a way, but completely alien to nature, culture, or history. Tatsuno and Miyake take a different approach.

Conservatism

One of the major problems with conservatism is that it long ago gave up on culture. Like the Cultural Marxists of the middle of the twentieth century, the “conservative movement” is almost entirely negative, only, whereas the Cultural Marxists attacked “bourgeois” and traditional culture, the Right criticizes contemporary culture. If it were engaged with aesthetics, it would recognize that even modern culture is part of a tradition.

It is unfortunate that if the Left feels it can avoid responsibility for communal tensions, riots, and racial violence, by insisting that there is no problem with uncontrolled immigration, so the Right feels it does not need to have any position in regard to the environment except for saying that they do not believe in global warming.

Yet, it is certain that the world’s recourses are finite, and that we need to think about it in regard to oil, housing, and industry.

Dress by Issey Miyake

There are obvious benefits, even leaving aside aesthetics. Reducing dependence on foreign oil would mean reducing the flow of capital to some terror groups, as well as to regimes that propagate totalitarian ideologies. A more local-orientated approach to environmentalism would challenge the global government-type schemes required for the implementation of allegedly tackling global warming, such as carbon tax caps and trading.

Organic Futurism

Nevertheless, we should also want to use materials in construction that keep us in touch — or put us in touch — with nature, with the natural, and, in a certain, informal, sense, with natural law. We should, in other words, be involved with taking classical values, aesthetics (such as proportion in geometry, e.g., the Golden Mean) and using modern and traditional materials — in innovative ways — to create a an aesthetic that is modern yet an extension of tradition.

Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace, reminds us that wood is not only an aesthetically appealing material, it is also a sustainable one. But it’s not the only, or perhaps always the best renewable material that we can grow today.

Bamboo may not immediately spring to the mind of the average Westerner, even if we are more used to seeing it, today, in Asian restaurants and shops. However, according to Green Ecoliving.com, bamboo — a species of grass — is “the fastest growing plant on the planet. It can “grow up to 6″ a day and up to 100′ tall. It produces 30% more oxygen than trees and unlike trees which need to be replanted, bamboo is self generating and can be harvested every three to five years.”

Bamboo also happens to be one of the strongest and most diverse materials available to us today. It’s used to make everything from furniture to kitchen utensils, and from wearable cloth – which is, apparently, hypoallergenic – to flooring and small buildings. In 2008, Ming Tang, a Chinese designer, designed temporary bamboo shelters, to be used in the event of an earthquake. Unlike the concrete shelters that we normally see, these are aesthetically in harmony with the natural environment in which they sit, and, as such, could be left in place for extended periods, since they do not damage the look of the environment.

It’s time to return to the best of tradition, to think about materials and the environment, and to work with nature to create an aesthetic that is ethical and life-affirming.

The cover design is by Kendra Adams, who clearly has a real talent for creating attractive and effective book jackets. Portraits of the interviewees juxtapose other images, such as a painting by Mondrian, a drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci, Big Ben, Justice with scales, the torch of the Statue of Liberty, and so on. It is an interesting and inspiring mix, appropriate for a book with such a title. The West is a living culture with a very long history, and we should celebrate it a little more.

The interviewees are heavy hitters, and include Dutch maverick MP Geert Wilders, Sam Solomon (a former sharia judge turned Christian who now lives in exile in the UK), Robert Wistrich (the world’s preeminent scholar of anti-Semitism, and an advisor to the movie Obsession), Bat Ye’or (author of Eurabia and a Jewish-Egyptian refugee living in the UK), Ibn Warraq, Mark Durie, and Kurt Westergaard (the cartoonist who drew the infamous “Mohammed cartoon” with the bomb-shaped turban).

Any book with such names is going to be a fascinating and invaluable read. However, for a book titled The West Speaks it focuses too much on Israel — or, at least, it is comparatively lacking when it comes to European nation states, which are part of the West, too.

Although Israel and anti-Semitism is covered quite extensively, there is virtually no mention of Britain, France, Germany, or virtually any other European country. Of course a book that makes such a bold claim in its title is bound in some respects to disappoint — after all, it could have included thousands of interviewees, from a range of disciplines, and still have failed to articulate what the West is — but this seems a rather glaring oversight. A much better, and far more accurate, title would have been Western Voices on Political Islam and anti-Semitism — serious, related, and important subjects discussed by a wide array of serious thinkers.

This problem, it should be acknowledged, is far from limited to the The West Speaks, which goes some way to remedying the problem by including a range of different types of opinion makers: artists, writers, and thinkers.

Cover-artist Kendra Adams presents a much more balanced and accurate view of the West, and it would be good to see “Right-wing” websites thinking more about culture, the arts, and so on.

Gordon asks serious questions, but stays too much on script. I kept wishing he would seize on some interesting remark that any number of interviewees make in the book. He asks Westergaard about his red and black attire, for example, and Westergaard tells him that these are the colors of anarchism. At which point, it would have been good to know what he means by “anarchism,” but Gordon moves to asking about the Danish Constitution. The interview with Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff — primarily about the Organization of the Islamic Conference — is highly technical and reads almost like an anti-OIC catechism.

Nevertheless, there are many good points about this book, and it should be required reading for anyone concerned about Islamism in the West as well as for anyone concerned about free speech, artistic or political expression, and censorship. As far as I’m aware this is the first time the thoughts of such an esteemed array of controversial contemporary figures has been gathered together in one work, and being able to meditate on their experiences and insights is fascinating and invaluable.

The West Speaks can be ordered here.

The group — which features ordinary and largely unmodel-like women — has produced a nude calender, and a promotional video for the “Nude Photo Revolutionary Calendar,” to send a message to Tehran and to Westerners too squeamish to criticize political Islam.

Nudity means “no” for this group, which is led by human rights activist Maryam Namazie. No to burkhas. No to honor violence. “My nudity is a ‘no’ to political Islam,” says one woman in the video. “My nudity is a ‘no’ to stoning to death,” remarks another.

According to analysts, says Russia Today, “nudity is a powerful protest tool in the Islamic world, where women cover every part of body, except the face and hands, with loose shadow-proof robes. In Iran, a Muslim woman wearing shorts may spend up to four months in jail.”

“Islamism and the religious right are obsessed with women’s bodies. They demand that we be veiled, bound, and gagged,” says Maryam Namazie.

The calender and video come in response to threats against Egyptian blogger Aliaa Magda al Mahdy, who posted naked photos of herself on her blog, and iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani who posed nude for Madame Le Figaro magazine.

The strict control of women’s bodies is not merely an issue of personal choice for women, but also one that affects the arts and expression more broadly, “In the late 1970’s,” notes Russia Today, “Egyptian official art schools saw a social ban on the tradition of nude models. Besides hindering arts studies, the ban brought certain censorship into mainstream arts, including cinema.”

The fashion collection was inspired by Mughal architecture and rugs, and, says the Times of India, by “the purity of the Dervishes” — Sufi mystics known for their whirling meditative dances.

“The collection comprises voluminous and unrestricted silhouettes in pure and sheer white mul embellished with off-white Mughal block printing as a base with a smattering of turquoise and coral brush painting, jute bag printing on the hemlines for a dash of colour. Ikat and woven checks have been randomly used.”

Sufism appears to be making something of a renaissance in the region, at least in terms of modern culture. A Sufi comic book was published in India and Sufi musicians also “set the mood” at India Fashion Week in February.

According to the Washington Times, “Mr. Santorum’s larger point is that Mr. Obama and his liberal allies have embraced radical environmentalism – a form of neo-paganism. The green movement – exemplified by the hoax of man-made global warming – has degenerated into a pseudo-religion. Environmentalists worship Gaia, Mother Earth, turning it into a secular goddess. Hence, they believe industrial civilization must be subordinated to a green socialist agenda.”

There is plenty of evidence to contradict the alleged — but certainly not actual — scientific consensus that global warming is both real and man made, not to mention revelations that scientists in the global warming camp have doctored and suppressed findings that contradict their claims. Republicans and “global warming deniers” are completely correct in wanting a debate. However, they are wrong to simply keep banging the drum about the global warming side.

Global warming may well turn out not to be the real environmental issue — not least of all because there may be very little that can be done about it, especially considering the current one-size-fits-all approach.

Whether it is real or not, it should be clear that damage is being done to natural environments because of mining for minerals, oil, etc., as well as reckless deforestation — some logging companies of course replace the trees they fell, not least of all so they have more to cut down later on — building, the leakages and waste from chemical plants, etc., etc.

Personally, I suspect that much greater success with regard to environmental issues would be to focus locally — no one wants pollution in their own back yard, or dirty air to breathe. But thinking locally can mean thinking about problems before they arise, not to mention about aesthetics. How about using local materials, stones, wood, etc for building, instead of importing materials? And thinking of how to prevent pollution before it starts? Perhaps, in this regard, in Manhattan it would mean planting trees on the rooftops of most of the buildings, elevating nature above the streets. There is, as it happens, at least one rooftop farm in New York — perhaps that scheme could be extended, providing cheap, healthy food for children/schools. Tackling the problem in Tokyo, London, Bali, Deli, Ohio, Alaska, etc., would mean taking different approaches.

One thing I think we could all agree on, however, is to phase out all-petrol cars in the US. The electric car is out there. It may not be sexy, yet. But Republicans who moan about environmentalism seem all too happy to keep sending their dollars to Saudi Arabia and other states they claim are our enemies and the enemies of freedom. Who’s ever heard of patriots funding the “enemy,” especially when there is an American-made alternative?

Not everyone on the Right drives around in a gas-guzzling SUV, of course. A few years ago author Rod Dreher wrote about the “crunchy cons” movement — conservatives that liked rural environments, ate organic vegetables, and were generally shunned by the mainstream “Right.” Isn’t it time that other “conservatives” stopped moaning and started… err… conserving? It’s easy to mock. That’s gone on for years. By now conservatives should have an alternative vision.

Evidence at several archeological digs in the USA suggest that people from Europe reached America 26,000 years ago. European-type stone age tools have been discovered at six sites in the US,, including at Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Delmarva Peninsular in Maryland. The latter was discovered by archaeologist Dr Darrin Lowery of the University of Delaware. According to the Independent, another “was discovered by scallop-dredging fishermen on the seabed 60 miles from the Virginian coast on what, in prehistoric times, would have been dry land.”

The Independent says:

The similarity between other later east coast US and European Stone Age stone tool technologies has been noted before. But all the US European-style tools, unearthed before the discovery or dating of the recently found or dated US east coast sites, were from around 15,000 years ago – long after Stone Age Europeans (the Solutrean cultures of France and Iberia) had ceased making such artefacts. Most archaeologists had therefore rejected any possibility of a connection. But the newly-discovered and recently-dated early Maryland and other US east coast Stone Age tools are from between 26,000 and 19,000 years ago – and are therefore contemporary with the virtually identical western European material.

What’s more, chemical analysis carried out last year on a European-style stone knife found in Virginia back in 1971 revealed that it was made of French-originating flint.

It has generally been believed that the first inhabitants of America had crossed over the frozen ice sheet from Siberia, although no evidence of humans in Siberia has ever turned up, casting doubt on the theory. Now some archeologists believe that Europeans made their way across the 1,500 miles of Atlantic ice to the new continent. Seasonally shifting ice, meeting the ocean, would have meant plenty of fish, seals, and ocean birds, that the Europeans would have hunted. According to the Independent, ”Solutrean (European originating) Native Americans were [later] either partly absorbed by the newcomers or were substantially obliterated by them either physically or through competition for resources.”

Speaking at the center in India, for the launch of his book, Fatwa on terrorism and suicide bombings, the Pakistani-based scholar, told the audience that terrorism is completely prohibited in Islam, reports The Indian Express.