Interview of Arif Khan, the editor of Tomb of Jesus.com on Voice of the people Radio

Arif Khan, the editor of Tombofjesus.com was interviewed by November Hanson for Voice of the people Radio in October 2009.
Source: http://voiceofthepeopleradio.com/
Background

Researcher and writer Arif Khan

Arif Khan is a London based researcher and writer, most noted for his work as Editor of the Tomb of Jesus Website (www.tombofjesus.com). His academic and professional interests centre around Computer Science and IT (MSci Computer Science - London 2004), yet from the age of 19 he has had research articles published in magazines and journals on a variety of theological, historical and social issues.

A strong personal interest in the 'Jesus in India' theory, along with his IT background, meant Arif was an ideal candidate for editor of the Tomb of Jesus Website, a position he has held since 2003. The website has become the online centre for Jesus in India studies, bringing together research material from Christian, Judaic, Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist sources in a rich multimedia experience.

Arif has had letters published in several national newspapers in the UK including The Times, The Independent, the Guardian and the Scotsman. His letters have been on issues ranging from the veil and protests after the Muhammad Caricatures to the Archbishop of Canterbury's comments on The Da Vinci Code.

Arif appears in Paul Davids' 2008 film, Jesus in India, providing analysis on a number of topics including the theory that Jesus survived the Crucifixion, the Lost Tribes of Israel in India, the Islamic responses and varying beliefs on Jesus and the Rozabal tomb in Kashmir. Arif Khan also took part in a panel Q&A session after the premiere of the film in Palm Springs, California in October 2008.

A member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Arif has been actively involved in leadership roles for the community at local and national level ranging from a local youth leader to assistant to the national youth publications secretary.

Now aged 27, Arif is focusing on continuing research into the Historical Jesus with particular emphasis on the varying portrayals of Jesus in world faiths and the alleged tomb of Jesus in Kashmir. In addition to questioning the orthodox beliefs of Judaism, Christianity and Islam towards Jesus, his research includes Buddhist and Hindu responses to Jesus.

Arif is currently producing a series of articles - starting in July 2009- for the internationally respected The Review of Religions magazine, which has been in publication since 1902, starting with looking at the latest research on the Crucifixion of Jesus, and moving on to topics areas such as the Shroud of Turin and the Rozabal Tomb.

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Interview of Paul Davids on Spiritweaver Radio Show

This is an interview of Paul Davids, the producer of "Jesus in India", the latest movie dealing with the life of Jesus outside Palestine. Paul Davids is giving more details here about the making of this documentary and tells also about his own personal experiences that have brought significant changes in his mindframe........

The website of Paul Davids is here.

Source:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thespiritweaver/2009/08/06/the-spirit-weaver-radio-show-with-david-james

What is faith?

This is a complex issue. But simply put, faith is our trust or love of God!...Or it can be our faith in a spiritual master, someone who can lead us on the path of truth towards enlightenment.....But most importantly, faith is our trust in ourselves, in our own capacity of understanding things, faith is a sign of self-confidence that we all need to achieve anything in life.

So many people lack this today......Or they are so lazy that they can only count on others to let them understand things...; they never make any effort to understand things....They prefer to rely entirely on "professional thinkers" like the priests who would tell them what they need to believe in, what exactly they can believe in.....They cannot think by themselves, they rely on the religious institutions or bodies to think in their place!!

This is very sad, because the greatest spiritual masters and divine teachers of all time, Jesus included, have always encouraged spiritual inquisitiveness....Today people are so scared to ask themselves difficult questions....They really prefer to stay in ignorance rather than make the effort of looking for answers themselves....Very simple look at lives of Jesus or Gautama Buddha would show us that these universal masters have always been hostile to the priestly class, encouraging people to have a direct and personal relation with God always..through prayer, meditation and even study....Jesus has always fought against the control of the priestly class over the evolution of the mass....He taught all his disciples to have faith in themselves and in their ability to understand things by themselves....We all have the divine spark and are entitled to spiritual knowledge.....So many people don't know what meditation and prayer are because they have been so used to let others pray for them..."The priest is there to pray and ask for me......I am not good enough to ask or search for myself".

Why can we trust Jesus or anyone of the great spiritual masters of the world? Not because we bear a title or identity as Christian or Hindu or Buddhist or Muslim, but because we have faith in them, in their ability to lead us on the path of truth.....Our faith is our faith in their teachings, not in what the religious institutions themselves want us to believe in, or in the dogmas that have culminated over the years.....And we don't need to be impressed by their deeds to have faith in them.....We only need to see the good that they do for humanity to see that we can trust them, that we can follow them!! We don't trust them for their miracles or impressive deeds but for the good that they did to humanity, for the good that they still do!

"If there is ressurection, then I can believe in Jesus....If there is no ressurection, then, I don't...." is an argument, often expressed by some Christians who come across the idea of a post-crucifixion life of Jesus. This is such a poor effort to understand the grandeur of the great souls.....Laziness is what has lead to such an attitude....I can only pray for enlightenment of the world, but it is clear that so many walls will have to fall first for this to be achieved.....What if Jesus did survive the crucifixion…What if he did continue to live hereafter?….Does this mean that he is not the divine being we’ve been brought up to believe in? Does this mean the end of Christianity? Does it mean that he is not praise-worthy anymore? A true definition of a Christian would be 'One who follows and puts Jesus' teachings into practice'.....Where are the teachings? What are the teachings? These are the questions that a good Christian should be asking himself...Whether Jesus survived the crucifixion or not does not make his teachings less worthy, and doesn't make his life less admirable for the rest of humanity.

The Roman Catholic church has enclosed Jesus’ teachings and life within such a limited perimeter….So limited that people could only end up feeling unsatisfied with their spiritual experience within the church. But the Jesus’ spirit is still out there in the world, working for the good of humanity. People still experience his presence in their everyday life…..This is because God is always faithful, no matter what man decides to do.

Coast to Coast AM 21 December 2008 - Interview of Paul Davids and Edward Martin

This is an interview (in two parts) of Paul Davids and Edward Martin, the producers of the movie Jesus in India which aired on the Sundance Channel in December 2008 (See info here). They talk about the making of the film, the difficulties they went through to be able to bring that movie to the public attention. They also present the impressive array of experts that have intervened and collaborated on the film like the Shankaracharya himself, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Princeton university biblical expert Elaine Pagels.

In the second part, there will be questions asked to them by the auditors of Coast to Coast AM. The host of the show is George Knapp. The Ahmadiyya Muslims believe that Jesus survived the crucifixion and came to live in the Kashmir region of India, and was buried at a tomb there, Davids reported. Martin spoke about a purported 2,000 year-old document, known as the Life of St. Issa, found in the 1880s at a Tibetan monastery, which described Jesus' journeys in India. Please listen and enjoy!

Note as well that the movie Jesus in India on DVD is now available for purchase on the official site here. You can choose the best shipping option (From UK, from USA, for the rest of the world!) according to your own location.

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http://www.jesus-in-india-the-movie.com/html/home.html