Pakistan rejects statement of US CIA chief

ISLAMABAD: Any action by NATO forces in tribal areas of Pakistan will be considered an assault on Pakistan, said spokesman of Foreign Office, Muhammad Sadiq at the weekly briefing while commenting on the statement of US CIA Chief.
He said Pakistan has repeatedly said that any attack inside its territory would be unacceptable.
The spokesman said, "All counter-terrorism measures inside Pakistan will be taken by our own security forces. We have also stressed repeatedly that if any country has any specific, actionable intelligence it should be communicated to us and our own security forces will take action based on that information."
Regarding disposal of nuclear waste in the country, Muhammad Sadiq said it is strictly regulated in accordance with international standards.
"Our nuclear power stations are under IAEA safeguards which not only keep an oversight on their operations but also on storage of nuclear waste which has to be fully accounted for. "

Dutch PM rejects interpretation of anti-Islam film

 

THE HAGUE  ( 2008-03-28 10:05:24 ) : 

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said on Thursday his government rejects the interpretation of Islam presented by far-right politician Geert Wilders in a short film posted on the Internet.
"The film equates Islam with violence. We reject that interpretation," said Balkenende at a press conference shortly after the film, titled "Fitna," appeared on the LiveLeak video sharing website.
In a short statement delivered both in Dutch and in English, Balkende said the government "regrets" that Wilders released his 17-minute movie on the Internet, as he had been vowing to do.
"We believe it serves no purpose other than to offend," he said. "But feeling offended must never be used as an excuse for aggression and threats."
The prime minister added that the government felt heartened "by the initial restrained reaction by Dutch Muslim organisations".
In initial reactions, those organisations seemed relieved that Wilders' film -- which mixed violent images of terror attacks with Koranic texts -- was not as bad as expected.
Some feared Wilders would destroy a copy of the Koran in the film. Instead it concludes with a page being torn out of a phone book, and text on the screen saying it is up to Moslems "to tear the spiteful verses from the Koran".

Microsoft catches social networking religion. And most folks are wondering where Facebook will land in this mess. The larger question: Is there a business hook here somewhere?

Yup, I hear the crickets too.

Social networking remains a consumer thing. And to the blogosphere it’s an opportunity to work in a Mark Zuckerberg quip, toss in Google as a reference and navel gaze a bit about the “conversation.”

But there has to be a corporate use in here somewhere.

Tuesday’s news that Yahoo is supporting OpenSocial and Google is stepping away to assure “neutrality” and interconnect social apps is a big deal. OpenSocial can now forge ahead as a real standard. Meanwhile, Microsoft has also entered the social network standard game (boy this all sounds familiar after awhile) and launched its own initiative. The gory details are fortunately rounded up by Techmeme.

I can’t help but think that this neutral OpenSocial foundation is a good thing for the enterprise. Perhaps enterprise apps will hook into OpenSocial. Perhaps vendors–beyond Oracle and Salesforce.com–will flick to the effort. Perhaps corporations will become more social.

Until then, however, there isn’t much of a huge plan when it comes to businesses.

Last week, I spoke to Joe Kraus, Director of Product Management at Google, about the enterprise implications of OpenSocial. Even though OpenSocial will be “forever free and open” there’s a lot of work to do before this becomes even slightly interesting to the enterprise.

Among the highlights of my conversation with Kraus:

• Social networking is the new black. Most killer apps are social by nature–email, IM and photo sharing for instance. Companies have been slow to adopt these uses–beyond email of course.
• Social networking isn’t a destination site. It will branch out through the entire Web. How will corporations handle this branching out process?
• Enterprises will adopt social standards like OpenSocial to embed third party applications. The rub: “These applications will need policies around them,” says Kraus. Simply put, a lot of social applications are frivolous–throwing sheep, awarding virtual beers (what’s the point folks?) and poking people. Surely, there’s a business function here somewhere.
• How do you tighten up social applications? “Social applications are loose in consumer land,” says Kraus. “We expect them to become much tighter in enterprise land.”
• What’s the model? Consumer social applications are built around advertising. In the corporate world that model won’t fly. What exactly will corporations license?
• Whatever develops in the socialprise will begin with CRM. “Salesforce and Oracle both see the opportunity, but CRM is a social application to begin with,” says Kraus.

India's Supreme Court orders fresh riots probe

NEW DELHI  ( 2008-03-25 21:03:35 ) : 

India's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a special team to start fresh investigations into some of the worst incidents during sectarian rioting in the western state of Gujarat in 2002, a report said.
The court asked a five-member team, which will include senior police officials from Gujarat and a former head of India's federal Central Bureau of Investigation, to report back in three months, the Press Trust of India agency said.
Indian media described the move as a "setback" for the state government and its recently re-elected leader, hawkish Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi, who was also chief minister when the riots broke out.
Mainly Hindu mobs rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods for three days, hacking, burning, shooting and beating at least 2,000 Muslims to death.
The team will examine some of the most serious attacks, including the Gulbarg Society killings that saw at least 39 people burned to death, including a former MP, after a mob set fire to a Muslim-dominated housing complex.
It will also investigate the fire in a train carriage that killed 59 Hindu pilgrims and sparked the violence. An earlier inquiry concluded the blaze was accidental.
The court issued the order in response to a petition filed by the National Human Rights Commission, asking for investigators from outside the state to look at the incidents.
The state government, which rights groups allege tacitly supported the anti-Muslim pogroms, has been accused of dragging its heels in prosecuting those accused in the riots.
More than 4,250 cases were filed with state authorities but police dropped more than half, citing lack of evidence.

The Qur'an (Quran, Koran) is the Holy Book of Islam and the religion's most sacred writing.  The word itself means "recitation."  It is a series of "revelations" that Muhammad claimed to have received from Allah at various (often highly convenient) times in his life and then dictated to scribes. 

The book is divided into 114 Suras (chapters) that contain ayat (verses).  The Suras are not arranged chronologically, but rather by size, with the larger ones appearing first. 

The Qur'an was compiled in the years and decades following Muhammad's death from snatches of writings on papyrus leaves, wood carvings, animal bones and especially the memory of his companions, who were beginning to die off.  There is generous redundancy within the text as well as contradictions - which are said to be resolved through "abrogation," whereby later verses have authority over earlier ones when there is an apparent dispute between them.

Although the words in the Qur'an are believed by Muslims to be those of Allah, and not Muhammad, there are several places in the narration where this simply doesn't make sense.  In some cases, Muslim scribes mended the problem by inserting the word "say" in front of certain text to make it appear as if Allah is commanding Muhammad to speak in the first person.  In other cases, their clean-up work was not quite as thorough (such as the famous 27:91, in which the word "say" is not in the original Arabic).

The words of the Qur'an are said to be the literal, eternal words of Allah himself, relevant to all people at all times (it is unclear why personal directives such as 33:53 were included).  It Qur'an is not a book of history (although there is some badly garbled Biblical narration scattered about).  The verses that issue rules and edicts are generally open-ended.  Very few are bound by historical context within the actual text.

In fact, the Qur'an is almost incomprehensible in and of itself.  Directives, topics, diatribes and incomplete accounts of Old Testament and mythological characters seem to appear from out of nowhere and then disappear just as quickly with very little stream-of-thought consistency.  Themes are disjointed and shifting, something that would not be expected of a perfect book of instruction.

External sources, such as the Hadith (narrations of Muhammad's words and deeds) are essential for understanding not just the context of what is being said, but often the very meaning of critical passages.  Even so, interpretations are often arbitrary and, since there is no longer a central authority in Islam, various Muslim factions often claim confidence in remarkably different applications of the religion and its "true meaning."

Older versions of the Qur'an would be helpful in the study of certain words (since vowels are often left out of transcriptions) but unfortunately ancient texts are usually either destroyed or hidden from public view by authorities, since they differ somewhat from modern versions - and thus throw into question the Qur'an's internal claim to be the invariable word of God.

The Suras of the Qur'an can be grouped into two distinct periods in Muhammad's life.  There is the earlier "Meccan" period, when Muhammad had little to say about violence or "fighting in Allah's way."  Then there are the "Medinan" Suras and later, in which the commands to violent Jihad and intolerance increase corresponding to Muhammad's military strength.  The bloody 9th Sura (the Verse of the Sword) is one of the very last to be handed down by the prophet of Islam, and it came at a time when the Muslims had already achieved power over their neighbors, forcing into exile those who would not convert.

Every 12th verse of the Qur'an speaks of either earthly or divine punishment against unbelievers.  Other religions are said to be "cursed by Allah."  The more tolerant verses (though popular with contemporary apologists) are less numerous than the later, more violent ones - which are believed to abrogate those that precede them.

Grammatical, theological and scientific errors abound within the Qur'an, but they are "explained away" through elaborate and complicated theories that may seem absurd to the more objective, but serve to reinforce the faith of those who will believe that the book is perfect in every way regardless of what it contains (to say otherwise is to incur a death sentence).

The exaggerative praise that accompanies the Qur'an (a book that literally tells Muslim men to keep women as sex slaves) makes Christian fundamentalist claims about the Bible "containing God's word" seem rather tame by comparison.  Syllables of the Qur'an continue to be committed to memory with a level of fanaticism that has not diminished over the generations.

Allah apparently spoke in the obscure Quraish dialect, which few Arabs at the time understood all that well (and even fewer still today).  This is significant because Muslim apologists often use this point advantageously, particularly with regard to the passages of the Qur'an that are contrary to modern sensibilities.  Often the apologist will cynically insist that such verses have a different meaning in the "original Arabic" (even if this alternate meaning seems to have eluded thirteen centuries worth of Arabic-Islamic scholars).

The most honest English-language versions of the Qur'an are probably the earlier ones (Yusuf Ali, Pickthal and Shakir).  More recent translations are usually tainted by the personal preferences of the interpreter, which is very often dictated by the palatability of contemporary Western tastes. 

A quick test for determining whether a version of the Qur'an is true or "PC" is to turn to verse 4:34 and check whether the word "beat" or "scourge" is used in the instruction to discipline belligerent wives.  If it is there, then the copy is probably closer to the original Arabic than the more recent "whitewashed" versions.

If you are serious about acquiring a Qur'an, however, then also check to be sure that verses 4:24, 23:6, 33:50 and 70:30 all stay faithful to the Arabic by using the word 'captive,' 'slave,' or 'those whom thy right hand possesses' in reference to the women authorized by Allah for a man's sexual use.  Contemporary translators are notorious for ignoring the original Arabic and pretending that Muhammad is speaking only of wives, when, in fact, he is speaking of two distinct groups: wives and non-wives.

The Qur'an distributed by CAIR, Muhammad Asad's "The Message of the Qur'an," is a 20th century Westernized translation that is designed to manipulate the naive reader into preferred conclusions by changing the wording of unflattering verse and offering mitigating commentary to convince readers that they are not seeing what they are really seeing. 

We recommend the highly readable non-Muslim translation from CSPI (or the abridged version), but balancing it with occasional references to the MSA website, which contains the Pickthall, Shakir and Yusuf Ali Muslim translations.

Vista Capable sticker lawsuit gets class-action status

It looks like that little lawsuit over "Vista Capable" stickers on PCs could now be about to get quite a bit bigger, as a federal judge has now bestowed class-action status on the suit, which accuses Microsoft of misleading marketing. More specifically, as the AP reports, the suit alleges that the "Vista Capable" stickers slapped on PCs during the 2006 holiday season created an "artificial demand" for the computers, and "inflated prices for computers that couldn't be upgraded to the full-featured version of Vista." As we've seen, those stickers even took in at least one higher-up at Microsoft itself, who has made his thoughts on the program quite well known. While things are still obviously in the early stages, the law firm that filed the suit is now looking for others that feel they've been burned by the stickers, and ComputerWorld has the details on you can get involved at the link below.

MCD's mall plan near Jama Masjid sparks anger

New Delhi: On Friday, CNN-IBN broke the story on the threat to Jama Masjid from builders.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi's plans to dig dangerously close to the monument to build a four-storey basement mall and parking area will damage the very foundations of the historic mosque.

The MCD's redevelopment plan has people enraged.

A day after CNN-IBN broke the story on the threat to Jama Masjid from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's re-development plan for the area, strong reactions poured in from religious leaders to even politicians.

"We are grateful to CNN-IBN for exposing this plan. We are dead against the project and have registered our complaints with the authorities. We will do everything required to stop this," said Vidhan Sabha's Deputy Speaker, Shoaib Iqbal.

The Rs 1,200 crores re-development plan includes digging a 60-feet deep basement just 30 meters away from the historic Jama Masjid.

Experts believe that vibrations from the digging could damage the Jama Masjid foundations permanently.

The basement, a four-storey structure will have 600 shops at the top level and a three tier parking area to accommodate 9000 vehicles.

The idea has appalled most.

"It is an atrocious plan. We srongly oppose it," stated Jamait-e-Islami member Mujtaba Farooq.

The MCD has not done the compulsory structural and heritage impact assessment done for the project. The plan besides damaging the mosque will also destroy five other mazhaars in the 25-acre area between Red fort and Jama Masjid.

"It is an insult to Islam," said Muslim Personal Law Board member, S Q R Ilyas.

"This is the Jama Masjid, this is no ordinary masjid," protested activist and writer, Sadia Dehlvi.

For now, the MCD would want to stay out of the controversy after having conceived the project as would the Imam. But it may be difficult for them to turn a blind eye to such mounting protests for long.

Archbishop denies asking for Islamic law

Lawmakers across the political spectrum condemned Williams' statement, and Britain's tabloid newspapers reacted with fury, publishing pictures of people being beheaded under Shariah law and showing the carnage after Islamic suicide bombers attacked London's transport system in 2005.

In an editorial, The Sun newspaper called Williams "a dangerous threat to our nation" and said Muslim terrorists would "see his foolish ramblings as a sign that our resolve against extremism is weakening."

Williams acknowledged the "strong reaction in the media and elsewhere" but said in a message posted to his Web site he never intended to propose the creation of a parallel Muslim legal system.

Williams: He used Shariah to set example
Williams said his aim was "to tease out some of the broader issues around the rights of religious groups within a secular state" and was using Shariah law as an example.

He explained that Christians could not be expected to claim religious exceptions to secular rules — for example, by refusing to carry out abortions — unless they were willing to accommodate other religious traditions.

The heated reaction prompted some British Muslim groups to soften their initial support for Williams' plans and to complain about "Islamophobia" making British Muslims feel unwelcome in their homeland.

"The reaction has escalated into hysteria," said Catherine Heseltine, a spokeswoman with the Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK. "People hear the word Shariah and have an emotive conjuring of Taliban beheadings. It's seen as threatening Muslim outsiders coming in and imposing something on Britain."

In reality, she said, the changes Williams is advocating are not a high priority to British Muslims. For most Muslims here, she said, Shariah law deals primarily with questions of how Halal meat should be prepared and how marriages should be conducted.

Shariah is a wide-ranging Islamic code that has evolved over the centuries and is subject to differing interpretations in various countries. It deals with many aspects of daily life, including dress and dietary restrictions, and also codifies how to punish serious offenses.

The code imposes some restrictions on banking practices and in fact some British banks have introduced Shariah-compliant programs for certain types of transactions.

There are already some Shariah councils operating in Britain for Muslims who agree to abide by their rulings, but these are unofficial bodies not recognized by British law.

LONDON - The archbishop of Canterbury said Friday he never proposed the creation of a parallel Islamic legal system in Britain, as anger continued to simmer over statements he made seen as backing Islamic law.

Rowan Williams told the British Broadcasting Corp. in an interview aired Thursday that some aspects of Shariah law, a venerable Islamic code of conduct, already fit easily within the existing British legal system, and he agreed when asked if its implementation was inevitable.

Britain's media took the statement as broadly backing Shariah law, which delighted some British Muslims — and outraged almost everyone else.

Varsity girls’ woes

With growing awareness among the general public about the education of girls up to higher levels, more and more parents are sending their daughters to professional colleges and the universities. However, the problem of accommodation for female students especially in the hostels built in and around the Peshawar University is gradually becoming acute with every new academic session. At present the university has on its campus about five hostels for girls including the Fatima Jinnah and the Benazir Hostels in which, collectively speaking, a total of 1,986 female students are putting up. The last hostel that one can recall to have been built on the campus was in 2006 that could accommodate about 350 female students. With increasing rush of students and mounting political pressure on the provost and wardens, the hostel administration has to dump five to seven girls in a room that initially housed two to three students. The result is that more studious of the girls have to suffer academically as they are less able to concentrate on studies in a crowded hostel room.

Although gas supply is available, the hostel management does not allow the girls to use heaters even in freezing temperatures. With all the five hostels overflowing with female students, the quality of food has also become understandably poor. The situation becomes unbearable when the rush on washrooms clogs the drainage system and the inmates are put to tremendous inconvenience. Frequent power breakdowns have reduced the study hours to a ridiculously small duration which cannot obviously guarantee better grades in exams. If the university can order the construction of 100 new bungalows for its teachers, it can certainly afford to have more hostels for girls.

Burhan

Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

there is problem here. if everybody takes law into his own hands and modifies that he thinks is abominable- then there will be civil war.

how do you decide what is abominbale- every body has his own idea. if u see bar serving alcohol drink- do u stop with it your own hands - by force?

then police will put yu in jail? also if somebody thinks not wearing burqa is worng- but another person thinks it is perfect dress without burqa- there will be civil war between these two opinions.

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) sad:

“When the son of Adam gets up in the morning, all the limbs humble themselves before the tongue and say: “Fear Allah for our sake because we are with you: (i.e., we will be rewarded or punished as a result of what you do) if you are straight, we will be straight; and if you are crooked, we will become crooked.”

Reported by Abu Said Al Khudri (r.a.) Hadith 1521 At-Tirmidhi quoted from The Book of Prohibited Actions Page 1127 Riyad-us-Saliheen Volume 2 Published by Darussalam

Stop evil by hands tongue heart

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Sahih Muslim Hadith 79 Narrated by Abu Sa'id al-Khudri

I heard the Messenger of Allah (saws) as saying: ‘He who amongst you sees something abominable should modify it with the help of his hand; and if he has not strength enough to do that, then he should do it with his tongue; and if he has not strength enough to do even that, then he should (at least abhor it) from his heart; and that is the least of faith.”

The above quotation from the Messenger of Allah (saws) is an explanation of the duty and command which the Lord Most High has laid upon every individual in the Muslim Ummah of how exactly to strive to ‘forbid evil’.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 3 Surah Ale Imran verse 110:

You (muslims) are the best community which has been raised for the guidance of mankind. You enjoin what is right, and forbid what is evil and you all believe in Allah Alone.

The Messenger of Allah (saws) guided the believers that if one who sincerely believes in Allah and the Last Day sees any thing, or act, or deed which is an obvious transgression of the Laws of Allah, it does not behove and befit him to (Allah forbid) participate or indulge in it, or even ignore it; but it would be an element of his faith to consider it an obvious abomination and transgression of the Commands of Allah.

If one is in a position of authority whereby he can put an end to this abomination and transgression, he must strive to the best of his ability to do so; and that would be amongst the best of deeds.

If one is not in a position of authority whereby he cannot put an end to the evil himself (ie. with his hands), then he must, clearly and without ambiguity, at least make it known to those who are committing the evil or and those who are in authority that this act or deed is absolutely an abomination and a transgression of the Laws of Allah Subhanah; and such an evil should be brought to an end immediately.

If one is so weak in the social strata, that neither does he hold authority to put an end to the evil with his hands nor has the power to speak up against the evil; the absolute least he is bound by faith to do is at least abhor and detest the evil happening around him in his heart of hearts! The Messenger of Allah (saws) called this the ‘weakest of faith’ implying that if one does not even abhor and detest the evil happening around him in his heart, then his very ‘faith’ or ‘emaan’ is in question!

To better understand this valuable hadith and guidance of the Messenger of Allah (saws), allow us to relate an example of an evil which is prevalent in our societies today: ie. ‘Fahisha’ or the abundance of shameful and indecency that is unfortunately overflowing in our societies when Allah Subhanah has Himself Declared it an abomination!

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 16 Surah Nahl verse 90:

90 Allah Dommands justice, the doing of good and liberality to kith and kin, and He forbids all ‘fahisha’ (shameful deeds), and injustice, and rebellion: He instructs you that ye may receive admonition.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 6 Surah Anaam verse 151:

151 Say: "Come I will rehearse what Allah hath (really) prohibited you from": join not anything as equal with Him; be good to your parents: kill not your children on a plea of want; We provide sustenance for you and for them; come not even near to ‘fahisha’ (shameful deeds) whether open or secret; take not life which Allah hath made sacred except by way of justice and law: thus doth He Command you that ye may learn wisdom.

Thus when Allah commands the believers to ‘forbid evil’ and the Messenger of Allah guides us to strive to stop the evil with one’s ‘hands, tongue, or heart’; some people who go to the extremes and (with their hands) start to force every woman to cover up; or (with their tongue) abuse or revile ever woman who does not cover up! On the other extreme, those of weak faith, see that indecency is so prevalent and so rampant, leave alone striving to stop it, they accept it without even a ‘tinge’ in their hearts or (Allah forbid) even indulge in it!

Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 2.18 Narrated by Ibn Umar

I heard Allah's Messenger saying, "All of you are guardians and responsible for those in your wards! The ruler is the guardian of his subjects and is responsible for them, a man is the guardian of his family and is responsible for them, a woman is the guardian of her husband's house and is responsible for it, a servant is the guardian of his master's belongings and is responsible for them.”

If Allah’s Command of ‘forbidding evil’ and the Messenger’s guidance of striving to stop it with one’s ‘hands, tongue, and heart’ is taken with the above guidance of ‘responsibility’….one would get the true picture of what exactly is required from each believer.

It is the responsibility of the leader of a believing household to make sure that no ‘fahisha’ is practiced amongst those in his ward and care: his wife, his children, etc; and if it is practiced amongst those in his care, he must strive to put an end to it with his hands!

It is the responsibility of the ruler of a believing or righteous nation to make sure that no ‘fahisha’ is allowed in his kingdom, and he must make appropriate laws to make sure that it is not practiced! This would be obeying the command of stopping evil with one’s hands, and if practiced with wisdom, slowly but surely there would be an improvement in every house and thus the society in general.

But if one takes the command of stopping ‘fahisha’ with one’s hands in general and starts to force, abuse and revile even those men and women not in one’s ward and care….it would give rise to ‘fitnah’, discord, conflict, and dissension in society!

If the one’s in authority are not stopping the ‘evil’ or indecency with their hands and thus not fulfilling the responsibility laid upon them, it is the duty of the scholars, writers, or all those who have access to such people in authority to warn them of Allah’s Wrath and Anger if they do not exercise their right and strive to stop with their hands those in their wards and domain of responsibility (ruler/subjects; parents/children; husband/wife and children; etc.) from transgressing the boundaries of Allahs.. That would be striving to stop evil with one’s tongues!

If one is neither in authority, nor has access or power even to talk to those in authority, then at least he must abhor and detest the happening of this evil in his heart; and that would be the least of faith! But if the abundance of this evil around him does not even leave a ‘tinge’ of sorrow and grief in his heart, then such a person must seriously assess his ‘emaan’ and ‘faith’!

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Blasphemy accused sentenced to death in Afghanistan

MAZAR-I-SHARIF: A court in Afghanistan has sentenced a local journalist to death for blasphemy, an official and family members said Wednesday.
Perwiz Kambakhsh, 23, was arrested on October 27 for allegedly distributing material he downloaded from the Internet and deemed offensive to Islam among fellow students at northern Balkh University.
"Based on the crimes Perwiz Kambakhsh committed, the primary court yesterday sentenced him to the most serious punishment which is the death penalty," Balkh province deputy attorney general Hafizullah Khaliqyar told foreign news agency.
Khaliqyar had threatened Monday to arrest journalists who "support" Kambakhsh at a media briefing where officials defended the arrest of the reporter.

Rare genetic glitch hikes risk of autism -Finding instills hope for better understanding, treatment of disorder

A rare genetic variation dramatically raises the risk of developing autism, a large study showed, opening new research targets for better understanding the disorder and for treating it.

Research into the causes of autism has focused on genetic causes because so many families have multiple children with the disorder. Thus far, only about 10 percent of autism cases have a known genetic cause. Boston-area researchers estimate the gene glitch they’ve identified accounts for another 1 percent of cases.

They found a segment of a chromosome which has genes linked to brain development and various developmental disorders was either missing or duplicated far more often in autistic people. The defect was inherited in some cases, but more often the result of a random genetic accident.