Friday, August 28, 2009

The war in Darfur is now, essentially over..

Well, it is supposedly a day of celebration among my Darfurese folks.. but is it?
For months, a complicated intelligent plan was set to serve the interests of regional and global powers. It is a “Trio-Conspiracy” to shelf the matter and concentrate on critical economic interests. Israelies failed in their attempt to play a role in escalating the conflict, as their USA allies had new agenda. Sudanese government scored excellence in adjusting their position, open communications lines, and furnish the regional corporate with great Sudanese smiles. This was the price for its own revival, not the Sudan’s. Regional interests proved readiness to tolerate or close an eye on the critical demand for water, crops and security. A great innovative scheme lunched its blue prints on how all would work together, including the rebels, and discard the historical talk on justice, fairness and feel will. However, sharing wealth is done among the leaders, and for the leaders, on behalf of the displaced poor illiterate Darfurese..!!
It is the global politics...


By MAS Freedom Civil and Human Rights Director, Ibrahim Abdil-Mu'id Ramey
The person making this assessment is no less an authority on the subject than General Martin Agwai, who commands a multinational peacekeeping force in Sudan composed of United Nations and African Union military personnel. General Agwai, who is leaving his command position in a few days, did not, of course, say that all the violence in Darfur has ended. The territory remains under the threat of bandit attacks and attacks by so-called 'rebel' groups against civilians and other targets of convenience. There is still hunger and suffering in Darfur, and throughout much of the continent of Africa. There remain enormous political divides that must be bridged, and deep wounds to heal.
But the war, as we define war, has ended.

Much of the attention directed to Darfur, at least in the United States, has come from anti-Khartoum political elements and Darfur 'activists' who have collected millions of dollars for the humanitarian cause of helping the Darfurese - the majority of which has never reached the people who are suffering - despite the moralization and pontification of many within the 'Save Darfur' movement. Make no mistake - there have been violent atrocities committed in this horrible tragedy, and some of the blame for the situation does indeed rest with the actions of the government of Sudan - but the issue of Darfur has never been one of 'Arabs'' on a murderous rampage against 'Africans', or one of unilateral malfeasance on the part of a single belligerent party.

The 'Africans' and the 'Arabs' in the region are hardly distinguishable in phenotype, language, and culture.

Much of the framing and analysis of the Darfur issue is developed, packaged, and sold to the U.S. Congress and the American corporate media by individuals and groups with both anti-Sudan and anti-Muslim agendas. Some of these groups have been transparently evangelical pro-Christian with a history of involvement in the Sudanese civil war (while promoting the bogus 'buy a slave and set him free travesty'.

Others are backers of the foreign policy of one particular nation-state, not even in the region, that actually supplied weapons and material support to anti-government rebels in the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (in South Sudan) and, very likely, the two main Darfur rebel groups as well. Still other geo-political interests seek to isolate and possibly balkanize Sudan as a precondition for gaining U.S. corporate access to that most precious of global commodities; oil (and at the same time, cutting of the supply of this petroleum to a major U.S. economic rival, China). None of these factors make the Krartoum government blamless in this mess. But all of these factors must be taken into account in understanding how the issue of Darfur is both perceived, and distorted. What remains for those of us in this country to do, I believe, is to support both ongoing reconciliation and peacekeeping work in Sudan, and the sending of material aid that actually reaches the people most in need in the region.

The belligerent parties in Darfur must be part of these efforts, as well as the government currently in power in Khartoum. When I visited Sudan in 1995 as part of an interfaith MAS Freedom delegation led by Imam Mahdi Bray, I was convinced that, tragic though the situation was (and is), the real solution could only lie in actions taken by the people of Sudan themselves, with the honest collaboration and assistance of the pan-Islamic world. We called for then, and now, an end to the multilateral violence and war that has creates massive dislocation and suffering in Darfur. But I am equally clear that the economic and political agendas of outside actors must not become factored into the solution that the people of Darfur, and all of Sudan, must work out for themselves.

I am truly happy with General Agwai's assessment about the end of the war. And now, I am hopeful that this situation will evolve into both peace and justice for the region, orchestrated by the people of Sudan themselves with the support of the international humanitarian community. This, in the final analysis, is the only way that lasting and legitimate peace can be built and sustained. Include articles on topics of interest to your readers, relevant news and events. Inserting a link in your article lets you track which topics attract the most interest.

Ibrahim Ramey may be contacted by email addressed to: ibrahim.ramey AT masfreedom.org. Additional articles written by Mr. Ramey may be read on his blog at http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102685484577&s=370&e=001oNiWol3Ppdk5AWvou68qsF4i8BxcP4-SY7YvKlSXNHkd7dUBnpskG2A9PyshMVbvtO8bYm2eFPFZtJUaeQYJ-WGYkW-4-fdpFtorsi1gpdObzhGNIPrXKg==.

Cannig Malaysian Woman..

It took the Religious Court more than six months to issue a verdict in a simple case of Alcohol consumption. This was my initial worry, on what is going on behind the scene? She was not alone in the police ride on that club, nor anything told about the other detainees. Her request to carry on the punishment in public is also a great question, not to boost her modeling career as some had said, nor an attempt to be forgiven, but as she stated: to resume her life with family.. Certainly; she was advised in her remote rural state to avoid being a center of attention.. and maybe would be rewarded for the same..!!

My Malaysian experience would tell about the hidden yet strong undercurrents in civic centers, where contradiction between ethnic groups, political powers, and economic enterprising are taken shape. During the last couple of years, some violent actions shocked the nation; questioning the legacies of their political leaders. CSR programs are mystery, while government only support the national platform of education, health care and infrastructure. Employment is solely secured by demand of private investment, PPP schemes are crippled by poor quality of resources and slow openness of laws, while destruction of urban pillars is almost systematic, igniting the furious media and frustrated journalists. The key radical or terrorist persons are out of reach, while exodus of professionals is growing in strong rates.

Malaysian are distinct with their hometown sickness, therefore, stresses on civic centers are controllable. Despite being wealthy country with oil, palm oil and manufacturing with GDP of $ 215billion, 5% of population of 27million are under poverty line. Human development index sets the country as 61st among the globe, with national growth rate of 6.3%. So, all measures are great for an underdeveloped country, but only corruption, good governance, transparency and ethnic tolerance are widely questioned. The Malaysian model was critical for almost 300million Muslims in south east Asia, while analysis was carried out by regimes in Egypt, UAE, Turkey and Indonesia to create successful replica. Therefore, disturbing the model would send lots of critics on the proposed ethnic and cultural integration in Muslim countries. However, the current governing parties are facing serious in-house questions on capacity to provide a break through among the economic tigers.

I can confidently say that Islamic Fundamentalists are shaking the country, searching for a leading rule. Islam was never meant to suppress people, nor to ignore the rightfulness of minorities. Also, the trends of practicing smooth yet friendly Islam was truly inspiring for me personally, and for many as well. The composition of deep-rooted Islamic behavior along with modern adoption is source of envy and relaxed living. Yes, a historical bureaucracy affected the growth rate, but indispensible tool to preserve governing backbone. Bottom-line; Malaysia is on critical cross-roads, and hopefully will find the right way out..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1207643/Muslim-model-woman-Malaysia-caned-caught-drinking-beer.html

http://www.asianewsnet.net/news.php?id=7378&sec=1

http://www.asianewsnet.net/news.php?sec=1&id=6972

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Mostly Anonymous..!!


“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” Mother Teresa

“Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning.”

“Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heartbeat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep... wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you're just as pretty without makeup on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky his is to have you.... The one who turns to his friends and says, 'that's her.'”

“I don't pretend to know what love is for everyone, but I can tell you what it is for me; love is knowing all about someone, and still wanting to be with them more than any other person, love is trusting them enough to tell them everything about yourself, including the things you might be ashamed of, love is feeling comfortable and safe with someone, but still getting weak knees when they walk into a room and smile at you.”

“If you love somebody, let them go. If they return, they were always yours. If they don't, they never were.”

“Every man is afraid of something. That's how you know he's in love with you; when he is afraid of losing you.”

“You can close your eyes to the things you do not want to see, but you cannot close your heart to the things you do not want to feel.”

“Love is one of the hardest words to say and one of the easiest to hear.”

“Love is not blind; it simply enables one to see things others fail to see.”

“To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.”

“The worst thing you can do for love is deny it; so when you find that special someone, don't let anyone or anything to get in your way.”

“Eventually you will come to understand that love heals everything, and love is all there is.” Gary Zukav

“No man is worth your tears, but once you find one that is, he won't make you cry”

“A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her” Oscar Wilde

What parasites tell us about sex..!!

Lately, more calls are growing for the so-called monoclonal and monocultural; which suits the frustration some females are confronting in locating a matching spouse. There were no logic to support rejecting their calls, as technology proved ways to do. The following report comes with proven rejection, which merely based on science, nor culture or religion. Now; the “Marriage” institution receives a strong scientific support. Therefore, the sexual reproduction should receive more cultural appreciation, in addition to its long lasting legal and epistemic ones. On the contrary, the research shakes the false grounds for the asexual-reproduction, as no scientific support against its potential risks or futuristic odd-results. I can also see that homosexuality is not an authentic element on our gene-cultural profiling, but temporarily or somehow man-made phenomenon, needs revisiting its foundations. Should we say that “Nature” or “Creator” knew how to set our spices in the optimum format?

Swiss-led scientists may be one step closer to finding the answer to a big evolutionary mystery – why do most species have sex to reproduce?
From his studies of snails, Jukka Jokela, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology near Zurich, has found evidence to suggest that sex may have partly evolved as a defence against parasites. "It's not clear what the advantage is of sexual reproduction," evolutionary biologist Jokela told swissinfo.ch. "Imagine you have a good genome and are successful in your environment. But then for some reason, at the point of reproduction, you decide to mix your genome by accepting some genes from someone else, basically random genes from the environment. It's not clear why this is advantageous." Added to this is the fact that reproducing without sex - like microbes, some plants and even some fish and reptiles - would seem to be more efficient. After all, every individual in an asexual species can reproduce on its own. Two – including a seemingly superfluous non-reproducing male - are needed in sexual reproduction.

Sex dominant
"The question is, why don't these clones win? Why don't they just reproduce more efficiently than the sexual lineages and what prevents them from taking over those populations where you have both asexual and sexual lineages?" Jokela said. To help explain why sex remains so dominant in the living world, Jokela turned to the minute freshwater New Zealand mud snail Potamopyrgus antipodarum. This common snail is an ideal candidate as it has both asexual and sexual versions co-existing in the same environment. Working with researchers from Washington State University and Indiana University, Jokela monitored various populations of the mud snail, paying special attention to parasite infection rates, over a period of ten years. At first the clones were very successful, and seemed "to be winning the game", Jokela said. Then, suddenly, they tended to decline, before disappearing from the natural system.

Clones' decline
"What we found was that it was actually parasites, which were specialising through natural selection on these very common genotypes, that were driving the decline of these common clones," he explained. "So it appears that the sexually reproducing lineages are on average better at resisting this type of parasite which is detrimental to these clonal genotypes."
Sexual snail populations had remained stable during this time. The authors of the study, which appeared in the July edition of the American Naturalist journal, suggest that sexual reproduction therefore provides an evolutionary advantage in parasite-rich environments. In other words, mixing genes up via sex is a good defence mechanism. Although the hypothesis that parasites keep asexual organisms from getting too plentiful had already been predicted by mathematical models, Jokela's study was the first time it had ever been demonstrated in nature.

Pesky parasites
He said that studies in other systems would now be needed, as well as a better understanding of what happens at a genetic level when parasites invade an organism. The research also gives food for thought. The importance of genetic diversity when it comes to disease interactions is something to bear in mind in our agricultural systems, which are very monoclonal and monocultural, the scientist added. Most living organisms on the planet have to deal with some sort of detrimental disease or parasite. "So maybe one of the common denominators for why sexual reproduction is so widespread is that these types of pathogens, which can specialise at the genetic level, are a common phenomenon," he said. So there would seem to be some advantage to having these pesky parasites after all.
Isobel Leybold-Johnson in Zurich, swissinfo.ch

Comments
Fsolano , Switzerland: Asexual reproduction could be a great answer for those couple that wishes kids but are unable to have by their own. Or for those who doesn't want to be involved on a relation, me however, I enjoy more the traditional system: nature has proven one more time to knows better: talking strictly scientifically.
Odette Kalman , Canada: Nature seems always to find a solution to heal itself, man-made interference does not. Referring to "Monoculture" makes me think about overproduction in one corner of the World and famine in another. Whereas homosexuality may be a natural way of preventing overpopulation. Odette KalmanCanada
Lynx , Switzerland: I've known a few parasites during my time in Switzerland, all after me for either my money and/or my passport. Whatever happened to real love ?Thanks Odette for explaining the rise in homosexuality. But why did this have to happen during my time on earth. It looks like I am destined to remain alone (well, happily divorced) since I refuse to become gay just to be loved.
vivek , India: nice to explain genetic differentiation concept,n survival of fittest with sex


Thursday, August 13, 2009

Burkini...!!

Couple of years ago, an Australian of Arabic origin had came with an idea to maintain her modesty while carrying out her duties as Beach-watcher.. This was the launch of “Burkini” which became the current debate topic in France and elsewhere. This women swimsuit was designed by a Lebanese Australian Aheda Zanetti under the company name Ahiida. I need to point to the name “Burkini”, which was commercially meant to challenge the famous trade mark “Bikini”..
During the last two years, few Muslim women used it on beaches in Arab or Islamic world, whereas the roles allocate either beaches or swimming hours for female-use only. In non-Arab or Islamic world, some attempts were there, went unnoticed by the public. For the civic order to consider a phenomenon or a trend; it requires to have a notable pubic momentum.. The row of this August was on evicting a French Muslim woman from a public swimming pool; when she showed up in the 2nd time in her “Burkini”. This happens in time of a great French debate on “Burka” as a dress.. Notably, not Burka nor Burkini is Arabic-originated, but from Afghani heritage..


I shall put it, and many will hate me.. Yes; Muslims are confused with some trends coming from non-Arabic cultured societies, which aggressively and hysterically affirm their Islamic belief.. Despite the openness of Islam as a culture; it should not be hijacked by populous groups with disturbed history and social order. This is the concurrent siege of Islam and Muslims, as referrals are not culturally consumed enough to form a leading mind-set.. Between Al-Rahman and Al-Raheem a linguistic demise that challenges Arabic–Muslims..!! The same applies to that mysterious historical trend to cover female mouth once got married; which originated “Niqab”.. It was known in pre-Islamic Arabia, India and Central Asia, and has nothing to do with Islam, but unlawfully became an Islamic trend..!!

I do not think that abandoning public swimming would hurt such devoted ones who find no place to do.. I do not think that forcing 50 million French to accept verdict for 5 million Muslim-French is the way to do.. Furthermore, I have a great doubt that no one had approached authorities anywhere, even in Australia to obtain approval on the “Burkini”.. From the models I had seen, I can confirm many doubts on safety of the dress, at least from suitability for Life-Saver to hold a Burkini-at-risk.. Adding, to this Balloon, Buoy, Dolphin syndromes; which are not examined or proven considered in the design..
Maybe the dedicated timing for female is more worth fighting rather than a Ninja-looking dress.. Or does it inspire the fighting merit among us.. Notably, Ninja were not all for the goodness, some were Death Squads in Indonesia, Serbia, and inspired all Riot Police worldwide..!!



By Ellen Connolly, February 04, 2007, The Sunday Telegraph
SURF Life Saving Australia has unveiled its newest uniform, the burquini. Specially designed for Muslim recruits, the red-and-yellow, head-to-ankle swimming costume was showcased exclusively for The Sunday Telegraph. "I'm part of history, that's what's so exciting about this,'' said Mecca Laalaa, who will be the first to wear the outfit on patrol next weekend.
Ms Laalaa is one of 17 men and women from Sydney's Muslim community who qualified to become lifesavers as part of a Call. The Same Wave program. Introduced after the Cronulla riots, it promotes ethnic harmony and encourages Australians from diverse cultural backgrounds to become lifesavers. Lee Howell, of Surf Life Saving Australia, said the burquini, made from polyester and teflon, had created worldwide interest. Middle Eastern and European countries were keen to introduce the costume in their surf-rescue operations, he said. For Ms Laalaa, it has given her the freedom she dreamed about. Growing up, she was never allowed to swim at the beach."It wasn't safe to swim in cotton pants and a top. I could just go in up to my knees, but I used to get so jealous of everyone else,'' she said. The pilot program will now go national.

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris, The Guardian, 12 August 2009
A 35-year-old French convert to Islam has threatened legal action after she was evicted from a public pool for wearing a "burkini" – a veil, trouser and tunic covering that she said allowed her to swim while preserving her modesty. The case revolving around the pool east of Paris has reopened France's bitter row about how Muslim women can dress.
Carole, who would not give her surname, bought the suit while on holiday in Dubai and wore it swimming with her children once at a local pool in Emerainville. The second time she wore it, she was banned. "What annoys me is that I have been made to believe this is a political problem," she told Le Parisien. Carole, who converted to Islam at the age of 17, said she would seek advice from anti-discrimination groups.
The local authorities in Emerainville said the case had nothing to do with Islam, but regulations stated that garments bigger than standard swimsuits, including men's board-shorts, could not be worn in pools for hygiene reasons. In recent years, local politicians in some areas have protested at proposed women-only swimming hours as an affront to the French republic, where everyone is equal. When a town in Rhône-Alpes ran a trial women-only swimming session at a public pool last year, a local councillor from Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling centre-right UMP party denounced it as the takeover of a secular, republican public space for religious reasons.

A parliamentary committee is currently considering whether to introduce a law to ban women in France from wearing full Islamic veils in public places after a petition from 50 MPs calling for restrictions on veils with face coverings. The communist MP André Gerin, who heads the parliamentary committee, said the woman's burkini swimsuit was "ridiculous" and "clearly a militant provocation". He said a political agenda was behind such clothing and his committee would look at "fundamentalist pressures" encroaching on sporting dress codes in France. Critics have warned that focussing on niqabs, or full veils, is a marginal issue in France. A recent security services survey estimated that around 300 women wore them. In 2004, France banned standard headscarves and all conspicuous religious symbols from state schools.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Ms. Right, Mr. Wrong..!!

Many are expressing concerns on the repeated questions on why relations tend to go wrong?? The broken-hearted and divested souls become landmarks of the young generation in all societies.. Certainly there is a need for serious rectification or restructuring on the concept of Woman-Man relationship.. The older syndromes of love-story, family devotion and decent divorce are not celebrated anymore.. In both ways, concurrent relationships are triggered by unrealistic physical attributions, plain agreement of personal-space, and generic phrases of personal descriptions.. Dating websites are extremely merchandised behind any claims of social sense.. Increasing number of young people abandoning marriage, and it’s doubtful consequences.. Increasing number of divorce cases, and implications on all economic and social pattern.. Finally, increasing number of no or minimal parenthood, which seriously threaten the civilization sustainability..!!

I guess, it is the need to revert back to basics; where gender demise was finely defined, despite the fade-out during the last 20 years by the uni-sex fashions.. Young people need to revise their expectations which become either loose or made of flash-topics, not the real assets of spouseship.. Western-made destruction of marriage institution; despite the opposition, inevitably shakes the convictions and transmits marriage concept to a black-hole.. The need to re-define breeding; which became an individual or unilateral discretion, supported by technology, vacating the marriage from its crowning result.. Should we admit that Equality and Democracy are deformed by excessive concepts that crossed both natural morphologies and accumulated epistemia.. Notably, and despite the global communications and new means of expression, the unbalanced human development had driven the people apart to be more birth-place attached..!! Once the cross-boarder marriages raised in 1990th, it sharply decline..

The contradicting gender-based rates of proper education, economic security, social freedom, and religious awareness, in time of cyber socialization and confused governments; should be openly discussed to minimize their negativity.. The recommendations to young people for clarity on both choosing and chemistry; need clean ears to hear, and unstressed brains to learn.. However, I sincerely believe that males are much and far negative; eligible to all blames..!!

All statistics and observations confirm how new male generations are more shallow, desires-driven, narrow sighted and unreliable than females..!! Regretfully, gender debate was open to last; while flood of personal disappointment and sorrow increases.. Visionaries can make a difference.. just if capable to keep the flame lit..

This was wrote for Nabila Hugsy and her inspiring article on Maroc Post http://www.marocpost.net/news/Headlines/ViewArticle.cfm?ArticleID=10831

Monday, August 10, 2009

Whipping a Woman for Wearing Trousers..

For many days I was reluctant to comment on Lubna’s case.. However, Sarah had successfully put both Sudan and Lubna in the global perspective, and the Islamic one as well.. Certainly, the case has other facts; which the media treated as insignificant, yet are critical to explore the true story. However, the chain of events in Sudan are marking confusion rather than confidence, disarray rather than solidarity, and disturbance rather than clarity on its path towards the so-called “National Prosperity”. It is a petty that a resourceful nation can’t spot a destiny.. Unfortunately, lots of actions are addressed in the name of Islam, which irritate any intellectual, Muslim or other.. Ironically, the Sudanese regime had unintentionally created an accidental "Public Figure"; while chronic problems are spreading the decay all over the country.. A "Dancing" President; who was almost gone by Militia traveled untraced for 1200km to attack the capital, stills challenging the world using very-local attributes..!! Collapsing urban, scientific and economic centers, are paving the way for corrupted agencies and bribed staff.. Trio-conspiracy to “dilute” the Darfur case in favor of regional priorities.. Military buildup in the South, awaiting 2012 referendum on Independence.. Generation of orphans, pastured and mutilated children will add to the darkness of the Tunnel.. Yet, they call it Islamic Rule..!!

Whipping a woman for wearing trousers is an affront to Islam
Sarah Joseph, The National, UAE, August 08. 2009

First, it was the teddy bear called Mohammed and now it is the woman in trousers called Lubna. Why the Sudanese authorities desire to make the religion of Islam a laughing stock around the world is quite beyond me; but that’s what they are doing. I recall my travels to Sudan fondly. I have been three times and I remember a people of smiles. I remember the women, too: strong, powerful women. They were leaders who would shake a man’s hand firmly and engage him in conversation. Yet now we are in a place and time where a woman, Lubna Ahmed Hussein, faces 40 lashes for wearing trousers. And she is not the first. Ten women have already been whipped for the same “offence”.
As I write this piece I am wearing a pair of trousers. They are black, from a London suiting company. Along with my blue Ede and Ravenscroft shirt and white scarf, I really think I am as far away from “indecent” as it is possible to be. Yet, the present Sudanese regime would think I should be lashed too. As a woman, passionately committed to my faith, and passionately committed to a sense of a duty to contribute to the world, I wonder how the faith of Islam was hijacked in this way.

I am slightly wary of the word “feminist”, as it is a loaded term with negative connotations in many people’s minds. It has been said that feminism emasculated men and masculinised women; that it destroyed the relationship between men and women; that it broke up the family; that for women to advance they had to put men down. All of this is far too harsh, I feel, but there is no doubt that there have been problems and that feminism is being reconstructed for the modern era; that the model of the 1960s has not worked entirely and that a post-modern, dare I say more feminine feminism is emerging.
There are also cultural-specific feminist models, for the needs and issues of women vary across the world. If you are trying to find food or water for your family or protect them from bombs and missiles, then your issues will be different to those of women who are trying to become top executives in their companies. Among these culture-specific feminisms, there is also the emergence of what some call Islamic feminism, a move for Muslim women to take their rightful place in the world.

The example of Madinan society at the time of the Prophet Mohammed was one where men and women strove together to create a more just social framework. It stood against slavery, female infanticide and the ownership of women by men. It followed the Quranic dictum that men and women are “protecting friends of one another”. If there was competition within the relationship, it was in the endeavours towards good and right. Indeed, the Quranic and Prophetic paradigm of male/female relationship is not ruthless competition but mutual co-operation. And while differences of sex are recognised in places, the common humanity and ultimate purpose of each soul to worship God regardless of sex is paramount. Inspired by this, modern Muslim women are actually drawing on their faith and heritage to find a reality that calls on women to engage in their society on a par with men. Despite this richly inspiring example, we are subject to the cultural pull of the negative combative behaviour between men and women. It begins in the playground, “girls are better than boys/boys are better than girls.” Sadly, this childhood model continues into adulthood – as stand-up comedians will attest: jokes against the opposite sex get the laughs. Indeed, sometimes we are presented as if we were two different species: “Men are from Mar and women are from Venus,” some say. There is definitely a culturally acquired mode of behaviour where “the battle of the sexes” is the de-facto norm, even among Muslims.

All this is a far cry from the Quranic description of the relationship between men and women. “They are a garment for you and you are a garment to them.” (2: 187) A garment shields you from adverse elements. A garment beautifies you, covering up faults and flaws. A garment protects. If we are garments for one another then surely one does not whip the other for wearing trousers!Years ago in Sudan, women turned to communism to obtain social justice. Then Hassan Turabi published a book called Women in Islam and Muslim Society. In it he wrote: “The greatest injustice visited upon women is their segregation and isolation from the general society. Sometimes the slightest aspect of her public appearance would be considered a form of obscene exhibitionism.”

The book inspired and revolutionised women in Sudan and they turned in droves to Islam as a means to liberate themselves. It has been a while since I last went to Sudan, but from the outside it would seem that any liberty gained was short-lived.Turabi also wrote in the same book, in a chapter entitled The Resurgence of Women: “A revolution against the condition of women in the traditional Muslim societies is inevitable.” I do not know if what he says will come to pass, but I do feel the winds of change, a change true to faith, but where that faith inspires contribution. Such liberty should not be viewed as an imported thing, a western intrusion; it is there, authentically, within the Islamic traditions.
I was speaking to a Saudi lawyer. He had been researching and documenting the history of his family village. Among the historic papers he found literally hundreds of documents where women were jurists, property owners, business people, scholars. “We do not need to look elsewhere for women to be liberated, we have it within our history,” he remarked. Likewise, Dr Amira Sonbol, of Georgetown University in Washington, has identified dozens of ancient Islamic court documents that present Muslim women in a wholly different light from their counterparts today.

In the same vein, Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi, a research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, went in search of women scholars of the early era. He hoped to find “30 or 40”; he found more than 8,000 biographical accounts.While there are women who have rejected faith in order to find freedom, many more Muslim women are drawing on their religious heritage. They know that the current status quo is not right, not Islamic. Some are angry; some are calling for scholarship to be completely rewritten, for “feminist reinterpretations” of the textual sources. I am not sure all of that is necessary; you don’t need to reinterpret to find women’s emancipation: I think it is there in black and white.
Lubna Ahmed Hussein cannot be lashed for wearing trousers. It would be an affront to Islam. Mohammed came as a “mercy to mankind” and as such Muslims across the world should be affronted by her prosecution. Muslim women and men across the world should be calling on Sudan to stop this fiasco. And wherever there is injustice we must stand against it, regardless of whether the injustice is towards a woman or a man, regardless of whether the perpetrator is a woman or a man, for as the Quran says: “Justice is the closest thing to God consciousness.” And if you want to call this Islamic feminism, so be it.
I just call it Islam.

Sarah Joseph is editor of emel, a lifestyle magazine for British Muslims.

"Post-Race" America?

Racial America is a great debate; which mark not only the long history of inhumane practices, but also the consensus of building the world of tomorrow. Among advocates and opponents, there are many issues to discuss topped with the consensual psychology and cultural emotions that draw and drive our non-consensual practices. The recent Gates-Crowley case is not the last, but the most influential due to the concurrent political and public mood in the USA under Obama. Alexander Cockburn in his First Post article had concluded all the view.

By Alexander Cockburn
FIRST POSTED AUGUST 7, 2009
In retrospect we can see what a lucky fellow Barack Obama was to have had, during his run for the presidency last year, a radical black pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as his opponent in an argument about race and racism in America.
Obama scored big with whites for his measured put-down of Wright as the embittered voice from an angry past, now being thankfully overtaken by a mellower and more sensible age of racial reason. And in an added irony, the most supportive black voice for this hopeful posture was that of the Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates, who shot into the headlines last month after being arrested by a white Cambridge cop, Sergeant James Crowley, for allegedly abusing Crowley for racist conduct.

In an amazing lapse in his usual steely self-control, Obama said in a press conference that he thought the cops had acted "stupidly" in this incident which began when a neighbour called the police saying two men were trying to break into the house. Actually this was Gates and his driver trying to recoup from that familiar misfortune, the missing front door key of Gates's own home.
The irony stems from the fact that Gates had become the darling of white liberals for putting down blacks in exactly the manner Obama adopted with Wright. In the New Yorker and kindred outlets, Gates would serve up anodyne pottage about race being "a social construct" and would whack deadbeat black dads, cuing Obama to the same sort of grandstanding, all of which fell like music upon the ears of white opinion-formers always receptive to black people prepared to utter "difficult truths" - viz, that African Americans had and have only themselves to blame for most if not all of their problems. The presiding deity over this 'post-race' nonsense for many years was the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who won hundreds of admiring editorials in the New York Times for his supposed courage and intellectual integrity in serving up "difficult truths" to white Americans eager for scholarly reassurance that they had nothing to apologise for.
Then suddenly here were Gates and Obama both catching a torrent of abuse from whites for shouting at white cops and calling them racists and stupid.

We can safely stipulate here that a very large number of white cops are violence-prone racists, both by upbringing and by assigned role, since they are the whites' first line of defence, furnished with awesome firepower, complicit prosecutors, indulgent forensic laboratories, mostly white juries and a mostly white press in the endless battle to keep the dangerous classes generally - and the blacks specifically - in their place.
If the job requires you to be "stupid" – by over-reacting to the level of shooting an elderly black woman holding a cellphone on the grounds you thought she was armed and about to shoot to kill – then so be it.
Crowley became the overnight darling of the right-wing ralk radio and roundtable TV hosts, just as Joe the Plumber did last fall. Obama's senior aides, aghast as the uproar took the big battle over health insurance off the front pages, successfully urged Obama to say that Gates might have acted unreasonably and to recapture the high ground by inviting Gates and Crowley to the White House for a manly beer and constructive chat, duly hailed in its aftermath last week by the President as "friendly, thoughtful and positive". It would have required Gates and Crowley to be carried out on stretchers after bloody combat for Obama to have said anything else.

The entire event was positive only for Crowley. Cops are notorious liars in the accounts they give to prosecutors, juries or the press of their conduct as guardians of the peace, and Crowley's account of what happened chez Gates had plenty of improbabilities in it, such as his claim that Gates uttered a slur about his, Crowley's, mother. Boston and Cambridge have been suffused with acrid racist divisions for decades, and the cops there have ugly reputations, as vividly evoked by the Boston cop, Justin Barrett, who was fired by the city's mayor for calling Prof Gates "a banana-eating jungle monkey".
Barrett and his lawyer are suing the city and the mayor for damages for causing him "pain and suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, post-traumatic stress, sleeplessness, indignities and embarrassment, degradation, injury to reputation and restriction on his personal freedom". Barrett's lawyer says "banana-eating" and "jungle monkey" were terms used by his client to evoke Gates's words, not his African American essence. Barrett told CNN's Larry King he doesn't know what made him say that.

White America is never more vividly and comically racist than when trying to excuse impromptu racist utterance or deny the racism of American society, which is manifest in every number, every graph and scatterplot in the annual Statistical Abstract of the United States.
It was a former governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis, regarded as an impeccable progressive in matters of race, who denied any racist motive for launching his final presidential drive in 1988 by appearing at the Neshoba county fair in Mississippi, where three civil rights workers were murdered in the 1960s and where Ronald Reagan had wooed the white south in 1980.

The great and courageous black attorney, JL Chestnut, one of two black people in the huge audience, recalled Reagan crying that "the South will rise again and this time remain master of everybody and everything within its dominion". Said Chestnut: "The square came to life, the Klu Kluxers were shouting, jeering and in obvious ecstasy. God bless America."
So eight years later Dukakis visited the fair, to give the white voters a tacit message. It didn't do him any good. His campaign blew up amid race-baiting first by his Democratic rival Al Gore, who denounced Dukakis for giving a weekend furlough from prison to a black criminal called Willie Horton, and then by George Bush Sr who soundly whacked Dukakis using the same charge.
White progressives have been cheering Obama's "tough love" homilies to delinquent black dads, though not to white or Spanish ones. Maybe the support for Sgt Crowley and the vilification of Obama and Gates will come as a wake-up call, though I doubt it.

Bill Clinton was probably the most disastrous president for blacks in postwar history, in terms of criminal justice policies, removal of social safety nets and systematic attacks on young black mothers for having babies (at an optimal time for the babies' care and survival). Yet if you call Bill worse as an effective racist than Reagan they'll quack with incredulous raillery and remind you that it was a black writer, Toni Morrison, who called Clinton our first black president. So? It was Gen Colin Powell who stepped up to criticise Gates and thus endorse Crowley.
Can we hope Gates has learned a lesson? Nope. He's back at his crowd-pleasing antics, pledging more beers with Crowley and saying he'll see what he can do about getting the cop's kids into Harvard. As the black writer Ishmael Reed asked caustically, "Maybe the officer who killed a black man in Oakland the other night should send in her children's application to Gates. Is Gates a candidate for the Stockholm Syndrome?”
Scarcely a candidate, Ishmael. Stockholm Syndrome captured Prof Gates long, long ago and did his career no end of good.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Boko Haram..

When I heard the news, I could not hold myself from hysterical laugh..!! Remembering that Nigerian Ustaz, or Religious Teacher who has 27 wives in a compound –alike house, and 74 children..!! However, Nigerian State Security had dealt with the matter in a pure African way.. If you meet a snake, smash the head..!! So, the leader of this funny illiterate group was announced dead while was in police custody..!! More than 700 is the death toll, and more than 200 hostages; mostly women, were freed.. Then; they announced that normacy is restored..!!

Despite the protest from human rights groups, Negirean Authorities did not give any attension.. Again, it is an African way in eliminating the dangers.. Every thing is due to be forgotten..!! Certainly, some guys are discussing this technique behind closed doors..!! Anyway, the questions are loud; about poverty, illiteracy, corruption and of course: education. It is almost the same as Taliban; desperate and frustrated youth; who blame modern civilization for all the evils they are confronting in daily life.. Ironically, their people listen, as they speak both language and catastrophe.. No wonder; the amount of confusion and uncertainty the allied security agencies are facing, as they are not facing only terrorists, but marginal people with broken hopes.. No wonder that all literate Muslims (me included) have their voices not heard, as they no longer speak the language..!!

Boko Haram (literally, Western education is a sin) is a Nigerian militant Islamist group that seeks the imposition of Shariah law throughout all 36 states of Nigeria. The group was founded in 2002 in Maiduguri by Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf. In 2004 it moved to Kanamma, Yobe State, where it set up a base called "Afghanistan", used to attack nearby police outposts, killing police officers. Yusuf is hostile to democracy and the secular education system, vowing that "this war that is yet to start would continue for long". In Bauchi the group was reported as refusing to mix with local people. The group includes members who come from neighbouring Chad and speak only Arabic. Boko Haram opposes not only Western education, but Western culture and modern science as well. In a 2009 BBC interview, Yusuf stated that the belief that the world is a sphere is contrary to Islam and should be rejected, along with Darwinism and the theory that rain comes from water evaporated by the sun.

For more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/jul/31/nigeria-violence-boko-haram

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Why does life in the Middle East remain rooted in the Middle Ages?

According to a UN report, the global improvement in living standards has passed much of the Arab world by. Robert Fisk explains why.. Tuesday, 28 July 2009

Why is the Arab world – let us speak with terrible sharpness – so backward? Why so many dictators, so few human rights, so much state security and torture, so terrible a literacy rate?
Why does this wretched place, so rich in oil, have to produce, even in the age of the computer, a population so poorly educated, so undernourished, so corrupt? Yes, I know the history of Western colonialism, the dark conspiracies of the West, the Arab argument that you cannot upset the sheikhs and the kings and the autocrats, the imams and the emirs when the "enemy is at the gates". There is some truth to that. But not enough truth.

Once more the United Nations Development Programme has popped up with yet one more, its fifth, report that catalogues – via Arab analysts and academics, mark you – the retarded state of much of the Middle East. It talks of "the fragility of the region's political, social, economic and environmental structures... its vulnerability to outside intervention". But does this account for desertification, for illiteracy – especially among women – and the Arab state which, as the report admits, is often turned "into a threat to human security, instead of its chief support"?
As Arab journalist Rami Khouri stated bleakly last week: "How we tackle the underlying causes of our mediocrity and bring about real change anchored in solid citizenship, productive economies and stable statehood, remains the riddle that has defied three generations of Arabs." Real GDP per capita in the region – one of the statistics which truly shocked Khouri – grew by only 6.4 per cent between 1980 and 2004. That's just 0.5 per cent annually, a rate which 198 of 217 countries analysed by the CIA World Factbook bettered in 2008. Yet the Arab population – which stood at 150 million in 1980 – will reach 400 million in 2015.
I notice much of this myself. When I first came to the Middle East in 1976, it was crowded enough. Cairo's steaming, fetid streets were already jam-packed, night and day, with up to a million homeless living in the great Ottoman cemeteries. Arab homes are spotlessly clean but their streets are often repulsive, dirt and ordure spilling on to the pavements. Even in beautiful Lebanon, where a kind of democracy does exist and whose people are among the most educated and cultured in the Middle East, you find a similar phenomenon. In the rough hill villages of the south, the same cleanliness exists in every home. But why are the streets and the hills so dirty?

I suspect that a real problem exists in the mind of Arabs; they do not feel that they own their countries. Constantly coaxed into effusions of enthusiasm for Arab or national "unity", I think they do not feel that sense of belonging which Westerners feel. Unable, for the most part, to elect real representatives – even in Lebanon, outside the tribal or sectarian context – they feel "ruled over". The street, the country as a physical entity, belongs to someone else. And of course, the moment a movement comes along and – even worse – becomes popular, emergency laws are introduced to make these movements illegal or "terrorist". Thus it is always someone else's responsibility to look after the gardens and the hills and the streets.
And those who work within the state system – who work directly for the state and its corrupt autarchies – also feel that their existence depends on the same corruption upon which the state itself thrives. The people become part of the corruption. I shall always remember an Arab landlord, many years ago, bemoaning an anti-corruption drive by his government. "In the old days, I paid bribes and we got the phone mended and the water pipes mended and the electricity restored," he complained. "But what can I do now, Mr, Robert? I can't bribe anyone – so nothing gets done!"

Even the first UNDP report, back in 2002, was deeply depressing. It identified three cardinal obstacles to human development in the Arab world: the widening "deficit" in freedom, women's rights and knowledge. George W Bush – he of enduring freedom, democracy, etc etc amid the slaughter of Iraq – drew attention to this. Understandably miffed at being lectured to by the man who gave "terror" a new name, even Hosni Mubarak of Egypt (he of the constantly more than 90 per cent electoral success rate), told Tony Blair in 2004 that modernisation had to stem from "the traditions and culture of the region".

Will a solution to the Arab-Israeli war resolve all this? Some of it, perhaps. Without the constant challenge of crisis, it would be much more difficult to constantly renew emergency laws, to avoid constitutionality, to distract populations who might otherwise demand overwhelming political change. Yet I sometimes fear that the problems have sunk too deep, that like a persistently leaking sewer, the ground beneath Arab feet has become too saturated to build on.
I was delighted some months ago, while speaking at Cairo University – yes, the same academy which Barack Obama used to play softball with the Muslim world – to find how bright its students were, how many female students crowded the classes and how, compared to previous visits, well-educated they were. Yet far too many wanted to move to the West. The Koran may be an invaluable document – but so is a Green Card. And who can blame them when Cairo is awash with PhD engineering graduates who have to drive taxis?

And on balance, yes, a serious peace between Palestinians and Israelis would help redress the appalling imbalances that plague Arab society. If you can no longer bellyache about the outrageous injustice that this war represents, then perhaps there are other injustices to be addressed. One of them is domestic violence, which – despite the evident love of family which all Arabs demonstrate – is far more prevalent in the Arab world than Westerners might realise (or Arabs want to admit).
But I also think that, militarily, we have got to abandon the Middle East. By all means, send the Arabs our teachers, our economists, our agronomists. But bring our soldiers home. They do not defend us. They spread the same chaos that breeds the injustice upon which the al-Qa'idas of this world feed. No, the Arabs – or, outside the Arab world, the Iranians or the Afghans – will not produce the eco-loving, gender-equal, happy-clappy democracies that we would like to see. But freed from "our" tutelage, they might develop their societies to the advantage of the people who live in them. Maybe the Arabs would even come to believe that they owned their own countries.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

The Titanic Phenomenon..

The complex history of Mankind and the concurrent yet confusing trends, had created paralyzed generations, which would never stand up, for serious and rational endeavors. The loud falsely claims of change, the fierce arguments of eligibility and smiling wishes for good for all; are the topics that fill all publications, media and social networking. Yes, as per the democratic inspiration, visions and policies would be extracted from open debates and pragmatic arguments between advocates and opponents. But many people forget, that such intellectual practice should initially grant equal or similar capacities, otherwise someone would only see the tip of the iceberg, making it the whole case, while mastering the tools of presentation and advocacy.. Then, the unpredicted, surprising and unrecoverable disaster would happen.. I do call this: The Titanic Phenomenon..


Unfortunately, it is the spreading phenomenon throughout the world, apart from the G12..!! Why? They practically have the Bell Syndrome operational for decades, yes; leading to hierarchical segregations, yet sustaining roles and reasonable participations.. Then, those G12 became what they are, while the rest wondering why? Certainly, Democracy is meant and would base the common goodness, yet few of controlled information, hierarchical decisions and covert operations would secure that goodness, whenever needed. The fierce fight between Media and Governments are the proof, as media professional see their obligation to uncover everything, while public servants know that the public is not interested to know everything.. Simply, they follow the theory of Natural Curve, which works. Introducing quality controls is the focus of the monitoring legislators, as good governance tools would replace the need for investigating addiction of public media.

I can predict that Governance would replace Democracy, sometime in the future..!! Maybe, this the nightmare for all Media guys..!!

Both underdeveloped and newly named developing countries are still in search for epistemic framework to manage their developing process. Over-valuing of public participation, unjustified introduction of unnecessary debates, and inability to draw targets from such intellectual anarchy; are just few examples of the so called democratic practice. No one would debate that Media is in control within these shallow communities, where people have minimum or lower education, same for wages, and their main interest is to survive.. Not more than 5% of these communities are sharing the democratic process, which is more of a fashion than a rooted evolution. Yet commons are more and conclusively interested in Sports Sections, Drama Queens and Cyber Chat. Many of smart media applications are drawn on attracting psychological attentions, and new opportunities of fortunes are overwhelmingly granted. Thanks to communications revolution and open source of broadcasting..!!