By Mahvish Akhtar

Michael says that he wonders what the women who wear a scarf or are covered “look like under all that fabric.” Rick says he doesn’t really think about it. What they wear is their business they are just people, granted a little different but still people.

Marry Ann thinks its ridiculous for anyone to walk around dressed like that. She also says, “I know not all of them dress that way but even then they try too hard to cover up… I mean why is that?”

Jaleesa, a high school student, says “although I personally would not like to live the way Muslim women do but the way they lead their lives is pretty smart and I totally think that it’s a good life.” She also said that “most women that I know don’t seem like they are being pressured into doing anything. They seem very intelligent and independent.”

These are all words of Americans who were asked what they think about Muslim women. I asked them if they felt that Muslim women were oppressed or subjugated by the men in their lives. Most of them told me that when their information was limited to what they heard on TV and read in newspapers they thought that Muslim women were oppressed. Out of the crowd that I spoke to some had had an opportunity to get to know some Muslim women. They said now that they know these women they realize that these women are very headstrong and opinionated. And knowing their personalities it doesn’t seem possible for anyone to subjugate them.

So the next reasonable question was what they think of when they see the women wearing a headscarf.

Rick said that he didn’t think anything. He said that it’s just another person that’s all.

Michael said that he always thinks what they look like underneath…which is a very legitimate thought.

Jaleesa says that there are many Muslims in her school and she is so used to seeing them it doesn’t seem weird any more. In the beginning however, she says, “I felt that this dress doesn’t make any sense”.

Austin says that as far as the equality of men and women is concerned, he feels that both sexes have their own part and are pretty equal. Of course, he adds on that he only knows from what he has heard from his Muslim friends and he has no knowledge of the religion on his own. Erica says that being a woman it’s scary to hear the stories you hear about Muslim women and how they are oppressed.

“It wasn’t until I started working with a Muslim woman that I realized that Muslim women are not as bad off as the media makes them out to be.”

Michael also said that before he knew any women personally he thought that women had to be chaperoned to go out and they could not make any decisions without a man. But now that he has gotten to know some women who are Muslim he knows that that’s not the case.

Americans have a very big lack of understanding about cultural and religious mores in the way marriages and relationships take place among Muslims. They also don’t understand how polygamy is concerned a normal practice in Islam. But once one explains how these things really take place and that most of the information given in the media surrounding these issues is not true and are usually myths, they change their minds.

For example, the concept of arranged marriage seemed unfair to most people that I spoke to. But they understood better once I explained that “arranged” doesn’t mean that the boy and girl never see each other or talk to each other, it just means their parents and families are involved in the process of getting them married.

Jaleesa, after hearing that commented that, “It would be good to have your parents helping you out since there is a lot to do for a wedding. It doesn’t really work like that with us…marriage is a personal matter in our culture.” Erica also was of the same opinion. Michael however, said that he likes it better the way it’s done in his culture but he added “as long as both parties are happy with a system, no one has a right to judge it.”

The same kind of thoughts come out when it comes to polygamy–they can’t understand it. Most of them think that every man has 15 wives and keeps them in harems. But when the true nature of polygamy is explained and it is also explained that the man has to be fair and treat all his wives equally, they are surprised. The other fact that stems out of the reality that it’s not easy to take care of more than one family is that there are not so many people who practice polygamy in the Muslim world. After learning all this they realize that even this one rule is not as terrible as they had imagined it to be.

So, what is the conclusion of all this investigation? One conclusion can be that with all the news and media around the world still doesn’t have as much factual information as you might think. The Americans based their knowledge of the rest of the world from their media and their media gives them only negative feedback about others.

The other conclusion could be that we need to work on trying to make others recognize us. The problem is persistent because we don’t do anything to solve it. It may be true that the foreign media makes Muslims or Muslim women look bad, but isn’t it our job to clear the misconceptions? After all if we don’t do this job…who will? I hope my efforts to discover what others think of us will benefit us as a whole.

9-5

By Amanda Khalil

Noor Saadeh embraced Islam in 1989. She was living and performing as a concert and opera singer in New York when she stumbled into a coffee shop run by an Egyptian Muslim.

After discussing pharaohs and pyramids they got around to talking about Islam, which she was embarrassed to admit that she knew nothing about. Six months later, she took shahadah and left the concert stage, deeming it an inappropriate career for a Muslim woman.

Islam so filled her heart and soul that she closed the chapter on thoughts of music and performance.

Some time later, after praying to find a good husband who would want to work for God and Islam, she married.

She and her husband had one child, a boy. Many of her friends were sad to see that they did not have more children immediately, but God has His plans, as she would soon see.

They settled in the Berkshires in Massachusetts, where her husband had obtained work after graduation. To their delight, there was a small group of Muslim families in the area. They collected everyone via monthly newsletters and Ramadan iftars. They then proposed to help their children learn about Islam, and so they started a small weekend Islamic class in their apartment.

Noor’s music and drama background came in handy. She soon realized that kids learned quickly when facts were set to catchy tunes and rhymes. The children learned the names and times of prayers, how to make hajj, and more, relatively quickly with the help of some melodic encouragement. In “the blink of an eye” the children were picking up difficult material. She had read the Holy Qur’an so often in English that the stories of the prophets came to her quite easily, and this made for great storytelling. Her little charges sat rapt with attention.

Never having been a songwriter, she borrowed from the nursery rhymes that all Western kids seemed to know. They simply ‘Islamized’ the texts (thinking of themselves as the Muslim Barney), but they never took it seriously, only intending to teach the kids about their beautiful faith and build their characters and identities as Muslims.

After some time, parents came to them saying, “None of the audio products we’ve had for our kids caught their hearts and ears as much as yours did. Why not make a professional recording? Surely that’s your background.”

Thus, the spark of a new idea emerged. They contacted the well-established Muslim media companies. They were blessed with the good fortune to receive immeasurable support and encouragement. The labor of love to create their project began.

From the beginning, they had very concrete ideas of using children’s voices in their recordings. Unfortunately, they ran into a few brick walls concerning this issue. “Kids are a headache, costly, they need too much rehearsal time, etc.” people said.

But Noor was not convinced or dissuaded. Her husband asked, “How expensive and difficult could it really be?” So they kept trekking along, and approached a high-tech studio in Detroit. A sound engineer kindly offered to explain the process to them, and suggested a more affordable studio.

They produced a lovely audio album called “We Are Muslims” which they knew would be a hit if the right people would market and distribute it for them.

They literally begged and pleaded with all the media companies at the annual ISNA conference that year to just play it at their booth. There were no takers, and they began to despair, until a brother who sold Islamic trinkets offered to display and air the tape. He didn’t offer much at his booth, but he had a dynamite location. Soon he was back asking them for more tapes since he had sold everything out within an hour of its playing! Subhanallah!

After astonishing public acceptance, her husband Ammar was encouraged to take it all a step further. He said to Noor, “Why not a company JUST for Muslim kids? There are many Islamic media companies, but their focus included the entire Muslim community. Why not focus on just the kids?”

So began their company, with a handful of the best books, audio, videos, and software they could find on the market, they went full speed ahead. Her husband went one day to incorporate the business.

Al Noor for Islamic Arts was the name, and over the years the company name evolved to Noorart, Inc.

Ammar had so many wonderful ideas that Noor humbly said, “He has been the brains and inspiration behind all that we do. He puts my talent to work, writing and performing, but I have to admit that the basic premise for such products as the Qur`an for Little Muslims series, stories reflecting the meaning of the short surahs for kids, Razanne the Muslim Doll and We Love Muhammad were all his ideas…

“Given time, health, finances and above all… Allah’s blessings, I pray that all his great ideas come to fruition for the sake of our ummah and its future.”

From the start Noorart’s goal has been to produce and offer the finest quality products, competitive with anything the West can offer, but instead pertaining to Islam, infused with their sincerity and enthusiasm for all things Islamic. Of course they wanted the products to be well-received, because this means the products are helping the American Muslims to raise their children.

NoorArt’s products capture the hearts of children–color, fun, positivism and above all sincerity, something children respond to on a direct spiritual level.

Noorart, Inc has gone off in different directions. Along with the internet-based Islamic Media outlet, which now serves the entire Muslim family and community, Noorart is now one of the largest distributors of Islamic and Arabic curricula in North America.

Unfortunately, media piracy makes it impossible for the family to subsist on production alone. The school business gives them an opportunity for a sound financial base to help support production.

Noor left her musical world without so much as a backward glance, yet God returned her to it according to His plan. God gave Noor one son she said, “…to please my heart and give me first-hand experience in raising a child so that I would be able to help others. He knew, though, that as a truly full-time and involved parent, I would never have had the time to pour so much love and energy into Noorart with more than one child.”

“As a fledging singer, starving artist in New York, I often worked temp secretary jobs to support my career in the early days. Subhanallah, how all that experience came to be intensely beneficial as I helped my husband build our business! What does Allah say in the Qur’an? “Never will the work of any righteous servant go unrewarded,” says Noor.

Muslims, know that God has a plan for all your talents and abilities and there are countless ways to serve Him, if that is your heart’s desire.

As Noor so eloquently put it, “So many times as converts we feel we must give up all those dunya habits and talents that are not compatible with our new faith, just as I gave up my classical music career.

“Others often ask why Allah gives people various talents if they are not allowed to use them. In hindsight, I realized my passion was not so in performance and music as it was in delivering a message.”

In a beautiful way, untouched by the plans of human beings, but in accordance with his own plan, God has allowed Noor to continue her passion, but with best of all messages, that of Islam.

9-5

By Jimmy Carter

I am concerned that public discussion of my book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid has been diverted from the book’s basic proposals: that peace talks be resumed after six years of delay and that the tragic persecution of Palestinians be ended. Although most critics have not seriously disputed or even mentioned the facts and suggestions about these two issues, an apparently concerted campaign has been focused on the book’s title, combined with allegations that I am anti-Israel. This is not good for any of us who are committed to Israel’s status as a peaceful nation living in harmony with its neighbors.

It is encouraging that President Bush has announced that peace in the Holy Land will be a high priority for his administration during the next two years. On her current trip to the region, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called for an early U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian meeting. She has recommended the 2002 offer of the 23 Arab nations as a foundation for peace: full recognition of Israel based on a return to its internationally recognized borders. This offer is compatible with official U.S. policy, previous agreements approved by Israeli governments in 1978 and 1993, and the “road map” for peace developed by the “quartet” (the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations).

The clear fact is that Israel will never find peace until it is willing to withdraw from its neighboring occupied territories and permit the Palestinians to exercise their basic human and political rights. With land swaps, this “green line” can be modified through negotiations to let a substantial number of Israeli settlers remain in their subsidized homes east of the internationally recognized border. The premise of exchanging Arab territory for peace has been acceptable for several decades to a majority of Israelis but not to a minority of the more conservative leaders, who are unfortunately supported by most of the vocal American Jewish community.

These same premises, of course, will have to be accepted by any government that represents the Palestinians. A March 2006 poll by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah found 73 percent approval among citizens in the occupied territories, and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has expressed support for talks between President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and pledged to end Hamas’s rejectionist position if a negotiated agreement is approved by the Palestinian people.

Abbas is wise in repeating to Secretary Rice that he rejects any “interim” boundaries for the Palestinian state. The step-by-step road-map formula promulgated almost three years ago for reaching a final agreement has proved to be a non-starter — and an excuse for not making any progress. I know from experience that it is often more difficult to negotiate an interim agreement, with all its future uncertainties, than to address the panoply of crucial issues that will have to be resolved to reach the goal of peace.

Given these recent developments and with the Democratic Party poised to play a more important role in governing, this is a good time to clarify our party’s overall policy in the broader Middle East. Numerous options are available as Congress attempts to correlate its suggestions with White House policy, and there is little doubt that the basic proposals of the Iraq Study Group provide a good foundation on which Democrats might reach something of a consensus (recognizing that individual lawmakers could still make their own proposals on details). This party policy would provide a reasonable answer to the allegation that Democrats have no alternatives of their own to address the Iraq quagmire.

A key factor in an Iraq policy would be strong demands on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government to cooperate in ending sectarian violence, prodded by a clear notice of plans for troop withdrawals. A commitment to regional cooperation, including opportunities for Iran and Syria to participate, would be beneficial in assuring doubtful Iraqis that America will no longer be the dominant outside power shaping their military, political and economic future.

Although Israel’s prime minister has criticized these facets of the Iraq Study Group’s report, the most difficult recommendation for many Democrats could be the call for substantive peace talks on the Palestinian issue. The situation in the occupied territories will be a crucial factor, and it would be helpful for both the House and Senate to send a responsible delegation to the West Bank and Gaza to observe the situation personally, to meet with key leaders and to ascertain the prospects if peace talks can be launched.

I am convinced that, with bipartisan support, this is a good opportunity for progress.

9-5

By Geoffrey Cook, Muslim Media News Service (MMNS)

Mahmood Madani is a third generation East African of “Indian” origin now. If his family had not emigrated from the Subcontinent to Kampala he probably be a Pakistani today. Many emigrated to build the British railways in Africa.

This article comes out of two interviews related to his latest book,

Good Muslim, Bad Muslim

. In a way, this article is an extension of a book review where the author discusses his work.

The United States encouraged Islamic “terrorism” against Soviet forces during the 1980s. America and our allies targeted civilians on purpose. Some of our victims were allowed to escape to create further fear amongst civil society. By this means, third world citizens had to live under constant created dread from the first world.
Moderate Muslims became known as “American” Muslims. President Ronald Reagan took the Islamic religious schism between the Shiites and the Sunnis and shaped them into a political rupture for the advantages of Washington. Thus, an American / Saudi / Pakistani Alliance was forged. The C.I.A (Central Intelligence Agency) created the first jihad for centuries. Since the U.S. could not recruit a leading Saudi prince to lead the “crusade,” they settled on Osama bin Laden, the scion of one of these families.

“The C.I.A. created Al-Qaiea, and bin Laden was an alternative to secular nationalism…no other society paid a higher price for the destruction of the Soviet Union than Afghanistan.”

“America …[did]…not officially take responsibility for its actions…Terrorism came out of the Cold War…”
Modernity in politics [moves] exclusion into inclusion…the good life cannot be lives in isolation, and we must suffer for it through political anarchy!

9-5

By Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

What a difference an election makes! If you ever wanted to see the impact of Congressional oversight now that Democrats are back in the majority, you don’t have to look much farther than the events of the past two days.

Yesterday, I chaired a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee to begin restoring oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice. At the hearing, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faced some tough questions from Republican and Democratic senators alike about the Bush Administration’s policies relating to domestic spying, habeas corpus, prisoner interrogation techniques, and many other important issues.

Not coincidentally, the day before the hearing, the Bush Administration announced the termination of its illegal domestic spying program — agreeing instead to submit warrants through the FISA Court as required by law, a solution Democrats had called for over many months while we were in the minority.

In short, Democrats in Congress are beginning to return real oversight to Washington — something that is sorely needed and long overdue. We’re starting to see results, but there’s still much to be done to restore real checks and balances to our federal government, stop the erosion of our civil liberties, make government work better, and prevent further abuses by the Bush Administration. These problems have accumulated over the past 6 years of Republican rule, and we can’t fix everything overnight.

So we have a lot of work ahead of us — but as we’ve seen over the last few days, there may be light at the end of the tunnel. I’m going to need the support of millions of Americans standing with me in this fight for our basic rights and freedoms. I hope you’ll help me build this grassroots support.

Invite your friends and family to sign up to join the Green Mountain PAC team today — and let’s work together to restore the civil liberties of all Americans.

In the 32 years since I first came to the Senate — during the era of Watergate and Vietnam — I have never seen a time when our Constitution and fundamental rights as Americans were more threatened by our own government. Just this last weekend, the President and Vice President said they intend to override the will of the American people, as expressed in the most recent national elections, and ignore actions of Congress, to escalate the war in Iraq.

What’s more, the President has issued signing statement after signing statement declaring the law to be not what Congress passed and he has signed, but what he finds convenient. And, regrettably, the Administration has all too often refused to answer the legitimate oversight questions of the duly-elected representatives of the American people — including failing to come clean with the details about their interrogation and detention policies and practices.

Then there’s the issue of domestic wiretaps. We must engage in all surveillance necessary to prevent acts of terrorism, but we can and should do that in ways that protect the basic rights of all Americans, including the right to privacy. While the President’s reversal is a good first step, there are still several outstanding questions that remain. Will the Bush Administration go to the FISA Court for approval of every individual proposed wiretap, or merely seek broad approval of the overall program? Attorney General Gonzales did not answer that question in yesterday’s hearing — a crucial answer that must be learned.

We have a democratic government in which Congress is entitled to know and review government actions. The President and Vice President of the United States should not be operating a secret and separate regime in which their official acts and policies cannot be known by the people’s elected representatives.

Clearly, there is still much work to be done to repair the damage inflicted on our Constitution and civil liberties during the last six years — and I’m going to need your help to accomplish it.

Please invite your friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues to stand with us and join Green Mountain PAC today!

Thank you so much for your continued support. I’ll be sure to keep you informed about our progress over the coming days and weeks.

Sincerely,
Patrick Leahy
U.S. Senator (D-VT)

P.S. Please forward this email to everyone you know! Help me build the grassroots support we need to bring real, lasting change to America.

9-5

By Bob Wood

Some may find it strange that I tend to find parallels and lessons on investing in unusual places. Of course, as a somewhat contrarian investor, I’m always looking for new ways to look at things. This past week, I perused a book originally written in the early 1800s, which, I believe, offers information that may prove valuable to those managing their own investments.

An example of my finding useful investment information in odd places, this book has nothing to do with investing. Actually, it is one of the classics on conducting war.

On War

, by Carl Von Clausewitz, the great theorist on war strategy, offers help to those experiencing the inevitable rough times that we all must learn to manage.

Chapter 7 in Book One, entitled “Friction in War,” begins with insights that help explain why our current leaders seem hopelessly bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan. And they might apply, as well, to self-taught investors — or those trying to compete with the pros — in their spare time. Clausewitz writes:

‘’If one has never personally experienced war, one cannot understand in what the difficulties constantly mentioned really consist, nor why a commander should need any brilliance and exceptional ability. Everything looks simple; the knowledge required does not look remarkable, the strategic options are so obvious that by comparison the simplest problem of higher mathematics has an impressive scientific dignity.

‘’Once war has actually been seen the difficulties become clear; but it is still extremely hard to describe the unseen, all-pervading element that brings about this change of perspective.’’

I think Clausewitz implies that what seems easy enough in theory becomes much more complicated when applied in a real-world war setting. In terms of investors, this explanation could relate to managing a hypothetical portfolio of stocks on paper, which always seems to perform as expected, as opposed to putting real money behind those allocations. Or consider the investor who is assured that one sector of the markets, maybe energy, makes perfect sense and will continue to do well, until the inevitable “friction” sets in.

Friction in investing can come from unforeseen developments, such as the implosion of a big hedge fund, after it has taken highly leveraged positions in natural gas that suddenly reverses its trend. For example, last year’s implosion of the Amaranth Fund made some well-thought-out plans suddenly look suspect.

‘’Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult,” Clausewitz continues. “The difficulties accumulate and end by producing a kind of friction that is inconceivable unless one has experienced war… Countless minor incidents – the kind you can never really foresee – combine to lower the general level of performance, so that one always falls far short of the intended goal.’’

I see in this point the mindset an investor might have after reading many pages of modern ‘’stocks for the long-run’’ theories, purporting that if you only wait long enough, your portfolio will inevitably grow much larger. But even in the past, when markets trended higher than in preceding decades, various events and interruptions in those bull markets cast investors into situations that their planning had not anticipated. Remember the market crash in 1987, amid one of the strongest secular bull markets in modern times?

How many investors calmly watched as the markets fell — the S&P 500 dropping from the 330 level to 225 in about two weeks? And that event causes me to wonder about investors who recently enjoyed a wonderful bull market in energy but have been spooked out of today’s markets with the price of oil dropping from $78/barrell to just below $50 this past week? Unseasonably warm weather in the northern parts of the country qualify as one of those unforeseen incients cited by Clausewitz.

If you are managing a “paper” portfolio, you haven’t had much worrying to do. In fact, you are probably quite relieved that you weren’t risking real money. But by now, you may be confidently mapping a strategy to load up on oil, using whatever technical chart pattern you have adopted as the best indicator for direction changes in the price of oil. Clausewitz continues:

‘’Friction is the only concept that more or less corresponds to the factors that distinguish real war from war on paper. The military machine – the army and everything related to it – is basically very simple and therefore seems easy to manage. But we should bear in mind that none of its components is of one piece; each part is composed of individuals, every one of whom retains his potential of friction.’’

So let’s consider the investor who thinks he has everything figured out correctly and waits patiently for his profits to begin rolling in. He has little concern for all those other market players, those with different agendas or methods who are also involved in this favorite investment, which could be energy or any other investment option.

Some portfolio managers, like me, prefer to invest in less liquid, less frequently traded shares in more obscure stocks and funds. Yet we have seen on several occasions that it takes only one mutual fund or hedge fund manager with a shorter attention span than mine to send a favorite holding into a price drop that casts doubt on the wisdom of having ever chosen it at all.

‘’This tremendous friction, which cannot, as in mechanics, be reduced to a few points, is everywhere in contact with chance, and brings effects that cannot be measured, just because they are largely due to chance. One, for example, is the weather. Fog can prevent the enemy from being seen in time, a gun from firing when it should, a report from reaching the commanding officer. Rain can prevent a battalion from arriving, make another late by keeping it not three but eight hours on the march, ruin a cavalry charge by bogging horses down in mud, etc.’’

So yes, investing can be like war when an unforeseen military coup in Thailand affects my small holdings in that country, in the closed-end fund, TTF. Or consider the impact of recent calls for nationalizing strategic industries in Venezuela’s red hot market that tumble that market’s shares almost 20% in one day.

‘’We give these examples simply for illustration, to help the reader follow the argument. It would take volumes to cover all difficulties. We could exhaust the reader with illustrations alone if we really tried to deal with the whole range of minor troubles that must be faced in war. The few we have given will be excused by those readers who have long since understood what we are after.’’

And how many investors could have foreseen the Long Term Capital hedge fund debacle, even with the fund managed by Nobel Prize winning experts? Or the Arab Oil embargo of 1973? A savings-and-loan crisis? Or the stock of high-flying Enron suddenly becoming worthless?

Of course, such “friction” can work both ways. Sometimes, great things happen for investors who can see through bad hype coming from politicians or market players in the financial media. Who would have guessed that one of the world’s strongest stock markets in 2006 would be in Venezuela, amid constant criticism of its leader’s Socialist leanings?

Who would have guessed that Brazil’s stock market would be one of the best places to invest in 2002, when that country’s leader, Lula da Silva was derided as bad for business — as well as Socialistic? And how many thought to load up in the Russian stock market in 1998, when the country appeared to be imploding, as news spread of a pending massive bond default?

With the benefit of hindsight, these examples look rather obvious. As in war, we can easily formulate a winning investment plan on paper — where risks are nonexistent. But with real money on the line, how can we possibly plan for the inevitable frictions, caused by the conflicting actions of so many others in the markets — those with methods and agendas much different than our own?

In short, we can’t. Our best strategy may well be paying close attention to the risks inherent in our investing models and planning in advance the level of losses we will accept before selling out. Pay proper attention to the size of each position, allowing no one position to hurt overall performance if adverse events should send its price much lower. Of course, you could also adopt a much more rigorous method for identifying which investments make it into your portolfio in the first place.

But for me, the best strategy of all is following long-term trends. The most powerful trends have a much better chance of shrugging off smaller bits of bad news or temporary adverse price movements based on selling by a small number of players who also hold your favorites.

I still think one of the best secular trends to watch is energy. And while the ride down from $78 to the current $50/barrel for oil might alter the plans of many other investors, it provides me a great time to be looking over solid companies whose shares are selling at big discounts when compared to the overvalued Dow or S&P 500, not to mention “priced for Nirvana” shares in the Nasdaq 100.

None of us may ever be blessed with perfect knowledge or foresight when investing. Just as Clausewitz taught about war almost 200 years ago, situations occur that cannot be predicted or planned for in advance. But the studious investor will anticipate a wider range of possibilities for events in the economy, geo-politics and stock or commodity prices and can react better than most, if only for knowing that we cannot know everything. Yet how we react to the unexpected might make all the difference!

Have a great week,
Bob

Bob Wood ChFC, CLU Yusuf Kadiwala. Registered Investment Advisors, KMA, Inc., invest@muslimobserver.com.

9-5

Muslim fans seek space for prayer

EVANSTON,IL– Devout Muslim fans at Northwestern University are asking the authorities to set aside a secluded space for the prayers or to grant them permission to come and go from the arena before the buzzer. Currently, the students try to play below the bleachers even as the game continues.

School authorities say that while they value diversity, they are not yet ready to make an exception for the Muslim fans. The school’s athletic director will meet with Muslim student leaders to sort out the issue.

Ruediger Seesemann, an associate professor of Islamic studies at Northwestern, said academic institutions have a responsibility to encourage spiritual formation.

“These Muslim students want to integrate their Muslim identity with their identity as college students,” he said. “Why not let them bring their prayer rugs, let them pray and let them enjoy the basketball game?”

“I personally think it can be settled in a very easy and uncomplicated way,” Seesemann added. “The fact that it becomes a matter of debate is significant and points to the sensitivity of the issue.”

Taxi drivers to face crackdown in Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS,MN– Muslim taxi drivers in Minnesota face a possible crackdown for refusing to take passengers carrying liquor or accompanied by dogs. The Metropolitan Airports Commission has authorized a public hearing next month on a staff proposal to increase penalties for refusing fares, an offical said.

A controversy has been brimming over several months after Muslim taxi drivers, mostly Somali immigrants, cited a fatwa claiming that they are religously barred from carrying passengers who have alcohol.

Under the proposal — which is also aimed at drivers who refuse to take short-haul passengers in favor of more lucrative long trips — a first offense would result in a 30-day cab license suspension and a second a two-year license revocation.

The public hearing, approved at a commission meeting , will be held February 27.

Zakieh Mohammed named finalist for Golden Apple Awards

CHICAGO,IL– Zakieh Mohammed, a teacher of English at Roberto Clemente High School, has been named as one of the 32 finalists for the 2007 Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching in grades 9 through 12. A total of 941 teachers from Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, and Will counties were nominated for the award, which was first presented in 1986.

The finalists will be honored Saturday, February 17 at the Celebration of Excellence in Teaching from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn St. in Chicago.

The Awards selection committee is comprised of Chicago-area educators. Two committee members will observe each of the 32 finalists in the classroom and interview their principal and selected colleagues, parents and students. The 10 Golden Apple Award winners will be announced in Mid-March. The winners will be honored at an awards ceremony on May 12 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, which subsequently will be aired as a one-hour prime-time special on WTTW/Channel 11.

Each of the 10 Golden Apple Award winners will receive a tuition-free fall-term sabbatical at Northwestern University, a personal computer, $3,000, and membership in the Golden Apple Academy, which has inducted 210 expert teachers in the past 21 years to ensure that all children have the excellent teachers they deserve.

Muslim girl magazine launched

Chicago, IL–American teen Muslim girls are much like teen girls everywhere – so says a recent nationwide study of Muslim girls aged 14-18 years. The study was conducted on behalf of Muslim Girl Magazine , a new bi-monthly glossy magazine launched this month to give 400,000 American Muslim teen girls a lively and uniquely relevant perspective on contemporary living, according to a press release.

“Our study showed that these girls go to public school, watch a little too much television, read teen magazines, surf the Internet, use Google, enjoy YouTube, play video games, shop a lot, talk on the telephone and spend time just hanging out,” says Faye Kennedy, VP at execuGo Media, the publisher that commissioned the study. “In short, they are pretty much like most other American teenagers.” The study also highlighted some likely differences: for example, they get news at Al Jazeera, socialize at IslamiCity and count among their top hobbies, Qur’an study.

The research confirmed Kennedy’s hunch: teen Muslim girls in America would love a lifestyle magazine that does what no other teen girl magazine has done for them – give them a means of enjoying contemporary life within the values they love. Over 90% of the panel, when shown the initial concept, indicated that they liked it, thought it was what they need, would read it and would recommend it to their friends.

Ausma Khan, PhD, writer, human rights lawyer and activist, liked the concept so much that she left a teaching position at Northwestern University to become Editor in Chief. “Most representations of Muslims in the media are negative,” she says. “Muslim Girl Magazine challenges those perceptions by telling the stories of Muslim teens who are proud to be American and who contribute to American society in so many positive ways. This is a chance for their voices to be heard. Our editorial mandate is to ‘enlighten, celebrate and inspire’ them.”

Challenging stereotypes about Muslim girls in America, Muslim Girl Magazine re-defines the face of Muslim youth in America. Its innovative content showcases teen girls who are equally proud of their identity as Americans and Muslims, while not shying away from the conflict inherent in being both. It also shakes up the complacency of Muslims themselves by emphasizing the diversity of practice within American Muslim communities, typically a no-go area.

The premiere issue of the magazine features girls who have joined the Peace Corps and volunteered in Indonesia. Advice columns tackle everything from boyfriends to divorced parents to anti-Muslim discrimination. Regular departments range from Qur’an Notes to Hot List reviews of TV shows like The CW Television Network’s ‘Gilmore Girls.’ And a special feature on the hit show ‘24’ directly confronts the biggest elephant in the room—the association of Muslims with terrorism.

Khan says, “We’re showing hijab-wearing basketball players alongside contemporary fashion designers and artists. We want to dispel the notion that Muslim teens conform to one particular model. Veiled or unveiled, Muslim girls participate fearlessly in sports, the arts, international travel and their local mosques.”

Muslim Girl Magazine launched with a planned circulation of 50,000 copies per issue in the first year and expects to grow to 100,000 within two years. Dianna Hightower, Publisher and Director of Business Development and Advertising, expects advertising to grow quickly. “Today the Muslim market is where the Hispanic market was five years ago — on the verge of a major breakout. Households of Muslim girls comprise a valuable commercial profile with higher than average scores on income, education, occupation and size. Having Fox Broadcasting and Oxford University Press advertise in our first issue is evidence that prestigious and smart advertisers see strong potential.”

Muslim Girl Magazine is published by award-winning execuGo Media of Toronto, Canada and distributed worldwide by RCS of Los Angeles, California. The cover price is $4.95 US ($5.95 CDN). The annual subscription rate is $19.99 at www.muslimgirlmagazine.com

Religious leaders call for interfaith room on college campus

OREM,UT– Local religious have called on the authorities to set aside space for an interfaith worship center at the Utah Valley State College. The need for an inclusive religious center takes precedence as the Legislature considers granting the college university status, said Linda Walton, a member of the Utah Valley Ministerial Association, which met with UVSC President William Sederburg to discuss interfaith relations, according to the Deseret News.

The center would provide a space for meditation and prayer, particularly for students who are not affiliated with the LDS Institute. Of the college’s some 20,000 students, Walton said, between 8,000 and 10,000 do not participate in Institute. Students of different faiths often struggle in the predominantly LDS community, Walton told those at the meeting.

“For instance, it came to my attention that there are several Muslim students on campus that have had to do their daily prayers in the rest room,” she said. “That really irritates me.”

As a public institution, Walton said the school needs to focus on meeting the spiritual needs of all students, not just those of the LDS faith. Most people who live in Utah County belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the majority of UVSC students hail from Utah County.

Moroccan-American group formed in Boston area

Note: Correction: The original version of this article claimed that Siham Byah was the founder of the Moroccan American Civic and Cultural Association. Mohamed Brahimi, the founder and president, informed us that Ms. Byah was not one of the founders, and falsely stated that she had founded the organization, when in fact she was only peripherally associated with the group. We apologize for any inconvenience to MACCA.

BOSTON,MA– Moroccan-American residents of Boston area have formed an organization to help newcomers adjust in the US. Siham Byah, who was temporarily involved as a volunteer with the Moroccan American Civic and Cultural Association or MACCA, says that the group aims to serve Malden, Medford, Revere, Everett, Saugus and Winthrop, and hopes to eventually open a branch of the organization in New York City.

The MACCA has only been established for two months, but has already received donations of five working laptops and several monetary gifts from area Moroccan-American residents. The group hopes to eventually establish an organization that will provide support for the community on every level, from offering education and computer literacy classes for immigrants to working at food banks and homeless shelters, adopting parks and donating time and money to the Big Brother and Big Sisters of America.

They are also planning on aiding Muslim-Americans with tax preparation, resume writing and even real estate.

Although it is still in the very early stages of development, the MACCA has already started making a difference in the lives of area Muslims, Byah said.

Byah said the association has begun offering English literature classes for Muslims and career counseling opportunities, which have already started to show a return.

Canada

Stephane Dion tours Muslim school targeted by vandals

MONTREAL-Federal Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says Canada should follow the lead of the United States and France in protecting minority communities against hate crimes.

Dion and Quebec Public Security Minister Jacques Dupuis were in Saint Laurent Friday touring a Muslim school that was hit earlier in the week by vandals.

Dion says more needs to be done to help communities that are at risk.

He called on governments to increase funding so local groups can spend the money they already have on helping children.

The school (L’Ecole des Jeunes Musulmans Canadiens) has reopened although some students say they are scared other incidents may occur.

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Courtesy New America Media, News Analysis, Andrew Lam

Editor’s Note: More than 3 million Iraqis have been displaced by the war in Iraq. Yet the U.S. has very few slots for those who fled their homeland to seek safe haven, even if it has a direct hand in their tragedy.

Children stand in the compound of a relative’s residence, at which they are now staying after their families left their homes in Baghdad for Arbil, about 350 km (220 miles) north of Baghdad, January 19, 2007. Tens of thousands of people have fled Baghdad, the epicentre of violence in Iraq. The United Nations, launching an appeal for aid for Iraqis who have fled their homes or left the country, said this month about one in eight Iraqis is now displaced. Many, including non-Kurds, have taken refuge in Kurdistan — a largely autonomous region in the northern mountains that has been a haven from attacks plaguing other areas since the U.S. invasion of 2003. Picture taken January 19, 2007. To match feature MIGRATION-IRAQ/ARBIL. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari (IRAQ)

Little Saigon in Orange County, Calif., and Little Havana in Miami, each built by refugees, are now thriving communities with growing political and economic clout. But they also serve as painful reminders of America’s failures in its overseas ventures. For this reason, don’t expect a Little Baghdad to appear on U.S. soil any time soon — even as huge numbers of Iraqi refugees continue to flee their ravaged land.

The United States had, until recently, reserved only 500 spots for Iraqi refugees in 2007 – though the State Department says it wants to allocate as many as 20,000 U.S. refugee slots to Iraqis. It would like to bring more in, but blames an unwieldy U.N. processing system. Perhaps the real problem has more to do with politics: Accepting Iraqi refugees would be akin to America admitting defeat in its efforts to pacify Iraq and a huge setback in its fight against terrorism in the region.

Nearly 2 million Iraqi refugees currently live outside the country, and another 1.5 million are displaced within. As conditions in Iraq worsen, more are crossing borders. Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia are all seeing a rise in Iraqi refugees. Syria in particular, which shares a 450-mile border with Iraq, is bearing the brunt of the mass exodus. Syrian officials estimated more than 700,000 Iraqis of all stripes are now living inside their country.
“We’re not meeting our basic obligation to the Iraqis who’ve been imperiled because they worked for the U.S. government,” notes Kirk W. Johnson in a recent New York Times article. Johnson, who worked for the United States Agency for International Development in Falluja in 2005, writes, “We could not have functioned without their hard work, and it’s shameful that we’ve nothing to offer them in their bleakest hour.”

Indeed, those working as interpreters for the U.S. and British armies and for foreign journalists — not to mention those hired by U.S. companies doing reconstruction and those working in the Green Zone — have been targeted by various insurgent groups. Their lives will be exponentially imperiled once U.S. forces pull out.

“In Iraq there’s no love lost between American soldiers and the locals,” notes Quang X. Pham, author of “A Sense of Duty,” who fought in the first Persian Gulf War. “Iraqi refugees, unlike Vietnamese refugees, have no champion like President Gerald Ford, and they will find much opposition to their immigration to the United States due to fallout from 9-11 and specifically, the Patriot Act.”

While congress debated whether to let in Vietnamese refugees in 1975 — Sen. George McGovern said it was better for “Vietnamese to stay in Vietnam,” and Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) thought that “barmaids, prostitutes and criminals” should be screened out — President Ford threw his support behind the refugees.

Such an act today, from a president who still speaks of the war in Iraq as winnable, is unimaginable. How could President Bush accept Iraqi refugees when only last year he described post-invasion Iraq as a nation of “freedom” and “democracy”?

On the ground in Iraq, of course, the situation is dire. “The current exodus is the largest long-term population movement in the Middle East since the displacement of Palestinians following the creation of Israel in 1948,” according to the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

In a news release last week, António Guterres, U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees, says that, “the longer this conflict goes on, the more difficult it becomes for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced, and the communities that are trying to help them — both inside and outside Iraq. The burden on host communities and governments in the region is enormous.”

But according Faiza Al-Arji, who fled from Baghdad to Jordan with her family recently, help is not forthcoming. She and her family keep a blog called afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com. “Here, in expatriation and dispersal,” she writes, “I have seen so many organizations, or heard about them. I spared no efforts to obtain some medical help for an Iraqi who was injured by shrapnel’s or burns, or to get some financial or material donations. But to no avail…All I found [were] lies and stalling.”

Al-Arji doesn’t spare her fellow well-to-do Iraqi refugees from criticism. “There are so many rich and millionaire Iraqis here, who turn their backs [on] the Iraqi poor,” she writes, “as if they do not know them, as if they do not belong to the same torn, wounded country. They meet each other in fancy restaurants and drive the most luxurious cars, but have no mercy in their hearts for their brothers.”

For the majority, life in exile is a life of poverty. The United Nations reported that women are increasingly forced to resort to prostitution. Child labor has become a scourge. It also estimated that an additional 2.7 million would be internally displaced in Iraq this year. In Syria, more than 30 percent of Iraqi children are without schooling.
During the Cold war, a refugee fleeing a communist country became an automatic icon for the West. President Ronald Reagan in his farewell address talked of boat people who waved their SOS flags to U.S. sailors — their rescuers — yelling, “Hello! Freedom man!” The story is a poignant reminder of the way the United States once symbolized freedom and sweet liberty in the eyes of the dispossessed.

That perception has been irrevocably altered in the age of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Homeland Security and the government-condoned torture and eroding human and immigrant rights. Few Iraqi refugees would contemplate America as an asylum country these days, and that speaks volume as to how the world views America.

Yet there is a clear moral if not geopolitical mandate for the United States to help Iraq’s refugees. In Vietnam, many of those who allied themselves with America during the war were sent to re-education camps, some were summarily executed and many stripped their properties. A far worse fate is likely for those who threw their lot with America in Iraq, and who have now quickly become victims of its latest foreign policy failure.

Andrew Lam is a NAM editor and author of “Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora” (2005, Heyday Books) which recently won a PEN/Beyond Margins Award.

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