Blogger: Mideast Youth - Thinking Ahead
Article: MEY launches Global Village TV in beta!
Originaly Posted On: 2008-04-19 22:34:30

After months of hard work, Mideast Youth, with the enormous help of ByteSense, finally launched Global Village TV (GVTV). I would especially like to thank Umar for making this opportunity for us much easier than it would’ve been without his help and guidance.

GVTV is a dynamic, educational platform, co-created by Baha’is and Muslims working hand in hand to cultivate an interfaith community.

For the past few months, we have been working diligently on this initiative, in hopes that it would contribute to improving and advancing serious interfaith.

We realized that in many forums, in the process of interfaith, the Baha’i Faith, Yezidi faith, and many other religions are left out. This community aims to change that.

You can view a brief demonstration of this network here:

We encourage you all to join.

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Blogger: Jewschool
Article: No Women Allowed at Seder!
Originaly Posted On: 2008-04-18 06:44:40

An article in The Jewish Week about a new Haggadah for men only has really got me confused. Here is an admittedly simplistic timeline of the last 35 years.

1. Judaism is seen as being too male centered, with commentaries on the Torah written by males for males and women excluded from various rituals.
2. Reform Judaism takes note and goes completely egalitarian - ordaining its first female Rabbi in 1972.
3. Over the next 30 years male participation in Reform Judaism drops drastically - going from 400 Brotherhoods with 40,000 members to 250 Brotherhoods with 20,000 members and dropping to only 20 -25 percent of Hebrew Union College Rabbinical student body.
4. Since “much of the new spirituality in Judaism feels effeminate to men”, in 2008, Reform Judaism attempts to woo men back by putting out a collection of commentaries on the Torah by male Rabbis about male topics.
5. In a further attempt to deal with the imbalance Reform Judaism then puts out a Haggadah exclusively for males and 25 Brotherhoods around the country buy these Haggadahs and conduct a MALE ONLY SEDER (even female Cantor’s excluded)!

So apparently men have different needs then women after all! They need their own space, agendas and perspective in order to connect to spirituality. Can you see why this would be confusing?

[Blessings for a wonderful Yom Tov to all - male and female! May we all be worthy of connecting to the spiritual emanations of global, national and personal redemption available to us through the mitzvot of Pesach.]

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Blogger: Point of no return
Article: Sh’ite rebels in Yemen destroy Chief Rabbi’s house
Originaly Posted On: 2008-04-06 14:10:00

Yemen’s Shi’ite rebels destroyed the vacant house of the (mainly Muslim Arab) state’s top rabbi, a security official said on Sunday, according to a Reuters report published in Haaretz.

Residents said the assailants from a group opposed to the U.S.-allied government destroyed the house of Yehia Youssuf in Saada, a northern province. The security official said it was not immediately known what weapons were used in the attack.

“They turned to the houses of other Jews after,” one resident said.

About 200 Yemeni Jews who lived in Saada, including Youssef, have been living in the capital Sanaa due to sporadic fighting between government forces and the rebel group, known as the Houthis.

The conflict in Saada has been raging on and off since 2004.

Sunni Muslims make up the majority of Yemen’s 19 million population, while most of the rest are from the Zaydi branch of Shi’ite Islam. Jews are estimated at a few hundreds.

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Blogger: Baha’i Faith in Egypt
Article: Egypt’s Interior Ministry Decides on “Dashes” for Baha’i IDs
Originaly Posted On: 2008-04-02 18:59:00

In its 2 April 2008 edition, Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported that the Ministry of Interior has just decided that the only option that will be given to the Baha’is of Egypt is to insert dashes “–” instead of leaving the religion field blank or writing “other” on ID cards.

The Ministry clarified that “leaving the religion field blank might open the door to inappropriate manipulation of official documents.”

This decision was expected since the Ministry has been considering its options on what choice it would make following Cairo’s Court of Administrative Justice ruling on 29 January 2008 to allow the Baha’is obtain ID cards and birth certificates.

The court permitted three options for registering their religious affiliation. These options were: 1) “other,” 2) dashes “–” or 3) to leave the field blank. As to which choice would eventually be used, the court had left the final decision for the Ministry of Interior to make.

This announcement is an indication that progress is being made by the Ministry in its efforts to proceed expeditiously with granting the Baha’is of Egypt their identity documents and birth certificates.

In a related case involving Egyptians who have returned to Christianity after having been declared Muslims at some point in their lives, the Ministry has decided to enter “formerly declared Muslim” on their ID cards that will be issued stating that they are currently “Christian.”

Blogger: Mideast Youth - Thinking Ahead
Article: Anti-Islam Film “Same As Anti-Semitism”
Originaly Posted On: 2008-03-24 19:12:01

A Jewish producer in the Netherlands, Harry De Winter, blasted far-right anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders this weekend for his anti-Islam movie, Fitna, already banned from media outlets worldwide. Wilders is intent on broadcasting his Islamophobic film, after having its website pulled offline by its internet service provider, Network Solutions, and causing worldwide protest over its anti-Quran and anti-Islam contentions.

De Winter took out a front-page advertisement in the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant to protest Wilders’ inflammatory actions, saying that:

“If Wilders had said the same thing about Jews (and the Old Testament) as he does about Muslims (and the Koran), he would have been ostracized a long time ago and accused of anti-Semitism.”

De Winter says Wilders’ anti-Islam hate speech are reminiscent of “how the persecution of Jews once started”, and said that for him, “there is no difference between the yarmulke and the headscarf.”

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Blogger: Mideast Youth - Thinking Ahead
Article: Hindu Extremists Attack Muslims in Nepal
Originaly Posted On: 2008-04-02 11:42:48

This past Saturday, four bombs were hurled at a mosque in Biratnagar, Nepal’s second-largest city, during evening prayers. The attack resulted in the death of two, and left two men critically injured.

Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Nepal Defence Army, an extremist Hindu group whose aim is to restore Nepal’s status as the world’s only Hindu nation. Comprising of “former soldiers, ex-police personnel and victims of Maoist guerrillas”, the NDA has vowed to attack Islamic and Christian zealots, as well as communists.

The group also claimed it has trained suicide bombers, with the group’s leader quoted as saying:

“Now, like the Al Qaida, we are training suicide squads. “We have trained five suicide bombers who can go anywhere, including Singh Durbar

I’m sure the dhimmi-wits (they can be easily spotted - their mouth begins frothing and  they immediately begin screaming “Islamofascists…taqiyya…dhimmitude” once ‘Mooslamics’ are brought up) would find a way to spin it though, claiming the Muslims were at fault.

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Blogger: Point of no return
Article: Jewish refugees measure ‘will not hinder peace’
Originaly Posted On: 2008-04-02 07:18:00

Both The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz lend front page coverage to the adoption by the US House of Representatives of a resolution recognising the suffering of Jewish and other refugees for the first time. Rather than be an impediment, its supporters argued that the resolution would create a firmer foundation for peace talks between Israel and Arab parties.

Hilary Leila Kreiger of The Jerusalem Post reports :

“As peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians gather steam, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution on Tuesday urging that the issue of Jewish refugees be part of any agreement.

“While the Palestinian claim of a “right of return” for its refugees has long been an issue - and stumbling block - in final-status talks, the resolution seeks to have the suffering of Jewish refugees taken into account as well.

“Backers described it as the first congressional measure to recognize these refugees, and argued that it shouldn’t hinder the peace process, but rather ground it more firmly in the historical reality experienced by two peoples long at odds.

“This is not an impediment,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

“He argued that raising the profile of Jewish refugees would create a stronger and more credible foundation for talks.

But the Arab American Institute suggested the resolution was unhelpful and “distracts attention” from other refugee issues, according to an action alert sent to its members last week.

“The non-binding House resolution recounts the history of the issue and calls on the US to make sure that any international resolutions relating to the “required resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue” also contain “similarly explicit reference to the resolution of the issue of Jewish, Christian and other refugees from Arab countries.”

“It also demands that the US make clear its position that “as an integral part of any comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace… all refugees displaced from Arab countries, including Jews, Christians and other minority groups,” be recognized. (..)

“The world needs to understand that it’s not just Arabs and Palestinians, but it’s also Jewish people who were dispossessed of their homes and possessions, who were victims of terrorist acts and murder,” said Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-New York) on a conference call Monday with resolution cosponsors Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) and Mike Ferguson (R-New Jersey). A companion resolution in the Senate has yet to be voted on.

“Regina Bubil-Waldman, a Jewish refugee who fled Libya as a child, welcomed the resolution with a quaver in her voice.

“It touches my heart, and I cannot tell you how emotional this is,” she said. “Only with historical truth can we build a better future - and today, that’s what we’re doing.”

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Haaretz article

JTA News

Blogger: Baha’i Faith in Egypt
Article: Egypt’s Ministry of Interior Will Not Appeal Ruling on Baha’is
Originaly Posted On: 2008-04-01 05:38:00

Egypt’s Ministry of Interior has announced, through its sources, that it will not appeal the 29 January 2008 administrative court ruling that allowed the Baha’is of Egypt the issue of ID cards and birth certificates.

Based on its interview with sources in the Ministry of Interior, an article in Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper revealed the news today. It states that the Ministry has approved the ruling and decided not to appeal even though the law permits it to do so.

Its opportunity for appeal had already lapsed since, under Egyptian law, the defendant is entitled a period of two months to file an appeal. The Ministry had elected not to do so based on its assessment of the merits of the case and that the ruling has provided the government with a reasonable option to solve this complex matter.

The Ministry will issue ID cards without religious identification indicated, or with “–” in the religion field. The Ministry affirmed that “this does not imply that it recognizes the Baha’i religion.”

At this point, the responsible government agency will start issuing ID cards to those whom the ruling applies to. It did not research yet the possibility of granting ID cards to others who request no mention of religion in their documents.

The same article reported also on the issue of religious identification on official documents required for high school graduation exams. The Ministry of Education source stated that the students will be given the choice to be either examined on Christianity or Islam. The question of what the students will be allowed to enter–as religion–in the application forms remains to be resolved.