Blogger: Mideast Youth - Thinking Ahead
Article: Stereotyping Islam..
Originaly Posted On: 2008-06-27 11:15:48

(This topic is a message to any non-Arab muslim or non-muslim in specific, and to all in general)

When your around for Modern muslim images, You’d expect a picture of some angry mob burning down a chinese made American flag, or a turban wearing bearded fellow who’s yelling the name of Allah while waving around a sword, which are indeed some of the many images Islam is being portrayed in these days.. But Am not talking about that kind of Stereotyping, people already talked about it enough..

What am talking about is the Stereotyping of Islam that our society, Saudi Arabia, and the muslim and non muslim societies in general have of any religious figure..

(google a picture of the Religious Authority in Saudi)

When did islam turn into a dress-coded religion? Have we adopted the fact that when someone turns religious, there’s a certain uniform he has to wear?

The thobe, The Ega’al-less Shumakh, the White Ghutra, The Robe (Bisht).. All of the above, if you’re that much religious..

Mind you the inconvenience it may cause to new muslims in non-arab countries, Islam is a flexible religion that is no need of a dress code, our muslim actions and behavior speak loud enough of who we are and what we do.. Restricting our thoughts and imagination to the idea that you have to be a Thobe-Wearing muslim to be a Complete muslim is silly, to even wear that to enter Heaven is stupid.. I came across many Muslims and Muslim reverts who all agree on the fact that the Thobe is the official muslim uniform.. It’s NOT.. Simple, see?

Ok, maybe other heavenly religions already adopted certain uniforms that categorizes it’s participants.. You have the White Collared priests, the Black Hatted Jews, and the Orange-like monks of Tibet and so on.. Islam, however, never specified a certain type of clothing more than rules on what you should wear and how you should wear it, unless you’re off to Hajj or Umra.. For example, preaching of islam’s dress codes that preach modesty, as a muslim i shouldn’t let any piece of clothing i wear (if it happens to cover my legs) to exceed my ankles..This is to Avoid the image that abundance in length is a sign of luxury, in opposition of the poverty image of small shredded clothes.. I should stay away from certain fabrics that gloat of my social status and stick to practical ones that help me do my daily tasks.. i can be stylish, but fabrics like Silk for instance, shouldn’t be used by a man.. I should also refrain from clothing that doesn’t belong to my gender in the common understanding of clothing.. Yes, travesties can’t be muslims..

However, it is not mentioned in Islam nor in different sayings of the prophet PBUH that you should wear a thobe and/or a ghutra.. You can shop from Giordano, buy some Sketchers, wear a Puma and still be a muslim.. a Devoted muslim too.. See, in Islam, we don’t need clothes to speak of who we are, like i mentioned before, it’s our actions.. Like for example, the shaved Mustache and the beard (that should be as long as a closed fist placed under one’s chin) are a sign of someone who’s deeply knowledgeable in Islam and highly devoted; it’s not the Thobe..

My message now goes straight to the new muslim reverts, The thobe is not the Muslim wear, so don’t throw away your clothes just yet.. I met several new muslim reverts who told me that they actually stopped buying pants and shirts ever since they became muslim.. Some of them actually suffered going through the process of tailoring one.. Now, all this fashion journey to nowhere leads to no where.. Islam is not that hard, nor it requires all this mumbo jumbo arabian image to fully be a Muslim..

Another part of this problem lies In Saudi Arabia, Where many still believe that the Thobe and Ghutra are a sign or religiousness, while casual t-shirts and Jeans are just silly arabs trying to act American.. Not western, specifically american.. And that is both wrong and stupid.. Last time i checked, when i wore a thobe in my Engagement, it serves the point of showing that am Celebrating, since i had those textures tailored on it as ornaments, and it gives out that am a Saudi on a special occasion.. Doesn’t mean that am more muslim than anyone else.. Plus, in despite of the pros, the cons are that the thobe is very restricting in movement, not that practical and it’s highly flammable.. So, even if islam wanted a uniform, that would be my last choice.. It’s ok as a cultural trademark, The greek culture has their own set of flammable threads too, it’s just clothes.. The only clothing in Islam that has been specified in the Quran and Sunna is the Ehram.. Other than that, go wild, within the limits of course, which is another topic..

Sticking to the topic in hand..

a Fat bearded muslim, wearing the whole gear, thobe and a Ega’al-less shumakh, walking around dragging his wife behind him and beating his kids, while still having time to pray to Allah, ironically, is in no way similar to another Muslim, wearing the whole gear, and good to his wife and son..

When we actually start believing that a certain dress code is a true representation of a school of thought or a spiritual religion, subconsciously and consciously we’d start to believe that the actions of those who wear it are true representations of it.. Which is wrong..

Anyone knows if there’s a Banana Republic opening in Jeddah soon?
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Yours,

Lou..

p.s. i miss you guys

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Blogger: Point of no return
Article: The other Middle East refugees deserve recognition
Originaly Posted On: 2008-06-25 06:37:00

The Jerusalem Post pegs a hard-hitting leader on Jewish refugees to the JJAC congress now meeting in London. (With thanks: Lily)

The world knows of the pain and dislocation experienced by roughly 700,000 Palestinian Arabs when Israel was established; it knows little about the trauma borne by some 850,000 Jews from the Arab world who were uprooted from their homes.

The precise numbers and exact impetus for the departures, in these linked cases, remain in dispute. The motivations of the displaced in promoting their respective narratives are easily suspect because both Jewish and Arab refugee conundrums are tied to claims of “inalienable rights,” for restitution and reparations, and (in the case of the Arabs) demands for repatriation.

In any journey toward genuine acceptance and reconciliation that the quest for peace demands, the two narratives will need to be mutually validated in some fashion.

The plight of Jews who left the Arab countries has drawn relatively little attention, notwithstanding the efforts of individuals such as Heskel M. Haddad, a New York-based ophthalmologist of Iraqi origin. Recently, however, this cause received a boost from a non-binding US Congressional resolution adopted in April which urged the administration to raise the Jewish refugee issue whenever the Palestinian one arises. And this week a group called Justice for Jews from Arab Countries has been holding a conference in London to ensure that the narrative of Jewish refugees is told alongside that of the Palestinian Arabs.

It would be a tragedy if this campaign were dismissed as an attempt at one-upmanship in an arena so long dominated by supporters of the Palestinian Arabs; suffering does not negate suffering.

One approach for fair-minded individuals is to consider the Jewish refugees as human beings rather than as pawns in a vitriolic political dispute.

This is why the recent publication of Lucette Lagnado’s The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit is so welcome. In telling the affecting saga of her family’s forced emigration from Cairo to New York, and by sharing memories of her proud father Leon’s decline from boulevardier, poker player and businessman - who rubbed shoulders with King Farouk - to a refugee unable to raise the few thousand dollars necessary to open a corner candy store, Lagnado puts a human face on the other Middle East refugee tragedy.

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Blogger: Baha’i Faith in Egypt & Iran
Article: What is it Like To Be a Minority in Iran?
Originaly Posted On: 2008-06-27 04:14:00

There are very few articles in the news media that can so beautifully paint a picture of a specific situation while being clear, focused and to the point. Roya Hakakian did just that in her outstanding analysis of the struggle of minorities in Iran. Her article, published in the weekly Forward newspaper, is a perfect example of this type of good writing, remaining a pleasure to read even though the subject matter is quite sad and awful.

What is it like to be a Jew or a Baha’i in Iran these days? In order to fully understand the meaning of this, please read on this essay.

Then They Came for the Bahai
Opinion

By Roya Hakakian
Thu. Jun 19, 2008

If one must master the knowledge that even bigotry is relative and comes in gradations, then I was a premature pupil. I learned this lesson when I was only 10.

In 1977, in an eclectic neighborhood in Tehran, my Jewish family lived on a narrow, wooded alley in what was then an upscale area, alongside two other Jewish families and many more Muslims. There was also a Bahai family, the Alavis, next door.

By then, I had already intuited that my relatives, in the presence of Muslim friends and neighbors, were somehow less flamboyant creatures, quieter and more measured. But the Alavis, debonair and highly educated, were mere ghosts.

Theirs was a corner house on the alley, one of the most beautiful in the neighborhood, and the first to be sold within days in 1979, after the return of the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini. In a neighborhood so closely-knit that even the mailman dispensed pearls of pedagogical wisdom to our parents, the Alavis simply vanished one day.

No chance for tears, or promises to keep in touch. Not even a forwarding address. My mother insists they said goodbye to her, but my mother considers inventing happy endings a maternal virtue.

American audiences, their eyes brimming with anxiety, often ask me about the condition of Jews living in Iran today. But the hardships they assume to be the burden of the Iranian Jews is really the daily experience of the Bahais.

In a 1979 meeting with five of the Iranian Jewish community leaders, Khomeini summarized his position on the local Jews in one of his quintessentially coarse one-liners: “We recognize our Jews as separate from those godless Zionists.” The line has served as the regime’s position on the Jewish minority ever since. So important were these words that they were painted on the walls of nearly every synagogue and Jewish establishment the day after the ayatollah spoke them.

It did not prevent Jews from being relegated to second-class citizenry, nor did it enable them to thrive in post-revolutionary Iran. But it recognized the legitimacy of the Jewish existence in Iran and allowed the community to live on, albeit extremely restrictedly.

But it is the Bahai community that has been suffering the bleak fate assumed to be that of the Jews. It is the Bahais who are not recognized by the Iranian constitution. Decades ago, Khomeini branded them, among other unsavory terms, a political sect and not a religion, circuitously defining them as plotters against the regime. Iranian Bahais have been accused of espionage for every major power save the Chinese, and simultaneously so. They are not allowed to worship. Their properties are vandalized. Even their dead know no peace, as their cemeteries are systematically destroyed.

Their children cannot attend schools, nor can Bahai academics teach. That is why in 1987, unemployed professors, in an act reminiscent of the Middle Ages, established underground universities to educate the Bahai youth.

Last month, six Bahai leaders were arrested. They had already been accustomed to routine weekly harassments and interrogations, which is why some of their wives have taken up sewing blindfolds to keep the guards from forcing dirty ones onto their husbands’ eyes. What is most alarming about this particular arrest is that they have not returned home and are being kept incommunicado.

What compels me to write these lines is the eerie similarity between this and another historical parallel to which I have been a witness. When the American embassy was seized in Tehran in November 1979, the world took the ayatollah at his word for the egregious act he vehemently supported — that it was solely against America. But for those living in Iran, the hostage taking turned out to be about everything but America.

Newspapers were shut down. Political parties were banned. Opposition group members were arrested and their leaders hauled off to stand before firing squads.

When it was all said and done, the hostages, despite their great suffering during 444 days of captivity, eventually returned home. But the secular opposition of the regime was practically obliterated, and in perfect silence, too, as all attention was focused on the news from the embassy.

The current Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has taken a page from Khomeini’s book. He rails against Israel. He denies the Holocaust. Through these means he focuses all attention on Jews, and while the world remains perfectly oblivious his men assault the Bahais.

Though Ahmadinejad’s intentions against Israel are gravely alarming, in immediate terms, the community that is paying the most for his pan-Islamist ambitions is the Bahai. Since Ahmadinejad’s election to presidency, there has been a sharp rise in anti-Bahai literature in government-sponsored journals, which has, in turn, led to a rise in gang attacks against the community.

That the Bahais shy away, per religious mandate, from advocacy on their own behalf surrounds their predicament with even greater silence. But for those in the West — especially for Jews, who know the lessons of World War II — the plight of the Iranian Bahais is most urgent: It is an act of destruction, not simply promised, but already underway.

Roya Hakakian, the author of “Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran” (Crown, 2004), is a recipient of a 2008 Guggenheim fellowship.

Blogger: Mideast Youth - Thinking Ahead
Article: Comic: Patience Stretched
Originaly Posted On: 2008-06-19 22:00:22

In 1925, Egypt became the first Muslim-majority country to recognize the Baha’i faith as an independent religion. However, almost 80 years later, Baha’is in Egypt continue to face heinous discrimination, due to their failure to obtain identity cards. Identity cards are the key towards gaining access to education, health care, and economic opportunities. Without them, Baha’is cannot exercise their full citizenship rights. (See our video for details.)

Although a landmark ruling in January decreed that Baha’is can obtain identification papers, the government has yet to implement the ruling, and recently, a lawyer for Egypt’s Islamic Research Council filed a challenge intended to stall the process.

…and in the meantime, thousands of Baha’is are left waiting.

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Blogger: Baha’i Faith in Egypt & Iran
Article: Update on the Jailed Baha’i Leaders in Iran
Originaly Posted On: 2008-06-19 19:02:00

The Baha’i World News Service (BWNS) has just announced that the seven Baha’i leaders held in Iran were able to make brief telephone contact with their families.

Additionally, the Baha’i International Community has just added a new page, named “Iran Update,” to its BWNS website that will provide a continuous flow of information on the situation of the Baha’is of Iran. This web-page, “updated regularly, is provided as a service to news media and others desiring details of the situation of the Baha’is in Iran. All information has been verified by the Baha’i International Community.”

This much-needed service (Iran Update) will be of great value in officially providing confirmed information–all in one place–to the news media at large, human rights activists, bloggers, government agencies, concerned citizens and any other individuals or organizations interested in following, or acting on, this important human rights situation.

Below is a re-publication of the original announcement, regarding the jailed Baha’is, which can be found on the BWNS website at this link:

Seven jailed Iranian Baha’is make brief contact with families
19 June 2008

NEW YORK — Seven prominent Baha’is imprisoned in Iran have each been allowed a brief phone call to their families, the Baha’i International Community has learned.

The calls were the first contact with the jailed Baha’is since six of them were arrested on 14 May in pre-dawn raids at their homes in Tehran. The seventh was arrested in March in the city of Mashhad.

The Baha’i International Community has learned that on 3 June, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet and Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi were permitted to make short phone calls to their families. Mrs. Sabet had been detained in Mashhad on 5 March but on 26 May was transferred to Evin Prison in Tehran, where it is believed the others are also being held.

Later it was confirmed that Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm also have made brief phone calls to their families.

No charges have been filed against any of the seven, who comprise the entire membership of a coordinating committee that saw to the minimal needs of the 300,000-member Baha’i community of Iran.

In 1980, all nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iran were taken away and presumed killed as they were never heard from again. A year later, after the Assembly had been reconstituted, eight of the nine members were arrested and killed.

Besides the seven committee members imprisoned in Tehran, about 15 other Baha’is are currently detained in Iran, some incommunicado and most with no formal charges.

Blogger: Point of no return
Article: Uncertain homecoming for Syrian Jew
Originaly Posted On: 2008-06-18 14:17:00

Herbert Hadad’s family, now resident in the US, had been in Syria for 40 generations. He did not know how he would be received when he took his wife and children back for a visit, but he was pleasantly surprised. Here is an extract from his account for the International Herald Tribune:

When our van pulled into al-Hatab Square in Aleppo, I was seized by the feeling that I had been here before. This city had been my father’s home. I was very comfortable as I gazed at the restaurant and coffeehouses, the jewelry and antique shops, and entered a store that sold spirits and cigarettes.

The middle-aged shopkeeper reached across the counter, took my head in his hands and kissed the top as if he had found a long-gone relative. In English and broken Arabic, I told him who I was and asked if he had ever heard of my family. I had already made more formal inquiries to no avail. He shook his head and sold me a bottle of red Lebanese wine.

But as I entered nearby Sissi Street, narrow and stone-paved, with the houses and other buildings rising boulder-like on either side, I decided that this street, this square, this neighborhood was where my father had lived as a boy, where he had played and fetched milk for his family and went to school. It made me happy to believe so.

Shortly after we arrived home, headlines announced that Syria and Israel had begun peace talks, mediated by Turkey. The e-mails and phones began to crackle with congratulations: “We don’t know how you did it or what you did, but thank you, thank you.” The last word came from our dentist: “When my lease is up, I want you to negotiate the new one.”

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Blogger: Mideast Youth - Thinking Ahead
Article: Iran’s New Voice
Originaly Posted On: 2008-06-13 16:34:00

A wise person once said “Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine”. And it is with that spirit that president Ahmadinejad announced his new reform policies, in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of the Middle East.

Recognizing that no society can possibly be built on a denial of individual freedom, and that the best road to progress is freedom’s road, Ahmadinejad’s new policies represent a dramatic shift in Iran’s policies.

The news was met most enthusiastically by women - long denied equal rights by the constitution - and religious and ethnic minorities - particularly the Baha’is. After all, if we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.

(For those residing in Iran, and other countries where YouTube is inaccessible, the video can alternatively be viewed in MEY TV - Mideast Youth’s video sharing site)

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Blogger: Baha’i Faith in Egypt & Iran
Article: Egypt: Ministry of Interior Tries to Explain Delays
Originaly Posted On: 2008-06-10 01:12:00

Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights held a round-table discussion on 6 June 2008 to examine various pressing human rights violations in Egypt. Among which was the case of the Baha’is and the lack of progress in issuing identity documents. Several prominent activists and government representatives participated in this session.

One of the participants, General Ali Abdel-Mawla, first assistant to the Minister of Interior, stated that “the Ministry wants to implement the ruling of the administrative court [granting the Baha’is the right to obtain ID cards], but the challenge filed by the Islamists prevents [the Ministry] from doing so.” He further affirmed that “in case these challenges were turned down [by the court], the Ministry will expeditiously implement the administrative court ruling.”
N.B. These statements were made a day before the most recent court hearing that addressed the procedural challenge by the Islamists. The Ministry of Interior’s lawyers asked for a postponement in order to prepare their memorandum supporting the Baha’is. The court postponed the case until 1 November 2008.

So, it is clear, according to these statements, that the Ministry of Interior has no hesitation in applying the court ruling in favor of the Baha’is. It should be also understood that the fact a challenge was filed by a third party–who was not even a party to the lawsuit–should not prevent the Ministry from implementing the ruling. A further delay (until 1 November 2008) can only lead to further extreme hardships for the Baha’is of Egypt.

Another important point is that this challenge was not an “appeal” of the ruling itself, but rather a challenge to the judge’s competency–a strategy that has been frequently used by this particular Islamist extremist lawyer (Hamed Saddiq) to obstruct many other–irrelevant–cases.

My questions to General Ali Abdel-Mawla are: if the court upholds the Islamists’ challenge on the first of November, what would the Ministry do then? Would it ask for another postponement? Would it sue the Islamist challenger? Would it not implement the ruling? Would it implement the ruling?

The real issue here is: what are the true motives of the Ministry of Interior? Supposing that the motives are sincere and intended to solve this crisis, then the Ministry should do so without any further delays.

Allowing such illegitimate procedural challenges–whose malicious intentions are very clear–to interfere with the due process of the law can only lead to anarchy. The Ministry knows what is needed to be done; using these frivolous challenges as an excuse to explain such unrealistic delays cannot be justified.

Blogger: Point of no return
Article: Jewish refugees not a central issue to peace - BBC
Originaly Posted On: 2008-06-10 07:40:00

Last month, when Israel was celebrating its 60th anniversary, I complained to the BBC that its news reports insisted on putting a dampener on the festivities by insisting on juxtaposing them wth the lamentations associated with the ‘Palestinian ‘nakba’. The flipside of the Palestinian nakba, I argued, was surely the nakba of the Jewish refugees from Arab countries. At first the BBC confused my complaint with someone else’s gripe about the expression ‘Palestinian land’ and sent me the wrong pro-forma reply. Now I have just received a second reply, which though more relevant, leaves me more bewildered than ever.

“The specific issue of Palestinian refugees was mentioned in the context of the peace process. It is generally seen as one of the key stumbling blocks to finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We have covered the issue of Jewish refugees in the past, however, it is not something that is generally viewed as a central issue in the peace process in the same way the Palestinian refugee issue is. Should the issue of Jewish refugees become an integral part of the negotiations in the Israeli-Arab peace negotiations or a stumbling block thereto, we would of course look at them in a more in-depth fashion.

Overall, whilst focusing on the celebrations in Israel it seems fair to have mentioned the contrasting marches being held by Palestinians at the time.”

Yours sincerely

Stewart McCullough
Complaints Coordinator

So there you have it. The BBC claims to have covered Jewish refugees in the past, but forgive me if I can’t recall when. It does not consider the Jewish refugeees important enough to be mentioned, and certainly not as important as the Palestinian refugees. If Jewish refugees were to make a real nuisance of themselves - become a ’stumbling block’ - then the BBC might sit up and take notice.

Christian Post Reporter:

Authorities in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation of Algeria have closed half of the Protestant churches in the country over the last six months, alerted persecution watchdog groups this week.

Twenty-six Algerian churches were shut down either by official written order or verbal warning since November 2007, according to Open Doors USA. The churches, ranging in size from several dozens to more than 1,000 members, are victims of a recent aggressive campaign against Christians.

It is feared that if persecution continues all the churches will be closed by the end of the year.

“This was actually caused by an ordinance that was passed in 2006,” said Open Doors’ Advocacy Coordinator Lindsay Vessey to Mission Network News. “This ordinance, basically, was making it more difficult for churches to worship. It restricts where they can worship and also tries to prevent Christians from proselytizing or evangelizing.”

In March 2006, Algeria passed a law that required non-Muslim places of worship to have a government-issued certificate proving that they adhere to state worship guidelines. But Christian groups have accused the government of using various means to block their registration process, and complained that the regulations are unclear.

According to Compass Direct, the law restricting non-Muslim worship did not take effect until this year.

In addition to church closures, the crackdown on Christians also includes the arrest of Protestants as they travel between cities or exit religious meetings, and blocking Catholics from participating in regular ministry activities taking place outside of their church buildings.

Last month, an Algerian Christian was detained five days, fined $460, and given a one-year suspended prison sentence for carrying a Bible and personal Bible study books, according to Compass. The Christian young man was a convert from Islam and had reportedly told fellow believers that police pressured him to return to Islam while he was in custody.

Several other reports in May revealed that Christian converts were being pressured to return to Islam, and harassed for practicing their new faith without license.

Experts and Algerian Christians have offered several reasons for the recent crackdown, including: increased anti-Christian propaganda in Arab media; a ploy to distract Algerians from pressing domestic concerns such as national housing shortage and inflation of staple goods prices; and a growing number of Christian converts from Islam, according to Compass.

Algeria has 32 congregations that belong to the Protestant Church of Algeria, and another 20 small fellowships that exist independently. There are at least 10,000 Protestants in Algeria.

Islam is the official state religion of Algeria, where 99 percent of its 33 million population is Muslim.

Open Doors has launched a worldwide advocacy campaign calling on concerned citizens to contact their local Algerian Embassy to ask that the Algerian government stop church closures and reopen those that have already been closed.

“Please e-mail Ambassador Kherbi (Algerian Ambassador to the United States) today, asking him to stop the closure of churches and to reopen those that have already been closed. We need to tell the Algerian government that these church closures must stop, and that freedom for all religions must be respected,” says Open Doors USA Advocacy Program Manager Lindsay Vessey. “Also, keep Algerian believers in your prayers.”