Warning issued over egg freezing Egg freezing should not be offered to women who want to put off having a family purely for lifestyle reasons, say experts.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) warned the procedure was still experimental, and the chances of success poor.
It said it would be wrong to give women a false sense of hope. Instead they should be offered counselling.
However, a UK expert said egg freezing was a valid option for some women.
It is wrong to deprive women of this option, which many of them say is empowering Dr Gillian Lockwood Midland Fertility Services
An increasing number of women are choosing to freeze their eggs for social reasons in the hope they will be able to have a child when they are older.
Critics argue they are delaying motherhood for the wrong motives, such as climbing the career ladder or until they have more money.
Dr Marc Fritz, of the ASRM, said it would be wrong for women who have frozen their eggs to think they had ensured their future fertility.
He said: "Existing medical evidence simply does not justify that conclusion."
The ASRM estimates that the overall live birth rate from frozen eggs is as low as 2% per egg.
It warned the figures may be even lower for women over 35 - the age at which fertility begins to decline rapidly.
Dr Fritz said a 25-year-old woman freezing her eggs now would have more chance of achieving a pregnancy through IVF using her fresh eggs when she was 35.
Successes
At the end of 2006, 185 women in the UK had eggs on ice. Many are cancer patients whose fertility is affected by treatment.
Four babies have been born from egg freezing in the UK - all following treatment at Midland Fertility Services.
Dr Gillian Lockwood, medical director, argued success rates using frozen eggs were comparable with those using frozen embryos.
She dissuades older women from freezing their eggs due to low success rates.
But she added: "As long as women know it's not an insurance policy or a guarantee, then it remains an option they may wish to pursue."
"Many of those women have been with commitment-phobic men or have not found Mr Right, or they are part of a couple that needs two salaries to get a mortgage.
"These are social issues but it is wrong to deprive women of this option, which many of them say is empowering."
Caution key
Dr Simon Fishel, of the CARE Fertility Group in Nottingham, agreed it was important to explain to women that egg freezing was experimental, and carried no guarantee of success.
"Although significant research has been undertaken, and babies are being born from these new techniques, caution and counselling are imperative at this stage, and for several years to come."
Josephine Quintavalle, of the campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said the ASRM had issued "sound advice".
She said: "The best solution to lifestyle problems is to change one's lifestyle.
"Have babies naturally at the time nature intended and give IVF a miss altogether."
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/7048361.stmPublished: 2007/10/17 08:07:18 GMT© BBC MMVII
Comment
Delaying motherhood is becoming a major problem because it doesn't work with the biological clock of women's fertility. Now fertility treatment is becoming a million dollar business as the number of women delaying birth increased for different life style reasons: having enough money, finishing college, climbing career ladder, finding 'Mr Right". The best solution is to change your life style and to do it now not latter. Let nature do it instead of the fertility clinics.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Middle school in Maine to offer birth control pills, patches to pupils
Middle school in Maine to offer birth control pills, patches to pupils
18/10/2007 2:50:00 AM
PORTLAND, Maine - Pupils at a city middle school will be able to get birth control pills and patches at their student health centre after the local school board approved the proposal Wednesday evening.
The plan, offered by city health officials, makes King Middle School the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available to students in grades 6 through 8, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.
There are no national figures on how many middle schools, where most students range in age from 11 to 13, provide such services.
"It's very rare that middle schools do this," said Divya Mohan, a spokeswoman for the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care.
The Portland School Committee voted 5-2 for the measure.
Chairman John Coynie voted against it, saying he felt providing the birth control was a parental responsibility. The other no vote came from Ben Meiklejohn, who said the consent form does not clearly define the services being offered.
Opponents cited religious and health objections.
Diane Miller said she felt the plan was against religion and against God. Another opponent, Peter Doyle, said he felt it violated the rights of parents and puts students at risk of cancer because of hormones in the pill.
A supporter, Richard Verrier, said it's not enough to depend on parents to protect their children because there may be students who can't discuss things with their parents.
Condoms have been available since 2002 to King students who have parental permission to be treated at its student health centre.
© 2007 Bell Inc., Microsoft Corporation and/or their contributors. All rights reserved. Terms of Use Advertise Privacy Statement About Us
Comment
Can you belive a school provides birth controll pills for girls of 11-13 years old instead of milk? Where and how can we raise our kids in such kind of environment? This is a question to be answered by every person who value morality and religious principles.
18/10/2007 2:50:00 AM
PORTLAND, Maine - Pupils at a city middle school will be able to get birth control pills and patches at their student health centre after the local school board approved the proposal Wednesday evening.
The plan, offered by city health officials, makes King Middle School the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available to students in grades 6 through 8, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.
There are no national figures on how many middle schools, where most students range in age from 11 to 13, provide such services.
"It's very rare that middle schools do this," said Divya Mohan, a spokeswoman for the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care.
The Portland School Committee voted 5-2 for the measure.
Chairman John Coynie voted against it, saying he felt providing the birth control was a parental responsibility. The other no vote came from Ben Meiklejohn, who said the consent form does not clearly define the services being offered.
Opponents cited religious and health objections.
Diane Miller said she felt the plan was against religion and against God. Another opponent, Peter Doyle, said he felt it violated the rights of parents and puts students at risk of cancer because of hormones in the pill.
A supporter, Richard Verrier, said it's not enough to depend on parents to protect their children because there may be students who can't discuss things with their parents.
Condoms have been available since 2002 to King students who have parental permission to be treated at its student health centre.
© 2007 Bell Inc., Microsoft Corporation and/or their contributors. All rights reserved. Terms of Use Advertise Privacy Statement About Us
Comment
Can you belive a school provides birth controll pills for girls of 11-13 years old instead of milk? Where and how can we raise our kids in such kind of environment? This is a question to be answered by every person who value morality and religious principles.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Teachers 'fear evolution lessons'
Teachers 'fear evolution lessons' The teaching of evolution is becoming increasingly difficult in UK schools because of the rise of creationism, a leading scientist is warning.
Head of science at London's Institute of Education Professor Michael Reiss says some teachers, fearful of entering the debate, avoid the subject totally.
This could leave pupils with gaps in their scientific knowledge, he says.
Prof Reiss says the rise of creationism is partly down to the large increase in Muslim pupils in UK schools.
The days have long gone when science teachers could ignore creationism when teaching about origins Professor Reiss
He said: "The number of Muslim students has grown considerably in the last 10 to 20 years and a higher proportion of Muslim families do not accept evolutionary theory compared with Christian families.
"That's one reason why it's more of an issue in schools."
Prof Reiss estimates that one in 10 people in the UK now believes in literal interpretations of religious creation stories - whether they are based on the Bible or the Koran.
Many more teachers he met at scientific meetings were telling him they encountered more pupils with creationist views, he said.
"The days have long gone when science teachers could ignore creationism when teaching about origins."
Instead, teachers should tackle the issue head-on, whilst trying not to alienate students, he argues in a new book.
'Not equally valid'
"By not dismissing their beliefs, we can ensure that these students learn what evolutionary theory really says - and give everyone the understanding to respect the views of others," he added.
His book; Teaching about Scientific Origins: Taking Account of Creationism, gives science teachers advice on how to deal with the "dilemma".
Further discussion of creationism should occur in religious education as it is a belief system, not one based on science Hilary Leevers Campaign for Science and Engineering
He supports new government guidelines which say creationism should not be discussed in science classes unless it is raised by pupils.
But Prof Reiss argues that there is an educational value in comparing creationist ideas with scientific theories like Darwin's theory of evolution because they demonstrate how science, unlike religious beliefs, can be tested.
The scientist, who is also a Church of England priest, adds that any teaching should not give the impression that creationism and the theory of evolution are equally valid scientifically.
Dr Hilary Leevers, of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, said science teachers would be teaching evolution not creationism and so should not need a book to tell them how to "delicately handle controversy between a scientific theory and a belief".
"The author suggests that science teachers cannot ignore creationism when teaching origins, but the opposite is true," she said.
Teachers could discuss how creationism differed from scientific theory if a student brought up the subject, but any further discussion should occur in religious education lessons, she said.
A Department for Children, Schools and Families spokesman said it had recently published guidelines to teachers on the issue.
"Creationism and intelligent design are not scientific theories nor testable as scientific fact - and have no place in the science curriculum. "But we advise science teachers that when questions about creationism come up in lessons, it provides an opportunity to explain or explore what makes a scientific theory."
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/education/7028639.stmPublished: 2007/10/04 23:28:30 GMT© BBC MMVII
Comment.
As far as the basic Islamic belief is concerned there is no compromise or justification to accept any kind of theory whether it is scientific or nonscientific theory related to the creation of the universe including human being. Muslims pursue knowledge by studying science to understand nature and to use science for betterment of human existence in this world. For the Muslim the study of science starts with the basic belief of creation-the man study what is created. It is every Muslims family responsibility to teach his children that the evolution theory is not acceptable for a beliver.
Head of science at London's Institute of Education Professor Michael Reiss says some teachers, fearful of entering the debate, avoid the subject totally.
This could leave pupils with gaps in their scientific knowledge, he says.
Prof Reiss says the rise of creationism is partly down to the large increase in Muslim pupils in UK schools.
The days have long gone when science teachers could ignore creationism when teaching about origins Professor Reiss
He said: "The number of Muslim students has grown considerably in the last 10 to 20 years and a higher proportion of Muslim families do not accept evolutionary theory compared with Christian families.
"That's one reason why it's more of an issue in schools."
Prof Reiss estimates that one in 10 people in the UK now believes in literal interpretations of religious creation stories - whether they are based on the Bible or the Koran.
Many more teachers he met at scientific meetings were telling him they encountered more pupils with creationist views, he said.
"The days have long gone when science teachers could ignore creationism when teaching about origins."
Instead, teachers should tackle the issue head-on, whilst trying not to alienate students, he argues in a new book.
'Not equally valid'
"By not dismissing their beliefs, we can ensure that these students learn what evolutionary theory really says - and give everyone the understanding to respect the views of others," he added.
His book; Teaching about Scientific Origins: Taking Account of Creationism, gives science teachers advice on how to deal with the "dilemma".
Further discussion of creationism should occur in religious education as it is a belief system, not one based on science Hilary Leevers Campaign for Science and Engineering
He supports new government guidelines which say creationism should not be discussed in science classes unless it is raised by pupils.
But Prof Reiss argues that there is an educational value in comparing creationist ideas with scientific theories like Darwin's theory of evolution because they demonstrate how science, unlike religious beliefs, can be tested.
The scientist, who is also a Church of England priest, adds that any teaching should not give the impression that creationism and the theory of evolution are equally valid scientifically.
Dr Hilary Leevers, of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, said science teachers would be teaching evolution not creationism and so should not need a book to tell them how to "delicately handle controversy between a scientific theory and a belief".
"The author suggests that science teachers cannot ignore creationism when teaching origins, but the opposite is true," she said.
Teachers could discuss how creationism differed from scientific theory if a student brought up the subject, but any further discussion should occur in religious education lessons, she said.
A Department for Children, Schools and Families spokesman said it had recently published guidelines to teachers on the issue.
"Creationism and intelligent design are not scientific theories nor testable as scientific fact - and have no place in the science curriculum. "But we advise science teachers that when questions about creationism come up in lessons, it provides an opportunity to explain or explore what makes a scientific theory."
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/education/7028639.stmPublished: 2007/10/04 23:28:30 GMT© BBC MMVII
Comment.
As far as the basic Islamic belief is concerned there is no compromise or justification to accept any kind of theory whether it is scientific or nonscientific theory related to the creation of the universe including human being. Muslims pursue knowledge by studying science to understand nature and to use science for betterment of human existence in this world. For the Muslim the study of science starts with the basic belief of creation-the man study what is created. It is every Muslims family responsibility to teach his children that the evolution theory is not acceptable for a beliver.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Socialism is back
This story appear on the recent Christian Science monitor. For me it is an amazing story. It is a bad and a good story. I is good story- people form a community work together and improve their living condition. As far as fighting poverty is concerned it is a success story specially in a country like Ethiopia. On the other hand it is a bad news because to alleviate poverty these people abandon their religion both the Muslims and the Christians. It looks it was their religiousness brought their poverty. The story echoed that when they abandon their religion they become better of. Even their village was visited by religious leaders. I don't understand why the religious leaders went there. To bless their action of abandoning their religion or to preach them to keep their religion. To be economically successful is it necessary to abandon religion? Is religion against prosperity? Is material success is the only measurement for a community or a society success? In Ethiopia Socialism is back again.
Abdella
In Ethiopia, one man's model for a just society
By Orly HalpernTue Aug 21, 4:00 AM ET
He can't read or write, but Zumra Nuru created a society that would have made Karl Marx proud. The 60-year-old Ethiopian farmer founded and cochairs Awra Amba, a commune where men cook, women plow, and religion has no place.
His inspiration came from his childhood: He was sent to the fields instead of to school and beaten for eating meat at his Christian neighbor's home.His mother had to work much more than his father.
"It made me sad," says Mr. Nuru. "When I asked my parents about it ... they acted as if I were foolish."
In the 1980s, Nuru finally launched the egalitarian society he dreamed of with 19 other people who adopted his vision.
Today Awra Amba has some 400 members and is lauded as a model to alleviate poverty and promote gender equality in a country where women generally hold a subservient status to men.
The experimental community first came to national awareness when Nuru gave an interview on national television a few years ago.
Since then numerous camera crews have driven out to the northern village. They are not alone.
Government officials and members of parliament, sheikhs and priests, and local and foreign nongovernmental organization workers have made the trip via a rocky road only accessible with a four-wheel-drive vehicle to see the success for themselves.
"I was completely captivated by my visit to the community," says Ambassador Tim Clarke, head of the European Union delegation to Ethiopia. "I regard it as the model for the world community on how gender issues should be treated. I have come across nothing else like it anywhere in Africa – and indeed the world. I am using it to inspire the work of my office here on gender mainstreaming and empowerment of women."
Once ostracized, now laudedBut achieving this level of recognition was a long time in coming.
Since his childhood, Nuru was ostracized by his family and his neighbors not only for his support for gender equality but for his opposition to institutionalized religion.
"My family is originally Muslim," Nuru says. "I visited my Christian neighbors and ate meat at their home. My mother got angry and beat me. She said, 'We can't eat meat slaughtered by Christians. I said, 'Is it not the same animal?'
"I began thinking about these issues of religion. Later I thought why not make one family? There is one God. So why not unite? Honesty and love for fellow human beings is our religion."
Not surprising, there is no picturesque church or mosque decorating the village and religious observance is shunned.
However, in a tour for visitors, locals proudly show off the simple but clean mud-built library and the classroom, where children ages 3-5 study before attending the district public school.
Nuru never had the opportunity to study and when he was 13, he was thrown out of his home, he says.
"They said I was mad," says Nuru, whose name means 'Father of the Village.'
In his 20s he became a wandering preacher of his own ideals.
"I traveled to find people who would accept my ideas," he says. In the 1980s he gathered a group in the Amhara region and together they established Awra Amba – meaning "top of the hill."
For years the small group of farmers was ostracized by neighbors who saw its ideas as radical. Eventually they were forced to abandon their land for political reasons.
Model for reducing poverty?They returned in the early 1990s only to discover their neighbors had been given their land.
They managed to get back only 43 acres – not enough to support a growing community with farming. "So we began weaving for a living," says Nuru.
Weaving has become one of the symbols of Awra Amba.
In Ethiopian society, weaving is women's work, yet men and women work side by side here in Awra Amba.
The hand-woven scarves, clothes, and blankets are sold in the village shop. Awra Amba will not accept donations, but offers its products for sale.
Prices are low, but so is supply, partly because the village has a shortage of modern weaving machinery and training.
"Weaving is not so profitable because we are not experts," he says. "We are all originally farmers."
Fortunately, their reputation for being honest is also paying off. Donkeys laden with bags of grains wait beside the village grain mills to be unloaded.
"Neighboring farmers prefer to use our mills because they trust us not to cheat them," says Asnake Gebeyehu, 18, a native of Awra Amban who served as an English-language translator for foreign visitors on a recent day.
Awra Ambans work seven days a week and shun religious holidays.
Ideals are paying offTheir ideals have literally paid off.
The villagers are well fed and clothed. Children play instead of working.
"So many Christian and Muslim leaders from all over [Ethiopia's northern Amhara region] and some from outside have visited the village because it is very famous in its endeavor to eliminate poverty," says Mulgeta Wuletaw, a regional government administrator and member of parliament.
Still, the village hopes to earn more money in order to build potable water and sewage systems, pave the road, and create an education fund for the children.
Gebeyehu is one of eight Awra Ambans who will be attending university this year and he credits his village for that. "Education is very important to this community," he says.
The village is unique not only for its attitudes toward gender, religion, and education, but for the social security it provides its members in need.
Village social securityThere's a home for the elderly with 24-hour care and a committee that helps out new mothers, who also get three months of maternity leave. Early and forced marriage are forbidden.
The village's success has made it a subject of numerous studies.
"This is an extraordinary initiative within a traditional and conservative community," says Mohammed Musa, a rural development consultant who prepared a case study on the village for the World Bank. "It's a good example for other Ethiopian communities – and even beyond Ethiopia – because of its gender equality, its work ethic, and its social security system."
Today 96 families live in closely built mud huts.
Nuru said more people want to join, but there is not enough space.
Now, after years of being ostracized, Awra Amba is seen as having a positive effect on its conservative region.
A newsletter published by the regional state health bureau last year credited the village with triggering "amazing change in the Amhara region."
Copyright © 2007 The Christian Science Monitor
Abdella
In Ethiopia, one man's model for a just society
By Orly HalpernTue Aug 21, 4:00 AM ET
He can't read or write, but Zumra Nuru created a society that would have made Karl Marx proud. The 60-year-old Ethiopian farmer founded and cochairs Awra Amba, a commune where men cook, women plow, and religion has no place.
His inspiration came from his childhood: He was sent to the fields instead of to school and beaten for eating meat at his Christian neighbor's home.His mother had to work much more than his father.
"It made me sad," says Mr. Nuru. "When I asked my parents about it ... they acted as if I were foolish."
In the 1980s, Nuru finally launched the egalitarian society he dreamed of with 19 other people who adopted his vision.
Today Awra Amba has some 400 members and is lauded as a model to alleviate poverty and promote gender equality in a country where women generally hold a subservient status to men.
The experimental community first came to national awareness when Nuru gave an interview on national television a few years ago.
Since then numerous camera crews have driven out to the northern village. They are not alone.
Government officials and members of parliament, sheikhs and priests, and local and foreign nongovernmental organization workers have made the trip via a rocky road only accessible with a four-wheel-drive vehicle to see the success for themselves.
"I was completely captivated by my visit to the community," says Ambassador Tim Clarke, head of the European Union delegation to Ethiopia. "I regard it as the model for the world community on how gender issues should be treated. I have come across nothing else like it anywhere in Africa – and indeed the world. I am using it to inspire the work of my office here on gender mainstreaming and empowerment of women."
Once ostracized, now laudedBut achieving this level of recognition was a long time in coming.
Since his childhood, Nuru was ostracized by his family and his neighbors not only for his support for gender equality but for his opposition to institutionalized religion.
"My family is originally Muslim," Nuru says. "I visited my Christian neighbors and ate meat at their home. My mother got angry and beat me. She said, 'We can't eat meat slaughtered by Christians. I said, 'Is it not the same animal?'
"I began thinking about these issues of religion. Later I thought why not make one family? There is one God. So why not unite? Honesty and love for fellow human beings is our religion."
Not surprising, there is no picturesque church or mosque decorating the village and religious observance is shunned.
However, in a tour for visitors, locals proudly show off the simple but clean mud-built library and the classroom, where children ages 3-5 study before attending the district public school.
Nuru never had the opportunity to study and when he was 13, he was thrown out of his home, he says.
"They said I was mad," says Nuru, whose name means 'Father of the Village.'
In his 20s he became a wandering preacher of his own ideals.
"I traveled to find people who would accept my ideas," he says. In the 1980s he gathered a group in the Amhara region and together they established Awra Amba – meaning "top of the hill."
For years the small group of farmers was ostracized by neighbors who saw its ideas as radical. Eventually they were forced to abandon their land for political reasons.
Model for reducing poverty?They returned in the early 1990s only to discover their neighbors had been given their land.
They managed to get back only 43 acres – not enough to support a growing community with farming. "So we began weaving for a living," says Nuru.
Weaving has become one of the symbols of Awra Amba.
In Ethiopian society, weaving is women's work, yet men and women work side by side here in Awra Amba.
The hand-woven scarves, clothes, and blankets are sold in the village shop. Awra Amba will not accept donations, but offers its products for sale.
Prices are low, but so is supply, partly because the village has a shortage of modern weaving machinery and training.
"Weaving is not so profitable because we are not experts," he says. "We are all originally farmers."
Fortunately, their reputation for being honest is also paying off. Donkeys laden with bags of grains wait beside the village grain mills to be unloaded.
"Neighboring farmers prefer to use our mills because they trust us not to cheat them," says Asnake Gebeyehu, 18, a native of Awra Amban who served as an English-language translator for foreign visitors on a recent day.
Awra Ambans work seven days a week and shun religious holidays.
Ideals are paying offTheir ideals have literally paid off.
The villagers are well fed and clothed. Children play instead of working.
"So many Christian and Muslim leaders from all over [Ethiopia's northern Amhara region] and some from outside have visited the village because it is very famous in its endeavor to eliminate poverty," says Mulgeta Wuletaw, a regional government administrator and member of parliament.
Still, the village hopes to earn more money in order to build potable water and sewage systems, pave the road, and create an education fund for the children.
Gebeyehu is one of eight Awra Ambans who will be attending university this year and he credits his village for that. "Education is very important to this community," he says.
The village is unique not only for its attitudes toward gender, religion, and education, but for the social security it provides its members in need.
Village social securityThere's a home for the elderly with 24-hour care and a committee that helps out new mothers, who also get three months of maternity leave. Early and forced marriage are forbidden.
The village's success has made it a subject of numerous studies.
"This is an extraordinary initiative within a traditional and conservative community," says Mohammed Musa, a rural development consultant who prepared a case study on the village for the World Bank. "It's a good example for other Ethiopian communities – and even beyond Ethiopia – because of its gender equality, its work ethic, and its social security system."
Today 96 families live in closely built mud huts.
Nuru said more people want to join, but there is not enough space.
Now, after years of being ostracized, Awra Amba is seen as having a positive effect on its conservative region.
A newsletter published by the regional state health bureau last year credited the village with triggering "amazing change in the Amhara region."
Copyright © 2007 The Christian Science Monitor
Australian Muslims and Politics
DON CHIPP FOUNDATION EVENTS
Politics, religion and Other Impolite Topics Forum November 2005
Speech: Jamila Hussain While there has been a lot of discussion recently about the role of the Christian right in politics, the nature of Australian society has been transformed, inadvertently, by another religion entirely. Islam, or rather fear of Islam, and the threat of terrorism allegedly associated with it has cost us our civil liberties and moved what used to be a free, democratic Australia well down the path towards a police state. Let us consider the way in which Islam has been brought into politics, & more particularly, who stands to benefit by bringing Islam into politics in Australia.
Muslims began to migrate to Australia in some numbers from the early 1970s. The White Australia Policy had been repealed and under the Whitlam, Fraser and subsequent Labor governments, a new fresh policy of multiculturalism was instituted. Migrants were made to feel welcome and were no longer expected to abandon their culture and religion completely before entering the arrival terminal at the airport. A new Australia was being blended from a harmonious mix of many different cultures.The vast majority of Muslim migrants who came as refugees from Lebanon, or workers from Turkey at that time, had little, if any interest in Australian politics. They were too busy getting jobs, finding housing and looking after the well being of their families to become involved in any political scene. Such political involvement as they did undertake was largely confined to obtaining permission to establish mosques and later Islamic schools for their children, against the frequent objections of the NIMBY brigade. Australians then, as now, were abysmally ignorant of Islam and Muslim culture and feared anything different.Fast forward to the election of the Howard government in 1996, the year in which Pauline Hanson was also elected to the Federal parliament. Ms Hanson's views resonated with a section of the Australian population. She opposed Asian immigration, claiming that Australians were in danger of being swamped by Asian immigrants who would take their jobs and undercut their wages.
Under the guise of protecting the right to free speech, John Howard failed to refute her argument. In 1988 he had himself stated publicly that Australia was taking too many Asian immigrants, and he has always been unenthusiastic about multiculturalism. The scene was set for a return to more conservative ways.
The first Gulf war of 1990-91 had focused the national attention on the Muslim community in Australia. Although the war was supposedly to free one fundamentalist Arab state ruled by a feudal emir (Kuwait) from invasion by another Arab state ruled by a secular dictator (Saddam Hussein) suddenly and inexplicably, Australian Muslims became the target of popular hatred, although there was no apparent support for Saddam Hussein among local Muslims and many Iraqis here were in fact refugees from the excesses of Saddam's regime. Nevertheless, mosques and Islamic schools were attacked & Muslim women, especially those who wore hijab were insulted and abused in streets and public places. The community's response was largely to lie quiet, avoiding involvement in controversy, and redoubling efforts to meet the mainstream in areas such as inter-faith activities.
In 2001 the Tampa sailed into Australian waters, with its cargo of mostly Muslim asylum seekers - the answer to a conservative politician's prayer immediately before an election. The spectre of the 'yellow peril' was easily revived - this time the brown Muslim peril of people who would throw their children overboard, people who might be terrorists (according to Peter Reith), people who were not wanted in this country. The electorate was scared silly & voted decisively for the coalition on border protection. The unfortunate asylum seekers were imprisoned on Nauru or Manus island, safely away from any danger of infecting Aussie society. Most of them were later found to be genuine refugees and released but they had served their political purpose.
In Nov. 2001, the attack on the United States on 9/11 again galvanized ill feeling against Muslims as a whole, despite the fact that local Muslim spokespeople and organizations condemned terrorism publicly & unequivocally. It was not enough - all the old Orientalist stereotypes got free rein. If a few Muslims had attacked the US then all Muslims must be blamed. Talk back radio and the tabloid press bristled with anti-Muslim hatred & women were again attacked because of their recognizable dress.
Again the communities adopted a low profile. There were no riots, no Islamic political parties were formed & the great majority of Muslims tried to stay away from politics.
In the following years, a few Muslims joined mainstream political parties; one even became endorsed as Liberal candidate for an unwinnable seat in Sydney. In 2002 Adem Somyurek, a 'cultural' i.e. non-practising, Muslim of Turkish descent, was elected to the upper house of the Victorian parliament. He made a conscious effort not to project himself as a spokesman for the Muslim community. He saw himself as elected by his constituents on the platform for the ALP and not as a Muslim activist. Since 9/11 he has been forced to take more notice of his Muslim identity and he sees himself as a bridge between the moderate majority in the Muslim community and other Australians.
Prior to the 2004 election, another 'cultural' Muslim of Bosnian heritage, Ed Husic, became the endorsed ALP candidate for the federal seat of Greenway. He did not stand on an 'Islamic' platform, nor did he seek to bring religion into the political discourse. Ed Husic, however, found that persons on the other side of politics were more than willing to use his religion as a weapon against him. In the course of the campaign, a pamphlet - a dummied version of his campaign ads - was distributed in the electorate, claiming that he was a devout Muslim fighting for a better deal for Muslims in Greenway. Voters were contacted by telephone with the advice that Ed Husic was a Muslim. He does not blame his opponent, a member of the Hillsong church, but clearly someone believed correctly that identification with Islam would help to sink Ed Husic's chances at the election.
More recently, two female Liberal MPs have mounted a direct and unprovoked attack on Muslim women, calling for the hijab to be banned completely (in one case) & in state schools in the other . Bronwyn Bishop called the headscarf 'an iconic symbol of defiance.' She did not call for a ban on the of the Jewish yarmulke or the Sikh turban. Why she does not see these also as symbols of defiance is not explained. Dog-whistling, the Prime Minister stated that it was not practical to ban the hijab.
In recent months, following the Bali & London bombings, fear of 'Islamic' terrorism has gripped Australia, It is rare today to see the word 'terrorism' without the adjective 'Islamic' before it. However, the carefully documented findings of Assoc. Prof Robert Pape of the University of Chicago show that the vast majority of suicide bombings have been political in motivation and usually a response to foreign occupation, such a as the presence of US troops in Iraq & Saudi Arabia. Christians and atheists as well as Muslims were among the numbers of suicide bombers in his study. In fact the most prolific and original suicide bombers have been the secular Marxist Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka whose recruits come mostly from a Hindu Tamil background. Nevertheless, the public identification of suicide bombing with Islam is firmly entrenched..
As Ross Gittins points out in an article in the SMH last week, politicians are exaggerating the risk of terrorism in Australia for their own purposes. Agencies such as ASIO & the AFP are more than happy to go along with even the wildest claims because anti-terrorism measures mean more money for their agencies and more powers - no need to worry too much about civil liberties once the anti-terrorism legislation is in place. And so the Islamist terrorist bogeyman serves a very useful purpose in Australian politics - it helps the Coalition win elections and provides money and extra powers for security agencies. The media loves it too, since bad news sells papers.The public hysteria about terrorism has generated undue fear and suspicion between Muslim communities and the mainstream. Once again Muslims are living in fear, feeling alienated and rejected by the rest of the population. As Ed Husic said the day after the last federal election, "I always considered myself as a regular Aussie, who happened to be Muslim. But when I woke up the day after the election, I didn't completely feel like a regular Aussie any more."
Back to DCF Events page
Politics, religion and Other Impolite Topics Forum November 2005
Speech: Jamila Hussain While there has been a lot of discussion recently about the role of the Christian right in politics, the nature of Australian society has been transformed, inadvertently, by another religion entirely. Islam, or rather fear of Islam, and the threat of terrorism allegedly associated with it has cost us our civil liberties and moved what used to be a free, democratic Australia well down the path towards a police state. Let us consider the way in which Islam has been brought into politics, & more particularly, who stands to benefit by bringing Islam into politics in Australia.
Muslims began to migrate to Australia in some numbers from the early 1970s. The White Australia Policy had been repealed and under the Whitlam, Fraser and subsequent Labor governments, a new fresh policy of multiculturalism was instituted. Migrants were made to feel welcome and were no longer expected to abandon their culture and religion completely before entering the arrival terminal at the airport. A new Australia was being blended from a harmonious mix of many different cultures.The vast majority of Muslim migrants who came as refugees from Lebanon, or workers from Turkey at that time, had little, if any interest in Australian politics. They were too busy getting jobs, finding housing and looking after the well being of their families to become involved in any political scene. Such political involvement as they did undertake was largely confined to obtaining permission to establish mosques and later Islamic schools for their children, against the frequent objections of the NIMBY brigade. Australians then, as now, were abysmally ignorant of Islam and Muslim culture and feared anything different.Fast forward to the election of the Howard government in 1996, the year in which Pauline Hanson was also elected to the Federal parliament. Ms Hanson's views resonated with a section of the Australian population. She opposed Asian immigration, claiming that Australians were in danger of being swamped by Asian immigrants who would take their jobs and undercut their wages.
Under the guise of protecting the right to free speech, John Howard failed to refute her argument. In 1988 he had himself stated publicly that Australia was taking too many Asian immigrants, and he has always been unenthusiastic about multiculturalism. The scene was set for a return to more conservative ways.
The first Gulf war of 1990-91 had focused the national attention on the Muslim community in Australia. Although the war was supposedly to free one fundamentalist Arab state ruled by a feudal emir (Kuwait) from invasion by another Arab state ruled by a secular dictator (Saddam Hussein) suddenly and inexplicably, Australian Muslims became the target of popular hatred, although there was no apparent support for Saddam Hussein among local Muslims and many Iraqis here were in fact refugees from the excesses of Saddam's regime. Nevertheless, mosques and Islamic schools were attacked & Muslim women, especially those who wore hijab were insulted and abused in streets and public places. The community's response was largely to lie quiet, avoiding involvement in controversy, and redoubling efforts to meet the mainstream in areas such as inter-faith activities.
In 2001 the Tampa sailed into Australian waters, with its cargo of mostly Muslim asylum seekers - the answer to a conservative politician's prayer immediately before an election. The spectre of the 'yellow peril' was easily revived - this time the brown Muslim peril of people who would throw their children overboard, people who might be terrorists (according to Peter Reith), people who were not wanted in this country. The electorate was scared silly & voted decisively for the coalition on border protection. The unfortunate asylum seekers were imprisoned on Nauru or Manus island, safely away from any danger of infecting Aussie society. Most of them were later found to be genuine refugees and released but they had served their political purpose.
In Nov. 2001, the attack on the United States on 9/11 again galvanized ill feeling against Muslims as a whole, despite the fact that local Muslim spokespeople and organizations condemned terrorism publicly & unequivocally. It was not enough - all the old Orientalist stereotypes got free rein. If a few Muslims had attacked the US then all Muslims must be blamed. Talk back radio and the tabloid press bristled with anti-Muslim hatred & women were again attacked because of their recognizable dress.
Again the communities adopted a low profile. There were no riots, no Islamic political parties were formed & the great majority of Muslims tried to stay away from politics.
In the following years, a few Muslims joined mainstream political parties; one even became endorsed as Liberal candidate for an unwinnable seat in Sydney. In 2002 Adem Somyurek, a 'cultural' i.e. non-practising, Muslim of Turkish descent, was elected to the upper house of the Victorian parliament. He made a conscious effort not to project himself as a spokesman for the Muslim community. He saw himself as elected by his constituents on the platform for the ALP and not as a Muslim activist. Since 9/11 he has been forced to take more notice of his Muslim identity and he sees himself as a bridge between the moderate majority in the Muslim community and other Australians.
Prior to the 2004 election, another 'cultural' Muslim of Bosnian heritage, Ed Husic, became the endorsed ALP candidate for the federal seat of Greenway. He did not stand on an 'Islamic' platform, nor did he seek to bring religion into the political discourse. Ed Husic, however, found that persons on the other side of politics were more than willing to use his religion as a weapon against him. In the course of the campaign, a pamphlet - a dummied version of his campaign ads - was distributed in the electorate, claiming that he was a devout Muslim fighting for a better deal for Muslims in Greenway. Voters were contacted by telephone with the advice that Ed Husic was a Muslim. He does not blame his opponent, a member of the Hillsong church, but clearly someone believed correctly that identification with Islam would help to sink Ed Husic's chances at the election.
More recently, two female Liberal MPs have mounted a direct and unprovoked attack on Muslim women, calling for the hijab to be banned completely (in one case) & in state schools in the other . Bronwyn Bishop called the headscarf 'an iconic symbol of defiance.' She did not call for a ban on the of the Jewish yarmulke or the Sikh turban. Why she does not see these also as symbols of defiance is not explained. Dog-whistling, the Prime Minister stated that it was not practical to ban the hijab.
In recent months, following the Bali & London bombings, fear of 'Islamic' terrorism has gripped Australia, It is rare today to see the word 'terrorism' without the adjective 'Islamic' before it. However, the carefully documented findings of Assoc. Prof Robert Pape of the University of Chicago show that the vast majority of suicide bombings have been political in motivation and usually a response to foreign occupation, such a as the presence of US troops in Iraq & Saudi Arabia. Christians and atheists as well as Muslims were among the numbers of suicide bombers in his study. In fact the most prolific and original suicide bombers have been the secular Marxist Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka whose recruits come mostly from a Hindu Tamil background. Nevertheless, the public identification of suicide bombing with Islam is firmly entrenched..
As Ross Gittins points out in an article in the SMH last week, politicians are exaggerating the risk of terrorism in Australia for their own purposes. Agencies such as ASIO & the AFP are more than happy to go along with even the wildest claims because anti-terrorism measures mean more money for their agencies and more powers - no need to worry too much about civil liberties once the anti-terrorism legislation is in place. And so the Islamist terrorist bogeyman serves a very useful purpose in Australian politics - it helps the Coalition win elections and provides money and extra powers for security agencies. The media loves it too, since bad news sells papers.The public hysteria about terrorism has generated undue fear and suspicion between Muslim communities and the mainstream. Once again Muslims are living in fear, feeling alienated and rejected by the rest of the population. As Ed Husic said the day after the last federal election, "I always considered myself as a regular Aussie, who happened to be Muslim. But when I woke up the day after the election, I didn't completely feel like a regular Aussie any more."
Back to DCF Events page
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Why do Indian Muslims lag behind?
Why do Indian Muslims lag behind?
By Soutik Biswas BBC News
As historians tell it, during India's first election in 1952, Jawaharlal Nehru was already worrying about the feeble representation of Muslims in the country's positions of authority.
Many more Muslims had stayed back in India than the millions who migrated to newly-born Pakistan after the partition just five years ago.
India's first prime minister's concerns about the country's second largest religious group and the largest religious minority were eminently justified.
"There were hardly any Muslims left in the defence service, and not many in the secretariat," says historian Ramachandra Guha.
Little change
Next year, in 1953, a group of intellectuals met to discuss forming a political party for the Muslims and spoke about the low representation of Muslims in political positions and bureaucracy.
More than half century later, on India's 60th anniversary of independence, very little has changed.
(Indian Muslims) carry a double burden of being labelled as 'anti-national' and as being 'appeased' at the same time
Today, at over 138 million, Muslims constitute over 13% of India 's billion-strong population, and in sheer numbers are exceeded only by Indonesia's and Pakistan's Muslim community.
The country has had three Muslim presidents - a largely ceremonial role. Bollywood and cricket, two secular pan-Indian obsessions, continue to have their fair share of Muslim stars - the ruling heroes in Mumbai films are Shah Rukh, Aamir and Salman Khan, and the star of India's current English cricket tour is pace bowler Zaheer Khan. Not long ago, the national team was led by the stylish Mohammed Azharuddin.
That's where the good news essentially ends.
Muslims comprise only 5% of employees in India's big government, a recent study found. The figure for Indian Railways, the country's biggest employer, is only 4.5%.
The community continues to have a paltry representation in the bureaucracy and police - 3% in the powerful Indian Civil Service, 1.8% in foreign service and only 4% in the Indian Police Service. And Muslims account for only 7.8% of the people working in the judiciary.
Indian Muslims are also largely illiterate and poor.
At just under 60%, the community's literacy rate is lower than the national average of 65%. Only half of Muslim women can read and write. As many as a quarter of Muslim children in the age-group 6-14 have either never attended school or dropped out.
They are also poor - 31% of Muslims are below the country's poverty line, just a notch above the lowest castes and tribes who remain the poorest of the poor.
Identity card
To add to the community's woes are myriad problems relating to, as one expert says, "identity, security and equity".
"They carry a double burden of being labelled as 'anti-national' and as being 'appeased' at the same time," says a recent report on the state of Indian Muslims.
Historians say it is ironic that many Indians bought the Hindu nationalist bogey of 'Muslim appeasement' when it had not translated into any major socio-economic gain for the community.
So why has the lot of Indian Muslims remained miserable after six decades of independence?
For one, it is the sheer apathy and ineptitude of the Indian state which has failed to provide equality of opportunity in health, education and employment.
This has hurt the poor - including the Muslim poor who comprise the majority of the community - most.
There is also the relatively recent trend of political bias against the community when Hindu nationalist governments have ruled in Delhi and the states.
Also, the lack of credible middle class leadership among the Muslims has hobbled the community's vision and progress.
Consequently, rabble rousers claiming to represent the community have thrust themselves to the fore.
To be true, mass migration during partition robbed the community of potential leaders - most Muslim civil servants, teachers, doctors and professionals crossed over.
But the failure to throw up credible leaders has meant low community participation in the political processes and government - of the 543 MPs in India's lower house of parliament, only 36 are Muslims.
Also, as Ramachandra Guha says, the "vicissitudes of India-Pakistan relations and Pakistan's treatment of its minorities" ensured that Muslims remained a "vulnerable" community.
Regional disparities
The plight of Indian Muslims also has a lot to do with the appalling quality of governance, unequal social order and lack of equality of opportunity in northern India where most of the community lives.
Populous Uttar Pradesh is home to nearly a fifth of Muslims (31 million) living in India, while Bihar has more than 10 million community members.
"Southern India is a different picture. Larger cultural and social movements have made education more accessible and self employment more lucrative benefiting a large number of Muslims," says historian Mahesh Rangarajan.
In Andhra Pradesh state, for example, 68% of Muslims are literate, higher than the state and national average. School enrolment rates for Muslim children are above 90% in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Mahesh Rangarajan says poverty and "absence of ameliorative policies" has hurt India's Muslims most.
If India was to be "a secular, stable and strong state," Nehru once said, "then our first consideration must be to give absolute fair play to our minority.."
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/6938090.stmPublished: 2007/08/09 14:20:32 GMT© BBC MMVII
By Soutik Biswas BBC News
As historians tell it, during India's first election in 1952, Jawaharlal Nehru was already worrying about the feeble representation of Muslims in the country's positions of authority.
Many more Muslims had stayed back in India than the millions who migrated to newly-born Pakistan after the partition just five years ago.
India's first prime minister's concerns about the country's second largest religious group and the largest religious minority were eminently justified.
"There were hardly any Muslims left in the defence service, and not many in the secretariat," says historian Ramachandra Guha.
Little change
Next year, in 1953, a group of intellectuals met to discuss forming a political party for the Muslims and spoke about the low representation of Muslims in political positions and bureaucracy.
More than half century later, on India's 60th anniversary of independence, very little has changed.
(Indian Muslims) carry a double burden of being labelled as 'anti-national' and as being 'appeased' at the same time
Today, at over 138 million, Muslims constitute over 13% of India 's billion-strong population, and in sheer numbers are exceeded only by Indonesia's and Pakistan's Muslim community.
The country has had three Muslim presidents - a largely ceremonial role. Bollywood and cricket, two secular pan-Indian obsessions, continue to have their fair share of Muslim stars - the ruling heroes in Mumbai films are Shah Rukh, Aamir and Salman Khan, and the star of India's current English cricket tour is pace bowler Zaheer Khan. Not long ago, the national team was led by the stylish Mohammed Azharuddin.
That's where the good news essentially ends.
Muslims comprise only 5% of employees in India's big government, a recent study found. The figure for Indian Railways, the country's biggest employer, is only 4.5%.
The community continues to have a paltry representation in the bureaucracy and police - 3% in the powerful Indian Civil Service, 1.8% in foreign service and only 4% in the Indian Police Service. And Muslims account for only 7.8% of the people working in the judiciary.
Indian Muslims are also largely illiterate and poor.
At just under 60%, the community's literacy rate is lower than the national average of 65%. Only half of Muslim women can read and write. As many as a quarter of Muslim children in the age-group 6-14 have either never attended school or dropped out.
They are also poor - 31% of Muslims are below the country's poverty line, just a notch above the lowest castes and tribes who remain the poorest of the poor.
Identity card
To add to the community's woes are myriad problems relating to, as one expert says, "identity, security and equity".
"They carry a double burden of being labelled as 'anti-national' and as being 'appeased' at the same time," says a recent report on the state of Indian Muslims.
Historians say it is ironic that many Indians bought the Hindu nationalist bogey of 'Muslim appeasement' when it had not translated into any major socio-economic gain for the community.
So why has the lot of Indian Muslims remained miserable after six decades of independence?
For one, it is the sheer apathy and ineptitude of the Indian state which has failed to provide equality of opportunity in health, education and employment.
This has hurt the poor - including the Muslim poor who comprise the majority of the community - most.
There is also the relatively recent trend of political bias against the community when Hindu nationalist governments have ruled in Delhi and the states.
Also, the lack of credible middle class leadership among the Muslims has hobbled the community's vision and progress.
Consequently, rabble rousers claiming to represent the community have thrust themselves to the fore.
To be true, mass migration during partition robbed the community of potential leaders - most Muslim civil servants, teachers, doctors and professionals crossed over.
But the failure to throw up credible leaders has meant low community participation in the political processes and government - of the 543 MPs in India's lower house of parliament, only 36 are Muslims.
Also, as Ramachandra Guha says, the "vicissitudes of India-Pakistan relations and Pakistan's treatment of its minorities" ensured that Muslims remained a "vulnerable" community.
Regional disparities
The plight of Indian Muslims also has a lot to do with the appalling quality of governance, unequal social order and lack of equality of opportunity in northern India where most of the community lives.
Populous Uttar Pradesh is home to nearly a fifth of Muslims (31 million) living in India, while Bihar has more than 10 million community members.
"Southern India is a different picture. Larger cultural and social movements have made education more accessible and self employment more lucrative benefiting a large number of Muslims," says historian Mahesh Rangarajan.
In Andhra Pradesh state, for example, 68% of Muslims are literate, higher than the state and national average. School enrolment rates for Muslim children are above 90% in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Mahesh Rangarajan says poverty and "absence of ameliorative policies" has hurt India's Muslims most.
If India was to be "a secular, stable and strong state," Nehru once said, "then our first consideration must be to give absolute fair play to our minority.."
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/6938090.stmPublished: 2007/08/09 14:20:32 GMT© BBC MMVII
Indian Muslim community growing
Indian Muslim community growing
India has released census figures showing that the Muslim community is growing much faster than other groups.
Hindus continue to make up about 80% of India's billion-plus population but their growth rate has declined.
This is the first time a religious breakdown of India's population figures has assessed "the progress made by different groups".
But critics have questioned the timing of the survey, saying it could be exploited by Hindu hardliners.
According to figures released by India's census commissioner, India's Muslim community grew by 36% between 1991 and 2001 and now stands at 138 million, or 13.4% of the total population.
Hindus account for 80.5% of all Indians, a growth of 20.3% in the same period, down from 25% in 1981-1991.
Christians make up the third largest group (24 million) followed by Sikhs (19 million).
Poor literacy
The Muslim community fares poorly in literacy compared to other groups - which is seen as one reason for their increasing numbers.
Population breakdown
Hindus: 827.5m - 80.5%
Muslims: 138.2m - 13.4%
Christians: 24m - 2.3%
Sikhs: 19.2m - 1.9%
"There has not been a significant increase in Muslim population in the southern state of Kerala because of high literacy rates," the chairman of India's Minorities Commission, Tarlochan Singh, told the BBC.
"But unfortunately this is not the case with their population in other parts of the country."
There were other alarming numbers for the Sikhs and the small Parsi community.
The ratio of females to males was lowest among the Sikh community - 893 women for every 1,000 males.
And despite controlling more than 15% of the market value in India's main financial market, the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Parsi community makes up less than 1% of Indians and is on the verge of extinction because of its low birth rates.
The Parsi population has decreased from 76,382 in 1991 to 69,601 in 2001.
Criticism
The timing of the census figures is being criticised by some who say it could be used politically against Muslims.
"I am absolutely sure that right-wing Hindu groups will misuse this data politically," social activist Teesta Setalvad told the BBC.
In its first reaction, the main opposition Hindu nationalist BJP said the increased numbers of Muslims was a matter of "grave concern for all those who think of India's unity and integrity in the long term".
"We are strongly in favour of an even and uniform adoption of population control measures by people belonging to different communities," party president Venkaiah Naidu said.
"Any imbalance in this regard is not a healthy trend."
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/3634546.stmPublished: 2004/09/07 13:04:07 GMT© BBC MMVII
India has released census figures showing that the Muslim community is growing much faster than other groups.
Hindus continue to make up about 80% of India's billion-plus population but their growth rate has declined.
This is the first time a religious breakdown of India's population figures has assessed "the progress made by different groups".
But critics have questioned the timing of the survey, saying it could be exploited by Hindu hardliners.
According to figures released by India's census commissioner, India's Muslim community grew by 36% between 1991 and 2001 and now stands at 138 million, or 13.4% of the total population.
Hindus account for 80.5% of all Indians, a growth of 20.3% in the same period, down from 25% in 1981-1991.
Christians make up the third largest group (24 million) followed by Sikhs (19 million).
Poor literacy
The Muslim community fares poorly in literacy compared to other groups - which is seen as one reason for their increasing numbers.
Population breakdown
Hindus: 827.5m - 80.5%
Muslims: 138.2m - 13.4%
Christians: 24m - 2.3%
Sikhs: 19.2m - 1.9%
"There has not been a significant increase in Muslim population in the southern state of Kerala because of high literacy rates," the chairman of India's Minorities Commission, Tarlochan Singh, told the BBC.
"But unfortunately this is not the case with their population in other parts of the country."
There were other alarming numbers for the Sikhs and the small Parsi community.
The ratio of females to males was lowest among the Sikh community - 893 women for every 1,000 males.
And despite controlling more than 15% of the market value in India's main financial market, the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Parsi community makes up less than 1% of Indians and is on the verge of extinction because of its low birth rates.
The Parsi population has decreased from 76,382 in 1991 to 69,601 in 2001.
Criticism
The timing of the census figures is being criticised by some who say it could be used politically against Muslims.
"I am absolutely sure that right-wing Hindu groups will misuse this data politically," social activist Teesta Setalvad told the BBC.
In its first reaction, the main opposition Hindu nationalist BJP said the increased numbers of Muslims was a matter of "grave concern for all those who think of India's unity and integrity in the long term".
"We are strongly in favour of an even and uniform adoption of population control measures by people belonging to different communities," party president Venkaiah Naidu said.
"Any imbalance in this regard is not a healthy trend."
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/3634546.stmPublished: 2004/09/07 13:04:07 GMT© BBC MMVII
As American as my neighbour
Tuesday, August 7th, 2007
As American as my neighbour
Tue Aug 7 2007
By Mohja Kahf
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- A certain Middle Eastern religion is much maligned in the United States. Full of veils and mystery, it is widely seen as sexist. Often violent, sometimes manipulated by demagogues, it yet has sweetness at the core, and many people are turning to it in their search for meaning.
I'm talking about Christianity.
This Muslim squirms whenever secular friends -- tolerant toward believers in Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Native American spirituality -- dismiss Christians with snorts of contempt. "It's because the Christian right wants to take over this country," they protest.
That may be, but it doesn't justify trashing the religion and its spectrum of believers. Christianity has inspired Americans to the politics of abolition and civil rights, as well as to heinous acts. Christian values have motivated the Ku Klux Klan to burn houses, and Jimmy Carter to build them. You can't say that when Christianity informs politics, only bad things happen.
People of faith do not signify the apocalypse for democracy. And (here comes the Muslim agenda) that goes for believing Muslims as much as for other religious folk. Muslims, in a very specific way, are not strangers in your midst. We are kin. We carry pieces of your family story.
Muslims are the youngest sibling in the Semitic family of religions, and we typically get no respect from the older kids -- Judaism and Christianity. That our older sisters didn't stick our pictures in the family scrapbook doesn't make us less related, sweetheart. And our stories are no less legit just because we have a different angle on family history. Want to know what happened to Hagar after she fades from the Bible story of Abraham and Sarah? Sit, have coffee, we'll talk.
My cousin was president of a national student group, and reporters constantly ask her whether Muslim youth turn to religion to reject their American identity. She grew up in the South, with friends who went to Bible camp in the summer. "Would you ask a Baptist that question?" she says, smoothing her head veil.
Assimilation is overrated. And it's not what minority religions do in the United States. Did Irish-Catholics stop being Catholic when they arrived generations ago? People once believed that devout Catholics and Orthodox Jews could never be "true Americans." Today, I receive e-mails with solemn lists of why Muslims, "according to their own faith," can't possibly be "loyal Americans." The work of nut jobs. Yet purportedly sane people in Washington seem to think it's a valid question.
The Muslim spectrum contains many complex identities, from lapsed to ultra-orthodox. There's this wisdom going around that only the liberal sort are worthy of existence. No, my dears. Conservative Muslims have a right to breathe the air. Being devout, even if it means prostration prayer at airports, is not a criminal offence. And those stubborn unassimilated types may have a critique of the American social fabric that you should hear.
I grew up Islamist. That's right, not only conservative Muslim, but full-blown, caliphate-loving Islamist, among folk who take core Islamic values and put them to work in education and politics, much like evangelical Christians. One of the things about the United States that delighted my parents, and many Islamist immigrants, is that here, through patient daily jihad, they could actually teach their children Islam -- as opposed to motley customs that pass for Islam in the Old Countries.
Look, Islam never really "took" in the Arab world. The egalitarianism that the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) preached, for example, never much budged Arab tribalism. The Koran's sexual ethic, enjoining chaste behaviour and personal responsibility toward God on men and women both, not tribal ownership of women's sexuality, never uprooted the sexual double standard or the pagan honour code. Honour killing, as a recent fatwa by al-Azhar University's mufti reminds believers, is a pagan rite violating Islamic principles. Here in the United States, religious Muslims can practise Islam without those entrenched codes.
Muslims, pious ones even, will tell you that they believe in equality, too, and are no more sexist than you. Your sexism just takes forms so familiar that they're invisible; holding doors open for women doesn't seem nearly as sexist as walking protectively ahead of them.
Other American values are easily in synch with the Islam of the devout. Observant Muslims have long seen meritocracy, consultation of the people by the government and the idea that hard work should trump family name as refreshing affirmations of Islamic values. "America is Islam, without the Muslim 'brand name,' " goes a refrain from the pulpit of immigrant mosques. Usually followed by, "The Old Countries are Muslim in name, without Islamic values."
This is the Mayflower Compact of these new Pilgrims. That analogy may not sit well with African-Americans, whose ancestors didn't come voluntarily, and with Native Americans, because it links newcomers to those who devastated their lands. Nevertheless, this is one way immigrant Muslims see themselves in this land: as part of a long caravan of faiths seeking to build the beloved community. This American narrative merges with the Muslim concept of hijrah -- emigration for the sake of worshiping God freely.
Doctrinal differences abound, and each faith has its sacraments. Exploring these distinctions should be a source of delight, not of one-upmanship. In difference lie blessing and abundance. The Gospels detail many moments in Christ's life, but for Mary's own feelings in labour, you'll want a glimpse of the Koran -- and of Muslim hearts where the scene lives.
Pious Christian and Jewish values are not inherently in conflict with American civic life, as secular folk tend to forget. Devout immigrant Muslims don't belong? That ship has sailed. Myles Muhammad Standish and Harriet Halima Tubman are here. Not as strangers out of place, either. This is a letter to your beautiful heart: We are your blood.
Mohja Kahf is the author of the novel The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf. Author e-mail:
DamasceneQueen@yahoo.com
-- Washington Post
A week with Islam
Sunday: Where Bush went wrong
Today: As American as my neighbour
Wednesday: Islam for Dummies
Thursday: Thoughts from a former firebomber
Friday: Don't call me oppressed
Missed one? Read what's been published so far online at Winnipegfreepress.com. Click on Opinions and then Commentary. Stories are listed by date.
© 2007 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
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As American as my neighbour
Tue Aug 7 2007
By Mohja Kahf
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- A certain Middle Eastern religion is much maligned in the United States. Full of veils and mystery, it is widely seen as sexist. Often violent, sometimes manipulated by demagogues, it yet has sweetness at the core, and many people are turning to it in their search for meaning.
I'm talking about Christianity.
This Muslim squirms whenever secular friends -- tolerant toward believers in Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Native American spirituality -- dismiss Christians with snorts of contempt. "It's because the Christian right wants to take over this country," they protest.
That may be, but it doesn't justify trashing the religion and its spectrum of believers. Christianity has inspired Americans to the politics of abolition and civil rights, as well as to heinous acts. Christian values have motivated the Ku Klux Klan to burn houses, and Jimmy Carter to build them. You can't say that when Christianity informs politics, only bad things happen.
People of faith do not signify the apocalypse for democracy. And (here comes the Muslim agenda) that goes for believing Muslims as much as for other religious folk. Muslims, in a very specific way, are not strangers in your midst. We are kin. We carry pieces of your family story.
Muslims are the youngest sibling in the Semitic family of religions, and we typically get no respect from the older kids -- Judaism and Christianity. That our older sisters didn't stick our pictures in the family scrapbook doesn't make us less related, sweetheart. And our stories are no less legit just because we have a different angle on family history. Want to know what happened to Hagar after she fades from the Bible story of Abraham and Sarah? Sit, have coffee, we'll talk.
My cousin was president of a national student group, and reporters constantly ask her whether Muslim youth turn to religion to reject their American identity. She grew up in the South, with friends who went to Bible camp in the summer. "Would you ask a Baptist that question?" she says, smoothing her head veil.
Assimilation is overrated. And it's not what minority religions do in the United States. Did Irish-Catholics stop being Catholic when they arrived generations ago? People once believed that devout Catholics and Orthodox Jews could never be "true Americans." Today, I receive e-mails with solemn lists of why Muslims, "according to their own faith," can't possibly be "loyal Americans." The work of nut jobs. Yet purportedly sane people in Washington seem to think it's a valid question.
The Muslim spectrum contains many complex identities, from lapsed to ultra-orthodox. There's this wisdom going around that only the liberal sort are worthy of existence. No, my dears. Conservative Muslims have a right to breathe the air. Being devout, even if it means prostration prayer at airports, is not a criminal offence. And those stubborn unassimilated types may have a critique of the American social fabric that you should hear.
I grew up Islamist. That's right, not only conservative Muslim, but full-blown, caliphate-loving Islamist, among folk who take core Islamic values and put them to work in education and politics, much like evangelical Christians. One of the things about the United States that delighted my parents, and many Islamist immigrants, is that here, through patient daily jihad, they could actually teach their children Islam -- as opposed to motley customs that pass for Islam in the Old Countries.
Look, Islam never really "took" in the Arab world. The egalitarianism that the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) preached, for example, never much budged Arab tribalism. The Koran's sexual ethic, enjoining chaste behaviour and personal responsibility toward God on men and women both, not tribal ownership of women's sexuality, never uprooted the sexual double standard or the pagan honour code. Honour killing, as a recent fatwa by al-Azhar University's mufti reminds believers, is a pagan rite violating Islamic principles. Here in the United States, religious Muslims can practise Islam without those entrenched codes.
Muslims, pious ones even, will tell you that they believe in equality, too, and are no more sexist than you. Your sexism just takes forms so familiar that they're invisible; holding doors open for women doesn't seem nearly as sexist as walking protectively ahead of them.
Other American values are easily in synch with the Islam of the devout. Observant Muslims have long seen meritocracy, consultation of the people by the government and the idea that hard work should trump family name as refreshing affirmations of Islamic values. "America is Islam, without the Muslim 'brand name,' " goes a refrain from the pulpit of immigrant mosques. Usually followed by, "The Old Countries are Muslim in name, without Islamic values."
This is the Mayflower Compact of these new Pilgrims. That analogy may not sit well with African-Americans, whose ancestors didn't come voluntarily, and with Native Americans, because it links newcomers to those who devastated their lands. Nevertheless, this is one way immigrant Muslims see themselves in this land: as part of a long caravan of faiths seeking to build the beloved community. This American narrative merges with the Muslim concept of hijrah -- emigration for the sake of worshiping God freely.
Doctrinal differences abound, and each faith has its sacraments. Exploring these distinctions should be a source of delight, not of one-upmanship. In difference lie blessing and abundance. The Gospels detail many moments in Christ's life, but for Mary's own feelings in labour, you'll want a glimpse of the Koran -- and of Muslim hearts where the scene lives.
Pious Christian and Jewish values are not inherently in conflict with American civic life, as secular folk tend to forget. Devout immigrant Muslims don't belong? That ship has sailed. Myles Muhammad Standish and Harriet Halima Tubman are here. Not as strangers out of place, either. This is a letter to your beautiful heart: We are your blood.
Mohja Kahf is the author of the novel The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf. Author e-mail:
DamasceneQueen@yahoo.com
-- Washington Post
A week with Islam
Sunday: Where Bush went wrong
Today: As American as my neighbour
Wednesday: Islam for Dummies
Thursday: Thoughts from a former firebomber
Friday: Don't call me oppressed
Missed one? Read what's been published so far online at Winnipegfreepress.com. Click on Opinions and then Commentary. Stories are listed by date.
© 2007 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
_uacct = "UA-140612-2";
urchinTracker();
Islam for dummies
Thursday, August 9th, 2007
Islam for dummies Thumbnail sketch of the religion
Wed Aug 8 2007
By John L. Esposito
WASHINGTON -- Nearly half of Americans have a generally unfavourable view of Islam, according to a 2006 Washington Post-ABC News poll, a number that has risen since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. That climate makes it easy to lose sight of the fact that the majority of mainstream Muslims hate terrorism and violence as much as we do -- and makes it hard for non-Muslims to know where to begin to try to understand a great world faith.
Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam originated in the Middle East. As F.E. Peters shows in The Children of Abraham, the commonalities can be striking. Muslims worship the God of Abraham, as do Christians and Jews. Islam was seen as a continuation of the Abrahamic faith tradition, not a totally new religion. Muslims recognize the biblical prophets and believe in the holiness of God's revelations to Moses (in the Torah) and Jesus (in the Gospels). Indeed, Musa (Moses), Issa (Jesus) and Mariam (Mary) are common Muslim names.
Muslims believe in Islam's five pillars, which are straightforward and simple. To become a Muslim, one need only offer the faith's basic credo, "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the prophet of God." This statement reflects the two main fundamentals of Islamic faith: belief in the one true God, which carries with it a refusal to worship anything else (not money, not career, not ego), and the crucial importance of Muhammad, God's messenger.
Muhammad is the central role model for Muslims -- much like Jesus is for Christians, except solely human. He is seen as the ideal husband, father and friend, the ultimate political leader, general, diplomat and judge. Understanding Muhammad's special place in Muslim hearts helps us appreciate the widespread anger of many mainstream Muslims -- not just extremists -- with the denigration of a Muhammad-like figure in Salman Rushdie's 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, the controversial 2005 Danish cartoons depicting Muhammad in unflattering lights or Pope Benedict XVI's 2006 speech quoting a long-dead Byzantine emperor who accused the prophet of bringing "only evil and inhuman" things into the world. Karen Armstrong's Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time and Tariq Ramadan's In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad provide fresh, perceptive views on his modern-day relevance.
The three next pillars of Islam are prayer, which is to be performed five times daily; giving alms, in the form of an annual wealth tax that helps support the poor; and fasting during daylight in the holy month of Ramadan. The fifth pillar requires that Muslims perform the pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca at least once.
We tend to equate Islam with the Arab world, but the largest Muslim communities are found in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Nigeria. Only about one in five of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are Arabs. Islam is the second-largest religion in Europe and the third-largest in the United States.
The treatment of women under Islam is also wildly diverse. In countries such as Saudi Arabia, women must be fully covered in public, cannot drive cars and struggle for the right to vote. But elsewhere, Muslim women freely enter politics, drive motorcycles and wear everything from saris to pantsuits. Women can get university educations and pursue professional careers in Egypt, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia; they have been heads of state in Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
Anyone who has followed the news from Iraq has heard a lot about Sunnis and Shiites, the faith's two major branches. About 85 per cent of the world's Muslims are Sunni, with about 15 per cent Shiite. The division stems from a bitter dispute after Muhammad's death over who should take over the leadership of the newly founded Muslim community. Sunnis believed that the most qualified person should succeed the prophet, but a minority thought that his descendants should carry his mantle. That minority was known as the followers or partisans (Shiites) of Ali; they believed that Muhammad had designated Ali, his cousin and son-in-law, as his heir. Historically, Shiites have viewed themselves as oppressed and disenfranchised under Sunni rule -- a longstanding grievance that has flared up again in recent years in such countries as Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Pakistan. Vali Nasr's The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future does a fine job of distinguishing between theology and politics in today's Sunni-Shiite rivalries.
Muslims also argue over what some refer to as Islam's sixth pillar, jihad. In the Koran, Islam's sacred text, jihad means "to strive or struggle" to realize God's will, to lead a virtuous life, to create a just society and to defend Islam and the Muslim community. But historically, Muslim rulers, backed by religious scholars, used the term to legitimize holy wars to expand their empires. Contemporary extremists -- most notably Osama bin Laden -- also appeal to Islam to bless their attacks. My book Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam, tackles this theme, as does Fawaz Gerges' Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy.
The Gallup World Poll's helpful section on the Muslim world (www.muslimwestfacts.com) sheds some light on the views and aspirations of more than one billion Muslims. My years studying those attitudes suggest that Muslim hostility toward the West is mostly political, not religious, and that Muslims hope the West will show their faith more respect. In our post-9/11 world, the ability to distinguish between Islam itself and Muslim extremism will be critical. Only thus will we be able to avoid pushing away mainstream Muslims around the world, marginalizing Muslim citizens at home and alienating the allies we need to help us fight global terrorism.
John L. Esposito is a professor of religion and international affairs at Georgetown University and the author of "What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam." Author e-mail: jlejpe@gmail.com
-- Washington Post
A week with Islam
Sunday: Where Bush went wrong
Tuesday: As American as my neighbour
Today: Islam for Dummies
Thursday: Thoughts from a former firebomber
Friday: Don't call me oppressed
Missed one? Read what's been published so far online at Winnipegfreepress.com. Click on Opinions and then Commentary. Stories are listed by date.
© 2007 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
_uacct = "UA-140612-2";
urchinTracker();
Islam for dummies Thumbnail sketch of the religion
Wed Aug 8 2007
By John L. Esposito
WASHINGTON -- Nearly half of Americans have a generally unfavourable view of Islam, according to a 2006 Washington Post-ABC News poll, a number that has risen since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. That climate makes it easy to lose sight of the fact that the majority of mainstream Muslims hate terrorism and violence as much as we do -- and makes it hard for non-Muslims to know where to begin to try to understand a great world faith.
Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam originated in the Middle East. As F.E. Peters shows in The Children of Abraham, the commonalities can be striking. Muslims worship the God of Abraham, as do Christians and Jews. Islam was seen as a continuation of the Abrahamic faith tradition, not a totally new religion. Muslims recognize the biblical prophets and believe in the holiness of God's revelations to Moses (in the Torah) and Jesus (in the Gospels). Indeed, Musa (Moses), Issa (Jesus) and Mariam (Mary) are common Muslim names.
Muslims believe in Islam's five pillars, which are straightforward and simple. To become a Muslim, one need only offer the faith's basic credo, "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the prophet of God." This statement reflects the two main fundamentals of Islamic faith: belief in the one true God, which carries with it a refusal to worship anything else (not money, not career, not ego), and the crucial importance of Muhammad, God's messenger.
Muhammad is the central role model for Muslims -- much like Jesus is for Christians, except solely human. He is seen as the ideal husband, father and friend, the ultimate political leader, general, diplomat and judge. Understanding Muhammad's special place in Muslim hearts helps us appreciate the widespread anger of many mainstream Muslims -- not just extremists -- with the denigration of a Muhammad-like figure in Salman Rushdie's 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, the controversial 2005 Danish cartoons depicting Muhammad in unflattering lights or Pope Benedict XVI's 2006 speech quoting a long-dead Byzantine emperor who accused the prophet of bringing "only evil and inhuman" things into the world. Karen Armstrong's Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time and Tariq Ramadan's In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad provide fresh, perceptive views on his modern-day relevance.
The three next pillars of Islam are prayer, which is to be performed five times daily; giving alms, in the form of an annual wealth tax that helps support the poor; and fasting during daylight in the holy month of Ramadan. The fifth pillar requires that Muslims perform the pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca at least once.
We tend to equate Islam with the Arab world, but the largest Muslim communities are found in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Nigeria. Only about one in five of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are Arabs. Islam is the second-largest religion in Europe and the third-largest in the United States.
The treatment of women under Islam is also wildly diverse. In countries such as Saudi Arabia, women must be fully covered in public, cannot drive cars and struggle for the right to vote. But elsewhere, Muslim women freely enter politics, drive motorcycles and wear everything from saris to pantsuits. Women can get university educations and pursue professional careers in Egypt, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia; they have been heads of state in Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
Anyone who has followed the news from Iraq has heard a lot about Sunnis and Shiites, the faith's two major branches. About 85 per cent of the world's Muslims are Sunni, with about 15 per cent Shiite. The division stems from a bitter dispute after Muhammad's death over who should take over the leadership of the newly founded Muslim community. Sunnis believed that the most qualified person should succeed the prophet, but a minority thought that his descendants should carry his mantle. That minority was known as the followers or partisans (Shiites) of Ali; they believed that Muhammad had designated Ali, his cousin and son-in-law, as his heir. Historically, Shiites have viewed themselves as oppressed and disenfranchised under Sunni rule -- a longstanding grievance that has flared up again in recent years in such countries as Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Pakistan. Vali Nasr's The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future does a fine job of distinguishing between theology and politics in today's Sunni-Shiite rivalries.
Muslims also argue over what some refer to as Islam's sixth pillar, jihad. In the Koran, Islam's sacred text, jihad means "to strive or struggle" to realize God's will, to lead a virtuous life, to create a just society and to defend Islam and the Muslim community. But historically, Muslim rulers, backed by religious scholars, used the term to legitimize holy wars to expand their empires. Contemporary extremists -- most notably Osama bin Laden -- also appeal to Islam to bless their attacks. My book Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam, tackles this theme, as does Fawaz Gerges' Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy.
The Gallup World Poll's helpful section on the Muslim world (www.muslimwestfacts.com) sheds some light on the views and aspirations of more than one billion Muslims. My years studying those attitudes suggest that Muslim hostility toward the West is mostly political, not religious, and that Muslims hope the West will show their faith more respect. In our post-9/11 world, the ability to distinguish between Islam itself and Muslim extremism will be critical. Only thus will we be able to avoid pushing away mainstream Muslims around the world, marginalizing Muslim citizens at home and alienating the allies we need to help us fight global terrorism.
John L. Esposito is a professor of religion and international affairs at Georgetown University and the author of "What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam." Author e-mail: jlejpe@gmail.com
-- Washington Post
A week with Islam
Sunday: Where Bush went wrong
Tuesday: As American as my neighbour
Today: Islam for Dummies
Thursday: Thoughts from a former firebomber
Friday: Don't call me oppressed
Missed one? Read what's been published so far online at Winnipegfreepress.com. Click on Opinions and then Commentary. Stories are listed by date.
© 2007 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
_uacct = "UA-140612-2";
urchinTracker();
Don't call me oppressed
Friday, August 10th, 2007
Don't call me oppressed
Fri Aug 10 2007
By Leila Aboulela
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- The West believes that Islam oppresses women. But as a Muslim, descended from generations of Muslims, I have a different story to tell. It starts like this: You say, "The sea is salty." I say, "But it is blue and full of fish." I am not objective about Islam, and although I am considerably Westernized, I can never truly see it through Western eyes. I am in this religion. It is in me. And articulating the intimacy of faith and the experience of worship to a Western audience is a challenge and a discovery.
* * *
My mother instilled a spiritual awareness in me from an early age. My grandmother told me stories from the Koran, and I grew up listening to adults discussing Islamic law. I don't remember when I learned that Allah existed just as I don't remember when I learned my name.
My earliest contact with the West came when I was seven and my parents enrolled my younger brother and me in the Khartoum American School in Sudan. For the first time in my life I entered a library, selected a book and took it home with me. It was the books I discovered then that made me fall in love with reading: Little House on the Prairie, A Wrinkle in Time, Harriet the Spy and Little Women.
I read them again and again, and even though I knew that the characters were not Muslim, I found Muslim values in those novels. I found spiritual journeys, and familiar depictions of the rigour and patience needed to discipline the ego.
I appreciate the West. I love its literature, its transparency and its energy. I admire its work ethic and its fairness. I need its technology and its medicine, and I want my children to have a Western education. At the same time, I am fulfilled in my religion. Nothing can compete with the elegance, authority and details of the Koran.
My personal life may be similar to that of a Western woman in the 1950s. I lived with my parents until I married. As was true for my cousins and friends, my wedding was the defining moment of my life and one of the happiest. It felt like the beginning of a story, the start of an adventure. The social life of young Muslim girls (and this is true for Arab Christian girls as well) is not unlike that of the March sisters in Little Women. The courtship rituals of modern-day Muslims can be found in a Jane Austen novel. I can't help seeing this as romantic and refreshing, innocence surviving today's tumultuous, often difficult reality.
I am not oppressed simply because I have, thank God, been spared the causes of oppression: poverty, war, destitution, abuse, illness and ignorance. I grew up in the Sudan of the 1970s, a time before civil war and economic collapse. My mother was a university professor, and my businessman father took us to Europe and spoke to me about Shakespeare. These things make a difference. I think it is ridiculous that women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, deeply shameful that young girls are still circumcised in Sudan and criminal that women in any part of the Muslim world can be denied health care or education. Change and progress, though, are happening, slowly but steadily, as Muslim societies acknowledge that their unjust traditions are rooted in a culture that can evolve, rather than in timeless religious values.
Neither Muslims nor Muslim societies are static; they move forward -- but they have their own trajectory. They cannot be replicas of the West. In 1985, when I graduated from the University of Khartoum, I was the only female student in my statistics honours class. When I visited the university a few months ago, the first thing that caught my eye was the sheer number of young women on campus -- nearly 40 per cent, compared with 20 per cent in my day.
Things have been improving in our personal lives, too. Polygamy is mostly out of fashion. Divorce, which has always been allowed by the sharia, has become easier and more socially acceptable. It is still the norm for single women to live with their families, but seeking work or education in another city is now a legitimate reason for leaving home. In recent years, divorced and widowed women have started to defy society by living alone. Although patriarchal pressure on the young is still strong, women older than 50 have considerably more clout and leeway to live as they please.
One of the results of greater education for Muslim women is that they now refuse to turn a blind eye and instead insist that prohibitions that apply to them must apply to their brothers and husbands as well. Among young educated Muslims, it is now rare to find the kind of marriage described by Naguib Mahfouz in the classic novel "Palace Walk," in which the husband is a pleasure-seeking philanderer roaming through Cairo's night life while his submissive wife is locked up at home.
But despite all this, the West will still consider an affluent, empowered, happy professional Muslim woman oppressed if she dons a veil. The West's distaste for the hijab is no surprise; Muslim liberals and progressives have also opposed the veil for centuries. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, banned it. In 1923, Hoda Shaarawi, the mother of the Egyptian feminist movement, removed her veil in Cairo's Central Station in a defining moment in Muslim women's history.
Yet over the years, Muslim women have gone back to wearing the veil or have remained loyal to their national dress, which usually includes some kind of head cover. Twenty years ago, when I was recently married and a graduate student at the London School of Economics, I, too, started to wear the hijab. I took this step with no pressure from my parents or my husband. It came after years of hesitation, years during which I held back out of fear that I would look ugly in a head scarf and that my progressive friends would make fun of me.
But I had so often gazed with longing at the girls at university who covered their hair, and I wanted to be like them. To me they seemed romantic, feminine, wrapped in some kind of mystique. I liked the look, but it was more than that. I was persuaded by the religious argument for the veil, which stresses modesty. I wanted to take a step in the right direction.
Recently, Muslim progressives have softened their stance against the veil. In some countries, the hijab's widespread popularity has made it almost the norm, rather than a gesture of defiance by a minority. Also, the veil has turned out to be a red herring; it has not stalled Muslim women's advancement, as was feared.
I hope that in time the West will come to look at the veil in a different light. It encourages me when a Western woman comments on my head scarf. When one says "That is a lovely colour" or asks "Is that batik?" I feel that she has reached out to me. She has seen that beyond the symbol is an item of clothing not unlike the veils that Western women once wore to church, or the bonnets Laura sported on the prairie. That mark of perceived female submissiveness is also an accessory that can be purchased in any department store in the West; it comes in gorgeous silks and beautiful hues.
So I say, the sea is salty, but it is also blue and full of fish.
Leila Aboulela is the author of two novels, The Translator and Minaret. Author e-mail: laboulela@hotmail.com
--Washington Post
A week with Islam
Sunday: Where Bush went wrong
Tuesday: As American as my neighbour
Wednesday: Islam for dummies
Thursday: Thoughts from a former firebomber
Today: Don't call me oppressed
Missed one? Read what's been published so far online at Winnipegfreepress.com. Click on Opinions and then Commentary. Stories are listed by date. Or go to wfpfaith.com and click on Islam: What the West doesn't get, in the index to the left
© 2007 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
_uacct = "UA-140612-2";
urchinTracker();
Don't call me oppressed
Fri Aug 10 2007
By Leila Aboulela
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- The West believes that Islam oppresses women. But as a Muslim, descended from generations of Muslims, I have a different story to tell. It starts like this: You say, "The sea is salty." I say, "But it is blue and full of fish." I am not objective about Islam, and although I am considerably Westernized, I can never truly see it through Western eyes. I am in this religion. It is in me. And articulating the intimacy of faith and the experience of worship to a Western audience is a challenge and a discovery.
* * *
My mother instilled a spiritual awareness in me from an early age. My grandmother told me stories from the Koran, and I grew up listening to adults discussing Islamic law. I don't remember when I learned that Allah existed just as I don't remember when I learned my name.
My earliest contact with the West came when I was seven and my parents enrolled my younger brother and me in the Khartoum American School in Sudan. For the first time in my life I entered a library, selected a book and took it home with me. It was the books I discovered then that made me fall in love with reading: Little House on the Prairie, A Wrinkle in Time, Harriet the Spy and Little Women.
I read them again and again, and even though I knew that the characters were not Muslim, I found Muslim values in those novels. I found spiritual journeys, and familiar depictions of the rigour and patience needed to discipline the ego.
I appreciate the West. I love its literature, its transparency and its energy. I admire its work ethic and its fairness. I need its technology and its medicine, and I want my children to have a Western education. At the same time, I am fulfilled in my religion. Nothing can compete with the elegance, authority and details of the Koran.
My personal life may be similar to that of a Western woman in the 1950s. I lived with my parents until I married. As was true for my cousins and friends, my wedding was the defining moment of my life and one of the happiest. It felt like the beginning of a story, the start of an adventure. The social life of young Muslim girls (and this is true for Arab Christian girls as well) is not unlike that of the March sisters in Little Women. The courtship rituals of modern-day Muslims can be found in a Jane Austen novel. I can't help seeing this as romantic and refreshing, innocence surviving today's tumultuous, often difficult reality.
I am not oppressed simply because I have, thank God, been spared the causes of oppression: poverty, war, destitution, abuse, illness and ignorance. I grew up in the Sudan of the 1970s, a time before civil war and economic collapse. My mother was a university professor, and my businessman father took us to Europe and spoke to me about Shakespeare. These things make a difference. I think it is ridiculous that women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, deeply shameful that young girls are still circumcised in Sudan and criminal that women in any part of the Muslim world can be denied health care or education. Change and progress, though, are happening, slowly but steadily, as Muslim societies acknowledge that their unjust traditions are rooted in a culture that can evolve, rather than in timeless religious values.
Neither Muslims nor Muslim societies are static; they move forward -- but they have their own trajectory. They cannot be replicas of the West. In 1985, when I graduated from the University of Khartoum, I was the only female student in my statistics honours class. When I visited the university a few months ago, the first thing that caught my eye was the sheer number of young women on campus -- nearly 40 per cent, compared with 20 per cent in my day.
Things have been improving in our personal lives, too. Polygamy is mostly out of fashion. Divorce, which has always been allowed by the sharia, has become easier and more socially acceptable. It is still the norm for single women to live with their families, but seeking work or education in another city is now a legitimate reason for leaving home. In recent years, divorced and widowed women have started to defy society by living alone. Although patriarchal pressure on the young is still strong, women older than 50 have considerably more clout and leeway to live as they please.
One of the results of greater education for Muslim women is that they now refuse to turn a blind eye and instead insist that prohibitions that apply to them must apply to their brothers and husbands as well. Among young educated Muslims, it is now rare to find the kind of marriage described by Naguib Mahfouz in the classic novel "Palace Walk," in which the husband is a pleasure-seeking philanderer roaming through Cairo's night life while his submissive wife is locked up at home.
But despite all this, the West will still consider an affluent, empowered, happy professional Muslim woman oppressed if she dons a veil. The West's distaste for the hijab is no surprise; Muslim liberals and progressives have also opposed the veil for centuries. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, banned it. In 1923, Hoda Shaarawi, the mother of the Egyptian feminist movement, removed her veil in Cairo's Central Station in a defining moment in Muslim women's history.
Yet over the years, Muslim women have gone back to wearing the veil or have remained loyal to their national dress, which usually includes some kind of head cover. Twenty years ago, when I was recently married and a graduate student at the London School of Economics, I, too, started to wear the hijab. I took this step with no pressure from my parents or my husband. It came after years of hesitation, years during which I held back out of fear that I would look ugly in a head scarf and that my progressive friends would make fun of me.
But I had so often gazed with longing at the girls at university who covered their hair, and I wanted to be like them. To me they seemed romantic, feminine, wrapped in some kind of mystique. I liked the look, but it was more than that. I was persuaded by the religious argument for the veil, which stresses modesty. I wanted to take a step in the right direction.
Recently, Muslim progressives have softened their stance against the veil. In some countries, the hijab's widespread popularity has made it almost the norm, rather than a gesture of defiance by a minority. Also, the veil has turned out to be a red herring; it has not stalled Muslim women's advancement, as was feared.
I hope that in time the West will come to look at the veil in a different light. It encourages me when a Western woman comments on my head scarf. When one says "That is a lovely colour" or asks "Is that batik?" I feel that she has reached out to me. She has seen that beyond the symbol is an item of clothing not unlike the veils that Western women once wore to church, or the bonnets Laura sported on the prairie. That mark of perceived female submissiveness is also an accessory that can be purchased in any department store in the West; it comes in gorgeous silks and beautiful hues.
So I say, the sea is salty, but it is also blue and full of fish.
Leila Aboulela is the author of two novels, The Translator and Minaret. Author e-mail: laboulela@hotmail.com
--Washington Post
A week with Islam
Sunday: Where Bush went wrong
Tuesday: As American as my neighbour
Wednesday: Islam for dummies
Thursday: Thoughts from a former firebomber
Today: Don't call me oppressed
Missed one? Read what's been published so far online at Winnipegfreepress.com. Click on Opinions and then Commentary. Stories are listed by date. Or go to wfpfaith.com and click on Islam: What the West doesn't get, in the index to the left
© 2007 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
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urchinTracker();
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