Closing the week 48
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Why Conservatives failed the test on Islamic schools – Education News, Education – The Independent
Conservative Party officials made two basic errors in their attack on two schools said to be run by a radical Islamic group, it emerged yesterday.
During Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday and in briefings afterwards the Conservatives claimed there was no evidence that the schools had been registered or inspected by Ofsted, the education standards watchdog; they also said the schools had received money from an anti-terrorism fund. But yesterday the claims were beginning to unravel. The most obvious mistake was the allegation that they appeared not to have been registered or inspected.
Immigration and “impact” — Crooked Timber
Henceforth, research in the UK will be funded not just for its intrinsic quality but also for the benefits it is expected to bring to the wider society. Ministers and higher-education funding bureaucrats have been keen to point out that they don’t simply mean economic benefits and commercial spinoffs. No, they also want to reward research which makes a difference to public policy. Of course, I’d love it to be the case that senior politicians and civil servants read work in political philosophy and theory and, convinced by good arguments, adjust their ideas accordingly. But the cynic in me says that this isn’t what happens. Rather, the attitude that politicians have to research is to latch onto it when it supports the view they already hold and to ignore (or punish) it when it tells them something uncomfortable. Research that supports tighter border controls (or harsher drug laws) will have “impact” and research that favours more immigration or legalizing weed won’t. And the money will follow.
Why do fewer Arab women have jobs in Israel than Saudi Arabia? – Haaretz – Israel News
Why do fewer Arab women have jobs in Israel than Saudi Arabia?
By Himmat ZoabiFinance Minister Yuval Steinitz appears to have been unaware of some important facts when he said at a recent conference on discrimination that Arab society in Israel is partially responsible for the low levels of employment for Arab women.
Hijab Style: Hijab Style Exclusive: Interview with Irna Mutiara
Hijab Style Exclusive: Interview with Irna Mutiara
Yesterday I posted some of Irna Mutiara’s designs here, which were on the runway at Jakarta Fashion Week. Today, Hijab Style brings you an exclusive interview with Irna about her work in the Indonesian Islamic fashion industry
“It’ll just happen, whenever God knows you’re ready.” – washingtonpost.com
Last November, after 6 1/2 years together, Hagir Elawad’s boyfriend finally proposed. It was what she’d been so badly wanting, she says — “until it happened.”
Put on a pair of gold encrusted BQ shades — the world’s first sunglasses especially tailored for piously dressed women in the Persian Gulf.
French rapper Diam’s is keeping it real with Islam – The National Newspaper
Rapper Diam’s has sold millions of CDs documenting the poverty and racism blighting urban France. But fame took its toll when she was hit by depression. Now recording again, she puts her recovery down to her Muslim faith. Colin Randall, foreign correspondent, reports from Paris
Al Jazeera English – Middle East – Pilgrim embarks on ‘lifelong dream’
The annual pilgrimage to Islam’s holy city of Mecca is mandatory for healthy Muslims at least once in a lifetime, if they can afford it.
For 42-year-old pilgrim Maryam Abdalla of Kenya, a mother of three and nurse at a government hospital, the journey has not been an easy one.
But after seven years of planning and praying, Abdalla says she is content with the feeling that she has accomplished one of her life-long dreams.
Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow reports.
Muslim women seek even playing field in football | Football – Times Online
“It’s completely a matter of tradition and choice here — football and religion don’t cross each other,” Ozan Soykan, the liaison officer for the Turkish FA, said. “Women’s football is growing in popularity, just as men’s football is. Female spectators are increasing at games and in primary schools, it’s quite natural for six or seven-year-old girls to be playing among boys.”
CBC News – Canada – For Muslim women, respect cuts both ways
When you think of Buenos Aires you’re more likely to envision Catholic churches and Virgin Marys, not so much minarets and Muslims. But, much to my surprise, South America’s largest mosque can be found in Palermo, one of Buenos Aires’s most fashionable districts.
The King Fahd Islamic Cultural Centre is an enormous structure surrounded by sweet smelling jasmine flowers and heavy-duty security.
I hadn’t come to Argentina to go to mosque but out of a mixture of journalistic curiosity and tribal obligation I decided to pay a visit.
Ahmed Rehab: Hijab Case: Why Bigoted Battery Makes For A Hate Crime
Hijab Case: Why Bigoted Battery Makes For A Hate Crime
The Fort Hood massacre committed by Major Nidal Hassan was a national tragedy that took us all by surprise. It was quickly and widely condemned by the American Muslim community who were as shell-shocked and dismayed as anybody else, and who were additionally concerned about a potential backlash against those who happen to share Hassan’s faith, though not his crime.It is no surprise that the usual culprits who have built careers out of inciting hysteria against Muslims saw this tragedy as an opportunity on a golden platter. The hate blogs and radio talk shows were quickly abuzz with familiar voices trying hard to extend Hassan’s guilt to every Muslim and the faith they practice .
Unfortunately, there are always the vigilante Joes and Janes out there who consume this stuff with little critical scrutiny and, in some cases, act upon it.
Such was the case a few days ago at a local grocery store in Tinley Park, Illinois.
Amal Abusumayah, a 28-year-old American mother of four young girls, was going about her usual shopping when she was randomly treated to a dose of derogatory comments about her faith and ethnic heritage; the offending woman, later identified as 54-year-old Valerie Kenney, referenced Fort Hood.
Amal tried to ignore the comments and proceeded to check out at the counter when she felt a sharp pull on her hijab — or headscarf.
Amal was “shaken up” and felt violated but did not know what to do. She followed the woman to the parking lot and called the police. She was not sure if she wanted to press charges that night, but later decided that it was something she owed to her daughters. They, like Amal, were born and would grow up in this country — as American as anybody else.
Hijab Style: Hijab Style Exclusive: Interview with Irna Mutiara
Hijab Style Exclusive: Interview with Irna Mutiara
Yesterday I posted some of Irna Mutiara’s designs here, which were on the runway at Jakarta Fashion Week. Today, Hijab Style brings you an exclusive interview with Irna about her work in the Indonesian Islamic fashion industry
‘Muslim suffragettes’ fight for mosque vote – Scotsman.com News
MUSLIM women have launched an audacious campaign to win the vote at Scotland’s biggest mosque.
Getting searched by the secret service
I’m not sure if it’s because of the hijab, but I do believe it must have been a factor in my getting searched by the President’s Secret Service.
When I was covering politics as a radio reporter, I was sent a few times to cover President George W. Bush when he was in Chicago. Coincidentally each time I was sent I was searched more than any of the other journalists in attendance.
How do I know this? Well because I asked my colleagues.
Ghada’s World: People Leaving Islam
I am posting this video on why Kimdonesia left Islam. I have never met the girl, but I thought her reasons were valid. There have been times when I have felt very much the say way, but I tend to be a very liberal thinker. Since my conversion to Islam, I have never thought as my family as infedials. We have a lot of different beliefs systems in my family for Christainity to Wiccan (Witch Craft) to Islam. Allah (God) has always has a strong place within my life, I have always prayed to a God, and there was a point in my life where I did question about my belief in a God.
There is no honour in ‘honour killing’ – ?? ??? ?? ???????
Depending on which school of thought one adheres to, Islam made room not only for the normal marriage but also for other associations between men and women, which may be consummated for various reasons including pleasure.
These arrangements may not be popular in certain Muslim communities nowadays but this does not change the fact that Islam is more tolerant of male-female relationships than meets the eye or than some would have us believe. Hence, the issue becomes not one of dishonour and immorality but of disobedience and control.
As humans, we tend to seek repositories in life to deposit issues in, and we behave towards those repositories in different ways, depending on the issues that we deposit in them. So, a wall or a building becomes holy because we deposit part of our reverence for the divine in these structures. Or, we may project evil into a group of people and seek to eradicate them. For a woman to become the repository of virtue for her family, she becomes an icon, and icons are images that we impose on a surface that never live up to our unreasonable expectations.
Dutch
hoeiboei: De expansie van de islam en de toekomst van Nederland
Er is weinig creativiteit voor nodig om te bedenken dat in de huidige tijd het omgekeerde heeft plaats gehad van wat er gebeurd is na de verovering van Mekka: de migratie is weer centraal komen te staan, en is uitgegroeid tot de belangrijkste strategie om de macht van de islam te vergroten. Het belang van bloedige strijd is verminderd. Migratie is sinds een kleine halve eeuw weer het effectiefste hulpmiddel van de expansie zoals het dat ook was in de eerste acht jaar (622-630) na de migratie naar Medina en voor de verovering van Mekka in 630.
Hoe christelijk is het om zich achter de PVV van Geert Wilders te scharen? – Trouw
Zoals de islam een licht ontvlambare, djihadistische kant kent (denk aan Al-Kaida, of de Taliban), heeft ook het christendom een onverdraagzame, militante zijde.
SGP: Dijksma deed dom en dwaas – Trouw
Dijksma zei: „Op school moet je mogen zijn wie je bent. In die zin is de school niet alleen de plek die fysieke veiligheid biedt; ook de geestelijke vrijheid dient er te worden beschermd. Op alle scholen zeg ik daarbij. Ook de islamitische en streng christelijke. Als kinderen daar bijvoorbeeld te horen krijgen dat het niet goed is om vrienden te zijn met mensen die niet gelovig zijn, kan dat niet door de beugel.” Dat kon Dijksma niet maken, vindt de SGP : „Met het op één hoop gooien van christelijke en islamitische scholen zet zij het christelijk onderwijs in een kwade reuk.”
nrc.nl – Opinie – Islamonderzoeker is geen overheidsdienaar
In de laatste tien jaar heeft het beleid, als gevolg van de aanslagen in Amerika en Europa en de problemen met jongeren in verschillende Europese steden, zich toegespitst op criminaliteit- en radicaliseringpreventie, veiligheid, en een grotere controle op het doen en laten van moslims. Radicalisering onder jonge moslims, confrontaties tussen bewoners in wijken en tal van andere kwesties worden primair beschouwd als integratieproblemen. Europese staten streven ernaar de islam te beteugelen en aan te passen aan nationale omstandigheden. Deze ‘domesticering van de islam’ is een beleidsprioriteit geworden in vrijwel alle landen van Europa.
Vanuit beleidsoogpunt is het misschien begrijpelijk dat overheden primair geïntegreerd zijn in integratievraagstukken en dat zij instrumenten willen ontwikkelen ter voorkoming van radicalisering en criminaliteit, maar onderzoekers moeten niet blindelings deze weg volgen, maar hun eigen onderzoeksagenda ontwikkelen.
nrc.nl – Opinie – Onderzoek naar moslimradicalisme is ook onafhankelijk onderzoek
Sunier’s kritiek impliceert een zware beschuldiging, namelijk dat radicalismeonderzoek niet onafhankelijk is. Onafhankelijkheid is één van de kernwaarden van wetenschappelijk onderzoek. Dit wordt ook geïllustreerd door het feit dat in de gedragscode van de Vereniging van Nederlandse Universiteiten (VSNU) onafhankelijkheid een van de belangrijkste criteria is. Het is dan ook meer dan verbazingwekkend dat Sunier geen enkel argument voor zijn aanklacht aanvoert. Louter het feit dat men in opdracht van de overheid onderzoek doet naar moslimradicalisme, is voor hem genoeg om de onafhankelijkheid van onze studies ter discussie te stellen. Laat ik daarom een aantal punten duidelijk maken
Expertdiscussies » Richten moslimonderzoekers zich teveel op radicalisme?
Wat vindt u? Is al die aandacht voor radicalisme onwetenschappelijk? Schept dat een verkeerd beeld van moslims? Of is er niets aan de hand en ontsluit radicalismeonderzoek vooral ook de gevallen die niet aan die definitie voldoen?