Closing the Week 29 – Featuring Khaled Said
The official website of ISIM is closed and the repository of Leiden University works like…well it doesn’t work so well. Which is a problem if you want to read the ISIM Review articles. Therefore I’m happy to present to you: ISIM Review via Closer
Most popular on Closer this week:
- Orange Fever: Notes on the World Cup, football, nationalism and Deep Play in the Netherlands
- Europe and Islam: Dutch elections – Have the Dutch become intolerant?
- Autumn School AISSR – Secular sounds, Islamic sounds: Politics of listening in secular-liberal nation-states
I’m honoured that my post on Orange Fever appears in the Four Stone Hearth Anthropology Carnival, this time compiled by Judith Weingarten.
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Featuring Khaled Said
Global Voices in English » Egypt: Khaled Said – An Emergency Murder by An Emergency Law
Khaled Said, a 28-year-old Egyptian from the coastal city of Alexandria, was allegedly tortured to death at the hands of two officers who wanted to search him under the emergency law. He asked for a reason or a warrant – they killed him.
Egypt: Amnesty International Urges Egypt Government to Investigate Brutal Killing of Young Man
Amnesty International is calling for an immediate, full and independent investigation into the brutal killing of a 28-year-old Egyptian man, Khaled Mohammed Said, while in the hands of Egyptian security forces in the city of Alexandria on Sunday, June 6.
Facebook | My name was khaled , and i was not a terrorist
The story began on 7th June 2010 when Khaled Saeed went to his usual Internet cafe in Sidigaber
Shadowy’s Abyss: Beat to Death.. And the Reason “Why”!
It all started when Khaled Mohamed Saeed, 28 went in a cyber café based in Bobast st, in the district of Cleopatra, Alexandria where, all of the sudden, two policemen rushed in, ordered all the clients to evince their IDs, and started frisking them in a humiliating manner.
Egyptians are intensely outraged, after the murder of a 28-year old man by the police – for refusing to show his ID, in an event that forewarns large repercussions within the Egyptian society, with social media playing a central role in the affair.
Egyptian Chronicles: Follow Up : Khalid’s Protest
The protest in front of the ministry of interior went as expected : Crack downs , arrests and journalists were harassed and their cameras were taken. The best photo I found for the protest was this photo from Assad.
Also here is another photo from Affet
The protest included the activists we always see in the protest , unfortunately it was too small despite the fact that the MOI thought it was going to be massive and that why they had nearly occupied down town !!
I do not know how the regime dares and opens its mouth in front of the photos showing the brutality of the police against peaceful protesters.Just see the videos and slide shows below to understand what I mean.
2,500 protest against police torture in Alexandria | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today’s News from Egypt
Approximately 2,500 people gathered along Alexandria’s Corniche to protest the alleged torture and killing of Alexandrian Khaled Saeed. The protesters then marched to Saeed’s home.
Police maintained a remarkably limited presence during the protest.
Egypt: Prosecute Police in Beating Death | Human Rights Watch
Egyptian authorities should speedily investigate and bring charges against two plainclothes police officers who numerous witnesses say beat to death 28-year-old Khaled Said in Alexandria on June 6, 2010, Human Rights Watch said today.
Women, fashion and politics
tabsir.net » Born Free, unless you are female
I opened my email this morning and back-to-back there was instant conflict: a posting about a new Indian Deoband fatwa ruling that veiled Muslim women should not ride bicycles and another about a female French lawyer who ripped the face covering off a young Muslim girl in a shopping mall near Nantes, the latter a pre-emptive strike for the pending anti-niqab law in the French parliament. Both rulings strike me as silly, both as overtly political. So now instead of the standard “Death to America” vs. “Muhammad is a child molester” chant wars we have entered the era of dueling over social mores through Fatwa Wars. Although not as erotic as the recent tit-illating fatwa controversy, also involving women’s bodies, the battle lines are still drawn over the same resource: what males do to control women’s bodies and minds.
New Statesman – Europe’s problem with the burqa
Is there an anthropological explanation for the high level of disapproval for a garment worn by so few?
Muslim schoolgirls show that faith and fashion are not incompatible | World news | The Guardian
Muslim schoolgirls show that faith and fashion are not incompatible
Students gave traditional dress a makeover after winning places on an Islamic fashion course
Global Voices: Fashion designers bust burqa stereotypes – thestar.com
It’s meant to be modest – but that doesn’t mean it can’t be luxurious.
French labels by John Galliano of Dior as well as Nina Ricci and Jean Claude Jitrois appear on abayas adorned by Swarovski crystals and elaborate embroidery. They range in price for $2,000 to $2,500 for ready-to-wear, while a couture abaya with a coordinating veil could go for as much as $11,500.
The Associated Press: Spain parliament rejects burqa ban _ for now
Spain’s Parliament on Tuesday rejected a proposal to ban women from wearing in public places Islamic veils that reveal only the eyes.
However, the Socialist government has said it favors including a ban on people wearing burqas in government buildings in an upcoming bill on religious issues to be debated after parliament’s summer vacation break.
In Syria, Ban On Veil Raises Few Eyebrows : NPR
As a loud and controversial debate continues over wearing the Muslim face veil in Europe, Syria quietly imposed curbs Sunday on the niqab, the veil that exposes only the eyes.
The secular-minded Syrian government has rejected extreme religious dress in the classroom, the first Arab government to weigh in so heavily on the face veil.
While many Syrian Muslim women wear a head scarf, the Syrian government sees the face veil as a growing sign of radical Islam. The latest crackdown is in the education system. However, over the past year dozens of Islamic institutes have also been shuttered.
Sumbul Ali-Karamali: Burqa Bans From an American Muslim’s Perspective
Yesterday, Syria banned women wearing a full face veil from university campuses, both public and private. France, of course, voted last week to ban the full face veil (the niqab) from all public areas. The reason cited by both countries is that the face veil as a threat to their secular identity.
Syrian Education Minister Bans Full Face Veils in Universities | Middle East | English
Syria’s education minister has issued a decree banning women on university campuses from wearing veils that cover their faces. The decision appears to be drawing fire from some quarters and praise from others.
Female Afghan Governor Fears Taliban Deal – The Lede Blog – NYTimes.com
On the eve of an international conference in Afghanistan, the country’s only female governor told Britain’s Channel 4 News that Afghan women should not have to sacrifice their rights as part of any peace agreement with the Taliban.
British MP says he won’t meet veiled Muslim women – UK – World – The Times of India
A Conservative MP has drawn flak from Muslims in Britain for saying he will refuse to meet women wearing the full Islamic dress in his constituency unless they lift their veil.
Muslim groups have condemned Philip Hollobone, the MP from Kettering, saying he is being pedantic.
Mona Eltahawy – From liberals and feminists, unsettling silence on rending the Muslim veil
The French parliament’s vote this week to ban full-length veils in public was the right move by the wrong group.
Some have tried to present the ban as a matter of Islam vs. the West. It is not. First, Islam is not monolithic. It, like other major religions, has strains and sects. Many Muslim women — despite their distaste for the European political right wing — support the ban precisely because it is a strike against the Muslim right wing.
Beautiful and striking designs were seen at the fourth Islamic Fashion Festival 2010 Kuala Lumpur-Jakarta.
ISLAMIC fashion is sometimes seen as quite unwearable. If you look at some designs, you find that most of them don’t quite make sense for the average women.
Where on earth would you wear trailing yards of fabric, layers of material and strange-looking headgear? But just like other types of fashion, where some of the things we see on the runway don’t quite look like what women can wear every day, it’s all a matter of interpretation.
gulfnews : Muslim preacher threatened with death in veil row
A female Muslim preacher has been threatened with death for declaring that the niqab (a veil which covers the whole face except for the eyes) is not obligatory.
Two Muslim women thrown out of pool for wearing ‘burkinis’ – Telegraph
Two Muslim women were ordered to leave a swimming pool in a French holiday village on the southwest coast for wearing body-covering “burkinis”.
Noorain Khan’s piece on bad burqa puns, which MMW reposted yesterday, came as I have been coincidentally trying to pull together an explanation of exactly what is wrong with headlines that use these puns. (For those unfamiliar with the structure, here’s an easy formula: “behind/beneath/under/beyond” +”the” + “veil/hijab/burqa/niqab.) Read her piece first for a great list of all the ways that this language plays out; what I want to do in this post is to expand on exactly what is wrong with using titles along these lines.
Life, rules and spirituality
Let women judges do their job
We do need to look at justice with a gender perspective. It is always women who suffer, both from injustice and society’s blindness towards it.
IT SEEMS to be the unchanging lot of women in Malaysia. First we are elevated, and then we are brought down to earth with a thud.
When the first women syariah judges were appointed this month, Muslim women were elated. At last, not only are women recognised for their ability to sit on the syariah bench but also perhaps now we can expect better justice for women in the syariah courts.
The first uneasy twinge came, for me, when one of the new judges said that she wanted to show that just because she was female it didn’t mean she would be biased towards women.
Being Na’ima B. Robert: An Interview with Award Winning Muslim Woman Author | MuslimMatters.org
Na’ima B. Robert is “Muslim, Black, mixed-race, South African, Western, revert and woman all in one”. Descended from Scottish Highlanders on her father’s side and the Zulu people on her mother’s side, she was born in Leeds and grew up in Zimbabwe. She went on to gain a first-class degree from the University of London. Having worked in marketing, the performing arts, and teaching, she is now an award-winning author and Editor-in-Chief of SISTERS, a magazine for Muslim women.
In Yemen, spirituality is in the air | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today’s News from Egypt
In her book Forty Days and Forty Nights in Yemen: A Journey to Tarim, the City of Light, Ethar el-Katatney beautifully describes her experience in south Yemen, where she attended a course in traditional Islamic sciences. With its in-depth discussion of Islam, stunning photographs, personal ruminations, and daily anecdotes, Forty Days and Forty Nights in Yemencaptures a momentous time in the 23-year-old’s life, and is a meditative, thought-provoking experience for the reader.
Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, impoverished by his loss, enriched by his inspiration.
By Reuven Firestone
Los Angeles, California – A bright light of critical scholarship of Islam was just extinguished this month in Cairo with the death of Professor Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd on 5 July. I saw him only last spring at the international conference, The Qur’an in its Historical Context, held at the University of Notre Dame, where he and Professor Abdolkarim Soroush, the great contemporary Iranian philosopher and intellectual, together gave one of the most intellectually rigorous and emotionally moving keynote presentations I have ever experienced at an academic conference.
These two Muslims represent the zenith of intellectual and ethical expression among any people of faith I know.
Qantara.de – A Negation of Women or Religious Freedom?
Until recently, the black, full-body veil was unknown in the Maghreb, where it is now the subject of ongoing controversy. The niqab debate in Europe has put the topic back in the spotlight, as Beat Stauffer reports from Fes
Morocco’s madrassas try to shun stereotype – The National Newspaper
The sun was setting over this southern Moroccan village and in his room above the local mosque, Abderrahim Oulgoum’s thoughts turned to a subject far removed from his Quranic law studies: football.
Female Imams Blaze Trail Amid China’s Muslims : NPR
In an alleyway called Wangjia hutong, women go to their own mosque, where Yao Baoxia leads prayers. For 14 years, Yao has been a female imam, or ahong as they are called here, a word derived from Persian.
As she leads the service, Yao stands alongside the other women, not in front of them as a male imam would. But she says her role is the same as a male imam.
Counter-radicalization and Islamophobia in the West
World Security Network interview:Terror Threat from young Muslims born in Europe ? – International Analyst Network
There is a heated discussion in most European countries about the impact of a growing proportion of Muslims. Is there a direct relationship between Islam and terrorism? Is home-grown terrorism more dangerous than imported terrorism? Does the threat come from Islam, or from misused political Islamism? Has a period of multiculturalism come to a disappointing end?
Ioannis Michaletos, WSN Editor for South East Europe and South-eastern Office Co-ordinator took the opportunity to exclusively interview Lorenzo Vidino, the renowned Italian expert on Islam, international terrorism and European counter-strategies.
Anti-mosque protests on the rise, say Muslim advocates – Yahoo! News
Opposition to the construction of mosques has skyrocketed in cities and towns across the country, scholars and advocates of Muslim culture tell The Upshot.
Public protests against three planned mosques have made news in the past week: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin joined others in opposing the building of a mosque a few blocks from the World Trade Center site. Hundreds demonstrated against a proposed mosque in a small town in Tennessee (pictured above). And some residents of Temecula, California, are opposing the local Muslim community’s plan to build a bigger mosque, saying it could become a hotbed of radical Islam.
Writers and academics protest over ‘racist’ LRB blogpost | Books | guardian.co.uk
Writers and academics protest over ‘racist’ LRB blogpost
Seventy-three leading cultural figures have written to the London Review of Books alleging that an article by RW Johnson contained ‘highly offensive, age-old racist stereotypes’
Muslims Debate asked Mr. Geert Wilders why he became anti-Islam and what is his message to the Muslims?
Response to Geert Wilders Message to Muslims | Mike Ghouse | Muslims Debate
Geert Wilders is becoming a European icon of intolerance, as a peace activist and a pluralist Muslim; I have an interest in understanding the man. What turned him away from becoming a peace maker?
France24 – ‘Ground Zero mosque’ raises questions of tolerance and grief
A controversy surrounding plans for an Islamic centre with a mosque near Ground Zero has highlighted tension between America’s cherished freedom of religion and its struggle to recover from the traumas of the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Palin and the ground zero mosque – chicagotribune.com
Suppose there were a heavily Muslim neighborhood in New York, with mosques, religious schools and shops with meat prepared according to Islamic dietary rules. Suppose an evangelical church wanted to build a chapel there. And suppose local Muslims tried to block it as a flagrant insult to them.
Would Sarah Palin urge the church to retract this “unnecessary provocation” in the “interest of healing”? Would her followers? Or would they scorn this disparagement of Christianity and champion the religious freedom on which America was built?
You know the answer. But Palin is not a slave to intellectual consistency. Change the church to a mosque, and put it a couple of blocks from the site of the World Trade Center, and she suddenly loses all patience with the rights of religious believers.
Misc.
Guest Post: “The Potawatomis Didn’t Have a Word for Global Business Center”? » Sociological Images
This is an example of the use of Indigenous language and imagery that many people wouldn’t think twice about, or find any inherent issues with. But let’s look at this a little deeper
Five myths about the death penalty
The death penalty: the punishment we reserve for the worst criminal offenders. Last week, law enforcement officials said it was on the table for four men charged in the shooting deaths of unarmed civilians in New Orleans in the days after Hurricane Katrina. It’s a signal that the crimes were truly reprehensible. Much of what we think we know about American capital punishment comes from the longstanding debate that surrounds the institution. But in making their opposing claims, death-penalty proponents and their abolitionist adversaries perpetrate myths and half-truths that distort the facts. The United States’ death penalty is not what its supporters — or its opponents — would have us believe.
Between Astroturf and Grass: Movements in the Middle » Sociological Images
We recently introduced the idea of “astroturfing.” Coined to contrast with the idea of a “grassroots” movement (led and supported by “regular” people), an astroturf movement is one that looks like it’s grassroots, but is actually driven and funded by a corporation. But is it always easy to distinguish between astroturf and grass? F.T. Garcia sent in this confounding example.
globeandmail.com: Anthropologist’s research ranged from Newfoundland speech to West Bank Jews
Robert Paine’s career was so multifaceted, his intellect so deft, his management practices so influential and inclusive, his research standards so high and thorough, and his impact as an anthropologist, author, teacher and administrator so far-reaching, it is difficult to pick a single example to demonstrate his prowess.
Anthropologist and pioneer in ethnic studies George De Vos dies at 87
George Alphonse De Vos, a professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a pioneer in cultural psychology, ethnic identity and migration studies, died on July 9, of congestive heart disease. He was 87.
De Vos’s ground-breaking research generated international recognition for then-emerging fields of culture and personality studies and psychological anthropology. His research ranged from psycho-cultural adaptations of Koreans in Japan and Native American cultural psychology to arranged marriage in Japan to Francophone Caribbean and African immigrants in Paris. He is believed to have introduced a multi-cultural perspective to anthropology before the term was invented.
Material World: The Art of Theft: Creativity and Property on deviantART
Specifically, John Palfrey and Urs Gasser write that, “Creativity is the upside of this brave new world of digital media (2008). The downside is law-breaking.”
Over the past two and half years, I have been studying this phenomenon, as it plays out online and offline. My commitment to an ethnographic approach to research has limited most of my attention to one website–albeit a rather large one–and also to comic and anime conventions, both of which feature the new generations of creators that have been taken up in the discourse of copyright law. In particular, I focus upon the real and not historically new concerns of many young artists and media producers as they post their work to the internet.
I would love to ask the politicians who suggest that this war is fought for our ‘western’ security–often based on the insecurity of the non-western others–what we might expect, in ten or fifteen years from now, from a generation which not only has faced 600 children under the age of 5 dying every day, and has suffered the level of trauma described above, but also is increasingly addicted from early childhood to opium? Never before has opium and drugs flourished at such level in Afghanistan, since the Taliban succeed in fighting the cultivation.
Dutch
Religiesubsidie: hier en daar een bui | Artikel 7
Subsidieverlening aan levensbeschouwelijke organisaties is, vanwege de scheiding van kerk en staat, een gevoelig politiek thema. Toch wordt er in gemeenteraden nauwelijks over gedebatteerd en ontbreken veelal gedragsregels. Uit een onderzoek van het Instituut voor multiculturele vraagstukken Forum en het Verwey-Jonker Instituut blijkt dat slechts een kwart van de gemeenten een specifiek beleid heeft op dit terrein en slechts 13 procent hanteert een gedragscode.
’De Koran is gewoon gif’ – Trouw
Ben Kok is een spreekbuis van orthodoxe christenen die huiveren voor moskeeën en minaretten. Vrijwel dagelijks plaatst de Amersfoortse voorganger op internet waarschuwende berichten over het ’gevaar’ van de islam. Nu heeft hij een film gemaakt: ’Islam en waarheid’. „Een godswonder.”
• Begin your day with IslaamTV • » Blog Archive » Joods-Christelijke Pastor op de pijnbank.
Joods-Christelijke Pastor op de pijnbank.
hoeiboei: Kritisch onderzoek nodig naar subsidie Amerikaanse islamclub
Natuurlijk gaat de 1 miljoen euro, die ex-minister Bert Koenders (PvdA) schonk aan de American Society for the Advancement of Muslims (ASMA), niet rechtstreeks naar Cordoba House, het geplande islamitische centrum inclusief moskee in de buurt van Ground Zero. Het geld voor ASMA is toegekend aan het Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equity (WISE), een van de programma’s van ASMA Society.
Ook SP wil boycot Israëlische dadels – Risala Community
De SP in Rotterdam roept samen met Nederlandse moslimorganisaties op om tijdens de ramadan geen dadels uit Israël te kopen. De boycot is volgens de socialisten bedoeld als verzet „tegen de bezetting van de Palestijnse gebieden door Israël en de voortdurende uitbreiding van illegale nederzettingen”.
Mustafa Kus doet aangifte tegen Wilders – Leiden en Regio – Leidsch Dagblad
Mustafa Kus (42) heeft het helemaal gehad met de PVV en in het bijzonder met Geert Wilders. Zozeer zelfs, dat hij deze week bij de politie aangifte heeft gedaan wegens belediging en discriminatie. ,,Ernstige belediging”, zegt de Leidenaar. ,,Het doet mij heel veel pijn.”
Bekering tot de islam: Dennis is nu Abdelkrim | Netwerk
De 19-jarige Dennis uit Haarlem gaat sinds een aantal jaar als Abdelkrim door het leven. Hij heeft zich bekeerd tot de islam. Ondanks de vele vooroordelen schaamt hij zich nergens voor en beleeft hij zijn ‘nieuwe’ geloof op z’n eigen manier.
‘Extra geld voor gebedsruimte’ – DePers.nl
De gemeente Amsterdam stelt 150.000 euro extra beschikbaar voor de bouw van een islamitische gebeds- en wasruimte op begraafplaats De Nieuwe Ooster. Het college van burgemeester en wethouders heeft dat besloten, zo maakte een woordvoerster woensdag bekend. Enkele jaren geleden trok de hoofdstad al eens 416.000 euro uit.
Wereldjournalisten Bekeerlingen tot islam krijgen met geweld te maken
Nederlanders die zich tot de islam bekeren krijgen met vooroordelen en zelfs geweld te maken, zegt Waleed Duisters van het Landelijk Platform Nieuwe Moslims. ‘Men denkt snel dat iemand zich wil aansluiten bij de Taliban.’
Vieze varkens en de karikaturale islam – GeenCommentaar.nl
Een paar jaar geleden werd er in Engeland een campagne van de politie waarin een puppy figureerde vroegtijdig gestopt. Men was bang dat dit onreine dier verontwaardiging zou oproepen bij moslims. Helaas zijn bijna alleen nog maar artikelen op het net terug te vinden over het incident, niet over de daarop volgende verwondering onder moslims.
Lucaswashier » Blog Archive » Het groot Islamitisch varkens topic
En het zijn dit keer eens niet de Islamieten die klagen. Dat deed een Nederlander, want die vond het zielig voor die arme Moslims. Dat ze zomaar een varken te zien krijgen. Want kunst in de vorm van een varken dat kan helemaal niet. Vandaar dat de Lingepolikliniek in Leerdam de kunst meteen verwijderde. Die zijn natuurlijk als de dood voor een man met baard in een jurk en een bommengordel. Hoeveel gekker moet het nog worden? Meteen maar alle uitingen van vrije expressie afschaffen? Want als we het criterium gebruiken dat er iemand mogelijk gekwetst kan worden is niks meer mogelijk. Vanwege al die mensen met tere zieltjes.
Ook DeJaap censureert kunst | DeJaap
Het idee! Beseft zij dan niet dat varkens, koeien, schapen, pauwen, katten, honden en zeker vlinders zeer gemeen kunnen schelden en voor eeuwig op het netvlies worden gebrand van mensen die gewoon heel leuk gek lief exotisch zijn en niet voor zichzelf klachten kunnen indienen, de arme onderdrukte slachtoffers dat het zijn, dus ontzettend blij zijn als een of ander extreem-links Rene Danen-type pro-actief een klacht indient?
Amsterdamse subsidie voor islamitische ‘weekendschool’ – Maroc.NL
Opnieuw kritiek op een Amsterdamse subsidie voor een islamitische voorziening. Stadsdeel centrum gaf een islamitische weekendschool ruim zevenduizend euro in het kader van integratie. Maar de VVD ziet niet in wat de Marokkaanse en religieuze lessen met integratie te maken hebben.
Op Nieuwemoskee.nl is Wilders ook welkom – hetkanWel.nl
Moslims wordt vaak verweten dat zij niet kritisch kijken naar hun eigen geloof. De website Nieuwemoskee.nl, een platform voor hedendaagse denkers, wil hierin verandering brengen. Zij willen denkbeelden over de islam doorbreken.
Nederland, een land waarover velen claimen dat het bekend staat om de moderne beschaving, de normen en waarden. Prachtig, of toch niet?
Een tijdje terug las ik een oud nieuwsartikel over polygaam huwelijken die in Amsterdam toegestaan zouden zijn. Mijn ogen vielen op het volgende stukje tekst: “Deze huwelijken zijn een uiting van onderdrukking van de vrouw…” Ik stond hierbij even stil en las het artikel weer verder door. Aan het eind gekomen, dacht ik weer even na over die zin. Namelijk, er wordt hier een bewering gedaan die de werkelijkheid tegen gaat.
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