C L O S E R Misc. News - 5/36 - C L O S E R

Dispute among Islam Scholars: Did Muhammad Ever Really Live? – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Posted on September 18th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

Dispute among Islam Scholars: Did Muhammad Ever Really Live? – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International
DISPUTE AMONG ISLAM SCHOLARS
Did Muhammad Ever Really Live?

A number of Islamic associations have put a quick end to their collaboration with a professor — and trainer of people who are supposed to teach Islam in German high schools — who has expressed his doubt that Muhammad ever lived. Islam scholar Michael Marx spoke with SPIEGEL ONLINE about what lies behind the debate and the historical person of the Prophet

Over antropologen

Posted on September 16th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

Ahmed Aboutaleb in Metro

Wat doet u met groepen die onwillig blijven. Bijvoorbeeld jongeren die expres te laat komen bij sollicitatiegesprekken of arbeid onder hun eigen opleidingsniveau weigeren?
Die ontnemen we hun uitkering. Als vastgesteld wordt dat je doet aan cosmetisch solliciteren, ofwel bewust een slechte indruk maken op de potentiële werkgever, dan verdien je natuurlijk geen beloning voor je weigerachtige houding. Dat geldt ook voor mensen die niet onder hun eigen niveau willen werken. Ik heb zelf ooit friet gebakken in Scheveningen en van de ervaring die ik daar heb opgedaan, profiteer ik nu nog steeds. Het vormt je en het verbreedt je ervaring. Waarom zou bijvoorbeeld een antropoloog niet een tijdje ober kunnen zijn? Dat is beter dan thuiszitten en in je uitkeringssituatie berusten.

Hij moest eens weten hoe dicht hij bij de realiteit zit.

on Gregory Bateson – Everything is connected | The Guardian

Posted on September 15th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

Everything is connected | Books | The Guardian

Tim Parks on Gregory Bateson: an anthropologist who believed the arts could diminish our desire to control the world

Global warming, global terrorism, food crises, water crises, oil conflicts, culture wars – “civilisation” seems to be accelerating towards self-destruction. These are circumstances in which art and artists tend to get political or, alternatively, resign themselves to insignificance. In literature, the phenomenon is exacerbated by the difficulty many people have reading for anything beyond content and immediately communicated emotion. As Borges once remarked, since most critics have little sense of the aesthetic, they have to find other criteria for judging a book – political persuasion being the most obvious.

At such a moment, it may be worth looking at the work of a man who had a rather unusual take on the relationship between art and politics, who saw the two as intimately related and mutually conditioning, art being allowed a certain, perhaps even pervasive, influence, but not in the crass sense of grinding an axe, or even exploring controversial situations; on the contrary, art might be most “useful” when, to all intents and purposes, most “irrelevant”.

Gregory Bateson (1904-80) was born into a family with a history of spirited scientific controversy. His father William, a distinguished naturalist, was responsible for coining the word “genetics” and had been both translator and vociferous champion of Mendel’s pioneer work on hybrids and heredity.
[…]
Over his lifetime, Bateson was involved in a wide range of studies, the early anthropological explorations being followed by work on families and mental health problems (when he invented the idea of “the double bind”), studies in cybernetics and communication, and even in the “language” of dolphins and other creatures. What seems to have fascinated Bateson was the question: how does a complex culture maintain a relatively steady state, adapting to outside change and correcting internal imbalances? Perhaps, having been brought up in a family always engaged in public polemics and torn apart by the conflict that led to his brother’s suicide (another older brother was killed in the first world war), Bateson was looking for the sort of mechanisms that can prevent tension from blowing up into tragedy; hence the rather surprising way he would often mix his anthropology with diagrams of such things as thermostatic cut-out systems, or steam engine governors. In any event, it was his eye for the way negative situations are, or are not, defused before the worst can happen that led to his formulating some interesting reflections on art.
[…]
The curious nature of Bateson’s “epistemological” approach was that it prevented him from proposing remedies to the problems he identified. His thinking contained a kind of catch-22: the conscious mind, his own included, was of its nature incapable of grasping the vast system of which it was only a very small and far from representative part; hence any major intervention to “solve” a given problem would always be ill-informed and inadvisable. The only possible solution would be a radical change in our way of thinking, or even our way of knowing, a new (or ancient) mindset in which conscious purpose would be viewed as only a minor and rather suspect part of mental life.
[…]
Dreams, religious experience, art, love – these were the phenomena that still had power, Bateson thought, to undermine the rash/rational purposeful mind. Of these four, art enjoyed the special role of fusing different “levels of mind” together: there was necessarily consciousness and purpose in the decision to create, but creativity itself involved openness to material from the unconscious, otherwise the work would be merely schematic and transparent.

on Gregory Bateson – Everything is connected | The Guardian

Posted on September 15th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

Everything is connected | Books | The Guardian

Tim Parks on Gregory Bateson: an anthropologist who believed the arts could diminish our desire to control the world

Global warming, global terrorism, food crises, water crises, oil conflicts, culture wars – “civilisation” seems to be accelerating towards self-destruction. These are circumstances in which art and artists tend to get political or, alternatively, resign themselves to insignificance. In literature, the phenomenon is exacerbated by the difficulty many people have reading for anything beyond content and immediately communicated emotion. As Borges once remarked, since most critics have little sense of the aesthetic, they have to find other criteria for judging a book – political persuasion being the most obvious.

At such a moment, it may be worth looking at the work of a man who had a rather unusual take on the relationship between art and politics, who saw the two as intimately related and mutually conditioning, art being allowed a certain, perhaps even pervasive, influence, but not in the crass sense of grinding an axe, or even exploring controversial situations; on the contrary, art might be most “useful” when, to all intents and purposes, most “irrelevant”.

Gregory Bateson (1904-80) was born into a family with a history of spirited scientific controversy. His father William, a distinguished naturalist, was responsible for coining the word “genetics” and had been both translator and vociferous champion of Mendel’s pioneer work on hybrids and heredity.
[…]
Over his lifetime, Bateson was involved in a wide range of studies, the early anthropological explorations being followed by work on families and mental health problems (when he invented the idea of “the double bind”), studies in cybernetics and communication, and even in the “language” of dolphins and other creatures. What seems to have fascinated Bateson was the question: how does a complex culture maintain a relatively steady state, adapting to outside change and correcting internal imbalances? Perhaps, having been brought up in a family always engaged in public polemics and torn apart by the conflict that led to his brother’s suicide (another older brother was killed in the first world war), Bateson was looking for the sort of mechanisms that can prevent tension from blowing up into tragedy; hence the rather surprising way he would often mix his anthropology with diagrams of such things as thermostatic cut-out systems, or steam engine governors. In any event, it was his eye for the way negative situations are, or are not, defused before the worst can happen that led to his formulating some interesting reflections on art.
[…]
The curious nature of Bateson’s “epistemological” approach was that it prevented him from proposing remedies to the problems he identified. His thinking contained a kind of catch-22: the conscious mind, his own included, was of its nature incapable of grasping the vast system of which it was only a very small and far from representative part; hence any major intervention to “solve” a given problem would always be ill-informed and inadvisable. The only possible solution would be a radical change in our way of thinking, or even our way of knowing, a new (or ancient) mindset in which conscious purpose would be viewed as only a minor and rather suspect part of mental life.
[…]
Dreams, religious experience, art, love – these were the phenomena that still had power, Bateson thought, to undermine the rash/rational purposeful mind. Of these four, art enjoyed the special role of fusing different “levels of mind” together: there was necessarily consciousness and purpose in the decision to create, but creativity itself involved openness to material from the unconscious, otherwise the work would be merely schematic and transparent.

Nationale collegereeks 'Fitna en de 'Nieuwe politiek''

Posted on September 15th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News, Public Islam.

Nationale collegereeks ‘Fitna en de ‘Nieuwe politiek” georganiseerd door René Boomkens van de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Een deel van het programma is al geweest, maar het resterende ziet er interessant uit. Een aanrader.

Nationale collegereeks ‘Fitna en de ‘Nieuwe politiek”

Posted on September 15th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News, Public Islam.

Nationale collegereeks ‘Fitna en de ‘Nieuwe politiek” georganiseerd door René Boomkens van de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Een deel van het programma is al geweest, maar het resterende ziet er interessant uit. Een aanrader.

Bolkestein: De ideale wereld van Tariq Ramadan – de Volkskrant

Posted on September 13th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

De ideale wereld van Tariq Ramadan – Opinie – de Volkskrant
De ideale wereld van Tariq Ramadan
Frits Bolkestein, oud-eurocommissaris, ging elf september jl. in debat met Tariq Ramadan in De Nieuwe Horizon. Bolkestein beschuldigde daarin Ramadan onder meer van het spreken met twee gezichten en stelde dat de geglobaliseerde islam die Tariq Ramadan in het verschiet ziet, de Nederlander, hopelijk ook als hij moslim is zo stelde Bolkestein, met weerzin zouvervullen.waarop (volgens de Volkskrant) Ramadan verontwaardigd reageerde. Volgens hem is 95 procent van de uitspraken waarnaar Bolkestein verwijst, onjuist.

Hieronder de tekst van Bolkestein, volgende week verschijnt in de Volkskrant een repliek van Ramadan.

Beeldvorming in de Telegraaf

Posted on September 9th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

Ok dan, je hebt een bericht en dat bevat in de kern de volgende info:

In 38 gevallen waarbij 59 kinderen betrokken waren, ging het om ontvoering naar Nederland. In 74 zaken (106 kinderen) betrof het kinderen die meegenomen waren naar het buitenland.

In de meeste gevallen is de moeder de ontvoerende ouder. Ontvoeringen naar landen in West-Europa komen het meest voor, het vaakst naar Engeland.

Dan heb je natuurlijk een leuk plaatje nodig dat het artikel goed illustreert. Dus wat doe je dan? (more…)

Toch uitgever voor boek over Mohammed en Aisha | 'Meer!'

Posted on September 4th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

Toch uitgever voor boek over Mohammed en Aisha | ‘Meer!’
Leipzig – Een Duitse uitgever gaat een omstreden roman over de profeet Mohammed en zijn zeer jonge bruid Aisha publiceren, zegt schrijfster Sherry Jones in de krant Leipziger Volkszeitung.

De Amerikaanse uitgever Random House zag vorige maand op het laatste moment van publicatie af, na waarschuwingen dat vanuit radicale islamitische hoek gewelddadige repercussies zouden kunnen volgen.

Jones noemt geen uitgever, maar zegt dat het boek al in oktober in het Engels verschijnt. Schrijver Salman Rushdie uitte felle kritiek op het besluit het boek niet te publiceren.

Toch uitgever voor boek over Mohammed en Aisha | ‘Meer!’

Posted on September 4th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

Toch uitgever voor boek over Mohammed en Aisha | ‘Meer!’
Leipzig – Een Duitse uitgever gaat een omstreden roman over de profeet Mohammed en zijn zeer jonge bruid Aisha publiceren, zegt schrijfster Sherry Jones in de krant Leipziger Volkszeitung.

De Amerikaanse uitgever Random House zag vorige maand op het laatste moment van publicatie af, na waarschuwingen dat vanuit radicale islamitische hoek gewelddadige repercussies zouden kunnen volgen.

Jones noemt geen uitgever, maar zegt dat het boek al in oktober in het Engels verschijnt. Schrijver Salman Rushdie uitte felle kritiek op het besluit het boek niet te publiceren.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Mahmud Darwish: Palestinian 'national poet' dies

Posted on August 9th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Palestinian ‘national poet’ dies
Palestinian ‘national poet’ dies
Mahmoud Darwish
Darwish won many international prizes for his work

Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish has died after surgery at the age of 67, hospital and Palestinian officials say.

He suffered complications after undergoing open-heart surgery in Houston, Texas, said a spokesman for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Mr Darwish was the most recognised Palestinian poet in the world, using his words to try to draw attention to the Palestinian cause. (more…)

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Mahmud Darwish: Palestinian ‘national poet’ dies

Posted on August 9th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Palestinian ‘national poet’ dies
Palestinian ‘national poet’ dies
Mahmoud Darwish
Darwish won many international prizes for his work

Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish has died after surgery at the age of 67, hospital and Palestinian officials say.

He suffered complications after undergoing open-heart surgery in Houston, Texas, said a spokesman for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Mr Darwish was the most recognised Palestinian poet in the world, using his words to try to draw attention to the Palestinian cause. (more…)

Wetenschap in de media: wiskunde

Posted on July 31st, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

Soms is het lekker zeuren hoe media omgaan met wetenschappelijk onderzoek. Nu is moslims en islam een onderwerp dat het altijd wel goed doet, maar een mooi ander onderwerp is ook de wiskundekwaliteiten van meisjes. Nu wisten de media recent te melden dat Meisjes even goed zijn in wiskunde als jongens. Doet het altijd goed. Het haakt aan bij de ‘koude-grond-nature-nurture’ debat, iedereen kent wel verhalen over verschrikkelijke wiskundeleraren en het heeft ook een heel hoog ‘zie je wel’ gehalte. Nu zijn er gelukkig altijd mensen die niet zomaar klakkeloos alles aannemen, maar over het algemeen kan ik er niet veel vinden.

Terwijl er toch nog wel wat meer op te merken valt aan het onderzoek. Als we zien dat het onderzoek wordt gebruikt als argument om te beweren dat jongens inderdaad beter zijn in wiskunde, maar ook om aan te tonen dat dat niks uitmaakt, moet je toch al gaan vrezen dat er ergens iets aan de hand is. Het hoeft niet te betekenen dat het slecht onderzoek is; mensen gaan nu eenmaal graag met die resultaten aan de haal die hun mening bevestigen.

Nu klopt de weergave in de NL-se kranten wel, maar het is onvolledig. Wat men vergeet te melden namelijk is dat de variantie onder jongens hoog is; dus de afwijking van het gemiddelde. Terwijl de conclusie dat jongens en meisjes het even goed doen, gebaseerd is op het gemiddelde. Dat klopt dus wel, maar de kans is dus groter dat jongens het heel goed doen óf heel slecht dan bij meisjes.

Nog een ander punt dat niet genoemd is in de media, maar wel als heel belangrijk wordt gezien door de auteurs heeft betrekking op de testen zelf. Men heeft gebruik gemaakt van testen die door scholen zelf worden afgenomen en waarin vragen op vier niveaus worden gesteld. Zij kwamen tot de ontdekking dat er nauwelijks vragen op de twee hoogste niveaus worden gesteld. Wat dit betekent is niet helemaal duidelijk. Is dit een nivellering omlaag van de inhoud van het onderwijs? Maar ook: wat betekent dit dan als je op deze manier de wiskunde kwaliteiten van mensen gaan meten?

Nou weet ik ook wel dat het komkommertijd is, maar moet dat nou ook betekenen dat dergelijke onderwerpen zo mager behandeld worden?

BBC NEWS | Europe | Turkey's ruling party escapes ban

Posted on July 30th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Turkey’s ruling party escapes ban
Turkey’s ruling party escapes ban
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in parliament, 15 July 08
PM Erdogan insists he does not have an Islamist agenda

Turkey’s Constitutional Court has decided not to ban the ruling AK Party, accused of undermining the country’s secular system.

But the judges did cut half the AKP’s treasury funding for this year.

The AKP, which won a huge poll victory last year, denies it wants to create an Islamist state by stealth. It called the case an attack on democracy.

The powerful military sees itself as the guardian of the modern secular state founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Court president Hasim Kilic said the financial sanctions imposed on the AKP were a “serious warning”.

Narrow decision

At least seven of the 11 court judges would need to vote in favour for the party to be banned. But six judges wanted a ban and five did not want to do so.

MP Suat Kinklioglu speaks of the AK Party’s relief at the court’s decision

“I hope the party in question will evaluate this outcome very well and get the message it should get,” Mr Kilic said.

After the ruling, Turkey’s Labour Minister Faruk Celik was quoted as saying it was a “victory for Turkish democracy”.

The court case followed a series of confrontations between the AKP, which has Islamist roots, and the secular elite. Turkish secularists have staged huge anti-AKP rallies.

The party’s attempt to allow Islamic headscarves to be worn at universities was highly controversial.
Last month the constitutional court said the move to lift the existing headscarf ban violated the secular constitution.Since the 1960s, more than 20 parties – mostly pro-Islamist or pro-Kurdish – have been shut down by the courts for allegedly posing a threat to Turkey’s secularist principles.

However, this is the first time that a closure case has been brought against a governing party with a huge parliamentary majority.

EU officials expressed some relief at the court’s ruling on Wednesday.

“It is positive. Turkey is living a tense situation and we very much hope that the decision by the court will contribute to restore political stability,” said Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, quoted by Reuters.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Turkey’s ruling party escapes ban

Posted on July 30th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Turkey’s ruling party escapes ban
Turkey’s ruling party escapes ban
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in parliament, 15 July 08
PM Erdogan insists he does not have an Islamist agenda

Turkey’s Constitutional Court has decided not to ban the ruling AK Party, accused of undermining the country’s secular system.

But the judges did cut half the AKP’s treasury funding for this year.

The AKP, which won a huge poll victory last year, denies it wants to create an Islamist state by stealth. It called the case an attack on democracy.

The powerful military sees itself as the guardian of the modern secular state founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Court president Hasim Kilic said the financial sanctions imposed on the AKP were a “serious warning”.

Narrow decision

At least seven of the 11 court judges would need to vote in favour for the party to be banned. But six judges wanted a ban and five did not want to do so.

MP Suat Kinklioglu speaks of the AK Party’s relief at the court’s decision

“I hope the party in question will evaluate this outcome very well and get the message it should get,” Mr Kilic said.

After the ruling, Turkey’s Labour Minister Faruk Celik was quoted as saying it was a “victory for Turkish democracy”.

The court case followed a series of confrontations between the AKP, which has Islamist roots, and the secular elite. Turkish secularists have staged huge anti-AKP rallies.

The party’s attempt to allow Islamic headscarves to be worn at universities was highly controversial.
Last month the constitutional court said the move to lift the existing headscarf ban violated the secular constitution.Since the 1960s, more than 20 parties – mostly pro-Islamist or pro-Kurdish – have been shut down by the courts for allegedly posing a threat to Turkey’s secularist principles.

However, this is the first time that a closure case has been brought against a governing party with a huge parliamentary majority.

EU officials expressed some relief at the court’s ruling on Wednesday.

“It is positive. Turkey is living a tense situation and we very much hope that the decision by the court will contribute to restore political stability,” said Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, quoted by Reuters.

Foreign Policy: The World’s Top 20 Public Intellectuals

Posted on July 29th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

Foreign Policy: The World’s Top 20 Public Intellectuals

In their previous issue FP named the world’s top 100 public intellectuals and asked readers to vote for those they deem most deserving of the top honors. Now, 500,000 votes later, they have published the results. And yes, as has been proven numerous times already internet rankings are an inherently dangerous business. Whether offering a hierarchy of countries, cities, or colleges, any such list—at least any such list worth compiling—is likely to generate a fair amount of debate.

The people they included were there in large part because of the influence of their ideas. But part of being a “public intellectual” is also having a talent for communicating with a wide and diverse public. This skill is certainly an asset for some who find themselves in the list’s top ranks. For example, a number of intellectuals—including Aitzaz Ahsan, Noam Chomsky, Michael Ignatieff, and Amr Khaled—mounted voting drives by promoting the list on their Web sites. Others issued press releases or gave interviews to local newspapers. Press coverage profiling these intellectuals appeared around the world, with stories running in Canada, India, Indonesia, Qatar, Spain, and elsewhere.

No one spread the word as effectively as the man who tops the list. In early May, the Top 100 list was mentioned on the front page of Zaman, a Turkish daily newspaper closely aligned with Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. Within hours, votes in his favor began to pour in. His supporters—typically educated, upwardly mobile Muslims—were eager to cast ballots not only for their champion but for other Muslims in the Top 100. Thanks to this groundswell, the top 10 public intellectuals in this year’s reader poll are all Muslim. The ideas for which they are known, particularly concerning Islam, differ significantly. It’s clear that, in this case, identity politics carried the day.

The top 20:

FETHULLAH GÜLEN -Religious leader • Turkey – An Islamic scholar with a global network of millions of followers, Gülen is both revered and reviled in his native Turkey. To members of the Gülen movement, he is an inspirational leader who encourages a life guided by moderate Islamic principles. To his detractors, he represents a threat to Turkey’s secular order. He has kept a relatively low profile since settling in the United States in 1999, having fled Turkey after being accused of undermining secularism.
MUHAMMAD YUNUS – Microfinancier, activist • Bangladesh – More than 30 years ago, Yunus loaned several dozen poor entrepreneurs in his native Bangladesh a total of $27. It was the beginning of a lifetime devoted to fighting poverty through microfinance, efforts that earned him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Over the years, his Grameen Bank, now operating in more than 100 countries, has loaned nearly $7 billion in small sums to more than 7 million borrowers-97 percent of them women. Ninety-eight percent of the loans have been repaid.
YUSUF AL-QARADAWI – Cleric • Egypt/Qatar – The host of the popular Sharia and Life TV program on Al Jazeera, Qaradawi issues w .eekly fatwas on everything from whether Islam forbids all consumption of alcohol (no) to whether fighting U.S. troops in Iraq is a legitimate form of resistance (yes). Considered the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Qaradawi condemned the September 11 attacks, but his pronouncements since, like his justification of suicide attacks, ensure his divisive reputation.
ORHAN PAMUK – Novelist • Turkey
AITZAZ AHSAN -Lawyer, politician • Pakistan
AMR KHALED -Muslim televangelist • Egypt
ABDOLKARIM SOROUSH – Religious theorist • Iran
TARIQ RAMADAN -Philosopher, scholar of Islam • Switzerland (also a position in the Netherlands) – One of the most well-known and controversial Muslim scholars today, Ramadan embodies the cultural and religious clash he claims to be trying to bridge. His supporters consider him a passionate advocate for Muslim integration in Europe. His critics accuse him of anti-Semitism and having links to terrorists. In 2004, Ramadan was denied a U.S. visa to teach at Notre Dame, after the State Department accused him of donating to Islamic charities linked to Hamas.
MAHMOOD MAMDANI – Cultural anthropologist • Uganda – Born in Uganda to South Asian parents, Mamdani was expelled from the country by Idi Amin in 1972, eventually settling in the United States. His work explores the role of citizenship, identity, and the creation of historical narratives in postcolonial Africa. More recently, he has focused his attention on political Islam and U.S. foreign policy, arguing that modern Islamist terrorism is a byproduct of the privatization of violence in the final years of the Cold War. He teaches at Columbia University.
SHIRIN EBADI -Lawyer, human rights activist • Iran -Iran’s first female judge under the shah, Ebadi founded a pioneering law practice after she was thrown off the bench by Iran’s clerical rulers. Having initially supported the Islamic Revolution, she cut her teeth defending political dissidents and campaigning for the rights of women and children. A fierce nationalist who sees no incompatibility between Islam and democracy, Ebadi became the first Iranian to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003.
NOAM CHOMSKY – Linguist, activist • United States
AL GORE – Climate change activist, politician • United States
BERNARD LEWIS -Historian • Britain/United States
UMBERTO ECO -Novelist, semiologist • Italy
AYAAN HIRSI ALI – Activist, politician • Somalia/Netherlands – A fierce critic of Islam’s treatment of women, the Somalia-born Hirsi Ali is known for her full-throated defense of the West, reason, and freedom. Her public rebellion against her Islamic upbringing has come with a steep cost: death threats and around-the-clock protection. She first received notoriety for penning Submission, a film renouncing the subjugation of Muslim women. (The film’s director, Theo van Gogh, was murdered by a Muslim fanatic in Amsterdam in 2004.) After being elected to the Dutch parliament in 2003, Hirsi Ali resigned her post three years later over a scandal involving false information on her citizenship application.
AMARTYA SEN – Development economist • India
FAREED ZAKARIA – Journalist, author • United States
GARRY KASPAROV – Democracy activist, chess grandmaster • Russia
RICHARD DAWKINS – Biologist, author • Britain
MARIO VARGAS LLOSA -Novelist, politician • Peru

Protected: AD.nl – Utrecht Stad – 17-jarige verdacht van autobranden

Posted on July 24th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News, Public Islam.

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Israel 'troubles' Bulldozer attack and lynching mob

Posted on July 23rd, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

16 hurt in bulldozer attack in J’lem | Israel | Jerusalem Post
For the second time in three weeks, an Arab bulldozer driver from east Jerusalem rammed his construction vehicle into a city bus and several cars on a central thoroughfare in the capital on Tuesday, wounding 15 people before being shot dead by a Druse border police officer and a civilian passerby.

Youths injure two Arabs in Jerusalem assault | Israel | Jerusalem Post
Several hours after Tuesday’s terror attack in Jerusalem, a group of youths assaulted two east Jerusalem residents, Army Radio reported.

According to eyewitnesses, two battered and bleeding Arabs barged into the yard of a family sitting shiva (the seven-day Jewish mourning period), followed by a mob of furious yeshiva students.

Israel ‘troubles’ Bulldozer attack and lynching mob

Posted on July 23rd, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

16 hurt in bulldozer attack in J’lem | Israel | Jerusalem Post
For the second time in three weeks, an Arab bulldozer driver from east Jerusalem rammed his construction vehicle into a city bus and several cars on a central thoroughfare in the capital on Tuesday, wounding 15 people before being shot dead by a Druse border police officer and a civilian passerby.

Youths injure two Arabs in Jerusalem assault | Israel | Jerusalem Post
Several hours after Tuesday’s terror attack in Jerusalem, a group of youths assaulted two east Jerusalem residents, Army Radio reported.

According to eyewitnesses, two battered and bleeding Arabs barged into the yard of a family sitting shiva (the seven-day Jewish mourning period), followed by a mob of furious yeshiva students.

Protected: De Koran lezen als ongelovige – DePers.nl

Posted on July 22nd, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

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Channel 4 – Faith and belief – Seven Wonders of the Muslim World

Posted on July 21st, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

Channel 4 – Faith and belief – Seven Wonders of the Muslim World
Pilgrims in MeccaThis week-long series traces the history and message of Islam by following the journeys of six pilgrims to Mecca.A series of intimate, 10-minute portraits, explores the lives and beliefs of six young people whose usual places of worship are beautiful and historic mosques across the Muslim world. The films accompany them as they leave their homes and families, follow them as they travel to Saudi Arabia, and share their responses to the culmination of their journey of a lifetime – the pilgrimage to Mecca, where the prophet Muhammed was born.

Within decades of the death of Muhammed, Islam spread fast and its history can be traced through the flowering of exquisite Muslim architecture. Over the next few hundred years, fabulous mosques from Spain to Iran, and from Turkey to Mali formed a focus of Muslim life, as they continue to do today. The Seven Wonders of the Muslim World starts its journey at six of these locations and completes it at the mosque towards which all practising Muslims turn when they pray.
The seven wonders:

1. The Grand Mosque in Mecca is the largest mosque in the world. At its centre is the Kaaba, a cubic building covered in a gold-embroidered black cloth towards which Muslims turn as they pray. Every year, millions of people perform the Hajj – the pilgrimage during the 12th month of the Islamic year – and many others make the pilgrimage at other times of year, which is called the Umrah.

2. The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest city is situated next to the Dome of the Rock. This iconic golden dome can be seen from all over Jerusalem. Al-Aqsa, dates from the late 7th century, making it one of the oldest mosques in the world.

3. The Alhambra in Granada, Spain, which dates from the 13th century, was designed by Muslim architects and built by the Muslim rulers of El Andaluz, or Andalucia. It was inspired by Qur’anic descriptions of paradise as an oasis, with trees, fountains and buildings.

4. The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, lined with blue tiles and reflecting the Byzantine church architecture of 400 years ago, expresses the sumptuousness of the Ottoman Empire and represents the zenith of Muslim architecture.

5. The Great Mosque of Djenne in Mali is the tallest mud-built mosque in the world. Its thick walls and many roof supports make it dark and simple inside. Every Friday, people in this huge but poor country come into the city to pray here.

6. The Imam Mosque in Esfahan, Iran, is magnificent in its design and decoration. Built in the 16th and 17th centuries, it was a stunning statement of Persian imperial power, and incorporates a pool, colleges and communal space, as well as the mosque itself.

7. The Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan was built in 1673 and is a wonderful example of Mughal architecture. The building’s openness is in line with the Islam of the Indian subcontinent, which has traditionally been accommodating to all sects.

World Conference on Dialogue

Posted on July 19th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

World Conference on Dialogue

The world today is unfortunately witnessing painful phenomena that make sleepless the sagacious people of all religions, sects and creeds. This is clearly seen in many aspects. In fact, mankind suffers from family disintegration and moral decay, environmental pollution, wars and conflicts that made the hearts of wise men bleed and constitutes an extremely disturbing incident that urges all people to seek salvation of mankind from its excruciating pains.

The whole world looks forward to the followers and leaders of religions and cultures to make substantial contribution in the salvation of mankind from the dangers that surround it and threaten its future as well as presentation of effective solutions.

In fact, religions and considerable cultures possess a joint viewpoint in detecting the danger of contemporary challenges. In consideration of the keenness for cooperation in whatever makes man happy, the Heavenly revealed Message sent to achieve a great objective represented in the Hadith ( Prophets are like brothers belonging to one father but to different mothers; their Lord is one but their particular legislatures are different ).

Furthermore, religions have agreed with considerable philosophies on certain areas that can be exploited for making further advancement in wider horizons in the fight of vices, moral decay, family disintegration, and spread of atheism as well as other conflicts.

Dialogue among sagacious people of all nations is the most effective way for pinpointing the areas of agreement, the seeking for their exploitation, promotion as well as formulating of common programs of action. The fruitful dialogue is one that is based on common human aspects and seeks to achieve the best types of acquaintance, coexistence and cooperation with others despite the difference with them in religions and cultures. With the dialogue that aims at deepening the culture of coexistence, we can marginalize the forces that still instigate actively hatred and call for inflaming dispute, malice, selfishness, and conceitedness.

The UN has adopted 2001 as Dialogue Year among civilizations as well as for confrontation of the campaigns for promoting hatred and inflaming conflicts. Hence, the General Assembly of the UN has issued an (International Document for Dialogue among Civilizations). This confirms the fact that the nations all over the world desire the process of holding and supporting dialogue as well as rejecting the calls for conflict and clash of civilizations.

Today the Muslim World League (MWL) holds the (World Conference on Dialogue) under the direction of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Saud of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in confirmation to the significance of the world dialogue and in following up of the Appeal of Makkah Al-Mukarramah adopted by the (International Islamic Conference for Dialogue) convened at the vicinity of the Holy Mosque in Makkah Al-Mukarramah under his direct patronage.

Furthermore, the International Islamic Conference for Dialogue has confirmed that dialogue does neither aim at uniting religions nor mixing them up , as difference is destined by the will and wisdom of Allah, and that such difference necessitates due cooperation and acquaintance that target achieving positive coexistence.

In fact, this august World Conference on Dialogue is hopefully anticipated to answer adequately certain pressing questions pertaining to the significance of dialogue as well as making it an essential means for understanding and solution of problems as well as confrontation of challenges that threaten the world today and removal of impediments that obstruct its promotion and exploitation among mankind for alleviating the tense of the world problems. However, failure to establish truth and justice is rightly considered a major cause for inflaming conflict and threatening world peace. Therefore, it is essential for mankind today, if they really desire salvation, to follow the way of positive dialogue among followers revealed Messages, cultures and civilizations with a view to achieving interest of all mankind.

Objectives of the World Conference on Dialogue

The MWL seeks through this great gathering of the followers of religions, creeds and civilizations to achieve the following objectives:

· Confirm the significance of religion as a basic rectifier for human communities.

· Highlight both successes and failures of dialogue experiments, as well as embark upon ///commence effort from a united viewpoints that enhance and promote the future of dialogue.

· Study thoroughly the obstacles that impediments that stands in the way of those promoting and prevents them from achieving the desired results of dialogue.

· Coordinate internationally world attitudes as well as confront positions contradicting sharply with mankind districts and social norms as well as values.

· Inculcate in the minds of people the noble ethical values and desired social practices as well as confront immorality and various vices as well as family disintegration.

· Confront the conflict calls that promote the clash among nations and peoples.

Protected: Nederlands Dagblad – ‘Importbruid kan haar koffers gaan pakken’

Posted on July 17th, 2008 by martijn.
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Protected: Nederlands Dagblad – 'Importbruid kan haar koffers gaan pakken'

Posted on July 17th, 2008 by martijn.
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Protected: nu.nl/algemeen | Rotterdam onderzoekt Turkse organisaties

Posted on July 17th, 2008 by martijn.
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