HRW: Iran: Acquit HIV/AIDS Doctors Prosecuted in Unfair Trial

Iran: Acquit HIV/AIDS Doctors Prosecuted in Unfair Trial

January 13, 2009

(New York, January 13, 2009) - Drs Kamiar and Arash Alaei, Iranian brothers who are known worldwide for their work as HIV/AIDS physicians, are among the four Iranian citizens cited today by Iranian authorities as attempting to overthrow the state, Physicians for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran have learned from reliable sources.

According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iranian Judiciary spokesperson Ali-Reza Jamshidi told a news conference today that four Iranian citizens had been arrested and brought to the court on charges of "communications with an enemy government" and seeking to overthrow the Iranian government under article 508 of Iran's Islamic Penal Code. Speaking at a press conference, Jamshidi claimed: "They were linked to the CIA, backed by the US government and State Department... They recruited and trained people to work with different espionage networks to launch a velvet overthrow of the Iranian government." Jamshidi added that further details of the case would be forthcoming in the next two days.

PHR, HRW, and ICHRI believe the charge of plotting a coup is being brought unfairly, without the brothers being given the chance to adequately defend themselves. Their trial was marked by clear violations of due process. The Alaeis' human rights have been violated and their commitment to public health worldwide has been misrepresented by the Iranian Government as a threat to their regime.

"To all appearances, the arrest and now the trial of these two prominent and widely-traveled AIDS doctors seem to be an effort to shut the door on medical and public health collaboration on global health crises - a policy that is dangerous for the well-being of the Iranian people and for global health," said Frank Donaghue, CEO of Physicians for Human Rights.

Physicians for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran have spoken out repeatedly about their concern that these serious charges had been levied without due process. The verdict in the case of the Drs. Alaei is expected this week, following a one-day trial in Tehran's Revolutionary Court on December 31, 2008, on charges of communicating with an "enemy government." At the trial, the Iranian prosecutor also informed the court of additional, secret evidence which the brothers' attorney had no opportunity to refute, because the prosecutor did not disclose them.

"Their prosecution is truly a witch hunt, and it is completely unacceptable to bring such charges against the Alaei brothers," said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesperson for International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. "Everything they did was transparent with full knowledge and permission of the Iranian government, including participation in an exchange program on public health in November 2006 in the United States."

Over the last week, more than 2,000 people from around the globe contacted the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in New York City, demanding the Alaeis' release. In addition, 3,100 doctors, nurses, and public health workers from 85 countries have signed an online petition demanding their release, which can be viewed at IranFreeTheDocs.org. Leading physicians and public health specialists and numerous medical and scientific organizations have publicly called for the brothers' release, including HIV/AIDS and health experts, including: Global Fund Executive Director Professor Michel Kazatchkine; Partners in Health co-founder Dr. Paul Farmer; 2008 MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant recipient Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH; Hossam E. Fadel, MD, of the Islamic Medical Association of North America; 1993 Nobel Laureate in Medicine Sir Richard Roberts PhD, FRS; and Ugandan AIDS pioneer Dr. Peter Mugyenyi.

"This case is just one more example of how under President Ahmadinejad's administration, Iran's human rights record has reached new lows," said Joe Amon, director of the HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. "Ahmadinejad's presidency has created an intense atmosphere of fear and intimidation felt even by those working on the expansion of HIV/AIDS services."

Dr. Kamiar Alaei is a doctoral candidate at the SUNY Albany School of Public Health in Albany, New York and was expected to resume his studies there this fall. In 2007, he received a Master of Science degree in Population and International Health from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

Dr. Arash Alaei is the former director of the International Education and Research Cooperation of the Iranian National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. Since 1998, the Drs. Alaei have been carrying out HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs, particularly focused on harm reduction for injecting drug users.

In addition to their work in Iran, the Alaei brothers have held training courses for Afghan and Tajik medical workers and have worked to encourage regional cooperation among 12 Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries. Their efforts expanded the expertise of doctors in the region, advanced the progress of medical science, and earned Iran recognition as a model of best practice by the World Health Organization.

For more information visit HRW's action alert on this case.

Homegrown Hip Hop Catches on in Northern Nigeria

Nigerian hip hop artist Naziru Ahmed Hausawa

Homegrown hip hop catches on in northern Nigeria

2 hours ago

KANO, Nigeria (AFP) — Broke and with time on his hands, Naziru Hausawa, an unemployed biology graduate, decided to introduce his own blend of rap and hip hop to the most conservative city in Nigeria's Muslim north, Kano, where authorities wage war against immoral western culture.

That was six years ago. Now Hausawa, 28, is the proud owner of the Golden Goose recording studio, thus named because of the amount of money it brings in.

Some 60 studios, recording home-made rap and hip hop, have sprung up since 2002 in Kano, Nigeria's northern commercial capital, and have turned out 50 albums and hundreds of singles.

"Young people the world over are attracted to western music on the Internet, but here, because of unemployment they decided to record their own music and use it to make a living," said Abdallah Uba Adamu, an anthropology professor at Kano's Bayero University who does research on local rap and hip hop.

But in this conservative Muslim city, the sex and drugs that predominate in the lyrics of much imported rap music have given way to social issues such as poverty and corruption.

"We make songs to make money and we have to respect the sensibilities and sensitivities of our fans who frown at drugs, violence, sex and anything vulgar," local musician Ibrahim Bello, alias Billy-O, told AFP as a muezzin's call to prayer rang out from a mosque behind his studio.

Some of the musicians are attired in traditional style in loose cotton trousers and matching tunics; others have adopted western styles.

Hausawa said employment is getting ever harder to find in Kano. Out of the 500 factories in the city 15 years ago, some 400 have now closed, mainly due to power shortages.

"It is unemployment that has pushed young men with talent to domesticate rap and hip hop as a way of being productive and as a means to financial independence," Hausawa told AFP in his studio.

Recent official figures show that more than half of youths in Kano are unemployed -- a statistic Bello bemoans in his track entitled 'Bamayi'.

"We have finished school, we have no jobs while the son of a big man drives past us in big cars looking down upon us with disdain, while we can't have even three square meals and our parents look at us hopelessly, therefore we rebel", he sings in the local Hausa.

Although Kano is the home of the music industry, the songs are popular throughout the north. And the Kano state authorities are determined that no elements of the global rap culture of drugs and violence should "contaminate" music in northern Nigeria.

"We fear the musicians will copy the lyrics of American rap musicians and imbibe the rap culture of violence and drugs," said Bala Muhammad, head of the Social Reorientation Directorate, a state government agency tasked with improving morals.

Muhammad concedes that "it has not happened so far."

"But moral corruption sets in gradually and if things get out of hand society will be the worse for it," he warned.

"The government wants us to be didactic, singing religious songs and not songs on love and romance which they feel is western and a manifestation of waywardness and moral bankruptcy, but I see their attitude as fanaticism," complained Hausawa as he fiddled with a keyboard.

With a permanent population of nine million and another one million traders who flood into the city everyday from neighbouring towns and countries, Kano is the ideal market for this new music industry. CDs recorded here are found on every street corner and in every traffic jam as young hawkers weave their way among cars.

Yet however worthy their lyrics, the musicians of Kano remain under constant threat of a clampdown from the government and from radical Muslim clerics.

"If the situation degenerates, we will use the same rules we used in sanitizing the film industry," warns Bala Muhammad or the Reorientation Directorate.

In 2007 the Kano government clamped down on the local movie industry, saying it led to immorality. Authorities slapped a six-month ban on film production in so-called "Kannywood" after a sex video shot by a cellphone, but involving a popular local actress, made the rounds in the state.

Around the same time -- proof that its threats against the music industry were not idle -- it jailed hip hop musician Adam Zango for three months for producing a video musical album it considered obscene.

The video showed females in skimpy skirts and jean shorts dancing seductively in a way considered obscene by Kano standards.

Kabiru Shariff, a musician better known as Shaba after the American rap star Shaba Ranks, defends his ranks, saying they should be commended for enticing fans to their "harmless" type of music.

And Professor Adamu feels the government is overreacting.

"Reading crime novels doesn't make one a criminal and in the same way one is not tempted to commit murder by merely holding a knife except if one already intends to," Adamu said.

Hausawa, meanwhile, said the music industry rakes in roughly 100 million nairas (700,000 dollars) yearly.

If the government bans the industry, he warned, young musicians could turn to robberies and violence, thus worsening the already "apallingly high" crime rate in the city.

Homegrown hip hop catches on in northern Nigeria

2 hours ago

KANO, Nigeria (AFP) — Broke and with time on his hands, Naziru Hausawa, an unemployed biology graduate, decided to introduce his own blend of rap and hip hop to the most conservative city in Nigeria's Muslim north, Kano, where authorities wage war against immoral western culture.

That was six years ago. Now Hausawa, 28, is the proud owner of the Golden Goose recording studio, thus named because of the amount of money it brings in.

Some 60 studios, recording home-made rap and hip hop, have sprung up since 2002 in Kano, Nigeria's northern commercial capital, and have turned out 50 albums and hundreds of singles.

"Young people the world over are attracted to western music on the Internet, but here, because of unemployment they decided to record their own music and use it to make a living," said Abdallah Uba Adamu, an anthropology professor at Kano's Bayero University who does research on local rap and hip hop.

But in this conservative Muslim city, the sex and drugs that predominate in the lyrics of much imported rap music have given way to social issues such as poverty and corruption.

"We make songs to make money and we have to respect the sensibilities and sensitivities of our fans who frown at drugs, violence, sex and anything vulgar," local musician Ibrahim Bello, alias Billy-O, told AFP as a muezzin's call to prayer rang out from a mosque behind his studio.

Some of the musicians are attired in traditional style in loose cotton trousers and matching tunics; others have adopted western styles.

Hausawa said employment is getting ever harder to find in Kano. Out of the 500 factories in the city 15 years ago, some 400 have now closed, mainly due to power shortages.

"It is unemployment that has pushed young men with talent to domesticate rap and hip hop as a way of being productive and as a means to financial independence," Hausawa told AFP in his studio.

Recent official figures show that more than half of youths in Kano are unemployed -- a statistic Bello bemoans in his track entitled 'Bamayi'.

"We have finished school, we have no jobs while the son of a big man drives past us in big cars looking down upon us with disdain, while we can't have even three square meals and our parents look at us hopelessly, therefore we rebel", he sings in the local Hausa.

Although Kano is the home of the music industry, the songs are popular throughout the north. And the Kano state authorities are determined that no elements of the global rap culture of drugs and violence should "contaminate" music in northern Nigeria.

"We fear the musicians will copy the lyrics of American rap musicians and imbibe the rap culture of violence and drugs," said Bala Muhammad, head of the Social Reorientation Directorate, a state government agency tasked with improving morals.

Muhammad concedes that "it has not happened so far."

"But moral corruption sets in gradually and if things get out of hand society will be the worse for it," he warned.

"The government wants us to be didactic, singing religious songs and not songs on love and romance which they feel is western and a manifestation of waywardness and moral bankruptcy, but I see their attitude as fanaticism," complained Hausawa as he fiddled with a keyboard.

With a permanent population of nine million and another one million traders who flood into the city everyday from neighbouring towns and countries, Kano is the ideal market for this new music industry. CDs recorded here are found on every street corner and in every traffic jam as young hawkers weave their way among cars.

Yet however worthy their lyrics, the musicians of Kano remain under constant threat of a clampdown from the government and from radical Muslim clerics.

"If the situation degenerates, we will use the same rules we used in sanitizing the film industry," warns Bala Muhammad or the Reorientation Directorate.

In 2007 the Kano government clamped down on the local movie industry, saying it led to immorality. Authorities slapped a six-month ban on film production in so-called "Kannywood" after a sex video shot by a cellphone, but involving a popular local actress, made the rounds in the state.

Around the same time -- proof that its threats against the music industry were not idle -- it jailed hip hop musician Adam Zango for three months for producing a video musical album it considered obscene.

The video showed females in skimpy skirts and jean shorts dancing seductively in a way considered obscene by Kano standards.

Kabiru Shariff, a musician better known as Shaba after the American rap star Shaba Ranks, defends his ranks, saying they should be commended for enticing fans to their "harmless" type of music.

And Professor Adamu feels the government is overreacting.

"Reading crime novels doesn't make one a criminal and in the same way one is not tempted to commit murder by merely holding a knife except if one already intends to," Adamu said.

Hausawa, meanwhile, said the music industry rakes in roughly 100 million nairas (700,000 dollars) yearly.

If the government bans the industry, he warned, young musicians could turn to robberies and violence, thus worsening the already "apallingly high" crime rate in the city.

A street vendor displays CDs of local rap and hip-hop

 

Nigerian hip hop artist Naziru Ahmed Hausawa(R)

   January 14, 2009

Muslim woman, rabbis to pray at inaugural service

By RACHEL ZOLL

At past inaugurations, ceremonial prayers uttered on behalf of the incoming president drew about as much attention as the flags on the podium.

Not this year.

Barack Obama's choice of clergy is under scrutiny like no other president-elect before him, alternately outraging Americans on the left and the right as he navigates the minefield of U.S. religion.

"I can't recall any prayers drawing so much attention," said Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the First Amendment Center who specializes in religion in public life.

Gay advocates assailed Obama, while many conservative Christians were heartened, when he invited the Rev. Rick Warren, a Southern Baptist who opposes gay marriage, to deliver the inaugural invocation on Tuesday.

The tables turned when Obama asked V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, to lead prayers at Sunday's kickoff for the inauguration at the Lincoln Memorial. Gay rights groups rejoiced, while some conservative Christians wrung their hands.

The Inauguration Committee has only released one clergy name so far for the Jan. 21 National Prayer Service that caps the inauguration. The Rev. Sharon Watkins, the first woman president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a Protestant group, will deliver the sermon.

The Associated Press has learned additional details.

A prayer will be offered at the National Cathedral by Ingrid Mattson, the first woman president of the Islamic Society of North America, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. The Islamic Society, based in Indiana, is the nation's largest Muslim group.

Three rabbis, representing the three major branches of American Judaism, will also say a prayer at the service, according to officials familiar with the plans. The Jewish clergy are Reform Rabbi David Saperstein, Conservative Rabbi Jerome Epstein and Orthodox Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, sources said.

It is also traditional for the incoming administration to ask the Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington to lead a prayer. The Most Rev. Donald Wuerl leads the archdiocese.

And like many incoming presidents before him, Obama will attend a service at St. John's Church, dubbed the "Church of the Presidents," before his swearing-in.

Religion has been a lightning rod for Obama since the presidential campaign — from false rumors that he is Muslim to uproar over sermons by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

And interest in the inauguration is higher overall, partly because of its historic nature, the swearing-in of the first African-American president. The Rev. Joseph Lowery, a Methodist considered the dean of the civil rights movement, will give the inaugural benediction.

But Obama's choice of clergy is also of greater interest because of the changing landscape of American religion.

The United States is more diverse than ever before, and members of minority faiths yearn to be recognized as fully American.

"In the past, minority groups within Christianity and minority religions on the American scene were not as vocal or as sure-footed and therefore didn't pay as much attention to the inauguration event itself or didn't feel the need to. That's no longer true," said Rabbi James Rudin, who spent three decades leading interreligious outreach for the American Jewish Committee.

Even atheists are newly energized, suing to prevent prayer and mention of God at the swearing-in.

An attorney for Chief Justice John Roberts, who will administer the oath, says the president-elect prefers to conclude with the phrase, "so help me God," as presidents before him have done.

Obama's preference was filed last week by Jeffrey Minear, an attorney and administrative assistant to Roberts, as part of a lawsuit by atheists and non-religious groups who sought for years to keep mention of God out of publicly administered oaths.

The Constitution mandates the exact language to be used in the oath: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Some presidents have added "so help me God."

Most past presidents only had to choose from clergy of the American Protestant establishment. Eventually, inaugural organizers added a priest or bishop to the ceremonies as the Catholic Church in the U.S. grew stronger. Rabbis were sometimes included.

But Protestants are now losing their majority status in the country. The go-to Protestant for inaugural prayer, evangelist Billy Graham, is 90 and off the public stage. No one has, or likely could, take his place as "America's pastor."

The Obama campaign is also partly responsible for the religious focus.

The Democrat spoke openly of his faith during the election, more so than his opponent, Republican Sen. John McCain, and reached out to believers, hoping to counter the perception that the GOP had cornered the market on God.

"This inaugural is a coming-out party for the Democrats in terms of their religious voice," said Stephen Prothero, a religion professor at Boston University. "Democrats found their religious voice in the last election and I think there's interest in seeing how that voice is going to sound."

Haynes said Obama is also carrying the hopes of the many Americans frustrated by the prominence of the Christian right in recent decades, especially in the administration of President George W. Bush. That partly explains the backlash against Warren, he said.

"The sense is it's time to balance that out and to have other voices heard. He's supposed to represent change," Haynes said. "There are many people looking for a symbolic change in tone, especially when it comes to issues of religion and public life."

 

Short film on Marriage of Conveniences

Dear All,
I have made this short film about the plight of some people i know - about marriages of conveniences and I hope you pls vote for it.

Enjoy!

http://www.linktv. org/onenation/ films/view/ 321

Thanks!

HRW: Senegal: Free AIDS Activists

Download the original attachment

From Human Rights Watch - http://www.hrw.org

For Immediate Release  

Senegal: Free AIDS Activists

Eight-Year Sentences in Threatening Conditions for 9 Accused of 'Indecent and Unnatural Acts' 

(New York, January 9, 2009) – The sentencing in Dakar on January 6, 2009 of nine men who were involved in HIV-prevention work, on charges of "indecent and unnatural acts" and "forming associations of criminals," shows how laws against homosexual conduct damage HIV- and AIDS-prevention efforts as well as the work of human rights defenders, Human Rights Watch said today. 

"These charges will have a chilling effect on AIDS programs," said Scott Long, director of Human Rights Watch's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights program. "Outreach workers and people seeking HIV prevention or treatment should not have to worry about police persecution. Senegal should drop these charges and repeal its sodomy law." 

HIV and AIDS advocates in Senegal report that the ruling has produced widespread panic among organizations addressing HIV and AIDS, particularly those working with men who have sex with men and other marginalized populations.  

These nine men apparently were arrested merely on suspicion of engaging in homosexual conduct. In that case, international human rights provisions mandate their immediate release. So long as they remain detained – given the general climate of hostility against men perceived to engage in homosexual conduct and the risk of violence against them – Senegalese authorities should ensure their safety by separating them from other prisoners, if necessary. The authorities must also ensure that the men receive any necessary medical care, including antiretroviral therapy.   

The men were detained on December 19, 2008, after several police officers burst into the private residence of an HIV outreach worker some miles outside Dakar at 11 p.m. and arrested all nine men in the house. The police confiscated condoms and lubricants – tools used for HIV-prevention work. The police forced several of the men to disclose family members' phone numbers and threatened to inform their families. Sources told Human Rights Watch that the men were beaten in detention, which would constitute a significant violation of Senegal's international human rights obligations.  

The men were charged with violating article 319.3 of Senegal's penal code, which provides that "whoever commits an improper or unnatural act with a person of the same sex will be punished by imprisonment of between one and five years." Reports received by Human Rights Watch indicate that the men were not engaged in any activity considered criminal under Senegalese law.  

At the  trial, prosecutors apparently used the materials found in the house that are standard HIV-prevention tools used in outreach work as evidence of homosexual conduct, for which the men received the maximum five-year sentence. They were also found guilty of "criminal association" in violation of article 238 of the penal code, permitting  the judge to add three years to their five-year term.   

"Senegal's sodomy law invades privacy, criminalizes health work, justifies brutality, and feeds fear," said Long. "This case shows why it is time for the sodomy law to go." 

The men's arrest and  detention violates article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees the right to liberty and security of person and rights against arbitrary detention. Senegal ratified the ICCPR in 1978, without reservations. Criminal trials under article 319.3 of the penal code violate Senegal's treaty commitments. Senegal should repeal article 319.3, which also severely hampers HIV/AIDS-prevention and education efforts, barring large populations from access to treatment and care. 

The men were arrested only days after Senegal served as the host for the 15^th International Conference on AIDS and STIs (sexually transmitted infections) in Africa (ICASA). Presentations at this conference pointed out the apparent contradiction in some countries, such as Senegal, which target HIV/AIDS-prevention efforts at populations of men of who have sex with men but continue to criminalize same-sex relations. Advocates working in HIV and AIDS prevention point out that such an approach necessarily drives the targeted populations underground and mitigates the efficacy of HIV intervention efforts. 

Article 7 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders specifically provides that "everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to develop and discuss new human rights ideas and principles and to advocate their acceptance." The report of the special representative of the secretary-general on human rights defenders to the UN General Assembly specifically identifies human rights defenders from lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex communities as being at particular risk and has called for greater state vigilance in protecting their rights.  

The United Nations Human Rights Committee, which authoritatively interprets the ICCPR and evaluates compliance with its provisions, found in the 1994 case of Toonen v. Australia that laws criminalizing consensual homosexual conduct among adults violate the ICCPR's protections. According to UNAIDS data, at least 5 to 10 percent  of HIV infections worldwide occur through sex between men, though this figure varies considerably by region. Laws criminalizing consensual sexual conduct drive these vulnerable populations underground and permit gross violations of the fundamental rights to life, freedom of expression and association, and health.  

For more of Human Rights Watch's work on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, please visit:

http://www.hrw.org/en/category/topic/lgbt-rights  

For more of Human Rights Watch's work on HIV/AIDS and human rights, please visit:

http://www.hrw.org/en/topic/health/hiv/tb  

For more information, please contact:

In New York, Scott Long (English): +1-212-216-1297; or +1-646-641-5655 (mobile)

In New York, Joseph Amon (English): +1-917-519-8930 (mobile)

In Brussels, Reed Brody (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): +32-2-737-1489; or +32 -498-625786 (mobile)

Nigeria: Islam and Intellectual Resurgence

From Nigeria's Business Daily

Islam and intellectual resurgence

Written by Macharia Munene

Macharia Munene January 13, 2009: The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace publishes Foreign Policy magazine, an organ designed to shape opinions of policy makers as well as intellectuals and other people who engage in the occupation of thinking that determines the policy to be adopted. Carnegie's pronouncements carry weight in influential circles with some people trying to ensure that its supposed assessments become reality.   In 2008, Carnegie turned to examining public intellectuals. These are people whose play with ideas is often in the public arena thereby influencing what the informed general public thinks and policy makers do. After selecting 100 intellectuals of its choice, Carnegie requested readers to rank them after which it announced that the top ten public intellectuals in the world were Muslims. At the top was Fethullah Gulen of Turkey, a Sufi cleric currently living in Pennsylvania. He promotes the idea that science and Islam complement each other and are not in conflict. The decline of Islam, he argues, was because Muslims "lagged behind in science and technology for the last few centuries." He advocates "intellectual endeavour … scientific knowledge, and spiritual illumination." Among his probable followers is Ahmet Davutoglu, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's foreign policy mastermind, who wants Turkish influence felt world wide. Subsequently Turks have been setting up elite Turkish educational institutions world wide which, while not ignoring religion, stress top quality that competes effectively with any school in the world, in any system. In Kenya, the Turks are under the rubric of 'Light Academy.' Power of ideas When in December 2008 Turks in Kenya organised a ceremony in Nairobi to honour Gulen, one of the guest speakers was Farar Maalim Mohammed, Deputy Speaker of Kenya's National Assembly. Fitting into the Gulenist mood, Farar insisted that Islam had spread world wide through the power of ideas enshrined in the Koran rather than through the force of arms. Yet he was in anguish because many Muslims were behaving badly by not being realistic. Lack of realism, Farar lamented, was because Muslims ignored the power of the intellect and ended up engaging in activities that are counterproductive to Islamic interests. This would explain why Muslims shoot other Muslims inside and outside the Mosques. It was ridiculous, he felt, for some Muslims to consider him a kafir because he serves in a parliament that is not wholly Islamic.  He reminded Muslims that they are part and parcel of the Kenyan political entity which requires give and take instead of exclusionary tendencies. The solution, he argued, was to invest heavily in education in order to sharpen the intellect in all fields. He wants Muslim intellectuals to participate fully in the making of a new Kenyan constitution.   Farar's lamentations are similar to those of Prime Minister Mahithir Mohammed of Malaysia. In what amounted to his farewell address, Mahithir claimed that Islam declined when it ignored intellectual pursuits and allowed other people to think for Muslims. Because Muslims were not thinking, he asserted, they ended up being misguided into acts of terrorism that did not advance the interests of Islam. The real battle, he argued, was in the power of the mind to persuade other people to see and understand Islamic reasoning, rather than in throwing Molotov cocktails and acquiring military hardware. There appears to be a resurgence of intellectualism to recapture the Islamic glory that existed before the fall of Alhambra in Granada in 1492. After liberating itself from Muslims, Christian Europe tried to wipe out anything positive about Muslims and succeeded for at least 500 years. Munene is professor of History  and International Relations, USIU, Africa.

Saudis give aid to Palestinians, but no protests

Mon Jan 12, 2009 10:29am EST

 

[-] Text [+]

RIYADH, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A Saudi aid campaign for Palestinians wounded in Israel's assault on Gaza has gathered over 100 million riyals ($26.7 million) as the government tries to respond to rising popular anger over the offensive.

Saudi state media has carried prominent coverage of some three dozen wounded Palestinians brought to the country for treatment in Saudi hospitals and reported a 30 million riyal donation to the state-run aid campaign by King Abdullah.

But this "protest by charity", as al-Riyadh daily called it, is the only protest to be found in the conservative kingdom, a lynchpin of U.S. policy in the Middle East that has tried to contain the threat of demonstrations.

The absolute monarchy has no elected parliament or legal opposition and public protests are generally banned.

Minority Shi'ite Muslims in eastern Saudi Arabia say dozens were arrested after a street protest days after Israel began military operations on Dec. 27 and that police broke up a second one with rubber bullets and batons.

The protests were reported on a Shi'ite website banned in Saudi Arabia, while the government denied they took place, citing a ban on such activities.

Two political reform activists were detained for trying to hold a sit-in protest by the side of a road in Riyadh two weeks ago, independent group Human Rights First said in a statement sent to news outlets. "He considered it a legitimate right," said a colleague of the two men who requested his name be withheld for fear of arrest. He said the Interior Ministry had refused to grant permission for the sit-in.

Students at King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah say they were denied permission to hold an indoor protest on the campus.

"The university rector totally refused. He said the king has expressed the Saudi people's opinion and that the university is not the place for such activities," said Hashim al-Rifaie, adding students at King Fahd University in Dhahran also tried. Leading government-backed clerics have given their seal of approval to the ban on protests in a country that styles itself as the leader of mainstream Sunni Islam because it houses the two Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al al-Sheikh told Okaz newspaper on Saturday that protests were pointless noise: "Rowdiness is useless, just a farce. Money and aid helps".

In addition to its charity effort, the government has led a robust diplomatic effort at the United Nations.

Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal led Arab countries that lobbied successfully last week for a Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.

The government has refrained from explicitly blaming Hamas for the Israeli offensive, unlike the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006 which it uncharacteristically blamed on Hezbollah for "adventurism" in kidnapping two Israeli soldiers.

The fact that Hamas is a Sunni Muslim group, unlike Shi'ite Hezbollah, has made directly criticising it more sensitive.

But some writers in media owned by key Saudi princes have attacked Hamas for aligning itself with Shi'ite power Iran, Riyadh's bete noire with allies in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon and fierce opponent of Riyadh's veteran backer, the United States.

"The whole world is protesting, people with no link to Gaza," said Rifaie. "What's the problem with people expressing their opinion as long as they are not destroying property?"

God is Great: Faith and Public Diplomacy at Work

First Published 2009-01-12, Last Updated 2009-01-12 11:55:52

God is Great: Faith and Public Diplomacy at Work

 
A delegation of Islamic and social science scholars seeks to share and explain the importance of Islam in their lives on a three week tour of the United States, says Muqtedar Khan.

On January 10th 2009, about hundred Delawareans shared a unique spiritual and cultural experience. They participated in a dialogue on the role of faith in Middle Eastern and American communities. A delegation of Islamic and social science scholars from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, joined with twelve leaders of various faith communities – Catholic, Jewish, Methodist, Muslim, Hindu, Presbyterian and Christian Fellowship – to engage in a conversation that neither focused on the commonalities of their faiths nor on its differences. They instead celebrated the role that their faith played in their lives and in the life of their communities.

The event was hosted by the Westminster Presbyterian Church, a community of believers which is taking a lead in understanding Islam and reaching out to Muslims. I had the honor of moderating this event and I can testify without hesitation that it was indeed a stirring experience.

The citizen ambassadors are on a three week tour of the United States, coordinated by the University of Delaware, to engage American scholars, religious leaders, policy makers, and students to explore the increasing role of faith in our societies. They seek to share and explain the importance of Islam in their lives. Islam constitutes Muslim individual and collective identity. It underpins their social and political norms and in general it frames the purpose of their lives. This was apparent from the remarks that the visitors made.

But they also emphasized the diversity of opinion and practice within the Muslim community. They recognized the presence of a vitriolic and radical strain within Muslim society today but they also reminded the audience that the majority of Muslims followed a moderate middle path.

Two of the scholars are from the holy city of Mecca and they talked about the cultural diversity, theological multiplicity and moderation in religion that is so characteristic of Mecca. They lamented that it is now being overshadowed by a harsher and intolerant interpretation of Islam, known widely as Wahhabism. Their overriding message was simple – there is only one God, every faith recognizes this, and that God is Great.

The Egyptian scholars emphasized the importance of justice and equality in US-Muslim relations. They expressed anguish over the difficulties with US foreign policy, condemned extremism and intolerance everywhere and called for Americans to not just aim for tolerance but for mutual respect.

The scholars met with several groups in the Delaware valley. At the University of Delaware they met with a large group of students and discussed the economic and social realities of the Muslim World. They met a diverse cohort of University faculty who challenged them about the rise of extremism and intolerance in Arab culture. In Philadelphia they met with members of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, where an intense discussion ensued on various topics including Anti-Semitism and Anti-Americanism in the Arab World, Arab hatred in Israel and Islamophobia in the West.

The scholars also had an exposure to a heady combination of grace, wealth, and power when they were hosted by the Wilmington World Affairs Council. The conversations at the council started with an intimate tête-à-tête during dinner and culminated with a frank and occasionally moving conversation on US-Muslim relations. Later one of the visitors remarked that he was now getting a better understanding of what made America such a power in the world.

The last stop was at Masjid Ibrahim, the biggest mosque in Delaware. Here the visitors tried to lecture the Delawarean Muslims on the importance of inclusiveness and suddenly found themselves in a passionate debate on how to interpret scripture. A non-Muslim graduate student who witnessed the dialogue summarized it as an unusual encounter that demonstrated how much the community members cared for each other while passionately disagreeing among themselves.

After each of these dialogues, I and the team of students working with me on this project sought the feedback of the participants of and on camera. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. People found the dialogues informative, enlightening and experientially rewarding. They did not come out reassured that all was well with the world. But they did come out with a better understanding of what was happening in the hearts and minds of the other.

Most importantly, both visitors and hosts felt that they had shared their thoughts and feelings, their fears and hopes about the other directly. Their experience was cathartic and a triumph for public diplomacy.

We live in a multicultural, multiracial and multi-religious society. Differences, small and profound, exist and we celebrate them. But in order to maintain a vibrant, productive and peaceful society, to prevent conflict and eschew dysfunctionality, we have to inculcate respect and tolerance for these differences and that can only come from mutual understanding and mutual acceptance.

Muqtedar Khan is Director of Islamic Studies at the University of Delaware and a Fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. Read more about the dialogue at www.ijtihad.org/FC-dialogue.htm.

Afghanistan: Imams to the Rescue in Curbing Maternal Mortality

From IRIN

AFGHANISTAN: Imams to the rescue in curbing maternal mortality

Photo: Ahmad/IRIN

Religious leaders receive training in Kabul on the impact of birth gaps and child marriage on maternal and infant mortality

KABUL, 12 January 2009 (IRIN) - Mohammad Tawasoli, an imam at a mosque in Wardak Province, central Afghanistan, tells the local community to maintain a two-year gap between pregnancies and avoid child marriage - to help mother and infant remain healthy.

"Islam does not allow the killing of the foetus but it also does not want mothers to face health risks because of… constant pregnancies," Tawasoli said.

"Islam does not oppose delayed pregnancies if this helps the health and well-being of mothers," he told IRIN in Kabul, adding that those who think otherwise believe in superstition rather than true Islamic principles.

Religious scholars such as Tawasoli wield strong influence among people in rural communities where high rates of illiteracy and lack of awareness about health issues contribute to the deaths of thousands of mothers and children every year.

Every year 17,000 women die due to pregnancy-related complications and one child in four does not reach his/her fifth birthday, largely owing to curable diseases, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Food insecurity and lack of access to health services are weakening the health and nutritional status of women, and multiple and short-spaced pregnancies often cause early deaths, according to health specialists.

The common practice of child marriage is also a major factor in early deaths among mothers.

"Child marriage and forced marriage are in contradiction with Islam," said Abdul Karim, an imam in Kabul.

Ending ignorance

The ministries of women's affairs and religious affairs, backed by a few aid agencies, have been working to involve religious leaders in a strategy to reduce pregnancy-related maternal mortality.

Over the past year, dozens of imams participated in training workshops in Kabul at which gender experts tried to convince them to spread the word on birth gaps and legal-age marriage.

"Some people wrongly think birth gaps are not Islamic. We want to tackle such ignorance with the help of mullahs [imams]," Hosai Wardak, a gender specialist working with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in Kabul, told IRIN.

In the northeastern province of Badakhshan, which reportedly has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country, such efforts have borne fruit.

However, in the volatile southern and eastern provinces, where Taliban insurgents have assassinated dozens of pro-government religious leaders, preaching about family planning seems to be a risky and unattractive job.

The government and its partners may need to adopt alternative approaches in areas where imams are wary of encouraging people to ensure birth gaps, and wed under-age girls, experts said.