Video: Arab-American's Concerns about Census

Arab-American Leaders Push Census Participation

From CNN - April 2, 2010

New York (CNN) -- For Muslims living in the United States, the call to prayer requires a response at least five times a day. But when the U.S. Census Bureau comes calling once every 10 years, some Arab-Americans still hesitate to return the survey.

"There's a fear factor that this information may be used against you, or used for inappropriate reasons," said Rami Nuseir, president of the American Mideast Leadership Network. He said a misunderstanding of the census translates into some Arab-Americans simply not filling out the form.

His organization is working directly with the Census Bureau to educate the Arab-American community about the importance of the survey.

"By law, the Census Bureau cannot share this information with the IRS, FBI, CIA or any other government agency," said Nuseir. "We've been complaining about discrimination, we've been complaining about lack of resources, and here this is a chance to tell the whole world we exist."

The 2000 census estimated there were 1.2 million Arab-Americans living in the United States. But the Arab American Institute says that number is too low. Based on community surveys and immigration data, the nonprofit group says the real number is closer to 4 million.

Mailing back the census form has benefits for the entire country. Data gathered from the survey helps disburse nearly $400 billion in federal funding. In addition, legislative districts are redrawn based on population change, providing important adjustments for representation in Congress.

Recently, high school students at the Razi School in Queens, New York, attended a presentation on the census, given by Nuseir. The Muslim school is just one of many institutions where the Census Bureau is conducting sessions on the survey, hoping to reach parents through their children.

Amirelsamad Isi is a senior at the Razi School. After the presentation, he was optimistic his parents would return their household's census form.

"In the beginning they might be a little scared, because everyone is scared. But when you learn the positive effects ... they'll learn, and they can tell other people," he said.

In addition to sending its message into schools and mosques, the Census Bureau also has workers hitting the streets.

Ahmed Shedeed, a Census Bureau partner specialist, was hired to specifically work the Arab-American community. For the past several months, he's visited New York and New Jersey neighborhoods, encouraging households to return their forms.

In Astoria, Queens, Shedeed handed out flyers printed in Arabic to bolster participation and dispel anxieties about the census.

"I came to this country almost three years ago, and I know the fear," he said, handing the flyer to a young man outside a coffee shop. "Everyone's information is well-protected."

The results of efforts put forth by census workers like Shedeed are already being measured. The 2010 Census Web site has an interactive map that shows what percentage of any U.S. region's population has returned the survey -- http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/.

As of Thursday, the national return rate was 52 percent. New York State trailed the national rate, at 46 percent.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told CNN Thursday the rate of returns still lags in his city compared with the rest of the country. Thirty-seven percent in New York City have filled out the survey so far.

Shedeed said he hopes his work pays off for Arab-Americans not just in Queens and not just in New York, but everywhere in the United States when the April 15 mailing deadline comes.

"It's our participation that will make everybody's life better," said Shedeed. "It's important for our community to be known."

A Kingdom Slowly Changes (Reform in Saudi Arabia)

From the NY Times & International Herald Tribune

By IAN BREMMER
Published: March 16, 2010

When you doze off on a flight to Saudi Arabia, you wake to find that the Saudi women who were in Western clothes on departure have changed to traditional dress in preparation for landing. But that, I found out on a recent visit, no longer tells the whole story.

Before my recent trip, I had asked my government host to arrange a meeting with Saudi women entrepreneurs. I was pleasantly surprised that my request was quickly approved. I was even more intrigued by the meeting itself.

It was not the clarity, savvy and energy with which these Saudi businesswomen spoke that surprised me. I’d seen that before. The surprise was how easily and informally they shared their sometimes provocative views in a public place in the heart of Riyadh.

I asked one young Saudi businesswoman for her views on the country’s business climate. Like most of the group, she appeared more relaxed in a one-on-one conversation with a man than I’d ever experienced before inside the kingdom.

Her comments revealed both strong opinions about professional standards and a mischievous sense of humor. Among other things, she confided that she was more comfortable than she used to be in formal dress because she was now wearing sweat pants underneath.

Indeed, there’s a lot going on beneath the surface in Saudi society. King Abdullah still governs a deeply conservative country. But both Saudi society and the kingdom’s economy reveal dramatic shifts in the four and a half years since he formally assumed power.

For one thing, there’s a substantial generational change in social mores and economic attitudes now separating young Saudis from their parents.

The implications of this emerging generation gap cut across many aspects of Saudi society. I saw much more public mixing of young people on this visit than was evident even two years ago — and heard more questions from them about the social standards of other countries (particularly in the more liberal Gulf regimes).

Attitudes towards marriage have likewise shifted. In the past, brides and grooms in arranged marriages often met for the first time on the day they became engaged. A wedding quickly followed. Today, many urban couples meet several times — in the presence of family, to be sure — before an engagement is agreed, and have unsupervised dates before the wedding.

But it’s the expanded educational opportunities for all those ambitious young women that may be making the biggest difference. In September 2009, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology opened its doors, allowing Saudi women and men to attend class together for the first time. Religious police are not permitted on campus. Women are also allowed to drive now. For a Westerner, these reforms may sound quaint, even retrograde. For Saudi Arabia, they are remarkable.

Women now attend Saudi universities in record numbers, though daughters of the elite are still more likely to study abroad. There is a focused government effort to address labor shortfalls by bringing more women into the workforce — and not just in traditional roles such as teachers and nurses. This year, Saudi law schools will graduate the first significant numbers of women. And a surprising number of Saudi start-up firms founded by female entrepreneurs are now up and running.

Men’s lives are changing as well. Saudi society has long fed an unsustainable sense of entitlement, one that stigmatizes Saudi men who accept work associated with low social status. Menial labor is for immigrants from South Asia or less affluent corners of the Arab world. Over time, this has created a mismatch between an exploding population of Saudi young people and the number of jobs they’re trained to handle.

For many years, the government has pursued various forms of “Saudization” of the economy. This process, intended to reduce the kingdom’s dependence on foreign workers, has proven an uphill struggle, especially in ultra-conservative Riyadh, where cash-strapped families often get by with less before a head of household will accept work he feels is beneath his station. That’s why it’s all the more striking to find young Saudis working these days at the local Starbucks.

King Abdullah’s reforms extend to the media. Direct opposition to the Saudi government remains off limits, but it’s increasingly common to read and hear public criticism of the country’s most conservative policies — even of certain members of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the kingdom’s religious police. Such reports could not appear even in Saudi Arabia’s more liberal newspapers without the government’s blessing.

There are still powerful individuals and groups fundamentally opposed to all forms of liberalization. Saudis remain deeply dependent on petrodollars and foreign labor. But it’s worth noting that technology and management training are among the country’s fastest growing industries. The state will have a hard time turning back the clock on that trend — and it doesn’t appear to want to.

Don’t be surprised if King Abdullah is one day remembered as the man who brought the beginnings of real change to a place that badly needed it. And don’t be surprised if Saudi women are the ones to make the most of the new opportunities.

Ian Bremmer is president of Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy, and author of “The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall.”

Sky is the Limit for Pakistan's Women Fighter Pilots

pakistan

Sky is the limit for Pakistan’s women fighter pilots

From the Dawn Newspaper - Sunday, 07 Mar, 2010

In a country where extended family is important and most middle-class women rely on servants for household work and child-minding, Ambreen and Nadia may be saved some of the problems faced by women in the West. —AFP Photo

ISLAMABAD: Ambreen made Pakistani history by becoming one of the country’s first female fighter pilots, but on Sunday she was due to swap her flight schedule for an arranged marriage.

“It’s all set and planned, but I haven’t talked to him,” she admits, her face scrubbed clean and wearing a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jumpsuit – a far cry from the make-up and ornate gown she’ll wear for the wedding.

The wedding between Flight Lieutenant Ambreen Gul, 25, and an engineer from Islamabad has been arranged by their families in the best Pakistani tradition.

When she wakes up on Monday – International Women’s Day – she’ll be married to a man she has only seen once before and with whom she has barely exchanged a word.

Pakistan is a conservative Muslim country, where the United Nations says only 40 per cent of adult women are literate. Women are victims of violence and abuse, and the country still lacks a law against domestic violence.

But in 2006, seven women broke into one of Pakistan’s most exclusive male clubs to graduate as fighter pilots – perhaps the most prestigious job in the military and for six decades closed to the fairer sex.

Ambreen’s company manager father was delighted. Ironically it was her housewife mother who initially feared her daughter would bring shame on the family.

“It was because of our eastern culture. She thought people would say, ‘Why are you letting your daughter go out of the home?’

She and 26-year-old Flight Lieutenant Nadia Gul say PAF is a trailblazer for women’s rights. As respected officers with a 60,000-rupee-a-month salary, they are living out their dreams.

“It’s a profession of passion. One has to be extremely motivated. I love flying. I love to fly fighter jets, to do something for my country that is very unique,” smiled Ambreen, her hair stuffed into a pony tail.

Signing up aged 18, only a handful of girls beat homesickness and stiff competition to pass a six-month selection process and graduate after three-and-a-half years of training.

“It was the toughest time we’ve ever faced,” Ambreen remembers.

During a training flight on a Chinese-made F-7, she once blacked out for a few seconds before survival reflexes kicked in.

Nadia, whose army captain husband is serving on the front line of Pakistan’s war against the Taliban in the mountains of Swat, won a prize for academic achievement at PAF’s first women fighter pilot graduation.

“It was the first time. It was history,” she remembers, a bottle-green hijab covering most of her hair and tucked into her padded pilot’s jacket.

“I was just a girl who went to college and came back home, but now I’m in a great profession,” said Nadia.

Commanding male subordinates, they bat aside any question of sexism or men who don’t take kindly to being ordered about by a woman.

They love the respect that comes with official fighter pilot status in the armed.

“Families are very fascinated. Everyone’s very impressed,” says Nadia, describing her husband as “very supportive” and “proud”.

Forbes ranked Pakistan in 2010 as the fourth most dangerous country in the world. Officers say only a tiny elite – and no women – actually fly in combat in Pakistan’s tribal belt, a battleground against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

While PAF is outwardly very proud of its women pilots, some wonder privately whether women are strong enough to reach the top of the profession.

But flying transport and cargo planes, ferrying VIPs like cabinet ministers around the country, Nadia feels women’s lot is improving and takes issue with Western perceptions of Pakistan as backward.

“PAF are giving us this chance on an equal basis. It was really a bold step that the Pakistan Air Force has taken in recruiting lady fighter pilots,” she said.

In a country where extended family is important and most middle-class women rely on servants for household work and child-minding, Ambreen and Nadia may be saved some of the problems faced by women in the West.

They believe marriage and – in the future – motherhood can complement, not replace, a career, “provided you have a supportive family.”

US Muslims Go To Cyberspace for Soul Mates - IslamOnline.net - News

US Muslims Go To Cyberspace for Soul Mates

"We are creating a virtual community that is more accessible for them," imam Majid told IOL.

By Dina Rabie, IOL Staff

Matrimonial websites provide a platform for young Muslims to meet and learn about what they expect in a marriage.

WASHINGTON – In America, a growing number of unwed Muslims resort to matrimonial websites in their pursuit for life partners, seeing the cyberspace as a more accessible way to find Mr/Ms Right.
"We have people accessing our website from all across the US. We have people from Colorado, Missouri, Nevada," Vaseem Ansari, executive director of the Companionships matrimonial website, told IslamOnline.net.

The website was established in 2004 under the direction of Mohamed Majid, the imam of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, to help Muslims looking for marriage partners.

"I got so many requests from young people to help them find the right spouses," recalls Majid.

Full Article: US Muslims Go Cyberspace for Soul Mates - IslamOnline.net - News

Pakistan Models Defy Taliban with First Fashion Week

by Chris Brummitt
Associated Press
Monday Dec 14, 2009


Some women strode the catwalk in spiked bracelets and body armor. Others had their heads covered, burqa-style, but with shoulders - and tattoos - exposed. Male models wore Islamic robes as well as shorts and sequined T-shirts.

As militant violence grabs headlines, Pakistan’s top designers and models are taking part in the country’s first-ever fashion week. While the mix of couture and ready-to-wear fashions would not have been out of place in Milan or New York, many designers made reference to the turmoil, reflecting the contradictions and tensions coursing through this society.

The four-day event, which was delayed twice because of security fears, is aimed at showing the world there is more to Pakistan than violence.

"This is our gesture of defiance to the Taliban," said Ayesha Tammy Haq, executive of Fashion Pakistan Week. However, in a culture where nearly all women dress modestly, many outfits were too racy.

"This does not represent what we are as a people," designer Ayesha Tahir Masood said. "Only 0.001 percent of Pakistani women would wear these clothes, and then only in a controlled environment when drunk out of their minds."

Under the Shadow of Shariah Law, Transsexuals Take to the Stage in Aceh in Rare Beauty Contest

From the Jakarta Globe

February 14, 2010
Nurdin Hasan

Three transsexual contestants show off their outfits.

Under the Shadow of Shariah Law, Transsexuals Take to the Stage in Aceh in Rare Beauty Contest

Banda Aceh. In their best Acehese costumes, kitsch jewelry and towering hair buns, 40 transsexuals sashayed down a stage on Saturday to loud club music, disco lights and rapturous applause as they competed in the Miss Transsexual Aceh 2010.

The streets of Aceh may be monitored by the Wilayatul Hisbah, or Shariah Police, but that did not deter the audience in the auditorium of the Radio Republik Indonesia building in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, as they welcomed the finalists with screams and whistles.

There was no seat left unoccupied. Drag queens, homosexuals and members of Aceh's minority communities forked out Rp 10,000 for tickets to the show, with some having to sit on the ground or watch from the balconies.

Transsexuals entertained the audience by lip-syncing to local songs and dancing to dangdut music. Some wore sexy outfits while others donned the hijab , the Muslim headscarf.

The winner of the Best Transsexual Catwalk wore a sash with the words "Cet Work," a misspelling of the word catwalk, splashed across it.

Organized by Putroe Sejati Aceh (True Sons of Aceh), an organization that provides shelters for transsexuals, the 40 contestants represented 23 districts and cities in the staunchly Muslim province.

University student Zifana Letisia, from North Aceh, was crowned the pageant winner and will represent Aceh at the Miss Transsexual Indonesia 2010.

She said she was treated well at her campus despite her sexuality. "At campus, my achievements are quite extraordinary. Nobody dares to put me down.

"People on campus are polite, even respectful and proud of me, even though I am a transsexual," Zifana said, adding that she did not take Islamic law lightly.

A third-year nursing student and part-time beauty therapist, Zifana, whose real name is Anggah, beat out finalists Jasmine Mulan Sayuri, from South Aceh, and Joy, from Central Aceh.

"We are very careful today [when it comes to Islamic Shariah law]. One day, we will build a special forum to try and find a middle-ground over this matter in Aceh," Zifana said.

Organizing committee chairman Jimmy Saputra said the event had been approved by Aceh's Ulema Consultative Assembly (MPU).

"After we explained that this activity would be a positive event, the MPU scholars gave us permission," said Jimmy, who also goes by his transsexual name Timmy Mayubi.

The event was judged by a three-person panel. The judges were Marini, from the Indonesian Women's Coalition of Aceh, and Silver Sebayang and Santi, both from RRI Banda Aceh.

The pageant started out with 40 contestants, of which 15 were selected as finalists. These 15 were further winnowed down to the final six.

Many contestants struggled to understand the judges' questions, which covered a wide range of issues, from corruption to the daily struggle of transsexuals and Shariah law in Aceh.

When asked to comment on allegations that the province's Shariah Police were violating the laws they enforced, 23-year-old Alin, from Lhokseumawe, said in a lilting voice: "I will follow the law of Islamic Shariah because I live in Aceh."

The audience burst into laughter when Carla, 20, who was representing Aceh Besar district, replied to a question on the link between poverty and corruption with the answer: "If [the concept of] poverty was not applied, there would be no corruption."

Carla, in true beauty-queen style, kept poised and elegant despite the crowd's reaction, and walked along the stage while waving her right hand.

Other contestants were unable to speak at all when questioned by the judges.

But some received standing ovations, including 19-year-old Joy, from Central Aceh district.

In response to a question on the existence of transsexuals at a time when Muslims were subject to Shariah law, Joy loudly declared: "The application of Islamic law in Aceh is not in accordance with the wishes of the people because many people in Aceh are still violating Shariah, especially during Ramadan when they are not fasting and commit adulterous affairs."

Cut Nyak, 20, of Pidie district, said Shariah law was a "tool applied in Aceh to manage the public because the majority of Acehnese were Muslims," adding that she supported the implementation of Islamic law in the province.

Aceh's controversial Qanun Jinayat code is a set of local bylaws that were passed in September by the province's legislative council, and replaced parts of the Criminal Code with sections of Islamic law for Muslims.

Under the code, people deemed to have committed adultery or had premarital or homosexual sex could be sentenced to lashings with a cane or be stoned to death.

Corporal punishment can also be meted out to rapists, child molesters and those caught drinking alcohol or gambling.

Muslims' interactions with members of the opposite sex who are not family members are also strictly regulated.

After the code was passed, international human rights groups spoke out against the regulations and called them a violation of basic rights.

Aceh's governor, Irwandi Yusuf, has refused to sign off on the Qanun Jinayat.

Jimmy, the event organizer, said "raids against women clad in tight pants" should be the least of Aceh's worries, as the province had many other problems.

"There's unemployment and other problems affecting the livelihoods of the people — that should be what we focus on, rather than on issues concerning people's personal affairs. Everyone has the right to express their personality," he said.

"Especially when it comes to sex. It should not be banned, because all people need sex. I also really need sex," he said. He added that there were about 150 transgenders in Banda Aceh and they were able to fit into the community without any problems.

FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2010 file photo, Elton John attends the premiere of "Nowhere Boy" during the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, file)

UK group urges Elton John to cancel Israel show

February 9, 2010 - The Associated Press

LONDON — A British academic group that supports Palestinian rights is urging singer Elton John to cancel a summer concert in Israel.

The British Committee for Universities of Palestine says in an open letter to John that it is wrong to perform in Israel because of alleged abuses committed during the Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip last year.

A spokesman for the singer did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The committee's letter says John cannot be morally neutral in the conflict between thePalestinians and the Israelis.

John is scheduled to play at a Tel Aviv stadium on June 17. Other major stars including Paul McCartney and Madonna have played in Israel in recent years.

Sundance: Muezzins and Mohawks - "The Taqwacores"

Sundance: Muezzins and mohawks

The contemporary cultural clash of Muslim punk rockers in "The Taqwacores" -- and other personal and geopolitical faces of Islamic stories at this year's festival.

Full Article from the Salt Lake Tribune.

Islamic states condemn attack on Danish cartoonist - CNN.com

From CNN - January 4, 2010

Many citizens of these countries held riots in major cities when these cartoons came out in 2005.  So this is pretty bold of them to speak out and condemn the attempted attack on the cartoon's drawer. 

At the time the cartoons came out the drawer had said he "wanted his cartoon to say that some people exploited the prophet to legitimize terrorism." However, many in the Muslim world interpreted the drawing as depicting their prophet as a terrorist.

Kurt Westergaard is known for controversial illustrations that have angered Muslims.

Full Article.