Monthly Archives: October 2010

Oct 28 2010

Education Reform, Iranian Style, by Andreas Moser


From : http://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/education-reform-iranian-style/

Andreas Moser, a lawyer from Germany, says in his blog that he doesn’t understand UNESCO’s decision to award the hosting of the 2010 World Philosophy Congress to Iran‘. He continues by an presenting an ironic reaction by the Iranian government: ‘But as so often, the Islamic Republic of Iran does not avoid providing plenty of opportunities for the rest of the world to wake up and rethink its decisions: Iran will impose restrictions on its universities, not allowing any new courses in 12 social sciences and reviewing the existing courses in these subjects. Affected are among others law, psychology, political science and – as a special thanks to UNESCO for letting Iran host the World Philosophy Congress that is supposed to celebrate free thinking and encourage the exchange of ideas - philosophy. To nobody’s surprise, two subjects that will be scaled back and exposed to even tighter government control are human rights and women’s studies.’

He rightly concludes: ‘As a reason for this intervention, the Iranian government explained that these subjects “are not in harmony with religious foundations and are based on Western thoughts“. The brain drain from Iran will continue… – Meanwhile, let’s not hold our breath that this culling of education will change UNESCO’s mind. ‘

[Read the whole report here]

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Oct 27 2010

Campaign to prevent UCLA from shutting down Middle Eastern Studies


Students of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at UCLA have launched a campaign to prevent the university from shutting down the course.

The petition claims: “UCLA is one of the country’s — and the world’s — leading institutes of higher education. Its graduates leave UCLA and become leaders all over the world. As a decision maker at UCLA, it has never been more important to strengthen the Islamic Studies program – especially now – at the rise of Islamophobia and misinformation about Islam.

A September 2010 study by the Pew Research Center found that Americans missed fully half of the questions they were asked about basic religious knowledge. Also in September, the Texas Board of Education passed a resolution in September to limit the references to Islam in future Social Studies textbooks.

Despite this need for more information on religion, UCLA’s Islamic Studies program is in danger. The program is one of the best in the country and has a prominent library on Islam. It was founded in 1957 and ranked 2nd next to Princeton. But an admission freeze and lack of funding for the program mean that this valuable source of information is being silenced.

To correct this matter, UCLA should affirm publicly its commitment to Islamic Studies and the importance of higher education on this topic. The Academic Senate at UCLA should recommend to give the program the funding it needs to re-open its doors to new students, and the UCLA administration should support that recommendation.

We demand that UCLA:

1. Reopen the Islamic Studies Program for the 2011-2012 applicant cycle and allow the program to address the issues that put it into receivership.
2. Offer a course administrated through Islamic Studies for undergraduates which would offer TA positions and funding for graduate Students and research opportunities for undergraduates.
3. Remain accountable to the internal mechanisms of the program as well as the community on campus via student representation in hiring, appointment of chair, and curriculum development.
4. Begin the process of Departmentalization for Undergraduate Islamic Studies.
5. Hire two new tenured faculty members.”

On the other side, Gabriella Hoffman says on the News Real Blog: “Why waste money on an ineffective program that breeds contempt for our nation? These “educational” programs are largely sympathetic to anti-American views that have proven dismal and dangerous in America.”

What do you think about it?

 

Oct 27 2010

Nasrudin and his riddle


One day, Nasrudin, the great sufi mystic who always pretended to be a fool, put an egg in a bag, went to a small town and gathered people around himself:

“There is a contest today” he said: “If any one among you tells me what I’ve got in this bag, I will give him the eggs inside it!”

People looked at each other astonished, and then answered together: “Nasrudin, we can not say, we are not fortune tellers!”

Then Nasrudin said:”In this bag, I have something that has a center, yellow as the bright rising sun, and it is covered by a white surrounding, as the clouds who embrasse the sun, it is a symbol of reproduction and reminds us of the birds flying to their nests to feed their youngs. Who can tell me what it is?”

People talked for a time, and then they consulted the wisest men in the town, and after a few days, they said: “We found it! It is an egg!”

Most of the times, the answers to our questions are presented to us so generously, but we always look for complicated explanations for our simple questions.

Oct 27 2010

Middle Eastern and Islamic Library Collections and Bibliography


The British Library and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) in the US are making available 400 doctoral theses focusing on the Middle East, Islamic studies and related subjects online

The theses – which represent a wealth of UK postgraduate research into politics, culture and society in the Islamic world – can now be downloaded for free by scholars worldwide via the British Library’s EThOS (Electronic Theses Online) service.

CRL is a consortium of some 250 research libraries in the US and Canada. It has  sponsored the digitisation of hundreds of theses identified as being of special interest and value in the field of Islamic studies to make them available to academics worldwide.

Oct 27 2010

Otherwise occupied / Travels with an uncle: Raja Shehadeh: An attempt to revive landscape, names and social contacts.


From: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/otherwise-occupied-travels-with-an-uncle-1.321004

By Amira Hass

On the plane on my way back from Istanbul, an acquaintance surprised me when he asked, in the midst of our chat, “And do you have a second passport?” The question, he explained, was the result of our shared fear of a deterioration in the political situation whose outcome is difficult to imagine.

A few days earlier, a Jewish Turkish acquaintance had told me that Spain was offering descendants of the Jews who were expelled from that country in the 15th century to submit requests for citizenship. You too can do so, she explained. Just go to Sarajevo (where my mother was born ) and all you have to do is to bring a certificate from the Jewish community there confirming that your family was expelled after 1492. There are Jews in Turkey who have already begun the process, she said. They are afraid of a combination of growing Turkish nationalism, that often comes under the guise of religious fervor and that is supported by a sense of religious exclusiveness.

Meanwhile in Ramallah, on the day of my return, the writer and attorney Raja Shehadeh launched his new book, “A Rift in Time: Travels with my Ottoman Uncle”. His great uncle from his mother’s side, Najib Nassar, a resident of Haifa, fled from the Ottoman police. He was facing a death sentence for refusing to serve in the army in World War I. The land in which he wandered did not know the borders of today and certainly not the barbed wire fences that today delineate the cages in which Palestinians must live. It’s a ghetto mentality that produced these fences and movement restrictions, Shehadeh remarked.

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Oct 25 2010

Interview with Jamal Kanj, the author of Children of Catastrophe


Children of Catastrophe: Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America


http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2010/10/interview-with-jamal-krayem-kanj-author-children-of-castastrophe/

By Jamal Kanj

Author Jamal Kanj talks about life in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. In his recent book “Children of Catastrophe: Journey from a Palestinian refugee camp to America,” provides an account of life from Palestine to refugee camps in Lebanon and the events leading for the creation of the state of Israel.

INTIFADA PALESTINE – EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW – With Jamal K. Kanj: Author Children of Catastrophe

A great deal has been written over the years addressing the Palestine–Israel conflict, and the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem. However, few works on the subject really present the personal aspect: What is it like to be a refugee? What propels a decent human being to take up arms, to become a freedom fighter or a “terrorist?”

This book tells the remarkable story of one such refugee, following his journey from childhood in the Nahr El Bared Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, becoming a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), through to eventual emigration, a new life as an engineer in the United States, and a ‘return’ trip to historic Palestine.

Jamal Kanj joined me in an exclusive interview to discuss his book Children of Catastrophe.

Editor Elias Harb

[Read the interview here]

Oct 23 2010

Virgin Megastore, Downtown Beirut, will be hosting Jamal Kanj, the author of Children of Catastrophe


THE STORY OF A COUNTRY THAT ONLY LIVES IN IT’S PEOPLE’S HEARTS…

OCTOBER 22, 2010 – Beirut: Virgin Megastore, Downtown Beirut, will be hosting Jamal Kanj, the author of Children of Catastrophe, Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America on November 13 2010, Downtown Beirut.

During this event, Jamal Kanj, a Palestinian refugee who was born and spent his childhood in the now abolished Nahr el Bared refugee camp in Lebanon, will talk about his book, his experiences in Nahr el Bared, and the events that led him to write The Children of Catastrophe. Subsequently the author will read experts of the book, which will be followed by a Q&A session. He himself claims on his website: ‘My promise is a story that will move you emotionally and challenge you intellectually. It is heartrending, yet  joyful. In this book, I invite you to a journey into the daily life of a refugee to discover hope and the “place” that lives inside every Palestinian.’

WHEN: November 13th, 2010 from 6:00PM – 8:00PM.

WHERE: Down town, Al Shouhada Street, Beirut, Lebanon

COST: Free to the public with RSVP to nlaz@all-prints.com

ABOUT THE BOOK (Paperback  / 240pp  / 235 x 155mm / Garnet Publishing / September 2010)

While the much anticipated Middle East peace talks start in the US, Garnet Publishing launches Jamal Kanj’s life affirming memoir from his life in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. Jamal Kanj who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, presents his life story in his shocking memoirs: Children of Catastrophe, due to be released in September 2010.

A great deal has been written over the years addressing the Palestine–Israel conflict, and the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem. However, few works on the subject really present the personal aspect: What is it like to be a refugee? What propels a decent human being to take up arms, to become a freedom fighter or a terrorist?

This book tells the remarkable story of one such refugee, following his journey from childhood in the Nahr El Bared Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, becoming a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), through to eventual emigration, a new life as an engineer in the United States, and a ‘return’ trip to historic Palestine. Running parallel to the personal narrative, the book also documents the story of Nahr El Bared itself: the story of a refugee camp that grew from an initial clump of muddy UN tents to become a vibrant trading centre in north Lebanon, before its eventual destruction at the hands of the Lebanese army as they battled with militants from the Fatah Al Islam group in the summer of 2007.

Throughout it all, the spirit of the remarkable people of the camp shines through, and the book provides a moving testament to how refugees in Lebanon have managed to persist in their struggle for their return, as well as survive socially, economically and politically despite more than sixty years of dispossession and war.

About the Author

Jamal Kanj was born in the Nahr el Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon ten years after the creation of the state of Israel. He moved to the United States in late 1977, and has been active in various local and national political organizations. He is a cofounder of the Middle East Cultural and Information Center in San Diego and served as the Secretary General for the US chapter of a large student union. Today, Kanj is a professional engineer who works on water infrastructure management and writes on Middle Eastern politics.

For more information about Children of Catastrophe, please visit http://www.garnetpublishing.co.uk

For more information about the author, please visit his website www.jamalkanj.com

Oct 23 2010

Gems from the Middle East: Bozorgmehr, 1


Bozorgmehr, the ancient Iranian sage says:

“I have faced many enemies, but none of them were worse than my own self; I faught many rivals, but none of them could conquer me; unless my own evil friends; I ate many good things and fell in love with many beauties, but I found notting more pleasing than my health; I was beated and hurt many times, but notting was more hurting as an evil word comming from the mouth of a good man, I gave many charities, but none of my charities were better than guiding a lost man to the righous path; I was pleased by being near the kings and recieving their gifts, but I found nothing better than escaping from them.”

Oct 23 2010

Secret files show how US ignored torture in Iraq


A grim picture of the US and Britain’s legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.

Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the Guardian and a number of other international media organisations via the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters and civilian killings in the Afghan war.

The new logs detail how:

• US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.

• A US helicopter gunship involved in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender.

• More than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a detainee’s apparent death.

As recently as December the Americans were passed a video apparently showing Iraqi army officers executing a prisoner in Tal Afar, northern Iraq. The log states: “The footage shows approximately 12 Iraqi army soldiers. Ten IA soldiers were talking to one another while two soldiers held the detainee. The detainee had his hands bound … The footage shows the IA soldiers moving the detainee into the street, pushing him to the ground, punching him and shooting him.”

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