Eight years after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Muslim Americans — particularly Muslim-American women — continue to face battles in their struggle for acceptance and the right to wear religious garb in public settings. A new poll from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life finds that Americans see Muslims as encountering more discrimination than any other religious group. But while Americans are more likely to be familiar with Islam or personally know a Muslim than they were at the time of the attacks, levels of tolerance are lower today than they were in the months immediately following Sept. 11.(See pictures of Muslims in America.)

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Muslim in America

It may be difficult to remember now, but just days after the attacks in New York City and Washington, President George W. Bush went out of his way to remind Americans not to confuse ordinary Muslims with the handful of terrorists who committed the violence. “We should not hold one who is a Muslim responsible for an act of terror,” Bush said on Sept. 13, 2001.

The message appeared to sink in. A Pew Forum poll conducted that November found that only 17% of Americans held unfavorable views of Muslim Americans, a decrease from 24% just eight months earlier. The shift was most striking among conservative Republicans — in March 2001, 40% viewed Muslim Americans unfavorably, but by November, that number had plummeted by more than half to 19%. In the wake of the attacks, Americans were also reluctant to say that Islam encourages violence more than other faiths; only one-quarter agreed with that statement in March 2002. But by the time the war in Iraq began one year later, that view had changed dramatically, with 44% of Americans willing to associate Islam with violence.

Today, the broad tolerance that existed in the days following 9/11 has largely evaporated. Nearly 40% of Americans still say they think Islam is more likely to encourage violence, according to a new Pew Forum survey, and only a minority hold favorable views of Muslims (the latest poll does not distinguish between Muslims and Muslim Americans).

Muslim Americans are also increasingly battling to adhere to their religious beliefs in the workplace and other public spaces. In Philadelphia, the police department disciplined an officer for wearing a hijab (a headscarf that covers hair and sometimes the neck), and the move was upheld in court. Legislators in Oklahoma and Minnesota have proposed legislation that would prohibit women from wearing a hijab for drivers-license photos. And in Oregon, the state legislature just affirmed a law prohibiting public school teachers from wearing religious garb. The law was originally developed in the 1920s as an anti-Catholic measure aimed at priest collars and nun habits, and it was supported by the Ku Klux Klan. Now some Muslim advocates worry that they are being targeted the same way. “Attire is always a red flag,” says Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council for Islamic-American Relations. “But what we’re seeing is the overall trend of a vocal minority in our society trying to block any accommodation to Muslims.”(See the top 10 religion stories of 2008.)

At the same time, Muslims have become a more familiar part of American society — nearly half of all Americans claim to personally know someone who is Muslim, compared with just 38% of Americans in November 2001. And that number will probably rise in the future, as familiarity with Islam and Muslims is much more common among younger Americans.

A majority of Americans under age 30 (52%) know a Muslim, but less than one-third (30%) of those over age 65 do. That’s significant because researchers have found that knowledge of Islam and Muslims tends to make an individual more inclined to express favorable views of the two. “People who know a Muslim tend to be less likely than others to see a connection between Islam and violence,” says Gregory Smith, a senior researcher at the Pew Forum.(See people finding God on YouTube.)

It may well be, however, that an uncomfortable gray area exists between tolerating Muslim Americans and fully integrating them into U.S. society. It’s not an accident that several recent cases challenging the right of judges to ask Muslim women to remove their hijab in the courtroom have come out of Michigan, which has the largest Arab population outside of the Middle East. Muslims are visible everywhere in the metro Detroit area, selling magazines in the airport, taking orders at Starbucks and manning tellers at local banks — but the community is still struggling with the question of how far to extend accommodation for their beliefs and practices.

Muslim Americans still enjoy a status less fraught than that of their cousins in Europe, where France is considering banning the wearing of burqas in public and has already outlawed headscarves in schools, and where this summer Muslim women wearing what have been termed “burkinis” were refused entry to pools in France and Italy. But Americans are still divided on whether to embrace the declaration that President Obama made during his speech in Cairo this summer. “Freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one’s religion,” said Obama. “That is why the U.S. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it.”

Source: TIME

Does Islam frown on nose jobs? Chemical peels? How about breast implants?

One of the clerics with the answers is Sheik Mohammed al-Nujaimi, and Saudi women flock to him for guidance about going under the knife. The results may not see much light of day in a kingdom where women cover up from head to toe, yet cosmetic surgery is booming.

Religion covers every facet of life in Saudi Arabia, including plastic surgery. Al-Nujaimi draws his guidelines from the consensus that was reached three years ago when clergymen and plastic surgeons met in Riyadh to determine whether cosmetic procedures violate the Islamic tenet against tampering God’s creation.

The verdict was that it’s halal (sanctioned) to augment unusually small breasts, fix features that are causing a person grief, or reverse damage from an accident. But undergoing an unsafe procedure or changing the shape of a “perfect nose” just to resemble a singer or actress is haram (forbidden).

“I get calls from many, many women asking about cosmetic procedures,” said al-Nujaimi told The Associated Press in an interview. “The presentations we got from the doctors made me better equipped to give them guidance.”

In recent years, plastic surgery centers with gleaming facades have sprung up on streets in Riyadh, the capital. Their front-page newspaper ads promise laser treatments, hair implants and liposuction.

From rarities only 10 years ago, the centers now number 35 and are “saturating the Saudi market,” Ahmed al-Otaibi, a Saudi skin specialist, was quoted as saying in the Al-Hayat newspaper.

Al-Otaibi cited a study according to which liposuction, breast augmentations and nose jobs are the most popular among women, while men go for hair implants and nose jobs.

Saudi women see nothing unusual about undergoing plastic surgery and then covering it up in robes and veils.

Sarah, an unmarried, 28-year-old professional woman, pointed out in an interview that underneath their robes, women go in for designer clothes and trendy haircuts to be flaunted at women’s gatherings, shown to their husbands and exposed on trips abroad.

“We attend a lot of private occasions, and we also travel,” said Sarah, who declined to give her full name to protect her privacy.

She said she is contemplating having 22 surgeries, including a breast lift, padding her rear and reversing her down-turned lips into a smile.

She also wants the lips of Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe, and less flare to her nostrils, though so far her plastic surgeon has refused to do the nose because he doesn’t think it needs altering.

Ayman al-Sheikh, a Saudi doctor who spent almost 14 years in the U.S., most of them at Harvard, said demand in Saudi Arabia is in line with increased global demand. But what he sees more of in the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, is a customers for procedures that enhance the face to the point where it no longer looks natural.

The trend is being set by entertainers whose pouty lips, chiseled midriffs and enhanced breasts are seen on TV across the Arab world.

Not all customers seek religious sanction, and not all surgeons abide by the clerics’ guidelines, so a woman is apt to pick a surgeon depending on how liberal he is.

“People are overdone by design or by mistake,” al-Sheikh, 43, told the AP. “If something is done on a famous figure it becomes iconic in our world even if it doesn’t look esthetically appealing.”

He said when he returned to the kingdom four years ago, patients initially came with requests for one performer’s nose or another’s cheeks, but that stopped after word spread he was a conservative who believes “every face has its own features.”

The boom in surgery prompted Saudi columnist Abdoo Khal to write a piece titled, “We don’t want you to be Cinderella.”

“Women’s rush to undergo plastic surgery is an obsession resulting from a woman’s insecurity,” he wrote, “and it consolidates the idea that women are for bed only.”

In what has been described as a step towards the creation of a synthetic cell, scientists have created a new “engineered” strain of bacteria.

A team successfully transferred the genome of one type of bacteria into a yeast cell, modified it, and then transplanted into another bacterium.

This paves the way to the creation of a synthetic organism – inserting a human-made genome into a bacterial cell.

The team describe the work in the journal Science.

This advance, the researchers say, overcomes the obstacle of making a new inserted genome work inside a recipient cell.

The experiment was carried out by a team that included scientist J Craig Venter, a leading figure in the controversial field of synthetic biology.

Sanjay Vashee, a researcher at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, in the US, was one of the authors.

The resulting cell he and his team created went on to undertake multiple rounds of cell division, to produce a new strain of the modified bacteria.

Dr Vashee explained to BBC News that the work overcame a hurdle in the quest to create a fully synthetic organism.

J. Craig Venter is a leading figure in this controversial field

“Bacteria have ‘immune’ systems that protect them from foreign DNA such as those from viruses,” he explained.

He and his colleagues managed to disable this immune system, which consists of proteins called restriction enzymes that home in on specific sections of DNA and chop up the genome at these points.

Bacteria can shield their own genomes from this process by attaching chemical compounds called methyl groups at the points which the restriction enzymes attack.

The scientists modified the original genome of the bacterium Mycoplasma mycoides, whilst it was inside the yeast cell. Then they either attached methyl groups to it, or inactivated the restriction enzyme of the recipient bacterium, before transplanting the genome into its new cell.

One of the team’s ultimate aims is to transplant a fully synthetic genome into a bacterial cell – creating bacteria that can be programmed to carry out specific functions – for example, digesting biological material to produce fuel.

Race for life

Researchers at the same institute have already synthesised the complete genome of a bacterium they have called Mycoplasma genitalium. Dr Vashee described this work as a “logical extension” of that.

He told BBC News that attempts to create a synthetic bacterium by transplanting M. genitalium into a cell were “ongoing”.

“We have as of yet no conclusive proof that we have obtained M. genitalium cells after its genome has been put into various recipient cells,” he said.

“[But this] is a major advance in our effort to create a synthetic cell.”

Dr Vashee continued: “We were very concerned that the differences between the modifications in… bacterial DNA and [yeast] DNA might be an insurmountable barrier, preventing transplantation into bacteria of genomes that were passed through yeast.

“Now we know how to do this.”

Critics have expressed reservations about synthetic biology, and the aim to create what has been widely referred to as artificial life.

Many are concerned that the technology to engineer organisms could end up in the wrong hands.

Dr Vashee concluded: “Dr Venter and the team at JCVI continue to work with bioethicists, outside policy groups, [politicians], and the public to encourage discussion and understanding about the societal implications of their work and the field of synthetic genomics.”

Source: BBC

Firstly, there’s the pre-Ramadan preparation. Reduce your caffeine habit, preferably a few days before you start fasting so you don’t crave your cup of java during the day. Try to do the optional fasts on Monday and Thursdays (or any day that suits your lifestyle). This will help you get into the Ramadan vibe. Overall, start eating less, especially during the daytime. Or you could have an early morning breakfast and eat lightly during the day then have a full meal at dinner time.

Next, during Ramadan, it is important to make a serious conviction to follow the Ramadan routine. Wake up before dawn, have the pre-dawn breakfast (suhoor) and perform the dawn prayers (fajr). This routine must be ingrained in your mind, body and soul. It is common to have a boost of faith during the early days of Ramadan. The spiritual energy is vibrant and you feel that it is easy to meet Ramadan head on. Then, we may get weak and lose our conviction. We may get lazy and tell ourselves that we have another 3 weeks or so to get back on track. It is best to stay the course and be moderate.

Reduce sodium in your diet, especially during suhoor. This will help to reduce your urge to drink throughout the day. Extreme foods should be avoided as well. These include super spicy dishes (again to reduce the urge to drink after suhoor), high sugar content (to avoid the ‘crash and burn’ feeling), fatty foods and anything else that normally disagrees with you. Try to include foods that have high fiber content (for easy digestion) and that are ‘filling’. It’s important to eat ‘complex carbohydrates’  as they break down slowly. These include grains and seeds like barley, wheat, oats, millet, semolina, beans, lentils, wholemeal flour, and unpolished rice. Lots of fruits and vegetables are not only healthy but also provide a good balance to your meals. These will help sustain yourself until you break your fast. If you are already taking multi-vitamin supplements, don’t stop. Check with a health advisor if you plan to start a new multi-vitamin supplement. Don’t look far to find a vital health supplement. Dates are abundant throughout the year and especially during Ramadan. Dates are known to provide a wide range of essential nutrients and potential health benefits. Another important tip: hydrate! Drink lots of water in the night and before dawn. During suhoor, remember that coffee and tea are known to be diuretics. This could cause you to lose fluids faster.

Don’t binge. Having an empty stomach during the day and then gorging yourself at night can cause lethargy and other gastrointestinal discomforts. The last thing you need is a sloth-like behavior at night and then you miss the precious dawn breakfast.

Bonus tip: meet the community. In the Bay Area, there are few mosques that prepare iftar (dinner to break the fast) for singles. The Muslim Community Association and South Bay Islamic Association conduct daily iftar sessions for singles. Many mosques also hold community iftar sessions on weekends. Meeting the community has numerous benefits including  hearing about recipe tips, community events and hopefully some iftar invites!

Source: Examiner: by Mikael Pittam

Picture Source: http://www.thenutfactory.com/photos/fruit-dried-dates-deglett.jpg

Shaykh Abdullah, a scholar at the Zaytuna College (based in Berkeley), will hold a workshop that has already received keen interest not only from within the Muslim community but also in other diverse sectors. Christians and Rastafarians have approached the organizers with questions seeking clarity on this hot topic.

The controversial topic of music in Islam has been long debated in hallways at mosques, in circles of learning, and in the blogosphere. It will be intriguing to see how popular culture and Islam will either embrace or collide. Conservative elements might vehemently deny any association between the two, while liberal elements will merge them in ways that might seem blasphemous.

With the recent death of Michael Jackson, this is no doubt a timely workshop that will engender discussion throughout the nation. Was he Muslim? Had he converted? These questions have been on the lips and minds of many. Regardless of his religious affiliations, the facts are: he was the King of Pop, he broke records in the music industry, he was highly praised, and his brother Jermaine did convert to Islam. Those facts, however, do not necessary have a bearing on Michael’s faith. [Side note: I was glad to see Jermaine sing Michael's favorite song, "Smile," during Michael's memorial at the Staples Center. Smiling was the way of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.]

Two of America’s leading Muslim scholars, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir, have already written tributes to Michael Jackson. This workshop will allow Shaykh Abdullah Ali to voice his thoughts on the Moonwalker.

Source: Blog Ciritic Org

Picture Source: http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/creativity-and-the-creator-keeping-it/

A major project is under way to restore Ethiopia’s 100-year-old imperial railway, and there are even plans to build a new national network.

The French built it for the Emperor Menelik in the early 1900s, and French influences are everywhere, from the glazed canopies of the Addis Ababa railway station to the startling sight of the Ethiopian station staff in Dire Dawa talking to each other in French as they dispatch a night goods train down the line to Djibouti.

Like so many rail systems, the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway was neglected for years in favour of road transport, but the loss of its main ports when Eritrea gained independence left Ethiopia totally dependent on Djibouti for an outlet to the sea.

This passenger may face a long wait for the next train

The country needed the railway more than ever, but the line was in no fit state for intensive use.

The system is narrow, one metre gauge, with steep gradients on the long haul up from sea level to the Ethiopian highlands.

Some stretches of track are more than a century old; crumbling embankments and decaying bridges limit the weight and speed of the trains.

Recently it has been averaging one derailment a week, and attracting so little traffic that for a time staff frequently went unpaid.

But now, with European Union support, a major restoration project is under way.

Spectacular scenery

Almost a third of the track is being re-laid, using heavier weight rails – 40kg per metre instead of the 20kg rails still in use on some stretches of the line.

The section from Addis Ababa to Dire Dawa has been closed while the work is going on.

The railway to nowhere?

A spectacular stretch of line, near the town of Metahara, where the track runs on a narrow causeway across a volcanic lake, has already been completed.

Workers are strengthening bridges, consolidating embankments, and casting 25,000 concrete sleepers to replace the lightweight metal sleepers which were there before.

Meanwhile, a little desultory traffic still runs on the lower stretch of the line from Dire Dawa to Djibouti – a trainload of fruit and vegetables once a week for sale in Djibouti, coffee for export, trainloads of live camels destined for the meat markets of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.

Coming the other way are all the construction materials needed for the project itself.

When the work is finished, in perhaps 18 months time, the system will still be narrow gauge, but much safer and more robust, able to take heavier trains at faster speeds.

‘Pro-poor’

The railway’s general manager, To’om Terie, who now sits in his comfortable office in Addis Ababa above a silent, deserted station, says he expects a volume of something like 10 trains a day and a comfortable operating profit.

Mr To’om, who has worked for the railway for more than 30 years, is happy about the prospects for his own railway, but excited too that national policy now officially embraces rail transport.

The government is starting to plan a completely new rail system, with a further 5,000 km (3,100 miles) of lines.

It is early days yet, and Ethiopia is still looking for partners to build such a network.

But the man in charge of the project, Getachew Betru, confirmed that this would be a standard gauge railway, electrified to take advantage of the abundant, cheap electricity expected to be produced by ambitious new hydro-electric schemes soon to come into operation.

It would be primarily designed to carry freight, and although the proposed routes are still confidential, it might – for instance – serve the coffee-producing areas of western Ethiopia, the light industries of the north, the commercial food producing areas south of Addis Ababa, and the fertile, but as yet undeveloped farmlands near the Sudan border.

The French influence is still strong

Mr Getachew talks with enthusiasm about rail transport as the engine of development, and of his conviction that railways are inherently more “pro-poor” than any other transport system – of much more use to Ethiopia’s rural dwellers than an expensive network of tarmac road, driven on mostly by tourists and aid workers.

At the moment the new network is still a dream, but given Ethiopia’s dramatically-rugged terrain, if it does get built, then it will surely be one of the outstanding railway engineering feats of the 21st Century.

Source: BBC

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki (left), Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe (centre) and Djibouti's President Ismail Guelleh at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe for the Comesa summit on Sunday. Photo/PPS

Kenya’s President Kibaki on Sunday warned that trade in Eastern and Southern Africa was set to slow down due to the world financial crisis. He said majority of the member states of the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) had reviewed downwards their economic growth targets.

Djibouti has accused Eritrean military forces of digging trenches on their common border and infiltrating Djiboutian territory.

Issaias said the “matter is a wild invention with backing from behind,” according to a statement posted on the information ministry website.

“Eritrea is conducting an investigation to identify the motives, details and the backing from behind,” said the statement, which added that “Eritrea is not inclined to get engaged in public relations propaganda gimmick.”

“We are not willing to accept an invitation to get involved in a new problem or regional crisis,” Issaias said.

Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh said this month that his army was in a dangerous stand-off with Eritrea’s military.

Eritrea denied the accusation, but the Arab League’s Peace and Security Council held an emergency session, at Djibouti’s request, and demanded that a fact-finding mission be sent to the border.

Guelleh warned that should international arbitration fail to settle the issue, Djibouti would take firm action.

Djibouti and Eritrea have clashed twice over the border area at the southern end of the Red Sea. In April 1996 they almost went to war after a Djibouti official accused Eritrea of shelling the town of Ras Doumeira.

In 1999, Eritrea accused Djibouti of siding with Asmara’s arch-foe Ethiopia while Djibouti accused its neighbour of supporting Djiboutian rebels and having designs on the Ras Doumeira region. Eritrea has denied this.

Source: AFP Published:May 19, 2008