USA, GA: Muslim Heretics Conference Ends Today

The Muslims Heretics Conference, whose featured speakers include Irshid Manji and Amina Wadud, wraps up today in Atlanta.

Muslims embrace label as heretics

Christopher Quinn (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Muslims gathering in Atlanta this weekend call themselves heretics half-seriously.

Remember, said Emory professor Abdullahi An-Na’im, opponents of Muhammad and Jesus called them heretics. So-called heresy can accomplish great changes, he said.

More about the conference topics and participants here: http://www.hereticmuslims.com/

India: Muslim Scholars Speak Out Against Forced Marriages

Muslim Leaders Speak out Against Forced Marriage

Deepali Gaur Singh (AlterNet)

The opposition of prominent Islamic scholars to forced marriage is an important step in the fight for gender equality in the Muslim world.

Malaysia: Outspoken Womens Rights Advocate Prepares to Take Leave of “Sisters in Islam”

Zainah Anwar has faced criticism and even death threats for her work to educate Malaysian women on their rights as Muslims and as human beings. One critic even “took the trouble to cut and paste together various obituary columns, deleting the names of the deceased and scribbling in her name instead.”

A sister steps out

After two decades of hard work, Zainah Anwar is proud that she is leaving Sisters in Islam as one of the strongest advocates of Muslim women’s rights in the country.

(Malaysia Star)

USA, MI: Detroit Area Chain Restaurants Increasingly Offering Halal Foods

In an area with a large Muslim population, it’s a “market decision.”

Halal food lands on menus

It reflects growing interest by Muslims

Niraj Warikoo (Detroit Free Press)

USA, NJ: Imam Who Aided Law Enforcement Post-9/11 Now Threatened with Deportation

Muslim cleric who aided law enforcement faces deportation

David Porter (Associated Press)

In the weeks and months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, few Muslim leaders were more active than Imam Muhammad Qatanani in reaching out to other religious groups and law enforcement authorities with a message of openness and understanding.

His mosque, the Islamic Center of Passaic County, welcomed politicians and religious leaders, held a blood drive to aid victims of the attacks and made headlines by hosting a law enforcement recruiting drive.

All of that makes it particularly frustrating now for the 44-year-old cleric as he faces possible deportation in a dispute centering on a 1993 military court ruling in Israel that Qatanani said he was unaware of when he applied for citizenship…

Tibet: Muslim Minority Falls Prey to Violence

The Hui, a Chinese Muslim minority, own many businesses in Tibet. Like the Han Chinese, they are resented.

More about the Hui here.

Police close off Lhasa’s Muslim quarter

Charles Hutzler (Associated Press)

Police closed off Lhasa’s Muslim quarter on Friday, two weeks after Tibetan rioters burned down the city’s mosque during the largest anti-Chinese protests in nearly two decades.

Officers blockaded streets into the area, allowing in only area residents and worshippers observing the Muslim day of prayer. A heavy security presence continued in other parts of Lhasa’s old city as cleanup crews waded through the destruction inflicted when days of initially peaceful protests turned deadly on March 14.

It was not clear why the area was cordoned off, although rioters had targeted businesses belonging to Chinese Muslim migrants known as Hui, who control much of Lhasa’s commerce….

Israel: Separate and Unequal Roadways

Palestinians Fear Two-Tier Road System

Ethan Bronner (New York Times)

Ali Abu Safia, mayor of this Palestinian village, steers his car up one potholed road, then another, finding each exit blocked by huge concrete chunks placed there by the Israeli Army. On a sleek highway 100 yards away, Israeli cars whiz by.

“They took our land to build this road, and now we can’t even use it,” Mr. Abu Safia says bitterly, pointing to the highway with one hand as he drives with the other. “Israel says it is because of security. But it’s politics.”

Afghanistan: Women, a Photo Essay

While life for some women has improved since the official ouster of the Taliban from power, clearly there is still much work to be done.

The Hidden Half: A Photo Essay on Women in Afghanistan

Elizabeth Gettelman (Text) and Lana Šlezić (Photo Essay)
in Mother Jones Magazine

UK: Forced Marriages More Common than Previously Thought

Britain Getting Concerned About Forced Marriages

Stefan Marx (International Spiegel)

A new study has found that the practice of forced marriage among immigrants in Britain is much more common than previously assumed. Thousands of young girls — and boys — have gone missing, many of whom might have been abducted by their own parents.

Saudi Arabia: Shoura Council Chairman Claims Sympathy for Convicted Rapist

US Urged to Review Saudi Student’s Case

(Arab News)

Shoura Council Chairman Dr. Saleh Bin-Humaid has urged US authorities to review the case of Homaidan Al-Turki, a 37-year-old Saudi student who was found guilty in a Colorado state court of 12 counts of sexually assaulting his Indonesian maid.

“The Saudi people sympathize with Homaidan Al-Turki and they closely follow up his case,” the Shoura chief said and hoped for a speedy end to the issue. He also emphasized the Kingdom’s respect for American justice.

Al-Turki, a former Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado, maintains that he did not sexually assault the woman, whose identity has not been disclosed due to the nature of the alleged crime, and has accused US officials of persecuting him for “traditional Muslim behavior.”

Al-Turki’s brother-in-law claims that the “key factor for his imprisonment was that he was preaching Islam.”

Ummmmmmmm… no. Homaidan Al-Turki was convicted in an American court of sexual assault on his Indonesian maid and theft of her wages, and his wife Sarah was convicted of “labor violations”. “Labor violations” means paying the maid $2.00 per day for 4 years (or withholding wages entirely), confiscating the maid’s passport and treating her like a slave. Sarah was briefly imprisoned in the USA, then shipped back to Saudi Arabia.

In November 2006, I blogged about this same case. At the time, the Attorney General of Colorado actually traveled to Saudi Arabia to explain to the King why Al-Turki’s crimes were being taken so seriously here.

At the time, Rasheed Abou-Alsamh of the Arab News rightly commented:

[The] heart of the whole uproar in Saudi Arabia about Al-Turki’s case [is]: How could anyone take the word of a mere female (and a maid at that!), over the word of a supposedly religious, male Saudi? It seems that unfortunately the most basic tenets of justice and human rights escape a significant portion of our population.

Apparently, nothing much has changed since Rasheed Abou-Alsamh wrote those words.

USA: Muslims and Home Schooling

Many Muslims Turn to Home Schooling

Neil MacFarquhar (New York Times)

… Across the United States, Muslims who find that a public school education clashes with their religious or cultural traditions have turned to home schooling. That choice is intended partly as a way to build a solid Muslim identity away from the prejudices that their children, boys and girls alike, can face in schoolyards. But in some cases … the intent is also to isolate their adolescent and teenage daughters from the corrupting influences that they see in much of American life….

The annoying thing about this article is the space devoted to parents who home school their daughters only, and not the sons. The aim is simply to control their daughters and produce a poorly educated young woman who is best suited to waiting on the “men folk.” One young woman was “home schooled” until the age of 12, after which she was shipped to Pakistan and married off at age 16 with no additional education.

Like dozens of other Pakistani-American girls here, Hajra Bibi stopped attending the local public school when she reached puberty, and began studying at home.

Her family wanted her to clean and cook for her male relatives ….

This is totally misguided, but I don’t think it’s typical.

Muslim home schoolers of my acquaintance home school both sons and daughters. They want to instill their values in their children, and they also want to ensure they have a solid academic foundation. Often, they enroll them into either a public or private school by the time they reach adolescence.

Evidence seems to indicate that home schoolers do quite well academically and socially.

Afghanistan: The Taliban Regrets Bombing Cell Phone Towers

Taliban regrets clever idea to shut down mobile phone services. For many in Afghanistan, the mobile phone is the only phone service they have.

Cell phone shutdown angers Afghans

Jason Straziuso (Associated Press)

Taliban attacks on telecom towers have prompted cell phone companies to shut down service across southern Afghanistan, angering a quarter million customers who have no other telephones.

Even some Taliban fighters now regret the disruptions and are demanding that service be restored by the companies.

Men are Clueless … And Here is the Science

Clueless Guys Can’t Read Women

Jeanna Bryner (LiveScience Staff)

Research finds that guys have trouble reading non-verbal cues and often mistake a friendly smile to mean sexual interest. More often than not, guys interpret even friendly cues, such as a subtle smile from a gal, as a sexual come-on, and a new study discovers why: Guys are clueless….

Indonesia: Movie “Verses of Love” an Allegory for the Lessons of Islam

Indonesian Love Story a Big Hit

(Associated Press)

A movie drawing record numbers of Indonesians is not a Hollywood blockbuster, but a local love story that is tapping national religious pride in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

For many, “Verses of Love” offers a remedy to Islam’s battered image following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with the handsome, young protagonist trying to remain true to his faith as he watches his seemingly idyllic life crash down around him.

Despite his troubles, he manages to pass on gentle lessons about tolerance, corruption, women’s rights and interfaith relations….

UAE: Founder of First Womens Shelter Rocks the Boat, Makes Enemies

Voice for Abused Women Upsets Dubai Patriarchy

Robert F. Worth (New York Times)

For years, Sharla Musabih has fought a lonely battle to protect battered wives and victims of human trafficking here. She founded the Emirates’ first women’s shelter here and she became a familiar figure at police stations, relentlessly hounding officers to be tougher on abusive husbands.

She has also earned many enemies. Emiratis do not often take kindly to rights advocates drawing attention to the dark side of their fast-growing city-state on the Persian Gulf, better known for its gleaming office towers and artificial islands….