Why Aren't Democrats Doing Health Care?

Last week, I published a comment about the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) that discussed the MB's social services to Egyptians and wondered why the Democratic Party in the United States wasn't doing something similar:

I see groups like the MB, CAIR, MAS, etc., as organizations working for the greater good of humanity. The Democratic party in the US could learn a thing or two from the MB and their feet-on-the-ground social services. (Americans need health care? Why haven't the Democrats started up free or low-cost clinics for these people? Don't they think these people won't remember on election day?)

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from the Muslim American Society (MAS) featuring an article in the Gainesville Sun that was originally published on February 9th. The article is about a free medical clinic that the Gainesville Muslim community is setting up (opening on the 26th) that will provide primary and preventative medicine, insha'allah, to adults and children, regardless of race, religion or ethnicity. The clinic is being run by volunteers and paid for through donations.

Now, rhetorical questions I would ask of my fellow Democrats are: Do you think this clinic will become popular with the local community? Do you think the Muslim community in Gainesville will benefit from a PR-perspective by opening this clinic? Do you think the Democratic Party, which is much better funded than a small group of Muslims, would benefit with electoral support if they were to help fund/run these types of clinics nationwide? (Even if these clinics were not run or funded directly by the DNC, they could be run through a foundation created by the DNC, as Singapore's dominant political party, the People's Action Party (PAP), does with their charitable foundation.)

Are Muslims Organized to Resist Bigotry?

There was an interesting comment over at Daily Kos on a diary that discussed the Cordoba House community center and mosque (the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque"). Here is the original comment:

I wish Muslims were organized to resist bigotry
I don't think they realized the importance of political engagement or are simply unprepared to deal with this level of discrimination that came after 9/11. It is time they learned from the civil rights movements and get very active. The fact this bigotry is tolerated demonstrates how much bigotry our media is willing to propagate at the expense of those who don't loudly resist.

And this is my response:

It's not that Muslims aren't organized to resist bigotry or that we don't realize the importance of political engagement. On the contrary, there are several organizations that engage in both of these aspects every day, including CAIR and MAS among others. Could these organizations do a better job than they are now? I'm sure they would say "yes," along with a request for more manpower and money.

But let's be realistic here: the real issue is not the Muslim community's level of organization vis-a-vis bigotry, it's the level of bigotry among non-Muslims. And the real problem there is that these types of attitudes, once set, rarely change. There are a number of Islamophobes here at Kos who one might think would change their opinions and attitudes toward Islam and Muslims after participating in so many discussions on these topics, but I have yet to see any evidence that those attitudes have changed at all. They have had the opportunity to learn about Islam and the Muslim world, they have discussed Islam and the Muslim world with a number of different Muslims here at Kos, but there is no change. They continue to sputter in their rage against Islam.

If the 2008 presidential campaign and the Obama presidency have shown anything, it is that racism never died out. The success of the civil rights movement may have caused racists to lower their profile in the 70s and 80s, but their attitudes never went away. They were the true sleeper cells within American society. Muslims have been doing their part to resist bigotry and to organize politically, but I don't ever expect Islamophobia to ever go away in American society. For that to happen, American would need to revert en masse to Islam. Not that that couldn't happen; it's done so with a number of different cultures before, but I'm not holding my breath until that time.

A Matter of Perspective

This is Crater Galle. It's located on the eastern rim of the Argyre Planitia in the southern highlands of Mars, and is named after the German astronomer, Johann Gottfried Galle. The picture was taken by Mars Express, a satellite sent by the European Space Agency to photograph and perform a scientific survey on the red planet. This particular view of Galle looks northward. As you can see, Galle is a huge impact crater (although it's dwarfed by Argyre Planitia and Hellas Planitia, both of which are much, much larger). There's a long, curving mountain range in the middle, with a smaller crater to the northeast and a lone butte to the northwest.

Now, looking at this particular picture of Crater Galle, I'm reminded of how many non-Muslims look at Muslims and Islam. Just yesterday, there was a news account from CAIR-AZ where three Muslim women were verbally abused by an Islamophobic couple:

The three Muslim women say a white middle-aged couple approached them on April 29 at the Desert Ridge Marketplace in Scottsdale, Arizona, and asked whether they were Muslim. After learning that the women were in fact Muslims, the couple indicated they had seen "United 93" and then said: "Take off your f***ing burqas and get the f*** out of this country. We don't want you in this country. Go home." [Note: Two of the three women are American-born citizens.]

Unfortunately, as we know all too well, this type of abuse is commonplace in the U.S. and other countries. These non-Muslims don't know much (if anything) about Islam or how Muslims live their lives. Nor, I suspect, do most have any real desire to learn about Islam. And yet, as we Muslims know and tell the few who are willing to listen, the reality of Islam is very different from what most non-Muslims think. It's all a matter of perspective. Instead of looking at Islam askance, like the above view of Crater Galle, wouldn't it make more sense to look at Islam head on, as it really is? Then, insha'allah, people might realize the true beauty of Islam, just as looking at Crater Galle head on (below) gives a different, more pleasing picture.

Dennis Prager, Mobile Accidents, and Coretha Henderson

This morning's roundup of readings:

Dennis Prager's recent column in the LA Times has caused some reaction by various Muslims and non-Muslims. CAIR, of course, has responded in the Islam OpEd piece, "A Muslim Response to Prager’s ‘Five Questions.’" Umar Lee, who writes one of the edgier Muslim blogs, also has a response: "Muslim Answers to the Questions of Dennis Prager." Perhaps the best response I've read, though, came from Professor Juan Cole, in his blog, Informed Comment: "Muslims and the 5 Questions."

Then, while reading Underwater Light this morning, I found a link to this article: "Cellphones Get Broken by Tight Jeans." According to the article:

The most common reasons for "Mobile accidents" according to 300 Swedish retailers.

1. Dropped the mobile on the ground.
   
2. Squeezed the cellphone in tight jeans/pockets.
   
3. Used the handset in the rain.
   
4. Throw the device on the ground in rage.
   
5. The dog/child got hold of the mobile.
   
6. Dropped the cellphone in the toilette.
   
7. Dropped the handset into the sea.
   
8. Forgot the cellphone on the roof of the car.
   
9. Perspiration on the mobile during workout.
   
10. Dropped the handset in the snow.
    

This article resonated with me because, a few months ago, a friend's handphone was ruined when his pants were washed without the pockets being checked first. :)

Finally, there was an interesting article about the punishment of Coretha Henderson by her mother:

Tasha Henderson got tired of her 14-year-old daughter's poor grades, her chronic lateness to class and her talking back to her teachers, so she decided to teach the girl a lesson.

She made Coretha stand at a busy Oklahoma City intersection Nov. 4 with a cardboard sign that read: "I don't do my homework and I act up in school, so my parents are preparing me for my future. Will work for food."

"This may not work. I'm not a professional," said Henderson, a 34-year-old mother of three. "But I felt I owed it to my child to at least try."

In fact, Henderson has seen a turnaround in her daughter's behavior in the past week and a half. But the punishment prompted letters and calls to talk radio from people either praising the woman or blasting her for publicly humiliating her daughter.

...

Coretha has been getting C's and D's as a freshman at Edmond Memorial High in this well-to-do Oklahoma City suburb. Edmond Memorial is considered one of the top high schools in the state in academics.

While Henderson stood next to her daughter at the intersection, a passing motorist called police with a report of psychological abuse, and an Oklahoma City police officer took a report. Mother and daughter were asked to leave after about an hour, and no citation was issued.

...

Coretha, a soft-spoken girl, acknowledged the punishment was humiliating but said it got her attention. "I won't talk back," she said quietly, hanging her head.

She already has been forced by her parents to give up basketball and track because of slipping grades, and said she hopes to improve in school so she can play next year.

Donald Wertlieb, a professor of child development at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, warned that such punishment could do extreme emotional damage. He said rewarding positive behavior is more effective.

"The trick is to catch them being good," he said. "It sounds like this mother has not had a chance to catch her child being good or is so upset over seeing her be bad, that's where the focus is."
-- (Source)

Personal Note to Coretha: I understand that you feel humiliated by this experience and, quite frankly, I'm surprised that you would stand on that street corner or even have the above photograph taken. But I want you to know one thing: Your mom loves you and has your best interests at heart. It's all too easy to sit back, ignore your education, then wonder why you didn't get into the college you wanted or why your career is going nowhere.

The article says you're on your school's basketball and track teams. That's great. I hope you're very competitive and do well in those sports. But guess what: competing in sports is nothing compared to the competition you'll face in the real world. People compete all the time. Job applicants compete to get jobs. Salespeople compete for customers. Nations compete for businesses, and so on. Right now, the United States is slowly losing out because countries around the world (especially here in Asia) are much more willing to compete than Americans are. Like you, many Americans have sat back, ignored their educations, lost their business competitiveness, and now wonder why they've lost their jobs to outsourcing or have stagnant wages.

The good news is that you don't have to be like these other Americans. Take your education seriously! You should strive for A's in every class, regardless of the subject (and whether you like that class or not). Try to get into the best university. And then, when you finally graduate and join us in "the real world," I hope you'll be wildly successful. And, insha'allah, if that all comes to pass, I hope you'll thank your Mom for making you stand on a street corner.

Good luck!

Islamophobia Down Under

Being American, I normally follow American news with regard to happenings about Islam and Muslims (the CAIR newsletter helps tremendously in that regard). However, I came across the following Australian news story today that, alhamdulillah, was resolved in our favor. What follows are several news stories that chronicle this case of Australian Islamophobia, along with a few of my own comments.


Scarves more rebellion than religion: Lib
Samantha Maiden and Nicola Lipman, The Australian (26 August 2005)

LIBERAL MP Sophie Panopoulos has backed a ban on Muslim girls wearing headscarves to school on the grounds it is "more an act of rebellion" than religion.

Attacking "politically correct" orthodoxy that a ban should not be debated, Ms Panopoulos said girls attending school in Australia should wear the official school uniform.

"For a lot of younger people it seems to be more an act of rebellion than anything," she said yesterday.

Hmmm, perhaps you would wear a hijab for rebellious reasons as it seems like that's the nature of your personality. However, just because you think that's so doesn't make it so. In fact, I suspect that you don't know anything about how Muslim women think regarding hijab because, if you did, you wouldn't have made any of these silly comments.


"My personal view is I would put a ban on those headscarves, as governments have overseas. That's up to individual schools and state governments but if a school has a uniform that's pretty much it."

Her comments sparked a sharp reaction last night from Sydney's Minaret College principal Mohamed Hassan, where students and staff are required to wear the hijab. "If you go to any beach, you will see people who are almost naked, and nobody tries to make a law about that," he said. "So you have the right to be almost naked but not the right to keep yourself covered?"

Great riposte, brother!


Sydney's Lakemba Public School students Katelyn Hamilton, 11, and her twin Courtney said they proudly wore the headscarves "for our religion". "We should be able to wear them to school. I like wearing it," Katelyn said.

Courtney said: "We wear it so you can tell Muslims apart from other religions. Our God says it's the right thing to do."

Mariam Basheti, 9, who attends Rissalah College, also rejected suggestions that young girls wore it as an act of rebellion against Western culture.

"No, I wear it for the sake of my God, Allah," she said.

Ali Roude, principal of Rissalah College in Lakemba, was one of 14 Muslim leaders invited to meet John Howard in Canberra on Tuesday. He said the right of women and girls to wear the hijab was raised at the meeting.

"I mentioned this to the Prime Minister," Mr Roude said. "If we are talking about tolerance, freedom, Australian values, then we are talking about the right to wear what you want, including the hijab."

Opposition education spokesman Jenny Macklin said yesterday that the ALP would not support a ban, describing the proposal as "extreme".

"There is no place for extremism in Australian society and Sophie Panopoulos's extreme comments are at odds with important Australian values such as tolerance and respect," Ms Macklin said. Education Minister Brendan Nelson told The Australian last night he did not back a ban on Muslim headscarves in Australian schools as long as students' dress was compatible with the school uniform.

"I strongly defend the right of Islamic students, female students, to wear dress to their schools ... which comply with their religious convictions," he said.

Alhamdulillah. May Allah (swt) bless you for this.



Headscarves deny women rights: MP
Patricia Karvelas, The Australian (6 September 2005)

VICTORIAN Liberal MP Sophie Panopoulos has described Muslim women's headscarves as an "uncompromising retrograde curtailment of women's rights".

In a speech to parliament, she defended her recent call to ban Muslim girls wearing headscarves to school, arguing the hijab oppresses women.

No, you're suppressing women who want to dress as they feel is appropriate. Who gave you the right to decide how people dress?


"Why should one section of the community be stuck in the Dark Ages of compliance cloaked under the veil of some distorted form of religious freedom?" Ms Panopoulos said.

Oh, so then you admit that women have the religious freedom to wear hijab if they so choose! So why are you butting into a decision-making process that doesn't pertain to you? Is this "white woman's burden?"


She said it was wrong to compare the hijab to turbans or nun's habits, as her critics had.

"What's not mentioned is that none of these other articles represent the uncompromising retrograde curtailment of women's rights, as does the hijab.

Of course she's not going to like a comparison between hijab and a turban because men wear turbans and that's irrelevant to a feminist. She doesn't like a comparison between hijab and a habit because almost all Christian women who wear a habit are Catholic nuns, and they, of course, have segregated themselves from mainstream society and are few in number, so why should she care? But a hijab, now, that's a problem for a feminist like this woman, because lots and lots of Muslim women wear hijab, and that goes against feminist dogma! Muslim hijabis show an alternative way of life to everyday, ordinary women. Horrors!


"When a suggestion is made to remove from state schools a symbol of what is essentially, as one commentator puts it, 'sexual apartheid', the Labor sisterhood and the left-wing women's movement cry foul.

Hmmm, "sexual apartheid" vs. sexual decadence. I'll go with the so-called apartheid. So do millions of women around the world.


"As a female MP, I am concerned about women's rights in this country. There are those who subscribe to a belief system that devalues and degrades women, that accepts a legal system that would relegate women back to the Dark Ages."

She also warned against the emergence of a frightening "Islamic class" in Australia, supported by a "perverse interpretation of the Koran".

Thus speaketh the bigot who hath probably never read the Qur'an...or knows anything about Islam. Ignorance must be bliss.


Bishop's Comments of Hijab Un-Australian: Apology Demanded

Muslim Women's groups and Civil Rights groups have condemned suggestions by Bronwyn Bishop that the hijab should be banned in schools.

"Her likening of Muslim girls to slaves and Nazis demonstrate a complete ignorance of even basic Islamic teachings," said Ms Maha Abdo, spokeswoman for the Muslim Women's Association. "It is insulting, inflammatory and contrary to everything that the Prime Minister has said about respect for difference and religious tolerance. We are appalled and offended that Ms Bishop would compare Muslim Women to slaves or our religion to Nazism. We demand an unequivocal apology."

White woman's burden once more... After reading Ms. Bishop's biography, these comments sound like a last gasp from a fading politician, clinging to any radical position as long as it can secure her a few more votes.


"Ms Bishop's statements have achieved nothing other than inciting hatred and distrust of Muslims generally and Muslim women in particular, especially at a time when our elected representatives should be playing a role in uniting rather than dividing the community."

"Bishop's argument is Swiss cheese -- it's full of holes," adds Agnes Chong, co-convenor of the Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network (AMCRAN). "On the one hand Ms Bishop claims it's a type of slavery, then she claims it's an act of defiance -- it can't be both. The argument itself is tainted with racist overtones, and assumes Muslim women are weak and not fully intellectually developed. We can assure her that this is absolutely not the case.

"Australia is about freedom and tolerance, and this shows neither. It is unAustralian to prohibit the free exercise of any religion. In fact, it is one of the few rights enshrined in the Australian Constitution."

We call upon the Prime Minister Mr John Howard to take on a leading role in this debate and openly condemn the statements of Ms Bishop. We urge Mr Howard to make it clear that neither he nor the Australian government hold such views nor would they consider any laws which infringe upon the rights of Muslim women in their choice of dress.

Have you noticed by now how these Australian politicians don't practice the Australian values they supposedly represent? Or is it that these two women, Panopoulos and Bishop, don't have any values (or retrograde values at best)?


Now, the good news:

Howard Opposes Bishop's Call For Ban On Headscarves
by Justin Norrie, The Sydney Morning Herald (29 August 2005)

Mr Howard [Prime Minister of Australia] said he opposed Mrs Bishop's push to ban Muslim girls from wearing headscarves at public schools because it would be impractical. But he defended Ms Bishop's "right to express a view".

Mrs Bishop has called the headscarf "a sort of iconic item of defiance", and echoed the call of the Victorian Liberal MP Sophie Panopoulos for a ban. Mrs Bishop's remark prompted much criticism, including a rebuke from the NSW Minister for Education, Carmel Tebbutt, who yesterday ruled out any change to the uniform policy, which allows schools to develop a dress code in consultation with the community. She said she supported the right of students to wear the headscarf as long as it was within the school code.

Mr Howard said: "I don't think it's practical to bring in such a prohibition. If you ban a headscarf you might for consistency's sake have to ban a yarmulke or a turban."

He said he could understand why "people might be affronted by a full coverage including the face. I don't think that is desirable."

However, Labor's education spokeswoman, Jenny Macklin, said Mr Howard had not gone far enough in opposing the MPs. "John Howard must show leadership and pull [them] into line over their calls. We need national leadership … not extremist knee-jerk reactions."

The federal Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, John Cobb, said Mrs Bishop's comments were ignorant and an insult to many Australians. In a statement he said: "The government does not seek to impose cultural sameness on Australians … Do we ban nuns from wearing a habit?"

Emphasis mine.

Good news, good news, and bad news

Three news stories I came across today (courtesy of CAIR) that I thought was worth passing on. First, the bad news...

* Muslims at the Islamic Center of Blacksburg, Virginia found "[o]utside the building, a plastic shopping bag filled with burned copies of the Quran...in front of the door. Blacksburg police say they do not have any leads on who left the burned religious books, but they are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime."

Choice quotation from the story: "Laila Al-Qatami, a spokeswoman for the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday questioned how police could consider the act anything other than a hate crime. 'Let's face it, books don't burn themselves and end up outside of a mosque. It's a willful act,' she said."

Certain thoughts regarding people who have a certain part of their anatomy sunburned come to mind, but I refrain. Now, the good news:

* "A federal judge yesterday ordered the D.C. fire department to allow three bearded Muslim firefighters to serve on full duty until Aug. 1, when he expects to decide whether the safety issues outweigh the men's claims that shaving would violate their religious rights. ... 'This is definitely a victory, even though it is temporary,' said plaintiff Hassan A. Umrani, a city firefighter who has worn a full beard since his first day on the job 16 years ago."

Choice quotation: "Judge Robertson said he understood the concerns but asked whether the grooming policy was 'overkill.' He asked how often firefighters are given stress tests and physicals to determine their health and physical fitness. 'If you are going to go this far with the face masks, how far are you going with all the other intuitive causes for people possibly going out?' Judge Robertson said."


Finally:

* It took a little longer than it should have, but the Quebec Human Rights Commission has finally done right by Irene Waseem and, indeed, by all devout young Muslim girls who go to private schools. The commission concluded this week that College Charlemagne was wrong to forbid Waseem to wear her hijab to class when she was a student at the Pierrefonds high school two years ago. The college's private status is irrelevant, commission president Pierre Marois wrote in an opinion made public this week. Private, not-for-profit schools have the same obligation as public schools to make reasonable accommodation for their students' religious beliefs."

Choice quotation: "The key phrase the commission uses is 'reasonable accommodation.' Religious groups will not be able to use the position paper to force sweeping changes in the ways schools operate, or to place undue burdens on the staff and other students. They won't be able to demand prayer rooms in secular schools, for example, or separate boys' and girls' pools in co-educational ones. Nor will they be able to require Catholic schools to jettison their religion programs or to scrap their crucifixes.

"For their part, private schools will be able to continue to discriminate. A school with a specific vocation to serve a particular religious, ethnic or language group, for example, can continue to favour members of that group without penalty. But, the commission says, private schools cannot make exclusionary rules that have nothing to do with their central mission. A religious school, for example, can't exclude a child with a mild physical handicap just because the school also places a lot of emphasis on athletics."

All of which sounds perfectly reasonable. If only the French could be like their relations in Quebec...