The Common Ground News Service, January 3, 2006
Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity
(CGNews-PiH)
January 3, 2006
Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH) is distributing the enclosed articles to build bridges of understanding between the West and the Arab world, and countries with significant Muslim populations. Unless otherwise noted, copyright permission has been obtained and the articles may be reproduced by any news outlet or publication, free of charge. If publishing, please acknowledge both the original source and Common Ground News Service, and notify us at cgnewspih@sfcg.org.
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ARTICLES IN THIS EDITION:
1. Tapping Islam's feminist roots by Asra Nomani
Is Islamic feminism an oxymoron? Asra Q. Nomani, a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal and the author of "Standing Alone in Mecca", explains how she and the other Muslim women, and men, who are fighting for women's rights are not anti-sharia or anti-Islam. Contrasting early centuries of Islam with Islamic jurisprudence in the 21st century, she finds progressive, women-friendly schools of thought in the early centuries of the faith and argues that, in the case of women's rights, Islamic reform requires looking back.
(Source: Seattle Times, December 11, 2005)
2. Media in Iraq: the fallacy of psy-ops by Eileen M. O'Connor & David Hoffman
Eileen M. O'Connor, president of the Washington-based International Centre for Journalists, and David Hoffman, president of Internews Network, highlight the successes of free media campaigns that the United States has supported and funded in other parts of the world and hope that they will move to replicate these successes in Iraq. Critical of the public relations and "paid journalism" efforts to project a more positive image of the United States, O'Connor and Hoffman worry that current U.S. initiatives are aimed more at providing instant gratification than long-term results.
(Source: International Herald Tribune, December 16, 2005)
3. YOUTH VIEWS: U.S. leadership and the spread of freedom and democracy by Alawi Taqi & Bradford L. Yankiver
Alawi Taqi, student at the American University of Kuwait and Bradford L. Yankiver, editor at Carnegie Mellon's school newspaper, acknowledge there is room for improvement but feel it is important to also recognise the positive impact of US foreign policy initiatives. Pointing out that the road to democracy has been a long and difficult one in all parts of the world, they hope that the United States' commitment to democracy will not waver before this goal has been reached.
(Source: Common Ground News Service, January 3, 2006)
4. Protecting our accomplishments by James Zogby
The president of the Arab American Institute, James Zogby, discusses the ongoing challenges facing the Arab American identity, and the role this community has as an effective part of the U.S. policy machine. Noting many successes in the past years, he reminds us that these achievements, like any significant achievements, must be continually defended and protected.
(Source: Jordan Times, December 5, 2005)
5. On the parquet, 'Great Satan' plays for 'Axis of Evil' by Scott Peterson
Scott Peterson, staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor, writes about the increasing numbers of Americans playing basketball in Iran. These individuals find themselves acting as ambassadors for the United States while in Iran, and dispelling stereotypes about Iranians back home. Saeed Fathi, the coach of the Peykan team, sums up this dual-role by saying "sport is a common language between all humans in the world."
(Source: The Christian Science Monitor, December 15, 2005)
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ARTICLE 1
Tapping Islam's feminist roots
Asra Q. Nomani
Barcelona, Spain - Several months ago, when a group of Spanish Muslims approached city officials here about sponsoring a conference on Islamic feminism, one responded, "Isn't that an oxymoron?"
That's what many people believe. To conservative Muslims, the phrase is an insult to Islam. But to many moderate Muslims - and I count myself among them - an Islamic feminist movement fits with the religion's early teachings and offers one of our best hopes for countering extremism. Indeed, those of us who have joined the movement since it emerged in the 1990s have come to understand that Islam needs to go backwards to its progressive 7th-century roots if it is to move forward into the 21st century.
How difficult that is - and how important - became clear to me when I joined the first International Congress on Islamic Feminism, which was held in this Spanish city in late October. When the floor was opened for questions during one session, a young Muslim man made the comment I've heard so often: "In Islam, there is no place for feminism. ... "
Sitting on the dais, where I had just chronicled our successful struggle to integrate some U.S. mosques, I took it in stride. I've become accustomed to belittling comments, even death threats.
In Barcelona, what happened next stunned me. From the middle of the audience of some 250 women and men, Amina Wadud, a Muslim scholar of Islamic studies who calls herself "a pro-faith feminist," stood up. "You are out of order," she said to the man. "What you are doing is exactly the kind of thing that we are here to be able to stop." The audience broke into cheers. Another Muslim man tried to protest. I interrupted him. "We're changing history today," I said. "We're not going to shut up."
What stunned me was not only the confidence with which we spoke but the willingness of the group to back us - 11 Muslim women scholars and activists and one Muslim man activist who had been invited to attend the conference by a small but ambitious group of largely Spanish Muslim converts, the moderate Catalan Islamic Board. The force of our collective effort convinced me that we have the strength to challenge the men's club that defines most of the Muslim world.
It was an affirmation of the commitment that had brought me and the 11 other female participants here from as far away as Malaysia, Mali, Nigeria, France, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and refugee camps in the disputed territory of Western Sahara to share stories from the trenches in the "gender jihad." We Muslim feminists view it as a struggle that taps Islamic theology, thinking and history to reclaim rights granted to women by Islam at its birth but erased by manmade rules and tribal traditions masquerading as divine law.
In the communities where we live, we have begun challenging customs that deny women rights from the mosque to the bedroom: gender segregation, mandatory veiling, forced early marriages, clitorectomies, polygamy, death for sex outside of marriage, domestic violence and strict domestic roles. We have many Muslim men on our side: the chief organiser of the conference was a man, Abdennur Prado, who hustled nonstop behind the scenes. And we are taking a lead from Christian and Jewish women who are generations ahead of us today in their efforts to challenge traditions that block them from the workplace, the political arena and the pulpit.
To many, we are the bad girls of Islam. But we are not anti-sharia (Islamic law) or anti-Islam. We use the fundamentals of Islamic thinking - the Koran, the Sunnah, or traditions and sayings of the prophet Muhammad, and ijtihad, or independent reasoning - to challenge the ways in which Islam has been distorted by sharia rulings issued mostly by ultraconservative men.
What we are wrestling with are laws created in the name of Islam by men, specifically eight men. The Muslim world of the 21st century is largely defined by eight madhhabs, or Islamic schools of jurisprudence, with narrow rulings on everything from criminal law to family law: the Shafii, Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali schools in the majority Sunni sect; the Jafari and Zaydi schools, for the minority Shiite sect; and the Ibadi and Thahiri schools among other Muslims. But the first centuries of Islam's 1,400-year history were quite different - characterised by scores of schools of jurisprudence, many progressive and women-friendly. It is not Islam that requires women to wear a headscarf, but rather the scholars in the contemporary schools.
From the dais, activists dressed in everything from Parisian fashion to traditional African batik offered powerful stories of regional reform. From Malaysia, Zainah Anwar, executive director of the Sisters in Islam (dubbed "Satan in Islam" by conservatives), laid out a strategy for reforming Islamic family law in her country by, for example, educating women about their right to refuse forced marriages. And like others, she is looking beyond her country's borders for support.
The challenge isn't just in poor villages in Nigeria or Mali. It's in the wealthy and supposedly well-educated West. In 2003, I set off a debate over the rights of Muslim women when I wrote in The Washington Post about walking through the front door of my hometown mosque in Morgantown, W.Va., and praying in the main hall, thus defying an order that women enter through a back door and pray in a secluded balcony.
We see our struggle as part of a wider peace jihad. It was a national Islamic leader who oversees the Catalan Islamic Board, Mansur Escudero, who issued the first fatwa against Osama bin Laden, months before U.S. Muslim organizations issued their own.
At the Barcelona conference, I proposed a plan called "The Islamic Dream" - an effort to connect our disparate efforts and develop a new approach for Islam in the 21st century. I would like to see us organise a summit of Islam's progressive thinkers to establish the terms of reform and define a 20-year plan to transform our world. That is where we are headed.
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* Asra Nomani is a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal and the author of "Standing Alone in Mecca" (HarperSanFrancisco). E-mail: asranomani@theislamicdream.com
Source: Seattle Times, December 11, 2005
Visit the website at www.seattletimes.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained from the author for publication.
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ARTICLE 2
Media in Iraq: the fallacy of psy-ops
Eileen M. O'Connor and David Hoffman
Washington, DC - Some top Pentagon officials say they are justified in planting positive stories in the Iraqi media about U.S actions in order to present a more positive image. Whether the policy is ethically correct misses the larger point. Pushing PR or propaganda simply doesn't work.
Showing the world the values on which American society is based and abiding by these values in our foreign policy is the best way to conduct effective public diplomacy. It's also the best way to spread democracy.
That's how the United States conducted public diplomacy during the administrations of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Since 1991, $350 million has been spent to develop independent media in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, areas that have seen dramatic transitions.
To the administration's credit, USAID's budget for democracy and governance activities in Iraq was $380 million in 2004, with $5 million of that going to independent media development. In the 2005 fiscal year, spending on these activities fell to $169 million, and for 2006 it will fall again, to $130 million, of which media is a small component.
In contrast, the Pentagon has awarded three known contracts to the Lincoln Group, SYColeman Inc. and Science Applications International Corp., totaling a potential $300 million over five years. The purpose, quoting from the Lincoln Group's Web site (www.lincolngroup.com), is to "inject more creativity into its psychological operations efforts to improve foreign public opinion about the United States, particularly the military."
What is unknown is how much intelligence agencies are spending for similar psy-ops operations. In addition, the administration has requested $93.1 million in 2006 for Al-Hurrah TV and Radio Sawa, whose missions include spreading the U.S. message, but which are seen as non-indigenous, non-independent stations in the Arab world, with little credibility.
Granted, building independent media may take more time than Washington policy-makers would like, especially in places such as the former Soviet Union. But the work spreads a valuable lesson: Free speech matters. When it works, it can change the entire political landscape, as was seen recently in Lebanon, and before that in Serbia, Indonesia, Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told the Washington Post's David Ignatius that the money spent in his country on building independent media was worth "more than 5,000 marines." And no American lives were put at risk during that operation.
Planting or paying for positive stories in the Iraqi press is a quick and easy way for companies like the Lincoln Group to fulfill their $100 million contract. But does America's image truly benefit from such PR efforts? A better strategy would be to empower local, indigenous journalists, media managers, owners and government officials to develop truly free and independent public and private media that are balanced, objective, fact-based and centered upon the basic value of free speech.
U.S. government funding for local, independent media has helped establish thousands of new television and radio broadcasters around the world. It has trained tens of thousands of journalists and media managers and has provided hundreds of millions of people with a professional style of journalism that they can rely on.
The Bush administration should be applauded for the money it is spending in the Middle East through USAID, the Middle East Partnership Initiative and other State Department initiatives to develop a vibrant, independent media. But paying journalists to print stories and spending hundreds of millions of dollars on PR campaigns negates the good work that has gone into developing truly independent media.
American principles, and not propaganda, are what resonate with citizens in the Middle East. If the United States seriously intends to develop democracies, it should learn from what it has done in Europe and Eurasia since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
It should stop funding blatant propaganda and use that money to fully fund democracy and governance programs, including those that develop objective, independent media.
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* Eileen M. O'Connor is President of the Washington-based International Center for Journalists. David Hoffman is President of Internews Network, which supports open media worldwide.
Source: International Herald Tribune, December 16, 2005
Visit the website at www.iht.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
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ARTICLE 3
YOUTH VIEWS
U.S. leadership and the spread of freedom and democracy
Alawi Taqi & Bradford L. Yankiver
Pittsburgh & Safat, Kuwait - Three years of war and reconstruction in Iraq have done little to change world opinion about the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, and today, even public support in the U.S. has dramatically diminished. While many of the criticisms lobbied against the U.S. government are valid, the United States has also taken bold steps in its foreign policy that have and will continue to create positive change in the Middle East.
First and foremost, the Bush administration has reversed the U.S.'s harmful, long-standing policy of propping up authoritarian regimes for its own benefit in favour of a policy of supporting the process of democratisation. Second, under the Bush administration, the U.S. has engaged the new leadership of the Palestinian nation in a renewed peace initiative. Finally, the U.S. is beginning to encourage Middle Eastern nations to show more respect for human rights and basic freedoms.
Throughout much of the 20th century, the U.S. supported the Middle East's repressive dictators, but that approach is changing. The Bush administration has voiced its unrestricted support for democracy around the world, a positive new direction for American foreign policy.
The U.S. has also begun to help resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. The U.S. has adopted an activist role aimed at forcing Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza and is working to create the conditions necessary for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. The U.S. encouraged efforts to reform the notoriously corrupt Palestinian Authority and to select a Palestinian leadership that could make peace with Israel under American supervision.
As part of this effort, the U.S. has refused to allow the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to be internationalised. The conflict is often used by extremists to redirect popular frustrations over domestic problems to external actors, but the U.S. and courageous Arabs are working together to eliminate this rallying point.
With the push for democracy, the U.S. is promoting basic freedoms. Many in the U.S. take as a matter of course the freedom to believe, or not believe, in any religion they like. Freedom of speech is rarely challenged. It is normal to travel in the US without documents and identity cards. It is considered a basic right to be able to change jobs and professions without having to gain permission from a bureaucrat in the government. Yet such basic freedoms are unknown, or carefully regulated and subject to severe punishment, in much of the Middle East.
It is important to recognise that the United States of America is playing a vital role in nurturing the spread of democracy. The U.S. projects its power militarily and economically, but above all it promotes its values: liberalism, free market economies, democracy, and freedom. Critics of the U.S. invasion of Iraq should remember that empire is not the goal. However misguided the means have been, the U.S. actions suggest that it genuinely want to see democracy established in the Middle East, dictators toppled, and human rights and freedoms respected. Proof of this is the fact that the U.S. has not simply exploited Iraq for its oil nor simply established a friendly dictatorship as many critics had assumed it would. This suggests a commitment to democracy in Iraq.
The importance of freedom and democracy cannot be underestimated. Dignity, prosperity and creativity can flourish only within a climate of freedom. Furthermore, democratic political systems are the most effective at promoting economic development and fighting inequality and poverty. But it is never easy to arrive there - arguments that democratisation efforts are too costly and potentially destabilising ignore the fact that the road to democracy was long and arduous even for Western nations. Few would argue that the French or American revolutions were not worth the cost.
While there is no question that U.S. foreign policy under the Bush administration has some serious flaws, if U.S. support for democracy does not falter and the U.S. cooperates with the international community, history books may eventually look back on this period of time as the era when democracy took root in the Middle East.
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* Bradford L. Yankiver is the editor at Carnegie Mellon's school newspaper "The Tartan". Alawi Taqi is a student at the American University of Kuwait. This article was written as part of the Soliya Western-Islamic student dialogue program.
Source: Common Ground News Service, January 3, 2006
Visit the website at www.commongroundnews.org
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
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ARTICLE 4
Protecting our accomplishments
James Zogby
Washington, DC - One of the first political lessons I learned after coming to Washington was taught to me by an African American activist who had, in his early years, worked as a strategist with Martin Luther King, Jr.
I had just won a minor political victory and was telling him about it. His response was, "Don't take any victory for granted, because the very forces you had to fight to win are still out there trying to undo what you've won. You must always protect your victories."
I was reminded of my friend and mentor's wise words last week, when a thoughtful reporter asked me to identify what, I thought, had been Arab Americans' most important accomplishments over the past three decades, and what, I felt, were the greatest challenges still facing the community.
My answers were that we had succeeded, despite great obstacles, in building a community and the institutions to support it, and now face the challenge of protecting that community and its institutions.
From the beginning of our work, some three decades ago, our goal had been to establish an empowered Arab American community, respected and recognised in the mainstream of American political life.
On our way we faced challenges, both internal and external to our community. First and foremost were the difficulties encountered dealing with our complex constituency, divided, as it was, by religion, country of origin and generational experience in the US. The attachments and identities of each group were different. For those born in the US, identity was shaped by their American experience. Their attachment to the Arab world was, at best, a generalised one, of a heritage and culture. The more recent immigrants, on the other hand, had their identities formed in their countries of origin, and, in some cases, by political affiliations or ideologies they had embraced.
Thirty years ago, when our efforts began, America was in the throes of a cultural upheaval, one by-product of which was the upsurge of ethnic identity movements (African American cultural nationalism, and the "hyphenated-American" organizations). No sooner had Americans of Arab descent begun organising, than civil war in Lebanon and the Arab League's expulsion of Egypt created complications that had to be overcome.
Resolving not to let our identity and organization be determined by overseas events, we focused on finding common ground and building organizations that served community needs.
As we grew and gained early recognition we encountered still other problems. Pro-Israel groups saw us a threat and placed new difficulties in our path. They sought to use their dominant positions to define and defame us. Saying that there was no Arab American community, their literature described us as "a petrodollar funded fiction" created to "support PLO terror" and serve as "an anti-Israel lobby." As a result, we faced exclusion from some coalitions, candidates refused to accept our contributions or support and some of our leaders were subject to McCarthy-like personal attacks.
By focusing on our goals, we persisted and grew in strength. We registered and organised our vote, built institutions that provided services to our community, supported Arab Americans in politics and defended our heritage and organizations against attacks-all the while articulating a responsible American political agenda that won support from a broad cross-section of Americans of Arab descent. And we did not allow imported identities or divisions to distort our work.
I knew we were on the path to success as early as 1983 when, at an event of over 800 Arab Americans in Chicago, it was observed that the attendees were a cross section of our community, representing different religions, countries of origin, and generations-all there as one community.
Today, as we witnessed in the last elections, Arab Americans are recognised and courted by both parties. Our social service institutions employ hundreds of young Arab Americans and serve the needs of tens of thousands within our community. Coalitions which once excluded us, now accept us in leadership roles. And we have even opened the first Arab American Museum-a remarkable institution that celebrates Arab contributions to civilization and the Arab American experience.
We are now empowered and empowering a new generation of young Arab Americans. And while we do not always win the policy debates on critical questions of US domestic and foreign policy, we are now part of the process.
And still pressures remain-from both within and outside of our community. Imported and divisive identities and loyalties still threaten to rupture our unity. In addition to some politicised Christian groups who deny their Arab American identity, we now face a similar challenge from some Muslim groups who deny the unity of our ethnic constituency. Then there are those who still focus exclusively on their countries of origin. While our Arab American groups respect the importance of religion and the attachment that many rightly feel toward their homelands, we maintain the importance of maintaining unity regardless of religion or origin.
There are some in the Bush Administration who have sought to play into these divisive currents-"cherry picking" groups and cultivating their support. At different times they have played the "religion card" alternately courting Muslim groups and separatist Christian groupings as well. They have also elevated in importance some of the exile country-specific political groups at the expense of the established Arab American community organizations.
The dangers here are obvious. The community we have built is being challenged by those who seek to divide us. But I remain confident that signs point to the growing strength of the community. For example, our polls show that the use of "Arab American" as the preferred form of self-identification (over country of origin and religion) is increasing. And on campuses, student groups that a generation ago were headed by Arab students are now led by US born Arab Americans, a new generation that has demonstrated real pride in their heritage.
Finally, polls also show that Arab Americans, whether Republican or Democrat, immigration or second generation, Muslim or Christian, display a remarkable convergence of views on several critical foreign and domestic policy issues, fighting defamation and discrimination, defending civil liberties, supporting Palestinian rights and the unity and sovereignty of Lebanon, to name a few.
The lesson here is that we have built a community we can be proud of, but it is an accomplishment we must defend and protect, because it is still being challenged.
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* James Zogby is president of the Arab American Institute.
Source: Jordan Times, December 5, 2005
Visit the website at www.jordantimes.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
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ARTICLE 5
On the parquet, 'Great Satan' plays for 'Axis of Evil'
Scott Peterson
Tehran - During a time out, the Iranian basketball team huddles on the sidelines.
Amid the rising heat and scent of hard exertion, the Iranian coach tells the squad in English that he wants 30 points in the fourth quarter.
But from within the sweating cluster an excited American voice cuts in: "Let's win!" urges Texan Andre Pitts, who would lead the team to victory with 26 points. "Let's just win!"
In the quest to build a professional basketball league and bolster Iranian hoop skills, teams in the Islamic republic are paying top dollar ($15,000 a month or more) to lure players away from Europe and America, which is still sometimes called the "Great Satan." In the past two years, the number of Americans playing on parquet floors in the "Axis of Evil" has jumped from three to at least 18 in the 16-team league.
Along the way, something else has happened. The American players have become ambassadors of sorts, for both countries.
"People are people; and basketball people in America and Iran are the same," says Mr. Pitts, who is from Seguin, Texas. In the past seven years, he's played for teams in Syria, Lebanon, and now in Iran. "They really look after us a lot. My teammates are really good to me - in two years I have never had a problem. I get invited to their homes all the time."
Pitts plays for Saba Battery, which, ironically, is the team fielded by Iran's defense ministry. The other American on the team is Garth Joseph, a dual US-Dominican Republic citizen.
Together, the pair of talented foreigners shot 43 points on Sunday, well over half of those in Saba's nationally televised 77-71 defeat of team Peykan.
"We are sportsmen, not political men, and sport is a common language between all humans in the world," says Saeed Fathi, head coach of Peykan, which was the first team to import American talent, four years ago. "It's a good language," he adds.
Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, anti-American slogans have been a fixture of government-organised events. And Pitts's Iranian teammates say he was somewhat anxious about this when he arrived. But players of both nationalities say now that the first thing to fall away are the prejudices and misconceptions fostered by governments and the media.
"We clicked from Day One," says Pitts, who sports two diamond ear studs and headphones around his neck after a recent practice.
Living in Iran has taken some getting used to, however. Alcohol is forbidden, and there are no nightclubs. Players say that their American families worry - at least at the start - about their sons or brothers working in a country lead by a clerical regime that is vilified by Washington.
"I tell my family: 'I keep going [to Iran], so it can't be too bad,' " says Pitts, who is often busy countering misperceptions among friends and relatives when he returns home to Texas for vacation.
Americans "think all Iranians hate America, or have a negative attitude to the US," he adds. "It's sad, because the news shows all the bad things [about Iran] but never the good things. It's wrong, but all states are the same: There are some bad things, and some good."
America is nice, but ...
Pitts also dispenses advice to young Iranians who dream of traveling to America. "I tell them: 'America is nice, but it is not like you think it is,' " he says. "If you don't have an education behind you, it is still a struggle. You can get a drink, but not all life is like that."
In Iran, the novelty of having tattooed Americans toeing Iranian free-throw lines has yet to wear off. Before the game, some of the handful of spectators ask Mr. Joseph - a barrel-chested 7 ft. 2 in. man - to pose for photos with children.
State TV cameramen and spectators laugh every time the towering Joseph snatches a rebound and consolidates control of the ball with his tongue out and a growl.
Each Iranian team can put up to two foreigners on the court. But the Iranian game and the 'imported' player dynamic is not for everyone. Chris Herren, from Fall River, Mass., who was drafted by the Denver Nuggets in 1999, and then played for the Boston Celtics the next year, signed an agreement a month ago to play for Peykan, with a two-month trial period.
But the outside shooter drafted to score from beyond the 3-point line has recently been dogged by a family crisis in the US, injuries, and illness. During his second outing with Peykan on Sunday, he didn't score a point.
"If he can't play this game, he must go home," Mr. Fathi said after one time out, in which TV cameras caught a flash of disagreement between player and coach.
Mr. Herren left the bench before the rest of the team, could not be reached for comment afterwards, and was not at practice the next day. Fathi says the trial period is over, and Herren won't be playing in Iran.
While the Americans are here to score points and raise the caliber of Iranian play, Fathi admits that their presence also skews the results.
For example, he figures his Peykan team, loaded with six members of Iran's national team, would have beat Saba Battery Sunday by 20 points if Pitts and Joseph were not playing.
But Pitts notes that Iranian basketball is good, and getting better. "Athletic-wise, [Iranians] are very tough. The game is more physical here - it's a man's league," says Pitts. "Their skill level is rising - eventually they will be the best [in the Mideast]."
A ban on tattoos
While most here appreciate the American example, there are some aspects of the NBA that Iranian officials would prefer not to import.
Last month, the Iranian Basketball Federation banned its players from having tattoos, the Iranian news agency ISNA reported. "It has been noticed recently that some basketball players are copying foreign players and having themselves tattooed ... which is against the morals [of the Islamic republic] and unacceptable," the federation said. It called for players who have "committed such an act" to take rapid measures to "make them disappear so to avoid firmer measures" against them.
In dutiful compliance, during Sunday's game the Iranian Peykan center used strips of athletic tape to cover a large tattoo on his shoulder.
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* Scott Peterson is a staff reporter for the Christian Science Monitor.
Source: The Christian Science Monitor, December 15, 2005
Visit the website at www.csmonitor.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
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Posted by Evelin at January 4, 2006 08:15 AM