Common Ground News Service, February 7, 2006
Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity
(CGNews-PiH)
February 7, 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. Muslims deserve the same respect as Christians or Jews by Edgar M. Bronfman
Edgar M. Bronfman, New York President of the World Jewish Council, discusses, and challenges, some of the fundamental issues involved in the current “cartoon row”: freedom of speech versus freedom of religion, tolerance versus respect, and the integration responsibilities of the immigrant versus the responsibilities of the state in ensuring respect for this immigrant. He concludes by writing, “We need to restrain ourselves in what we say about other religions, in how we judge other faiths,” that “…religious customs, practices and beliefs should be respected by followers of other religions and non-believers alike, because this is a prerequisite for being respected oneself…”.
(Source: Arab News, February 1, 2006)
2. ~~YOUTH VIEWS~~
Democracy is always local by Nora Al Subai and Bryan Gerbracht
American University of Kuwait student Nora Al Subai, and Bryan Gerbracht, a student at the University of Iowa, argue against a “one size fits all” democracy and suggest that democracy lies in the principles and not the institutions. Al Subai and Gerbracht remind the U.S. administration that local history and culture must inform the institutions, and be reflected in methods, that embody these democratic principles.
(Source: Common Ground News Service, February 7, 2006)
3. Pakistani women defy threats, run mixed marathon by David Montero
“’Though we are afraid, we are running,’ says Ethiopian star runner Ashu Kasim, who is Muslim. ‘We can have our faith and we can run.’” Christian Science Monitor correspondent, David Montero, talks about women’s participation in a marathon that aims to raise funds for earthquake victims, but which has become part of larger debate between Pakistani Muslims on the issue of male and female segregation in many Muslim cultures.
(Source: Christian Science Monitor, January 30, 2006)
4. A man who lived the multicultural message by El Hassan bin Talal
El Hassan bin Talal, the brother of the late King Hussain of Jordan, writes about the life of Zaki Badawi, an Egyptian-born Islamic scholar, and his celebration of his own multiple identities. In this personal tribute to a friend who was instrumental in promoting understanding and tolerance, El Hassan bin Talal closes with the following advice: “We must begin by educating ourselves and our children to feel the strength of our own varied identities before we can engage freely with others.”
(Source: The Independent, January 26, 2006)
5. Zap! Pow! Islamic superheroes to save the day by Hassan M. Fattah
New York Times journalist, Hassan M. Fattah, introduces us to Naif al-Mutawa, a 34-year old Kuwaiti and the creator of a new set of Muslim superheroes from around the world that aim to "…teach kids that there's more than one way to solve a problem." Although he acknowledges his endeavour meets with some criticism within the Muslim community, he explains that he is trying to reach young people “who are straddling the cultural divide between East and West….They like comics and Western entertainment, and yet are attached to their roots and intend to hold on to their customs.”
(Source: New York Times, January 22, 2006)
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ARTICLE 1
Muslims deserve the same respect as Christians or Jews
Edgar M. Bronfman
New York, New York - Although freedom of religion and freedom of speech are both fundamental rights, they sometimes come into conflict with each other, as is the case with the caricatures recently published in the Danish newspaper “Jyllands-Posten” depicting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). This has provoked uproar among Muslims, not just in Denmark, but across the Islamic world as it is widely understood that Islam forbids the depicting of Muhammad.
The issue at stake here is not “self-censorship”, which Flemming Rose, the newspaper’s culture editor, claims has befallen Europe since the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. It is whether respect for other religious beliefs, traditions and practices really applies to everybody, including Muslims.
We prefer the word “respect” to “tolerance” because to be “tolerated” is not a positive notion, and in addition “respect” is not a one-way concept; it is mutual. If the cartoons in question were deliberately made and published to provoke Muslims and to stir up public opinion in Denmark, as Rose seems to suggest, something has gone wrong.
What the cartoons managed to do was to offend all Muslims instead of focusing on those fanatics that actually merit criticism.
Sometimes, provocations are necessary to wake people up. Over the past 30 years, the World Jewish Congress has been no stranger to that. But religious customs, practices and beliefs should be respected by followers of other religions and nonbelievers alike, because this is a prerequisite for being respected oneself.
Although freedom of speech is an indivisible right, the law may make it an offence to shout “Fire!” in a crowded auditorium as this might cause a panic and physical harm. Words and actions which predictably provoke strong reactions and anger — however unjustified this may be — should be limited at least when it comes to religious beliefs.
Mutual respect and understanding between members of different religions is the key to ending hatred and to creating a better world. We consider desecration of any holy book an insult to ourselves. Desecration of the Qur’an, the Torah, or the Christian Bible, or any religious site should be offensive to all of us. Mutual respect means just that: You respect me and what I stand for, and I respect you and what you stand for.
To consciously provoke and offend the fairly small Muslim minority in Denmark was wrong. Yes, immigrants must integrate in their host societies, be they Muslims, Jews or Christians, while retaining their own identities, beliefs, customs and faiths. Parallel societies can easily become a breeding ground for fanatics, zealots and, ultimately, terrorists. Immigration sometimes fails because immigrants do not make enough effort. But sometimes, it is also made harder because of an intolerant and harsh host country.
It is the job of governments and lawmakers to make sure that immigrants are not treated as newly conquered (as some populists suggest), but with respect. Those who make an effort to integrate should be welcomed with open arms and they should be allowed to make more than just financial contributions to their new countries’ tax coffers.
Over the last two thousand years and until the creation of the State of Israel, Jews have always been a small minority in every country they have settled in. Our ancestors have suffered from pogroms, rampant anti-Semitism and finally the Holocaust.
Lies about Jews, the Jewish faith and traditions have never disappeared. In fact, they are staging a comeback, especially in “Western democracies” which we thought had become immune to anti-Semitism after the horrors of the Holocaust.
Nonetheless, Jewish intellectuals and politicians have always been at the forefront of fighting for human rights, democracy and free speech. But there are limits to the letter that should be respected, and publishing materials considered offensive by a small religious minority is going too far. Democracies are tested on how they treat their minorities.
Over the decades since the publication of the Second Vatican Council declaration “Nostra Aetate”, the Catholic Church and the Jewish community have been engaged in dialogue with each other. This is a successful example of how centuries-old prejudices and hatred can be overcome by listening to one another instead of just talking about the other.
Christians, Jews and Muslims are all children of Abraham, and we should learn what we have in common. After that, our differences might look less significant.
We need to restrain ourselves in what we say about other religions, in how we judge other faiths. We don’t need new laws. We cannot restrict freedom of speech. We need to restrict ourselves. Otherwise, in the end, we will be restricted.
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* Edgar M. Bronfman is New York President of the World Jewish Congress.
Source: Arab News, February 1, 2006
Visit the website at www.arabnews.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
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ARTICLE 2
Democracy is always local
Nora Al Subai and Bryan Gerbracht
Safat, Kuwait/Ames, Iowa - Advocacy for democratisation in the Middle East has been a major part of the United States’ foreign policy for the last several years. While few would argue that a country should not be able to have a government that is responsive to the people it represents, the United States should examine not only its motives for endorsing democracy throughout the region, but also what it is actually trying to export.
The ideals and principles that are commonly associated with democracies – fundamental liberties, an active and involved civil society, representative government, and governments that are accountable to the people, to name a few – are not principles that can only be expressed through one particular form of government and set of institutions. However, the United States, in pushing democratisation, often seems to take the contrary view – that democracy is the institutions of government, not its principles. In so doing it runs the risk of pushing institutions and structures onto countries that are not suited to local conditions and culture, and are nothing more than skewed reflections of Western societies with democratic governments.
Democracy is a set of complementary concepts, and the particular form of government and set of institutions that a country chooses to embody them must inevitably be unique to that country’s culture. A people’s shared history, cultural identity and values are all important factors that shape its conception of what it expect its government to provide. A “one size fits all” democracy is not possible – and to view abstract concepts as a type of software that can simply be installed in any country is a dangerous mistake. The mistake is compounded a thousand times if democracy is artificially imposed by force, as the United States appears to be doing in Iraq.
Democratic government is a process, and to artificially impose it is to forget that a democracy is a government of the people, and is the result of interaction and communication among citizens, and between the citizenry and the government. A democratic government is, by definition, an evolution of the ideas of its citizens, and when the United States attempts to force its form of democracy onto the countries of the Middle East, it forgets that not only must the actions of a functioning democracy evolve from the concerns of its citizens, but that the initial implementation of democratic principles must evolve out of the citizens’ expectations, values and experiences. In its policy towards the Middle East, the United States has forgotten that democracy is not a Western structure, but a series of processes with a form that evolves from the unique needs and will of its citizens.
In short, how and by whom democracy is established is as important as the structures of governance established. Democracy must develop organically. The United States cannot disregard Middle Eastern countries’ history and culture in its plans for a democratic Middle East. Yet, the contrary is what is occurring. Indeed, historians and students of America have long recognised the danger of the idealistic strain in U.S. foreign policy, which stems even from the days of the Founding Fathers, who thought of the United States as the “shining city on the hill.” History, including victories in both World War II and the Cold War only cemented the United States’ conception of itself as the “leader of the free world” and a paragon of democratic virtue. This is unfortunate, because a realistic and just foreign policy with regard to democratisation can only stem from the realisation that its own democracy is based on certain, perhaps not so universal principles, and the culturally unique structures designed to embody those principles. Some argue the United States’ stable and long tradition of democracy and representative government are proof enough of the effectiveness of its form of government; nevertheless its laws and governmental structures developed as a result of its own history and culture.
In the end, it is paradoxical to assume that democracy could actually function if it is the result of shallow mimicry, or through imposition by force. The contradictory nature of this effort, however, seems lost on U.S. policy makers.
However, it may not be lost on many in the Middle East, and what is certainly not lost on the Muslim world is that, even on its own terms, U.S.-style democracy does not always seem so worthy of emulation. While the United States urges “fair” elections in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East, the fact that only about 50% of the American population votes is often taken as evidence that democracy is not healthy in the United States. And if Americans have already forgotten that the popular vote did not determine the outcome of the 2000 election, many elsewhere in the world have not.
In short, the United States should remember that what works for one country may not work for another. The United States needs to be sure that countries want democracy before providing aid, and even then it should make every effort to make sure its own culture is not forced on the country’s institutions. Only then is there any hope that real and sustainable democracies will be established.
The dangerous assumption that the United States seems to make all too often – that ”those people need us” - only heightens tensions, and will slow the process of democratisation in the Middle East by permitting the establishment of structures and the imposition of principles that do not respond to the cultural and historical prerogatives of the people.
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* Nora Al Subai is a student at the University of Kuwait, and Bryan Gerbracht attends the University of Iowa. They wrote this article as part of the Soliya Connect program, an online Western-Islamic dialogue program.
Source: Common Ground News Service, February 7, 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 3
Pakistani women defy threats, run mixed marathon
David Montero
Lahore, Pakistan - For Nabila Rafique, the race wasn't about finishing first. She ran and walked the course wearing a traditional salwar kameez (loose-fitting tunic) with a shawl. As she focused on putting one foot in front of the other, she paid little heed to the throngs cheering on the curbs - or the armed police posted at every corner.
"This is just for the experience," says Mrs. Rafique, who felt her victory in Sunday's Lahore Marathon was won at the word "Go!"
For weeks, Islamist groups had tried to ban women from the race. On Friday police arrested more than 400 people when a protest against the marathon turned violent. The controversy shook this city of 8 million, raising concerns that violence would disrupt the race, which was designed as a fundraiser for quake victims.
The threat only underscored for many the symbolic importance of the race.
"Though we are afraid, we are running," says Ethiopian star runner Ashu Kasim, who is Muslim. "We can have our faith and we can run."
The race went off without incident. The only challenge to some 6,000 police was controlling the exuberance of the crowds, who cheered more than 15,000 runners.
But the fears of violence were not unfounded. Since the inaugural Lahore Marathon was held last January, allowing men and women to run together for the first time, marathons have emerged as one of the most contested battlegrounds in a country struggling to define its Islamic identity.
Progressive elements argue that races like this, by granting women greater freedom in public, advance Pakistan's commitment to "enlightened moderation," the program of social reform touted by President Pervez Musharraf. But the religious right here, whose political power and influence many say are growing, have grabbed attention by launching both verbal and physical attacks against races. In April 2005, supporters of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), a coalition of six religious parties, physically assaulted women running a race in Gujranwala, 60 miles north of Lahore, prompting the government to ban mixed gender races.
"It's not only a marathon - it's about whether Pakistan is moving toward liberalism, shedding its Taliban past," argues Jugnu Mohsin, publisher of The Friday Times, one of the leading progressive newspapers in Lahore.
Her religious opponents disagree, however, saying that mixed races are an unwanted transgression from Islamic tradition, which says that women and men should not mix freely in public.
"We have great support for the sports played by women ... but women should run separately and in a separate area," argues Hafiz Salman Butt, Lahore chapter president of the MMA. Mr. Butt and other religious leaders also scorned the idea of Pakistani women running in shorts on the streets of Lahore. In the end, however, only a handful of foreign professional women wore shorts, with most women wearing the traditional salwar kameez.
President Musharraf's "enlightened moderation" was supposed to bring a greater dimension of liberal democracy to Pakistan, dispelling the notion that Islam is at odds with modernity.
But many analysts see the opposite trend at work. Right-wing religious groups swept to power in 2002, when the MMA took control of the provincial government of the North West Frontier Province. They are now the second-largest party in the National Assembly, occupying nearly one fourth of all seats. With greater political clout has come greater leverage to challenge national laws.
In March 2005, these groups successfully launched a campaign to stop the government from removing religious identities from passports. The MMA has also introduced a parliamentary bill seeking to ban women in advertising; a decision is pending.
Analysts say the dispute over marathons underscores the government's ambivalence toward checking growing extremism. The Lahore government decided to hold a marathon last year, but they disrupted subsequent races after religious parties complained.
When the administration changes directions like this, analysts say, it translates into a victory for the religious right. Sunday's race was therefore viewed as an important line in the sand, one which even ordinary citizens were not willing to yield.
"Today it's saying that men and women can't run together; tomorrow that they can't work together," says Shakir Husain, a business consultant in Karachi, who felt compelled to pen a newspaper op-ed.
Efforts like these eventually paid off. Days before the race, Lahore city officials said the mixed race would go on. Hundreds of women, including Rafique, turned out for the shorter "family" runs, dashing and walking alongside their husbands and children.
Ordinary citizens hope their participation demonstrates the direction in which Pakistan is headed. "My family took part in the race because we wanted to make a statement. Because we don't find it right, the separation," says Aamir Rafique, Nabila's husband, walking briskly to keep pace with his wife.
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* David Montero is a Christian Science Monitor correspondent.
Source: Christian Science Monitor, January 30, 2006
Visit the website at www.csmonitor.com
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission can be obtained from the Christian Science Monitor by contacting lawrenced@csps.com.
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ARTICLE 4
A man who lived the multicultural message
El Hassan bin Talal
Amman - In a world where divisions seem to multiply by the month, it is very difficult to face the passing of one who unifies. As a globalising planet appears ironically bent on polarisation of its people, tags of person, place, colour and creed have rarely been more visible. Yet the only label one could apply to my late friend Zaki Badawi, who died on recently, is that of the best of men.
Much has already been written of Zaki's great qualities. His blend of spirituality and understanding was a rare and precious thing in Britain and the world at large. He brought his belief in pluralism to the very centre of the country's civic stage. His work touched and educated a generation of Britons, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. But Zaki's greatest gift to us all has not passed with him. He leaves behind a legacy of hope for us and for generations unborn.
Zaki and I first met some 30 years ago, soon after he had been appointed director of the Islamic Cultural Centre in London. What a different world that seems now. Zaki's message then was well formed and constant, ready to weather the terrible storms that few could have foreseen.
Here was a man who carried an array of identities in a powerfully human embrace. An Egyptian by birth, this graduate of Cairo's al-Azhar had formed his compassionate core while studying the language and literature of his forefathers. Yet a new life at University College London, where Zaki obtained his doctorate in Modern Muslim Thought, was lived to the full. Over the years, Zaki became a part of British life without compromising his resolute character.
This message of integration without loss was elegantly conveyed by Zaki through his words and his actions. His was a life lived in glorious Technicolor, bathed in patterns of culture and community, faith and friendship. Difference disavowed discord, in the man and in the message, and for Zaki, one's multiple identities were cause for celebration, not self-castigation.
Zaki Badawi's message has never been more relevant than today. If we allow those drab ideologues who sometimes seem dominant to shout above the true men of value, then all is lost. Throughout the world, lines are being drawn that can only divide us. Sometimes it seems easier to listen to a message of hatred and division, but Zaki showed that thoughtful conversation brings the most abundant rewards.
My involvement with the Interfaith Foundation allowed me to work with Zaki in an area where his talents shone. Together with men of vision from all three Abrahamic faiths, including the Bishop of London and Rabbi Jonathan Magonet, we sought to work together under one God, without comprising our beliefs as men.
At the very first meeting to include rabbis in 1995, Zaki was instrumental in bringing the meeting back together when Muslims and Jews cried an unwillingness to sit together. A fear of how their congregations would react seemed more powerful than any inherent antithesis. Zaki's constant calls for dialogue gave him the moral strength to address his reluctant peers. His humour and charm and the power of his intellect persuaded them to listen.
Through her executive role at the Interfaith Foundation, my youngest daughter Badiya came to know Zaki as a colleague and friend. It was Zaki who performed the marriage ceremony for Badiya and my son-in-law Edward in Amman last summer.
We all remember the event as one of faith and togetherness. Zaki took care to involve the entire congregation in the ceremony and to explain the significance of the loving ritual that marked the most important day in the lives of two young people. It was fitting that Zaki stood under God as the man who joined together two of his children who had grown up in very different cultures and faiths.
Zaki's pride in his own culture and traditions was undiminished by the acts of those who sought to hijack his faith and to commandeer his God. He spoke with pride and insight on Islam's Golden Age. He reminded Britain's Muslims that such feelings were not incompatible with a pride in being British.
I hope that when I speak to my grandchildren about the man I loved and respected, that I will not be speaking of a golden age that has passed. It is up to all of us to carry on the legacy of Zaki Badawi.
We must begin by educating ourselves and our children to feel the strength of our own varied identities before we can engage freely with others. Zaki the scholar, the cleric, the husband, the father and the friend - and still this was just the beginning of his story. Zaki Badawi will be sorely missed in a troubled world. His message lives on.
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* El Hassan bin Talal is the brother of the late King Hussain of Jordan.
Source: The Independent, January 26, 2006
Visit the website at www.independent.co.uk
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity.
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
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ARTICLE 5
Zap! Pow! Islamic superheroes to save the day
Hassan M. Fattah
Dubai - For comic book readers in Arab countries, the world often looks like this: Superheroes save American cities, battle beasts in Tokyo, and even on occasion solve crimes in the French countryside. But few care about saving the Arab world.
If Naif al-Mutawa has his way, that is about to change. Young Arabs will soon be poring over a new group - and new genre - of superheroes like Jabbar, Mumita and Ramzi Razem, all aimed specifically at young Muslim readers and focusing on Muslim virtues.
Mutawa's Teshkeel Media, based in Kuwait, says that in September it will begin publishing "The 99," a series of comic books based on superhero characters that battle injustice and fight evil, with each character personifying one of the 99 qualities that Muslims believe God embodies.
A burly, fast-talking Kuwaiti with a dry wit, Mutawa, 34, said existing superheroes fall into two main genres: the Judeo-Christian archetype of individuals with enormous power who are often disguised, like Superman, and the Japanese archetype of small characters who rely on each other to become powerful, like Pokemon.
His superhero characters will be based on an Islamic archetype: by combining individual virtues - everything from wisdom to generosity - they build collective power that is ultimately an expression of the divine.
"Muslims believe that power is ultimately God, and God has 99 key attributes," Mutawa said. "Those attributes, if they all come together in one place, essentially become the unity of God." He stresses that only God has them all, however, and 30 of the traits deemed uniquely divine will not be embodied by his characters.
Still, this is tricky territory. Muslim religious authorities reject attempts to personify the powers of God or combine the word of God in the Koran with new myths or imaginative renderings more typical of the West.
But Mutawa is seeking to reach youngsters who are straddling the cultural divide between East and West. They like comics and Western entertainment, and yet are attached to their roots and intend to hold on to their customs. He, too, faced that divide, going to summer camp in New Hampshire in the 1980s - he says his parents wanted him to lose weight - while grappling with Arab culture and pressures.
In his flowing white robe and traditional Arab headdress, Mutawa looks every bit the Kuwaiti; when he opens his mouth, however, he is every bit the New Yorker who spent his formative years reading comics and much of his adult life in the United States, training as a psychologist at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York and writing a series of children's books on assimilation, race and prejudice.
"I was the kid that was thrown out of class for not being willing to accept what the teacher was teaching us about Jews," he said. "I had Jewish friends at camp, and I knew that they were not the stereotype." With three boys and a fourth child due soon, Mutawa says he wants his children to be able to find a balance between East and West.
Others too have seized on the opportunity for comics in the Middle East but not graphic representations of the principles of the Koran.
In Cairo, AK Comics has published Middle East Heroes, four larger-than-life Arab characters who face the challenges of most Arabs by day and fight for them by night.
Mutawa, an avid reader of "Archie" and other comics who has a doctorate in clinical psychology and an MBA from Columbia University, said he dreamed up his Muslim superheroes during a taxi ride in 2003 with his sister, Samar, in London.
The plot of the series, drawing on stories and history familiar to most Muslim youths, involves the wisdom and learning that characterised the Muslim world at its apogee, when it reached from northern Pakistan to southern Spain in the late Middle Ages.
The story concerns 99 gems encoded with the wisdom of Baghdad just as the Mongols are invading the city in the 13th century - in his version, to destroy the city's knowledge. The gems are the source of not only wisdom but power, and they have been scattered across the world, sending about 20 superheroes (at least in the first year, leaving another 49 potential heroes for future editions) on a quest to find them before a villain does.
"To create the new, you have to tap into the old," Mutawa says of the deep historic connections in the comic. "The real goal is to teach kids that there's more than one way to solve a problem."
The characters in "The 99" are not all Arabs, but Muslims from all over the world. Jabbar, the enforcer, is a hulking figure from Saudi Arabia with the power to grow immense; Mumita is from Portugal with unparalleled agility; and Noora, from the United Arab Emirates, can read the truth in what people say and help them to see the truth in themselves.
There's a burka-wearing character called Batina, which is derived from a word meaning hidden.
But that is where religion stops and mythology begins, Mutawa says.
"I don't expect Islamists to like my idea, and I don't want the ultraliberals to like it either," he says. So far, he has managed to get Kuwait's censors to approve the early mock-ups, he says. But to keep the orthodox at ease, he has included women in head scarves and plays it by the book as far as religion goes.
But what may give him the biggest edge is a seasoned team, including writers like Fabian Nicieza, who wrote for X-Men and Power Rangers comics, and a group of managers and advisers who are old hands in the industry.
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*Hassan M. Fattah is a New York Times journalist.
Source: New York Times, January 22, 2006
Visit the website at www.nytimes.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 February 8, 2006 02:42 AM