Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies

Dear HumanDHS network friends

Please find below infomation on jobs available in Maryland and Chicago.

Kind regards
Brian Ward

Positions Open in Maryland and Illinois

ADR Resources Coordinator, Maryland Mediation & Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO), Annapolis, MD

Opening Date: December 7, 2007 Closing Date: Open until filled
Position Type: Regular Full Time
PIN: 085649 FLSA Status: Exempt
Location: Maryland Mediation & Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO)
Grade/Entry Salary: J13 $43,292-$51,745
(Depending on Qualifications)
Annapolis, Maryland Financial Disclosure: Yes
Regular State employees subject to promotion/demotion policy
Essential Functions: The ADR Resources Coordinator will assist MACRO with a wide variety of projects designed to advance conflict resolution programs in courts, communities, state and local government agencies, criminal and juvenile justice programs, and schools and universities statewide. The ADR Resources Coordinator will assist with the activities of the Maryland Program for Mediator Excellence as well as with MACRO conferences and events. The ADR Resources Coordinator will assist other MACRO staff with publications, website management, and public education efforts, as well as with management of MACRO’s grant programs. The ADR Resources Coordinator will work closely with other MACRO staff, consultants, and court staff on the Court ADR Program Self Assessment Project which is a major program of state and national significance being created to assist Maryland court ADR programs. This position will also work collaboratively with the Executive Director, the Deputy Executive Director, and other MACRO staff in all other aspects of the office’s work including representing the office at meetings, training programs, conferences, or other events as
necessary. Position requires travel throughout the state.

Education: Bachelors degree from an accredited four year college or university.
Experience: Three years of related professional experience.
Note: Advanced degree can be substituted for two years of the required experience.
Preferred: Training and experience in mediation or other alternative dispute resolution processes. Advanced degree in a related field. Ability to conduct training. Familiarity with courts, grants, and budgets.
Skills/Abilities: Ability to be a self starter, to collaborate, to prioritize, and to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
Outstanding written and oral communication skills, presentation skills, and diplomacy skills. Ability to be creative, a solid team member, and work in a collaborative work environment. Ability to utilize standard computer software. Valid Maryland Drivers license with good driving record. Ability to perform all essential functions of the position.
Please submit a Maryland Judiciary employment application (unsigned applications will not be accepted) or resume
and cover letter stating position title. Materials must be received at the address below by 5:00 p.m. on the closing date. The Human Resources Department will not be responsible for applications/resumes sent to any other address.
Maryland Judiciary
Human Resources Department
580 Taylor Ave., Bldg. A-1
Annapolis, MD 21401
Email: jobs[@]mdcourts.gov (Zip files not accepted)

The Maryland Judiciary is a drug free workplace and an equal opportunity employer, committed to diversity in the workplace. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, age, sexual orientation, national origin or disability. Applicants who need accommodation for an interview should request this in advance. The candidate selected for this position will be subject to a background check. Employees must be United States citizens or eligible to work in the United States.
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ADR Programs Evaluation Director, Maryland Mediation & Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO), Annapolis, MD

Opening Date: December 7, 2007 Closing Date: Open until filled
Position Type: Regular Full Time
PIN: 085650 FLSA Status: Exempt
Location: Maryland Mediation & Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO)
Grade/Entry Salary: J16 $52,443 - $62,885 (Depending on Qualifications)
Annapolis, Maryland Financial Disclosure: Yes
Regular State employees subject to promotion/demotion policy
Essential Functions: The ADR Programs Evaluation Director works collaboratively with dispute resolution program managers in the courts as well as in community-based programs, schools, criminal and juvenile justice programs, state and local government agencies and businesses to help develop self-assessment tools and procedures to evaluate program effectiveness. Develops and monitors performance measures, supports evaluation of the Maryland Program for Mediator Excellence, and documents the overall impact of MACRO’s work. The Director implements plans to collaborate on uniform evaluation methods. Assists the Court ADR Resources Director in implementing protocols and monitoring the web-based data collection systems that will assess all MD Court ADR programs. The Director conducts substantive research and surveys; participates as a trainer/presenter in a variety of MACRO sponsored training sessions, panel presentations, workshops and conferences with regard to evaluating conflict resolution programs, and other aspects of the conflict resolution field. Works closely with other MACRO staff to prioritize evaluation projects and administer grants. The Director also serves as part of MACRO’s collaborative team to advance the appropriate use of mediation and other conflict resolution processes in Maryland’s courts, businesses, schools, communities, and criminal and juvenile justice programs, as well as with regard to the projects associated with government. Position requires travel throughout the state.

Education: Bachelors degree from an accredited four year college or university.
Experience: Five years of relevant professional experience in program evaluation, dispute resolution, or related field.
Note: Advanced education may be substituted for two years of the required experience.
Preferred: Related advanced degree, law degree and/or extensive evaluation experience. Additional training/experience in evaluating the effectiveness of conflict resolution and/or mediation, facilitation, collaborative problem solving or related field, if such training is not included in formal education.
Skills/Abilities: Ability to use state-of-the-art evaluation and survey software. Skills in developing or facilitating the design and implementation of evaluative processes for multiple and diverse stakeholder groups. Excellent interpersonal skills and excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to make dynamic presentations to a variety of diverse audiences. Ability to set agendas, do creative problem solving, set priorities and handle multiple duties simultaneously. Ability to work collaboratively with large and small groups. Ability to do research and to design and conduct surveys. Strong computer skills and ability to use a wide range of office-based information technology, such as word processing, email and research databases. Valid Maryland Drivers license with good driving record. Ability to perform all essential functions of the position.

Please submit a Maryland Judiciary employment application (unsigned applications will not be accepted) or resume and cover letter stating position title. Materials must be received at the address below by 5:00 p.m. on the closing date. The Human Resources Department will not be responsible for applications/resumes sent to any other address.
Maryland Judiciary
Human Resources Department
580 Taylor Ave., Bldg. A-1
Annapolis, MD 21401
Email: jobs@mdcourts.gov (Zip files not accepted)

The Maryland Judiciary is a drug free workplace and an equal opportunity employer, committed to diversity in the workplace. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, age, sexual orientation, national origin or disability. Applicants who need accommodation for an interview should request this in advance. The candidate selected for this position will be subject to a background check. Employees must be United States citizens or eligible to work in the United States.
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Court ADR Resources Director, Maryland Mediation & Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO), Annapolis, MD

Closing Date: Open until filled
PIN: 083589 Position Type: Regular Full Time
Location: Maryland Mediation & Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO)
FLSA Status:
Grade/Entry Salary: Exempt J16 $52,443 - 62,885 Annapolis, Maryland (Depending on Qualifications)
Financial Disclosure: Yes
Regular State employees subject to promotion/demotion policy
Essential Functions: The major focus of the Court ADR Resources Director is to work collaboratively with judges, lawyers, and other appropriate court personnel in Maryland’s Circuit Courts across the state to help advance their court ADR programs. Functions include helping courts: identify ADR needs, apply for MACRO grant funds, identify training needs, design and develop pilot programs, draft or amend rules, procedures and forms, formulate action plans, promote and increase awareness about ADR programs, analyze evaluative data, monitor ADR programs and problem solve. This position also works closely with the District Court ADR office to help support its goals. Responsible for developing and coordinating a new Court ADR Network to enhance communication for all court ADR program coordinators and administrators in the Circuit and District courts; oversees the new innovative Court ADR Program’s System of Assessment Project (CAPSAP) which consists of a webbased data collection and reporting system. Assists in coordinating ADR public awareness campaign and works collaboratively with staff in all aspects of MACRO’s multi-faceted work.

Education: Juris Doctorate and completion of 40 hours of mediation training.
Experience: Five years of relevant professional experience in law, dispute resolution, court administration, or related field.
Preferred: Familiarity with Maryland court and legal systems. Experience conducting ADR training, with evaluations and data analysis and with media, website design and maintenance.
Skills/Abilities: Knowledge of all forms of ADR, computer literacy, outstanding communication skills and ability to be a self starter, to collaborate, to prioritize, and to manage multiple projects simultaneously. Ability to resolve complex multi-party conflicts.
Outstanding negotiation and diplomacy skills, group facilitation skills, dynamic presentation skills and experience in public speaking. Ability to travel to various locations throughout the state and country and to work overtime as needed. Ability to perform
all essential functions of the position.
Please submit a Maryland Judiciary employment application (unsigned applications will not be accepted) or resume and cover letter stating position title. Materials must be received at the address below. The Human Resources Department will not be responsible for applications/resumes sent to any other address.
A writing sample is required at the time of application.
Maryland Judiciary
Human Resources Department
580 Taylor Ave., Bldg. A-1
Annapolis, MD 21401
Email: jobs[@]mdcourts.gov (Zip files not accepted)
The Maryland Judiciary is a drug free workplace and an equal opportunity employer, committed to diversity in the workplace. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, age, sexual orientation, national origin or disability. Applicants who need accommodation for an interview should request this in advance. The candidate selected for this position will be subject to a background check. Employees must be United States citizens or eligible to work in the United States.
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Education Organizer, Blocks Together, Chicago, IL

Blocks Together (BT) is a multi-issue, grassroots, direct-action community organization made up of residents in the W. Humboldt and N. Garfield Park communities on the west side of Chicago. BT’s vision for social justice directs the organization’s development and implementation of issue campaigns in the areas of education, housing, and the rights of women, youth and the formerly incarcerated. Our approach to leadership development balances traditional skill-based organizing trainings with political education, providing a foundation for members to understand, analyze, and confront the structures of power that impact their lives. BT offers a unique opportunity in Chicago for organizers to develop the craft of direct-action organizing with community members.

Position Description: BT is hiring a full-time Education Organizer to work with community residents to identify, develop and advance organizing campaigns. The organizer will work to ensure parent/guardian involvement in schools and link the availability of quality education with the stability of low-income, Black and Latino communities.

Responsibilities :

§ Develop and advance campaign strategy with members, including research and media outreach

§ Develop and execute plan to identify and recruit new members

§ Establish and nurture relationships with members and their support networks

§ Design curriculum, implement and facilitate leadership development through training, political
education, and community action research

§ Document and critically evaluate work with members and staff

§ Participate in strategic development and visioning of the organizing work

§ Represent the organization in a variety of capacities, including alliance building and coalition
work

§ Prepare progress reports of activities

§ Participate in grassroots fundraising activities

Qualifications :

§ Investment in exploring direct action organizing as a key strategy

§ Enthusiasm working on a grassroots level in a vibrant multi-racial neighborhood

§ Ability to learn and organize with a racial justice lens

§ Interest in investigating the relationship between education and displacement

§ Commitment to building an internal organizational structure that reflects BT’s social justice politics

§ Commitment to BT’s strategies of community organizing, popular education, leadership development, community building and movement building

§ Ability to work with a current multi-racial staff of women

§ Strong initiative, self-motivated, ability to work under pressure and with a team

§ Strong written and oral communication skills

§ Computer literacy including Microsoft Office, desktop publishing and database experience desirable

§ Ability to work flexible hours, including evenings and weekends

§ Driver’s license and transportation REQUIRED, with insurance

§ Fluent Spanish writing and speaking skills strongly preferred

Salary depends on experience. Benefits include generous vacation, compensation, full medical and dental, and pension plan.

Application Process:

We are taking applications until the position is filled. Please send a resume, cover letter and 3 references to Blocks Together, attention Irene Juaniza (773) 276-2194, email: blockstogether@riseup.net or mail: 3914 W. North Ave., Chicago IL 60647.

Blocks Together is an equal opportunity employer. People of color, women, immigrants, and lesbians/gay/bisexual/transgendered people are encouraged to apply.
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Dear HumanDHS network friends

Please find here the Horn of Africa Bulletin: No 1 - 2008

Kind regards
Brian Ward

Dear HumanDHS network friends

Please find below an invitation to write your thoughts on collaborative leadership.

Kind regards
Brian Ward

Invitation to Write on Collaborative Leadership

The next theme for Kosmos is a timely and exciting inquiry into collective intelligence and the power of connection. Our working title is: Changing the World Together. We need each other to solve the increasingly complex issues of our time at personal, organizational and planetary levels. We are pushing the limits of artificial boundaries in almost every field of endeavor as we move from hierarchical forms of organization to distributed power. A new field of research is emerging: co-intelligence, collaborative leadership, collective wisdom, peer to peer, group mind are some of the names we are calling it.

If this area of inquiry and possibility excites you, we invite you to submit a 450 word article to Kosmos by February 21st. We will select four representative articles to publish in our Journal and possibly more on our website. Please put a title on your article.

We look forward to your thoughts.

Dear HumanDHS network friends

Please find below information on an interactive workshop on Peace and Justice in Israel.

Kind regards
Brian Ward

International Institute on Peace Education 2008
July 28 - August 4 * Haifa, Israel

“Critical Pedagogy: Educating for Justice and Peace”

(*APPLICATION DEADLINE: March 1, 2008)

The International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE) 2008 will take place from July 28 to August 4 in Haifa, Israel hosted by the Jewish-Arab Center and the Center for Research on Peace Education (CERPE) of the University of Haifa and the Center of Critical Pedagogy of Kibbutzim College of Education . The event is being co-organized by the above hosts and the Peace Education Center at Teachers College, Columbia University in partnership with Global Education Associates.

IIPE was founded in 1982 by Dr. Betty Reardon and faculty colleagues at Teachers College and has been held annually in different parts of the world. The IIPE is not a traditional conference but rather a “learning community” in which the organizers and participants work together to nurture an inclusive, highly interactive learning environment. It is an intensive multicultural and cooperative learning opportunity in which participants learn from and with each other about substantive peace issues and interactive teaching approaches. The IIPE is also an opportunity for networking and community building among those who educate and work for a culture of peace in the host region and around the world.

IIPE 2008 THEME: Critical Pedagogy: Educating for Justice and Peace

IIPE 2008 will explore the theme of “Critical Pedagogy: Educating for Justice and Peace.” It will deal with issues of dialogical education for social change and the intersection of peace education and critical pedagogy, relating to the question of what kind of peaceful society we are striving for. Peace Education in Israel has concentrated mostly on the Jewish-Arab conflict. Various names describe it: education for co-existence, Jewish-Arab encounter, dialogical groups, neighbors, living with the other, etc. In groups where Palestinians and Israelis sit together and discuss their relationships the historical narratives are often learned. In other parts of the world, however, peace education is called by different names according to the political constraints of the region.

This year’s IIPE will try to examine the complexity of peace education issues in an unequal society. It will strive to explore goals of equal education, schooling despite the pressure of violent conflict, economic justice, the challenges of environmental violence, structural violence, and ties of politics and education. The IIPE core inquiry will focus on the concept of education for a culture of peace and the social change needed to achieve it. We will seek to examine the link between local-regional problems, global issues, and universal developments, and look for ways to address them in education. Relevant sub-themes include the relationship between social violence and armed conflicts; issues in education that most affect marginalized populations such as the poor, women, migrant workers, and people with disabilities; the need to raise awareness of global environmental justice issues, small arms control, nuclear threats, poverty, first–third world power relations and the global campaign against sex trafficking. Thus, the upcoming IIPE will explore innovative ways and educational strategies to enhance social critical consciousness and methods of activism through education.

We encourage each applicant to consider how they might contribute to this exploration from their own experience regionally, as a formal or informal educator, or as an advocate or activist (see application form). Together, we hope to illuminate the gaps and complementarities of peace education and critical pedagogy.

For more information and to apply please visit the IIPE website at:

www.tc.edu/PeaceEd/IIPE

Participation Fees

This year’s participation fees are still being determined. Participation fees are estimated between 400-550 Euros ($575-800 USD). Organizers are presently fundraising and in other ways working to reduce overall costs. The final participation fees will be determined before the close of the application period (March 1). Participation fees cover all onsite costs including food, housing (double occupancy), local transportation and excursions.

Application Information

We ask all potential participants to please apply online via the IIPE website: www.tc.edu/PeaceEd/iipe . Applications must be submitted by March 1, 2008 for full consideration. Notices of acceptances will be sent in mid to late March. If you require an earlier response for funding or institutional purposes please contact the IIPE secretariat at info@i-i-p-e.org.

Acceptance for participation in the IIPE is based upon applicant’s potential contribution to the goal of developing and strengthening peace education and critical pedagogy in the host region and toward a more global perspective on peace education among all participants. While we would like to accept everyone who applies, the number of applicants usually exceeds the places at each institute. The IIPE attempts to practice the principles of peace education by engaging all participants in our short term learning community in an experience of participatory learning in which all of us can learn from each other. We have found that increasing our numbers beyond 70 participants diminishes the effectiveness of this aspect of the institute, so we are unable to accept all applicants.

Among other criteria, first priority is given to those applicants coming from the surrounding host region. The IIPE attempts to explore themes and issues that are particularly relevant to the host region and works to build regional solidarity among peace educators. Thus, a minimum of 50% of the participants will come from the Mediterranean region. In selecting the remainder of the international participants we attempt to maintain a geographical balance and variety in experience and substantive expertise. All applicants should specifically demonstrate how they will apply their peace education and critical pedagogy learnings in their countries or local communities as that will be a significant criteria of selection.

As a learning community experience the IIPE requires full-time participation from all participants . You must be able to participate in the full period of the IIPE (July 28-August 4) for your application to be considered. If after acceptance a participant finds he or she must leave early or arrive late, their place will be given to another on the waiting list.

Scholarship

The institute operates on a self-sustaining basis in which all participants, including the organizers and presenters pay their own travel and participation fees or find their own funding. Each year numerous applicants request various amounts of scholarship support and the IIPE seeks to raise a scholarship fund for participants coming from currency poor or post-conflict countries. Scholarships are typically not provided for participants applying from the US or Western Europe. Scholarships come only in the form of participation fee waivers. The IIPE does not provide financial support for travel to and from the institute. If you think you will be in need of scholarship please indicate so when applying.

Please Help Future Peace Educators to Participate

Although we are generally fortunate to be able to find a limited amount of funding to provide fee waivers for a very few individuals, we are unable to fulfill the needs of the requests from many in areas most in need of peace education. We hope you might consider a contribution to the IIPE to fund scholarships for participants from currency poor and post conflict countries. Your generosity will help ensure that those potential participants in greatest need of training and solidarity will be able to attend the institute. We would be grateful for any amount you may be able to donate. All donations are tax deductible. To donate, please clip and return the following form to the address indicated.

www.tc.edu/PeaceEd/iipe

Dear HumanDHS network friends

Please find below information on a programme available for NYC residents who contribute to the wellbeing of the City.

Kind regards
Brian Ward

The Charles H. Revson Fellowship
A Program on the Future of the City of New York
at Columbia University

Application Deadline: February 1, 2008 (postmark)
www.revson.columbia.edu

What are you doing for the future of New York City?

The Charles H. Revson Fellowship offers a unique opportunity for self-development in mid-career for urban leaders who have made a substantial contribution to New York City.

Revson Fellows:
Mid-career urban leaders: grassroots activists, politicians, non-profit leaders, firefighters, lawyers, artists, writers, journalists, religious leaders, educators, community organizers

Revson Fellowship:

nine months at Columbia University * individualized study programs * $28,000 stipend * tuition * access to courses, faculty, and University resources * weekly seminars * invited speakers * 300 member alumni network

Application information and materials are available at www.revson.columbia.edu or by contacting the Revson Fellowship Office (ph: 212-854-6029, email: revson[@]columbia.edu)
Please forward information to potential candidates

Dear HumanDHS network friends

Please find here a link to information on a workshop in New York on Getting Along with Difficult People – Transforming Conflict into Cooperation.

Kind regards
Brian Ward

Common Ground News Service
Partners in Humanity
for constructive & vibrant Muslim-Western relations

16 - 22 January 2008

The Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH) aims to promote constructive perspectives and dialogue about Muslim–Western relations. CGNews-PiH is available in Arabic, English, French, Indonesian and Urdu.

For an archive of past CGNews articles and other information, please visit our website at www.commongroundnews.org .

Unless otherwise noted, copyright permission has been obtained and articles may be reprinted by any news outlet or publication. Please acknowledge both the original source and the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Inside this edition

1) Muslim charities, guilty until proven innocent? by William Fisher
William Fisher, who has managed economic development projects in the Middle East for the US State Department and USAID, discusses the US government’s designation of certain Muslim charities as supporters of terrorism, and the dilemma these cases have caused for American Muslims.
(Source: Jordan Times, 8 January 2008)

2) Indonesian educators balance democracy and shari’a by Robert W. Hefner
Robert W. Hefner, author, professor of Anthropology and associate director of the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs at Boston University, describes the results of a 2006 survey of educators in Indonesian madrasas, particularly with respect to views on the role of shari’a and democracy in the school system.
(Source: Inside Indonesia, Nov-Dec 2007 issue)

3) Iranian couple cycles the world by Jennifer Redfearn
Jennifer Redfearn, a contributor to New York-based publication, The Indypendent, describes the first stage of an Iranian couple’s journey around the globe by bicycle, facing their own fears, dispelling myths about Iran and spreading a message of peace and environmental conservation.
(Source: The Indypendent, 12 January 2008)

4) Islamic feminism in Morocco by Martina Sabra
Martina Sabra, a Qantara.de correspondent, examines the work of Asma Lambaret, a Moroccan doctor and writer, who is making waves in Morocco due to her claim that Islam and feminism are not irreconcilable. According to Lambaret, a greater appreciation for women is needed and will come from “re-reading the texts and identifying previous interpretations for what they are: macho and patriarchal.”
(Source: Qantara.de, 4 January 2008)

5) The lost jihad: love in Islam by G. Willow Wilson
G. Willow Wilson, a Muslim author and essayist, counters the assumption that Arabic lacks a word to describe self-sacrificing love, and that Islam is “a cold, dispassionate religion in its absence”.
(Source: Islamica Magazine, Issue 20)

1)Muslim charities, guilty until proven innocent?
William Fisher

Old Chatham, New York - High officials in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Justice, and other US government departments and agencies love to talk about how good they are at “reaching out” to American Muslim communities.

They should be reaching out. It is just possible that folks in these communities might be valuable sources of intelligence. Or credible teachers of the customs and practices of Arabs and other Muslims.

The amazing thing about American Muslims is how well they have assimilated into US culture. This is in sharp contrast to the attitudes of European governments about their growing Muslim communities – and vice versa.

There is certainly no shortage of examples of the Americanisation of the Muslims among us. Many have been here for generations. Thousands serve in the armed forces, many of them in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For American Muslims, though, the “material support” for terrorists rap presents a real dilemma. One of the most fundamental tenets of Islam is charitable giving. But giving to whom?

The President and Congress have given the Treasury Department the authority to designate any charitable organisation as a supporter of terrorism. With that authority, the Treasury Department has investigated thousands of not-for-profit organisations that support Muslim causes. And it has effectively closed down many of these by seizing records and freezing assets – with virtually no due process at all.

The outfits so designated have included the organisation that was the largest and most prominent Muslim charity in the United States, the Holy Land Foundation (HLF). The government seized HLF’s assets in 2001 and didn’t put it on trial until mid-2007. Meanwhile, donations from supporters languished in frozen bank accounts.

The latest failure in a terrorism financing prosecution came late in 2007, when a Texas jury failed to render any guilty verdicts in the trial of HLF. Several HLF officials were charged with giving money to Hamas, the Palestinian organisation designated a terrorist group by the United States in 1995. The trial ended with a mix of acquittals and deadlocks.

William Neal, a juror in the HLF case, told the media that the government’s evidence “was pieced together over the course of a decade – a phone call this year, a message another year”. Instead of trying to prove that the defendants knew they were supporting terrorists, Neal said, prosecutors “danced around the wire transfers by showing us videos of little kids in bomb belts and people singing about Hamas, things that didn’t directly relate to the case”.

Civil liberties groups say the HLF case was just the latest in a line of misguided prosecutions. One such group, OMB Watch, says that “once a charitable organisation is so designated, all of its materials and property may be seized and its assets frozen. The charity is unable to see the government’s evidence and thus understand the basis for the charges. Since its assets are frozen, it lacks resources to mount a defence.”

One of America’s foremost constitutional scholars, Prof. David Cole of the Georgetown University Law Centre, argues that the “material support principle is ‘guilt by association’ in 21st-century garb, and presents all of the same problems that criminalising membership and association did during the Cold War”. He told Inter-Press Services that the problem requires fundamental changes in the terrorism-financing law.

Included in Cole’s recommendations for major changes: the Treasury Department should be required to permit closed charities to direct their collected funds to charities mutually approved by the frozen charity and the government; Congress should enact a statutory definition of a “specially designated terrorist”; Treasury should allow designated entities to use their own funds to pay for their own defence; and the criminal material support statutes should be amended to require proof that an individual supported a proscribed group with the intent to further its illegal activities.

OMB Watch says the “material support” effort has resulted in the government shutting down charities that were not on any government watch list before their assets were frozen. The organisation says the result is that Muslims have no way of knowing which groups the government suspects of ties to terrorism. “Organisations and individuals suspected of supporting terrorism are guilty until proven innocent,” it says.

When foreign policy experts who know about Middle Eastern and other Muslim cultures counsel the Bush administration to be smarter in the ways it pursues terrorism in our midst, they are not recommending that we look the other way. Nor are they saying there are no bad apples in the basket. What they are suggesting is that we need to stop substituting post-September 11 paranoia for evidence. And that if the Justice Department charges someone with doing something unlawful, someone ought to be entitled to the due process enshrined in our Constitution and our jurisprudence.

Using the law as a blunt instrument is highly unlikely to make many friends for the United States in a community where we desperately need all the friends we can find.

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* William Fisher has managed economic development projects in the Middle East for the US State Department and USAID. This abridged article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org . The full text can be found at www.jordantimes.com .

Source: Jordan Times, 8 January 2008, www.jordantimes.com
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

2)Indonesian educators balance democracy and shari’a
Robert W. Hefner

Boston, Massachusetts – The October 2002 terrorist bombings of a beachfront pub in south Bali pushed concerns about Indonesia’s Islamic schools to a new high as students from an Islamic boarding school in Lamongan, East Java were eventually convicted of the crime. For some Indonesian observers, facts like these confirm that at least some of Indonesia’s Islamic schools had been turned into training camps for terrorist militants.

However, Islamic education in Indonesia is nothing if not varied, and its central streams look little like the radical fringe. With some 11,000 Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) and 36,000 Islamic day schools (madrasas), Indonesia has one of the largest Islamic educational sectors in the world. A full 13% of the country’s elementary school population receives their primary education in Muslim day schools. More than twice that number take evening or weekend religious classes at Islamic schools. About one percent of Indonesia’s Islamic schools might be described as socially radical, and the number that seems inclined to support militant violence is no more than a few dozen.

Far more representative of the educational mainstream, then, is Indonesia’s system of State Islamic Universities (UIN, IAIN). Today, every student admitted to the state Islamic university system fulfils divisional studies requirements that begin with courses in Islamic history and contextualising methodologies for the study of Islam. With their undogmatic emphasis on alternative interpretations of key historical events, these courses use methods similar to those in comparative religion programs in the West, but are rarely used in higher education in other Muslim countries.

Since the year 2000, seven of the state Islamic universities have begun far-reaching restructuring that includes establishing new faculties in non-religious fields like medicine, psychology, general education and business. No less surprising, since 2004 all students entering the state Islamic system have been required to take a civics course which introduces students to the ideals of democracy, civil society and human rights. Nowhere else in the Muslim world do Muslim colleges provide comparable instruction on democratic values.

In an effort to examine Muslim educators’ views on Islam and democracy, in early 2006 I worked with staff at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta to carry out a survey of 940 Muslim educators in 100 madrasas and Islamic boarding schools in eight provinces in Indonesia. A summary overview of the educators’ views is revealing.

Indonesian Muslim educators’ ideas on democracy are neither formalistic nor crudely majoritarian; they also extend to subtle civil rights.

These rights include support for the idea of equality before the law (94.2% of educators agree); freedom to join political organisations (82.5%); protections for the media from arbitrary government action (92.8%); and the notion that party competition improves government performance (80%). These figures are as high as comparable data collected by the World Values Survey for Western Europe and the United States.

If this was all there was to educators’ attitudes on Islam and democracy, the results would be brightly optimistic indeed. However, educators’ views on democracy are not stand-alone. They co-exist with an almost equally strong commitment to shari’a. For example, notwithstanding the strength of their commitment to democracy, 72.2% of educators believe the state should be based on the Qur’an and sunnah (traditions of the Prophet Mohammed) and guided by religious experts.

On matters of women and non-Muslim religious minorities, we see a tension between educators’ enthusiasm for democracy and their commitment to shari’a. Some 93.5% of the educators believe that a non-Muslim should not be allowed to serve as president. A full 55.8% feel that women should not be allowed to run for the office. About 20% would bar non-Muslims from teaching in public schools. In short, on three matters – gender, non-Muslims, and the place of Islamic law in government itself – educators do not appear to be particularly tolerant.

We see in the survey data, then, that Muslim educators’ stated commitments to democracy, freedom of assembly and freedom of the press are about as strong as anywhere in the democratic world. However, on religious matters, Indonesian Muslims are not secularist liberals. Where a democratic principle runs up against an issue on which shari’a is seen as having something to say, most educators feel that they must defer to shari’a. At times this deference results in judgments that many observers, including most Muslim theorists who write on democracy, would regard as undemocratic.

Inasmuch as attitudes like those of the educators are widespread in Indonesian society (and other surveys indicate that they are), these findings suggest that Muslim Indonesians are likely to continue to grapple for some time to come with the question of how to balance the ideals of shari’a with those of democracy. What is certain is that the results of this ongoing debate will have serious implications for the culture and practice of Indonesian democracy.

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* Robert W. Hefner ( rhefner@bu.edu ) is professor of Anthropology and associate director of the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs at Boston University. This abridged article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org . The full text appeared in edition 90 of Inside Indonesia ( www.insideindonesia.org).

Source: Inside Indonesia, Edition 90, www.insideindonesia.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

3)Iranian couple cycles the world
Jennifer Redfearn

New York, New York - Modern Iran shows a variety of perplexing faces to the world: hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sophisticated academics, outspoken exiles.

One young Iranian couple, determined not to leave their country’s public relations to others, is bicycling around the globe to spread a message of peace and environmental conservation.

Somayeh Yousefi, 28, and Jafar Edrisi, 29, met nine years ago atop Mount Damavand, the highest peak in Iran, and married four years later. After selling their car and furniture for $12,000 last April, they set off to educate the world about Iran and to plant trees across the globe. They cycled through Turkey, crossed Europe and then skipped across the Atlantic Ocean before arriving in New York City in November. This is their first trip outside of Iran.

“We don’t want to judge other countries by the bad stuff happening on the news,” said Yousefi, who was Iran’s female rock-climbing champion for six years. “We wish to convey a message of peace and friendship from the people of Iran to other countries,” she said.

The couple plans to cover a total of 12,500 miles during their two-year odyssey. Living on an average of $10 a day, they haul the basics — tent, cookware and clothing — from city to city. So far, they have planted 14 trees and screened a video about Iran’s natural wonders in communities all along their route.

“People are very confused about Iran,” Yousefi said. “They think Iranian people are terrorists or aggressive or that we ride camels. Iran is a rich country, but no one knows about it. So we think it is our duty to show our culture to people.”

Face-to-face contact with people in Europe and Canada countered many of the couple’s own misconceptions of different cultures. But they said violent images from Hollywood movies and the media still made them wary of travelling through the United States.

“At first, we were very afraid of American people,” said Yousefi. “We imagined that American people are aggressive with a lot of guns and tattoos.”

But the couple has been surprised by the Americans they have met since crossing the Canadian border on Nov. 19. In Vermont, a stranger invited them to camp out in her home that was under construction. They met former United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter in Albany. Ritter encouraged the couple to educate Americans about Iran, they said. In Poughkeepsie, New York, a fellow cyclist drove them to their friend’s house when it was too dark to bike.

These memories are recorded on a hand-painted banner they plan to carry from the United States to Japan, Korea, China, Nepal, Pakistan and Iran, the final leg of their journey.

“After my wedding ring, this is the most precious thing I have in my life,” said Yousefi, holding up the banner covered in signatures.

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* Jennifer Redfearn is a contributor to the New York-based publication, The Indypendent. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org .

Source: The Indypendent, 12 January 2008, www.indypendent.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

4)Islamic feminism in Morocco
Martina Sabra

Bonn, Germany - Islam and feminism are not incompatible according to Moroccan doctor and writer Asma Lamrabet. In 2004, she founded a working group for women’s issues and intercultural dialogue in Rabat. The initiative has now become well known throughout the Arab world as well as in some western countries.

Lamrabet is a diplomat’s wife from a well-heeled suburb of Rabat. In theory she could simply spend her time organising garden parties, but she is not interested in the rituals of the Moroccan jet set. A qualified medic, she works in a hospital every day. When she comes home, she sits at her desk and writes books about feminism and Islam as well as organising Qur’an workshops on the subject.

The position of women is grim in all Muslim and Arab countries, Lamrabet says; a greater appreciation of women within Islam is needed. This means re-reading the texts and identifying previous interpretations for what they are: macho and patriarchal.

Such provocative statements, which can be read in more detail in her three books, have won Asma Lamrabet increasing numbers of followers: women and also men. Whether engineers, school inspectors, lawyers or students, they all share the same interest. They are dissatisfied with the dominant Islamic discourse increasingly spread by the pan-Arab media.

The main problem with the dominant Islamic discourse is that women are always reduced to some function or another, Asma Lamrabet claims; a woman is either a mother, a wife, a sister or a daughter. She is never presented as an individual, as a free, autonomous being. But the Qur’an portrays women as human beings, she says, and seeing women as human beings also means recognising their right to freedom and autonomy.

In the working group for women’s issues and intercultural dialogue, interested women and men test the Qur’an for its egalitarian potential. Asma Lamrabet believes the Islamic teachings are more sympathetic to women than generally recognised. Islam does not have a creation myth portraying women simply as appendages of men. The Islamic Adam, according to Lamrabet is simply a human being; in the Qur’an, Adam has no gender.

The group also includes lawyer Rachida Ait Himmich. She is a member of a secular left-wing party: both secular and Muslim, which for Ait Himmich is not a contradiction. She says she can live out the various sides of her identity in the group. She can be a Muslim woman and at the same time feel free; she can embrace universal ethical values as well as the human values handed down by Islam, seeing it as a case of re-reading the Qur’an.

In their group studies, Asma Lamrabet and her fellow campaigners acknowledge the traditional Islamic interpretations as well as the particular historical contexts. For her, although the Qur’an is indeed the word of God, the teachings are only ever in practice experienced within a specific social and political context. Many conservative scholars of Islamic law see such an approach as blasphemy.

Between growing religious fanaticism in the Arabic and Islamic worlds, and increasing Islamophobia in the West, Asma Lamrabet and her feminist-Muslim working group are arguing the case for a so-called “third way”: a modern approach combining universal, humanistic ethics with the humanitarian ideals of Islam.

To date, this so-called “third way” has had no majority appeal in Arab and Muslim societies. The criticism comes from various directions. Conservative Muslims accuse Lamrabet and her group of lacking the necessary theological competence to interpret the sacred texts correctly.

More secularly-orientated critics claim her approach to the Qur’an is not historical and that she does not speak out strongly enough against polygamy and violence towards women.

Asma Lamrabet points to the constitution of the working group for women’s issues and intercultural dialogue, which has just become accepted as a registered association. The document is vague however, like much of what Asma Lamrabet says and writes. Her books are eloquent and passionate, but conceptually and in terms of methodology, the treatises have many weak points.

At times, they border on the kind of Islamic fundamentalist propaganda familiar from the Moroccan Islamic political activist, Nadia Yassine. Lamrabet’s treatment of her central subject, cultural identity, is based on a notion of identity now seen as antiquated in the relevant sociological debates. By clinging to a notional unambiguous Islamic identity, Asma Lamrabet is positioning herself closer to political Islam propagandists. The catchy concept of the “third way” cannot alter this.

However, the verve with which Asma Lamrabet and her fellow campaigners are fighting for a new, more humanitarian Islam is remarkable. The positive resonance amongst young Muslim women shows once more that Islamic feminism is no longer a marginal issue and this development may form the impetus for an open discourse on Islam and society.

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* Martina Sabra is a correspondent for Qantara.de. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org .

Source: Qantara.de, 4 January 2008, www.qantara.de
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

5)The lost jihad: love in Islam
G. Willow Wilson

Cairo - “At the heart of all things is the germ of their overthrow,” wrote Egyptian author Adhaf Soueif in her novel, The Map of Love. She was indulging in a very beautifully written digression about Arabic grammar, comparing words derived from the same root: in this case, qalb, “heart”; and enqilab, “overthrow”. At this level, where the interplay of meaning and construction is visible, Arabic becomes an extraordinary language, forcing into cooperation concepts and ideas that are entirely unrelated in English.

Despite the tremendous conceptual range and utility provided by the root-and-pattern system of the language, there is a common assumption among non-speakers that Arabic – and thus, Islam – lacks an equivalent of agapé, a Greek term used by Christians to mean the boundary-less, self-sacrificing love between believers, or between a believer and God. More passionate than filia, less explicit than eros, agapé is love stripped of expectation, in which the lover is humbled and disciplined before the beloved. A Google search for “agapé” and “Islam” yields literally hundreds of sites claiming there is no such term in Arabic, and painting Islam as a cold, dispassionate religion in its absence.

Over the years, Sufi Muslims have co-opted many of the romantic Arabic words for love and made them serve an ideal very much like agapé. The poetry of 10th and 11th-century Sufis helped inspire the troubadour culture and ideals of courtly love that flourished in the medieval kingdoms of southern France, Navarre and Aragonne; one of the positive artistic developments to arise from contact between Christian Europe and the Muslim Near East during the Crusades. But many of the greatest Sufi thinkers, including al Ghazali, were themselves influenced by Platonic, Neoplatonic and Gnostic Christian ideals of love, kept alive in the medieval Middle East by the translation of Greek, Roman and Byzantine texts into Arabic and Persian. The question remains: we know the Prophet Muhammad meant Muslims to love and serve God, but did he mean them to be in love with God – and to reflect this love and service among each other?

The answer is, simply, yes. Though it has classically been overlooked by Islam’s detractors, there is a word for agapé in Arabic. It carries the same non-specific “boundary-less” connotation as the Greek word, and is used contextually in the same way. Better yet, it is entirely original; not borrowed, adapted, or modelled on a word from another language. The Arabic word for agapé is mahubba, and it is fascinating for two reasons: one, because it comes from hub – in its feminine form – meaning, love. Two, because of the prefix ‘ma’. Adding the letter mim to the beginning of a word in Arabic means “one who is/does”, “that which is/does”, or “is in a state of” the word that follows it. Junun is mad, and majnun is “one who is mad” or “in a state of madness”; baraka is a blessing, and mubarak is “one who is blessed” or “in a state of blessedness”.

Thus, mahubba means quite literally “in love”, but it is rarely used in an erotic sense. It can describe either love among people or love for the divine, and is used most commonly in a spiritual context in both cases. Implicit in mahubba is service; the lover puts the beloved at the centre of the discourse, and submits to his/her demands. Author Fethullah Gulen describes mahubba as “obedience, devotion and unconditional submission” to the beloved, quoting Sufi saint Rabi’a al-Adawiya’s couplet, “If you were truthful in your love, you would obey Him/for a lover obeys whom he loves.”

While it is, again, primarily Sufis who have propagated the ideal of mahubba over the centuries, the word and the concept have roots in mainstream Islamic tradition: verse 3:31 of the Qur’an is sometimes called ‘ayat ul’mahubba’, and reads “Say: if you do love Allah, follow me, and Allah will love you.” A hadith qudsi (God’s words as repeated by the Prophet Muhammad) included in the collection of hadith compiled by Imam Malik is even more explicit: “God said, ‘My love [mahubbati] necessarily belongs to those who love one another [mutahubinna] for My sake, sit together for My sake, visit one another for My sake, and give generously to one another for My sake’.”

Mahubba differs from agapé in one crucial respect: because serving and approaching the beloved is a form of ongoing personal struggle, mahubba is a form of jihad. A far cry from the violent and indiscriminate “small jihad” preached by militants, mahubba is a form of the greater jihad, or jihad against one’s own ego. But Adhaf Soueif is right: at the heart of all things is the germ of their overthrow. The struggle to serve God, and one another, out of love, is the jihad of human potential against the jihad of violent ideology. If resurrected, it has the power to change the world.

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* G. Willow Wilson is a Muslim author and essayist. Her articles have appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Atlantic Monthly. Her graphic novel CAIRO, with artist MK Perker, is now available from Vertigo Comics. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org .

Source: Islamica Magazine, Issue 20, www.islamicamagazine.com
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

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Dear HumanDHS network friends

Please find below information on the workshop Making Britain: South Asian Visions of Home and Abroad 1870-1950

Kind regards
Brian Ward

Making Britain: South Asian Visions of Home and Abroad 1870-1950

Please note change of date and venue from previous announcements

Further details can be found on http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/south-asians-making-britain/index.html

Making Britain is a 3 year AHRC-funded project that examines South Asian contributions to Britain’s literary, cultural and political life in the period 1870-1950. Complicating the common perception that a homogeneous British culture only began to diversify after the Second World War, the project explores how an early diasporic population impacted on British life and helped to form contemporary Britain’s cultural-political identities. An interdisciplinary approach will illuminate the diverse ways in which South Asian writers, artists, activists and professionals in Britain formed affiliations, groupings and solidarities to create a dynamic contact zone at the heart of empire.
______________________________________________________________________________

Workshop 1: South Asian contact zones in the metropolis
Wednesday 23 April 2008
9.30am to 4.30pm
Wolfson Room, Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, London

This one-day workshop will be considering South Asians and their varied interactions with the metropolis in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Keynote speakers are Antoinette Burton (Professor of Global and Transnational Studies, University of Illinois) addressing the methodology of transnationalism in relation to a migrant doctor, and Partha Mitter (Emeritus Professor of Art History, University of Sussex) addressing ideas of cosmopolitanism in relation to migrant artists. There will also be a panel on Indians on the Celtic Fringe with papers on South Asian interactions in Ireland and Scotland. The day will be rounded off by a plenary panel of the core research team on the Making Britain project discussing the project and the days papers.

Making Britain is led by Professor Susheila Nasta (Open University), in collaboration with Professor Elleke Boehmer (University of Oxford) and Dr Ruvani Ranasinha (King’s College London), and Research Assistants Dr Sumita Mukherjee (Oxford) and Dr Rehana Ahmed (Open). We are working in partnership with the British Library and SALIDAA, and in consultation with leading scholars Dr Rozina Visram, Professor Partha Mitter, Professor Lyn Innes and Dr Deborah Swallow.

For any queries please email arts-making-britain[@]open.ac.uk
Or visit our website: www.open.ac.uk/arts/south-asians-making-britain

* As places are limited, please register your interest in attending this workshop a.s.a.p.

Provisional Programme

Workshop 1: South Asian contact zones in the metropolis
Wednesday 23 April 2008
9.30am to 4.30pm
Wolfson Room, Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, London

For directions to Senate House, please see: http://www.lon.ac.uk/map

10.15: Keynote
Antoinette Burton (Professor of Global and Transnational Studies, University of Illinois)
Locative Positions, Transnational Methods: The Case of the “Coolie Doctor”

11.45: Panel: Indians on the Celtic Fringe
Jennifer Regan (Queen’s University, Belfast), Dadabhai Naoroji’s connections with Ireland
Churnjeet Mahn (University of Glasgow), Nationalism without Race: The Origins of the Scottish Asian

2.00: Keynote
Partha Mitter (Professor Emeritus of Art History, University of Sussex)
Exploring the Virtual Cosmopolis

3.30: Plenary Panel
Making Britain: South Asian Visions of Home and Abroad, 1870-1950
Respondents: Susheila Nasta, Elleke Boehmer, Ruvani Ranasinha, Rehana Ahmed, Sumita Mukherjee

Dear HumanDHS network friends

Please find below information on two 2007 books on workplace organisation.

Kind regards
Brian Ward

The Puritan Gift

Triumph, Collapse and Revival of an American Dream, by Kenneth Hopper & William Hopper
I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2007
http://www.puritangift.com/

Also an interview with William Hopper at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/7191613.stm

The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t

by Robert I. Sutton

http://www.amazon.com/Asshole-Rule-Civilized-Workplace-Surviving/sim/0446526568/2

Dear HumanDHS network friends

Please find below information on the INCORE summer school June 2008.

Kind regards
Brian Ward

International Conflict Research - Summer School

INCORE is pleased to announce that the International Summer School
2008 will be taking place on Monday 16th June to Friday 20th June.

INCORE will offer three separate one-week courses: Evaluation and
Impact Assessment of Peacebuilding Programmes; Reconciliation in
societies Coming Out of Conflict; and ***Transitioning from a
Post-settlement to a Post-Conflict Society. The courses will run
concurrently.

The Summer School is recognised by UNITAR (United Nations Institute for
Training and Research) Programme of Correspondence Instruction in
Peacekeeping Operations, and may form part of The
Certificate-of-Training In Peace Support Operations (COTIPSO)
Programme.

The school provides an intensive week of training, networking and
discussion in the field of conflict resolution. It attempts to bridge
the gap between policy, practice and research.

Applications are now open.

For further details on modules and how to apply please visit:
http://www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/courses/ss/

Kindest regards,

Julie Lapsley

**This is a new module which draws on findings from INCORE’s current
Journeys Out project. For further details visit:
www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/policy