China : No more turmoil in Pakistan permissible
China says Hands off to all the 'foreign forces' in Pakistan adding fuel to fire !
This is a very significant move for China to say it out load through its state owned
newspaper.
The situation and latest developments in Pakistan have drawn increasing attention from the international community in every possible way since the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007 and particularly before the arrival of its upcoming parliamentary elections on February 18.The assassination of Benazir Bhutto, also leader of the main position party -- Pakistan People's Party (PPP), has wrought regional social upheavals and challenges of a greater extent to Pakistan. In order to maintain social stability and safeguard the people's lives and properties, however, the Pakistani government led by President Pervez Musharraf has resorted to a host of viable measures. Among these measures, paramilitary police and armed troops were empowered to quell the rioting, so as to avoid or cut the negative costs borne by the nation and society to the maximum.Nevertheless, the terrorist, secessionist and extremist forces both inside and outside Pakistan have never ceased their sabotaging activities while the Pakistani government has been making unremitting efforts in defense of the supreme national interests. A string of riots, violence and even terrorist attacks occurred in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and other places one after another in the past three weeks or so, with an ensuing, immense loss of human lives and property damages. Among the perpetrators involved are the terrorists and extremists who desire to stir up trouble with a readiness to turn the nation into turmoil, whereas most fallen victims in tragedies are no other than innocent civilians and public employees or functionaries.Some opposition forces at home and a few powers overseas impose pressures or punitive measures against Pakistan in the name of "democracy," "freedom" and "opposition to terrorism." So the nation is currently in very complex and stark circumstances, and its government is confronted with unprecedented challenges.As is known to all, Pakistan is a fairly sensitive nation with a swirl of tragic events and its security situation is also relatively fragile. Its government and people, however, have stood rare, unprecedented severe tests since the "September 11" terrorist attacks of 2001 in the United States and the outbreak of the war in Afghanistan. Thanks to the effective leadership of the Musharraf government along with joint efforts of people from all walks of life, Pakistan has on the one hand worked to coordinate with the struggle of the international community against terrorism. On the other hand, the nation has scored remarkable successes in socio-economic development, and also eased off its strained relations with its neighbor India.To be earnest and truthful, Pakistan has undergone an era of a relatively fast economic growth in which its people enjoy relatively ample benefits. What the Pakistani government has attained over recent years in safeguarding national stability and boosting economic growth is there for the whole global community to see.Its unique, specific geopolitical factor, however, proves if its situation is out of control and the entire nation in unrest and turmoil, the scope of negative influences would outreach its adjacent areas and negatively impact the global situation while plunging its own people into an abyss of suffering. Besides, stability in Pakistan's surrounding areas is sure to be menaced, and new variables will add to the war on terror being waged in Afghanistan and, consequently, the hard-won situation in South Asia featured with peace, development and cooperation could possibly get lost.In addition, as a great Islamic nation with a population of 160 million people, which is armed with nuclear devices, medium-range missiles and advanced manufacturing technology, its stability is bound to have a direct, or indirect impact on other Islamic nations as well as the international community. A case in point is that the assassination of Benazir Bhutto gave rise to fluctuations on global financial markets for some time. All sorts of major policy measures taken by the Pakistani government with an aim of safeguarding the internal stability and social order will surely be understood and accepted by the people in the nation and subsequently win their support. Likewise, the international community should also have a sober-minded awareness and understanding of these related useful measures being implemented there as Pakistan will absolutely not be the sole nation to suffer provided its stability is not fully guaranteed.By People's Daily Online
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Entertainment : Tanya Tagaq Gillis - Throat Singer
Tanya Tagaq Gillis an Amazing Throat Singer !
Listen to her live while u read :
(Click on play all tracks)
http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/singleConcert.html?20070621tanya
Tanya Tagaq Gillis (BFA) (sometimes credited as Tagaq) (born 1977[1]) is an Inuit throat singer from Cambridge Bay (Ikaluktuutiak), Nunavut, Canada, on the south coast of Victoria Island. After attending school in Cambridge Bay she went, at age 15, to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories to attend high school where she first began to practice throat singing. She later studied visual arts at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University and while there developed her own solo form of Inuit throat singing, which is normally done by two women.
Although she has become a popular performer at Canadian folk festivals, she is best known both in Canada and internationally for her collaborations with Björk, including concert tours and the 2004 album Medúlla. She has also performed with the Kronos Quartet and Shooglenifty and featured on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.
In 2005 her CD entitled Sinaa (Inuktitut for "edge") was nominated for five awards at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards. At the ceremony on 25 October 2005 the CD won awards for Best Producer/Engineer, Best Album Design and Tagaq herself won the Best Female Artist award.
Her Sinaa CD was nominated for the 2006 Juno Awards as the Best Aboriginal Recording.
According to her official page her music is like that of Björk in that Tagaq makes music that is both decidedly unusual and universally appealing on a basic level. Her innovative, solo style of throat singing seeks to push the boundaries of emotion and to express the primitive instincts she believes still reside deep within our flesh. She describes her evolution over the past six years as a process of going deeper and deeper into her performance to the point where she virtually “leaves her body” and lets the expression take over.
Although primarily known for her throat singing, she is also an accomplished artist and her work was featured on the 2003 Northwestern Telephone Directory, Canada.
More on Tanya :
http://www.tanyatagaq.com/
Listen to her live while u read :
(Click on play all tracks)
http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/singleConcert.html?20070621tanya
Tanya Tagaq Gillis (BFA) (sometimes credited as Tagaq) (born 1977[1]) is an Inuit throat singer from Cambridge Bay (Ikaluktuutiak), Nunavut, Canada, on the south coast of Victoria Island. After attending school in Cambridge Bay she went, at age 15, to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories to attend high school where she first began to practice throat singing. She later studied visual arts at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University and while there developed her own solo form of Inuit throat singing, which is normally done by two women.
Although she has become a popular performer at Canadian folk festivals, she is best known both in Canada and internationally for her collaborations with Björk, including concert tours and the 2004 album Medúlla. She has also performed with the Kronos Quartet and Shooglenifty and featured on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.
In 2005 her CD entitled Sinaa (Inuktitut for "edge") was nominated for five awards at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards. At the ceremony on 25 October 2005 the CD won awards for Best Producer/Engineer, Best Album Design and Tagaq herself won the Best Female Artist award.
Her Sinaa CD was nominated for the 2006 Juno Awards as the Best Aboriginal Recording.
According to her official page her music is like that of Björk in that Tagaq makes music that is both decidedly unusual and universally appealing on a basic level. Her innovative, solo style of throat singing seeks to push the boundaries of emotion and to express the primitive instincts she believes still reside deep within our flesh. She describes her evolution over the past six years as a process of going deeper and deeper into her performance to the point where she virtually “leaves her body” and lets the expression take over.
Although primarily known for her throat singing, she is also an accomplished artist and her work was featured on the 2003 Northwestern Telephone Directory, Canada.
More on Tanya :
http://www.tanyatagaq.com/
Monday, January 28, 2008
Issues facing : Muslim Women in Europe
Issues for Muslim Women in Europe Evolve
Follow links to listen to the news stories.
NPR.org, January 20, 2008 · When I first started reporting on Muslims in Europe more than a decade ago, I soon learned that women, more than men, want to be a part of European societies.
When given the opportunity, Muslim girls and young women eagerly seek education to widen their horizons. Everywhere I went, I heard that it was the girls who did well in schools, while boys seem more often to have problems adapting.
Eren Unsal, a German-born schoolteacher in Berlin, told me in 1999 that her parents strongly desired that she integrate into German society.
"My mother left her headscarf on the plane" from Turkey to Germany, she said. But today, walking through Berlin's Neu-Koln and Kreuzberg neighborhoods where many Turkish immigrants live, it's immediately clear that many headscarves are no longer being left on the flight from the homeland. Most women, young and old, are covering their heads — and not with the flowery cotton squares typical of rural Anatolia. Today, they tightly wrap their heads in what has become known as the Islamic headscarf.
In Britain, I also observed a significant increase in headscarves among Muslim women, many of whom have even taken to wearing the niqab, the face-veil that leaves only the eyes visible.
The way Muslim women dress and cover their heads is a topic of fierce and emotional debate in Europe: some non-Muslims see it as a sign of rejection of modernity and even of radicalization — and many believe it is a sign of women's submission to male power. The debate is made more strident by the simple fact that Europe was not socially and culturally prepared for the post-World War II influx of immigrants; no country had an integration policy, and the arrival of millions of Muslims re-awakened centuries-old animosities between Islam and Christendom. Tension turned to alarm after the Sept. 11 attacks and the Madrid and London bombings.
As I traveled through Europe this fall to report for this series, I remembered the words of filmmaker Yamina Benguigui, my first guide into the world of what she called "ghost women." French-born to Algerian parents, she broke with her strict patriarchal family and married a non-Muslim Frenchman.
In her documentaries, Benguigui explored the phenomenon of some young French Muslim women who, in the early 1990s, had taken to wearing the headscarf even when their mothers did not. While many of these young women said the headscarf was a mark of their cultural identity in a society where they felt discriminated, Benguigui said it was also something else: a way of getting around the dilemma of living a double life in two different cultures. Instead of breaking with their families, "they decide to take the Koran as a weapon against their families, by submerging themselves completely in religion, brandishing the veil and the Koran, they become the leader in the family … (the Muslim girl) will not be forced to marry and she can come home when she wants. She can drive a car and she's completely free," Benguigui told me in 1995.
Twelve years later, I met many Muslim women who still have not found their places and are still torn by two cultures. But I also met many Muslim women who are asserting themselves much more forcefully — either in identifying with European secular culture and demanding the same rights as their Western sisters, or by appropriating Islam for themselves, through a new female perspective. Or in a combination of the two.
While there is no distinct Europe-wide pattern, in many places a quiet revolution among Muslim women is under way.
In Britain, I encountered some highly educated women with a confrontational attitude toward non-Muslim Western society. I met women, British-born citizens, who do not vote and will not vote unless their ballots were to lead to the introduction of sharia, Islamic law. I met students at the London School of Economics who party — but girls-only, segregated by gender. I met women whose major concern is to avoid too much mingling with Western culture. Some of them are pressuring their mothers and grandmothers to wear headscarves for the first time in their lives to further underline their Muslim identity. And I was able to enter one of the few mosques that are opening their doors to women. I found a high degree of self-confidence as more and more Muslim women use education to appropriate the Koran for themselves — and take part in a debate on the nature of Islam that had always been a male-only domain.
In staunchly secular France, women wearing headscarves can be seen mostly around mosques. The fierce headscarf debate over the 2004 law banning it from schools has faded away. The law was more sharply criticized abroad than at home. I met many secular and observant Muslim women, all of whom identify themselves first as French, then Muslim. This widespread embrace of civic values is unique to France, despite continued, overt discrimination against Muslim minorities. And it is in France where women have made huge inroads in religious studies — many are enrolled in Islamic theological departments. Sociologist Douna Bouzar, herself a Muslim, told me that these women are the first French generation of Muslim faith, a generation of women who do not seek answers in the Islamic homelands of their parents and grandparents, but whose reference point is French, secular society.
The situation is very different in Germany, where the level of education of Muslim women is generally much lower than of those in France and Britain, and where the non-Muslim society is more distant and less welcoming. Turkish and German cultures differ sharply over the roles of women, the notion of arranged and forced marriages and of individual freedom — Turks see the family as the ultimate arbiter of what its members can do, while Germans consider parental involvement in their children's marital choices an infringement of personal freedoms.
In contrast with the first women immigrants who arrived from Turkey in the 1950s and 60s, who went to work directly in factories, the more recent immigrants are all new spouses. Muslim women activists strongly oppose the practice of importing brides from rural areas of Anatolia, which they say perpetuates separation. In fact, I met Turkish women who told me they had met their husbands just before their wedding days. Several said they don't want the same to happen to their daughters.
Turkish-German sociologist Necla Kelek is the author of the best-seller The Foreign Bride. She says that by importing women, sometimes as young as 14, Turkish patriarchs strengthen their families' segregation, relegating these young women to a state of anti-Western isolation. She writes, "they live in Germany, but never arrived here."
Muslim women who have broken with the patriarchal system are also seen as a threat to the Turkish rural family structure. Several books by Turkish-German women who describe their painful struggle for "emancipation" have become best-sellers in Germany, but at a large bookstore I visited in the Neu-Koln neighborhood in Berlin — where those books were prominently displayed — a saleswoman told me that she has never sold any to Turkish-German women — that it's only Germans who read them.
Lawyer and women's rights activist Seyran Ates told me it is very difficult to reach women isolated behind their walls of silence. Contact is usually made only with the few who are brave enough to scale those walls and seek refuge in a woman's shelter.
For Muslims in Europe, the main issues — discrimination by host societies, difficulty in finding jobs, and family conflicts — have remained more or less the same since I first started looking at immigrant communities in Europe. But with regard to Muslim women, I've seen changes — albeit in different directions and at different paces. It is still hard to say where these changes will lead. But at a time when Europeans are beginning to question the notion of multiculturalism that often leads to separate, parallel societies, authorities are now looking to Muslim women in the belief that their empowerment can facilitate their communities' integration into mainstream societies. And Muslim women themselves, better-educated and more experienced than their mothers and grandmothers, are beginning to grapple with the obstacles and abuse facing women in both their communities and in the broader society.
French Muslim Women Forge New Islam, Activism
by Sylvia Poggioli
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18119226
British Warn of Growing Female Islamic Radicalism
by Sylvia Poggioli
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18077497
Many British Muslim Women Embrace Political Islam
by Sylvia Poggioli
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18025998
Muslim Activist Critical of 'Multicultural Mistake'
by Sylvia Poggioli
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17847605
French Activists Fight Female Genital Mutilation
by Sylvia Poggioli
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18376776
Follow links to listen to the news stories.
NPR.org, January 20, 2008 · When I first started reporting on Muslims in Europe more than a decade ago, I soon learned that women, more than men, want to be a part of European societies.
When given the opportunity, Muslim girls and young women eagerly seek education to widen their horizons. Everywhere I went, I heard that it was the girls who did well in schools, while boys seem more often to have problems adapting.
Eren Unsal, a German-born schoolteacher in Berlin, told me in 1999 that her parents strongly desired that she integrate into German society.
"My mother left her headscarf on the plane" from Turkey to Germany, she said. But today, walking through Berlin's Neu-Koln and Kreuzberg neighborhoods where many Turkish immigrants live, it's immediately clear that many headscarves are no longer being left on the flight from the homeland. Most women, young and old, are covering their heads — and not with the flowery cotton squares typical of rural Anatolia. Today, they tightly wrap their heads in what has become known as the Islamic headscarf.
In Britain, I also observed a significant increase in headscarves among Muslim women, many of whom have even taken to wearing the niqab, the face-veil that leaves only the eyes visible.
The way Muslim women dress and cover their heads is a topic of fierce and emotional debate in Europe: some non-Muslims see it as a sign of rejection of modernity and even of radicalization — and many believe it is a sign of women's submission to male power. The debate is made more strident by the simple fact that Europe was not socially and culturally prepared for the post-World War II influx of immigrants; no country had an integration policy, and the arrival of millions of Muslims re-awakened centuries-old animosities between Islam and Christendom. Tension turned to alarm after the Sept. 11 attacks and the Madrid and London bombings.
As I traveled through Europe this fall to report for this series, I remembered the words of filmmaker Yamina Benguigui, my first guide into the world of what she called "ghost women." French-born to Algerian parents, she broke with her strict patriarchal family and married a non-Muslim Frenchman.
In her documentaries, Benguigui explored the phenomenon of some young French Muslim women who, in the early 1990s, had taken to wearing the headscarf even when their mothers did not. While many of these young women said the headscarf was a mark of their cultural identity in a society where they felt discriminated, Benguigui said it was also something else: a way of getting around the dilemma of living a double life in two different cultures. Instead of breaking with their families, "they decide to take the Koran as a weapon against their families, by submerging themselves completely in religion, brandishing the veil and the Koran, they become the leader in the family … (the Muslim girl) will not be forced to marry and she can come home when she wants. She can drive a car and she's completely free," Benguigui told me in 1995.
Twelve years later, I met many Muslim women who still have not found their places and are still torn by two cultures. But I also met many Muslim women who are asserting themselves much more forcefully — either in identifying with European secular culture and demanding the same rights as their Western sisters, or by appropriating Islam for themselves, through a new female perspective. Or in a combination of the two.
While there is no distinct Europe-wide pattern, in many places a quiet revolution among Muslim women is under way.
In Britain, I encountered some highly educated women with a confrontational attitude toward non-Muslim Western society. I met women, British-born citizens, who do not vote and will not vote unless their ballots were to lead to the introduction of sharia, Islamic law. I met students at the London School of Economics who party — but girls-only, segregated by gender. I met women whose major concern is to avoid too much mingling with Western culture. Some of them are pressuring their mothers and grandmothers to wear headscarves for the first time in their lives to further underline their Muslim identity. And I was able to enter one of the few mosques that are opening their doors to women. I found a high degree of self-confidence as more and more Muslim women use education to appropriate the Koran for themselves — and take part in a debate on the nature of Islam that had always been a male-only domain.
In staunchly secular France, women wearing headscarves can be seen mostly around mosques. The fierce headscarf debate over the 2004 law banning it from schools has faded away. The law was more sharply criticized abroad than at home. I met many secular and observant Muslim women, all of whom identify themselves first as French, then Muslim. This widespread embrace of civic values is unique to France, despite continued, overt discrimination against Muslim minorities. And it is in France where women have made huge inroads in religious studies — many are enrolled in Islamic theological departments. Sociologist Douna Bouzar, herself a Muslim, told me that these women are the first French generation of Muslim faith, a generation of women who do not seek answers in the Islamic homelands of their parents and grandparents, but whose reference point is French, secular society.
The situation is very different in Germany, where the level of education of Muslim women is generally much lower than of those in France and Britain, and where the non-Muslim society is more distant and less welcoming. Turkish and German cultures differ sharply over the roles of women, the notion of arranged and forced marriages and of individual freedom — Turks see the family as the ultimate arbiter of what its members can do, while Germans consider parental involvement in their children's marital choices an infringement of personal freedoms.
In contrast with the first women immigrants who arrived from Turkey in the 1950s and 60s, who went to work directly in factories, the more recent immigrants are all new spouses. Muslim women activists strongly oppose the practice of importing brides from rural areas of Anatolia, which they say perpetuates separation. In fact, I met Turkish women who told me they had met their husbands just before their wedding days. Several said they don't want the same to happen to their daughters.
Turkish-German sociologist Necla Kelek is the author of the best-seller The Foreign Bride. She says that by importing women, sometimes as young as 14, Turkish patriarchs strengthen their families' segregation, relegating these young women to a state of anti-Western isolation. She writes, "they live in Germany, but never arrived here."
Muslim women who have broken with the patriarchal system are also seen as a threat to the Turkish rural family structure. Several books by Turkish-German women who describe their painful struggle for "emancipation" have become best-sellers in Germany, but at a large bookstore I visited in the Neu-Koln neighborhood in Berlin — where those books were prominently displayed — a saleswoman told me that she has never sold any to Turkish-German women — that it's only Germans who read them.
Lawyer and women's rights activist Seyran Ates told me it is very difficult to reach women isolated behind their walls of silence. Contact is usually made only with the few who are brave enough to scale those walls and seek refuge in a woman's shelter.
For Muslims in Europe, the main issues — discrimination by host societies, difficulty in finding jobs, and family conflicts — have remained more or less the same since I first started looking at immigrant communities in Europe. But with regard to Muslim women, I've seen changes — albeit in different directions and at different paces. It is still hard to say where these changes will lead. But at a time when Europeans are beginning to question the notion of multiculturalism that often leads to separate, parallel societies, authorities are now looking to Muslim women in the belief that their empowerment can facilitate their communities' integration into mainstream societies. And Muslim women themselves, better-educated and more experienced than their mothers and grandmothers, are beginning to grapple with the obstacles and abuse facing women in both their communities and in the broader society.
French Muslim Women Forge New Islam, Activism
by Sylvia Poggioli
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18119226
British Warn of Growing Female Islamic Radicalism
by Sylvia Poggioli
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18077497
Many British Muslim Women Embrace Political Islam
by Sylvia Poggioli
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18025998
Muslim Activist Critical of 'Multicultural Mistake'
by Sylvia Poggioli
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17847605
French Activists Fight Female Genital Mutilation
by Sylvia Poggioli
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18376776
Islam In Europe - 5 countries 5 stories
Islam an Europe
- Listen or read the 5 part series on NPR - Follow the links.
All Things Considered, December 13, 2004 · Recent violent attacks in Europe by suspected home-grown Islamic extremists have extinguished illusions about European multiculturalism. Europeans are now realizing they've allowed the emergence of separate, disadvantaged Islamic communities.
Throughout the continent, a debate rages on how to integrate rapidly growing Muslim minorities -- many of whom feel contempt and hatred for their host societies. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli concludes a five-part series on Muslims in Europe
IN THIS SERIES
The Series Concludes
December 13, 2004 · The debate on whether Muslims can adapt to living as a minority in secular societies is surrounded by tension and confusion. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli concludes a five-part series on Muslims in Europe.Web Extra: Complete Series, Photo Gallery
Listen or read :
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4225527
France
December 6, 2004 · A controversial new law banning Islamic headscarves and other religious symbols in France's public schools has triggered an anguishing national debate: Can France integrate Europe's largest Muslim population and achieve its much-vaunted liberty, fraternity and equality? In the fourth part of a series on Muslims in Europe, NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4205231
Britain
November 29, 2004 · Among Britain's 1.8 million Muslims, anxiety is growing over a sharp rise in what the British call Islamophobia. Post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorist legislation and proposals for even tougher measures have led to widespread disaffection, anger and isolation among Muslim youth. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4190892
Germany
November 22, 2004 · The death of a Dutch filmmaker, at the hands of a suspected Muslim extremist, has Germans anxious that religious unrest will spread to their own country. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli continues a five-part series on Europe as the emerging battlefield in the struggle to define Muslim identity.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4182321
The Netherlands
November 15, 2004 · In the Netherlands, the recent murder of controversial filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by a Muslim extremist has revealed a climate of mistrust and fear between Muslims and traditional Dutch society. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli begins a five-part series on Europe as the emerging new battlefield in the struggle to define Muslim identity.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4170940
- Listen or read the 5 part series on NPR - Follow the links.
All Things Considered, December 13, 2004 · Recent violent attacks in Europe by suspected home-grown Islamic extremists have extinguished illusions about European multiculturalism. Europeans are now realizing they've allowed the emergence of separate, disadvantaged Islamic communities.
Throughout the continent, a debate rages on how to integrate rapidly growing Muslim minorities -- many of whom feel contempt and hatred for their host societies. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli concludes a five-part series on Muslims in Europe
IN THIS SERIES
The Series Concludes
December 13, 2004 · The debate on whether Muslims can adapt to living as a minority in secular societies is surrounded by tension and confusion. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli concludes a five-part series on Muslims in Europe.Web Extra: Complete Series, Photo Gallery
Listen or read :
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4225527
France
December 6, 2004 · A controversial new law banning Islamic headscarves and other religious symbols in France's public schools has triggered an anguishing national debate: Can France integrate Europe's largest Muslim population and achieve its much-vaunted liberty, fraternity and equality? In the fourth part of a series on Muslims in Europe, NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4205231
Britain
November 29, 2004 · Among Britain's 1.8 million Muslims, anxiety is growing over a sharp rise in what the British call Islamophobia. Post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorist legislation and proposals for even tougher measures have led to widespread disaffection, anger and isolation among Muslim youth. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4190892
Germany
November 22, 2004 · The death of a Dutch filmmaker, at the hands of a suspected Muslim extremist, has Germans anxious that religious unrest will spread to their own country. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli continues a five-part series on Europe as the emerging battlefield in the struggle to define Muslim identity.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4182321
The Netherlands
November 15, 2004 · In the Netherlands, the recent murder of controversial filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by a Muslim extremist has revealed a climate of mistrust and fear between Muslims and traditional Dutch society. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli begins a five-part series on Europe as the emerging new battlefield in the struggle to define Muslim identity.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4170940
Islam In Europe - 5 countries 5 stories
Islam an Europe
- Listen or read the 5 part series on NPR - Follow the links.
All Things Considered, December 13, 2004 · Recent violent attacks in Europe by suspected home-grown Islamic extremists have extinguished illusions about European multiculturalism. Europeans are now realizing they've allowed the emergence of separate, disadvantaged Islamic communities.
Throughout the continent, a debate rages on how to integrate rapidly growing Muslim minorities -- many of whom feel contempt and hatred for their host societies. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli concludes a five-part series on Muslims in Europe
IN THIS SERIES
The Series Concludes
December 13, 2004 · The debate on whether Muslims can adapt to living as a minority in secular societies is surrounded by tension and confusion. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli concludes a five-part series on Muslims in Europe.Web Extra: Complete Series, Photo Gallery
Listen or read :
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4225527
France
December 6, 2004 · A controversial new law banning Islamic headscarves and other religious symbols in France's public schools has triggered an anguishing national debate: Can France integrate Europe's largest Muslim population and achieve its much-vaunted liberty, fraternity and equality? In the fourth part of a series on Muslims in Europe, NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4205231
Britain
November 29, 2004 · Among Britain's 1.8 million Muslims, anxiety is growing over a sharp rise in what the British call Islamophobia. Post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorist legislation and proposals for even tougher measures have led to widespread disaffection, anger and isolation among Muslim youth. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4190892
Germany
November 22, 2004 · The death of a Dutch filmmaker, at the hands of a suspected Muslim extremist, has Germans anxious that religious unrest will spread to their own country. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli continues a five-part series on Europe as the emerging battlefield in the struggle to define Muslim identity.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4182321
The Netherlands
November 15, 2004 · In the Netherlands, the recent murder of controversial filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by a Muslim extremist has revealed a climate of mistrust and fear between Muslims and traditional Dutch society. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli begins a five-part series on Europe as the emerging new battlefield in the struggle to define Muslim identity.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4170940
- Listen or read the 5 part series on NPR - Follow the links.
All Things Considered, December 13, 2004 · Recent violent attacks in Europe by suspected home-grown Islamic extremists have extinguished illusions about European multiculturalism. Europeans are now realizing they've allowed the emergence of separate, disadvantaged Islamic communities.
Throughout the continent, a debate rages on how to integrate rapidly growing Muslim minorities -- many of whom feel contempt and hatred for their host societies. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli concludes a five-part series on Muslims in Europe
IN THIS SERIES
The Series Concludes
December 13, 2004 · The debate on whether Muslims can adapt to living as a minority in secular societies is surrounded by tension and confusion. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli concludes a five-part series on Muslims in Europe.Web Extra: Complete Series, Photo Gallery
Listen or read :
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4225527
France
December 6, 2004 · A controversial new law banning Islamic headscarves and other religious symbols in France's public schools has triggered an anguishing national debate: Can France integrate Europe's largest Muslim population and achieve its much-vaunted liberty, fraternity and equality? In the fourth part of a series on Muslims in Europe, NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4205231
Britain
November 29, 2004 · Among Britain's 1.8 million Muslims, anxiety is growing over a sharp rise in what the British call Islamophobia. Post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorist legislation and proposals for even tougher measures have led to widespread disaffection, anger and isolation among Muslim youth. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4190892
Germany
November 22, 2004 · The death of a Dutch filmmaker, at the hands of a suspected Muslim extremist, has Germans anxious that religious unrest will spread to their own country. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli continues a five-part series on Europe as the emerging battlefield in the struggle to define Muslim identity.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4182321
The Netherlands
November 15, 2004 · In the Netherlands, the recent murder of controversial filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by a Muslim extremist has revealed a climate of mistrust and fear between Muslims and traditional Dutch society. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli begins a five-part series on Europe as the emerging new battlefield in the struggle to define Muslim identity.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4170940
Everyone is amazed at Pakistan's Resilience !
Sunday Forum: Going home to Pakistan
My country is reeling after the Bhutto assassination, but life goes on and hope endures, says novelist MOHSIN HAMID
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Anita Dufalla / Post-Gazette
LAHORE, Pakistan - During the winter holidays, much of the Pakistani diaspora made its way back to the homeland. It was wedding season and -- for those with the means and of a secular persuasion -- party season as well. Flights were fully booked, airfares were astronomically high, and even circuitous itineraries via places such as Istanbul and Muscat were in great demand.
Of my parents and their siblings, 13 people in total, 11 live in Pakistan. But of their 26 children -- my generation -- 15 of us reside abroad. Pakistan has become an increasingly unsettled place, and many of my peers have voted with their feet. But not always with their hearts.
As my wife and I boarded our flight from London to Lahore, evident all around us was a longing for home -- for the friends and family who are central to Pakistani culture in a way that many foreigners find so remarkable. (As an admiring American roommate of mine once said, "All you guys do is hang out.")
Mohsin Hamid's most recent novel is "The Reluctant Fundamentalist." He wrote this for The Washington Post.
This duality of Pakistan as a place both troubled and normal, a place capable of producing a large diaspora while also affectionately tugging at those who have left, is often lost on the world's media. International news outlets tend to cast Pakistan as the one-dimensional villain of a horror film, a kind of Jason or Freddie whose only role is to frighten. Scant attention is paid to the hospitality, the love for music and dance, or the simple ordinariness of 164 million people going about their daily lives.
As we took our seats on a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 777, my fellow passengers did not look to me like embodiments of the hearts and minds of an important frontline state in the "war on terror." They looked like people excited to be headed home.
Seeking democracy
We touched down early on the morning of Sunday, Dec. 23. One of my brothers-in-law was getting engaged and a cousin was getting married, so I was soon busy running from one family event to another, often followed by late-night hangout sessions with old friends.
Naturally, we talked politics. It was immediately evident how unpopular President Pervez Musharraf has become. A year ago, many people said that he was at least partially good for the country. But Mr. Musharraf's conflict with the judiciary, suppression of independent television channels and crackdown on pro-democracy and human rights activists have embittered most of those who previously gave him credit for economic growth and stability.
My brother-in-law is much younger than I am, in his early 20s. He and his friends are poster boys for the "enlightened moderation" that Mr. Musharraf claims to want to promote. One is a computer programmer who works for a small company in Lahore that designs particle effects (smoke from explosions, blood splattering from gunshot wounds) for international video game studios. Another is a film student working on a pilot for a television show for his college thesis.
But even liberal young Pakistanis like them are keen to see an end to Mr. Musharraf's rule. I heard again and again that Pakistan needs to give democracy a chance, and that for that to happen, Mr. Musharraf must go.
Bhutto dies; riots ensue
I accompanied my wife's family to my brother-in-law's engagement. It is customary for the prospective groom's family to go to the home of the prospective bride and make a formal proposal for her hand. The lights went out in the middle of our visit -- due to power shortages, Pakistan suffers from rolling 30-minute blackouts -- and we had to wait in darkness before the bride-to-be could make her appearance and rings could be exchanged.
The following day I was chatting with my parents when a friend called and told me to turn on the television. At first, it seemed that there had been an explosion at a political rally attended by Benazir Bhutto, but that Ms. Bhutto herself was unharmed. Later, the news channels said that she has been injured and taken to the hospital. Finally, we heard the announcement that she had died.
I was surprised by the strength of my reaction. It was the most upsetting event in the history of Pakistan that I could personally recall.
Riots soon erupted across the country, most violently in Karachi, where my cousin's wife, a microbiologist, had just completed a medical ethics exam. Her taxi was attacked by a gang of teenage boys who smashed its windows with sticks. The driver managed to turn around and escape, and she spent the night at the nearby home of a friend, unable to make it to her destination until the following day because of the violence in the streets.
In Lahore, things were calmer, but there were reports of shootings and arson, and most people stayed indoors. I ventured out to my cousin's house, passing some of what would normally be the busiest boulevards in that city of eight million. I did not see more than a handful of cars. Lights were out, the streets were empty.
An olive branch extended
Ms. Bhutto was assassinated on a Thursday. By Saturday, stocks of food and petrol were running low. Shops were shuttered in protest at her killing, petrol stations were closed for fear of arsonists, and trucks and trains that carry supplies up and down Pakistan stopped running after coming under attack. Sunday brought a measure of reprieve, as the riots seemed to be coming under control.
For me, there were two unexpected sources of hope during this period. The first was from Nawaz Sharif, Ms. Bhutto's longtime political opponent and leader of the anti-establishment Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. He arrived at the hospital upon hearing of her death and was so visibly upset that he cried out again and again that this was Pakistan's "darkest day." The spontaneous humanity of his reaction, the depth of compassion and grief, seemed to resonate with and unite a vast swath of Pakistanis across the political spectrum.
Even more surprising was the first press conference of Ms. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party after her death. Her widower, the newly designated party co-chairperson, Asif Ali Zardari, has an extremely unsavory reputation. Yet instead of exploiting resentments in Sindh (Bhutto's home province) against the Punjab (the province where she was killed), he delivered an eloquent and -- dare I say it? -- inspiring defense of the federation, of democracy and of Sindhi-Punjabi brotherhood.
Mr. Zardari offered an olive branch to the army, saying that the party's quarrel is with Pakistan's ruling party, not with the country's soldiers. He admonished the rioters, telling Pakistanis to express their anger by voting in the elections, and expressed his gratitude to Mr. Sharif while asking Mr. Sharif's party not to boycott the polls (a request Mr. Sharif quickly accepted).
By Monday, a sense of relief seemed to be spreading through the country: On television, in newspapers, in conversations at the market, people were expressing cautious optimism about a future that only four days earlier seemed so bleak. There was enormous sympathy for Ms. Bhutto and her party. She was perhaps never so popular in life as she is now in death.
Meanwhile, Mr. Musharraf and the party of his establishment, the Pakistan Muslim League, have perhaps never been so unpopular. Television images of firefighters being directed to hose away evidence from the assassination scene, and government statements that Ms. Bhutto died not from bullets nor from a bomb but from falling on the sun-roof lever of her SUV, added fuel to the many conspiracy theories circulating about who really ordered her killing.
Two friends came to see us. In October, when Ms. Bhutto first returned to Karachi from self-imposed exile abroad, they had ridden in her convoy. Their car was immediately behind Ms. Bhutto's vehicle, and they saw the blasts of that initial unsuccessful suicide bomb attack on her. But they kept speaking of what preceded the carnage: the rapturous reception she received from her supporters. They told me it was beautiful, with all the singing and dancing and cheering of a carnival. It was a Pakistan they had never seen before, full of diversity and hope, with people from all four provinces and even the religious minorities out in a show of joy.
Pakistanis move on
Little more than a month has passed since Ms. Bhutto's death, but life in Pakistan is almost normal again. I am amazed by Pakistan's resilience, by this nation's power to pick itself up and carry on. But change is in the air. Opposition parties are uniting against the Musharraf-led establishment. Elections, even though they have been postponed until Feb. 18, seem poised to deliver a powerful rebuke to the current regime, unless of course they are rigged.
In the United States, there are newspaper columns and television talk shows dedicated to "loose nukes" and the "war on terror." Here in Pakistan, one can see signs of people coming together. Scare stories notwithstanding, it is possible (although by no means certain) that out of this tragedy the world's sixth-largest nation may succeed in finding its voice -- and with that the chance for a better future.
My country is reeling after the Bhutto assassination, but life goes on and hope endures, says novelist MOHSIN HAMID
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Anita Dufalla / Post-Gazette
LAHORE, Pakistan - During the winter holidays, much of the Pakistani diaspora made its way back to the homeland. It was wedding season and -- for those with the means and of a secular persuasion -- party season as well. Flights were fully booked, airfares were astronomically high, and even circuitous itineraries via places such as Istanbul and Muscat were in great demand.
Of my parents and their siblings, 13 people in total, 11 live in Pakistan. But of their 26 children -- my generation -- 15 of us reside abroad. Pakistan has become an increasingly unsettled place, and many of my peers have voted with their feet. But not always with their hearts.
As my wife and I boarded our flight from London to Lahore, evident all around us was a longing for home -- for the friends and family who are central to Pakistani culture in a way that many foreigners find so remarkable. (As an admiring American roommate of mine once said, "All you guys do is hang out.")
Mohsin Hamid's most recent novel is "The Reluctant Fundamentalist." He wrote this for The Washington Post.
This duality of Pakistan as a place both troubled and normal, a place capable of producing a large diaspora while also affectionately tugging at those who have left, is often lost on the world's media. International news outlets tend to cast Pakistan as the one-dimensional villain of a horror film, a kind of Jason or Freddie whose only role is to frighten. Scant attention is paid to the hospitality, the love for music and dance, or the simple ordinariness of 164 million people going about their daily lives.
As we took our seats on a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 777, my fellow passengers did not look to me like embodiments of the hearts and minds of an important frontline state in the "war on terror." They looked like people excited to be headed home.
Seeking democracy
We touched down early on the morning of Sunday, Dec. 23. One of my brothers-in-law was getting engaged and a cousin was getting married, so I was soon busy running from one family event to another, often followed by late-night hangout sessions with old friends.
Naturally, we talked politics. It was immediately evident how unpopular President Pervez Musharraf has become. A year ago, many people said that he was at least partially good for the country. But Mr. Musharraf's conflict with the judiciary, suppression of independent television channels and crackdown on pro-democracy and human rights activists have embittered most of those who previously gave him credit for economic growth and stability.
My brother-in-law is much younger than I am, in his early 20s. He and his friends are poster boys for the "enlightened moderation" that Mr. Musharraf claims to want to promote. One is a computer programmer who works for a small company in Lahore that designs particle effects (smoke from explosions, blood splattering from gunshot wounds) for international video game studios. Another is a film student working on a pilot for a television show for his college thesis.
But even liberal young Pakistanis like them are keen to see an end to Mr. Musharraf's rule. I heard again and again that Pakistan needs to give democracy a chance, and that for that to happen, Mr. Musharraf must go.
Bhutto dies; riots ensue
I accompanied my wife's family to my brother-in-law's engagement. It is customary for the prospective groom's family to go to the home of the prospective bride and make a formal proposal for her hand. The lights went out in the middle of our visit -- due to power shortages, Pakistan suffers from rolling 30-minute blackouts -- and we had to wait in darkness before the bride-to-be could make her appearance and rings could be exchanged.
The following day I was chatting with my parents when a friend called and told me to turn on the television. At first, it seemed that there had been an explosion at a political rally attended by Benazir Bhutto, but that Ms. Bhutto herself was unharmed. Later, the news channels said that she has been injured and taken to the hospital. Finally, we heard the announcement that she had died.
I was surprised by the strength of my reaction. It was the most upsetting event in the history of Pakistan that I could personally recall.
Riots soon erupted across the country, most violently in Karachi, where my cousin's wife, a microbiologist, had just completed a medical ethics exam. Her taxi was attacked by a gang of teenage boys who smashed its windows with sticks. The driver managed to turn around and escape, and she spent the night at the nearby home of a friend, unable to make it to her destination until the following day because of the violence in the streets.
In Lahore, things were calmer, but there were reports of shootings and arson, and most people stayed indoors. I ventured out to my cousin's house, passing some of what would normally be the busiest boulevards in that city of eight million. I did not see more than a handful of cars. Lights were out, the streets were empty.
An olive branch extended
Ms. Bhutto was assassinated on a Thursday. By Saturday, stocks of food and petrol were running low. Shops were shuttered in protest at her killing, petrol stations were closed for fear of arsonists, and trucks and trains that carry supplies up and down Pakistan stopped running after coming under attack. Sunday brought a measure of reprieve, as the riots seemed to be coming under control.
For me, there were two unexpected sources of hope during this period. The first was from Nawaz Sharif, Ms. Bhutto's longtime political opponent and leader of the anti-establishment Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. He arrived at the hospital upon hearing of her death and was so visibly upset that he cried out again and again that this was Pakistan's "darkest day." The spontaneous humanity of his reaction, the depth of compassion and grief, seemed to resonate with and unite a vast swath of Pakistanis across the political spectrum.
Even more surprising was the first press conference of Ms. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party after her death. Her widower, the newly designated party co-chairperson, Asif Ali Zardari, has an extremely unsavory reputation. Yet instead of exploiting resentments in Sindh (Bhutto's home province) against the Punjab (the province where she was killed), he delivered an eloquent and -- dare I say it? -- inspiring defense of the federation, of democracy and of Sindhi-Punjabi brotherhood.
Mr. Zardari offered an olive branch to the army, saying that the party's quarrel is with Pakistan's ruling party, not with the country's soldiers. He admonished the rioters, telling Pakistanis to express their anger by voting in the elections, and expressed his gratitude to Mr. Sharif while asking Mr. Sharif's party not to boycott the polls (a request Mr. Sharif quickly accepted).
By Monday, a sense of relief seemed to be spreading through the country: On television, in newspapers, in conversations at the market, people were expressing cautious optimism about a future that only four days earlier seemed so bleak. There was enormous sympathy for Ms. Bhutto and her party. She was perhaps never so popular in life as she is now in death.
Meanwhile, Mr. Musharraf and the party of his establishment, the Pakistan Muslim League, have perhaps never been so unpopular. Television images of firefighters being directed to hose away evidence from the assassination scene, and government statements that Ms. Bhutto died not from bullets nor from a bomb but from falling on the sun-roof lever of her SUV, added fuel to the many conspiracy theories circulating about who really ordered her killing.
Two friends came to see us. In October, when Ms. Bhutto first returned to Karachi from self-imposed exile abroad, they had ridden in her convoy. Their car was immediately behind Ms. Bhutto's vehicle, and they saw the blasts of that initial unsuccessful suicide bomb attack on her. But they kept speaking of what preceded the carnage: the rapturous reception she received from her supporters. They told me it was beautiful, with all the singing and dancing and cheering of a carnival. It was a Pakistan they had never seen before, full of diversity and hope, with people from all four provinces and even the religious minorities out in a show of joy.
Pakistanis move on
Little more than a month has passed since Ms. Bhutto's death, but life in Pakistan is almost normal again. I am amazed by Pakistan's resilience, by this nation's power to pick itself up and carry on. But change is in the air. Opposition parties are uniting against the Musharraf-led establishment. Elections, even though they have been postponed until Feb. 18, seem poised to deliver a powerful rebuke to the current regime, unless of course they are rigged.
In the United States, there are newspaper columns and television talk shows dedicated to "loose nukes" and the "war on terror." Here in Pakistan, one can see signs of people coming together. Scare stories notwithstanding, it is possible (although by no means certain) that out of this tragedy the world's sixth-largest nation may succeed in finding its voice -- and with that the chance for a better future.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Kite to pull ship across Atlantic
Kite to pull ship across Atlantic
The technology is aimed at cutting CO2 emissionsThe world's first commercial cargo ship partially powered by a giant kite is setting sail from Germany to Venezuela.
The designers of the MS Beluga Skysails say the computer-controlled kite, measuring 160sq m (1,722sq ft), could cut fuel consumption by as much as 20%.
They also hope the state-of-the-art kite will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, as it tugs the ship.
Fuel burnt by ships accounts for 4% of global CO2 emissions - twice as much as the aviation industry produces.
The MS Beluga SkySails' maiden transatlantic voyage is from the northern port of Bremerhaven to Guanta in Venezuela. The ship is expected to leave the German port at 1700 local time (1600 GMT).
It's kind of back to the future
Verena Frank, Beluga Shipping
The BBC's Steve Rosenberg, on board the vessel, says the computer will enable the kite to harness the full power of the wind.
"The maiden voyage marks the beginning of the practical testing during regular shipping operations of the SkySails System," says Stephan Wrage, managing director of SkySails GmbH.
"During the next few months we will finally be able to prove that our technology works in practice and significantly reduces fuel consumption and emissions," he said on the company's website.
"We're absolutely excited," said Verena Frank, project manager at Beluga Shipping GmbH, SkySails GmbH's partner.
She told the BBC's World Today programme that the project's core concept was "using wind energy as auxiliary propulsion power and using wind as a free of charge energy".
"Nevertheless, it differs very much from traditional sailing, as we do not have any bothersome mast on deck which might be a hindrance to cargo-loading operations."
Ms Frank said the efficiency of the kite depended on wind and weather conditions.
But the advantage of the SkySails system "is that you do not need only backward winds - there can also be side winds and you can still set sail," she said.
She said the kite could be used on medium-size cargo ships, cruise liners and trawlers.
The technology is aimed at cutting CO2 emissionsThe world's first commercial cargo ship partially powered by a giant kite is setting sail from Germany to Venezuela.
The designers of the MS Beluga Skysails say the computer-controlled kite, measuring 160sq m (1,722sq ft), could cut fuel consumption by as much as 20%.
They also hope the state-of-the-art kite will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, as it tugs the ship.
Fuel burnt by ships accounts for 4% of global CO2 emissions - twice as much as the aviation industry produces.
The MS Beluga SkySails' maiden transatlantic voyage is from the northern port of Bremerhaven to Guanta in Venezuela. The ship is expected to leave the German port at 1700 local time (1600 GMT).
It's kind of back to the future
Verena Frank, Beluga Shipping
The BBC's Steve Rosenberg, on board the vessel, says the computer will enable the kite to harness the full power of the wind.
"The maiden voyage marks the beginning of the practical testing during regular shipping operations of the SkySails System," says Stephan Wrage, managing director of SkySails GmbH.
"During the next few months we will finally be able to prove that our technology works in practice and significantly reduces fuel consumption and emissions," he said on the company's website.
"We're absolutely excited," said Verena Frank, project manager at Beluga Shipping GmbH, SkySails GmbH's partner.
She told the BBC's World Today programme that the project's core concept was "using wind energy as auxiliary propulsion power and using wind as a free of charge energy".
"Nevertheless, it differs very much from traditional sailing, as we do not have any bothersome mast on deck which might be a hindrance to cargo-loading operations."
Ms Frank said the efficiency of the kite depended on wind and weather conditions.
But the advantage of the SkySails system "is that you do not need only backward winds - there can also be side winds and you can still set sail," she said.
She said the kite could be used on medium-size cargo ships, cruise liners and trawlers.
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