VOICE OF GLOBAL UMMAH

VOICE OF GLOBAL UMMAH

Volume 60, January 4, 2009
St. Louis, Missouri

Editors: Mohamed & Rashida Ziauddin

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent and the Most Merciful

CONTENTS:

(1) ISSUES PERTAINING TO GLOBAL UMMAH:

Palestinian mourners carry the body of 4-year-old girl, Haya Hamdan, killed with her sister, Lama, 12, in background, in an Israeli missile strike, during her funeral in town of Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008.

(a) ISRAEL'S CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
(b)AL-QAIDA'S NO. 2 LEADER DOESN'T SPEAK FOR MUSLIMS
(c) EX-GUANTANAMO DETAINEE SERIOUSLY ILL IN JAIL IN RUSSIA
(d) NIGERIA: PREVENT FURTHER BLOODSHED IN LOS : INVESTIGATE KILLINGS AND END DISCRIMINATORY POLICIES


(2) ISSUES PERTAINING TO AMERICAN UMMAH:

(a) LOCAL FBI CHIEF REBUILDS TRUST WITH MUSLIM LEADERS
(b) US MUSLIMS WORRY ABOUT NEW FEDERAL RULES

(c) SIKH MUSICIANS PROTEST ORDER TO LEAVE PLANE

(d) 2009 IS GOING GREEN FOR SHURA COUNCIL: GLOBAL UMMAH SHOULD GO GREEN IN ALL POSSIBLE AND REALISTIC WAYS

(3) INTERFAITH ISSUES:

PRAYER ROOMS SHOULD BE OPENED IN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS SAYS CHURCH LEADERS

(4) FREEDOM OF SPEECH ISSUE:

(a) MARINE SUES TO DISPLAY ANTI-ISLAMIC DE-CALS (CAR BUMPER STICKERS)
(b) Face book page glorifying (Muslim) massacre shut down

(5) CHILDREN:

UNITED NATIONS CALL FOR RELEASE OF CHILD SOLDIERS

(6) WOMEN:

BELOW (6a and 6 b) ARE EXAMPLES OF ABUSE OF ISLAMIC LAWS AND VALUES BY UNSCRUPULOUS MUSLIM MEN. (Malaysia has banned divorce by SMS, e-mail or fax).

(a) NEPAL: MUSLIM WOMEN IN THE STREETS, AGAINST "TALAK" OR ISLAMIC DIVORCE.

(b) INDIA: DIVORCE BY E-MAIL SPARKS DEBATE.

(c) IRAN: WOMEN ONLY PARK OPENED IN TEHRAN - "Women's Paradise"

(d) CONGO - THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE ON EARTH FOR WOMEN. "Mass Rape in Congo: A Crime Against Humanity"

(e) UNITED STATES: THE ONLINE GYM FOR MUSLIM WOMEN.

(f) UNITED STATES: FEMALE MAJORITY TO CONTROL NEW HAMPSHIRE SENATE

(g) SAUDI ARABIA: (Certain) Foreign women married to Saudis abuse the system,

(1) ISSUES PERTAINING TO GLOBAL UMMAH

(1 a) ISRAEL'S CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY:
(Condensed version by Chris Hedges, Truthdig)

Israel's siege of Gaza rivals the worst crimes carried out at the height of South African apartheid.

Israel’s siege of Gaza, largely unseen by the outside world because of Jerusalem’s refusal to allow humanitarian aid workers, reporters and photographers access to Gaza, rivals the most egregious crimes carried out at the height of apartheid by the South African regime.

A wounded Palestinian boy is carried into
the Al-Shifa hospital earlier today
Photo: GETTY (telegraph.co:uk)

It comes close to the horrors visited on Sarajevo by the Bosnian Serbs. It has disturbing echoes of the Nazi ghettos of Lodz and Warsaw.

“This is a stain on what is left of Israeli morality,” I was told by Richard N. Veits, the former U.S. ambassador to Jordan who led a delegation from the U.S. Council for the National Interest Foundation to Gaza to meet Hamas leaders this past summer. “I am almost breathless discussing this subject. It is so myopic. Washington, of course, is a handmaiden to all this.

A Palestinian nurse treats Ismail Hamdan, 10 who was wounded in a recent Israeli air strike, and later died of his wounds, at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

The Israeli manipulation of a population in this manner is comparable to some of the crimes that took place against civilian populations fifty years ago.”

The U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, former Princeton University law professor Richard Falk, calls what Israel is doing to the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza “a crime against humanity.” Falk, who is Jewish, has condemned the collective punishment of the Palestinians in Gaza as “a flagrant and massive violation of international humanitarian law as laid down in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.” He has asked for “the International Criminal Court to investigate the situation, and determine whether the Israeli civilian leaders and military commanders responsible for the Gaza siege should be indicted and prosecuted for violations of international criminal law.”

(Gaza: Mustafa Hassan, Medecins Sans Frontieres. Head Quarters: Switzerland)

Falk, while condemning the rocket attacks by the militant group Hamas, which he points out are also criminal violations of international law, goes on to say that “such Palestinian behavior does not legalize Israel’s imposition of a collective punishment of a life- and health-threatening character on the people of Gaza, and should not distract the U.N. or international society from discharging their fundamental moral and legal duty to render protection to the Palestinian people.”

A medic carries a Palestinian girl after an Israeli missile strike on a house
in Gaza. Photo: Mohammed Salem, Reuters, 1 March 2008.

“It is an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe that each day poses the entire 1.5 million Gazans to an unspeakable ordeal, to a struggle to survive in terms of their health,” Falk said when I reached him by phone in California shortly before he left for Israel. “This is an increasingly precarious condition.


HEALTH AND MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES IMPACTING GAZAN CHILDREN:

A recent study reports that 46 percent of all Gazan children suffer from acute anemia. There are reports that the sonic booms associated with Israeli overflights have caused widespread deafness, especially among children. Gazan children need thousands of hearing aids. Malnutrition is extremely high in a number of different dimensions and affects 75 percent of Gazans. There are widespread mental disorders, especially among young people without the will to live. Over 50 percent of Gazan children under the age of 12 have been found to have no will to live.” The statistics gathered on children—half of Gaza’s population is under the age of 17—are increasingly grim. About 45 percent of children in Gaza have iron deficiency from a lack of fruit and vegetables, and 18 percent have stunted growth.

Gaza now spends 12 hours a day without power, which can be a death sentence to the severely ill in hospitals. There are few drugs and little medicine, including no cancer or cystic fibrosis medication. Hospitals have generators but often lack fuel. Medical equipment, including one of Gaza’s three CT scanners, has been destroyed by power surges and fluctuations. Medical staff cannot control the temperature of incubators for newborns. And Israel has revoked most exit visas, meaning some of those who need specialized care, including cancer patients and those in need of kidney dialysis, have died. Of the 230 Gazans estimated to have died last year because they were denied proper medical care, several spent their final hours at Israeli crossing points where they were refused entry into Israel.

“It is macabre,” Falk said. “I don’t know of anything that exactly fits this situation. People have been referring to the Warsaw ghetto as the nearest analog in modern times.”

“There is no structure of an occupation that endured for decades and involved this kind of oppressive circumstances,” the rapporteur added. “The magnitude, the deliberateness, the violations of international humanitarian law, the impact on the health, lives and survival and the overall conditions warrant the characterization of a crime against humanity. This occupation is the direct intention by the Israeli military and civilian authorities. They are responsible and should be held accountable.”

“This is a crime of survival,” Falk said of the rocket attacks. “Israel has put the Gazans in a set of circumstances where they either have to accept whatever is imposed on them or resist in any way available to them. That is a horrible dilemma to impose upon a people. This does not alleviate the Palestinians, and Gazans in particular, for accountability for doing these acts involving rocket fire, but it also imposes some responsibility on Israel for creating these Circumstances.”

Israel seeks to break the will of the Palestinians to resist. The Israeli government has Jewish settlements on the West Bank is an effort to thwart the possibility of a two-state solution by gobbling up vast tracts of Palestinian real estate. Israel also appears to want to thrust the impoverished Gaza Strip onto Egypt. There are now dozens of tunnels, the principal means for food and goods, connecting Gaza to Egypt. Israel permits the tunnels to operate, most likely as part of an effort to further cut Gaza off from Israel.

“Israel, all along, has not been prepared to enter into diplomatic process that gives the Palestinians a viable state,” Falk said. “They [the Israelis] feel time is on their side. They feel they can create enough facts on the ground so people will come to the conclusion a viable state cannot emerge.”

The use of terror and hunger to break a hostile population is one of the oldest forms of warfare. I watched the Bosnian Serbs employ the same tactic in Sarajevo. Those who orchestrate such sieges do not grasp the terrible rage born of long humiliation, indiscriminate violence and abuse. A father or a mother whose child dies because of a lack of vaccines or proper medical care does not forget. A boy whose ill grandmother dies while detained at an Israel checkpoint does not forget. All who endure humiliation, abuse and the murder of family members do not forget. This rage becomes a virus within those who, eventually, stumble out into the daylight. Is it any wonder that 71 percent of children interviewed at a school in Gaza recently said they wanted to be a “martyr”?

The Israelis in Gaza, like the American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, are foolishly breeding the next generation of militants and Islamic radicals. Jihadists, enraged by the injustices done by Israel and the United States, seek to carry out reciprocal acts of savagery, even at the cost of their own lives. The violence unleashed on Palestinian children will, one day, be the violence unleashed on Israeli children. This is the tragedy of Gaza. This is the tragedy of Israel. (Chris Hedges, alternet.org)

(1 b) AL-QAIDA'S NO. 2 LEADER DOESN'T SPEAK FOR MUSLIMS
Detroit News, 11/28/08

In the wake of Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri's speech against America and President-elect Barack Obama, I'd like to make it extremely clear that al-Qaida does not speak for Muslims ("Al-Qaida's No. 2 insults Obama," Nov. 20).

From Senegal to Indonesia, Muslims have celebrated Obama's victory. Moreover, American Muslims overwhelmingly supported the president-elect -- 90 percent, according to a post-election poll conducted by the American Muslim Taskforce.

It is quite evident that Al-Qaida is worried that its old talking points of painting America as a racist imperial power may not persuade a fringe pool of potential new recruits to wage terror against a nation that has elected a president who is the son of a Kenyan (Muslim) with the middle name of the Prophet Muhammad's (SAW) grandson. Muslims around the globe view Obama's election as a clear sign that America has taken a big step toward the fulfillment of its principle of racial equality. Hopefully, this will translate into a more brotherly, not paternal, relationship between America and the so-called Third World.

Al-Zawahiri used the race card by calling Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "house slaves," while twisting the words of civil rights leader El-Hajj Malik Shabazz -- also known as Malcolm X. Al-Zawahiri endorses the slaughter of women and children and suicide bombings of mosques in which fellow Muslims pray, so his usage of racial slurs is not surprising.

Malcolm X, who has been honored with a U.S. postage stamp, never endorsed the mass murder of civilians and attacks upon houses of worship, acts that Al-Qaida commits with frequency. In fact, at the end of his life, Malcolm X vigorously preached the Islamic teaching of racial equality and respect for the family of man.

Dawud Walid
Executive Director
Council on American Islamic Relations -- Michigan
Southfield

(1 c) Russia: Ex-Guantanamo Detainee Seriously Ill in Jail. Health Deteriorates During Lengthy Russian Detention
December 2, 2008

"Kudaev's case shows how vulnerable former detainees from Guantanamo are to abusive treatment back home. As US President-elect Barack Obama considers how to close Guantanamo Bay, the experience of people like Rasul Kudaev should be taken into account - and never repeated".

Carroll Bogert, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Moscow, December 2, 2008 - The health of a former Guantanamo detainee has declined alarmingly in a Russian detention facility, and he should be given immediate access to an independent medical examination and appropriate treatment, Human Rights Watch said today.

The former Guantanamo detainee, Rasul Kudaev, has been held for more than three years in pretrial detention in Nalchik, a city in southern Russia, accused of participating in an October 2005 armed uprising against the local government. He was severely tortured in custody. Human Rights Watch urged that Kudaev's lawyer be present during any medical examination.

"Rasul Kudaev has not been convicted of any crime, but prison authorities are putting his life at risk by letting his health collapse," said Carroll Bogert, associate director of Human Rights Watch. "The Russian government must get him decent medical treatment immediately."

Kudaev is one of seven Russian citizens whom the US government sent back from Guantanamo to Russia in 2004 despite their fears of being tortured and ill-treated back home. Human Rights Watch detailed their harassment and mistreatment by Russian authorities in a 2007 report "The Stamp of Guantanamo". It is a violation of the Convention against Torture, as well as other US and international laws, to involuntarily return people to a country where they are in danger of being tortured.

Kudaev's condition has deteriorated markedly over the last several weeks. Kudaev's mother and his lawyer told Human Rights Watch that Kudaev is currently suffering liver failure exacerbated by poor conditions, including inedible food, in detention. The skin on the right side of his back has hardened, the whites of his eyes are deep yellow, and he has trouble walking due to pain. In mid-November, Kudaev and his lawyer requested a medical examination. Prison authorities agreed to the exam but refused to allow it to be conducted by an independent doctor. They pledged to release all the medical records and photos taken during the medical examination, yet they barred Kudaev's lawyer from being present at his client's medical exam. The exam has not yet been scheduled.

(1 d) Nigeria: Prevent Further Bloodshed in Jos: Investigate Killings and End Discriminatory Policies
December 1, 2008

This latest outbreak of shocking violence should come as no surprise to the Nigerian authorities. It is a direct result of the government's failure to anticipate the level of ethnic and religious tension in Plateau State over the recent election, much less to address the underlying causes.

Georgette Gagnon - African Director of HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

(Lagos, December 1, 2008) - The Nigerian government should investigate and prosecute those responsible for killing up to 400 people during several recent days of violence in the city of Jos, Human Rights Watch said today.

The federal government should immediately establish an independent inquiry to find out who sponsored and carried out the killings, including any members of the security forces who appear to have responded to violence with disproportionate use of force. The government should also take concrete steps to end the discriminatory policies that treat certain groups as second-class citizens and that lie at the root of this violence.

The violence in Jos, the capital of Plateau State in central Nigeria, began early on the morning of November 28, 2008, following a disputed local election in which supporters of the opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party accused the governing People's Democratic Party of rigging the election results. Over the next three days, clashes between rival Muslims and Christians, some of whom on both sides were armed with firearms and machetes, left several hundred people dead, according to local sources in Jos. There was also widespread destruction in the town as mobs burned down homes, mosques, and churches. Thousands of residents have been forced to flee their homes.

Human Rights Watch called on the Nigerian security forces to abide by the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials in carrying out their duties. State security forces are required to apply nonviolent means as far as possible before resorting to the use of force, and where lawful use of force is unavoidable, restraint is to be used at all times to minimize damage and injury and to respect and preserve human life. Any order authorizing indiscriminate use of violence by security forces, such as "shoot-on-sight" orders, would violate these principles. Human Rights Watch called on Governor Jonah Jang to withdraw the order of November 29, which appears to authorize such use of force.

Nigeria is deeply divided along ethnic and religious lines. More than 12,000 people have died in religious or ethnic clashes since the end of military rule in 1999. In Plateau State, an unprecedented outbreak of violence in Jos claimed as many as 1,000 lives in September 2001. More than 700 people were killed in May 2004 in clashes in the town of Yelwa in the southern part of Plateau State.

Nigeria is deeply divided along ethnic and religious lines. More than 12,000 people have died in religious or ethnic clashes since the end of military rule in 1999. In Plateau State, an unprecedented outbreak of violence in Jos claimed as many as 1,000 lives in September 2001. More than 700 people were killed in May 2004 in clashes in the town of Yelwa in the southern part of Plateau State.

Government policies that discriminate against "non-indigenes" - people who cannot trace their ancestry to the original inhabitants of an area - underlie many of these conflicts. State and local governments throughout Nigeria have enacted such policies, denying those designated "non-indigenes" access to some of the most important avenues of socio-economic mobility. Non-indigenes are openly denied the right to compete for government jobs and academic scholarships, while state-run universities subject non-indigenes to discriminatory admissions policies and higher fees. In Jos, members of the largely-Muslim Hausa ethnic group are classified as non-indigenes despite many having resided there for several generations.

Human Rights Watch has called on the federal government to pass legislation prohibiting government discrimination against non-indigenes in all matters that are not purely cultural or related to traditional political institutions. Federal and state authorities should also conduct a public education campaign focusing on the rights that go with Nigerian citizenship and the need to end discrimination against non-indigenes. Instead of taking steps to combat this discrimination, government policies continue to legitimize and reinforce it.

"These discriminatory policies relegate millions of Nigerians to the status of second-class citizens and fuel the flames of ethnic and religious violence, which have often erupted during elections," Gagnon said.

(2) ISSUES PERTAINING TO AMERICAN UMMAH:

(2 a) LOCAL FBI CHIEF REBUILDS TRUST WITH MUSLIM LEADERS
Stephen Magagnini, Sacramento Bee, 12/1/2008

For months, Sacramento's top FBI agent kept a Muslim prayer rug in his office. It was for Imam Mohamed Abdul Azeez, religious leader of the SALAM Islamic Center in Sacramento, who attended a citizens' academy with Drew Parenti at the FBI office.

Parenti hasn't converted to Islam. He's been trying to convert Muslim leaders who might be suspicious of his agency after 9/11 and the Lodi terrorism case. And, after years of distrust, Azeez and other local Muslims believe they have found a friend in Parenti.

The local FBI chief has visited several of the area's 14 mosques, ready to answer tough questions. He also has recruited an Egyptian Muslim agent who is known to the community and worships regularly at SALAM (Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims) and other local mosques…

What's different is the FBI interaction with the community, said Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Sacramento Valley chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group.

"We're receiving fewer complaints because the FBI's approaching community members with more respect," Elkarra said. "Things have gotten a lot better."
Today, said Sacramento CAIR founder Rashid Ahmad, his group trusts the FBI will follow up reported hate crimes or vandalism at mosques.

(2 b) US MUSLIMS WORRY ABOUT NEW FEDERAL RULES
Associated Press, 11/30/08

Some Arab and Muslim-Americans say new Justice Department guidelines that boost the FBI's power to investigate suspected terrorists could target innocent people.

The revised guidelines going into effect Monday will allow agents to use undercover sources to gather information, interview people without identifying themselves and spy on suspects without evidence of wrongdoing.

Critics say the rules will allow for abuses, including more racial and religious profiling.

(2 c) SIKH MUSICIANS PROTEST ORDER TO LEAVE PLANE

Susan Ferriss, Sacramento Bee, 11/27/08

Three Sikh Indian musicians who were ordered off a plane at Sacramento International Airport on Nov. 15 have filed complaints of discrimination and racial profiling with federal transportation officials and US Airways.

(2 d) 2009 is Going Green for Shura Council.

We will continue to offer tips, techniques and resources promoting a culture that Muslims are mandated to -

"Eat & Drink but do not waste. Allah does not like those who waste." (7:31)

National Recycling Coalition has chosen the Islamic Shura Council as one of the 85 recipients from across the country from a pool of 1,400 applicants. The Bin Grant Program is designed to help communities start or expand their recycling programs. Shura Council will provide the collection bins to the Southern California Masajid to collect used bottles and cans for recycling. Please look for these bins when you visit a Masjid and use them.

Shura Council of Southern California Newsletter - Dec 2, 2008

(3) INTERFAITH ISSUES:

Muslim Prayer Rooms should be opened in Catholic schools, says Church leaders.

Dec 29 2008

By Simon Caldwell

Muslim prayer rooms should be opened in every Roman Catholic school, church leaders have said. The Catholic bishops of England and Wales also want facilities in schools for Islamic pre-prayer washing rituals. The demands go way beyond legal requirements on catering for religious minorities.

But the bishops - who acknowledge 30 per cent of pupils at their schools hold a non-Christian faith - want to answer critics who say religious schools sow division.

The Islamic cleansing ritual, called 'Wudhu', is carried out by Muslims before they pray. Catholic schools would need to install bidets, foot spas and hoses to facilitate such extensive cleansing rituals, Muslims say.

Majid Khatme, a Muslim who sent his children to a London Catholic school, said he was delighted by the gesture. 'It is very kind of the bishops if they give this facility for Muslims to pray,' he said.

'I would love to send a letter of thanks to the bishops, really. If they do this all Muslims in Britain will be thankful to the Catholic Church to have facilities to pray. It is very, very encouraging.'

The recommendations have been approved by Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Birmingham and the favourite to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor as Catholic primate. But it would be up to governing bodies of each school to decide whether to act on the guidance.

(4) FREEDOM OF SPEECH ISSUES:

(4a) EX-MARINE SUES TO DISPLAY ANTI-ISLAMIC CAR DECALS (Bumper-stickers)

Courtney C. Radsch, Al Arabiya, 12/9/08

The ex-Marine’s car left little doubt that he despised Islam and equated it with terrorism.

“ISLAM = TERRORISM” read one decal. Another showed a cartoon boy urinating on a man wearing a turban. Two featured a stop symbol over “The KORAN” and another over the star and crescent symbol. Yet another said disgrace my flag and I will (defecate) on your Quran.

Jesse Nieto was angry over the death of his son in the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S.-Cole in Yemen by Islamist militants. But officials at the military base where he worked told him he could not display the anti-Islamic decals on federal property.

The 25-year veteran has filed a federal lawsuit accusing base officials of violating his constitutional rights by requiring he remove them and preventing him from driving on federal installations.

Nieto’s youngest son Marc, 24, one of 17 U.S. Navy troops killed in the terrorist attacks, is buried at Arlington National Cemetery outside of Washington D.C. The ban on driving the offending car in federal installations blocks him from visiting his son’s grave, the lawsuit alleges, though public transportation is readily available.

In July, Nieto’s supervisor at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where he worked as a civilian in an electrical shop, threatened to fire him if he did not remove the stickers and police issued him a ticket for displaying “offensive material.”

But since the ban does not prohibit speech in public areas, but rather restricted speech in a military location, it is not a free speech issue, said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

“I think it’s up to the military to decide what constitutes good order and discipline on military sites. I don’t think anyone is saying he can’t be an anti-Muslim bigot in public but we're talking about military sites,” Hooper told AlArabiya.net.

(4 b) Facebook page glorifying (Muslim) massacre shut down

15 December 2008

A Facebook group glorifying the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of over 8 000 Bosnian Muslims appeared to have been shut down on Friday following complaints about its content.

The link to the Serbian group "Noz, zica, Srebrenica," or "Knife, Wire, rebrenica," which had attracted about a thousand people, was no longer directing users to the page, but no explanation was given.

A group opposed to the site had attracted 15 832 people since being created on Monday and alerted the administrator about it.

It said the controversial site "glorifies the acts of genocide. ..(and) propagates hatred to all Muslims."

During Bosnia's 1992-95 war, the eastern town of Srebrenica was a UN-protected Muslim enclave.

Serb forces overran Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, killing around 8 000 Muslim men and boys and throwing their bodies into mass graves.

The Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst atrocity since World War 2, has been termed genocide by the International Court of Justice and the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) - AFP

(5) CHILDREN:

UN calls for release of child soldiers

December 31 2008

Geneva - The ongoing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has caused the displacement of more than 250 000 people, has put children at particular risk of recruitment into armed groups, the United Nations' Children Fund (Unicef) said on Wednesday.

Unicef called on "all armed groups to end the recruitment and use of children", Pierrette Vu Thi, the agency's chief in the DR Congo, said in a statement. They must "immediately release the children within their ranks".

The children are also prone to sexual exploitation and forced labour, particularly when they are separated from their families and unable to attend school, the agency said, warning that some former child soldiers were being re-recruited by rebels.

In the past four years, 10 000 children have been released and reintegrated into their communities.

Since September, the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has abducted 200 children in the Dungu district, Unicef said, adding that it was working with 31 of these youngsters who managed to escape.

Fighting during the last decade in the DR Congo is estimated to have killed more than five million people and left over a million people internally displaced.

(6) WOMEN:

BELOW (6a and 6 b) ARE EXAMPLES OF ABUSE OF ISLAMIC LAWS AND VALUES BY UNSCRUPULOUS MUSLIM MEN.

(6 a) Muslim women in the streets against ‘talak’ or Islamic divorce

by Kalpit Parajuli

Kathmandu (AsiaNews)
Dec 02, 08

Hundreds of Muslim women along with their supporters took to the streets of Nepalgunj, a town in western Nepal, to protest against ‘Talak’ or Islamic divorce. The demonstrators, including 465 divorced Muslim women, human rights activists and about 100 Muslim men, marched on 26 and 27 November to demand immediate compensation from the women’s former husbands as well as equal division of assets after divorce.

Many Muslim women said that after divorce they were left with no support. Some said that they had to go back to their original families or find shelter at human rights organisations.

“Muslim men release (talak) their wives from the marriage, i.e. divorce them, but then no one thinks about them,” said Sima Khan, president of the Muslim Awareness Federation, one of the protest groups that organised the demonstration. “Women don’t get any of their husbands’ assets, or any support. This has increased the incidence of divorce in the Muslim community. We must achieve equal rights for these women,” she added.

Homelessness is in fact a problem for many Muslim women. Some are driven out of their parents’ home once the latter pass away.

“Many women go hungry or get into prostitution to make ends meet after divorce,” explains Nitu Haluwai, a Muslim human rights activist.

However, Muslim leader Maulana Abdul Jabbar said that talak, which is based on the Qur’an, has been badly interpreted over the years.

“Divorce proceedings ought to take place in accordance with the law but without
transgressing religious values,” he said.

(ASIANNEWS.IT)

(6b) INDIA: Divorce by e-mail sparks debate

New Delhi (AsiaNews/SCMP)

A Muslim woman whose husband in the US has divorced her by e-mail has thrown Islamic clerics and scholars in India into a spin.

A Muslim man must say talaq (I divorce you) three times or write it down. In this case, Rubab Anwar says her husband, Rahat Iqbal, sent her an e-mail from the United States. ...a month later, he left for the US, promising to send her a visa soon. The visa never came, but the divorce e-mail landed in her inbox...

The story comes as clerics are discussing the validity of "instant" divorces, permitted in India but banned in many Muslim nations. Such a divorce allows a man to say talaq three times in one go, rather than over a three-month period.

"Triple talaq is very effective but the authenticity of the communications must be established because it is open to misuse," said Khalid Rashid, a member of a prominent Muslim religious body.

Ms Anwar plans to challenge the authenticity of the method. Some clerics sympathise, saying that since e-mails do not have signatures, she needs to call her husband to confirm that he sent the e-mail.

Malaysia has banned divorce by SMS e-mail or fax.

(6 c) Iran: Women-only park opened in Tehran

Tehran (AsiaNews)

A park has been opened in Tehran exclusively for women, who will be able to exercise and go jogging "safely" there, and even leave their heads uncovered.

Imposed with the Islamic revolution of 1979, the women's dress "code" requires that women be covered from head to toe and avoid tight-fitting clothes. The moralising campaigns typically begin with the approach of summer, and the consequent desire to wear lighter clothing: those who are dressed "poorly" - in general with slacks that do not cover the entire leg, and with a few locks of hair straying out of the headscarf - risk fines, flogging, and prison, even if the matter is normally resolved with a warning on the part of the police (below photo).

According to the newspaper Farhang-e Ashti, the new campaign was launched last Saturday against women dressed "indecently". Men are also under fire: those with "Western" hair styles can be arrested. Barbers who give such hair cuts are also in danger, as are the women's clothing shops that sell "indecent" clothing.

But uncovered hair will be permitted in the "Mothers' Paradise", the public park exclusively for women, inaugurated by the mayor of the capital, Mohammad Baqir Ghalibaf. Surrounded by tall hedges and covered with colourful canopies, the park guarantees safety for the women who exercise there. The news agency Fars clarifies that this is not the first women-only park in the country: other cities, including Mashad and Qom, already have them.

(6 d) Mass Rape in the Congo: A Crime Against Society

By Ann Jones, The Nation.
December 23, 2008.

Mass rapes in the Congo are destroying civic life, as hundreds of thousands of rape victims are cast out from their families and communities.

Late one afternoon seven years ago, in the village of Kamanyola in eastern Congo, Fatuma Kayengela's husband sent their daughter and her cousin to the market to buy oil for the lamps. When the two 15-year-old girls turned to go back home, they found the way blocked by soldiers, who took them down the road. As darkness fell, Fatuma and her husband went in search of the girls and learned of screams and crying coming from the school. There they found the girls as the rapists had left them. They went to the police station for help, but the police said there was nothing they could do about soldiers. When Fatuma's husband grew angry, they threatened to arrest him. Thankful the girls were still alive, Fatuma took them home.

The Democratic Republic of Congo was titled Rape Capital of the World in 1994.

As direct targets of men at war, women and girls suffer terribly. The Interahamwe have been singled out as the worst perpetrators of atrocities, but every armed group is guilty of violating women. Men singly or in gangs rape women and girls of all ages. (Recorded victims range in age from 2 months to 83 years.) Men also cut off women's nipples or breasts, mutilate or cut off external genitalia, and eviscerate living pregnant women to remove and kill fetuses. After rape, men commonly insert foreign objects into the vagina: sticks, sand, rocks, knives, burning wood or charcoal, or molten plastic made by melting shopping bags. Killing the rape victim by firing a handgun or rifle inserted in the vagina is a common practice; some victims have survived. Rapists have blinded many women, apparently to prevent identification, and left countless others to die in the forest after chopping off their arms and/or legs. Soldiers also abduct women, and especially girls as young as 10 or 11, as captive "wives." Some escaped women and girls report being chained to trees for months, released only to be gang-raped, day after day. Many report witnessing the death of other captive women and girls, murdered as disciplinary examples or abandoned in the forest when they were no longer "serviceable."

Tens of thousands of rape victims have survived but suffer enduring symptoms of psychological trauma -- depression, anxiety, sleeplessness, despair -- and debilitating physical problems: crippled or missing limbs, blindness, damaged or destroyed internal organs and/or genitalia and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. Thousands have been left with fistula, a complaint often misrepresented by male war correspondents unfamiliar with female anatomy.

Broadly, fistula refers to any perforation in the tissues separating the vaginal canal from the urinary tract and/or the rectum. There are several different types of fistula, depending on where the holes occur, but the typical result is uncontrollable leakage through the vagina of urine or feces or both. In less violent times, fistula most commonly results from prolonged labor in childbirth when the fetus presses upon maternal tissues, cuts off blood supply and creates "dead" spots that give way. The younger, and therefore smaller, the mother, the greater the likelihood of prolonged labor and fistula. When women have access to adequate maternal care, fistula is easily prevented; but in the DRC it occurs in remote areas even in the best of times.

It's true that long before the war Congolese men treated women as lesser creatures, forbidden to plant money-making crops such as coffee and cotton -- forbidden even to eat nourishing foods like eggs and chicken. It's true that men routinely used force if necessary to compel women's labor and sexual service. It's true that Congolese men hold notions that promote rape: that having sex makes men stronger, for example, or that having sex with a virgin immunizes against AIDS.

It's so dangerous that a special session of the UN Security Council in June passed Resolution 1820 to demand "the immediate and complete cessation by all parties to armed conflict of all acts of sexual violence against civilians."

Cultural norms die too when women are raped in the presence of their families; when boys and men are forced to rape their own sisters, mothers or daughters, or are murdered on the spot for refusing; when boy soldiers are compelled to rape babies or grandmothers. So divisive is rape, and the shame and terror that attend it, that even in the best case the family may fall apart.

(There also have been) cases of young girls raped in recent weeks not by militiamen but by civilians in the community. A 12-year-old raped by her teacher. A 9-year-old raped by a young boy. A 7-year-old raped by a middle-aged man. An 11-year-old raped by her father. A 7-year-old raped by her pastor. This is something new in the community since the war, and the women of CFK struggle to understand it.

(6 e) United States: The Online Gym for Muslim Women

Dec 1, 2008 (www.amhp.org/forum)

"As-salmualaikum

Fit Muslimah.com, “The online Gym for Muslim Women” is increasing its content and looking for writers. Topics related to the physical, mental and spiritual health of Women in general and Muslim Women for exclusive content on www.FitMuslimah.com.

Health, nutrition, fitness, exercise, prophetic medicine, spiritual growth, cancer, diabetes, illness prevention, treatment and related topics. No topics in opposition to Islamic belief will be accepted.

Men and women, Muslim and non-Muslim are encouraged to submit articles,. Articles should be 250-500 words in length, written in layman’s terms, practical advice or tips. Quality is key. Articles must be written in English. No spelling or grammatical errors. Articles must be 100% original and not created with spinning software. Strictly no plagiarism. Articles will be checked with Copyscape. Article body with approx 2% keyword density. (First and last paragraphs must contain the keyword). ALL WORK MUST BE ORIGINAL AND EXCLUSIVE TO FITMUSLIMAH.COM All rights and ownership will be transferred immediately to buyer (Fit Muslimah) upon payment.

After payment, you must not use the articles in any way including as examples of your work. Price per article will be around $10-$20 per article. You MUST have a paypal address to be paid. Please submit original article WITH-IN the body of the email to info@fitmuslimah.com
(no attachments).

Mubarakah Ibrahim"

(6 f) United States: Female Majority to Control New Hampshire Senate

By Jane Costello, Women's eNews, Dec 2, 2008

When the New Hampshire Senate convenes in January, women will run the show, forming the first female legislative majority in the nation.

LEBANON, N.H. -- New Hampshire's state Senate will carve history for the Granite State in January when the legislative body convenes with women in 13 of the 24 seats forming the country's first female majority.

Women will also factor in key positions of leadership: the Senate is presided over by its president, Sylvia Larson, and president pro-tem, Maggie Hassan, while Martha Fuller Clark continues her role as majority whip.

"We are setting a great example for young women: that they can get involved and run for office," says Sharon Carson, a newly elected Republican senator who formerly served as state representative from Londonderry and works as an adjunct professor at Nashua Community College.

Other states with a high portion of female legislators are Arizona, Minnesota, Hawaii, Maryland, Oregon and Maine.

After the defeat earlier this month of five female candidates for the state Legislature, South Carolina will have no female representatives when its state Senate convenes in January. It will be the first time since 1979 that its state Senate has had no women in office.

Women's eNews.

(6 g) (Certain) Foreign women married to Saudis abuse the system

Hassna’a Mokhtar, Arab News

JEDDAH:

A group of sociologists and a lawyer are currently studying the issue of non-Saudi women who marry Saudis and apply for divorce after obtaining Saudi citizenship.

Wail Joharji, 36, a lawyer and legal consultant, believes foreign women divorce their Saudi husbands as soon as they get citizenship for many reasons, which include their eligibility to claim social security, the right to take substantial business loans from the Centennial Fund or the Saudi Credit and Saving Bank, and the opportunity to marry non-Saudis who wish to have a Saudi sponsor to run businesses in the Kingdom.

“Divorce harms women and children. We have to maintain a smooth and just mechanism for marriage and divorce, leaving no loopholes for anyone to abuse the system. There is a percentage of foreign women, especially those born and raised in the Kingdom, who marry Saudis with the intention of only claiming Saudi nationality,” said Joharji.

He added that the study is in the interest of Saudi society in general and those children who are affected by such divorces in particular.

“We’re not against men or women. We’re against people abusing the system to serve their own twisted purposes,” said Joharji.

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