Islam On Capitol Hill

Our day started out great. The weather had cooled about ten degrees, with a threat of rain. We took our umbrellas. We were on our way to The Capitol Building. We walked from a Foggy Bottom hotel to the Ellipse, where we relieved ourselves (well, at least VB did) and sat while enjoying the sights, such as the one below. Segways can be rented to tour the Capitol. Something we didn't know, but became apparent after seeing numerous nerdy people on them, all over the place.

Below: A geek on a Segway taking a photo of the geese, no doubt, as there was really nothing else there. Would VB lie to you? Believe me you, things change from just plain strange to outrageous on this day.



VB wanted to walk to The Capitol Building for two reasons: (1) She had never seen it before, from the Mall view - close-up and personal; (2) We were informed by our Pakistani doorman that a major Jumaa pray-in event was scheduled, and 50,000 Muslims were to be there at 1:00 PM on Friday! VB performed her usual Google search and found Islam On Capitol Hill, with all the details. That's a got-to-see thing. A be-in for any Muslim worth their snuff. Sort of like a March On Washington for Muslims. Amazed, VB had settled on walking down there to view the event. And, as we all know, nothing goes as planned.

First there were the protesters. As we approached The Capitol, this is what we saw, below.

Question: When do they start burning the crosses?


As we got closer, the protesters were gathered at strategic points (of course) to annoy all who passed by, and particularly Muslims attending this event. The speaker below reminded VB of the protesters at the Republican National Convention, 2004, in New York City. All these people are comparable to the God Hates Fags group, from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas headed by Fred Phelps. Apparently God hates all those who don't agree with Mr. Phelps. All these protesters are more concerned with what happens after death, than how we conduct ourselves during our lifetime.

From The Washington Post, Muslim Prayers at Capitol Stir Protests: "The event, called "Islam on Capitol Hill," is designed to highlight how U.S. Muslims can coexist with their fellow Americans. Hassen Abdellah, the lead organizer of the event, called on people to come to the Capitol to "pray for peace and understanding between America and its Muslim community.""

"But this week, some conservative Christians have called the event a threat to Christian values."

Here (below) the megaphone for one of the protesting groups.


We crossed the street towards The Capitol, and it looked blocked off, so we turned around. This is the group with the above mentioned megaphone. What caught VB's attention was the "Jail To The Chief" banner. Yep! That's got religion (ahem, racism) written all over it!


Below - This is about twenty minutes before the Jumaa Prayers are to begin, and the attendance looks small.


We sit for awhile, as we've walked at least two miles from Foggy Bottom. Some of the attendees (below) gather at the Capitol Reflection Pool to dress (and possibly wash their feet?) Meanwhile, some Christian Indians (South Asian) decide to try to convert us from our fallen away lives to saving our souls - that's what matters the most you know - saving souls. They don't want us to get Left Behind.


Below - A few attendees, in bright dishdashas, cross the street towards The Capitol Building.


Below - Protesters on another corner - arguing.


Below - VB climbs onto the wall around the Reflection Pool for a better shot.


Below - The view behind VB. You can clearly see the Washington Monument straight ahead, with the National Book Fair tent in front, and the Smithsonian Castle protruding to the left. It's quite a sight.


Below - The two most annoying people in the universe this day. They persisted in standing at the corner where most prayer attendees were dropped off, screeching into a megaphone sins, should people not follow the one, the only, Jesus Christ. Pathetic that these people don't understand that Islam views Jesus as a prophet, as well. Oh, and that fornication sin with the special coloring - how in hell would we have any embryos or unborn babes to save if people didn't fornicate, and furthermore, perhaps this sad soul's parents should have had safe sex, or no sex at all!



Below - A video VB took with her new iPhone. She personally heard the guy with the megaphone declare, as he pointed across the street toward the prayer meeting, "This is a declaration of waaaar!" The video is rather boring, since he tamed his rhetoric down to mediocre religious punditry once he got on to his megaphone. Still, it was annoying - very, very annoying. At one point VB heard a police officer declare, "All those people (protesters), are ex-child offenders, wife abusers, alcoholics, and / or drug addicts." That was nice! No that was actually sweet!




Below - As we cross the street, this man is holding signs and declares, "I'm here in peace. You'll get no argument." Why does VB not trust him?


Then, just as we pass him, the toxic group appears - the ones that accost you, argue with you, and try to stop you, and eventually make you so angry you want to smite them (like with your umbrella)! We passed right by, while they were in the midst of arguments with other passers by, as you can see below.


We finally figured out (duh) that we could just walk right in to the prayer meeting ourselves - which we did. This photo below is from inside the lines, up close (but not too close) and personal (not really). The Boss Man was pushing VB to leave as we had another engagement. The prayer meeting was running late - very late - like forty-five minutes late.


Below - One of the Indian Christians predicted that he thought the crowd would swell to five thousand people for the meet. He said they had quite a good publicity show. Really? VB only knew of it a couple of days before, and no news agencies seemed to be covering it at all.

VB's last shot from the wall, before leaving, and there's no way this crowd will make fifty thousand, much less five thousand! Sad but true. According to the Washington Post, which has a great video at the link, and the only news outlet that seemed to care enough to even mention this event, At Capitol, a Day of Muslim Prayer and Unity: "Nearly 3,000 people gathered on the west lawn of the Capitol on Friday for a mass Muslim prayer service that was part religion and part pep rally for the beleaguered U.S. Muslim community.""We wanted to bring people out to show you don't need to fear America," said Imam Ali Jaaber of Dar-ul-Islam mosque in Elizabeth N.J., the service's main organizer. At the same time, he said, he wanted to remind non-Muslims that "we are decent Muslims. We work; we pay taxes. We are Muslims who truly love this country.""

Across the street from the service, Christian protesters gathered with banners, crosses and anti-Islamic messages. One group, which stood next to a 10-foot-tall wooden cross and two giant wooden tablets depicting the Ten Commandments, was led by the Rev. Flip Benham of Concord, N.C.

"I would suggest you convert to Christ!" Benham shouted over a megaphone. Islam "forces its dogma down your throat." A few Christian protesters gathered at the rear of the Muslim crowd, holding Bibles and praying.

At one point, organizers asked them to tone it down.

"We would never come to a prayer meeting that you have to make a disturbance," Hamad Chebli, imam of the Islamic Society of Central Jersey, said from the lectern. "Please show us some respect. This is a sacred moment. Just as your Sunday is sacred, our Friday is sacred.""

VB says, "Amen!"

Below: The belligerence doesn't end, as we try to leave.


We walked around the way we arrived. This is the view from the other side of the Capitol Building, as we depart.



Below: More photos of some of the attendees.




And VB wonders, where the hell is Louis Farrakhan?

Weekend Roundup Preview - All Egypt Edition

So many articles have appeared this week concerning Egypt. Some about social problems, others focusing on Ramadan, the movie/ T.V. industry and then, as usual the Muslim Brotherhood. So Vagabondblogger has decided to dedicate this post to Egypt. You will find people living on roofs for lack of affordable housing, a film industry hoping to rise up again, Ramadan as experienced in Egypt, the woes of the Muslim Brotherhood, and last but not least animal rights - not all in that exact order. For the full articles, click on the links.


Some Live It Up: Life on Cairo Rooftops

CAIRO (Reuters) - Like thousands of other people in Cairo, Ashraf Ali, 33, has lived his whole life on a downtown roof.

Seven floors above the dirt and din of Cairo's streets, he enjoys a cool September breeze that sweeps over the one-room clapboard hut he shares with his wife and two children.

"In the summer we eat, drink, and sleep out here," he said, gesturing towards the dusty rooftop, where the rent is less than $1 a month. "It's better than living down there."

Some Cairo roof-dwellers enjoy makeshift toilets, standpipes, even baths. For others, there is no running water and little protection from scorching summer sun or winter rains. Of this 'sub-class', the luckier ones can rely for water and toilets on the hospitality of better endowed neighbors in flats 'below'.

Living on rooftops, analysts say, is often a convenient solution to Cairo's housing problem.

Cairo struggles to remain a city of action

Egyptian film was long a focal point of Arab culture. Today, it's mostly for the brave.

For decades, Egyptian film served as the cultural glue that held the Arab world together. Cairo produced extraordinary and artful cinema as well as popular entertainment. But movies like the "The Aquarium" or 2005's "The Yacoubian Building" have become rare. Rapidly shifting values, economics and technologies have combined to erode Cairo's status as capital of the Arab film business.

Though Egyptian censors rarely rule over movies the way they do in, say, Iran, audience members and critics have managed of late to cow producers and directors into producing mostly bland comedies without kissing, fighting, arguing or politics, called "cinema nazima," or proper cinema. Amid such grim realities, a small core of actors and directors is struggling to revive film in this "Hollywood of the Orient."

Other Arab countries have begun moving in on Egypt's status. Dubai in the United Arab Emirates has become home to the best post-production facilities in the region. Syrians began producing television series in an edgy vérité style that has made them popular. Lebanese have all but taken over the market for the filming of music videos.

Satellite channels, like Saudi-based MBC, began filling the airwaves with American movies subtitled in Arabic. "On one hand [satellite] did help by spreading the movies and exposing more people to them," said Hana Rahman of Waleg.com, which covers the film and music business in the Arab world. "But it has also hurt the business, because now the Arab audience has awakened to the fact that there are better movies, quality-wise and story-line-wise."

The Western onslaught also shifted tastes among those with access to satellite television. Film critics complain that many of the new Egyptian movies are little more than bad imitations of Hollywood. One, "El-Turbini," mimics "Rain Man." Another, "Mafia," resembles any American, B-grade action flick.

"The business needs new blood, creative minds and more young people," said Rahman. "It also needs more awareness that audiences aren't stupid. They are not just looking for something that makes them laugh. They need something serious that reflects more of our reality and the problems we are struggling with in the Middle East."

Decline of a major playerMOVIES first came to Egypt in 1896, thanks to visiting European artists. By 1927 the country produced its first native-made, full-length silent movie, "Layla," followed by its first talkie, "High-Class Society," in 1932. By the 1970s, Egypt produced 80 movies and many more series each year, and the Egyptian Arabic dialect became the universal tongue of the Arab world.

But decay set in. Some blame the cultural shift following the 1967 war with Israel, which discredited Arab nationalism and launched a wave of Islam now cresting throughout the Arab world. The industry suffered other blows with the advent of video in the 1980s and satellite technology in the 1990s. Elegant theater houses fell into disrepair. Production houses shuttered. Not until the late 1990s did it start to make something of a comeback, in the form of multiplex theaters inside new shopping malls. New production facilities opened in the shiny new desert suburbs. But by then, the Middle East had become more insular, religious and intolerant. The conservative values of the oil-rich Persian Gulf have risen to challenge the laid-back attitudes of Egypt and Lebanon.

Viewers and Islamic political activists also began hauling filmmakers into court. Director Youssef Chahine, Egypt's most famous director, was criticized for using his movie "The Emigrant" as a vehicle for depicting the life of Joseph. Islamic activists repeatedly sued the prominent actress Yousra for her alleged lack of morals throughout the 1990s. Adel Imam, star of "The Yacoubian Building" and widely considered the greatest living Egyptian actor, has been threatened by Islamists for decades. Waked, who appeared in George Clooney's "Syriana," was threatened in August with banishment from Egyptian films after appearing alongside an Israeli actor in a Tunisian production.

Though "Yacoubian," which traced the lives of more than a dozen characters living in a Cairo apartment house, was among the most successful Egyptian films ever made, it also encountered tremendous resistance. Opinion columnists claimed that it defamed Egyptian society. Members of parliament demanded that scenes depicting sexual harassment, homosexuality and torture be cut or that the film be removed from theaters. In some cases, theater owners themselves trimmed scenes they thought inappropriate. The pressure sent a chill through the industry. Prominent female actors, like Hanan Turk, began donning the Islamic headscarf in films.

'Polygamy' soaps irk feminists in Egypt

Cairo: Egyptian pro-women groups are disappointed that several TV serials being shown on local and Arab TV feature polygamy as a recurrent theme.

"I have been working in the field of women's welfare for more than 20 years and I have never seen so many polygamists in Egypt as portrayed in TV dramas," said Eman Beibers, the chairperson of the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women.

At least seven television serials with polygamists are on the air waves every night of Ramadan - when viewing rates in the Arab world peak.

Breaking the Fast With Family, Friends And Late-Night Fun

The sun slipped behind the high-rises on Haram Street. Drivers hit their gas pedals and their car horns, alternately bullying and joking their way through lanes crowded with fellow Cairenes, all racing to reach home before sunset signaled the end of the day's fast during this holy month of Ramadan.

In one Haram Street apartment, Maii Younis placed pigeons in a skillet to brown, handling the birds carefully to keep their rice stuffing from bursting forth. Her daughter Sally, 21, circuited between kitchen and dining room, laying out the china, talking to her mother and guests, and using the kitchen phone to make plans to go out with friends after the family meal.

In Cairo and other cities all around the Middle East, authorities held torches to ancient cannons to signal, as has been done for centuries, that the sun had set -- and that Muslims who had fasted from dawn to dusk for Ramadan could now begin their evening meal, or iftar.

At intersections, do-gooders thrust packets of dates and cups of water toward those who hadn't been able to make it home in time.

Before dawn, the cycle began again. A drummer moved down Haram Street, pounding to wake up the people in time for a last meal before sunrise began the day's fast.

"Wake up! Wake up!" he cried, calling out to residents by name as he moved past in the dark.

In her bed, Sally slept on.

The Ramadan Experience in Egypt

Nocturnal diversions

Most bars and nightclubs close for the month, admittedly, but some of those that stay open rather more sensibly knock alcohol off the menu altogether, or -- operating in secret -- raise the price. One regular customer of a famous downtown café complains of the alcohol policy: "for years I've met my friends and sometimes done my work here, largely because I can have a beer at a reasonable price. But in Ramadan they stop serving beer, and this always puzzles me because it's not like I become someone else during Ramadan -- why should customers change their preferences for a month and then return to normal?" He added that one bar in Emadeddin stays open "after a fashion" but raises prices to an exploitative degree. Barmen, like Hani, acknowledge that Ramadan is an appropriate time to take off, mainly for religious reasons, but says it presents people like himself with a huge financial problem that they must prepare for in advance: "what if one hasn't saved money for this forced vacation? Then finding alternative work becomes necessary, and work isn't always available on the spur of the moment."

Abu Radi, almost 50, has been working in a downtown bar for 15 years, and he used to have a one-month job in a sandwich joint during Ramadan: "of course the pay isn't even comparable, because at the sandwich place you don't get tips. Some barmen stay at home for the month, but I can't afford to do that." Abu Radi's suggestion is that bar owners should pay their staff, even if they reduce the pay by half: "that way they don't lose much and they get to keep their staff, too. Then again, every employer knows it would be easy to get a replacement if the worst came to the worst." For Henna, a nightclub waitress for eight years and her family's main support, the business of finding a month's work to make up for the loss of income is even harder: "I was working as a maid when my neighbour offered me a job at the kitchen of a restaurant, he said, which turned out to be a nightclub; and I was eventually promoted to waiting tables. I'm earning more than I ever have. I used to save for it, too, but it's not so easy for a girl to find work for a month."

According to one young man who works in a five-star hotel bar, however, "those working in tourist zones wish the whole year were Ramadan. Restrictions on alcohol bring in so many more customers, you see." Samir, a liquor store attendant, says the restrictions on alcohol are understandable and normal by now, pointing out that stores do not even open during the day out of respect for the faithful. Egyptians eager to drink must peruse illegal stores like those located in the suburbs of Shubra, but, he adds, they should be aware of the high risk of alcohol poisoning. Perhaps a cup of tea in Khan Al-Khalili is not so bad after all.

ANIMAL RIGHTS:
Egyptian city to resume shooting stray animals despite protests

CAIRO, Egypt - The population of stray dogs in Cairo's twin city of Giza will once more be controlled by shooting and poisoning the animals because it is cheaper than sterilization, the municipal veterinary department announced.

In an interview Saturday with the flagship state-owned daily Al-Ahram, department head Dr. Abdullah Badr said that it was simply too expensive to implement a sterilization program.

"It is necessary to return to the traditional ways of killing dogs with bullets or poison," he said "This method is used around the world particularly in developing countries."

The discovery of dogs carcasses in upscale neighbourhoods and near the famed Pyramids of Giza in May provoked an uproar and petitions to the government from local and international animal welfare organizations to end the traditional methods of controlling strays.

He said due to numerous complaints from citizens and reports of dog bitings, a wide ranging campaign to shoot the animals would begin next week.

"We can't wait to receive the necessary funding for the sterilization operations, we are faced with an imminent danger to our children," he added, saying that local animal welfare organizations had not lived up to their commitments to provide funding for the process.

Nadia Montasser of the local chapter of the People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals was shocked at the decision and said that local organizations would soon take action over the matter.

CENSORSHIP:
Cairo Moving More Aggressively To Cripple Muslim Brotherhood

CAIRO -- After imprisoning or prodding into exile Egypt's leading secular opposition activists, the government is using detentions and legal changes to neutralize the country's last surviving major political movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Brotherhood leaders and rights groups contend the government is clearing the stage of opponents in politics, civil society and the news media ahead of the end of the 26-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak, who is 79. Egyptians widely expect the transition to be tense and that Mubarak's son Gamal will be a top contender.

In August and September, police raided the homes and meetings of Brotherhood leaders, putting behind bars five of the 12 officials in the group's decision-making guidance council. Two have since been released for health reasons.

Prosecutors have also accused two Brotherhood members of parliament of seeking to revive the group, and police jailed 14 mid- and top-level managers vital to communications in an organization that some Brotherhood officials estimate includes 200,000 members. Egyptian security forces have jailed more than 1,000 rank-and-file members over the past year, according to the Brotherhood; 167 remain in prison.

The Brotherhood was founded in 1928, the year Mubarak and Akef were born, and the government banned it in 1954. Egyptian administrations have alternated between trying to co-opt the group and trying to crush it. Imprisonment during crackdowns in the late 1960s helped radicalize Ayman al-Zawahiri and others, who split from the group in the 1960s and 1970s to start violent movements including Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which later merged with al-Qaeda.

Since the 1970s, the Brotherhood has sought to position itself as a moderate force in Egypt's political life. Its leaders say Egypt should be a civil rather than religious state.

The administration's moves are "designed to basically institutionalize the campaign against the Brotherhood and make sure it will not be allowed to either compete with the ruling party or threaten Mubarak's new successor," said Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East expert at Sarah Lawrence College in New York.

By 2006, with Hamas's victory in Palestinian elections leading U.S. officials to have second thoughts about democracy in the Middle East, and the U.S. military presence in Iraq growing ever more troubled, American priorities in the Middle East shifted again, from promoting democracy to maintaining allies.

That year, Egypt picked off the secular opposition through arrests and intimidation. Ayman Nour, who came in a distant second to Mubarak in the 2005 presidential election, was sentenced to five years in prison on what supporters said were trumped-up charges of forging signatures on campaign documents. The third-place finisher in the race also was jailed but released.

Egypt Arresting Brotherhood Students In Recent Crackdown

Cairo University, the oldest general university in Egypt, founded in 1908, has launched investigations into 122 students, linked to the Brotherhood.

Helwan University, another public university in the capital, has suspended 44 students. Other universities are following these examples, with 23 at Monofiya University and 17 under investigation at Ein Shams university, the Brotherhood's website reported.

Some students are under investigation for charges such as "putting up decorations for the holy month of Ramadan."

In the Meanwhile - Some Entertainment

Since I'm working on three articles, and I don't really feel like posting anything of substance (as if I ever did,) I present to you some entertainment to keep you all occupied in the meantime.


SNL - Iran So Far

Weekend News Roundup

Well this week's Roundup is mostly Egypt. Stories cover urfi marriages (also discussed in the book, Muhajababes), F.G.M.(again); to crackdowns on the press, the Muslim Brotherhood, and a human rights organization. Muslims in America covers new State Department bloggers, blogging for America. Censorship covers the Egyptian stories as noted earlier, plus book removals from U.S. prisons, which was included in last week's Roundup, and my favorite new topic - spying on Americans - the new F.I.S.A. Law recently passed by our spineless congress. I am not going to go over the "Don't taser me, bro!" episode, even though I think it was a form of censorship, and another example of the police over reacting. If I have to see the video again, I'm going to start screeching!


EGYPT:

YOUNG EGYPTIAN COUPLES IN A HURRY TIE TEMPORARY KNOT

Concern grows over use of a secret, unrecognized 'urfi' marriage that many couples feel allows them to be alone and to engage in sexual activity.

In Egypt, a Rising Push Against Genital Cutting

KAFR AL MANSHI ABOU HAMAR, Egypt — The men in this poor farming community were seething. A 13-year-old girl was brought to a doctor’s office to have her clitoris removed, a surgery considered necessary here to preserve chastity and honor.

The girl died, but that was not the source of the outrage. After her death, the government shut down the clinic, and that got everyone stirred up.

“They will not stop us,” shouted Saad Yehia, a tea shop owner along the main street. “We support circumcision!” he shouted over and over.

“Even if the state doesn’t like it, we will circumcise the girls,” shouted Fahmy Ezzeddin Shaweesh, an elder in the village.

Slideshow

Interview With a Young Egyptian

My parents at home don’t know that I work in F.G.M., and if they find out, they’ll kill me. ...

MUSLIMS IN AMERICA:
For State Dept., Blog Team Joins Muslim Debate

Two Arab-Americans have been hired to post on blogs and Internet forums in an effort to improve America’s image.

Some analysts question whether the blog team will survive beyond the tenure of Karen P. Hughes, the confidante of President Bush who runs public diplomacy. The department expects to add seven more team members within the next month — four more in Arabic, two in Farsi and one in Urdu, the official language of Pakistan.

The team concentrates on about a dozen mainstream Web sites such as chat rooms set up by the BBC and Al Jazeera or charismatic Muslim figures like Amr Khaled, as well as Arab news sites like Elaph.com. They choose them based on high traffic and a focus on United States policy, and they always identify themselves as being from the State Department.

CENSORSHIP:
EGYPT EXTENDS CRACKDOWN TO PRESS

The arrest of Ibrahim Eissa and three other opposition journalists is the latest signal of tightening government control, reflecting anxiety over presidential succession.

Egyptian and foreign human rights activists say the crackdown on the press is unprecedented in recent Egyptian history. While state harassment comes with the territory for independent journalists, never before have four editors been tried and convicted at the same time.

Mr. Said, the political scientist, argues that the current crackdown reflects the cycle of Egyptian politics since independence.

"Towards the end of regimes they engage in harassment of opposition leaders, close newspapers and so forth," he says. "It's like in September 1981 when [Anwar] Sadat arrested many politicians of many political persuasions." Shortly after that, Sadat – then president – was assassinated. "That's why many people are calling what's happening now the winds of September," says Said. "These are the last years of Mubarak's life, and whenever the government feels it has to ensure a favorable successor, it does this."

GOVERNMENT BANS MUSLIM Brotherhood's ANNUAL RAMADAN EVENT

CAIRO: The government has banned the Muslim Brotherhood's largest annual social gathering for the first time in 20 years, part of a concerted crackdown against the country's opposition, the group's leadership said Sunday.

Every year, the Brotherhood invites a diverse group of some 1,500 people to one of Cairo's five-star hotels for a gala dinner during Ramadan.

The government has also targeted organizations unrelated to the transfer of power. Earlier Tuesday, authorities closed the Association for Human Rights Legal Aid, which had been involved in the first lawsuit against a state security officer for torture.

Egyptian officials said the group had received funding without the necessary permission, but fellow human rights groups said the closure was related to the torture case, which ended with the officer's acquittal on Sept. 5. Associated Press.

AS STATE CLOSES PROMINENT HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP, ACTIVISTS FEAR FURTHER CRACKDOWN

Noha Atef, the editor of the advocacy website www.tortureinegypt.net, agrees. According to her, the shut down of such a prominent legal aid organization is meant to have a chilling effect on human rights advocacy in Egypt.

“This association is very active and has defended many torture victims, so it is only logical that the government would come after them,” she says.

“The state wants to send a message to other civil society groups — they say ‘this was one of the biggest groups and we can just dissolve it whenever we want.’” she adds “That this can happen to a big organization with a lot of its own lawyers — how do you think normal people who don’t have a team of lawyers with them will feel about standing up against torture?”

Bush Calls for Expansion of Spy Law

Critics Right and Left Protest Book Removals

The federal Bureau of Prisons is under pressure from members of Congress and religious groups to reverse its decision to purge the shelves of prison chapel libraries of all religious books and materials that are not on the bureau’s lists of approved resources.

The Republican Study Committee, a caucus of some of the most conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives, sent a letter on Wednesday to the bureau’s director, Harley G. Lappin, saying, “We must ensure that in America the federal government is not the undue arbiter of what may or may not be read by our citizens.”

Weekend News Roundup Video - This Week In God

This Week In God -Back To School

Weekend News Roundup

MUSLIMS IN AMERICA:

Samaha (Blog) - ISNA: Invasion of The ISNA Deaniacs

Around me I could hear whispers of “Howard Dean” and I watched the youth all around me, all wide eyed, explaining Howard Dean to their parents, aunts and uncles.

It was quite interesting watching these fidgety late teens and twenty-something year olds turning their heads, looking towards the door anxiously awaiting Howard Dean. This was it - this right here, this vibrant young enthusiasm was what differentiated my generation from theirs. Not because they are Deaniacs, mind you, but because within these wide eyes you can see hope. You can see the innocence and yes the good naivety that none of us should ever have lost. You can see in their eyes the hidden solutions that they all carry to all of the problems of the world. You can see the simplicity of it all but somehow, somehow you just can’t see far enough to be able to touch it or grasp it, to feel it again.

Around this room sat future congresspeople, representatives, activists, philanthopists, and maybe even a future president. In this room sat our fidgety hope for a better tommorow and maybe a not so impossible world peace.

I should make note that ISNA itself insists that it is non-partisan and had invited republicans to this event but had no takers on the republican invitees - so the panel before us consisted of democrats. ~Way to go republicans~

He asked of us for the sake of America to get into politics “For the sake of America I need you to run for yourselves.”

That my friends was “The Take Back America Rally”

Charitable Tradition in Transition

Key edicts of Ramadan, which began yesterday at sunset, are to fast and promote good conduct. The devil is said to be shackled, making it easier than during the rest of the year to perform good deeds and give charity.

Mukit Hossain, 47, a telecommunications worker and Muslim activist in Northern Virginia, said holiday charity is deliberately done more publicly because Muslims are eager to build bridges after Sept. 11.

Community Times magazine, Lady Liberty, a Fellaha?

OnFaith from the Washington Post presents:
The Muslims of Jesus Camp

ISLAM:
Islam's Up-to-Date Televangelist

Secular critics say Khaled, the son of a doctor, is fostering a religious revival rather than modern reform. Wael Abbas, a leading Egyptian blogger, said Khaled is the "first step to Islamization. He's charismatic and the girls like him. But Egypt is becoming more conservative as a result of him. More girls have started to wear veils."

The question now is whether Khaled represents a fad or an enduring trend. Khaled is most popular among the middle and upper classes. Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper described him as a "Pied Piper" leading Arab youth "to an unknown destination -- much to the discontent of the town elders.

From Finding Radical Islam to Losing an Ideology

LONDON, Sept. 11 — For four years, Maajid Nawaz, a British Pakistani university student, was imprisoned in Egypt, enduring months of solitary confinement and the screams of those being tortured.

Mr. Nawaz left Britain on his fateful trip to Egypt on Sept. 10, 2001, for a year abroad to study Arabic. In April 2002, he was charged and sentenced by the Egyptians for spreading the beliefs of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical Islamic group that is legal in Britain but banned in Egypt and other countries because it calls for the overthrow of governments in the Muslim world.

Calls in Britain for the banning of Hizb ut-Tahrir usually stress that the group is a gateway for some Muslims to turn to terrorism. As Mr. Nawaz puts it, “Hizb ut-Tahrir spearheaded the radicalization of the 1990s and cultivated an atmosphere of anger.”

Mr. Nawaz is the product of a third-generation British Pakistani family. His father recently retired as an oil engineer, and his mother works in a bank; they live in Essex, a middle-class area south of London.

When he was growing up, Islam seemed like an irrelevant, “backward village religion,” he said. That attitude changed when he was 16.

On a rare visit to a mosque, he met a Bangladeshi student, a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, who he said preyed on his confusion about his British Pakistani identity.

Miscellaneous:
Reprieve for the Pint and the Ounce

BRUSSELS, Sept. 11 — Britons and the Irish can still down a pint of beer, walk a mile, covet an ounce of gold and eat a pound of bananas after the European Union ruled today that the countries could retain measurements dating back to the Middle Ages.

Under a previous European Union plan, Britain and Ireland would have been forced to adopt the metric system and phase out imperial measurements by 2009. But after a vociferous antimetric campaign by British skeptics and London’s tabloid press, European Union officials decided that an ounce of common sense (or 28.3 grams) suggested that granting a reprieve was better than braving a public backlash.

They also feared that forcing Britain to abolish the imperial system would have damaged European Union trade with the United States, one of three countries, including Liberia and Myanmar, that have not officially adopted the metric system.

A British grocer, Steve Thoburn of Sunderland, became known as the “metric martyr” when he was convicted in 2001 of measuring fruits and vegetables in pounds and ounces instead of kilograms. A court gave him a six-month conditional discharge. He died of a heart attack in 2004 just days after learning that his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights against a conviction for using nonmetric scales in his market stall had been rejected.

Under the European Union decision, they can retain miles on road signs, and pubs may continue to serve pints of beer. Other goods must be sold in metric quantities, but retailers can display imperial equivalents.

CENSORSHIP:
'Breast-Feeding Is Obscene'

'This is a death announcement for freedom of press in Egypt'

"This is a death announcement for the freedom of press in Egypt," Eisa said.

Qandil said the "severe" verdict would not weaken him.

Hafez Abu Seada, secretary-general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, said: "This is something very unique to Egypt," he said.

"I have never seen, at least in the last five years, any country that jails four editors in one day.

For China's Censors, Electronic Offenders Are the New Frontier

Prisons Purging Books on Faith From Libraries

But prison chaplains, and groups that minister to prisoners, say that an administration that put stock in religion-based approaches to social problems has effectively blocked prisoners’ access to religious and spiritual materials — all in the name of preventing terrorism.

“It’s swatting a fly with a sledgehammer,” said Mark Earley, president of Prison Fellowship, a Christian group. “There’s no need to get rid of literally hundreds of thousands of books that are fine simply because you have a problem with an isolated book or piece of literature that presents extremism.”

The lists are broad, but reveal eccentricities and omissions. There are nine titles by C. S. Lewis, for example, and none from the theologians Reinhold Niebuhr, Karl Barth and Cardinal Avery Dulles, and the influential pastor Robert H. Schuller.

Weekend News Roundup

Anyone who has lived in Ohio, along I-75, and had to travel north towards Toledo, could not miss the huge mosque, out in the middle of nowhere. It was there when we moved to Findlay, Ohio in 1987. At that time, it must have been quite a sight for anyone traveling the highway, as the minarets could be spotted miles away. The Christian Science Monitor has an article this week about the mosque, it's history and the community.

Just like last week I have ignored articles that I just decided not to include in my post. If you have a complaint - tough! Vagabondblogger gets fed up with the news sometimes, thus leading to total frustration and temporary insanity.

Check out the Weekend News Update - Prelude, from yesterday for a few censored comics and a photo essay on the "Violent Femmes" - the Taliban's effeminate side.

For the full article, please click on the links (as usual.)

MUSLIMS IN AMERICA:

A MOSQUE IN AMERICA'S HEARTLAND

The Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, Ohio, has roots going back 75 years has shaped a faith for today.

PERRYSBURG, OHIO - From Interstate 75, the sight is striking: A gleaming white mosque with twin minarets in the classical Islamic style rises out of the Ohio countryside.

One of the accomplishments of the center as it grew over the years has been forging a flourishing community (550 families) from Muslims of 23 nationalities, as well as both Sunnis and Shiites. From the start, people were expected to keep ethnic or sectarian differences out of the mosque.

"We try to knock down this kind of division and to teach mainstream Islam," says Imam Farooq Aboelzahab, an Egyptian trained at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. The imam says he had a lot to learn himself when he arrived in 1998.

"I had to learn from the last imam how to be more open-minded, more flexible, and to compromise on little things and focus on important issues," he adds.

Abandon Stereotypes, Muslims in America Say

The United States must stop treating every American Muslim as somehow suspect, leaders of the faith said at their largest annual convention.

Leaders of American Muslim organizations attribute the growing intolerance to three main factors: global terrorist attacks in the name of Islam, disappointing reports from the Iraq war and the agenda of some supporters of Israel who try taint Islam to undermine the Palestinians.

American Muslims say they expect the attacks to worsen in the presidential election and candidates to criticize Islam in an effort to prove that they are tough on terrorism.

Ex-Diplomat Testifies for Muslim Charity

From 1993 to 1999, Abingdon was consul-general in Jerusalem, and like others he was under orders not to have contact with Hamas.

Abingdon said the Israelis provided intelligence to the CIA, and defense attorney Nancy Hollander asked him if he found the Israeli information reliable. "No," he answered, and she asked why not.

"I feel the Israelis have an agenda ... they provide selective information to try to influence U.S. thinking," he said.

CENSORSHIP:

How to access blocked websites - Top 10

Weekend News Roundup - Prelude

A few tidbits to chew on, while you're waiting for the Weekend News Roundup. Two Opus comics that were censored from major U.S. newspapers, such as the Washington Post. You never know, even the hijab or burkini in a comic strip could cause trouble. And as for burkhas, ever wonder why the Taliban demanded that women wear them? Could it be they felt threatened? You'll have to check out the photo essay below, to see where Vagabondblogger is coming from.


CENSORSHIP:
Opus, the censored comic

Opus, Burkini comic



Violent Femmes: The Taliban's Secret Photos
A Magnum photo essay. During his coverage of the fall of Afghanistan's Taliban regime in 2002, photographer Thomas Dworzak discovered a stash of pictures showing male Taliban members in curious, effeminate poses.


If player / video doesn't work you can view it at here at Slate.

Weekend News Roundup

What can Vagabondblogger say? It's the same old hypocrisy, from the same old guys, isn't it? Let's not dwell, but enjoy a bit of comic relief instead. So, before moving on to the headlines, please take a look at a Little Britain skit. As for the travel bit from Russia: Traveling to any ex - USSR country, traveler beware! This story is not an isolated event, it is a procedure many have been through, albeit some, without the jail time. Which leads us to Putin, who's got the whole of Russia, if not parts of the ex-Soviet Union, under his thumb. I'm sure there are bits and pieces I've missed this week, or possibly purposely ignored. Please, send your complaints through the proper channels.

In Dog We Trust: Japan's Childless Turn to Canines

Dogs now outnumber children aged 10 and under in Japan -- there were 13.1 million dogs in 2006. As the number of humans shrink, the dog population is growing, research firm Euromonitor says, and so is the market for dog-related products.

It is one of the many shops that provoke the ire of animal welfare activists such as Briar Simpson, a New Zealander who works for Animal Refuge Kansai, Japan's largest animal shelter.

She says some of the dogs in all-night pet shops are used in elaborate con schemes: a hostess will ask her wealthy, drunken lover to buy her a little dog; the next day, she will bring the dog back to the shop in exchange for cash. The shop keeps a cut.

BOOKS: (reviewed previously in the NYT)

'Down the Nile': Traveling by rowboat down the world's longest river

Add to that a passion for the Nile. "The Nile was the longest river in the world," writes Mahoney. "It rubbed against ten nations. Some 250 million people depended on it for their survival. It had fostered whole cultures and inspired immense social and scientific concepts." What adventurous memoirist – particularly one seeking a topic for her next book – would not wish to ride on its back?

Egypt is a country, she tells us, in which sex outside marriage is "strictly forbidden." And yet, she says, "I had never visited any country in which sex had so often arisen as a topic of conversation."

How religion forges global networks

Much has already been written about the arrival of world faiths and how they are reshaping the American religious landscape. But in God Needs No Passport Levitt brings a fresh perspective, one that suggests the current debates are out of sync with reality. The true picture, it turns out, is both unsettling and encouraging.

The transnational lifestyles that Levitt explores are criticized by some Americans as disloyal – "like polygamy." Muslims especially have been looked upon with suspicion since 9/11 for maintaining such ties. But those of any faith who live transnationally are the face of the future, she contends.

"I always tell people from Muslim countries, none of you have ever really tested Islam as it was meant to be tested – as a pluralistic religion that ... accepts everyone for what they are," says Imram, an American Muslim. "America is probably the most Islamic country in the world even though it is not a Muslim country, because it has the principles an Islamic state is supposed to have.

TRAVEL:

Tourist in Russia Stumbles Into a Legal Predicament

Roxana Contreras is stuck in Russia accused of trying to smuggle cultural treasures out of the country after she purchased souvenirs worth $20 from a street vendor.

“We understand that she didn’t know, but that’s her problem,” Ms. Osennyaya said. “We have a saying,” she said, “Lack of knowledge does not free one from responsibility.”

Aleksei A. Andreyeshev, her lawyer, said he was equally puzzled by what he described as court officials’ capriciousness. In a telephone interview, he said that prosecutors had been unavailable and that the judge who will decide Ms. Contreras’s case hung up on him when he asked about the details of the hearing.

“He just threw down the phone and didn’t give me any information,” Mr. Andreyeshev said.

Oksana A. Romaneko, a spokeswoman for the court in Ramon, where the hearing will take place, would not provide information about the case. In a faxed response to questions, she said, “Any interference in the affairs of the court can be criminally prosecuted.”

CENSORSHIP:
Russia Arrests 10 in Slaying of Outspoken Journalist

Swiss Court: Yukos Case Is 'Political'

The decision, disclosed on Thursday, said that Russian authorities' pursuit of what was once Russia's largest oil company had a "political and discriminatory character . . . underlined by the infringement of human rights and of the right to defense."

The legal actions against the company were organized "by the powers in place with the goal of putting to heel the class of rich people known as 'oligarchs' and sidelining potential or declared political adversaries," the ruling said.

Arrest Ordered for Russian Oil Entrepreneur, a Critic of the Kremlin

Mikhail S. Gutseriev, a former owner of Russneft, published a letter last month critical of the government on a company Web site and in a Russian business newspaper.

Weekend News Roundup

The Weekend News Roundup is a bit lengthy this week. A few Cairo neighborhood pieces; Egypt's water shortage (and crocs); book reviews: one on a book mentioned previously, and others include two about India's Independence, comparing the decision to partition to what is happening in Iraq, with a mention of one of my favorite books, A Peace to End All Peace; then of course the censorship spot (my fave: "Innovative Approach To Censorship" of how a Saudi Sheikh can put the screws to a major British publishing company - I' d like to see him try that in the U.S.,) plus, the usual censorship march in some Middle East countires, and from Putin (I liken him to Darth Vader and his deathly neck pinch); and my newest pet peeve, the recent  U.S.wiretapping law. Phew!

Egypt Today Magazine has a section describing all the different neighborhoods of Cairo, including mine Welcome to the ‘Burbs

With all the perks of big city life — but without the noise, congestion and concrete of Mohandiseen — Maadi is a haven for suburbanites.

Then there's the commentary in Al-Ahram News about Gated communities, By Salama A Salama.

Luxury real estate is not the answer to our problems. If anything, it will heighten the sense of social injustice and political exclusion that is growing all around us. This new lifestyle can only worsen the situation where political extremism and political oppression combine to destroy the social fabric of our country. We need to have a strategy for investment. We need a strategy that takes into account the social and political repercussions of investment. We cannot let businessmen and contractors tell us how to live.

Under the "Book" section, US author offers simplistic, sincere view of Egypt, critiques a book of an expat's view of Cairo, somewhat dissing it since the book's author lived in Maadi. After reading the above commentary and World's Apart, below, I don't think Maadi is that far removed from the rest of Cairo. We're not "gated"; we don't have a golf, tennis, and pool club at our disposal; we do see beggars - mothers with infants begging for money for food (putting their pursed hands up to their mouths); we have continual brownouts and blackouts; but fortunately, so far, we've been lucky with the water situation (except in February when the Metro flooded); and we do have access to the Metro. We may be a "suburb" but in the States we'd be called an "inner ring suburb" meaning that we are just a step outside the "inner city." The next article describes the differences in how the rich and poor have been dealing with the recent water shortage currently going on here in Egypt, Worlds apart

Residents of Daqahliya fought each other with sticks and stones to fill their water containers last week in scenes which, say the residents of one village, grow increasingly chaotic as the water shortage drags on.

A world away, in Qatamiya Heights, one of Cairo's many new up-market suburbs, residents were upset when water began to trickle from their taps. Then it was cut completely. But unlike the villages in Daqahliya water did not need to be trucked in. Instead residents headed for the supermarkets, buying box after box of bottled water. Maged Raouf, who has just moved into the area, has sent his children to stay at a relative's house until the water returns. "I can't possibly continue to pay this much for bottled water every time I have a shower". The facilities at his gym, he says, have become his de facto bathroom for the time being.

And, in Only in Egypt! a rather unfortunate result of the water shortage.

CAIRO -- A regularly updated collection of weird and whacky news items from Egypt.

Morning shower soils employee's reputation

EGYPT'S RELENTLESS summer heat and water shortages recently proved too hot to handle for one hapless, hygiene-conscious employee.

A 27-year-old man whose un-air-conditioned home's water supply was often erratic, making bathing a rare luxury, had made it a habit of reaching his work premises early in the morning, so as to avail himself of the on-site showers.

However, on one such occasion, while enjoying a refreshing soap-and-lather, the man realized he had left some other bath essentials in his work desk. Hoping to grab them and return unnoticed to complete his wash, he set forth frothy-but-otherwise-unadorned on his quest.

Unfortunately for the would-be bather, his boss had opted for an early start that morning, too, and was not amused to see his nude employee fumbling for bath oils in the middle of the office space.

The employee was docked five days wages from his total salary, and an official investigation into the affair was ordered by his superior. (Al Ahram)

BOOKS:
Against the Current
By LISA FUGARD
Published: August 5, 2007

In 1998, Rosemary Mahoney set out to row the Nile on her own.

Mahoney rows from Aswan to Edfu — a three-day journey — in Amr’s boat with Amr following in his felucca. She then takes a taxi to Luxor, where mobs of Europeans soak up the sun in skimpy attire and young Egyptian men work as gigolos. The inevitable conversations about sex — with Ahmed, a male prostitute, and Adel, a lawyer — are surreal, lurid and terribly sad. The freedom of being able to talk to a Western woman in an open way soon dissipates, and we see men who are frustrated and bored, struggling against the strictures of Islamic culture.

FIRST CHAPTER
‘Down the Nile’

“[T]hough in Egypt the assumption of the veil at puberty was officially a matter of individual choice, many Egyptian women wore the hijab . . .”

US author offers simplistic, sincere view of Egypt

What also discredits some of her remarks is that she lived the Cairo's Maadi neighborhood, where a lot of Westerners isolate themselves. Indeed, many of them find it similar to Washington, DC - an observation Eck, herself, makes. This limits the reader to seeing only one of Egypt's many faces, whereas the book aims to cover Egyptian society in its entirety.

Many Westerners in Egypt, or "expats," as Eck calls them, don't move around a lot, let alone socialize, outside Maadi. They live in a Western community in a Westernized neighborhood, as if they had brought the West with them to Egypt. This, in turn, keeps them from experiencing true Egyptian society and culture, and this was a defect in the memoir. Eck mainly concentrates on her life in Maadi, where she spent most of her stay, outside of a few months in Alexandria.

Nonetheless, from her Maadi base, Eck still offers valuable insight into the "expat" community she mingled with: "Expat women lead interesting lives. Since most have young children, they do volunteer work, ride, go out to lunch, shop, and take golf lessons while their children are in school ... Some [expat] women have their own car and driver. Everyone seems to have a maid at least three times per week. Others have a nanny and/or a cook. If they live in a villa rather than an apartment, they may have a gardener, and their own security guards or bawwab."

The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit
By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
Published: August 10, 2007

In this stunning memoir, Ms. Lagnado gives us a deeply affecting portrait of her family and its journey from wartime Cairo to the New World.

In “The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit” Ms. Lagnado — an investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal — gives us a deeply affecting portrait of her family and its journey from wartime Cairo to the New World. Like André Aciman in his now classic memoir, “Out of Egypt” (1994), she conjures a vanished world with elegiac ardor and uncommon grace, and like Mr. Aciman she calculates the emotional costs of exile with an unsentimental but forgiving eye. This is not simply the story of a well-to-do family’s loss of its home, its privileges and its identity. It is a story about how exile indelibly shapes people’s views of the world, a story about the mathematics of familial love and the wages of memory and time.

FIRST CHAPTER

“On the first Thursday night of every month . . . Om Kalsoum, the Nightingale of the Nile, the greatest singer Egypt had ever known, broadcast live from a theater in the Ezbekeya section . . .”

EXIT WOUNDS
The legacy of Indian partition.
by Pankaj Mishra

In the nineteen-twenties and thirties, Churchill had been loudest among the reactionaries who were determined not to lose India, “the jewel in the crown,” and, as Prime Minister during the Second World War, he tried every tactic to thwart Indian independence. “I hate Indians,” he declared. “They are a beastly people with a beastly religion.” He had a special animus for Gandhi, describing him as a “rascal” and a “half-naked” “fakir.” (In a letter to Churchill, Gandhi took the latter as a compliment, claiming that he was striving for even greater renunciation.) According to his own Secretary of State for India, Leopold Amery, Churchill knew “as much of the Indian problem as George III did of the American colonies.”

Remembering Partition

The parallels with contemporary Iraq are far from exact. The British Empire ruled India for nearly a century and, at the end, drew the boundaries that spawned decades of conflict; they should have felt an obligation to keep the place from collapsing before they departed. India was also a real country before the British colonized it, whereas Iraq was a colonial contrivance from the outset. (For the amazing story of how the British invented Iraq, and messed up the Middle East for all time to boot, see David Fromkin's A Peace To End All Peace.)

MUSLIMS IN AMERICA:
American Muslims Reimagined

Why comics? "I love the medium." Wilson responds. "I can't say enough good things about it. I call it 'the beautiful medium' because it's the only genre of storytelling in which the past, present and future are available to the reader as one image--I make use of that in Cairo, a novel about five very disparate characters and a genie whose stories are interwoven against the backdrop of modern-day Cairo. Outsiders is more overtly political of the two, because it deals with the hotly contested Transboundary Aquifer System in the northern Sahara."

Universities Install Footbaths to Benefit Muslims, and Not Everyone Is Pleased

By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: August 7, 2007

As the nation’s Muslim population grows, issues of religious accommodation are becoming more common, and more complicated.

Nationwide, more than a dozen universities have footbaths, many installed in new buildings. On some campuses, like George Mason University in Virginia, and Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Mich., there was no outcry. At Eastern Michigan, even some Muslim students were surprised by the appearance of the footbath — a single spigot delivering 45 seconds of water — in a partitioned corner of the restroom in the new student union.

“My sister told me about it, and I didn’t believe it,” said Najla Malaibari, a graduate student at Eastern Michigan. “I was, ‘No way,’ and she said, ‘Yeah, go crazy.’ It really is convenient.”

TRAVEL / PETS:
Think Your Dog Is Smart? Its Collar May Be Even Smarter

By ANNE EISENBERG
Published: August 5, 2007

Collars with Global Positioning System units, motion sensors or other additions help owners keep track of their pets the high-tech way.

EGYPT:
Gone crocodile hunting on the Nile

The Egyptian media is abuzz over a rare reptile sighting in Cairo. Our reporter joins the chase.
By Jill Carroll

Word is, the crocodile – or alligator – has swum downstream to the northern Cairo neighborhood of Maadi.

OIL:
Ghana aims to avoid the 'oil curse'

"

What most people don't understand about oil is that, not only does the money not filter through to the majority of the population, but it's much worse than that," says Nicholas Shaxson, an oil analyst at the London-based Chatham House think tank and the author of "Poisoned Wells," which examines how the resource affects countries. "It actively makes most people poorer."

Why 'peak oil' may soon pique your interest

World oil production peaked in 2005, says one expert, and that presents serious problems in the future

For years, many in the oil industry viewed the peak oil forecasts by Simmons as odd. Now his position has a lot of company. Several websites publish sophisticated material on the issue. There's the Oil Drum (www.theoildrum.com), featuring "Prof. Goose" and "Gail the Actuary." Those pseudonyms hide a full professor at Colorado State University and an actuary in an Atlanta suburb. There's also the Energy Bulletin (www.energybulletin.net). The site's coeditor, Bart Anderson, say it receives 11,000 visits a day. Peak oil enthusiasts, he says, have now divided into a majority seeing life after an oil crunch and those he calls "doomers."

In Britain, Douglas Low, director of the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (www.odac-info.org), foresees a "crisis coming up" with a real shortage of oil. In June, he notes, the world used 1.5 MB/D more crude than it produced. He expects much higher oil prices in the future.

CENSORSHIP:
Mr. Know-It-All: Bannable Blog Behavior, Scam Bait, MySpace Geezers

Is it OK to ban someone from posting comments on my blog?

Innovative Approach to Censorship

Imagine this scenario. Two reputable American scholars write a book about how certain ostensibly charitable organizations are financial pass-throughs for radical terrorist groups. The book, which is amply documented, is published by a major academic press in Great Britain. Soon after the book appears, a wealthy Saudi sheik sues the publisher (not the authors) for libel. The publisher, evidently fearful of the cost and burden of litigation, promptly announces that it is withdrawing the book from circulation. It requests that all copies of the book be returned by booksellers and libraries so that the book may be pulped, destroyed, never read by anyone. The publisher issues a statement of apology, acknowledging serious (but undefined) errors in the book, and makes a financial award to the sheik, who pledges to give the money to UNICEF (the sheik is a multi-billionaire).

Syria To Crackdown Tougher On Web Sites

Already, Damascus has stopped blogspot from being used in the country and plans on making it difficult for users to have comments pages on their blogs.

"It is hard to believe that Syria would want to close down all websites with comment sections. Already all Blogspot blogs have been blocked in Syria. They can still be read through Bloglines or any other RSS feed, but the comment sections are not so easily accessed," Joshua Landis, Co-director at the Center of Peace Studies, University of Oklahoma, wrote on his blog.

Iranian journalist sentenced to death in closed trial

MEXICO: Journalist shot and wounded after corruption reports

Abuses Belie China Pledge on Rights, Critics Say

Iran: Another Reformist Paper Closed

Russia stretches 'extremism' laws

For example, any speech deemed "extremist" that occurs during a broadcast can lead to a media outlet being warned, and then shut down, by authorities. "The practical outcome of this rule is that radio and TV stations will simply stop having live debate and talk shows," says Dickmann.

Russia: Top Court Upholds Ban on Party
By JOSHUA YAFFA
Published: August 8, 2007

The Supreme Court upheld the Moscow City Court’s ban of the National Bolshevik Party as an extremist organization. The small fringe party has gained notoriety for its vocal and theatrical antigovernment demonstrations. The group’s leader, the writer Eduard Limonov, said in a telephone interview that he did not expect the latest ruling to affect its activities, including participation in the Other Russia coalition, a loose movement of anti-Kremlin forces that includes the former chess champion Garry Kasparov. “They will not shut us up,” Mr. Limonov said. “We have no fear.” He said the party would appeal the ruling to the European Court of Human Rights.

MY CURRENT PET PEEVE: THE NEW WIRETAPPING LAW
A Gateway for Hackers

The Security Threat in the New Wiretapping Law
U.S. communications technology is fragile and easily penetrated. While advanced, it is not decades ahead of that of our friends or our rivals. Compounding the issue is a key facet of modern systems design: Intercept capabilities are likely to be managed remotely, and vulnerabilities are as likely to be global as local. In simplifying wiretapping for U.S. intelligence, we provide a target for foreign intelligence agencies and possibly rogue hackers. Break into one service, and you get broad access to U.S. communications.

AT&T Tells Court That Secret Wiretapping Destroys Privacy (in 1927)

The function of a telephone system in our modern economy is, so far as reasonably practicable, to enable any two persons at a distance to converse privately with each other as they might do if both were personally present in the privacy of the home or office of either one. […]

The wire tapper destroys this privacy. He invades the "person" of the citizen, and his "house," secretly and without warrant.[…]

[…]It is better that a few criminal escape than that the privacies of life of all the people be exposed to the agents of the government, who will act at their own discretion, the honest and the dishonest, unauthorized and unrestrained by the courts.