I read this story yesterday online, not thinking much of it other than it was, in fact, one of those stories as a journalist that you realize makes for prime front page space. It has all the elements of newsworthiness: prominence, conflict, conspiracy, wealth, beauty, fame, etc., etc.

Today, I find out that I actually know the guy who was sentenced to hang’s niece. She is my cousins very close friend. I’ve met not only her, but her mother (who in the story was reported as having fainted when she heard the verdict) few times, and I can’t say they were anything but nice people.

Apparently, her uncle was the one involved in this scandal and when I was watching the news today with my aunts I saw her and her family in the court room when the verdict was called crying. Wallahi weird things happen here, subhanAllah. I saw her mom (Hisham Talat Mustafa’s sister) fainting and they had to carry her out to an ambulance.

As a journalist this story is gold in terms of newsworthiness, but as someone who knows the guy’s neice girl and her family (although not very well), I actually feel horrible this is so public and has forever branded their family’s name with murder and scandal.

The story is below:

————————————————————–

Egyptian Tycoon Sentenced to Hang in Death of Singer

By Maggie Michael
Associated Press
Friday, May 22, 2009

CAIRO, May 21 — Suzanne Tamim shot to fame in an “American Idol”-style TV show, a green-eyed Lebanese beauty whose pop songs about love’s agony mirrored her troubled life. Now, the man reported to be her secret lover — a married, politically powerful Egyptian tycoon — has been sentenced to hang for paying a former government security agent $2 million to slit her throat.

Billionaire Hisham Talaat Moustafa showed no emotion Thursday as he was convicted and sentenced for ordering the killing of Tamim — the latest chapter in a tale of sex, power, money and murder that was closely followed throughout the Middle East.

Many had wondered whether the 50-year-old real estate mogul, an influential member of the ruling party with ties to President Hosni Mubarak’s son Gamal, would get away with murder in a region where the rich are often thought to be above the law.

The courtroom erupted in chaos after the conviction of Moustafa and the former security officer, Mohsen el-Sukkary, who also faces the gallows. Moustafa’s sister fainted, and his two daughters burst into tears.

Tamim rose to stardom after appearing on an Arab talent show in 1996, appealing to Middle Eastern audiences with her sultry dancing, cascading chestnut hair and melodramatic crooning. She soon fell upon troubled times, separating from her Lebanese husband-manager.

Tamim and Moustafa met in the summer of 2004 at a Red Sea resort, according to transcripts of Moustafa’s interrogation. Moustafa said he wanted to marry her in 2006 but then retreated, and they broke up. Tamim left Egypt and hooked up with a kickboxer.

Moustafa, apparently angry over having been jilted, turned to Sukkary, who worked at his Four Seasons Hotel in Cairo. The prosecutor said the tycoon helped arrange visas and tickets for Sukkary as he trailed the singer first to London, then to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

Transcripts of alleged phone conversations kept by Sukkary and seized by police have Moustafa telling him, “The agreed amount is ready,” and, “Tomorrow, she is in London and you should act.” In a later tape, Sukkary explains that he missed his chance in London and “will wait to move it to Dubai.” Moustafa chides him and then says, “Okay, let’s finish with this.”

According to Dubai investigators, Sukkary followed Tamim last July 28 to her apartment in the swanky Dubai Marina complex and attacked her repeatedly with a knife.

Students moved by class on literary beauty of Qur’an
By Asma Ahmad, IFN Staff Reporter

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Visibly moved, students who diligently attended the first-ever seminar on the literary characteristics of the Qur’an for a non-Arabic speaking audience could not stop talking about the experience afterward. “This course completely picked up my perception of the Qur’an, shook it as an earthquake would move the earth, and smashed it back down to the ground,” wrote one student in an anonymous survey about the three-day class. “My prayer has changed, my love for the book of Allah has skyrocketed, and my faith in its divinity has been multiplied.”

About 150 people attended the class, held Feb. 13-15, at Cal State Long Beach. It was organized by the Bayyinah Institute, a national educational organization whose goals are to make learning Arabic and the Qur’an affordable and accessible.

Bayyinah founder and instructor Nouman Ali Khan took the audience on an awe-inspiring linguistic journey through the Qur’an, exposing them to its unique literary features.

These included, among others, the choice of words; integral relationship between the beginning and end of ‘surahs’ or chapters; coherence and harmony between surahs; and the use of allegorical references, metaphors, and imagery.

It is known that at the time of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), even his enemies would secretly listen to his recitation of the Qur’an in awe.

If they, too, were mesmerized by the literary beauty of the divine message, Khan said, it is unfortunate that Muslims today are so unaware of its marvel.

Attendee Jaafar Husain from Corona agreed.

“This course offers a perspective on the language of the Qur’an that most of us don’t pay attention to,” he said.

The 30-year-old instructor, previously little known in Southern California, seemed to have swept away his audience with his presentation.

“I was extremely impressed with his level of knowledge,” Husain said. “It is a gift of Allah to us that He raises amidst us such people.”

Khan, who does not come from an Arab background, formally started his Arabic studies in Chicago in 1999 with Dr. Abdus-Samie, founder and formal principal of Qur’an College in Faisalabad, Pakistan. He then supplemented with self-study from classical and contemporary texts.

The young father of four now focuses all his energies toward Bayyinah.

“The Qur’an is stunning in its beauty, captivating in its words, overpowering in its message, enchanting in its harmony and baffling in its subtlety,” Khan explained. “This treasure must be shared with all Muslims.”

Khan founded Bayyinah in 2005 in New York. The institute offers students courses around four major tracks within Arabic study; beginners, Qur’anic, standard and classical Literature taught as weekend seminars, 10-day evening sessions and online.

Next year, Bayyinah plans to offer a 10-month Arabic immersion program, which will graduate students at par with Madina or Al Azhar students, Khan said, without having to go overseas.

Bayyinah has currently partnered with the national AlMaghrib Institute, offering its students Arabic courses to fulfill their degree requirements.

The next Bayyinah seminar due to take place in Southern California this summer will focus on ‘tajweed’ or proper pronunciation and recitation of the Qur’an.

On the Web:
www.Bayyinah.com
www.Understandarabic.com
www.bayyinahsessions.com

I wanted to highlight a new blogger in the blog-o-sphere.

Ms. “Fool4thought.”

At first glance the title seems to be sort of an oxymoron, and that was partially intended. But “fool” is actually a very popular Egyptian food that Egyptians like to eat almost everyday. Fool in the morning, afternoons and evenings!

The blogger is a journalist from Egypt who also happens to be very close to me. In fact, she’s my cousin I guess journalism somehow runs in our family.

She is currently a senior at the American University in Cairo, and used to serve as the editor-in-chief of their school paper. She also worked for international human rights organizations that I cannot name, because they seem to not like their workers be opinion columnist.

She has interviewed major political and influential people in Egypt, including other free-lance journalist and bloggers who have made there way to the Egyptian prison system for their political writing. (I actually have her interview talking about it, but decided not to post it up.)

Her writing is superb, and I thought I’d introduce my readers to her work. Here is one of her most recent articles:

When I was younger, I used to see pictures of the same young man with long hair in a lot of random places—on t-shirts, on wall posters, and even on the occasional Egyptian soap series. When I asked my mom who he was, she told me he was Che Guevara, the big revolutionary.

I didn’t get it. Why was an Argentinean man halfway across the world, whose name I couldn’t even pronounce properly, popular enough to be plastered on the bedroom wall of a random teenage soap character? (Give me some credit, I was only 10).

I was reminded of that moment last night as I watched footage of a delegation of Egyptians presenting the Venezuelan ambassador with a token of appreciation for Hugo Chavez’s expulsion of the Israeli ambassador during the latest war on Gaza.

The footage was aired on journalist Ahmed El Moslimany’s show, El Tab’a El Ula (First Edition). Apparently, immediately after the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, El Moslimany had called on his viewers to send thank-you letters to the Venezuelan embassy. The letters flooded the mailboxes.

El Moslimany then decided to take a delegation of 10 (out of several hundred volunteers) to personally deliver a gift to the Venezuelan ambassador, and another to a representative from the Bolivian embassy to thank Bolivia for it’s decision to cut ties with Israel. The delegation included El Moslimany himself and Egyptian journalist Wael El Ibrashy.

Nearly 10 days after the ceasefire (which we all know isn’t really a ceasefire), Egyptians are still wrestling with the fact that while Venezuela and Bolivia had actively severed ties with Israel, Egypt had resorted to rhetoric—and weak rhetoric at that. The words, Did you see how Chavez kicked out the Israeli ambassador, are still part of everyday conversations and Facebook names and statuses still read Chavez.

Sure, President Mubarak’s words on the eve of the ceasefire offered some comfort:

“Egypt is working towards the end to the aggression and securing its borders with Israel and the Gaza Strip and it will never accept any foreign presence of monitors on its land. I say this is a red line – I have not and will not allow it to be crossed.”

“I demand Israel today stop its military operations immediately. I demand from its leaders an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and I demand from them a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Strip.”

It’s nice to know that Cairo wasn’t going to let Condoleezza Rice and Tzipi Livni make decisions on Egypt’s behalf without so much as a consultation, but these words were too little too late, especially for those people demonstrating in the streets.

So the thank you notes and tokens of gratitude are being sent to the Venezuelan embassy instead of the Presidential Palace, because it was Chavez who did what Egyptians had hoped their own government would do.

Now, Chavez is no Che. But Egyptians–and Arabs–are finding in him that same inspiration they saw in Guevara. Feeling betrayed by their own governments and outraged at the Israeli injustices, they are rallying around Chavez because whatever his political motivations were, he gave us all some respite.

So, at least as long as the war on Gaza continues–and the latest Israeli air attack confirms that it’s far from over– Facebook statuses are still going to say, ‘Chavez’.

Visit her blog, subscribe and pass it on! www.fool4thought.wordpress.com.

Advertising in the United States has often influenced the pop-culture identities of religious and ethnic minorities. To be targeted by marketers serves as an invitation to join in the national narrative of capitalism. To shop is to be American.

In 2009, the US marketplace will begin to truly recognize and court the $170 billion purchasing power of American-Muslims. To date, pop-culture representations of Islam are either cloaked in evil or infused with pathos. But as Hallmark, Wal-Mart and 20th Century Fox aim to engage this consumer demographic, it will slowly help to prove that American-Muslims are, as Professor Farid Senzai says, “boring as the rest of us [Americans].”

When considering marketers’ slow embrace of Muslim consumers, we must acknowledge legal scholar Leti Volpp’s point that “September 11 facilitated the consolidation of a new identity category that groups together persons who appear ‘Middle Eastern, Arab, or Muslim.’ This consolidation reflects a racialization wherein members of this group are identified as terrorists and disidentified as citizens.”

It is this conflation that bore the 2008 Dunkin Donuts controversy. Spokeswoman Rachel Ray wore a scarf that looked like a keffiyeh in a TV commercial and right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin then chided Ray for wearing a ‘jihadi chic’ garment. Dunkin Donuts dropped the advert. At no point was the spot even attempting to engage Islam or the Middle East, yet there was backlash.

No doubt that marketers considering this space are wary of the Islamaphobic chatter within media. And are likely confused by the diversity of people and practices within the American-Muslim population. But I posit that this may be similar to the hurdles brands faced when first reaching out to gay and lesbian consumers. And as Saad Ahmad, of the blog Chill Yo, Islam Yo, said “seeing that we live in a capitalist society, [including Islam] in advertising is really just an economic issue.”

2009-01-28-BurgerKingRamadanyoyo.jpg
Such inclusion has been discussed within the ad industry, but little action has been taken. Yet consumer demand is there and (full disclosure) our company is responding to it. We’d be heedless to ignore Long Island radiologist Almas Abbasi. who told the New York Times “If Ramadan starts, and you see an ad in the newspaper saying, ‘Happy Ramadan, here’s a special in our store,’ everyone will run to that store.” Now, American brands indeed do this within primarily Muslim countries – Burger King in UAE, HP in Bangladesh, Oreos in Indonesia etc. Though to date, no Muslim holidays are seized as a sales opportunity within the US. Except perhaps in Dearborn, Michigan, a city with the highest concentration of Muslims and Middle Eastern folks in America. Wal-Mart has opened a store in Dearborn designed for this demo. Newsweek reports that:

Wal-Mart offers its standard fare, plus 550 items targeted at Middle Eastern shoppers….walk through the front door of the 200,000-square-foot supercenter and instead of rows of checkout counters, you find a scene akin to a farmers market in Beirut. Twenty-two tables are stacked high with fresh produce like kusa and batenjan, squash and eggplant used in Middle Eastern dishes… a walled-off section of the butcher case is devoted to Halal meats.

Ikea has taken measures to court Dearborn shoppers and the local McDonalds and KFC serve halal meat. On the national scale, Hallmark carries Eid cards and the USPS issued an Eid stamp in 2001. But that’s about it.

While tailoring products to reach this consumer base is one important step for retailers, Yasmine Hafiz reminds us that “the average Muslim consumer is much like the average American consumer, with wants and needs mainly dictated by their income, education, and type of family. Their socioeconomic status dictates their spending habits more than their religious affiliation… there’s a lot of untapped buying potential amongst all these doctors & engineers.”

And as noted on the blog Muslim Canvas, “I guess the value I see in this marketing stuff is the effect it’ll have on the American psyche, rather than the Muslim psyche necessarily. [Seeing] a hijabi mom spreading Jif peanut butter on her son’s sandwich, or of a long-bearded man answering the door on a Domino’s commercial, could go a long way for our “image”.

The forthcoming US version of the CBC sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie could be a space for product placement. That said, brands must be adroit and not fall prey to tropes like the soul-claps and sombreros that plague too many minority-market campaigns. Nor forget that only half of American-Muslim women wear a hijab or think that Islam is the sole aspect of Muslim consumers’ identities.

While engaging Islam may appear complex, what remains quite simple is that there are millions of American consumers still being ignored. Millions of consumers who are waiting to see which brands will be smart enough to embrace them as fellow Americans.

NOTE: This is an excerpt from the white paper American-Muslim Identity: Advertising, Mass Media + New Media, which will be included in the forthcoming book Muslim Societies in the Age of Mass Consumption from Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Michael Hastings-Black is the co-founder of Desedo Films, a NYC production company that specializes in new media + minority markets.

(source, Yahoo! News)

LA man upset over job kills wife, 5 kids, himself

LOS ANGELES – A man fatally shot his wife, five young children and himself Tuesday after he faxed a note to a TV station claiming the couple had just been fired from their hospital jobs and together planned the killings as an escape for the whole family. “Why leave our children in someone else’s hands,” Ervin Lupoe wrote in a letter posted late Tuesday on the KABC-TV Web site.

The station called police after receiving the fax, and a police dispatch center also received a call from a man who stated, “I just returned home and my whole family’s been shot.”

Officers rushed to the home in Wilmington, a small community between the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, about 8:30 a.m., apparently within minutes of the killings. Officers could still smell the gunshot residue in the air.

Although the fax asserted that Ana Lupoe planning the killings of the whole family, police Lt. John Romero said Ervin Lupoe was the suspect. A revolver was found next to his body.

Ana Lupoe’s body was found in an upstairs bedroom with the bodies of the couple’s twin 2-year-old boys. The bodies of an 8-year-old girl and twin 5-year-old girls were found alongside Ervin Lupoe’s in another bedroom.

All were shot in the head, coroner’s Assistant Chief Ed Winter said.

It was the fifth mass death of a Southern California family by murder or suicide in a year. Police urged those facing tough economic times to get help rather than resort to violence.

“Today our worst fear was realized,” said Deputy Chief Kenneth Garner. “It’s just not a solution. There’s just so many ways you find alternatives to doing something so horrific and drastic as this.”

Ervin Lupoe removed three of the children from school about a week and a half ago, saying the family was moving to Kansas, the principal told KCAL-TV. Crescent Heights Elementary School Principal Cherise Pounders-Caver said nothing seemed to be troubling Lupoe at that time; she did not ask why the family was moving.

Kaiser Permanente Medical Center West Los Angeles released a statement confirming both Lupoe and his wife had worked there; both were medical technicians.

“We are deeply saddened to hear of the deaths of the Lupoe family,” it said in a statement.

In his letter, Ervin Lupoe claimed he and his wife both had been fired and that she suggested they kill themselves and their children, too. Police described the fax but did not release details.

The letter indicated that Lupoe and his wife had been under investigation for misrepresenting their employment to an outside agency in order to obtain childcare. He claimed that an administrator told the couple on Dec. 23: “You should not even had bothered to come to work today you should have blown your brains out.”

The couple complained to the human resources department and eventually were offered an apology but two days later the Lupoes were fired, according to the letter.

“They did nothing to the manager who stated such and did not attempt to assist us in the matter, knowing we have no job and five children under 8 years with no place to go. So here we are,” the note said.

At the bottom of the note, Lupoe wrote, “Oh lord, my God, is there no hope for a widow’s son?”

The Kaiser Permanente statement made no comment on the claims in Lupoe’s fax.

“It looks like they might have had grounds for his termination … it wasn’t that he was laid off as a result of the economic situation,” police Capt. Billy Hayes said.

Lupoe’s fax identified his children as Brittney, 8; 5-year-old twins Jaszmin and Jassely; and twins Benjamin and Christian, ages 2 years and 4 months.

Winter said the children were ages 2 to 8 but his agency would not release the names. He said that although the father’s family had been notified, relatives of the rest of the family had not been located.

The two-story home, much larger than its one-story neighbors, sits in front of a railroad track in Wilmington, a small community about 18 miles south of downtown. A children’s playset stood in the backyard.

On his Facebook page, Lupoe posted photographs of a daughter at karate class, and of a fancy tub and wash basins in an apparently remodeled bathroom.

Retired truck driver Jaime Solache, who lives a few doors down, said many of these newer, larger homes in the neighborhood had gone into foreclosure. The Lupoe house, which has a sign hanging above the driveway reading “The Lupoe’s Pad,” is about 6 years old, Solache said.

News of the killings sent shivers through the community, and several neighbors came to the yellow police tape to watch a steady procession of officials enter and leave the home.

“This area right here is quiet, calm,” said Armando Chacon, who lives one block north. “People like to sit out at weekends and barbecue. Other than this, no problems at all.”

In 1994, Lupoe was charged with carrying a concealed firearm but it was either dismissed or not prosecuted, court documents show.

Lupoe got a state license to work as a security guard in 1989 and a permit to carry a gun as a security guard in 1993 but both expired in 2007, said Russ Heimerich, a spokesman for the state Bureau of Security and Investigative Services.

Bob Pierce, a Long Beach attorney who represented the Lupoes in an auto accident, said the case did not involve any serious injuries and the family was expected to receive “well below $10,000,” he said.

Lupoe called Monday to find out when the money might be coming, Pierce said. Pierce told him that it might be another week or two “and he said ‘no problem.’”

The region has been shook by several recent mass murders.

On Dec. 24, a man dressed up as Santa Claus invaded a Christmas Eve party and killed his ex-wife and eight of her relatives. The man later killed himself.

In October, an unemployed financial manager despairing over extreme money problems shot and killed his wife, three children, mother-in-law and himself in their home in the Porter Ranch area of the San Fernando Valley.

In June, five members of a Turkish-American family, clad in black, were found dead in an upscale home in San Clemente. Investigators say it was apparently a suicide pact but the reason is a mystery.

“Abdullah criticized the Israelis for using excessive force in Gaza, saying the Jewish holy book called for “an eye for an eye and did not say an eye for the eyes of a whole city.”

Courtesy of Yahoo News!

Saudi Arabia to donate $1 billion to rebuild Gaza

KUWAIT CITY – The Saudi king said Monday his country will donate $1 billion to help rebuild the Gaza Strip after the devastating Israeli offensive and told Israel that an Arab initiative offering peace will not remain on the table forever.

King Abdullah’s comments at an Arab economic summit in Kuwait City were his first since Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas declared a fragile cease-fire to halt three weeks of violence in Gaza that killed more than 1,250 Palestinians.

“Israel has to understand that the choice between war and peace will not always stay open and that the Arab peace initiative that is on the table today will not stay on the table,” said Abdullah during a speech.

The initiative, which was first proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2002 and relaunched in March 2007, offers Israel collective Arab recognition in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from territory it occupied in the 1967 war, the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and a just solution for the problem of Palestinian refugees.

Israel initially rejected the initiative in 2002, but in the past year has said it could be a starting point for discussion.

“The position of the Israeli government is that the Arab peace initiative remains a basis for dialogue between Israel and the Arab world,” said Israeli spokesman Mark Regev. “And we continue to be willing to negotiate with all of our neighbors on the basis of that initiative.”

But progress toward finalizing a peace deal has been slow, especially after Hamas seized Gaza from its rival Fatah in June 2007, creating a rift between the two main Palestinian factions. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ faction, Fatah, controls only the West Bank.

Arab hard-liners discussing Gaza at a gathering in Qatar last week called for putting the peace initiative on hold, a more radical position than the one outlined by Abdullah.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has proclaimed the offer already dead and proposed Monday that the Arab summit adopt a resolution declaring Israel a “terrorist entity.”

The Arab world has struggled to come up with a unified response to the Gaza crisis — with strong Hamas supporters like Iran and Syria facing off against U.S. allies like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi king called on Arab countries to end their rift Monday and invited the leaders from Egypt, Qatar and Syria to his palace for lunch after the summit’s opening session.

Abbas on Monday rejected any talk of abandoning the initiative, saying the only option that Arabs have is to make peace with Israel.

“The Arab peace initiative did not carry the seeds of its demise,” said Abbas at the Kuwait summit. “It was our shortcomings.”

Arab League chief Amr Moussa told the summit that Arab countries would have to come up with an alternative if they decided to abandon the initiative.

“The situation cannot take just freezing or suspending (the initiative),” said Moussa.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, meanwhile, pushed Israel to respond to the Arab initiative, saying “peace in the Middle East is an imperative that cannot be delayed.”

But prospects for Arab-Israeli peace seem dim following Israel’s offensive in Gaza to halt Hamas rocket fire into its territory. The death and destruction enraged many Arabs and further strained relations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Abdullah criticized the Israelis for using excessive force in Gaza, saying the Jewish holy book called for “an eye for an eye and did not say an eye for the eyes of a whole city.”

The king said his country’s $1 billion donation for Gaza would go to a proposed fund Arabs are setting up to rebuild the seaside territory.

“I know that one drop of Palestinian blood is more valuable than the treasures of the world,” said Abdullah.

But it remains to be seen whether Arab expressions of sympathy for the citizens of Gaza translate into actual funds to rebuild the city. Arabs have often criticized Israel for the plight of Palestinians, but pledges of financial support have not always materialized.

Also Monday, Turkey’s top envoy for the Middle East offered to mediate between Hamas and Fatah to forge a consensus necessary to a lasting Gaza cease-fire. The rival factions have been unable to come up with a power-sharing formula since Hamas won 2006 parliament elections.

“Palestinian reconciliation is a must in order for peace to be lasting,” Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters. “If that is achieved, then the road to peace will be opened.”

France, which has played an active role in efforts toward ending the Gaza offensive, also urged convening an international conference toward eventually creating a Palestinian state.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said in an online briefing Monday that “an international conference should be quickly organized” for launching “a dynamic for negotiations” on creating a Palestinian state. He gave no other details.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush has become the talk of Iraq, hailed by marchers as a national hero but blasted by the government as a barbarian.

The little-known Shi’ite reporter, said to have harbored anger against Bush for the thousands of Iraqis who died after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, had previously made headlines only once, when he was briefly kidnapped by gunmen in 2007.

TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi remained in detention on Monday, accused by the Iraqi government of a “barbaric act.” He would be sent for trial on charges of insulting the Iraqi state, said the prime minister’s media adviser, Yasin Majeed.

His employer, independent al-Baghdadiya television, demanded his release and demonstrators rallied for him in Baghdad’s Sadr City, in the southern Shi’ite stronghold of Basra and in the holy city of Najaf, where some threw shoes at a U.S. convoy.

“Thanks be to God, Muntazer’s act fills Iraqi hearts with pride,” his brother, Udai al-Zaidi, told Reuters Television.

“I’m sure many Iraqis want to do what Muntazer did. Muntazer used to say all the orphans whose fathers were killed are because of Bush.”

Zaidi shouted “this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog,” at Bush in a news conference he held with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during a farewell visit to Baghdad on Sunday.

The journalist then flung one shoe at Bush, forcing him to duck, followed by another, which sailed over Bush’s head and slammed into the wall behind him. Throwing shoes at someone is the worst possible insult in the Arab world.

Zaidi was dragged struggling and screaming from the room by security guards and could be heard shouting outside while the news conference continued after momentary mayhem.

‘BARBARIC’

The government said Zaidi had carried out “a barbaric and ignominious act” that was not fitting of the media’s role and demanded an apology from his television station.

Al-Baghdadiya television played endless patriotic music, with Zaidi’s face plastered across the screen.

A newscaster solemnly read out a statement calling for his release, “in accordance with the democratic era and the freedom of expression that Iraqis were promised by U.S. authorities.”

It said that any harsh measures taken against the reporter would be reminders of the “dictatorial era.”

The Iraqi Journalists’ Syndicate said Zaidi’s “far from professional” and irresponsible conduct had placed it in an “embarrassing and critical” situation. Nevertheless, it called on Maliki to release him for humanitarian reasons.

“It was the throw of the century. I believe Bush deserves what happened to him because he has not kept his promises to Iraqis,” said Baghdad resident Abu Hussein, 48.

Parliamentary reaction was mixed, with some saying Zaidi chose the wrong venue for his protest. Others cheered.

“Al-Zaidi’s shoe is the most famous shoe in the whole world,” said Fawzi Akram, a Turkman lawmaker loyal to anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

A Libyan charity group chaired by leader Muammar Gaddafi’s daughter, Aicha Gaddafi, gave Zaidi an award for bravery.

Zaidi, now in his late 20s, spent more than two days blindfolded, after armed men kidnapped him in November 2007. He said at the time that the kidnappers had beaten him until he lost consciousness, and used his necktie to blindfold him.

He never learned the identity of the kidnappers, who questioned him about his work but did not demand a ransom.

Colleagues say Zaidi resented Bush, blaming him for the bloodshed that ravaged Iraq. It did not appear that he had lost any close family members during the sectarian killings and insurgency, which in recent months have finally begun to wane.

(Additional reporting by Haidar Kadhim and Wissam Mohammed; Writing by Michael Christie; Editing by Dominic Evans)

This article was submitted by Br. Faisal Tabassum, a member of my PR team who is currently studying Journalism at a university in the UK

Bismillah,

After recent news stories, I felt compelled to show you some typical techniques the mainstream media uses to make Islam look like its teachings belong back in the jungle with Tarzan. Insha’allah (God willing) these totally exposed blunders will make you a bit more perceptive to its ever increasing evil eye. Especially if you are Non Muslim – Here’s something they forgot to teach you in high school…

Number 1 – The Naming Blunder

The article is here.

Firstly I am pretty sure author ‘Mohamed Mohamed’ didn’t go to Islamic school when he was younger, as he definitely wouldn’t have learnt he is an ‘Islamist’. Muslims only found out this word when the media introduced it to us!

As you can see, the Media occasionally likes to create its own words. A bit like a chef who’s experimenting for the first time. Take for example Chef Ramzi:

Chef Ramzi: “Hmm, let’s see what ingredients I have to cook today.”

Ingredients – Extreme + Radicalist + Islam.

Chef Ramzi: “OK, let me see…”

*Chop Chop, Mix Mix, Swirl Swirl.*
*Covers with cling film…*
*Lets it settle for 20 minutes…*

Chef Ramzi: “… Islamist! There you have it! Perfect. No one will notice this!”

…Don’t be fooled.

Amongst other techniques used in this article are:

The Subheadings: ‘Law and Order‘, ‘Fear‘, ‘Death threats‘, ‘Not Islamic‘ – Coincidence? You better believe otherwise! These are there to psychologically scare a person into believing the dreaded Islam is: ‘coming soon to a village near you‘ so to speak, if you don’t do something about it.

At this point I’d like to say that:

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, should not hurt his neighbour and whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, should serve his guest generously and whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, should talk what is good or keep quiet.(i.e. abstain from all kinds of evil and dirty talk) “

[Narrated by Abu Huraira, Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 8, Number 158]

I guess you should be afraid…

Number 2 – Statistics Show.

Statistics from this article reassure you that this overwhelming focus on Islam in the media isn’t a coincidence. “Where did all this sudden ‘radical Islam’ and terrorism come from?” I hear you cry. The answer is the same place ‘Islamist’ came from – Islam has become a nice target since September 11^th.

We get so much coverage that even Hindus’ and Sikhs’ are now complaining we get all the air time. Jeez guys – you can have it all back!

Number of faith programmes since 2001 the BBC has produced for:

Sikhism: 1
Hinduism: 5
Islam: 41

Seems like a much clearer pattern don’t you think?

Number 3 – Muslims get terrorised too – you just don’t hear about it.

Try and find this article in the mainstream newspaper. Yes you’ll be searching all year!

I know the person who wrote this article personally, so it is no fake. He also confirmed he attended all the court hearings. This very month marks the end of an innocent Muslim, Hassan Mutegombwa’s first of 10 years in prison. Simply for saying “Insha Allah” (God Willing).

Please note his brother, Yassin Mutegombwa, does have some connection to terrorist activity, but he himself has done nothing and has no relation to what his brother does.

(You can find more information on this case by reading the report issued by Metropolitan Police.)

The above report shows no real evidence to prove he was guilty, just suspicions.

Note: they say he was going to do ‘hidra’ – It’s actually spelt ‘hijra’ and it means migration, so he was going to Uganda and staying there.

This is what the BBC and CNN should be reporting on – injustice – One of the main topics that makes an article newsworthy. Instead it is found on an American News Website virtually unknown to the UK general public. But maybe we can let them off this time. I mean, maybe they didn’t know about this story?

No way hosé.

The BBC did report on this case, when they were originally charged for terror offences (which later resulted in no proof but still a sentencing for 10 years).

So what does all this mean?

It shows that if you want to know about Islam and you ask someone who has only heard about it from the mainstream Media, they will most certainly tell you what the media has told them (which we have shown is mostly fear and misconceptions) and not what Islam really is.

That’s why we recommend you to ask the knowledgeable Muslims about Islam, and not the media (or Chef Ramzi!).

When you ask a Muslim about his religion, or even read about it yourself from recommended sites, you will be surprised at how much it differs from the jargon the media makes it out to be. So much so, that you may even be bedazzled!

With this approach, I pray you come to appreciate the beauty of Islam.

Faisal Tabassum.

While this isn’t a rebuttal of Br. Haytham’s post there are some things from the POV of a sister that I feel brothers just are clueless about. In fact, I think brothers are usually about 90% clueless when it comes to the female brain, but let’s take baby steps in helping them on their roadmap to marriage:

Let’s be frank here — we as a Western society are picky when it comes to our marriage choices. Things aren’t as simplified as they used to be. Whether that’s good or bad is not the issue.

In keeping with the spirit of Br. Haytham’s post, I’ll keep to the outline he’s listed for the pre-marriage issues: Parents of prospective husband, prospective husband and our own insecurities:

Our view about parents of prospective husband:

Guys are terrified of fathers. Women are equally terrified of mothers. Let’s face it — some of the biggest problems after marriage originate between the wife and her mother-in-law.

Before we meet your mom, we make dua’a that she is very nice and not too over-bearing with high expectations of us when it comes to cooking and babying her son; and not to mention we hope she isn’t too critical of our looks.

And unless we are pretty traditional from certain backgrounds, there is no way we want to live with the brother’s family after marriage; especially if we grew up in the West.

It’s not about us being afflicted with this whole “Western Aggressive Girl Syndrome.” It’s just the reality of how we feel. Now that’s not to say that a sister will not be respectful of a guy’s mom. Truly, if a sister fears Allah, she will be very, very respectful to your mother regardless of whether or not she disagrees with her.

But that doesn’t take away from the fact that we are terrified before we meet your mothers. And generally, we tend to have no issues with the father at all.

Our view about the prospective husband:

Many of br. Haytham’s qualities he listed that brothers look for in sisters can go for both ways. The points I’m about to list are not in order of importance, but figured i’d offer a little different side when it comes to the sister’s POV:

1– Sisters look for good looks too. Although we are more flexible when it comes to looks, we definitely have to be attracted to the guy. We don’t necessarily need supermodels. Just follow the sunnah, and naturally iman and noor on your face will make you more attractive.

2—Maturity- we want you to be charismatic, not stiff, but mature. Show us you’re ready mentally to get married and take care of a family.

3—Religiosity—much like guys want their future wife to have the eagerness to learn the deen, it’s even more stressed on our side. Most sisters want a brother who is on the same level deen wise or above. We want someone we can look up to, because this encourages us to be better.

4—Dressed Islamically- Yes, that’s right — religious girls like beards! Contrary to popular belief, we are not scared of them, and in fact that’s one of our main concerns up front. I guess it’s the leeway in knowing and finding out about the brother’s religious mentality.

On a side note, one of my personal, biggest pet peeves is when a brother trims his beard really short for unacceptable reasons.

I always hear of cases from sisters where a brother says he shaves his beard for fear of airport security. And if you ask him what opinion he follows, and he usually responds that it’s haram to trim it or to trim anything more than fist length.

But even worse than that is when he shaves it because his mom doesn’t like the way it looks on him. Brothers, this is your hijab. If you follow an opinion, be firm on it. It shows weakness to us when you do this, especially because we as sisters wearing full hijab have much bigger pressure than you do when it comes to outside scrutiny of our attire.

5—Someone to find comfort in—we definitely want not only a husband, but a best friend. We want someone to console in and that will not only listen to us when we are down, but to tell us words that will make us feel better. Analyze the situation with us, and give us “words of wisdom.”

Usually, this is a “gamble” because we really can’t tell if this quality exists in a brother before marriage.

6—Knows how to treat his wife kindly and with respect—there’s a difference between being the man of the house, and being the prison guard. We don’t want the “What I say goes!” type of brother.

7—Has to be more intelligent than us to a certain degree—we don’t want to feel smarter than our husbands. You must be able to hold an intelligent conversation and know about things we don’t know anything about.

8—Too sensitive is too feminine—some girls like sensitive guys. But some guys take that too far. Believe it or not there are a lot of guys out there that love to spill what they are “feeling” all the time. We want someone masculine, but not afraid to say what’s wrong if they are upset. Just don’t cry me a river every time.

9—Jealousy- we definitely want the same from brothers as they want from sisters. We want to feel like we are special and protected. But don’t be too over-bearing in your jealousy. I know sisters whose husbands are so jealous they hardly let their wives go out of the house, even if it’s with other good sisters. Again, be a husband, not a prison guard.

10– Demeanor- the way your carry yourself is what makes you attractive. Carry yourself with respect and confidence. We view confidence as being very attractive. Seriously, a guy doesn’t have to be that physically attractive, but if he is confident it really can make a guy stand tall in our eyes. Finally, be respectful but also be fun.

Oh, and definitely a #11

11- Chivalry is not dead! Girls love chivalry. We want our husbands to open doors for us, surprise us every once in a while, give us their jackets when we’re cold. This is something almost ever girl loves.

Finally, our view of our own insecurities:

We are very self-conscious about our looks even the girls that know they are somewhat attractive. We are scared that when the brother sees us for the first time, and if he’s not interested we always think it’s about our looks- even if he states other reasons.

After all, we definitely want the one person who will see us without our niqaab or hijab to be the one who thinks we are the most beautiful.

A little secret—most girls don’t know how to cook in the beginning of marriage. But we learn. We’re also insecure about that. We know we can’t match your mom’s cooking yet, but give us time.

Wallahu alem.

-Egyptian Gumbo

Disclaimer: This post is in no way, shape or form an advertisement for marriage. I’m simply responding the post on Muslim Matters because I don’t see anything previously out there complied into one post about this issue from a sister’s POV. This is not to say that all these things are what I personally see or feel, but I believe it represents a lot of sisters as a whole. I know there will be some sisters that disagree. And again, these are general, not necessarily what I think or don’t think.

Jazak Allah khair Ahmed Eid for forwarding this article.

_______________________________________________________________________
Stand up for your rights, says victorious Noha Roushdy

By Abdel-Rahman Hussein
First Published 10/24/2008
CAIRO: Winning the first sexual harassment case in the history of Egyptian law can be draining, as Noha Roushdy is finding out.

Ever since the North Cairo Court ruled in her favor last Tuesday, Roushdy has been doing non-stop press interviews, to the extent that she is unable to recall who she was talking to prior to our meeting and needs a few moments to catch her breath.

Yet there is a plus side. Right before we begin the interview, a distinguished looking elderly gentleman came up to her and said, “I’ve been trying to catch up with you from the end of the street, but your youth beat my old age. I just want to shake your hand for what you’ve done and congratulate you on your courage.”

A beaming Roushdy stands up for the man and thanks him profusely. The waiters at the café we are at ask me who she is. “Only the most famous woman in the country at the moment,” I’m tempted to reply.

Sherif Gomaa Gibrial, a driver, was sentenced to three years imprisonment and fined LE 5,001 for harassing Roushdy in broad daylight last June.

“I was so thrilled with this verdict, it was so surprising,” she says. “I didn’t think it would ever be that strong. I trust the legal system; it didn’t discriminate between men and women.”

Roushdy’s lawyer had told her that the ruling might be given in the first hearing, and because it was treated as a felony of sexual assault rather than a misdemeanor of attacking a woman, the sentence was three years rather than say six months to a year.

“This is a crime; there was an understanding of that and the criminal should be punished legally, not just maybe beaten on the street. He humiliated me and I got my own back,” she says.
And in light of the ruling, her message is a simple one.

“Girls, just be more positive and powerful because no one is going to fight for your rights; you have to stand up for yourself. I feel it’s time to say no to being passive” even despite archaic societal perceptions.

“You can’t make everyone love you,” she says, “especially in situations like this you’ll see the differences between people. Some people will think I’m being very provocative or unrespectable, but the question is, how do I see myself?

“At least in the past, when a woman was harassed in the street, people would step in to protect her. That era has long vanished. I feel that people don’t know who they are anymore,” she adds.

Many have posited their theories about the alarming rise in incidents of sexual harassment in the country, but Roushdy takes a slightly different tack to the limp justifications some might offer.

“Everyone [attributes] harassment to repression, but I think it is oppression,” she says. “In psychological analysis, repression leads to depression and passiveness. There is political and economic repression [here] and no one has started a revolution. It [just] turns into more passivity. But the idea of oppression is what brought harassment out in society.”

“Oppression makes people aggressive,” Roushdy continues. “Each oppressed person has an ambition to oppress someone else to feel a balance, to not feel weak. So the regime oppresses the people and the people are split. So the man will oppress the woman he feels is less than him.

“So I believe people are passive because they are repressed, but they are harassing others because they are oppressed.”

And Roushdy would like to see a break in this cycle, passivity again being the enemy.

“The image of women that they are weak is because they are passive. If everyone took action, this will end. At least it will make these men not take the women they harass for granted because they are sure they won’t speak out,” she says.

Not that it will be easy. “This is a long-term issue. We have a crisis phenomenon, so we have to deal with it the way we deal with a crisis. I don’t see that the implementation of a new sexual harassment law will make a big difference unless women use it. This trial was under the old law and the sentence was three years.”

The sexual harassment occurred June 26, in the intersection between Rifaa and Gabarty streets in Heliopolis at 5:30 pm. As Roushdy and a friend were walking, Gibrial was driving by and stretched out his arm and grabbed her while he kept driving thus dragging her along with him.

“I felt so weak and was about to faint, I turned blue at that moment, but then my friend caught me and this car blocked his way so we ran after him.”

Roushdy jumped onto the boot of his car to stop him.

“My friend Hind ran to the nearby district police station to get help and I insisted that he was not going to leave, but everybody was against us at that point. The low ranking policeman who was there refused to come and told her to call the police by phone,” Roushdy says.

“I was getting really hysterical at that point because what happened was something very mean and hurtful to me, and the passersby were very negative and passive. [But] a man appeared who was sympathetic to us and he helped us drag him to the police station,” she continues.

Asked why she reacted with such strength and why she was so adamant to not let the matter pass, Roushdy answers, “I was harassed once when I was a teenager.I was very young but I had this idea that if anyone did that to me I was going to get him, but actually I was so shocked I didn’t even shout.

Since then I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t let anyone go, ever again.”

She adds, “A lot of my friends have told me stories about how they have gotten harassed at work, in the streets, on [public] transportation, they didn’t take action and it [affected them] badly. They were broken.”

“So while I was in this fight what made me more insistent was that I remembered each of my friends with her stories, I remembered my own story so I was like ‘you are not going to get away with this at all, I nailed you.’”
At the police station the policeman refused to file the complaint and insisted on her father being present. The policeman then refused to provide a vehicle to transport Gibrial to the main police station, so they ended up taking him in her father’s car to the police station.

Roushdy says that the officers at the main Heliopolis police station and the Public Prosecutor’s office were very understanding and treated her with the utmost respect. The process was also speedy, and it was only a matter of hours before investigations had been completed and Gibrial was detained.

However, two days before the trial some people claiming to be police officers started showing up at her doorstep. They did not show her any identification.

“In the end we filed a complaint against that initial policeman at the Ministry of Interior and there should be an internal investigation,” she says.

Did the impoverished state of her aggressor’s family prey on her mind at all?

“No,” she replies, “and there is a reason. I was awarded civil damages of LE 5,001, which is the minimum amount.

“I gave up all my civil rights in this case; I’m not going to ask for any money.

I have also decided not to pursue further civil claims because the point is not to give the family a hard time at all. I sympathize with anyone who is oppressed and the disenfranchised. He has six brothers so his family is not deserted.”

She adds, “In the case that his mother is heartbroken, well I would be broken if I didn’t take it to this extent. In the end being sympathetic shouldn’t make you a passive person, so we have to understand it in the right way. I’m not going to ask for money because I don’t want to give them a hard time but at the same time he deserves it [the jail term]. Anyone who does this deserves to be locked up.”