O you who believe! Partake of the good things that We have provided for you, and render thanks to Allah if it is He whom you worship.
-Qur'an, Al-Baqara, Surah 2:172
Friday, November 23, 2007
Partake of the Good Things
O you who believe! Partake of the good things that We have provided for you, and render thanks to Allah if it is He whom you worship.
-Qur'an, Al-Baqara, Surah 2:172
NYTimes.com: Careers Give India's Women New Independence
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Thursday, November 22, 2007
From A Friend: 'Slideshow: Christians Back To Baghdad Church - Photos - KXAS | Dallas'
queermuslimrevolution@gmail.com has sent you a link: "Slideshow: Christians Back To Baghdad Church - Photos - KXAS | Dallas"
The link:
http://www.nbc5i.com/slideshow/14619066/detail.htmlindex.html?currentSlide=1&taf=dfw
Who Are Blessed by Allah?
Blessed are the ones who rely on Allah and have surrendered themselves before His will, who are grateful in prosperity and patient in adversity.
-The Prophet Muhammad (SAW), as reported by Shu'aib bin Se'nam
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Washington Post Mobile - Jordan's Limited Democracy Leaves Voters Discontented
washingtonpost.com
queerpakiboy sent this to you from http://www.washingtonpost.com
Jordan's Limited Democracy Leaves Voters Discontented
By Ellen Knickmeyer and Yasmin Mousa
Updated: 11/20/2007
CAIRO, Nov. 19 -- For Mousa al-Sunna, a 35-year-old hairdresser in Jordan's capital, Amman, the campaign banners draping the streets for Tuesday's parliamentary elections merited a derisive snort.
"Frankly speaking, I drive in my car and read all those banners and laugh," Sunna said Monday. He mocked the pledges of Jordan's candidates to do everything from liberating Palestinian territories to blocking increases in gasoline prices.
"How can they not raise the prices?" Sunna said. "The government will raise the prices whether we like it or not."
Tuesday's elections for the 110 seats in the lower house are marked by rising expressions of cynicism from among the country's 2.4 million voters, and from political analysts. Eighteen years after Jordan's ruling family lifted martial law and restored parliament, King Abdullah II faces growing charges that the parliament in this Middle East monarchy is only superficially democratic.
"We have really lots of posters, pictures, slogans in the streets," said Oraib al-Rantawi, director of the Al-Quds Center for Political Studies in Amman. "But we have very little politics, and we don't have really a serious campaign."
About 900 candidates are running, including about 200 women. A quota guarantees women at least six seats.
The parliamentary elections are the second under Abdullah, whose ascension to the throne in 1999 after the death of his father, King Hussein, raised hopes of democratic reforms.
Abdullah has called for the voting to be clean and transparent, and has urged young people in particular to participate. "These elections should reflect our vision to bolster democracy and produce a parliament capable of dealing with all challenges," the king said in a statement last week.
Like other Middle East states that have experienced father-to-son successions in recent years, such as Morocco and Syria, Jordan under Abdullah has pushed economic liberalization harder than democratic improvements.
The government and parliament have withstood calls to restructure the country's electoral system. The system gives disproportionate representation to sparsely populated rural areas to the detriment of cities, where most of Jordan's 5.6 million people live.
The setup favors tribal candidates, who generally support government policies, over liberal and Islamic opposition politicians concentrated in urban areas.
Parliament has the power to introduce legislation. In practice, the government drafts most laws, and parliament only rarely intervenes to frustrate government plans. Abdullah appoints all 55 members of parliament's upper house.
"This is the first time I do not vote," Asmaa Zuhair, 33, said Monday as she headed to work in Amman. "Nobody deserves my going through the trouble of voting. What have they done for us? Nothing, absolutely nothing."
The Islamic Action Front, Jordan's version of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, boycotted summer municipal elections over allegations of vote-buying and other fraud. The front is fielding only 22 candidates in Tuesday's vote. Most of them are seen as moderates within the group.
The government and its supporters have used the 2006 Palestinian election victory of the armed Islamic movement Hamas as an excuse to slow democratic reforms, said Rantawi, of the Al-Quds Center.
"In dictator regimes" all over the Muslim world, "the Islamist threats have been taken as a pretext, an excuse, to delay the whole process" of democracy, he said.
Analysts predict that opposition parties will win roughly 20 percent of the seats and that the Islamic Action Front will either hold on to its 16 seats or lose some.
There have been more allegations of vote-buying this year than in the 2003 elections. Candidates are accused of giving away everything from cellphones to gas heaters, sometimes at campaign tents.
"This is as good as it gets," a man wearing a jacket but no tie said last weekend as he emerged from one of the tents. He was still chewing some of the free mensef -- a dish of rice, yogurt and lamb -- provided inside.
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Gay Somalis Build Virtual Presence
New Website Offers Collective Cyber Space
Gay Somalians have been starving for attention. Luckily unknown numbers of closeted queers from the African nation can find some communal nourishment with a new website, Somali Gay Community.
The Project Manager of Somali Gay Community in the United Kingdom, Murad, said the site, which aims to woo Somalis the world over, is designed to bridge information drought surrounding gay affairs in a purely conservative and Muslim society like Somalia."The goal of the group is to create a space and a means for Somali gays and lesbians access to information, share experiences and develop support networks," Murad told afrol News.
He said the site will serve as a guide to "our brothers and sisters confronted with their same-sex affairs". This will enable them to overcome their difficulties.
The groundbreaking site includes looks at homosexuality and Islam, stories of Somalian culture and, of course, a poetry section.
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