Ahmad al-Shugairi, host of a TV show on religious themes, with students at his cafe in Jidda.
Full Article.
Video from the NY Times.
From ArabNews.com - December 31, 2008
Kids traumatized as Israeli bombs rain down
Agencies
GAZA CITY: "We are scared ... that we can die at any moment," said 11-year-old Mohammed Ayyad, still terrified hours after a massive Israeli bombardment of Hamas government buildings next to his house in Gaza.
Like the rest of Gaza's children, he has been traumatized by the four-day assault on Islamist Hamas targets which has transformed many areas of the overcrowded territory into piles of rubble and shattered glass.
"As they were hitting the center (of Gaza City), we heard an enormous explosion and our house was filled with dust," he said. "We immediately ran toward the ground floor." His six-year-old brother Ahmad "peed his pants. We were all scared because the planes are in the sky all the time and we could die at any moment."
Schools in Gaza have been closed since the Israeli strikes began on Saturday and children have passed the time examining the damage caused by the raids.
Near Ayyad's home, a group of children milled around rubble that used to be Hamas government buildings. One shrugged off the danger of being outside as the Israeli warplanes continued their sorties overhead. "I run the same risk if I am at home or in the street," he said.
Another boy, Mohammed Bassal, said he and his brothers were shaken awake by explosions in the night. "Debris from the broken windows fell on our heads, the electricity was cut off and we started screaming," he said. "My mother came and hugged us."
His 12-year-old brother Nidal added: "We're still scared. The Jews are crazy and they don't spare anyone, even children." Iyad Al-Sayagh, a mother who lives in the area, called the bombardment "a night of horror, the way the earth shook."
After the strikes began "I immediately got my kids down to my father's, who lives on the ground floor," she said. "With each missile the little ones became hysterical." The overnight raids "turned the night in Gaza into hell," said Sarah Radi, a 29-year-old teacher. "They say that they want to destroy Hamas, but it's not true. They want to annihilate the Palestinian people. What did the women and children do that they destroy their houses?"
According to Gaza medics, at least 39 children under 16 years of age have died as a result of the Israeli savage bombardment that have killed at least 367 Palestinians in Gaza since Saturday.
Among the latest victims were two sisters aged four and 11. "What's happening is a massacre that Gazans will remember for always," warned Samir Zaqut, a psychologist with the Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP).
"When 360 people die under the bombs and the missiles, this causes post-traumatic stress amid children and adults, like depression, insomnia and schizophrenia," he added. The UN children's agency UNICEF has said it is "deeply concerned about the impact of the current violence in Gaza on children."
It urged "all parties to the conflict to abide by their international legal obligation to ensure that children are protected and that they receive essential humanitarian supplies and support."
Fires continue to burn across the Gaza Strip's main city, where five government buildings were badly damaged in air attacks. Rescue workers said 40 people were injured yesterday when warplanes dropped more than a dozen bombs on the government compound.
A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross says a delegation that visited Gaza's largest hospital, Shifa, has found conditions there had stabilized. "The situation is difficult but increasingly under control," Florian Westphal told The Associated Press.
UN Slams Israel's "Shocking Atrocities"
"The entire 1.5 million people who live in the crowded Gaza Strip are being punished for the actions of a few militants," Falk said.
Full article.
A protester joins a coalition of groups calling for an end to Israeli attacks in Gaza at the New York Israeli Consulate
Hundreds of Arab-Americans and others gather in Dearborn, Mich, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008 during a protest against Israeli military strikes in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Hundreds in Michigan, NYC Protest Strikes in Gaza - from the AP
Israel, Palestinian Protesters Face Off in Los Angeles - from the San Jose Mercury News
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR) today called on American Muslims and other people of
conscience to contact public officials and urge them to condemn Israeli
attacks on the Gaza Strip that have killed almost 300 people and injured
hundreds more, including women and children. In its bombardment of Gaza,
Israel has targeted at least one mosque, a university and a warehouse for
medical supplies.
SEE: Israel Pounds Gaza for Second Day, 296 Killed (Reuters)
http://tinyurl.com/9cp8zo
SEE: Gaza Humanitarian Plight 'Disastrous,' U.N. Official Says (CNN)
http://tinyurl.com/8fkvrr
[NOTE: U.S. Muslim Leaders to Address Gaza Crisis - On Monday, December 29,
the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT), a coalition
of 12 major Islamic organizations, will hold a 10 a.m. news conference at the
National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to release an open letter to
President-elect Obama outlining suggested domestic and foreign policy
priorities for the new administration. At that news conference, the Muslim
leaders will also address the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. CONTACT:
CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or
202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com]
CAIR also called on anyone concerned about the "disproportionate and
counterproductive" Israeli attacks to call radio talk show programs, write
letters to the editor and use social media websites such as Facebook, YouTube
and Twitter to voice their concerns.
Those contacting the media or using social media networks are being asked to
offer support for the Palestinian right to freedom from occupation, to call
for an end to the Israeli blockade of humanitarian supplies to Gaza and to
demand a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Washington-based group's "action alert" also stated: "Point out that such
attacks block efforts to bring peace with justice to the Middle East, harm our
nation's image and interests worldwide and strengthen voices of extremism in
the region. Ask your elected officials to adopt an ever-handed Middle East
policy that is in our nation's, not Israel's interest."
CAIR's alert listed other points to be raised when communicating with public
officials:
* The Palestinian people must be given some hope of freedom from Israeli
occupation and domination.
* Israel's immoral and illegal collective punishment of the Palestinian people
living in the Gaza Strip must end.
* America must support a just and comprehensive resolution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict that takes into account the rights and
responsibilities of all parties.
Yesterday, CAIR issued a statement condemning the Israeli attacks and calling
on President-elect Obama to speak out on the crisis. Today's action alert
asked American Muslims to contact the Obama transition team.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 35 offices and
chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding
of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American
Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or
202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina
Rubin, 202-488-8787, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com
SOURCE Council on American-Islamic Relations
CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, +1-202-488-8787 or
+1-202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina
Rubin, +1-202-488-8787, arubin@cair.com
From the Guardian
Premarital sex on rise as Iranians delay marriage, survey finds
* Robert Tait
* The Guardian, Monday 29 December 2008
Rising numbers of Iranians are spurning marriage and having sex illegally outside wedlock, Iran's state-run body for youth affairs has said.
A survey by the national youth organisation found that more than one in four men aged 19 to 29 had experienced sex before marriage. About 13% of such cases resulted in unwanted pregnancies that led to abortions. Sex outside marriage and abortion are outlawed under Iran's Islamic legal code.
The survey also revealed that the average marrying age had risen to 40 for men and 35 for women, a blow to the government's goal of promoting marriage to shore up society's Islamic foundations.
The statistics were disclosed by the national youth organisation's social-cultural deputy, Ali Alkbar Asarnia, at a conference celebrating family values and were widely reported in Iranian media. However, the organisation later attempted to dismiss the findings as based on an unrepresentative sample and attacked media outlets that reported them.
Asarnia said Iran had around 15 million single young people and that 1.5 million more were becoming eligible for marriage each year. Seven million were already past the government's recommended marrying guideline age of 29. The trend was producing the "unpleasant and dangerous social side effects" of premarital sex, Asarnia said.
The government has already tried to boost the marriage rate, which had an unprecedented 1.2% decline in 2005. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has introduced a £720m "Reza love fund" - named after one of Shia Islam's 12 imams - to provide marriage loans. Plans have been announced to establish marriage bureaux to help people find partners.
Many blame economic circumstances for their failure to marry, citing high inflation, unemployment and a housing shortage along with cultural traditions that expect brides' families to provide dowries and husbands to commit themselves to mehrieh, an agreed cash gift.
However, Hojatoleslam Ghasem Ebrahimipour, a sociologist, told Shabestan news agency that the trend was due to the availability of premarital sex, and feminism among educated women. "When a woman is educated and has an income, she does not want to accept masculine domination through marriage," he said.
