Muslim Voice July 11

Muslim Voice

2011

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AMERICAN-MUSLIMS COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

Monthly Newspaper

Vol.15 Issue No.178

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By Marwan Ahmad The idea of establishing a local television channel started last year right before Ramadan. The shortage of time and expertise to establish such channel were main reasons for not announcing it. Since then founder Marwan Ahmad has been building this channel one piece at a time until it becomes ready to be announced.

TV AZ.com

www.salamtvaz.com

“Our experience in the publishing media and credibility among our community for the past eighteen years have given us the confidence to venture into the project of Salam TV” said Marwan Ahmad. “We purchased all necessary equipments including HD cameras, lighting system, sound system, studio equipment and all necessary editing software to create local television programming” added Mr. Ahmad. Salam TV has hired professionals in areas of camera operating, directing and producing television shows to carry this new channel through.

Poll:

Do you believe that having Muslim owned and run TV channel can improve the image of Islam and Muslims in Arizona?

No

Last month’s results: Is the US government doing enough to protect Muslims?

Salam TV is designed to cater to the Muslim community as well as nonMuslim viewers alike. Its goal is shed positive light on Islam and Muslims in Arizona and the US including highlighting

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McCain Fiddles While Arizona Burns

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July 2011 Rajab / Shaban 1432H

Muslim Voice

SALAM

Muslims Spend Summertime with Mosques and Islamic Organizations

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Why Salam TV in Arizona?

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Yes

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contributions of Muslims in the State of Arizona and their way of life. “We want to show viewers that Muslims are no different than the average American who wants good life for their families such as education, health and future” said founder Marwan Ahmad. “We anticipate over 40% of non-Muslims viewers to our channel which is a great opportunity to promote the correct image of Islam and Muslims to those viewers different from what they see and hear from the mainstream media” added Mr. Ahmad.

Salam TV is set to air its programming on local channel 44.4 and streaming online on first of August which happens to be first day of the holy month of Ramadan this year. It will air for one hour daily before Iftar time for the entire month of Ramadan. It will include shows such as “Spirit of Ramadan”, “Join us for Iftar” in addition to children programs, comedy shows, and cook shows to cater to the entire family.

The channel gets its financial support from advertisers and contribution from local community. It already published its website www.salamtvaz.com and its facebook page salam-tv-az since last May of this year. For more information on Salam TV you can contact Breek Media office at 602-258-7770.

Community Addresses Forgotten Violence in Bahrain

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Obama calls for end to violence in Sudan

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Cross Country Team Loses Coach to Deportation Prensa Hispana, News Report, Maritza Lizeth Félix, Translated by Suzanne Manneh

PHOENIX -- Coach Miguel Aparicio was hoping for a miracle when he appeared at the U.S. immigration offices last Monday. Some years ago, the South Mountain High School cross country coach had signed a voluntary deportation order and his deadline to leave the country was last week.

But Aparicio hoped that his community service, his passion for sports and his role as the primary caregiver for his grandmother, who is a legal U.S. resident, could give him another chance to stay in the country.

The 37-year-old Mexican had no such luck.

At 9:00 a.m., when he entered the immigration offices, he was detained, and by 2:00 p.m., authorities confirmed his deportation order and began the preparations for sending him to Mexico.

“We’re really sad because they refused the request to remove his deportation and we don’t know why -- if the ICE director said

they were going to focus on criminals and not people who have given so much to the community, like him,” said Carmen Cornejo, a community activist who led a social networking campaign to stop Aparcio’s deportation.

Attorney Luis Peñalosa, who took on the case after Aparicio initially received incorrect legal advice, said it is very difficult for someone who is not the spouse or the child of a U.S. citizen, to regularize his or her immigration status in this country.

“When they confirmed the deportation order, I couldn’t believe it. The boys (on the cross country team) stayed there all afternoon, hoping for a miracle, but for some reason it didn’t happen. No, they put him the bus and sent him to Mexico,” said Cornejo , who has also fought tirelessly for the DREAM Act which would provide a path to legalization for undocumented students.

“And a lot of people don’t understand the complicated immigration laws. It’s virtually impossible for people like Aparicio to become legalized,” said Peñalosa.

“Now the coach will return to Mexico after over 20 years (in the U.S.), with no family or close friends to ask for help,” he said.

Students and close friends of Aparicio stayed outside the immigration offices until they closed. They said goodbye to the man who helped them gain athletic scholarships, taught them to love sports and fought for immigrant rights.

Aparicio’s story Coach Aparicio came to the United States when he was 15 years old. He didn’t have appropriate documentation, but that was not necessary in order to graduate from school and become a coach.

It will take at least 10 years for Aparicio to enter the country legally. His grandmother is moving to Los Angeles to seek care from other family members, because her grandson will be in his native Mexico.

In 2009, he was arrested for a traffic violation, and that, together with a DUI on his record, provided the grounds for his deportation order.

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TERMS USED IN THIS PAPER Alhamdulilah: Praise God Allah: Arabic word for God Fatwa: Islamic decision based on Shari’a Hadith: Sayings of the Prophet Mohammad Hajj: Pilgrimage to Mecca Halal: Allowed in Islam Halaqa: Group study Haram: Prohibited in Islam Hijab: Head cover for women Hijra: Migration of the Prophet from Mecca to Madina Imam: Islamic scholar Iman: Faith Inshallah: God willing Madina: City near Mecca in Saudia Arabia Masjid: Place were Muslims gather for prayer and studies Mecca: City in Saudi Arabia where Prophet Mohammad was born Pbuh: Peace be upon him Quran: Islam’s Holy book Shahadah: Is saying “I accept Allah as the one God and Mohammad as his messenger” when someone accepts Islam.

Sharia’: Islamic law Shura: A council of Muslim scholars (SWT) Subhanahu Watala: Praise be to Allah Taqwa: God consciousness

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14th Amendment-Bashing Harms Immigrant Communities New America Media, News Report, Jonah Most There is little chance that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution will be repealed – but that’s not the point, according to law experts and advocates of immigrant communities.

The objective of conservatives who are pushing to deny birthright citizenship – an issue that resurfaced in this week’s Republican presidential debate – may simply be to change the conversation, to move the “goal post” on the immigration debate. And even though they will likely not be successful in changing the Constitution any time soon, the effect of the debate itself has already led to a climate of fear among immigrant communities and – in particular – women and children.

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the United States. It says so explicitly: “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

The debate surrounding this issue is in itself toxic and contributes to anti-immigrant sentiment and ethnic profiling, said various speakers Wednesday afternoon in a telephonic conference for ethnic media, co-hosted

by New America Media and The Opportunity Agenda.

Speakers in the press conference, titled Tracking the Crackdown, said that challenges to the 14th Amendment are often veiled attacks on some of the most vulnerable among us: minority infants and women of childbearing age.

“While the debate about the 14th Amendment is about the Constitution in letter, the battle that is being pitched is fundamentally about immigrant women’s wombs,” said Miriam Yeung, executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum.

Juhu Thukral, director of law and advocacy at The Opportunity Agenda, agreed that, “while these efforts are damaging our Constitution, our legal traditions and our common values, they really are about attacking immigrant women,” adding that such attacks set the stage for “dangerous legislation,” citing recent bills in Arizona, Georgia and Alabama that empower local police departments to detain people on suspicion of illegal residency status.

Efforts to repeal the 14th Amendment might also have more subtle cultural implications. Yeung offered the story of Yuki Lin, the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who has gained national media attention as the first baby born in the United States in 2007. Her welltimed birth garnered her a $25,000 savings bond from a Toys“R”Us contest, but her prize was revoked when the retailer discovered that her mother was not a legal resident. The prize was instead awarded to a baby in Gainesville, Ga., whose mother described her child as “an American all the way.”

Lin is one of 4.5 million U.S. citizens who are children of undocumented immigrants in the United States.

While her prize was eventually restored after widespread protest, Yeung said the incident highlights how children of undocumented immigrants are at times considered to be second-class citizens.

“We as a country have always struggled with answering the fundamental question: Who is an American? This question is not a new one and Asian Americans have had a particular piece of that story,” Yeung said. “Asian Americans continually face stereotypes about being foreign, strange and untrustworthy.”

Efforts to deny birthright citizenship, according to Thukral, “are inflaming negative public discourse and rhetoric about immigration and immigrants.”

A poll of Latino voters released this week by ImpreMedia and Latino Decisions found that 76 percent of respondents believe there is currently an anti-immigrant or anti-Hispanic sentiment in the United States. Across socio-economic classes, for the first time in their polling, the majority of respondents chose immigration reform as the most important national issue facing their community.

“I think that will continue to be on the minds of Latino voters,” said pollster Matt Berreto, adding, “Rhetoric has an impact.”

One of the post-Civil War Reconstruction Amendments, the 14th Amendment was passed in 1868 and was intended to overturn the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, which held that blacks could not become U.S. citizens. Some argue that the framers of the Amendment never envisioned it being applied to undocumented immigrants.

In an interview following Monday’s Republican presidential debate,

Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain said the 14th Amendment “was written in the spirit of the slaves that were brought to this country, it was not written in the spirit of people who came here illegally.”

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty seemed to agree with Cain’s interpretation. “The issue of birthright citizenship, again, brings up the importance of appointing conservative justices. That result is because the U.S. Supreme Court determined that that right exists, notwithstanding language in the Constitution,” he said during the debate.

Alan Jenkins, executive director of The Opportunity Agenda, strongly refutes such characterizations.

“The immigration question, in fact, was specifically debated by the framers of the 14th Amendment in the context of Chinese immigrants and Roma or so-called gypsies, who were also disfavored groups at that time,” he said. Congressmen had argued that the children of those immigrants should not be citizens, but “they lost that debate, so it was discussed and those arguments were rejected.”

The framers of the Amendment, Jenkins said, “used the term ‘all persons’ because they knew that long after slavery had faded there would always be some group in our nation that was so disliked and disfavored that the citizenship of their U.S. born children would be challenged.”

But while Jenkins said he believes that “there is literally no chance” that the Constitution will be amended anytime soon, some advocates may believe that, with a little patience, the movement will ultimately lead to a Constitutionlevel change.

“Attacking the 14th Amendment has been a strategy that they’ve laid the groundwork for since the ‘70s,” Yeung said. “This is a part of a 30- to 40-year campaign that they’ve started to lay” as part of a long-term strategy to change the climate.

Until then, Yeung said, “They are using this issue, not because they can win it tomorrow – and they probably don’t think they can win it for another 30 years, although they will keep trying – but because it will drive us apart from one another.”

Bills to change the 14th Amendment have been introduced in Congress every year since 1993.

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Do you think that having an Islamic TV Station will improve the image of Islam and Muslims in Arizona?

Muslim Voice

By Hasana Abdul-Quadir Tayyibah Amatullah - I think it’s wonderful that Muslims will have a T.V. show during Ramadhan. I hope and pray that it will be in English! I believe this show will be a success IF it’s advertised well (i.e. people should tweet about it; Facebook about it; text their friends about it and alert the mainstream media about it!) This T.V. show will improve the image of Islam and Muslims in Arizona if it’s diverse, accurate and positive. Muslims are the most diverse group in America, and almost all Americans speak English so I hope and pray that Salaam T.V. will represent the diversity that is us. Salaam T.V. should be classy, professional and fun. I’m praying for comical scenarios, uplifting and spiritual content with lots of smiling faces! Make us proud Salaam T.V.!

Samantha Noyes - To be honest I have mixed feelings about a Muslim TV network in Arizona. I definitely think its something that we need in Arizona. I think it would be beneficial in educating the community and provide a medium for our community to speak and share what we are all about. However, I believe the only way it will be successful is if we, as a Muslim community, come together to support it and support it in a positive way. As Muslim American’s we need to understand that we can’t always use the excuse people are racist and the media is out to get us, even if we perceive it to be true. Our

duty as Muslims is to stand up and do what is right. And doing what is right means we do it peacefully and work towards educating and setting good examples. Just look at the progress Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made years ago regarding equality and doing what is right. A Muslim T.V. station might provide the outlet we need to bring about the education and most certainly a peaceful way of letting others know who we are. It may also help us in becoming more of a connected community for a common cause. Let’s make Salam TV successful, InshaAllah!

Ahmed Khalil – Yes, I do believe that having a Muslim TV station in Arizona would help with the currently deteriorating image of Muslims in America. The reason there is so much controversy about Islam in America is due to the ignorance people have about Islam, but by having a public Muslim TV station, people who lack knowledge about Islam could learn about it easily on their own time from a reliable source and in the comfort of their own home.

Kamla Tung - Although I sincerely applaud the establishment of a Muslim TV channel, I also do not believe it will necessarily make visible progress in the improvement of the image of Islam or Muslims. In this sense, what I mean to say is simply that despite establishing the channel, what often turns out to be the case, is that those tuning in will often be either Muslims, those who have a positive view of Muslims or curious others. Which, by no means, is bad!

And certainly worthy of establishing if only for that case. However, harking back to the point, the creating of a Muslim channel almost seems like

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just preaching to the choir. And in other words, while creating such a TV channel is imperative in the eventual progress of the Ummah’s outward perception, it is also not necessarily a major axis upon which we can definitely mark the Islamic image as having turned positive because of it.

That being said, I am very excited to be seeing more local representation in the media in the form of Salam TV. Alia Al-Taqi - An Islamic TV Channel in Arizona will be an excellent media to portray accurate images of Islam and Muslims and to bring about cultural understanding and awareness amongst communities.

In addition to programs that will feature scholars and orators on religion and humanity, it will feature family oriented programs, which will be a wholesome alternative for TV viewers. Everyone, Muslim or NonMuslim, who watches this channel, will find it to be very beneficial.

Leena Naseredden – I am excited that Arizona is stepping up and having an Islamic TV channel because the media is one of the fields that Muslims have really been lacking in.

I believe that it is our duty to educate our neighbors about ourselves if we expect them to understand us.

When there is already an inaccurate perception being spread to the public by the general media, we have an immediate responsibility to counter it. Not only that, but we should also be producing our own original media for the education of the public, not solely as defense for what others are saying. I think that if we all pitch in to publicize Salam TV, in can really make a difference and change the perception of Muslims in Arizona for the better.

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Muslims Spend Summertime with Mosques and Islamic Organizations

By Hasana Abdul-Quadir For some, summer is a time to travel, to hit the beaches and amusement parks, or to visit relatives and friends. But for those of us who remain here in the valley, summer could indicate more work or excessive boredom. To make the most of the free hours many people squander during this season, Islamic centers and organizations all over Arizona are providing fun and educational programs.

Walking into the MAS Center in Chandler, youth are often found engaging themselves in a number of Islamic activities.

The Muslim American Society has been active in Arizona since 1996. It took the forefront in helping many of today’s adults and youth to practice Islam as a complete way of life. Six years ago, MAS-AZ began an annual youth summer camp for boys and girls.

With the increasing popularity of this camp, MAS is taking it a step further this seventh year by separating the camps by gender. The boys’ camp is from July 2-4, and the girls’ camp will be held from July 22-24, inshaAllah.

Executive director of MAS’s Arizona Chapter, Jason Vail Cruz, explains that “MAS Camp is a source of learning, fun, brotherhood and sisterhood. It seeks to further the knowledge and practice of Islam within the youth, provide fun physical and mental activity while maintaining the MAS mission, which is: ‘To move people to strive for God

consciousness, liberty, and justice, and to convey Islam with utmost clarity.’”

While parents work during the summer, some choose to continue their children’s educations in a more relaxing manner than traditional school. Fortunately for them, mosques such as the Islamic Center of the East Valley (ICEV), in Chandler, and the Islamic Center of Tuscon (ICT) provide

summer classes to help children brush up on math and language arts and/or learn Islamic Studies and Quran. These masaajid maintain a fun atmosphere by providing arts and crafts, games, and the occasional field trip. For the students, these summer programs may seem simply like an activity to participate in during their free time,

but the organizers of such programs have the bigger picture in mind. In addition to the spiritual benefits of these programs, ICEV’s Summer Program Coordinator, Hanif Vora, says “We also want to foster love and friendship among the students, which can last well beyond the summer program.”

ICT’s summer camp is held two days

a week, for two hours each. Their approach to a Summer Camp is designed not to be overwhelming to either parents or students. Volunteer administrator, Oum Abderrahman, explains that, “Because parents and children complained about a full day program (like the usual schools) that seemed to have burdened the children,

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we decided to adopt a minimalist program starting last year.” One of their goals is to teach children that “summer is not only for fun and play,” but also for learning and becoming stronger as a community.

But the youth are not the only ones who are doing different things this summer.

For those parents who have time off during the summer, some are preparing for Ramadan by participating in a 5-week course on reading the Quran from Al-Kawthar Community. Run

by Imam Abdulbasir Ali, Al-Kawthar Community also provides day trips for the youth, as well as activities at local Islamic Centers every weekend in July and August.

Alhamdulillah, the less-fortunate in the Muslim Community are not forgotten during this vacation season.

AMWA, the American Muslim Women’s Association, cares for them by hosting some annual events. The purpose of one such event, the back-to-school drive, is to collect backpacks and school supplies for students in need around the valley. In addition to this, AMWA President, Hanan Ismail, says “AMWA, each year, gives one or more $1000 scholarships to women who attend local colleges and universities in order that they may better themselves and become more self sufficient.” The AMWA members themselves enjoy themselves while participating in this great cause by having pool parties and dinner together, and then by assembling their donations.

Alhamdulillah, the Muslim community is providing so many opportunities for every single person to get involved, and it is time that we all step up and participate in them for the sake of Allah.

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OPINION

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JULY 2011

Blinded by the Radiant Glow of One’s Faith Muslim Voice

civilians in order to maintain his regime. Activist are hoping that Hamza al-Khatib, the 13 year old alleged tortured and castrated victim will be a catalyst to

Ahmad Daniels Faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future.

Dr. King knew more than a little about faith. His arrival in Montgomery, AL at the tender age of 26 would herald the onset of tasks and responsibilities that would leave an indelible footprint in the sands of time. Decisions would be made that would test his belief in his higher power as well as his ability to adapt to existing political, social, and economic realities of the time. The more tools he had in his “toolbox,” the more effective he was in achieving the desired ends that would result in freedom, justice, and equality for Black people in particular and all humanity, in general. What Dr. King’s faith called on him to do was of benefit to all, irrespective of race, class, gender, sexual orientation or religion.

When a Tunisian burned himself to death in December 2010, few could have predicted it would precipitate a clamoring for freedom and self-determination that would come to be called Arab Spring. Whereas the peoples of Tunisia and subsequently Egypt would dispense with their despotic leaders, such would not be the case in Syria as President Bashar Assad showed his willingness time and time again to kill innocent

drive the silent majority to the street. Yet, such has not been the case. Sources indicate 20% of the people are with Assad and 15% are against. The other 65% just don’t want trouble or violence.

Yet “trouble and violence” prevails in this nation where Islam is the dominate faith. Assad is skillfully using the specter of sectarian conflict to justify his continued crackdown. Alawites and Sunni, despite Syria’s long history of interfaith tolerance, are finding reasons not to trust one another as the government provides arms

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to the minority Alawites should they have to protect themselves from the Sunnis who make up 74% of the population. While the jury is still out as to the outcome of this conflict, it is obvious Arab Spring has initiated a longing for a Freedom Summer that will benefit all.

Whereas faith is the common denominator of for all three examples, what is lacking in the last two is a broader sense of faith outside of what they understand of their religion. It is quite easy to go along with the masses in an effort to get along and not rock the boat.

Granted, what transpired in Jonestown, one may argue, could not have been predicted. Really? It is a known fact Jim Jones would have dry runs of mass suicides by having his flock drink beverages and then fall out as if dying. A conditioning in preparation of the real act that was certain to follow. There is a risk for any people, regardless of their faith, that close themselves off from the rest of society and the rest of the world.

Cell phones and social media continue to bring front and center the people’s battle for democracy in Syria.

The same tools served to move the people of Tunisia and Egypt in ways that were heretofore unheard of.

They began to believe they too could determine their own fate. And who could argue that what they aspired to achieve was not in the interest of all, Muslim and non-Muslim?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Faith manifested its self differently in Jonestown, Guyana (mid-Nov. 1978) when Pastor Jim Jones, a member of a mainline Christian denomination having been ordained in the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, fearing retributions for the slaying of a U.S. Congressman and others, persuaded members of his People’s Temple to kill themselves. While the jury may still be out as to how many voluntarily took their own lives vs. those who were coerced, the undisputed truth is 914 died, 638 adults and 276 children. A key component of their faith was that they would one day all die together and meet again on another planet where they would live in peace and harmony.

Jim Jones called this belief Translation. What their faith…or at least their interpretation of their faith… summoned them to do was of benefit to no one and resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives.

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It is thought by many that faith cannot exist in a vacuum but must address the social needs of the people…of the broader community. King was a Christian but his knowledge of the political, social, and economic realities of the day equipped him with the tools needed to be effective in the Civil Rights arena of the time. Muslims who broaden their perspective and seek to learn more of the American way of life are better equipped to embrace and value more of a diverse society. Muslims who are comfortable in and with their faith can cherish a visit to a church and yes, even a synagogue in the name of broadening one’s outlook on life. Muslims are in the fishbowl and are being observed coast to coast. Engaging in inter-faith dialogues and learning of the experiences of those who may know Islam only through what appears on the 6 o’clock news or headlines in the daily paper. Muslims are urged to find a seat at the table for there is a spot for you if you want it. Failure to seat ones’ self at the table may result in finding yourself on the menu. The choice is yours.

To your journey!

www.AZMuslimVoice.com 6 JULY 2011 LOCAL Audit Finds That Tucson’s Ethnic Studies Program Is Legal Colorlines, News Report, Julianne Hing In the battle over Tucson’s ethnic studies program, which has been effectively outlawed when Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed HB 2281 into law last year, opponents of the program have been able to more or less hide their political agenda behind vague worries about the district’s Mexican American studies program. Not so now, say supporters of the ethnic studies program after an independent audit found that the programs are perfectly legal.

Last week, Arizona state superintendent John Huppenthal ruled that the high school Mexican American Studies courses offered in the Tucson School District violated last year’s HB 2281, which prohibited school districts from offering courses that “promote the overthrow of the U.S. government;” promote resentment toward a race or class of people;” “are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group” or “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.” The Tucson School District responded by calling for an administrative hearing to challenge Huppenthal’s ruling, the Arizona Daily Star reported.

Huppenthal, who replaced Arizona’s new attorney general, Tom Horne, as state superintendent this year, ruled that Tucson violated the last three provisions of the law, and would therefore face reduced funding for flouting the state law.

Under Huppenthal’s orders, Tucson has 60 days to shut down or revise the program, or face losing ten percent of its state education funds. However, the results of an independently run audit ordered by Huppenthal, and conducted by a company that Huppenthal selected, were released

the very next day. The auditors found that the very same program is legal. The audit even concluded, “no observable evidence was present to suggest that any classroom within Tucson Unified School District is in direct violation of the law [Arizona Revised Statutes] 15-112(A).”

“Huppenthal had already made his mind

shut down the program was political.

“He is completely lying about the program being illegal, and there’s absolutely no rhyme or reason as to how he made the connections.”

Last week, the ACLU of Arizona also demanded the state make public the records of its evaluation of the program.

not out of compliance with HB 2281, and that the law itself is unjust and unconstitutional.

“We feel no need to be in compliance with the law because that would be legitimizing a law that is unconstitutional,” said Nevarez. “We just think it’s a very interesting turn of events that an audit the state spent $110,000, that Huppenthal thought would give him the results he wanted, now said the opposite.”

The audit found nothing objectionable in the Tucson Mexican American studies history, English, art courses, though it did issue concerns that some of the texts assigned to students might be a little advanced for high school students, and may be better taken up in college. The audit also found that, just as Tucson ethnic studies course supporters had said since before HB 2281 became law, those who enrolled in the program were more likely to graduate than their peers who didn’t, and also performed better on state standardized tests. “[Student] achievement is due to the sense of pride that develops through their accomplishments with highly effective teachers,” the audit found.

up, and even though [audit company] Cambium was the company that he hired and he and his administration chose, when the audit didn’t come back his way, he still had largely decided already what he was going to do,” said Deyanira Nevarez, the project director and spokesperson of Save Ethnic Studies, a Tucson-based group organized to fight the Arizona ethnic studies ban.

Nevarez said that the contradiction between Huppenthal’s ruling and the findings of the audit only confirmed what ethnic studies program supporters had been saying all along—that the effort to

“This law was deliberately written to enable the state superintendent to ban the Mexican American Studies program based on his own personal views and biases,” Daniel Pochoda, the legal director of the ACLU of Arizona, said in a statement. “By all indications, this is a political determination by Superintendent Huppenthal that is not based on an objective assessment of the program as the thorough review of the state’s own contractor clearly reveals.”

Multiple Tucson ethnic studies teachers have filed a lawsuit challenging the law.

They argue both that the classes are

In the tumultuous year since HB 2281 became law, the Tucson school district, which initially vowed to back the program, attempted to pass a resolution that would strip the program of its core credit standing so that students who took the classes wouldn’t be able to use them to satisfy state history and English requirements. Students stormed a district meeting to protest the proposed resolution.

Save Ethnic Studies and Unidos, the student group that has been involved in organizing efforts, have vowed to continue to fight to protect the program.

McCain Fiddles While Arizona Burns Just as Roman Emperor Nero blamed Christians for burning Rome, Senator John McCain thinks he has found “substantial evidence” that undocumented immigrants are to blame for the Wallow Fire, the biggest blaze in the history of Arizona.

The likeness between Nero and McCain on falsely placing blame for large-scale fires goes even further, reflecting the nature and evolution of some politicians.

The first coincidence is that of profiting from catastrophes. In order to divert the masses from what they believed to be the true origin of the burning of Rome, Nero charged the Christians with it.

Nero cleverly singled out the Christian belief in the destruction of the world by fire, concluding that «logically,» those very unpopular Christians must have set Rome on fire. Similarly, Sen. McCain liberally used the determination by Forest Service authorities that the cause of the fire was “human,” and originated from a campfire. In the Arizona senator’s

mind, the equation went something like this: human plus campfire equals undocumented immigrants.

U.S. Forest Service official Tom Berglund did not endorse Sen. McCain’s logic; when asked whether there was evidence that some fires were caused by undocumented immigrants, Berglund said, “Absolutely not. There is no evidence that I’m aware, no evidence that’s been public, indicating such a thing.”

Defending his wildfire comments in a live interview with ABC News, Sen. McCain literally restated his «logic» formula, saying that the Monument Fire was started “when the forest was closed, so, anyone who is in there was illegal.”

tragedy.”

Sen. McCain, it was you who inserted your political agenda into this tragedy

So anyone inside a closed park, according to Sen. McCain, must be an undocumented immigrant? That is truly unfortunate.

when in the most opportunistic fashion possible you stated that since some of the fires “are started by illegal immigrants, the answer to that part of the problem is to get a secure border.”

Decrying the controversy that ensued, Sen. McCain accused his detractors, saying, “it’s unfortunate that some are inserting their political agenda into this

Isn›t Sen. McCain the one taking advantage of the biggest blaze in the history of Arizona in order to sell «securing the border»?

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Is this the same Sen. McCain who was formerly known for his bipartisanship and strong sense of balance and fairness? Is this the same Sen. McCain

who, along with the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, promoted fair immigration reform in Congress?

In the likeness of Roman Emperor Nero-who in the early part of his reign was said to conduct public affairs wisely, but later fell from grace--sadly, it seems we are witnessing the making of the next American Nero.

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Michigan Ethnic and Minority Media Organizations Forge Landmark Partnership The Arab American News, News Report, Staff MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich.

--Two southeast Michigan media organizations announced the launch of a new partnership that spotlights the contributions of the region’s ethnic, minority and immigrant entrepreneurs.

collaborating through New Michigan Media and with the New Economy Initiative, we hope to achieve an even greater positive impact on the future of southeast Michigan,” Latino Press Publisher Elias Gutierrez said.

In addition to the website, the partnership will form relationships

companies and the new economy – will enable us to grow awareness of ethnic, minority and immigrant entrepreneurial successes in the region and begin to change the narrative about southeast Michigan on the local, national and international level.”

Bankole Thompson, senior editor of the

New Michigan Media and Issue Media Group have collaborated to form the Ethnic and Minority Media Partnership.

The partnership was announced June 2 at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference.

New Michigan Media’s network includes more than 100 ethnic and minority media outlets in Michigan, which represent hundreds of thousands of minority readers, viewers and listeners in the Michigan media market.

Issue Media Group publishes online magazines devoted to documenting the transformation of cities and economies in 19 regions across the U.S. and Canada.

“This partnership is a unique opportunity to showcase the entrepreneurial vitality in the Hispanic and all other ethnic and minority communities in the region. We all play an important role in the revitalization of Detroit, and by

“It’s a unique and first of its kind project that illuminates successful stories of immigrants and shows how they enrich our state and country with their contributions to business, culture and the greatness of America,” said Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News.

The partnership is being funded by the New Economy Initiative (NEI) for Southeast Michigan. NEI is an innovative philanthropic effort to accelerate the transition of metro Detroit to an innovation-based economy that expands opportunity for all. Ten national, regional and local foundations have committed $100 million to the eight-year initiative.

Issue Media Group’s website now features stories from New Michigan Media’s five largest ethnic publications — The Arab American News, The Jewish News, The Michigan Korean Weekly, The Latino Press and The Michigan Chronicle.

Participating ethnic media will develop, write, and publish stories about Southeast Michigan entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial successes from their own ethnic communities.

types of patents. Immigrants are more than three times as likely to start a new business.

with mainstream media as well as international publications to expand the news to different audiences. The overall goal is to educate and encourage ethnic and immigrant entrepreneurs to start and grow their own businesses in the region.

“New Michigan Media is committed to building bridges among successful ethnic, minority and immigrant communities with the intention of creating new opportunities and greater visibility,” said New Michigan Media Founder Hayg Oshagan.

“Our collaborative efforts with Issue Media Group – a media organization dedicated to covering emerging

Michigan Chronicle, said he applauded the work of Wayne State Professor Hayg Oshagan for conceptualizing New Michigan Media.

Detroit’s immigrant community is the third most productive in the nation’s 25 largest metropolitan areas. “Southeast Michigan’s ethnic, minority and foreign-born entrepreneurs are key to the region’s long term revitalization and future economic growth, and ignite the overall entrepreneurial spirit of the region,” said New Economy Initiative Executive Director David Egner.

The partnership draws attention to the impact ethnic, minority and immigrant communities have on the economy.

Over one decade immigrant- founded ventures created 450,000 jobs and represented a market capitalization of roughly $500 billion. Southeast Michigan’s immigrant entrepreneurs were six times as likely to start a hightech firm from 1995-2005, placing the state third compared to all 50 states, and are nearly four times as likely to file an international patent. Michigan ranks eighth out of all 50 states in filing these

“The Ethnic and Minority Media Partnership is the ideal platform to showcase southeast Michigan’s ethnic, immigrant and minority communities as catalysts for economic renewal and growth. They are creators of new technologies and products which are sold around the world, and can serve as champions to encourage other ethnic groups and immigrants to plant their entrepreneurial seeds and grow their fresh ideas in a region with a strong business development support system and access to resources.”

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Community Addresses Forgotten Violence in Bahrain The Arab American News, News Report Nick Meyer

DEARBORN, Mich — While media coverage of atrocities committed against peaceful protesters in the Gulf island nation of Bahrain has been spotty at best in the United States and even in many international and Arab world media outlets, local events have continued to spread awareness.

more attention from the media and strong condemnations from world leaders, especially in the U.S., where such a declaration never came.

Guests were encouraged to write to their local, state, and national representatives to raise awareness of the plight of the people of Bahrain.

treatment (from) wounds, especially those inflicted by distinctive police and military gunfire,” one banner stated, corroborating numerous reports on the ground about heartless violence against hospital workers.

“I’ve seen corpses of protesters who were shot at close range, seen a teenage girl writhing in pain after being clubbed, (and) seen ambulance workers beaten for trying to rescue protesters.”

Another featured quotes from Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times

The popular news website Politico. com was also quoted, speaking what many believe is a hypocritical stance by the Obama administration on the situation.

“President Barack Obama calls Syria’s response to its protesters abhorrent, but he loses his voice when it comes to Bahrain...He is apparently conceding to Saudi Arabia, whose rulers seem determined to stamp out any uncontrollable democracy (in the region).”

A string of rallies for Bahrain earlier this year in downtown Detroit, Dearborn, and in Washington, D.C. from locals were supplemented by an event at the Islamic Center of America on Thursday, May 26.

Raw footage of events in Bahrain, speeches by local Muslim leaders, displays showing the devastating and brutal human toll of violence by government and invading Saudi troops and more were all included as part of the ICA’s “Bahrain: The Island of Fear” presentation, which drew around 150 guests on the evening.

Human Rights First issued a statement that it is gravely concerned at reports that peaceful protesters in several locations across Bahrain have been attacked by security forces using teargas, buckshot and rubber bullets.

This week marked the official lifting of Bahrain’s State of Safety, but the crackdown appears to be continuing.

A glossy booklet describing in detail the events of Bahrain’s attempted peaceful revolution of hundreds of thousands against King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa was also distributed at the event.

Speakers noted that both the Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya TV networks were “silent” at key times during the events unfolding in Bahrain and that the people were peacefully rebelling against a ruling family that has been in power for more than 200 years.

Footage shown at the event including one scene of a peaceful protester being shot at nearly point-blank range in the street showed that the violence perpetrated against Bahrainis deserved

Quotes from American media members who were able to cover the atrocities committed in Bahrain were also posted through the halls of the ICA as part of the event.

The Doctors Without Borders organization noted that “health facilities were being used as bait to identify and arrest those who dare seek

reporter Nicholas D. Kristof on nearly unprecedented levels of brutality he encountered on assignment.

“A column of peaceful, unarmed prodemocracy protesters marched through the streets...they threatened no one, but their 21st-century aspirations collided with a medieval ruler,” Kristof wrote on the situation.

“We are hearing reports from Bahrain that protesters have been attacked by government forces. The wounded are staying away from hospitals fearing that they will be detained if they seek medical treatment. In another ominous development, human rights defenders are being summoned to report to police stations. The U.S. government must speak out against any attacks on peaceful demonstrations with at least the same urgency and level of concern that it has demonstrated elsewhere in the Middle East when pro-democracy protesters have been attacked,” said Brian Dooley of Human Rights First.

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Afghan Americans Fearful of Quick Withdrawal New America Media

presence.

News Report, Jonah Most Editor’s Note: President Obama announced Wednesday his plans to withdraw 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, and a total of 33,000 troops by next summer.

But for some Afghan Americans, such a quick military withdrawal may not be good for Afghanistan.

FREMONT, Calif. -- Many Afghan Americans in this Bay Area city, home to the largest community of Afghans in the western world, say they do not support the rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

Interviews with community leaders and activists reveal that many Afghan Americans fear troop reductions will result in civil war and unchecked Taliban control.

While the American public may be growing tired of the 10-year-old war, over at the De Afghanan Kabob House in Fremont, owner Aziz Omar said he believes the mission is far from over.

Afghanistan has “been through hell for the past three decades,” he said. “So hopefully it gets better, but we need to be there in order to keep those fanatics out of the picture.” He was referring to the Taliban.

Born during the Soviet invasion, Omar has direct experience with war in his home country. But he said the Taliban are far worse than Soviets. “They don’t believe in peace and they don’t believe in human rights so we need to crush the Taliban whatever it takes.”

A professor at Cal State University, East Bay, and the host of a satellite TV show, Farid Younos is generally far out of the mainstream. But on the subject of troop withdrawal, he said he reluctantly agrees with other Afghan Americans who support a continued American

“Americans are a total failure in Afghanistan militarily, economically, socially,” he said. However, he said that he recently came to the conclusion that a withdrawal would now be unwise.

“Without the presence of a foreign power the government will fall in the hands of the Taliban,” he said.

military phonetic alphabet — Delta, India, etc. But now he works with a group called Veterans for Rethinking Afghanistan.

In an interview before Obama’s speech, Diliberto said that however many brigades Obama plans to bring home, it

Obama’s speech comes at a time when American support for the war is waning.

In recent surveys, the majority of Americans no longer believe the war is worth fighting. Many conservative politicians are finding it increasingly hard to reconcile hawkish foreign policy objectives with calls for deficit reductions. Republican presidential candidates Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul have all publically called for a quick exit.

Opposition to the war extends to the military ranks. Jake Diliberto is a marine corporal who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. He still talks like a marine; he spelled his name using the

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won’t be enough. Upon returning home, he said, “Everyday I had to live with the question: Was that worth it? And it was unequivocally no.” He said he believes this opinion to be widespread— among the American public, soldiers, government officials and Afghans, at home and abroad.

“I sat with hundreds of mullahs and leaders of mosques,” he said. “I have not met one person in Afghanistan who

to bring American troops home with concern for friends and family abroad.

For Zahir-Darby, this is a delicate balance. “We can’t afford it anymore,” she acknowledged, but wondered how we could possibly leave things as they are. “We’re training a whole bunch of Afghans to be police, but now we’re leaving with guns in their hands—really?”

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Imam Safi Yullah, who works at the Mosque of the Muhajireen, said he generally avoids talking about politics.

A religious man, he said he believes that “Islam wanted peace not only in Islamic countries but all over the world.” Still, he said, the war is ongoing in many provinces and he wonders “how they are going to take care of all of those if the American troops withdraw from that area.”

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But while some Afghan Americans may agree with his characterization of the conduct of the war, many do not agree with his prescription for the future.

Mizgon Zahir-Darby, executive director of the Afghan Coalition in Fremont, offered a similar perspective. “The biggest fear of the Afghan community is that it will return back to a pre-9/11 state,” she said. However, she added that such a view is tempered by her understanding of the costs of the war.

“I know people who were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. We want them back.”

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Muslim Women Gain Higher Profile in U.S. New York Times, News Report, Brian Knowlton ATLANTA — Around Sept. 11, 2001, not long after she founded the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta, Soumaya Khalifa heard from a group whose name sounded like “Bakers Club.” It wanted a presentation.

The address was unfamiliar, but she went anyway. The group turned out to be the Bickerers Club, whose members love to argue. Islam was their topic du jour and their venue was a tavern. Ms. Khalifa laughed, and made the best of it.

Ms. Khalifa, who was born in Egypt and raised in Texas, wears a head scarf but

to take a leadership role. It’s actually quite empowering to be Muslim in America.”

As Najah Bazzy, a American-born nurse and founder of several charities in Michigan, put it: “Yeah I’m Arab, yeah I’m very American, and yeah I’m very Islamic, but you put those things in the blender and I’m no longer just a thing. I’m a new thing.”

It is not always easy. Several of the Muslim women interviewed for this article said they had been the object of abusive letters, e-mails or blog posts.

Yet in their quest to break stereotypes, America’s Muslim women have advantages. They are better educated than counterparts in Western Europe, and also than the average American, according to a

head scarf in her mid-30s, about 15 years ago. At first, she said, people looked at her “like I was different, Muslim, unAmerican, stupid.”

But she is quietly persistent. When a small-town newspaper refused to run Ms. Khalifa’s ad listing the hours of a nearby mosque, she organized a successful boycott by local churchmen.

Perhaps the most noticed figure among American Muslim women is Ingrid Mattson. In a bright-red jumper and multicolored head scarf, she stood out among the gray-haired clerics in black who gathered in Washington in September to try and defuse the anger over the planned mosque near the World Trade Center site in New York.

most influential Muslims by Georgetown University and the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center listed just 2 women in the top 50: a Syrian religious leader and Queen Rania, wife of the Jordanian king. Ms. Mattson received an honorable mention.

Muslim women in the United States reflect the country’s diversity: white converts like Ms. Mattson, women of Middle Eastern background like Ms. Khalifa, or Tayyibah Taylor, a convert of Caribbean descent in Atlanta who founded a glossy magazine, Azizah, to celebrate Muslim women of achievement.

The magazine may profile “America’s first all-Muslim, all-female law group” or a hijab-wearing flight attendant, but it also takes up issues like AIDS and spousal abuse. Despite its struggles, Azizah, with a circulation of 45,000, recently celebrated its 10th birthday.

“I didn’t see Islam as taking my freedoms as a woman,” said Ms. Taylor, who is 57 and studied the Koran in Jidda for six years. “It really opened up worlds for me.”

The Muslim population in Atlanta, now estimated at 80,000, has its roots in the 1950s, when a small group of Nation of Islam worshipers, mostly black men, met in a grubby building shared with a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. Waves of immigrants from South Asia, the Middle East or, most recently, Bosnia and Herzegovina, swelled its ranks. The metropolitan area, with 5.5 million people, now has 40 mosques.

But while Muslim women have gained prominence, much of their activity remains outside the mosque.

“There is a missing link in terms of what the Muslim religion teaches about gender equality,” Ms. Khalifa said. “The leadership in our mosques is not reflective of our population — there are hardly any women.”

She is one of a type now found in most sizable U.S. cities: vocal Muslim women wary of the predominantly male leadership of their community and increasingly weary of suspicions of nonMuslims about Islam.

These women have achieved a level of success and visibility unmatched elsewhere. They say they are molded by the freedoms of the United States — indeed, many unabashedly sing its praises — and by the intellectual ferment stirred when American-born and immigrant Muslims mix.

“What we’re seeing now in America is what has been sort of a quiet or informal empowerment of women,” said Shireen Zaman, executive director of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a nonprofit research institute founded after the 2001 attacks to provide research on American Muslims. “In many of our home countries, socially or politically it would’ve been harder for Muslim women

Gallup survey in March 2009. In contrast to their sisters in countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, they are just as likely as their menfolk to attend religious services, which equates to greater influence. And Gallup found that Muslim American women, often entrepreneurial, come closer than women of any other faith to earning what their menfolk do.

“Muslims coming to North America are often seeking an egalitarian version of Islam,” said Ebrahim Moosa, an associate professor of Islamic studies at Duke University. “That forces women onto the agenda and makes them much more visible than, say, in Western Europe.”

Besides her speakers’ bureau, which advertises itself as “a bridge between Islam and Americans of other faiths,” Ms. Khalifa heads a consultancy working with students, executives, soldiers and even the F.B.I. to overcome stereotypes.

Some people she addresses have never met a Muslim. Some look askance at head scarves.

Ms. Khalifa, who has degrees in chemistry and human resources, began wearing a

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Imam Plemon T. el-Amin, a retired leader of the Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam, talked of “a slow move — really an indecisiveness — about getting women fully involved in day-to-day Islamic activities.” That, he said, is changing.

She was first elected vice president on Sept. 4, 2001, then president in 2006, a position she held until September; those years were so full of sound and fury over all things Muslim that gender took a back seat.

One issue is gender separation at prayer, imposed to reflect Islamic notions of modesty. In some mosques, women are relegated to separate rooms. But, Imam el-Amin said, “I’m seeing mosques do much better at trying to make those separate accommodations equal.”

“But what happened on Sept. 11 and after has led American Muslims to be more involved in civic society,” Ms. Mattson said, “and Muslim women were finding that a very rich area for activity.”

“The only area where there’s a limitation is religious leadership — the imam,” she added, predicting that “we will have some communities in the future that have female imams.”

Historically, Muslim women have wielded power from behind the scenes, with notable exceptions like Benazir Bhutto, the late former prime minister of Pakistan. A 2009 survey of the world’s

Ms. Mattson’s election to lead the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA, was a signal moment.

Her election “broke a barrier and made it much more acceptable for women to take a leading role as leaders of the entire community, not just women,” said Dalia Mogahed, executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and a former adviser on faith issues in the Obama White House.

Imam el-Amin added, “That’s exactly what ISNA and many of the Muslim organizations needed to see.”

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Ms. Mattson, who is 47 and teaches at the Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, became the first woman to head the Islamic Society of North America, one of the largest Muslim associations on the continent.

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INTERNATIONAL

www.AZMuslimVoice.com

Obama calls for end to violence in Sudan

JULY 2011

11

Saudis give $70m for Palestinian housing in Gaza

Received by Newsfinder from AP WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Barack Obama is urging north and south Sudan to agree to an immediate cease fire in the state of Southern Kordofan.

In a statement, Obama says the situation there is dire, especially given deeply disturbing reports of attacks based on ethnicity. The U.S. says Sudanese forces have shelled and bombed the area and there are reports forces aligned with the government are arresting and allegedly executing southern Sudanese forces and sympathizers.

Obama says he also backs an agreement between the north and south to demilitarize the disputed central region of Abyei and allow an Ethiopian peacekeeping force to move in.

The president says unless the cease

fire in Southern Kordofan is agreed to and peacekeepers are allowed in Abyei, Sudan’s isolation in the international community will only deepen.

Pakistan pledges more than 3 dozen CIA visas

By MUNIR AHMED and KIMBERLY DOZIER

Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) _ Pakistani and U.S. officials say Pakistan has pledged to grant more than three dozen visas to CIA officers as part of confidence-building measures after the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

The officials say the visas are part of an agreement to rebuild counterterrorism efforts by forming what Pakistani

officials call a joint intelligence team.

The agreement was reached after recent talks in Islamabad between senior U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials.

The U.S. official says the visas will help replenish CIA staff after some were forced to leave. There will also be additional officers allowed in to join the joint intelligence team.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity Wednesday to discuss intelligence matters.

Bangladesh moves to retain Islam as state religion

By JULHAS ALAM Associated Press DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ A government minister says Bangladesh is retaining Islam as the state religion in moves to amend the constitution drafted in 1972.

The minister who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue said the decision was made late Monday at a Cabinet meeting.

A former military ruler declared Islam the state religion in 1988 by amending the charter, but it barely affected Bangladesh’s secular legal system mainly based on British common law.

A special government committee prepared proposals for the amendment.

The government will now send the amendment proposals to the parliament for passing as a law.

Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan in 1971 with help from India through a bloody nine-month war.

Received by Newsfinder from AP AMMAN, Jordan (AP) _ A U.N. agency aiding Palestinian refugees says Saudi Arabia is contributing $70 million for new housing units in the Gaza Strip.

crossings into Gaza, has largely banned the entry of construction materials into the coastal strip since Hamas militants seized control in 2007. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

Israel has authorized construction of the 1,200 new homes and 18 badly needed schools in Gaza, in what would be one of the largest housing projects in the seaside territory in years.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said Wednesday that the test of Israel’s decision would be whether it allows thousands of trucks to ferry building material into Gaza’s border town of Rafah, where the houses are to be built.

Israel,

Japan is also funding the project.

which

controls

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cargo

Indonesia to halt domestic workers to Saudi Arabia Received by Newsfinder from AP JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) _ Indonesia says it will not send domestic workers to Saudi Arabia until the Middle East country signs a deal on migrant worker protection.

The announcement Wednesday on the Ministry of Manpower’s website follows the execution of Ruyati binti Sapubi, an Indonesian maid convicted of murdering her Saudi

employer’s wife.

Indonesia has criticized Riyadh for not notifying its diplomats of the execution.

Ruyati was beheaded with a sword in Mecca on Saturday and is the second Indonesian maid to be executed in Saudi Arabia since 2008.

The ministry said the moratorium will begin Aug. 1.

More than 1 million Indonesians are employed in Saudi Arabia, most as domestic

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Afghanistan says its army ready for US drawdown SOLOMON MOORE and MIRWAIS KHAN Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) _ Afghanistan’s NATOtrained military is ready to take responsibility for fighting Taliban insurgents and securing key parts of the country that will be the first to transition as the U.S. begins a troop drawdown in July, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

Many Afghans are eager to see an American departure nearly 10 years after U.S. forces invaded to oust al-Qaida’s Taliban hosts from power, and President Barack Obama is expected to announce plans later Wednesday to bring roughly 10,000 American troops home in less than a year.

But the drawdown, before a full pullout by 2014, carries enormous risks for a U.S.-allied government still beset by attacks from Taliban and other insurgents. ``There will be some battles, there will be suicide attacks, and bomb attacks,’’ said Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said of the coming transition period. ``But we in the Afghan forces are prepared to replace the foreign forces and I’m confident the army has enough capacity and ability.’’

About 100,000 U.S. troops are in the country, three times as many as when Obama took office.

In a prime-time address from the White House, Obama is likely to outline a phased withdrawal that will bring 5,000 troops home this summer and an additional 5,000 by winter or spring 2012, according to a senior U.S. defense official The Afghan army will take over responsibility for securing five provincial capitals and two provinces

by July 20.

Azimi said Afghan officials were confident about the transition and noted that the Taliban has been weakened and driven from bases in Kandahar, the southern city where it was born in the early

1990s, and along Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan.

The country’s army will have 171,600 troops by October and an arsenal of NATO weapons, Azimi said.

The Taliban, however, remains a formidable enemy. It began its yearly spring offensive at the end of April.

The month that followed was the deadliest for Afghan civilians since the United Nations started tracking deaths in 2007, according to a report released earlier this month. Insurgents were to blame for the vast majority of the 368 civilians killed in May, the report said.

As they try to undermine confidence in the Afghan government, the insurgents have stepped up suicide attacks and bombings that are more likely to affect civilians.

Afghanistan also faces economic challenges.

Poverty and illiteracy are widespread and international aid efforts must overcome corruption as well as the security risks involved in trying to carry out development projects in a country still at war.

Afghan security forces have grown rapidly. NATO officials say the armed force will allow foreign militaries to remove most of their troops and rely upon Afghans to protect the government and defeat the Taliban. Many American officials acknowledge that the Taliban could continue to be a problem for the Afghan government well after 2014, Obama’s promised deadline for the withdrawal of all combat troops.

The provincial capitals identified for transition are Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, plus capitals from provinces in the west, east and north and most of Kabul, the nation’s capital. The largely peaceful northern provinces of Bamyan and Panjshir will also start to transition to Afghan control.

Azimi also delivered a stern warning to neighboring

Pakistan, demanding it put a stop to a four-day spate of cross-border shelling into the eastern province of Kunar, presumably targeting Taliban fighters involved in attacks in Pakistan. Azimi said 150 mortar shells have been fired into the Sakawai district, but he did not offer precise numbers of casualties.

The Afghan government is trying to find a diplomatic solution for the cross-border violence, Azimi said.

Fighting also continued Wednesday in southern Afghanistan, where an insurgent attack killed an international coalition service member. NATO released no other details.

Insurgents raided a checkpoint in the Qarabag district of Ghazni province in south Afghanistan, setting off a gunbattle that killed six Afghan policemen, said Sayed Amir Shah, provincial director of intelligence.

And NATO said a combined U.S. and Afghan force killed eight insurgents in Nawzad district in the southern province of Helmand on Monday night.

The troops fired in self-defense, a NATO statement said. ``The target is a senior Taliban leader who has recently been appointed the Taliban deputy governor of Nawzad district and has direct communication with Taliban provincial leadership,’’ NATO said.

Accounts of how many people were killed varied.

A statement from the office of Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal said the joint force conducted the Nawzad raid while armed Taliban militants were attending the funeral of two fellow insurgents.

A Taliban commander named Mullah Noor Mohammad and four other insurgents were killed in the raid, according to the provincial governor’s office.

Two Nawzad residents who say they witnessed the raid said as many as two dozen people were killed.

Syria foreign minister speaks of democracy

By ZEINA KARAM

Associated Press.

Associated Press

Syrian dissidents note that previous talk of reform has produced little change in Syria’s autocratic system, and have increasingly called for nothing less than Assad’s ouster.

BEIRUT (AP) _ Syria’s foreign minister claimed Wednesday the Damascus government would soon present ``an unprecedented example of democracy’’ in the troubled Middle East, a bold assertion for an embattled regime that has kept a hardline authoritarian grip on its people for decades.

Speaking during a televised news conference, Foreign Minister Walid Moallem also lashed out at European governments for slapping sanctions on Syria for its bloody crackdown on street protests against President Bashar Assad’s rule. ``We will forget that Europe is on the map,’’ he said.

Moallem’s talk of democracy, two days after a major Assad speech, was the regime’s latest attempt to blunt three months of widespread demonstrations, a movement that was inspired by prodemocracy upheavals elsewhere in the Mideast and that has persisted despite the reported killing of hundreds of protesters by security forces. ``We will offer an example of democracy,’’ Moallem said, when asked about his vision for Syria in three months. ``There will be social justice, equality before the law and accountability.’’

The statements by the longtime trusted Assad aide went beyond the vague promises of reform the president made in Monday’s speech, and amounted to a rare official admission that Syria has ignored basic democratic principles.

Moallem called for regime opponents to enter into political talks, and urged Syrian exiles to return, pledging that ``even the harshest opponent’’ of the regime will not be arrested.

One prominent opposition figure, the Damascus-based Hassan Abdul-Azim, rejected the call for dialogue as long as the military continues its crackdown. ``There can be no dialogue when a gun is being held to your head,’’ he told The

Abdul-Azim said the scattered opposition movement would announce within a week the formation of a National Coordination Council for democratic change, encompassing all groups inside and outside Syria.

Moallem’s news conference appeared designed to present a picture of regime confidence at a time when Assad is coming under increased attack both at home and abroad.

Turning to Syria’s increasing isolation, the foreign minister said the international community is mired in the ``scandals’’ of its military intervention in Libya and wouldn’t repeat the experience in Syria, adding that Arab countries ``without exception’’ supported Damascus.

The Arab League on Monday issued a statement of support for Syria and opposition to foreign intervention there.

Moallem hit back at the government’s critics, particularly Europe, which imposed sanctions on Assad and members of the leadership over its deadly crackdown on protesters.

He said European Union sanctions targeted the livelihood of Syrian people and ``that amounts to (an act) of war.’’

The opposition estimates more than 1,400 Syrians have been killed and 10,000 detained as Damascus unleashed military and other security forces to crush the protest movement, which sprang to life in March inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.

The U.S. also has imposed sanctions, but the European move was a personal blow to Assad, who studied in Britain and made a high priority of efforts to bring Syria back into the global mainstream. ``We will forget that Europe is on the map and we will look east, south and toward every hand that is extended to

us,’’ Moallem said. ``The world is not just made up of Europe.’’

He criticized France, Syria’s former colonial ruler, whose President Nicolas Sarkozy has been seen as generally supportive of Assad in recent years, visiting Syria twice in 2008 and 2009. ``France must stop practicing its colonialist policies as it is doing under the slogan of human rights,’’ Moallem said.

He said Syria would freeze its membership in the EuroMed partnership, a loose program of cooperation between the European Union and the nations on its southern rim, including Syria, that was set up in the mid-1990s.

Moallem also denied that Syrian allies Iran and Hezbollah are helping the regime put down unrest. The U.S. has accused Iran of sending reinforcements and equipment to Syria. ``There is Iranian and Hezbollah political support for Syria to transcend this crisis and support for the reforms announced by President Bashar Assad,’’ he said. ``But there is absolutely no military support on the ground.’’

Of Turkey, whose leaders have called the Syrian crackdown ``savagery,’’ Moallem said Damascus wants to preserve its relations with Ankara. ``I hope that they will reconsider their position,’’ he said.

Assad has appeared in public just three times since the uprising began, most recently on Monday when he made general promises of reform that failed to satisfy the opposition, which at this point says it will accept nothing less than the downfall of the Assad family regime, in power for 40 years.

In that speech at Damascus University, the president said a national dialogue would start soon and he was forming a committee to study constitutional amendments, including one that would open the way to forming political parties other than the ruling Baath Party. He acknowledged demands for reform were

legitimate, but he alleged once more than ``saboteurs’’ were exploiting the movement.

Opposition spokesmen dismissed the speech as too little, too late. But Moallem on Wednesday repeatedly called on Syrians to take part in the national dialogue, saying, ``Whoever wants to test our seriousness should come to the national dialogue to be a partner in shaping the future.’’ He did not discuss a timetable for such talks.

On Tuesday, the regime mobilized tens of thousands of its supporters, who converged on squares in several major cities. ``The people want Bashar Assad!’’ some shouted, releasing black, white and red balloons _ colors of the Syrian flag.

They soon clashed with opposition supporters, drawing in security forces.

At least seven people were killed, activists said.

Although activists accused the regime of organizing the rallies and forcing people to attend, the fact that tens of thousands of people were on the streets was a reminder that Assad still enjoys support, although it is dwindling.

His main base is among the business elite and middle classes who have benefited from his economic policies, and among minority groups that fear being targeted if the Sunni Muslim majority takes over, replacing leadership drawn from Syria’s minority Alawites, an offshoot of Shia Islam.

Although the regime blames the unrest on foreign conspirators, the opposition insists there’s no foreign involvement, and the scattered nature of the protests appears to indicate broad grassroots support and little central planning.

The unrest has sent thousands of refugees fleeing into neighboring Turkey.

The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday that 500 to 1,000 people a day have been crossing from northern Syria into Turkey since June 7, and more than 10,000 were being sheltered by Turkish authorities in four border camps.

ISLAM

www.AZMuslimVoice.com

JULY 2011

13

The Bond of the Muslim Muslim Voice

Brotherhood is an obligation, not a choice

By Fathiyyah Bashshar A Muslim is the brother of another Muslim. He neither oppresses him nor humiliates him nor looks down upon him. The piety is here, (and while saying so) he pointed towards his chest thrice. It is a serious evil for a Muslim that he should look down upon his brother Muslim. All things of a Muslim are inviolable for his brother in faith; his blood, his wealth and his honor. Sahih Muslim Book 31, Number 6219.

The evidences regarding the obligation of brotherhood in the Qur’an, the Sunnah and the life of the Sahabah are strikingly clear. We must

Muslims have the responsibility to give sincere advice to their fellow brothers and sisters to abstain from haram and stay on the course of Halal in every aspect of life, following the basic rule of verifying every action with whether in our (worship) or (social transactions). Muslims should always gravitate toward the concept of brotherhood and the obligation of helping and sympathizing with our brothers and sisters in Islam regardless of where they are or what their condition is. Although helping our brothers and sisters may not be physically possible in all circumstances, it is imperative to always care and be concerned for their affairs, regardless of geography or language, and do whatever is possible within the circumstances. It is imperative to care, or even train ourselves to care for Muslims in nearby or remote parts of the world by reminding ourselves that our bond with all Muslims is that of brothers and sisters.

In today’s society, we as Muslim Americans are faced with the daily challenges of our societal duties and our duties to our Muslim brothers and sisters.

Sadly, one of the issues facing Muslims in the West is “life in the fast lane,” and due to this lifestyle, we tend to rush our dealings with one another.

We should, for example, try to take a few minutes after Jum’ah prayers and greet our brothers next to us with Salaam, and introduce ourselves to them.

We should neither be shy nor be afraid of a cold response, keeping in mind that we are only seeking the pleasure of Allah and following the Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH) We cannot hold enmity/hatred for our fellow Muslims. The Muslim has rights upon us, and we must fulfill these rights first. The fact of belief in Allah is what makes the Muslim’s life sacred. The Muslim servant of Allah cannot be ignored, for serving/helping him is equal to serving/helping Allah. To fulfill our obligation, we first need to understand what is required of us. The Prophet (PBUH) said, “A Muslim owes six obligations towards another Muslim: when you meet him (or her), salute him (or her) saying ‘As Salaamu Alaikum; when he (or she) invites you, accept his (or her) invitation; when he (or she) solicits your advice, advise him (or her) sincerely; when he (or she) sneezes and praises Allah, respond with the supplication Yarhamuk Allah (Allah have mercy on you); when he (or she) falls sick, visit him (or her); on his (or her) death, join his (or her funeral).” (Muslim)

ready to help them in any way we are able to. It has been narrated by Al-Bukhari in Al-Adaabul-Mufrad that the Prophet (PBUH)said: “If one of you loves his brother for Allah’s sake, then let him know, since it causes familiarity to endure and firmly establishes love.

be extremely vigilant in correctly upholding this concept to prevent transforming the relationship into a shallow bond, lacking the true essence of Islamic brotherhood. The Prophet (PBUH) said: “You will not enter paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another. Shall I not guide you to something which if you carry out you will love one another? Spread salaam amongst yourselves.” [Muslim] It is necessary to let our brothers know that we care for their well-being, that we sincerely love them as we do our own blood brothers, and that we are

Enjoining what is good and forbidding what is evil is a mission which will never end until the Hour begins. It is obligatory upon all the Ummah, rulers and subjects, men and women, each according to his or her circumstances. The Prophet (PBUH) said: “Whoever among you sees an evil action, let him change it with his hand [by taking action]; and if he cannot, then with his tongue [by speaking out]; and if he cannot, then with his heart [by feeling that it is wrong] – and that is the weakest of faith.” (Narrated

by Muslim, 49) In conclusion Preserving our Muslim character is both an obligation and a challenge at the same time. It is paramount for Muslims everywhere to remain attentive of the notion of brotherhood as a most critical tool in striving to keep their distinct identity. Therefore, it is an obligation to follow the lead of the Prophet (PBUH) and his Companions in this manner and do whatever is required to maintain it.

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Food Recipes Salmon Roll stuffed with Chicken Shawerma Marinade dill and Scallop

Ingredients

salmon and then cover with dill.

1 kilo Salmon fillet (without skin and bones)

- Place scallop or shrimp in a small wooden skewer and place in the middle.

¼ kilo Sole, fillet 1 cup dill, minced ¼ kilo shrimp, small and peeled or scallop 2 tbsp oil 2 tablespoon butter 1 onion minced 2 garlic cloves minced 2 tablespoon parsley minced 1 tablespoon basil minced Salt and pepper

- Wrap fish by pressing on the wrap to shape as cylinder.

- Place the cylinder in the refrigerator for two hours to bond.

- Cut fish into equal circles.

- Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat, add the fish and fry for (carefully on the other side) about 4 minutes per side and lift on a towel paper.

- Mix butter with onion, garlic, parsley, basil, season with salt and pepper.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 onions, thin slices

2 Tbsp tomato paste

½ tsp cardamom, powder

Salt and pepper

¼ tsp cinnamon, powder

Method

¼ tsp clove, powder

• Rub onions in salt and pepper.

¼ tsp white pepper, crushed

• Mix all ingredients in a large bowl, add onions.

1 tsp garlic, minced 1 tsp cumin, powder

- Heat oven to 180° degree.

- Put on a towel paper and shape as cylinder, leave in freezer till Consolidate, cut in slices.

- Put salmon on plastic wrap, season with salt and pepper.

- Arrange salmon roll in a baking dish, top with butter/ herb slices.

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

- Put a layer of sole fish on top the

- Serve hot with rice or pasta.

Method

1 Tbsp Tahini sauce 1 Tbsp vinegar

• Marinate chicken, cover and refrigerate for minimum 3 hours up to 2 days.

N.B. (this amount is suitable to marinate ½ Kg chicken, cut into julienne)

CALENDAR / ANNOUNCEMENTS

www.AZMuslimVoice.com

JULY 2011

Phoenix Prayer Times

Tucson Prayer Times

DIRECTIONS TO THE ISLAMIC CULTURAL CENTER CEMETERY

ISLAMIC WEEKEND SCHOOLS

July 2011 • Rajab / Shaban 1432 H

July 2011 • Rajab / Shaban 1432 H

Islamic Community Center of Phoenix:

Sunday at 9:45 am-1:20 pm.

Islamic Cultural Center:

Sunday at 10:00 am

Muslim Community Mosque:

Sunday at 10:00 am until 2:30 pm.

Masjid Omar

Saturday & Sunday from 10:00 am until 1:00 pm.

ICNEV Weekend Islamic School

Tel: (480) 346-2081Classes held on Sunday

FROM THE ISLAMIC CULTURAL CENTER (ICC):

Check our website for up to date information www.tempemasjid.com

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1) Go South on Forest to University Drive. Turn right.

2) Go West on University to the I-10 highway.

Take I-10 East.

3) Proceed on I-10 East (~12 Miles). Exit at Queen Creek Rd. (EXIT #164).

4) Turn right on route 347 South. Proceed for about 14 miles.

5) Turn right on route 238 West. Proceed for about 8.7 miles.

6) Turn right on unnamed/unpaved street after you see the street sign which reads “36 miles” and proceed to the cemetery.

K thru’ grade 12 from 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

ACA Weekend School

Sunday 10:00 am-1:15 pm. www.azacademy.org/weekend

Sultan Education in Chandler

Saturdays & Sundays - children/adults 480-593-7066

Greenway Islamic Academy

Tajweed, Islamic Studies, & Arabic Language 602-565-0500

IN CASE OF DEATH • Call Sandy at Angel’s Burial, at 480-962-6435 • Total cost is $1,800.00

COLORING CONTEST June Winner

Hasna Ibrhim Send your coloring to the Muslim Voice to enter the drawing for the best picture.

Hint: If the paper is too thin to color, make a Xerox copy then color it.

Ages 3-12, please send a picture of yourself.

COLORING CONTEST FOR KIDS

ISLAMIC CENTERS IN ARIZONA

PHOENIX Arizona Cultural Academy 7810 S. 42nd Pl. • Phoenix 602-454-1222 Islamic Center of Arizona 9032 N. 9th St. • Phoenix

Islamic Center of N. Phoenix 13246 N. 23rd Ave. 85029 602-371-3440 Islamic Comnty Ctr of Phx 7516 N. Black Canyon Hwy. Phoenix • 602-249-0496 Muslim Community Mosque 1818 N. 32nd St. • Phoenix 602-306-4959 Masjid Al-Rahmah 2645 E. McDowell Rd. • Phoenix 602-275-5493 Masjid Muhammad Ibn Abdullah

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Phone: #

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Al Rasoul Mosque 5302 N. 35th Ave. • Phoenix 602-864-1817

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PEORIA Greenway Islamic Center 6724 West Greenway • Peoria, Islamic Center of East Valley AZ www.greenwaymasjid.com 425 N. Alma School Dr. • Chandler TEMPE 602-388-9900 Islamic Comnty Ctr of Tempe 131 E. 6th Street • Tempe LAVEEN 480-894-6070 Islamic Center of Laveen P.O. Box 1107 • Laveen Masjid Al Mahdi 602-361-4401 1016 S. River Dr. • Tempe 480-557-9699 MARICOPA Masjid Bilal Ibn Rabah Masjid Omar Bin Al-Khattab 44370 W. Arizona Ave. 6225 S.McClintock • Tempe Maricopa Arizona 85138 480-775-6627 contact# (602)312-7913 MESA Masjid-el-Noor 55 N. Matlock • Mesa 480-644-0074 SCOTTSDALE Islamic Center of N.E. Valley 12125 E. Via Linda • Scottsdale 480-612-4044

CASA GRANDE Masjid Sajda is located c/o: The Legacy Suites 540 North Cacheris Court Casa Grande`, Arizona 85122 480.332.8618

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