Posted on 06/16/2006 2:08:19 PM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT
The Islamist Challenge to the U.S. Constitution by David Kennedy Houck
First in Europe and now in the United States, Muslim groups have petitioned to establish enclaves in which they can uphold and enforce greater compliance to Islamic law. While the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right to religious freedom and the prohibition against a state religion, when it comes to the rights of religious enclaves to impose communal rules, the dividing line is more nebulous. Can U.S. enclaves, homeowner associations, and other groups enforce Islamic law?
Such questions are no longer theoretical. While Muslim organizations first established enclaves in Europe,[1] the trend is now crossing the Atlantic. Some Islamist community leaders in the United States are challenging the principles of assimilation and equality once central to the civil rights movement, seeking instead to live according to a separate but equal philosophy. The Gwynnoaks Muslim Residential Development group, for example, has established an informal enclave in Baltimore because, according to John Yahya Cason, director of the Islamic Education and Community Development Initiative, a Baltimore-based Muslim advocacy group, "there was no community in the U.S. that showed the totality of the essential components of Muslim social, economic, and political structure."[2]
Baltimore is not alone. In August 2004, a local planning commission in Little Rock, Arkansas, granted The Islamic Center for Human Excellence authorization to build an internal Islamic enclave to include a mosque, a school, and twenty-two homes.[3] While the imam, Aquil Hamidullah, says his goal is to create "a clean community, free of alcohol, drugs, and free of gangs,"[4] the implications for U.S. jurisprudence of this and other internal enclaves are greater: while the Little Rock enclave might prevent the sale of alcohol, can it punish possession and in what manner? Can it force all women, be they residents or visitors, to don Islamic hijab (headscarf)? Such enclaves raise the fundamental questions of when, how, and to what extent religious practice may supersede the U.S. Constitution.
The Internal Muslim Enclave The internal Muslim enclave proposed by the Islamic Center for Human Excellence in Arkansas represents a new direction for Islam in the United States. The group seeks to transform a loosely organized Muslim population into a tangible community presence. The group has foreign financial support: it falls under the umbrella of a much larger Islamic group, "Islam 4 the World," an organization sponsored by Sharjah, one of the constituent emirates of the United Arab Emirates.[5] While the Islamic Center for Human Excellence has yet to articulate detailed plans for its Little Rock enclave, the group's reliance on foreign funding is troublesome. Past investments by the United Arab Emirates' rulers and institutions have promoted radical interpretations of Islam. [6]
The Islamic Center for Human Excellence may seek to segregate schools and offices by gender. The enclave might also exercise broad control upon commerce within its boundaries—provided the economic restrictions did not discriminate against out-of-state interests or create an undue burden upon interstate commerce. But most critically, the enclave could promulgate every internal law—from enforcing strict religious dress codes to banning alcohol possession and music; it could even enforce limits upon religious and political tolerance. Although such concepts are antithetical to a free society, U.S. democracy allows the internal enclave to function beyond the established boundaries of our constitutional framework. At the very least, the permissible parameters of an Islamist enclave are ill defined.
The greater American Muslim community's unapologetic and public manifestation of belief in a separate but equal ideology does not bode well. In September 2004, the New Jersey branch of the Islamic Circle of North America rented Six Flags Adventure Park in New Jersey for "The Great Muslim Adventure Day." The advertisement announcing the event stated: "The entire park for Muslims only." While legal—and perhaps analogous to corporate or other non-religious groups renting facilities, the advertisement expressly implied a mindset that a proof of faith was required for admission to the park. In his weblog, commentator Daniel Pipes raises a relevant and troubling question about the event: because it is designated for Muslims only, "Need one recite the shahada to enter the fairgrounds?"[7]
While U.S. law might give such Muslims-only events the benefit of the doubt, flexibility may not go both ways. There is precedent of Islamists taking advantage of liberal flexibility to more extreme ends. Canada provides a useful example into how Islamist groups can exploit liberal legal tolerance. In 1991, Ontario, Canada, passed a seemingly innocuous law called the "Arbitration Act."[8] This act permitted commercial, religious, or such other designated arbitrators to settle civil disputes outside the Canadian justice system so long as the result did not contradict Canadian law. Like U.S. authorities are beginning to do now, Canadian legislators decided to give religious groups the benefit of the doubt, assuming that they would still hold national law to be paramount.
In October 2003, under the auspices of the Ontario legislation, the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice created Muslim arbitration boards and stated its intent to arbitrate on the basis of Islamic law.[9] A national furor erupted, particularly among Canadian Muslim women's groups that opposed the application of traditional Islamic (Shari‘a) laws that would supersede their far more liberal and egalitarian democratic rights. After nearly two years of legal wrangling, the premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, held that religious-based arbitrations "threaten our common ground," and announced, "There will be no Shari‘a law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians."[10] On November 15, 2005, McGuinty's provincial government submitted legislation to amend the arbitration act to abrogate, in effect, all religious arbitration.[11] Requests for Muslim enclaves within larger U.S. communities may signal that U.S. jurisprudence will soon be faced with a similar conundrum. Islamist exceptionalism can abuse the tolerance liberal societies have traditionally extended to interface between religious and secular law.
Prior to the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice demands to impose Shari‘a, the Arbitration Act worked well. Unfortunately for Canadian Jews, the repeal ended state-enforcement of agreements reached by the use of a millennia-old rabbinical court system called beit din (house of law) that had for decades quietly settled marriage, custody, and business disputes. Joel Richler, Ontario region chairman of the Canadian Jewish Congress, expressed his lament: "If there have been any problems flowing from any rabbinical court decisions, I'm not aware of them."[12] Canadian Catholics likewise were stopped from being able to annul marriages according to Canon Law and avoid undue entanglement in civil courts. Abuse of the spirit of the law, though, ended up curtailing local liberty. Rather than soften the edge between religion and state, the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice threatened to eliminate it with the imposition of Shari‘a. The Canadian experience demonstrates how flexibility can backfire when all parties do not seek to uphold basic precepts of tolerance. The Little Rock application raises the specter of a parallel situation. While The Islamic Center for Human Excellence may state it wants to create a clean-living community, might the community's extreme interpretation of Shari‘a force a reconsideration of just how much leeway the U.S. government gives religious communities?
As the Muslim community in the United States grows, an increasingly active Islamist lobby has submitted numerous white papers and amicus briefs to legislators and courts arguing for the religious right of Muslims to apply Shari‘a law, particularly in relation to family law disputes.[13] This looming jurisprudential conflict is significant for it raises issues about the rights of community members to marry outside the community, forced marriages, and the minimum age of brides, and whether wives and daughters may enjoy equal inheritance. In cases of non-family law, it raises the question about whether the testimony of women will be considered on par with that of men.
No previous enclave in U.S. history has ever been so vigorously protected by agents of group identity politics or so adamantly defended by legal watchdogs; nor has any previous religious enclave possessed the potency of more than one billion believers around the world. Islamic-only communities may also benefit from the largess provided by billions of petrol dollars to finance growth. The track record of Saudi and other wealthy Persian Gulf donations and charitable efforts are worrisome. There is a direct correlation between Saudi money received and the spread of intolerant practices. In 2004, for example, the U.S. Treasury Department froze the assets of Al-Haramein Foundation, one of Saudi Arabia's largest nongovernmental organizations, because of its financial links to Al-Qaeda.[14] Additionally, American graduates of Saudi academies advance Wahhabist interpretations of Islam inside the U.S. prison system,[15] and Saudi-subsidized publications promote intolerance inside U.S. mosques.[16]
A Muslim enclave is uniquely perilous because there are few if any internal enclaves that adhere to a polity dedicated to the active abrogation of secular law and the imposition of a supreme religious law. The concept of Shari‘a is so fundamental to Islam, that even today, prominent Muslim jurists argue over whether a Muslim can fully discharge Shari‘a obligations while residing in a non-Muslim territory.[17] Yet, in spite of this apparent conundrum, Muslims have resided peacefully in non-Muslim lands since the seventh century. In the greater context, there may be a breach in the dike for Islamist groups residing in the United States because the Baltimore and Little Rock enclaves must acknowledge the U.S. Constitution as the paramount basis of civil law.
A dissident Islamic sub-community is filled with dichotomous propositions: from the presumed supremacy of Shari‘a-based law over secular law; the melding of religion and polity versus the constitutionally mandated separation of same; to the politics of group and factionalism, versus assimilation and pluralism. To deny the settlement of a Muslim-only community based solely upon prejudices formed after September 11 would be illiberal. But the alternative, opening the door to Islamic enclaves without scrutiny, is as dubious.
The Enclave under U.S. Law Existing U.S. legal precedent, though, may provide some grounds for handling expansive demands for Islamic enclaves. U.S. legal views of internal enclaves derive from the famous 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled the concept of separate but equal to be unconstitutional.[18] While the case revolved around the right of black children to attend white schools, it promulgated a concept that is anathema in today's world of multiculturalism: neither the state nor any constituent group could claim equality through separation.
Enclaves can exist, though. As courts have ruled on issues relating to equality under the law and upon the autonomy of religious practice, two distinctive features of internal U.S. enclaves have taken shape: first, the boundaries of the enclave should be recognized by local inhabitants. Second, the enclave cannot supersede the constitutionally protected rights of the citizens of a state.
Because most rights secured by the constitution are protected only against infringement by government action, the Supreme Court has avoided establishing a bright-line test as to the limits of religious liberty. Any religious group or individual seeking to establish an internal enclave has the right to limit residency, promulgate local rules, and perhaps even collect fees or taxes to support nominal community services.
Such enclaves do not hold final sway over the rights of non-residents, however. In Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Company[19] and Flagg Brothers v. Brooks,[20] the court outlined constitutional protections for private citizens in which any entity, religious or otherwise, exercising governmental authority over private citizens remains subject to the provisions of the First and Fourteenth amendments. In both cases, the court affirmed that citizens of a state retain their right to "due process of law" under the Fourteenth Amendment, even when inside an enclave. These holdings, however, do not prevent enclaves from restricting the individual freedoms of their inhabitants.
The Supreme Court has ruled upon the limits of religious liberty. In Cantwell v. Connecticut, the court outlined the circumstances in which the government could act to restrict religious independence. The court held that the free exercise clause "embraces two concepts—freedom to believe and freedom to act. The first is absolute, but in the nature of things, the second cannot be. Conduct remains subject to regulation for the protection of society."[21]
Christopher L. Eisgruber, professor of law at New York University, explained. He argued that, "the Constitution permits government to nurture ideological sub-communities founded upon premises inconsistent with the constitution's own commitments."[22] He maintained that such dissident sub-communities can provide important "sources of dissent"[23] and asserted that even if an enclave embraced ideals contrary to constitutional ideals, it should still be granted the right to pursue its own vision of good. For example, he wrote:
[Though] it is regrettable that young women in Kiryas Joel [a Satmar Hasidic enclave] will grow up in a starkly sexist culture, and it is regrettable that the Amish children of Yoder will find it very hard to become astronomers or lawyers … it would also be regrettable if the United States were not home to any sub-communities which, like the Satmars or the Amish, rejected principles of justice fundamental to the American regime.[24]
According to Eisgruber, tolerance of the intolerant is fundamental to the freedoms espoused by Western liberal democracy. While Islamists might use such logic to argue for the permissibility of Shari‘a communities, such tolerance has limits. Enclaves do not have carte blanche to act. Both the state and national legislatures must retain control over the extent of accommodation, and there should be no subsidization of the enclave by the government.[25] Such limits ensure that the government can constrain those sub-communities that might espouse more radical, violent, or racist views.[26]
It is usually when the U.S. government moves to uphold the rule of law that most Americans first learn of an internal enclave. Few Americans knew of the philosophy espoused by anti-government activist Randy Weaver until 1992 when the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol and Firearms raided his compound at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, killing Vicki Weaver, their infant son, Sam, and the family dog.[27] Nor did many Americans know about David Koresh and his religious views until a raid the following year on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in which a resulting fire killed fifty adults and twenty-five children under the age of fifteen.[28] While tragic, such events involved cults or political splinter groups. The growth of Muslim enclaves raises the specter of such conflicts occurring on a much larger scale.
While the court has interpreted the establishment clause to empower the government to constrain dissident sub-communities when necessary to protect public safety, it has been wary of addressing legal issues requiring intrusion upon the religious polity. Because the First Amendment provides for religious freedom, the court has confined itself to ruling upon three basic issues: property disputes between national religious hierarchical organizations with affiliated breakaway entities; accommodations under the free exercise clause; and the prohibition against the establishment of a state religion. New challenges, though, may lead to new interpretations.
The Antithesis to Democracy Is concern over internal Muslim enclaves justified? On their face, the fundamental principles of the internal Muslim enclave are no more invidious than any other religious enclave. But ideology matters. Many proponents of an Islamic polity promote an ideology at odds with U.S. constitutional jurisprudence and the prohibition against the establishment of a state-sponsored religion. The refusal to recognize federal law makes Islamist enclaves more akin to Ruby Ridge than to the Hasidic and Amish cases cited by Eisgruber.
Muslim theologians describe Islam not only as a religion but also as a system of state. The Qur'an—viewed by Muslims as the word of God—is replete with instructions about governance. An enclave promoting Islamic mores does not necessarily restrict itself to a social atmosphere but also one of governance. Traditional Islamic law controls the most basic aspects of everyday life and may make any Islamic enclave irreconcilable with the basic presumptions of Western liberal democracy and secular law.
While many American Muslims practice Islam and embrace the fundamental principles of the U.S. Constitution, others do not. There are consistent attempts by Islamist elements overseas to strengthen their own radical interpretation of Islam at the expense of moderation and tolerance. Saudi donors, for example, have propagated the ideology of Islamism, which seeks to interweave a narrow and often intolerant interpretation of religion into an all-encompassing political ideology. The number of imams and jihadists who have been outspoken in identifying the supremacy of Shari‘a to democracy underlines the incompatibility of Islamism and democracy. The late Saudi theologian, Sheikh Muhammad bin Ibrahim al-Jubair, for example, stated,
Only one ambition is worthy of Islam, to save the world from the curse of democracy: to teach men that they cannot rule themselves on the basis of man-made laws. Mankind has strayed from the path of God, we must return to that path or face certain annihilation.[29]
Prior to Iraq's January 30, 2005 elections, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, released an audiotape in which he declared war upon democracy and denounced its tenets as "the very essence of heresy, polytheism, and error."[30] Nor is Islamist antipathy for democracy limited to popular elections. According to a Saudi publication distributed at a San Diego mosque, "[Democracy is] responsible for all the horrible wars … more than 130 wars with more than 120 million people dead [in the twentieth century alone]; not counting victims of poverty, hunger and disease."[31] Such sentiments reflect a common theme among Islamists: democracy is the antithesis to everything pious and pure in Islam; and, in truth, democracy is the direct and substantial causal effect of Muslim suffering and injustice in the world today.
This does not mean that Islamists are unwilling to use democracy for their ends. But while they accept the trappings of democracy, they continue to reject its principles because the Shari‘a, to them the perfect rule of law, cannot be abrogated or altered by the shifting moods of a secular electorate. Mohamed Elhachmi Hamdi, editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab weekly Al-Mustakillah, explained,
The heart of the matter is that no Islamic state can be legitimate in the eyes of its subjects without obeying the main teachings of the Shari‘a. A secular government might coerce obedience, but Muslims will not abandon their belief that state affairs should be supervised by the just teachings of the holy law.[32]
He could draw from plenty of examples. In 1992, for example, Ali Balhadj, a leader of the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria, declared, "When we are in power, there will be no more elections because God will be ruling."[33] While mayor of Istanbul, Islamist Turkish politician Recep Tayyip Erdoðan quipped, "For us, democracy is a streetcar. We would go as far as we could, and then get off."[34] As he eviscerates the judiciary, many Turks wonder about his sincerity.[35]
Experience abroad is relevant, as it goes to the heart of the sincerity of proponents of the Little Rock and Baltimore enclaves, an issue compounded by the willingness to accept donations from Persian Gulf financiers.
Conclusion How Muslims reconcile Islamic polity within the confines of Western liberal democracy is an unresolved issue. This process will take years to evolve and is likely to convulse in further violent episodes. Presently, many Muslims reject wholesale the notion of a dominant secular law and instead seek the imposition of a pan-Islamist state under the guidance of Shari‘a. These Islamists view secular modernity and the democratic practices of radical egalitarianism, individual rights, and free exercise of religion as a direct and substantial threat to their belief system, and they are intent on employing violence against the West for the foreseeable future. The remainder and majority of the Muslim world must reject nihilism and engage in widespread debate regarding Islam's role within the world community.
The local planning commission in Little Rock, Arkansas, might proceed with the proposed Muslim enclave, but the Arkansas courts and its legislature should not abdicate its responsibilities to ensure that Western liberal rights and protections remain supreme. The government should monitor both the rhetoric and behavior of these communities. As the Supreme Court stated in Cantwell: the freedom to believe is absolute, but the freedom to act, in the nature of things, cannot be, especially as to the safety and preservation of the American democracy.[36]
David Kennedy Houck is an attorney at Houck O'Brien LLC, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
[a post for study and research]
Growing Up Online
Young people jump headfirst into the Internet's world
Bruce Bower
As a conversation unfolds among teenagers on an Internet message board, it rapidly becomes evident that this is not idle electronic chatter. One youngster poses a question that, to an outsider, seems shocking: "Does anyone know how to cut deep without having it sting and bleed too much?" An answer quickly appears: "I use box cutter blades. You have to pull the skin really tight and press the blade down really hard." Another response advises that a quick swipe of a blade against skin "doesn't hurt and there is blood galore." The questioner seems satisfied: "Okay, I'll get a Stanley blade 'cause I hear that it will cut right to the bone with no hassle. But ... I won't cut that deep."
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HELLO OUT THERE. New research probes various ways in which children and teenagers use, and are affected by, the Internet.
PhotoDisc
Welcome to the rapidly expanding online arena for teenagers who deliberately cut or otherwise injure themselves. It's a place where cutters, as they're known, can provide emotional support to one another, discuss events that trigger self-mutilation, encourage peers to seek medical or mental-health treatment, or offer tips on how best to hurt oneself without getting caught.
The conversation above, observed during a study of self-injury message boards, occupies a tiny corner of the virtual world that children and adolescents have aggressively colonized. Psychologist Janis L. Whitlock of Cornell University, the director of that study, and other researchers are beginning to explore how young people communicate on the Internet. The scientists are examining how various online contacts affect a youngster's schoolwork, social life, and budding sense of identity. Evidence also suggests that the Internet has expanded the reach of health-education efforts to teens in distant lands and provided unique leadership opportunities to a global crop of youngsters.
New findings, including six reports in the May Developmental Psychology, indicate that the Internet holds a special appeal for young people, says psychologist Patricia Greenfield of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). That's because the Internet provides an unprecedented number and variety of meeting places, from message boards to instant messaging to so-called social networking sites such as myspace.com.
The one constant is that teens take to the Internet like ants to a summer picnic. Nearly 9 in 10 U.S. youngsters, ages 12 to 17, used the Internet in 2004, according to a national survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in Washington, D.C. That amounted to 21 million teens, half of whom said that they go online every day. About three in four U.S. adults used the Internet at that time, Pew researchers found.
Teenagers, in particular, provide a moving target for Internet researchers, remarks psychologist Kaveri Subrahmanyam of California State University in Los Angeles. "By the time you publish research on one type of Internet use, such as blogging, teenagers have moved on to something new, such as myspace," she says, with a resigned chuckle.
Express yourself
Cyberspace offers a bevy of tempting opportunities to pretend to be who you're not. Yet teens don't typically go online to deceive others but to confront their own identities, according to recent studies. That's not surprising, Subrahmanyam notes, since adolescents typically seek answers to questions such as "Who am I?" and "Where do I belong?"
Consider the self-injury message boards studied by Whitlock's team. Five Internet search engines led the researchers to a whopping 406 such sites. Most of these attracted participants who identified themselves as girls between ages 12 and 20.
On message boards, as in chat rooms, participants register as members and adopt screen names, such as "Emily the Strange." In many cases, both members and nonmembers can view messages, although only members can post them.
Whitlock and her coworkers studied the content of 3,219 messages at 10 popular self-injury message boards over a 2-month period in 2005. Many postings provided emotional support to other members. Participants also frequently discussed circumstances that triggered self-mutilation. These included depression and conflicts with key people in their lives. Some message senders detailed ways to seek aid for physical and emotional problems, but others described feeling addicted to self-injury.
More ominously, a substantial minority of messages either discouraged self-injurers from seeking formal medical or mental help or shared details about self-harm techniques and ways to keep the practice secret.
Online teen chat rooms generally don't have specific topics but, like message boards, attract a wide range of kids and present both helpful and hurtful communications. Subrahmanyam and her colleagues examined typical conversations at two online chat sites for teens. They monitored more than 5 hours of electronic exchanges selected at various times of the day during a 2-month stretch in 2003.
On one site, an adult monitored conversations for unacceptable language. The other site was unmonitored.
More than half of the 583 participants at both sites gave personal information, usually including sex and age. Sexual themes constituted 5 percent of all messages, corresponding to about one sexual comment per minute. Obscene language characterized 5 percent of messages on the unmonitored site and 2 percent on the monitored site.
One-quarter of participants made sexual references, which was not unexpected given the amount of daily sex talk that has been reported among some teens. In the chat rooms, however, all members were confronted with the minority's sexual banter.
The protected environment of the monitored chat room resulted in markedly fewer explicit sexual messages and obscene words than the unmonitored chat room did, Subrahmanyam says. Moreover, the monitored site attracted more participants who identified themselves as young girls than did the unmonitored venue, which featured a larger number of correspondents who identified themselves as males in their late teens or early 20s.
Much of the explicit sexuality on the unmonitored site amounted to degrading and insulting comments, adding to concerns previously raised by other researchers that youths who visit such sites are likely to encounter sexual harassment from either peers or adults.
Subrahmanyam's team also conducted in-person interviews with teens who hadn't participated in the chat room study. The results suggest that only a small minority ever pretend to be other people on the Internet.
Intriguingly, teens who write online journals, known as blogs, often forgo sex talk for more-mundane topics, such as daily experiences at home and school, Subrahmanyam adds. In 2004, she analyzed the content of 600 entries in 200 teen blogs.
Teen blogs offer an outlet for discussing romantic relationships and, especially for boys, disclosing hidden sides of themselves, says psychologist Sandra L. Calvert of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. In a 2005 online report with David A. Huffaker of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., Calvert described entries in 70 teen blogs, evenly split between bloggers who identified themselves as girls and as boys. The ages given ranged from 13 to 17.
Bloggers routinely disclosed personal information, including e-mail addresses and other contact details, the researchers found. Half the blogs of both boys and girls discussed relationships with boyfriends or girlfriends. Ten boys, but only two girls, wrote that they were using the blogs to openly discuss their homosexuality for the first time.
"Teenagers stay closer to reality in their online expressions about themselves than has previously been suggested," Calvert asserts.
Net gains
Give a middle school child from a low-income household a home computer with free Internet access and watch that child become a better reader. That's the conclusion of a new study that highlights potential academic consequences of the so-called digital divide separating poor kids from their better-off peers.
A team led by psychologist Linda A. Jackson of Michigan State University in East Lansing gave computers, Internet access, and in-home technical support to 140 children. The mostly 12-to-14-year-old, African-American boys and girls lived in single-parent families with incomes no higher than $15,000 a year. The researchers recorded each child's Internet use from December 2000 through June 2002.
Before entering the study, these children generally did poorly in school and on academic-achievement tests. However, overall grades and reading achievement scores—but not math-achievement scores—began to climb after 6 months of home Internet use. These measures had ascended farther by the end of the study, especially among the kids who spent the most time online.
Participants logged on to the Internet an average of 30 minutes a day, which isn't much in the grand scheme of teenage Internet use: Teens in middle- and upper-class families average 2 or more Internet hours each day. Only 25 percent of the children in the study used instant messaging, and only 16 percent sent e-mails or contributed to online chat. These low numbers probably reflect a lack of home Internet access among the kids' families and friends. Also, their parents forbade most of the participating kids from contacting strangers in chat rooms.
Still, text-heavy online sites seem to have provided reading experience that translated into higher reading scores and grades, the researchers suggest. Although participants remained below-average readers at the end of the study, their improvement showed promise, according to Jackson and her colleagues.
These findings raise the unsettling possibility that "children most likely to benefit from home Internet access are the very children least likely to have [it]," Jackson's team concludes.
In stark contrast to their poor peers, wealthier middle school and high school students spend much of their time on the Internet trading instant messages with friends, an activity with tremendous allure for young people trying to fit into peer groups, says psychologist Robert Kraut of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
For teens, instant messaging extends opportunities to communicate with friends and expands their social world, Kraut suggests. He and his colleagues probed instant messaging in interviews with 26 teens in 2002 and in surveys completed by 41 teens in 2004.
Instant messaging simulates joining a clique, without the rigid acceptance rules of in-person peer groups, in Kraut's view. Each user creates his or her own buddy list.
Within these virtual circles, teens become part of what they regard as a cool Internet practice and, at the same time, intensify feelings of being connected to friends, even when sitting by themselves doing homework, Kraut says.
Still, Internet-savvy youngsters typically have much to learn about the social reach and potential perils of online communication, says education professor Zheng Yan of the State University of New York at Albany.
Yan interviewed 322 elementary and middle school students in a New England suburb. Participants also drew pictures to show what the Internet looks like and, when told to think of the Internet as a city, what types of people one would see there.
By ages 10 to 11, children demonstrated considerable knowledge of the Internet's technical complexity, such as realizing that Internet sites act as data sources for many computers.
Not until ages 12 to 13, however, did youngsters begin to grasp the Internet's social complexity, such as the large numbers of strangers who can gain access to information that a person posts publicly. Even then, the kids' insight into the online social world's perils remained rudimentary compared with that previously observed in adults.
Children and teens plastering personal thoughts and images on Web sites such as myspace.com "often don't realize how many people have access to that information, including sexual predators," Yan asserts. He encourages parental monitoring of Internet activities and regular discussions of online dangers with children.
Worldwide peers
Adolescents who form global Internet communities show signs of developing their own styles of leadership and social involvement, a trend that Northwestern University psychologist Justine Cassell and her coworkers view with optimism.
Cassell's team examined messages from an online community known as the Junior Summit, organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. University officials sent out worldwide calls for youngsters to participate in a closed, online forum that would address how technology can aid young people. They chose 3,062 applicants, ages 9 to 16, from 139 countries.
Those selected ranged from suburbanites in wealthy families to child laborers working in factories. Computers and Internet access were provided to 200 schools and community centers in convenient locations for those participants who needed them.
During the last 3 months of 1998, children logged on to online homerooms, divided by geographic regions. Members of each homeroom generated and voted on 20 topics to be addressed by the overall forum. Topic groups then formed and participants elected a total of 100 delegates to an expenses-paid, 1-week summit in Boston in 1999.
Cassell's group found that delegates, whom the researchers refer to as online leaders, didn't display previously established characteristics of adult leaders, such as contributing many ideas to a task and asserting dominance over others. While the delegates eventually sent more messages than their peers did, those who were later chosen as online leaders—regardless of age or sex—had referred to group goals rather than to themselves and synthesized others' posts rather than offering only their own ideas.
Without in-person leadership cues such as height or attractiveness, online congregants looked for signs of collaborative and persuasive proficiency, the researchers say.
Outside the controlled confines of the Junior Summit, teens even in places where few people own home computers find ways to obtain vital Internet information. Ghana, a western Africa nation in which adolescents represent almost half the population, provides one example.
Researchers led by Dina L.G. Borzekowski of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore surveyed online experiences among 778 teens, ages 15 to 18, in Ghana's capital, Accra.
Two-thirds of the 600 youngsters who attended high school said that they had previously gone online, as did about half of the 178 teens who didn't attend school. Among all Internet users, the largest proportion—53 percent—had sought online health information on topics including AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, nutrition, exercise, drug use, and pregnancy.
Out-of-school teens—who faced considerable poverty—ranked the Internet as a more important source of sexual-health information than the students did, the investigators say.
In both groups, the majority of teens went online at Internet cafés, where patrons rent time on computers hooked up to the Internet.
Internet cafés have rapidly sprung up in unexpected areas, UCLA's Greenfield says. She conducts research in the southeastern Mexico state of Chiapas, which is inhabited mainly by poor farming families.
Small storefronts, each containing around 10 Internet-equipped computers, now dot this hard-pressed region, Greenfield notes. Primarily young people frequent these businesses, paying the equivalent of about $1 for an hour of Internet surfing.
"Even in Chiapas, adolescents are in the vanguard of Internet use," Greenfield remarks.
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References:
Boneva, B., . . . R.E. Kraut, et al. In press. Teenage communication in the instant messaging era. In Computers, Phones and the Internet: Domesticating Information Technology, R. Kraut, M. Brynin, and S. Kiesler, eds. Oxford University Press. Preprint of chapter available at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~kraut/RKraut.site.files/articles/
Boneva04-TeenCommunicationInIMEra.pdf.
Borzekowski, D.L.G., J.N. Fobil, and K.O. Asante. 2006. Online access by adolescents in Accra: Ghanaian teens' use of the Internet for health information. Developmental Psychology 42(May):450-458. Available at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/dev423450.pdf.
Cassell, J., D. Huffaker, et al. 2006. The language of online leadership: Gender and youth engagement on the Internet. Developmental Psychology 42(May):436-449. Available at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/dev423436.pdf.
Greenfield, P., and Z. Yan. 2006. Children, adolescents, and the Internet: A new field of inquiry in developmental psychology. Developmental Psychology 42(May):391-394. Available at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/dev423391.pdf.
Huffaker, D.A., and S.L. Calvert. 2005. Gender, identity, and language use in teenage blogs. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 10(January). Available at http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue2/huffaker.html.
Jackson, L.A., et al. 2006. Does home Internet use influence the academic performance of low-income children? Developmental Psychology 42(May):429-435. Available at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/dev423429.pdf.
Subrahmanyam, K., D. Smahel, and P. Greenfield. 2006. Connecting developmental constructions to the Internet: Identity presentation and sexual exploration in online teen chat rooms. Developmental Psychology 42(May):395-406. Available at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/dev423395.pdf.
Whitlock, J.L., J.L. Powers, and J. Eckenrode. 2006. The virtual cutting edge: The Internet and adolescent self-injury. Developmental Psychology 42(May):407-417. Available at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/dev423407.pdf.
Yan, Z. 2006. What influences children's and adolescents' understanding of the complexity of the Internet? Developmental Psychology 42(May):418-428. Available at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/dev423418.pdf.
Sources:
Dina L.G. Borzekowski
Johns Hopkins University
Bloomberg School of Public Health
Department of Population and Family Health Sciences
615 North Wolfe Street
Baltimore, MD 21205
Sandra L. Calvert
Department of Psychology
Georgetown University
37th & O Streets, N.W.
Washington, DC 20057
Justine Cassell
Northwestern University
Frances Searle Building
Room 2-148
2240 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208-2952
Patricia Greenfield
University of California, Los Angeles
Children's Digital Media Center
1285 Franz Hall
405 Hilgard Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90095
David Huffaker
Northwestern University
Frances Searle Building
Room 2-148
2240 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208-2952
Linda A. Jackson
Michigan State University
Department of Psychology
East Lansing, MI 48824
Robert Kraut
Human Computer Interaction
Carnegie Mellon University
3515 NSH
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Kaveri Subrahmanyam
California State University
Department of Psychology
5151 State University Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90032-8190
Zheng Yan
State University of New York, Albany
Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology
Albany, NY 12222
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060617/bob9.asp
From Science News, Vol. 169, No. 24, June 17, 2006, p. 376.
Copyright (c) 2006 Science Service. All rights reserved.
Friday 16 June 2006
Razi Azmi - Fatwas suggest it is acceptable for Muslims to kill non-Muslims, provided there is a pretext
THINKING ALOUD: ‘An archaic incongruity’? - Razi Azmi
Daily Times, Pakistan
Whenever a terrorist outrage occurs in any Muslim country and the victims are ordinary Muslims, we are told that Muslims must never kill Muslims. Even fatwas are issued to that effect. The unspoken and unwritten subtext seems to suggest that it is acceptable for Muslims to kill non-Muslims, provided there is a pretext
In their nearly 400-page Report of the Court of Inquiry into the Punjab Disturbances of 1953, popularly known as the Munir Report, two eminently learned Pakistani judges, Chief Justice Muhammad Munir and Justice MR Kayani had concluded, after 117 sittings, perusing 3,600 pages of written statements and sifting through 2,700 pages of evidence over eight months:
“Nothing but a bold reorientation of Islam to separate the vital from the lifeless can preserve it as a world idea and convert the Musalman into a citizen of the present and the future world from the archaic incongruity that he is today.”
Has anything changed since this bold statement was made by the justices over half a century ago?
Seventeen Canadian Muslims, five of whom are teenagers, were arrested earlier this month in Toronto for conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks in the very country which not only hosted and nurtured them but is also considered a model of multiculturalism and tolerance. Indeed, the province of Ontario recently came close to allowing Muslims to be governed by their own Sharia courts instead of secular civil courts.
At least six of those arrested regularly attended the same mosque in a middle-class Toronto suburb. The oldest, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, is said to be an active member of the mosque who frequently led prayers and made fiery speeches.
In England, another bastion of multiculturism with a massive and thriving Muslim presence, less than a year after 9/11 Al Qaeda sympathisers were openly selling a video at Birmingham’s Central Mosque after the busy Friday prayers showing the chilling “last will and testament” of one of the September 11 hijackers. Duly impressed, a couple of years later four British Muslims carried out suicide-attacks on London transport killing 52 fellow-Britons and injuring hundreds.
When Abu Musab al Zarqawi was killed in Iraq a week ago, Pakistani parliamentarians belonging to Islamist parties demanded that the National Assembly hold a condolence meeting. The country’s Urdu newspapers are referring to Zarqawi as a martyr for Islam (shaheed). There have been demonstrations in the Palestinian territories hailing him as a hero.
Arabic Islamist chat rooms claim that Zarqawi is in heaven. One wrote: “Oh God, make heaven celebrate his arrival there.” “Oh Allah, reunite us with Abu Musab al Zarqawi in the great paradise alongside Prophet Muhammad [peace be upon him],” wrote another. “Farewell, oh hero,” said an unsigned poem. “We hope to meet you in ... a paradise filled with rivers and sweetness /And beautiful virgins that beckon to us in a unique voice.”
The subject of these fulsome tributes was a man whose barbarity knew no bounds. Zarqawi’s achievements included the “horribly grotesque” beheading of the Jewish-American businessman Nick Berg, in May 2004, publicised in his promotional video titled Sheikh Abu Musab Zarqawi Slaughters an American Infidel.
In another video released by Zarqawi, to quote Paul McGeogh, an award-winning Australian journalist critical of the American occupation of Iraq, “the world was forced to hold its breath as two Americans and a British hostage pleaded for their lives, before Zarqawi himself, according to CIA analysis of the web footage, callously cut the throats of the struggling Americans. Then he roughly decapitated them, holding the heads up for the cameras - and, with a nonchalant twist of the knife, gouged out one of the victim’s eyes.”
A week later, another video showed the British, 62-year-old Kenneth Bigley, “shackled and kneeling in a cage” pleading for his life, but in vain.
The very people who openly or secretly admire Zarqawi will, at the appropriate forums, cite the Quranic verse to the effect that the killing of even one innocent person is tantamount to the killing of all mankind and to emphasise that Islam literally means peace. Those who will not allow any differences of opinion or interpretation even within the Muslim community convene and attend what are called inter-faith dialogues with followers of other faiths, some of whom they regard as errant or misguided and others as evil and sinful.
Muslim clerics freely refer to Muslims leaders who incur their displeasure as taghout (infidels) or Kafir and to followers of all sects other than their own as heretical (bid’ah). Sh’ias are now fair game in Pakistan and the target of a merciless terror campaign in Iraq. In a letter, Zarqawi, the chief of Al Qaeda in Iraq, referred to the Shi’as with his characteristic bluntness: “They are the insurmountable obstacle, the lurking snake, the crafty and malicious scorpion and the penetrating venom ... they are the enemy ... the bone in [our] throats.”
Such is the Salafist doctrine which is gaining popularity among Muslims. Besides rejecting any genuine attempt at understanding, accommodation, coexistence and ijtehad, Salafism bars all joyous pursuits and entertainment (including most games, films and music.
In the heartland of Islam, namely, Saudi Arabia, women can neither vote nor drive, and alleged criminals routinely have their hands, feet and heads chopped off in public squares; in Iran, the Ayatollahs will not allow women to watch men playing soccer; and in Taliban-dominated lands (which includes Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan), alleged criminals have been stoned to death. Here, even fully veiled women cannot leave their homes without being chaperoned by a mehram (close male relative).
In Algeria in the 1990s, Salafists carried out a campaign of slitting the throats of anyone they could catch who was accused of supporting the government, including women and children.
Whenever a terrorist outrage occurs in any Muslim country and the victims are ordinary Muslims, we are told that Muslims must never kill Muslims. Even fatwas are issued to that effect. The unspoken and unwritten subtext seems to suggest that it is acceptable for Muslims to kill non-Muslims, provided there is a pretext.
Many Muslims will go to any lengths to migrate to the West, but, to the Salafists, the West is the evil enemy. The American-educated leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Syed Qutb, stated that “truth and falsehood cannot coexist on earth ... the liberating struggle of jihad does not cease until all religion belongs to God”.
If that is militant, extremist Islam, determined to conquer or destroy all who follow another creed or beg to differ, other varieties are a hodgepodge of obscurantism, ignorance, mythology and mob mentality.
A quiz programme on a mainstream TV network recently asked the contestants to identify the saint (one out of three mentioned) who for 40 years after his death would shake hands with anybody who visited his grave and greeted him. Whatever that means!
Pakistani Muslims are unable to celebrate Eid ul Fitr on the same day because of differences on the issue of sighting the moon strictly in accordance with tradition.
Hundreds of people, including Muslims, have been jailed, in some cases killed, for alleged blasphemy in the last two decades. In one such case about a year ago, the accused included five children, aged between nine and 13. In 2002, one Zahid of Chak Jhumra, a mentally ill person, was stoned to death for blasphemy by a mob instigated by a maulvi after being set free by a court.
Rapists have escaped prosecution for lack of “eye-witnesses” as required by traditional Muslim law. But many victims, including a blind woman who became pregnant as a consequence of being raped, have been convicted of adultery or fornication.
I wonder what the venerable Justices Munir and Kayani would have said about the present state of the ummah. An incongruity wrapped in absurdity?
The writer can be contacted at raziazmi@hotmail.com
See online: Original Posting.
British Hate Preacher to Speak at McMaster University British Hate Preacher to Speak at McMaster University
From the Archives: The Radical Indoctrination of Canadian Muslim Youth From the Archives: The Radical Indoctrination of Canadian Muslim Youth
From the Archives: No amount of PR will stop suicide bombers From the Archives: No amount of PR will stop suicide bombers
RCMP Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell Press Conference RCMP Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell Press Conference
Names of the 12 adults charged with terrorism-related offenses Names of the 12 adults charged with terrorism-related offenses
Forum
http://www.judeoscope.ca/breve.php3?id_breve=1774
Friday 16 June 2006
Bashir urges Muslims to fight
From News.com.au
INDONESIAN hardline cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has told a Muslim congregation to fight for Islam and ignore criticism branding those involved in the struggle as terrorists. Bashir, who Western and regional intelligence officials say was once spiritual leader of the al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamia (JI) militant network, was freed on Wednesday after serving a prison sentence over the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
In a sermon today at the Al-Mukmin Islamic school he co-founded, the 67-year old cleric told students and sympathisers the movement to spread Islam to the world is a costly campaign.
Bashir said being called "terrorists" or "hardliners" during the struggle was a light price to pay.
"The Prophet was accused of being crazy. The infidels have not yet accused us of being crazy. I was accused as a terrorist but they said I was still sound," he said, referring to the obstacles Prophet Mohammad faced when introducing Islam in the 7th century.
"Do not hesitate in maintaining the faith until death. The form is through jihad whether defined as struggling or combating infidels. From preaching to education and jihad ... that’s already a war," said Bashir, wearing a white skull cap and shirt.
"For what? Only for one purpose. To uphold the faith. The faith is more expensive than any wealth in the world, more valuable than children, wife or even life itself," said the preacher, whose sermon was heard by hundreds sitting silently on the floor of the school mosque.
See online: Full Story.
http://www.judeoscope.ca/breve.php3?id_breve=1777
Friday, June 16, 2006
Hamaoka reactor stops; no leak
SHIZUOKA (Kyodo) The Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture automatically shut down Thursday after a turbine began shaking heavily, Chubu Electric Power Co. said. There was no radiation leak and no injuries.
The No. 5 1,380-megawatt boiling-water reactor shut down at around 8:40 a.m., the utility said.
The reactor is stable as control rods were inserted as part of the shutdown process, it said, adding no abnormal radiation levels were detected in or around the plant or in ventilators.
Chubu Electric has reported the incident to the Shizuoka Prefecture Government and municipalities in the area and is investigating the cause of the problem.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060616b1.html
Quix, this week's "Friday Flowers", made me think of the warp on your loom.
Take a moment to feed the soul with God's beauty.
A religion is a cult with lobbyists.<<<
Interesting thought.
But how sad it is if you are correct.
but then, so many of the churches do not have God in them, you cannot feel him there.
I tried to tell my son that his church was a 'social' group, altho it was the oldest church in our valley and one of the oldest Christian names on the door.
They have cancelled Sunday Evening services, the Pastor does not feel they are needed.
Another group on the slide down.
http://www.sonc.com/friday_june_16_06.htm
Laughing......did you think that I was out to be mean so early in the morning.
Above is to the Friday Flowers in post 65.
[These have to taste heavenly, When I camped, I often made a cornbread batter and fried it like pancakes in a little bacon drippings and thought that was grand food.
anything cooked on a campfire tastes good to me.]
Jalapeno Cheese Rolls Category: Breads
Source/Author: Mac Coombs and Bert Page (adapted from Bruce E. Tracy)
Ingredients/Directions
12-inch Dutch oven
4-5 cups flour
1/2 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup sugar plus 1 tablespoon for yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup minced jalapenos (or more if you like them)
1 cup hot water (115 degrees)
1 heaping tablespoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons corn oil, plus 2 tablespoons to coat bowl
2 lightly beaten eggs
In a large bowl, combine 4 cups flour, cheese, jalapenos, 1/2 cup sugar and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, combine the water, yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar. Stir until the yeast dissolves and wait about 10 minutes for the yeast to foam up. Add the 2 tablespoons oil and eggs to the yeast mixture and stir.
Make a crater in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in 1/2 of the yeast mixture. Mix this with your hands to moisten the flour as much as you can. Pour in the rest of the liquid mixture and mix until flour is totally incorporated. Place on a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Place the ball in a bowl that has been oiled and roll the ball around until it, too, is oiled. Cover it with a dry heavy towel and put in a warm place until it doubles in size, about one hour. Punch the dough down and pinch off enough to make 1 1/2-inch balls.
Roll each ball until smooth and arrange snugly in a warm, oiled Dutch oven. Put the lid on and let rise again. You can put one or two coals on the lid to keep the oven warm if it is cold. Bake about 1 hour, with four coals spaced evenly underneath, six coals around the lower outside edge and 16-18 coals around the rim of the lid. Turn the oven and then the lid a bit every 15 minutes to distribute the heat better. Makes 10-12 rolls. From Riverview Junior High School's Dutch Oven Cook-Off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From this page:
http://deseretnews.com/dn/recipes/search/1,3944,Dutch%20oven,00.html?thisCourse=Breads
Biodefense and Bioterrorism.
About and treatment.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/biodefenseandbioterrorism.html
Reporters resources.
For the link clicker, a never ending supply of research.
http://www.press.org/library06/resources.cfm
June 17, 2006 Anti-Terrorism News
(Update) DHS Report on Lack of Readiness of Cities for Disaster (PDF)
http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/Prep_NationwidePlanReview.pdf
23 killed in string of Baghdad attacks around the capital
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/17/iraq.main/index.html
(Iraq) US army says key terror leader captured in Karbala
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150355509865&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Afghan, coalition forces kill 45 militants
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060617/ap_on_re_as/afghanistan_23;_ylt=AjMR_qFwfC.J9AJJ6J7KAQP9xg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA2ZGZwam4yBHNlYwNmYw--
Suicide attack in Afghanistan - Nimroz, wounding five
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19504351-23109,00.html
(Afghanistan) - Turning the Taliban to our side - "Peace Through
Strength" program offers immunity in exchange for co-operation
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060616.wxafghan17/BNStory/International/home
(Atlanta) U.S. Wants Restrictions in Terror Case
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060617/ap_on_re_us/terrorism_arrest_1
(Pakistan) Bomb blast in Rakhni destroys restaurant
http://www.dawn.com/2006/06/17/top7.htm
(Update) Six arrested in Thailand for series of bomb attacks
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=92368&version=1&template_id=45&parent_id=25
(Canada) Web used to lure terror suspects "Irhabi007" linked to terror
suspects - Called "Godfather of cyber-terrorism" - Notorious hacker
inspired extremists
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150494610771&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
(Canada) Two (teen) terrorism suspects make court appearance
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=4f7eb165-aac9-4d97-beeb-2436a61c4c35&k=42236
Canada unveils anti-terrorism measures
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150355510853&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
(Israel) IAF kills 2 Jihad men wanted for launching rockets
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150355509805&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Somali warlords 'flee Mogadishu'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5090042.stm
(Russia) Chechen Rebel Leader, Successor to Maskhadov Killed in Police
Raid - Officials
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/06/17/rebelleaderkilled.shtml
Sri Lankan rebels attack from sea - 31 killed
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5089776.stm
Top Indian Maoist rebel 'killed'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5089916.stm
U.N.: Koranic schools in Senegal fuel child trafficking
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/06/16/senegal.children.reut/index.html
Syria interested in buying Iranian arms
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150355509226&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
N.Y. law increases penalties for swastikas
http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi/20060616-102038-9917r.htm
Chechen Rebel Leader, Successor to Maskhadov Killed in Police Raid — Officials
Created: 17.06.2006 12:37 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 13:35 MSK, 3 hours 6 minutes ago
MosNews
Chechen separatist rebel leader Abdul Khalim Saidullayev has been killed in a police operation, the pro-Moscow government said. .
Police had located him in the town of Argun and he had been killed in a gun battle when they moved in, said Chechen cabinet minister Muslim Khuchiyev, the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti said in a report.
No comment from the rebels was immediately available, the BBC said.
Saidullayev was appointed in 2005 to replace Aslan Maskhadov after the rebel president died in a Russian attack.
Only a day earlier, Chechnya’s Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, the son of Chechnya’s first pro-Moscow president, who was assassinated in 2004, said that he considers it his “sacred duty” to kill a top rebel warlord who earlier had offered a bounty for his head. Thus he responded to a statement from warlord Shamil Basayev which had been posted on a Web site sympathetic to rebels, the AP reported.
According to the Kavkaz Center Web, Basayev announced a $25,000 bounty for the killing of Ramzan Kadyrov and repeated his claim of responsibility for the bomb attack that killed his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, saying he paid $50,000 to those who carried out the assassination.
Kadyrov responded Friday, saying that he considers Basayev “not only the enemy of the Chechen people, but a personal enemy as well… I know now whom to bring to account for my father’s blood,” he said in a statement released to the media.
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/06/17/rebelleaderkilled.shtml
Russia War Hero Tells Her Secret
Created: 17.06.2006 12:12 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 12:12 MSK, 4 hours 33 minutes ago
Yelena Batyreva, Yelena Vakhrusheva
Komsomolskaya Pravda
On May 1, an ordinary resident of Samara, Alexandra Rashchupkina, a fragile and smiley woman marked her 92nd birthday. Her heart pounds every time when she recalls the war years, she says. “I just cannot help crying when I see war films and newsreels on TV sometimes.”
She is a remarkable woman. Born in Uzbekistan nearly a century ago, she was one of the first female tractor drivers in her village. By the time the war broke out she and her husband had been married for several years, had two children and moved to Tashkent, the capital of the then-Soviet Uzbekistan, where they lived happily until one of their children died. Then the second child died, too.
Alexandra’s husband volunteered when the war began and the woman followed him to the military enlistment office, but her application was rejected. She was told her help would be more useful at home and she needed not to go to fight …
“Why was I so eager to be on the front line? For the sake of my loved ones, of course. Even if everyone shouted ’For the Motherland! For Stalin!’, we still went to fight for our relatives, for people we knew. For our mothers, sisters or brothers,” Alexander recalls.
She had her hair cropped, put on man’s uniform and applied to the recruitment office again. “How obstinate I was,” she smiles. She said her name was Alexander Rashchupkin. The fact she had no identification papers on her did not bother anyone… She was assigned to a training school near Moscow where she took a driving course. Upon completing it she was dispatched to Stalingrad where she learned to drive a tank.
She survived an air raid on her school. It was the first air raid in her life. “But a woman is always a woman. Instead of being happy to be alive I was worrying about my new uniform, all turned to rags,” she smiles.
However advanced in years she is now, she still accepts invitations of local schools to tell the little ones about her military experience.
When she first saw a tank, she was scared, Alexandra admits. “I had studied the hardware for two months and never feared anything. But once I saw that iron monster I thought: ’God gracious, what shall I do with the thing’,” she laughs.
But she overcame her fears and went to the war on par with men. No one in her regiment ever suspected a thing, she is convinced. “My secret remained a secret,” she says. She even learned to change her voice when she spoke. For three years she kept her secret. “You don’t get undressed often on the frontline. Nobody cared much for hygiene,” she recalls.
It was not until February 1945 that her secret was revealed. The Soviet tanks moved into Bunulau where they were ambushed by Nazi troops. Her tank caught fire and a fellow serviceman saved her from the burning machine. When he attended to her wounds he saw that she was not a man…
After the war was over and Alexandra’s husband also returned home, they moved to Kuibishev (Samara). They never had children again.
These days, she lives alone in Samara. Her friends and neighbors help her with shopping and cleaning. Although she feels lonely at times, she tries to be cheerful and never rejects an invitation to meet with local schoolchildren and tell stories of her war days.
http://www.mosnews.com/feature/2006/06/16/tankwoman.shtml
Photo from www.lenta.ru
Photo from www.lenta.ru
Russian Parliament Backs Gazprom Export Monopoly Bill
Created: 16.06.2006 15:11 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:11 MSK
MosNews
Members of the State Duma, the lower house of Russian Parliament, gave preliminary approval to the draft law, which formalizes gas export monopoly of Russia’s natural gas giant Gazprom. The move comes as a rebuff to European demands that Russia opens up its gas market.
The text of the bill says that “the exclusive right to export of gas is given to the organization that owns the gas supply system or its subsidiary”. The bill refers to Gazprom and its fully-owned subsidiary Gazexport. The draft law was approved on first reading by 386 deputies of the 450-seat parliament voting in favor. Six lawmakers voted against and eight abstained. A second reading has been scheduled for June 28.
Lawmakers from the pro-Kremlin United Russia, who put forward the law, want the text approved ahead of the G8 Summit in Saint Petersburg next month to bolster Russia’s position in talks expected to focus on energy security. “It’s clear there is growing pressure on Russia from Western countries that want access to our resources and gas pipelines in order to force down world market prices for gas,” said Valery Yazev from United Russia, one of authors of the law. Yazev was quoted by RIA Novosti.
The text said the bill would help “defend the Russian Federation’s economic interests, fulfill international obligations on gas exports, guarantee federal budget intakes and support the Russian Federation’s energy balance.”
Gazprom’s deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev earlier gave his backing to the law, saying: “We support the draft law of course since it confirms the real state of things in the gas sector and the existing rules of the game.”
The European Union has urged Russia to reduce Gazprom’s monopoly over exports by giving non-state players a role and to allow greater access for European energy companies to Russia’s gas market. President Vladimir Putin however has described the energy sector as the “holy of holies” of the Russian economy. European demands for greater access to Russian energy resources should be balanced by reciprocal access for Russian firms to European markets, he said.
Europe depends on Gazprom for a quarter of its natural gas imports. That dependence has raised hackles, particularly after Gazprom briefly cut off supplies to Ukraine in a bitter price dispute that also affected deliveries to Western Europe.
The bill makes an exception to Gazprom’s monopoly for gas exported on the basis of existing production sharing agreements (PSAs), including projects involving global energy majors on the Russian Far East island of Sakhalin that are not yet exporting any gas. “The demands of the federal law do not concern the export of gas produced under production sharing agreements settled before the law comes into force,” the text said.
http://www.mosnews.com/money/2006/06/16/gazpromexportbill.shtml
Uzbek Officer Gets 15 Years for Selling Military Secrets to West
Created: 16.06.2006 17:17 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:17 MSK, 23 hours 37 minutes ago
MosNews
Click Here!
The Military Court in the Central Asia state of Uzbekistan has sentenced a member of the Defense Ministry staff, Erkin Musayev, to fifteen years in prison for spying.
Musayev was found guilty of high treason, disclosure of state secrets, fraud and criminal negligence. The man handed over classified materials to secret services of a NATO member-country for a material reward, ITAR-TASS news agency reported Friday.
According to online publication Uzmetronom, quoted by Associated Press this “NATO member-country” could be the United States. “Musayev supplied the Pentagon with Uzbek and Russian military secrets”, news article reads.
The convict will be serving the prison term in a minimum security jail, the Military Court’s press service said.
Uzbekistan’s relations with NATO and the USA have worsened after a bloody crackdown in the eastern city of Andijon in May 2005. President Islam Karimov evicted U.S. troops from Uzbek territory as he saw foreign plot behind the anti-government riots.
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/06/16/uzbekspy.shtml
[ a better than average article about Canada and 007]
Web used to lure terror suspects
'Irhabi007' linked to terror suspects
Called `Godfather of cyber-terrorism'
Notorious hacker inspired extremists
Jun. 17, 2006. 08:14 AM
SANDRO CONTENTA
EUROPEAN BUREAU
LONDON—On a cold night last October, police stormed a West London apartment and found Younis Tsouli at his computer, allegedly building a Web page with the title "You Bomb It."
Initially, the raid seemed relatively routine, one of about 1,000 arrests made under Britain's terrorism act during the last five years.
The more eye-popping evidence was allegedly found in the London-area homes of two accused co-conspirators: a DVD manual on making suicide bomb vests, a note with the heading "Welcome to Jihad," material on beheadings, a recipe for rocket fuel, and a note with the formula "hospital = attack."
But as investigators sifted through computer disk information the picture that emerged was dramatic. Police had apparently stumbled on the man suspected of being the most hunted cyber-extremist in the world.
Tsouli, a 22-year-old Moroccan, is being widely named as a central figure in a cyber-terrorist network that has inspired suspected homegrown extremists in Europe and North America, including the 17 people recently arrested in the Toronto area.
The massive, 750 gigabytes of confiscated computer and disk information — an average DVD movie is 4.7 gigabytes — found on Tsouli's computer files is an Internet trail believed to link some of the 39 terror suspects arrested in Canada, Britain, the United States, Sweden, Denmark and Bosnia over the past eight months.
continued.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1150494610771&call_pageid=968332188492
Thanks. Granny. Beautiful flowers. And, virtually one of the blue threads' shade of blue. Gotta get things sorted through and weaving again. Been working on mugs for JimRob and family & trussel & Neil E Wright.
Scientology comes to mind.
A religion is a cult with lobbyists.
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