Islamist Recommendations or Mandates?

by R. John Matthies
Family Security Matters
February 25, 2008

Not long ago a list of "unique issues affecting Muslim Americans" was posted at the Muslim Americans for Obama '08 website. This describes a number of "recommendations" drafted to advance the discussion of lawful Islamism and exceptional accommodation in the United States. These suggest both that "Islamic" comportment is beyond reproach, and that one is always correct to press the case for inviolable "Muslim" space.

The "recommendations" described are neither fantastical nor improbable. In fact, if the United States has by this time failed to enact the variety of accommodations embraced by our Western allies, it is clear that, on the ground and across the United States, private institutions and local governing bodies have taken the lead in obliging Islamist groups. This is simply to say that the present list of wishes (untouched for spelling and grammar) has become very real for many.

QUESTION: What are issues and recommendations for solutions that are unique to Muslim Americans?

1. A Law against harrassment of Muslim women wearing Hijab at the Airport, DMV and other public arenas.

2. Institute a Law to allow Muslim Employees to take a hours off from work for Friday Jummah [congregational] Prayer.

3. Make the 2 Eid's [holidays to mark the end of Ramadan and the Festival of Sacrifice], recognized National Holidays on Calendars with days off from work.

4. Optional Halal meals in federal buildiings, public schools and colleges.

5. Provide prayer areas suitable for Salah [ritual prayer] and Jummah, in public and private facilities. (i.e. Malls, Airports, Universities and government buildings.)

6. Organize a Muslim American group to assist in recommendations for US foreign policy affecting majority Muslim countries.

Consider the first example, which concerns hijabs (headscarves) at the DMV. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has long been active on this front – and in 2004 produced a document titled Religious Accommodation in Driver's License Photographs. Here one reads that: "South Carolina, Michigan and West Virginia allow veiled women privacy in taking a full-faced picture; Kansas, Pennsylvania and Indiana allow veiled women a no-photo driver's license; […] and that Nevada allows photos with ‘drastic alteration of appearance.'"

CAIR has also celebrated several victories recently: first in San Diego, California, where a sheriff's department employee was allowed to re-shoot her identification card to include hijab; and in the states of New York and Ohio, which now allow for partially obscured driver's license photographs.

The second recommendation has become a reality for many. In Nebraska last year, for example, Swift & Co. agreed to "tweak" break times to accommodate the daily sunset prayer. This was decided to allow dozens of striking workers, who complained their right to worship freely was denied them, to return to work. And in Pennsylvania, Muslim employees who quit work at Arnold Logistics, following a "misunderstanding" as to the five minutes' break allocated to employees, are back on the job, with a 15-minute accommodation for their daily prayers. Dell, Tyson Foods, and Whirlpool claim similar experience.

The third has not yet become a national priority, although it is not uncommon for observant Muslims to stay home the Muslim holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. And a growing number of schoolchildren (in New Jersey, for example) are finding they are not required to attend class on Muslim holidays, or that the days are classless altogether. And New York State Senator John D. Sabini, hoping to deliver Garden State equanimity to his constituents, introduced a bill into the state senate that would require the city school district of New York City to recognize the Eid holidays as it does those for other faiths.

As for the fourth: Halal meals, you say? These are available at a number of American colleges and universities, including, claims the Halal Digest, Harvard University, Syracuse University, University of Connecticut, Cornell University, Boston University and Dartmouth College. But one is most likely to discover halal optional in federal prison, where access to these and kosher platters is required. Add to this that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in January that prison officials in Arizona must demonstrate "real hardship" before they can deny halal meals to Muslim inmates.

Fifth: Prayer areas suggested or retained for exclusive Muslim use at the airport at university (or at the hospital) have become more common. But as for a federal mandate requiring prayer facilities at retail outlets like the Mall of America, for example, and across the private sector, it appears one will (for the moment, anyway) have to do with ecumenical or shared-use facilities.

Sixth, and finally: where it's a question of Muslims advising foreign policy decisions, one only has to consider the appointment of U.S. "special envoy" to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The individual, who has yet to be named, will be tasked to "maintain formal contact with the OIC Secretariat, the Secretary General, the chairing country, plus other member countries, to follow OIC affairs and activities, understand the views of OIC members and leaders, seek ways for the U.S. and the OIC to cooperate, and seek to promote U.S. views on important policy matters that may come before the OIC." This represents a first-ever appointment to the body on the part of the United States government.

But domestic matters also press: Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum recently agreed to establish a Muslim community advisory group, tasked to offer educational programs on Islam and Muslims to Justice staff. The decision, which the Attorney General reached after consulting with members of CAIR, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the ACLU of Florida, and the Florida Muslim Bar Association, appears a means to make good for allegedly directing staffers to view "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West."

The examples supplied above are by no means the only of their kind. These represent a sampling – limited to the United States, for obvious reasons – from among those making news most recently. The fact is that the issues associated with lawful Islamism and outsized accommodation are well more advanced in Western Europe (in Great Britain, notably) and in Canada than they are in the United States.

But it's clear that accommodation does not, in every case, portend disaster. Private employers are free to change or stagger break times as they see fit, to accommodate employee worship, provided they do this of their own free will, and that the change does not disrupt staff and operations. Likewise, in districts where schoolchildren are granted leave for ritual holidays, it makes no sense to deny the same right to Muslims – provided student enrollment makes this meaningful. Similarly, one cannot disallow halal meals where one already offers confessional platters, or where demand makes this reasonable.

On the other hand, to suggest that government allow for partially veiled-user identification cards, which can only trouble law enforcement; impose exclusive-use facilities for Muslim faithful; or commission faith-based advisory boards, is to admit to ignorance of the Constitutional separation of powers, the American democratic tradition, and the idea, finally, that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." One might also allow that a program like this has for goal to smash the bedrock foundation of civil society, breach the American social contract, and/or promote a regime of auto-segregation and exception.

American Muslims enjoy the rights and responsibilities available to every other citizen, as well they should. Muslims are also invited to conduct their faith in view of the rule of law, as are members of every conviction. One has long invited Muslims to fold their faith into the American melting pot; for a wish to fashion the existing order into something "Islamic" is unacceptable to Muslims who eschew Islamist orthodoxy and reject the influence of Saudi-funded lobbies, and offensive to all who have found a home in the Constitutional regime.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor R. John Matthies is assistant director of Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum. He can be reached at Matthies@MEForum.org.

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AMERICAN COWBOYS
POSTED BY GRIM
If you ever wanted to be a cowboy, it's nothing but wearing a broad-brimmed hat, carrying a rifle, and looking after critters.



U.S. Army Sfc. J. Marco Jackson, with the 350th Civil Affairs Command out of Pensacola, Fla., prepares to give a cow deworming solution during a veterinary civic action program at a displaced persons camp in Te Tugu, Uganda, Jan. 23, 2008. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jacqueline Kabluyen

It may not be the first thing that comes to mind, but veterinary efforts are a tremendously important part of the GWOT. It's not just about winning the support of a population that loves their animals: it's about giving people a capacity to survive outside of the control of fighting factions. Animals are the foundation of agriculture, plowing fields and providing fertilizer as well as food; and in the Third World, even industry often relies on beasts of burden to shift its loads.

In a lot of the world, the only jobs that will reliably support your family are government jobs. When that is the case, the question of who controls government monies is worth killing for: your family's future depends on it. Even if you'd rather just live a peaceful life, you get drawn into political conflicts because there is no alternative. You've got to fight to put your faction in control, or your kids won't eat.

When private business becomes capable of supporting peoples' families, the recruiting pool for terrorists and guerillas drops sharply. The recruiting pool for militias drops. Failed and failing states, which Secretary Gates cited as a chief danger facing America in this week's testimony before Congress, those states become less of a problem. People can stand on their own.

Thomas Jefferson said that "yeoman farmers" were the foundation of a successful, peaceful nation -- and that goes not just for the "yeoman" who owns his own farm, but the guy who owns his own small business. Build that up, and a great deal follows.

February 25, 2008
Americans Change Faiths at Rising Rate, Report Finds

By NEELA BANERJEE
WASHINGTON — More than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another religion or no religion, according to a new survey of religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

The report, titled “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,” depicts a highly fluid and diverse national religious life. If shifts among Protestant denominations are included, then it appears that 44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations.

For at least a generation, scholars have noted that more Americans are moving among faiths, as denominational loyalty erodes. But the survey, based on interviews with more than 35,000 Americans, offers one of the clearest views yet of that trend, scholars said. The United States Census does not track religious affiliation.

The report shows, for example, that every religion is losing and gaining members, but that the Roman Catholic Church “has experienced the greatest net losses as a result of affiliation changes.” The survey also indicates that the group that had the greatest net gain was the unaffiliated. More than 16 percent of American adults say they are not part of any organized faith, which makes the unaffiliated the country’s fourth largest “religious group.”

Detailing the nature of religious affiliation — who has the numbers, the education, the money — signals who could hold sway over the country’s political and cultural life, said John Green, an author of the report who is a senior fellow on religion and American politics at Pew.

Michael Lindsay, assistant director of the Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life at Rice University, echoed that view. “Religion is the single most important factor that drives American belief attitudes and behaviors,” said Mr. Lindsay, who had read the Pew report. “It is a powerful indicator of where America will end up on politics, culture, family life. If you want to understand America, you have to understand religion in America.”

In the 1980s, the General Social Survey by the National Opinion Research Center indicated that from 5 percent to 8 percent of the population described itself as unaffiliated with a particular religion.

In the Pew survey 7.3 percent of the adult population said they were unaffiliated with a faith as children. That segment increases to 16.1 percent of the population in adulthood, the survey found. The unaffiliated are largely under 50 and male. “Nearly one-in-five men say they have no formal religious affiliation, compared with roughly 13 percent of women,” the survey said.

The rise of the unaffiliated does not mean that Americans are becoming less religious, however. Contrary to assumptions that most of the unaffiliated are atheists or agnostics, most described their religion “as nothing in particular.” Pew researchers said that later projects would delve more deeply into the beliefs and practices of the unaffiliated and would try to determine if they remain so as they age.

While the unaffiliated have been growing, Protestantism has been declining, the survey found. In the 1970s, Protestants accounted for about two-thirds of the population. The Pew survey found they now make up about 51 percent. Evangelical Christians account for a slim majority of Protestants, and those who leave one evangelical denomination usually move to another, rather than to mainline churches.

To Prof. Stephen Prothero, large numbers of Americans leaving organized religion and large numbers still embracing the fervor of evangelical Christianity point to the same desires.

“The trend is toward more personal religion, and evangelicals offer that,” said Mr. Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University, who explained that evangelical churches tailor many of their activities for youth. “Those losing out are offering impersonal religion and those winning are offering a smaller scale: mega-churches succeed not because they are mega but because they have smaller ministries inside.”

The percentage of Catholics in the American population has held steady for decades at about 25 percent. But that masks a precipitous decline in native-born Catholics. The proportion has been bolstered by the large influx of Catholic immigrants, mostly from Latin America, the survey found.

The Catholic Church has lost more adherents than any other group: about one-third of respondents raised Catholic said they no longer identified as such. Based on the data, the survey showed, “this means that roughly 10 percent of all Americans are former Catholics.”

Immigration continues to influence American religion greatly, the survey found. The majority of immigrants are Christian, and almost half are Catholic. Muslims rival Mormons for having the largest families. And Hindus are the best-educated and among the richest religious groups, the survey found.

“I think politicians will be looking at this survey to see what groups they ought to target,” Professor Prothero said. “If the Hindu population is negligible, they won’t have to worry about it. But if it is wealthy, then they may have to pay attention.”

Experts said the wide-ranging variety of religious affiliation could set the stage for further conflicts over morality or politics, or new alliances on certain issues, as religious people have done on climate change or Jews and Hindus have done over relations between the United States, Israel and India.

“It sets up the potential for big arguments,” Mr. Green said, “but also for the possibility of all sorts of creative synthesis. Diversity cuts both ways.”

Saudis Arrested for Flirting With Women

Feb 23 06:00 PM US/Eastern

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi Arabia began interrogating 57 men Saturday who were arrested after allegedly flirting with women in front of a shopping mall in the holy city of Mecca, a local newspaper reported.
The country's religious police arrested the men Thursday night, alleging behavior that included dancing to pop music blaring from their cars and wearing improper clothing, according to the Okaz newspaper, which is deemed close to the government.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice runs the religious police, who are charged with enforcing Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic lifestyle.

Its members patrol public places to make sure women are covered and not wearing make up, the sexes don't mingle, shops close five times a day for Muslim prayers and men go to the mosque and worship.

The police—informally known as the muttawa, literally "enforcer"—don't wear uniforms. But they are recognizable by their long beards and their robes, shorter than the ones normally worn by Saudi men. They also shun the black cord that sits atop the headdress worn by most Saudi men.

Women in Saudi Arabia are required to wear a long, enveloping black cloak called an abaya and to cover their hair with a headscarf.

The newspaper report said the men who were arrested Thursday could be released if they could prove they did not flirt with any women. Otherwise, they will be transferred to court and stand trial, the paper added.

New genetic-mapping technology IDs deadly virus
Potential tool to fight outbreaks of infectious disease
By Robert Davis
USA TODAY

A team of scientists unveiled a playbook Wednesday in the fight against infectious disease outbreaks: genetic mapping by computers to find bugs that slip past other medical tests.

The process, experts say, should facilitate much faster responses to deadly outbreaks.

"There is no doubt that this technology is going to play a major role in our defenses," says Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The coordinated global response, he says, showed "the way it should work" when a new killer bug emerges.

Fauci and other experts are particularly concerned about the threat of a pandemic as cases of bird flu mount around the world.

"This is new technology that has spectacular power," he says. "It's extraordinary in its capability, and it was manifested in a very dramatic case." Details are to be published next month in the New England Journal of Medicine, but were posted online early so scientists can see how one international team found a culprit.

Faced with a mysterious cluster of three deaths in Australia in April, scientists there looked for viruses and bacteria that might have infected the women, ages 44 to 64, who had received transplanted organs from the same donor.

After several weeks of work, they came up empty because the virus was new and invisible to tests.

They then sought help from infectious disease experts in the USA, who turned to the computerized genetic-sequencing tools that have mapped the human genome, a map of the body's DNA.

The team, which included experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, academic researchers from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York, and a Connecticut company called 454 Life Sciences, eventually found one molecule of evidence inside a cell that most likely came from rodent urine in Yugoslavia.

How they did that and closed the circle connecting the Australian women to Yugoslavia:

When the standard methods for hunting viruses and bacteria failed to identify the women's killer bug, the U.S. team used RNA, ribonucleic acid, from a donated liver and a donated kidney from two of the women to create a genetic-sequence library.

RNA is a chain of genetic material similar to DNA that scientists use as evidence of protein synthesis. If a certain RNA sequence is present, they know a certain protein has probably been at work inside the cell. It's the equivalent of a bloody footprint at a crime scene.

The team's library included 100,000 sequences, so the second step was to get rid of the footprints of the good guys in order to zero in on the intruder.

Using bioinformatics tools, including a computer algorithm, scientists were able to spot 14 sequences that looked like evidence of an arenavirus, which often passes to humans in rodent urine.

The team found that the transplant patients had died from a new strain of arenavirus, which in most cases is only a mild, temporary illness. But in transplant patients taking drugs to suppress the immune system, the virus can turn deadly.

After finding the bug through the new testing method, the researchers came to suspect that the 57-year-old organ donor may have been infected when he traveled to rural parts of Yugoslavia in the months before he died of a stroke in Australia.

Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at the Mailman School of Public Health and one of the study authors, says the same method can be used to respond faster to problems ranging from pneumonia to diarrhea, as well as a global pandemic threat.

"Speed and accuracy of pathogen identification are increasingly important," Lipkin says, because every day that passes as scientists try to find a killer bug means another day in which an outbreak can spread among global travelers.

Lipkin says the same method can be used for better screening of transplant patients, to find infectious roots to common chronic diseases and to identify bugs that kill people every day worldwide by infecting the stomach, bloodstream and central nervous system.

"We now have a technology that will allow us to identify agents for which we have no specific tests," Lipkin says. "Here you simply survey all of the genetic material available within a sample and, using information technology, you look at what really shouldn't be present."





Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080207/a_unravelingdisease07.art.htm