Islamic poets wrote their own crude irreverent satire, centuries before Charlie Hebdo

2015/02/07 Leave a comment

Always good to know history:

Intolerance of satire is not intrinsic to Islamic civilization. In fact, Islamic history bears its own tradition of irreverent writing on religious imagery. One of the most influential and lauded (though not uncontroversial) Arabic poets of all time, Abu Nuwas, regularly employed sexually graphic and borderline blasphemous imagery in his own brand of “Islamic satire” that resonates to this day.

Writing from Baghdad during the zenith of the Abbassid period — the Islamic empire that lasted from roughly the mid-8th to mid-13th centuries — Abu Nuwas drew on profane and offensive imagery as a way to subvert the authority of the caliph and mock the excesses of the court. Despite his critique of those in power, he himself was a court poet, providing him with an elite audience.

Often, his words directly targeted the institutions of Islam. In one colorful verse, for example, he calls sodomy the “true jihad.” Playing on the meaning of the word “Islam” as submission (to God), he draws on the word’s sexual connotations to suggest that Muslims should get non-Muslims to “submit” through sex.

In another of his verses, two young boys fall in love, and in lieu of praying five times, they fornicate five times a day when the Muslim call to prayer. Such a perversion of the religious pillars makes Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons tame by comparison.

A few centuries later, an Andalusian poet and disciple of Abu Nuwas, Ibn Sahl, composed a poem describing his conversion from Judaism to Islam as the choice to take a new lover. Seeming to violate the sanctity surrounding profane depictions of the Prophet, he writes, “I abandoned the love of Moses, to adore Muhammad.”

Is this depiction of prophet as lover less offensive than a cartoon promising readers “100 lashes if they don’t die of laughter”? Or a drawing of a woman running nude with a Burqa protruding from her rear? Both juxtapose religious imagery with the irreverent and profane in order to comment on the status quo.

Islamic poets wrote their own crude irreverent satire, centuries before Charlie Hebdo – The Washington Post.

Filed under Religion Tagged with , , ,

Immigration program for parents ‘discriminatory,’ Federal Court of Appeal rules

2015/02/07 Leave a comment

42 days vs 37 months:

In 2010, Attaran complained to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, claiming that the program discriminated against parents and grandparents by delaying the processing of their applications.

At the time of his complaint, it took immigration 42 days to screen the sponsors of spouses and children but the same screening took 37 months for those who wanted to bring their parents and grandparents to Canada.

The commission, however, dismissed his complaint, a decision later upheld by a federal judge.

In a ruling released Wednesday, the Federal Court of Appeal said the decision by the human rights commission to dismiss the complaint was unreasonable.

It overturned the lower court decision that there was a “bona fide” justification for the differential treatment. The court referred Attaran’s case back to human rights commission for reconsideration.

“The explanations provided by CIC (Citizenship and Immigration Canada) confirm that it was differentiating adversely based on family status by treating sponsorship applications for parents more slowly than sponsorship applications for spouses and children,” wrote Justice Wyman W. Webb on behalf of the three-member panel. “As a result, CIC was carrying on a discriminatory practice.”

In dismissing Attaran’s complaint, the human rights watchdog had said it did not appear immigration officials treated the complainant in an “adverse differential manner based on age.” It also concluded that the delays do not deprive parents and grandparents the access to permanent residency.

“There is no reference to undue hardship . . . in the decision of the (human rights commission). There is a reference, though, to the justification being ministerial discretion and a general reference to challenges being imposed on ‘the resource allocation for’ CIC,” said the appeal court decision.

Immigration program for parents ‘discriminatory,’ Federal Court of Appeal rules | Toronto Star.

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

Why a Bobby Jindal Portrait Sparked a Racial Controversy | TIME

2015/02/07 Leave a comment

It does say something about politics and society in America:

For however inconsequential the object of controversy is, the portraits are capable of evoking a deeply unsettling reaction. That’s because they recall a dark history with lasting consequences. In a nation whose first lawmakers had constructed American identity based largely on whether European, Asian and African immigrants’ complexions appeared sufficiently “white”—a category that had been molded and manipulated from America’s early years—that Jindal’s portraits appear to have been scrubbed of his race matters greatly. A “white” complexion once afforded the right to a political voice; it was the lifeblood of the dominant majority.

Jindal’s skin tone in his portraits matters especially because it suggests that the “official” image of an American political leader is someone that is not of South Asian or Asian race. The touchy question of skin color remains regardless of the portrait maker’s intent, because throughout history, and arguably still today, differences in skin tone, such as those between Jindal’s portraits and Jindal himself—even if just a few shades—were specifically used to construct race and Americanness.

In the mid-1700s, the category of whiteness had been open to only Anglo-Saxon immigrants, and not even to Europeans like Italians, Spaniards, French or Swedes—they were “swarthy,” said Benjamin Franklin in 1751, while Africans were “black or tawny” and Asians “chiefly tawny.” But the acceptability of “swarthy” skin shifted as waves of Asian immigrants entered North America in the 19th century, and as popular imagery of colonial Indians in British Columbia or cheap Chinese laborers in the U.S. continued their likening to black slaves: dark, faceless, subordinate. Their racialization as disposable and immutably foreign, in contrast to the better-assimilated European labor migrants, in turn lifted these “swarthy” European immigrants to a sufficiently high racial status to merit the title “free white persons.”

Why a Bobby Jindal Portrait Sparked a Racial Controversy | TIME.

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

Sweden’s Immigrant Influx Unleashes A Backlash

2015/02/07 Leave a comment

More on tensions in Sweden:

The Sweden Democrats insist that there is no connection between these attacks [on mosques] and the party’s anti-immigration rhetoric. At an interview in Malmo, party official Nima Gholam Ali Pour suggests that Muslims may have fire-bombed the mosques.

“Were there personal problems in the mosque, or was it someone from another mosque,” he asks. “There are conflicts between Muslims.”

When pressed about swastikas that have been painted on the side of mosques, though, Ali says, “Of course that’s racist. That’s racist.”

The story is more complicated than just white racist Christians attacking Muslim immigrants. Jews in Sweden say they are being attacked, too. A recent documentary on Swedish television showed a reporter walking down the street wearing a yarmulke, as a hidden camera filmed bystanders shouting insults and threats.

And in many cases, the people attacking Jews are Muslim immigrants.

“Almost exclusively, they have some sort of background in the Middle East,” says Aron Verstandig, a leader in Stockholm’s Jewish community.

Verstandig says many people try to paint these ethnic tensions as good versus evil. They want clear victims and perpetrators, in separate boxes. But in fact, he says, the roles overlap and switch.

“You have these immigrants who are very poor, and they are the victims of a lot of violence, a lot of hatred from Sweden Democrats and other right-wing parties. And they are victims in one way,” Verstandig says. “But some of them — a minority of them — are perpetrators in another way. You don’t have people who are just good and bad. It’s a very complex situation.”

Omar Mustafa of the Islamic Association of Sweden agrees. He says it’s part of humanity that there are always extremists.

“We have it in Islam, there is in Christianity, there is in the Swedish community. There is everywhere,” Mustafa says. “So it’s a good opportunity for us, the rest of society, to really take back the agenda. And we have to say to them, we don’t buy it.”

Mustafa says when fringe groups try to speak on behalf of everyone, the moderate majority needs to speak up — and say, “We have a different story to tell.”

Sweden’s Immigrant Influx Unleashes A Backlash : Parallels : NPR.

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with

One in five Canadian public servants claims harassment on the job

2015/02/07 Leave a comment

Seems familiar and little change from when I was in government a number of years ago:

Survey results, at a glance:

Employee Engagement:

– 93% say they will put in the extra effort to get the job done

– 79% like their job, a decrease from 84% in 2008

– 74% of employees report a sense of satisfaction from their work

Leadership:

– 75% of employees feel their supervisor keeps them informed about issues affecting their work

– 47% of employees say essential information flows effectively from senior management to staff

Performance Management:

– 79% say their work is assessed against identified goals and objectives

– 72% say they get useful feedback about their job performance

Training and Development:

– 63% say they get the training they need to do their job

– 52% feel their organization does a good job of supporting career development

Empowerment:

– 66% feel they have support to provide a high level of service

– 62% of employees believed that they have opportunities to provide input into decisions that affect their work, down from 68% in 2011

Work-life balance and workload:

– 78% say immediate supervisors supports the use of flexible work arrangements

–70% say they can complete their assigned workload during their regular working hours

–71% of employees say they have support for work-life balance

Respectful and ethical workplace:

– 94% say they have positive working relationships with colleagues

– 80% feel their colleagues behave in a respectful manner

– 79% feel that their organization respects them

–82% believe that employees in their organization carry out their duties in the public’s interest

Harassment:

– 19% say they were harassed in the past two years

Discrimination:

– Eight per cent of employees said they faced discrimination in the past two years. (The most common types were: Sex at 24 per cent; age at 23 per cent; and race at 20 per cent.)

One in five public servants claims harassment on the job | Ottawa Citizen.

Filed under Government Tagged with , ,

How closing the ‘word gap’ could give poorer kids an equal chance at success

2015/02/06 Leave a comment

Interesting and positive initiative:

That realization [that children in richer households were exposed to a whopping 30 million more words by age 3 than their low-income counterparts] inspired two projects recently launched by Eriks-Brophy, now an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Speech Pathology, and PhD candidate Hillary Ganek.

Like the Providence initiative, the researchers are making use of LENA technology. But they’re aiming to recruit Toronto-based families of varied backgrounds, to expand the scope of the discussion beyond just income level.

They also want to look at the influence of culture in how parents talk to their kids. It will be the first time LENA has been used to explore the topic.

While both acknowledge income level plays a role in children’s development, Eriks-Brophy and Ganek say framing the issue as a “gap” might be the wrong approach.

Ultimately, they hope their research will help speech pathologists and schools be more responsive to cultural variations in language learning, which Eriks-Brophy argues often gives minority children their own unique set of skills.

“It’s not necessarily the case that it’s a (word) deficit or there’s a problem. It’s a difference. And that has to be acknowledged as well.”

WHEN DR. RIPUDAMAN S. MINHAS treats families in the city’s low-income Regent Park neighbourhood, he asks some unusual questions.

In addition to inquiring about kids’ allergies and immunizations, he wants to know how many books parents have at home. He wants to know if they have a library card, and how much they sing to their children.

“The idea of this 30-million-word gap really rings true,” he says. “Because it’s something that we see every day.”

Minhas’s medical interest in words is an approach endorsed by the country’s top children’s health body. Although there is no specifically Canadian research on the effects of the “word gap,” the Canadian Paediatric Society calls low literacy a “severe and pervasive” national problem.

New programs, such as St. Michael’s Hospital’s Reach Out and Read initiative are taking this to heart. Minhas, a developmental pediatrician affiliated with the hospital, is now also embarking on research into how inner-city families can be supported in creating “linguistically rich” homes.

How closing the ‘word gap’ could give poorer kids an equal chance at success | Toronto Star.

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

The Women’s Mosque evolves North American Islam – Sheema Khan

2015/02/06 Leave a comment

North American innovation:

Sana Muttalib and M. Hasna Maznavi, co-founders of the Women’s Mosque of America, should be lauded for taking the bold and pragmatic step of providing a vehicle for Muslim women’s empowerment. The goal is to complement existing institutions and provide women with the necessary tools to make a difference in their communities. They have decided to stay within orthodoxy, by having a female imam lead only women in prayer – a practice that goes back to the time of the Prophet Mohammed. Women will be welcomed as they are – with or without a hijab. The mosque will provide public lectures for men and women by female scholars.

More importantly, it will be a centre where women can study the scriptures and traditions for themselves, within a cultural context where gender equality is non-negotiable. Or, as author Asma Barlas puts it, “unreading patriarchal interpretations of the Koran.” They will have the opportunity to discover how women helped to build Muslim societies from the seventh century onward – female warriors, Islamic scholars, judges, philanthropists, poets and rulers.

Most importantly, they will contribute to the evolution of an indigenous form of Islam that’s reflective of North American culture.

The Women’s Mosque evolves North American Islam – The Globe and Mail.

Filed under Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with , ,

FAST launches high school anti-racism curriculum

2015/02/06 Leave a comment

Good cross-linkages between antisemitism, Holocaust awareness, and all forms of racism, bigotry and hate:

Voices into Action, an interactive site developed in accordance with provincial curriculum standards by a team of teachers, curriculum experts, graduate students, university professors, and consultants, contains five units that focus on issues related to human rights, genocide, prejudice and discrimination.

“It’s divided into five units and the Holocaust is a major feature throughout. It is at least a third of the content,” Miller said.

Although the program addresses racism, bigotry and hate in all forms, there is a special emphasis on anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.

The founders of FAST, Elizabeth Comper, and her husband Tony, a retired Bank of Montreal CEO, were inspired to create the organization after a series of anti-Semitic attacks in Toronto and Montreal, including the 2004 firebombing of Montreal’s United Talmud Torah Jewish day school.

“It was important to address other human rights issues, to put them on a scale, to understand that the Holocaust was as far as you could go with hatred,” Miller said.

“The Holocaust is the first chapter of units 1, 2, 3 and 4, and unit 5 is entirely about the Holocaust and it ends with a conclusion on contemporary anti-Semitism.”

Miller added that most important is the fact that the high school program is curriculum-based and completely free of charge.

FAST launches high school anti-racism curriculum | The Canadian Jewish News.

Filed under Antisemitism, Holocaust, Racism Tagged with , , , ,

Le fisc doit sévir contre les intégristes religieux, dit Legault

2015/02/06 Leave a comment

Not fully thought out. Implications on freedom of speech and what about fundamentalists of other religions, such as Christians and Jews. After all, fundamentalists of all religions tend to reject the largely secular values dear to Québecois.

Will subsidies for schools, or tax exemptions, for example, be removed?

Ce serait là une façon de faire taire les leaders religieux intégristes, a fait valoir mercredi le chef du parti, François Legault.

Dans le même esprit, la CAQ réclame que soit amendée la Charte québécoise des droits et libertés de la personne, de manière à interdire les enseignements ou prêches religieux destinés à rejeter des valeurs chères aux Québécois, telles que la démocratie, l’égalité entre hommes et femmes et le respect de l’orientation sexuelle.En conférence de presse mercredi, le chef de la CAQ, accompagné de la députée caquiste Nathalie Roy, a décrit sa vision de la lutte contre l’intégrisme religieux, en demandant au gouvernement Couillard d’agir en déposant « rapidement » un projet de loi, comme il s’est engagé à le faire à maintes reprises.

« Notre système n’est pas adapté pour lutter contre l’intégrisme », a dit d’entrée de jeu M. Legault, accentuant la pression sur le gouvernement « pour protéger les valeurs québécoises ».

M. Legault a dit juger normal de restreindre les libertés religieuses de ces individus radicaux, dans une société libre et démocratique comme la société québécoise.

Les corporations religieuses jouissent de plusieurs avantages sur le plan fiscal, au niveau provincial et municipal : exemption d’impôt sur leurs revenus, déduction pour le logement, remboursement de 50 pour cent de la TVQ pour leurs achats et activités, tout comme l’exonération de la taxe foncière et de la taxe scolaire.

L’octroi, par les municipalités, de certificats d’occupation d’immeubles serait aussi visé par le plan d’action caquiste.

Selon les voeux de la CAQ, le Registraire des entreprises pourrait refuser l’incorporation à un groupe religieux qui entretient « des liens quelconques avec une organisation criminelle ou une entité terroriste reconnue au Code criminel », a indiqué de son côté la porte-parole du parti sur ces questions, Nathalie Roy.

M. Legault s’est gardé de viser une religion en particulier, ou de faire un amalgame entre religion et terrorisme.

Durant la conférence de presse, il a dit qu’il ne fallait pas pour autant « se mettre la tête dans le sable », préférant privilégier une attitude préventive : « tous les terroristes étaient d’abord des intégristes. Il y a un genre de terreau fertile » dans certaines pratiques religieuses, a-t-il commenté.

Le fisc doit sévir contre les intégristes religieux, dit Legault | Le Devoir.

Filed under Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with , ,

PM’s charity audits look for ‘bias, one-sidedness’

2015/02/06 Leave a comment

The more information that comes out, the more it smells of bias in the choice of charities it audits:

The CRA says it will do 60 audits, and there are 86,000 charities in Canada. So that’s a one-in-1,400 chance of being audited by random selection. Only it’s not random. The CRA admits it’s looking for red flags, including “bias.”

“Audit selection occurs after a substantial screening process,” the CRA said in an email. “This may include considering issues such as ‘point of view,’ ‘bias,’ or ‘one-sidedness.'”

In Dying With Dignity’s case, its offending activities apparently included attempts to change public opinion.

“It is not legally charitable to engage in pressure tactics on governments such as swaying public opinion, promoting an attitude of mind, creating a climate of opinion,” the CRA’s auditor wrote to Dying With Dignity.

Still, there is a whole class of charities, known as think tanks whose major purpose is creating a climate of opinion or promoting an attitude of mind, activities that fall under the general category of “research as a charitable activity.”

“Think tanks make it very clear from the beginning that their objective is to shape public opinion, and public policy,” says Western University political science professor Donald Abelson. He has spent two decades studying think tanks in Canada and the U.S. and he’s currently writing a book about them.

Just read the annual reports from some of Canada’s leading think tanks to find proud claims of “shaping the national discourse”, “prodding governments, opinion leaders and the general public,” “changing the minds of decision makers,” yet none of that activity apparently trips the wire between political and charitable activity.

“We’re in kind of a grey area, particularly over the last several years, where the lines between policy research and political advocacy have become increasingly blurred,” Abelson said.

Which circles back to the prickly question of how to define “political activities.”

Why the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and not the Fraser Institute? Why Dying with Dignity and not the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms or the Canadian Constitution Foundation?

PM’s charity audits look for ‘bias, one-sidedness’ – Health – CBC News.

Filed under Government Tagged with , , ,

← Older posts

Newer posts →