Does the Right View Muslims as Equal Citizens?

By Ibrahim Hooper

Given the political right's hate-filled and hysterical response to all things Muslim, one has to ask whether American Muslims face a future in which they will no longer be treated as equal citizens.

The best example of the right's campaign to deprive American Muslims of the civil liberties enjoyed by citizens of other faiths is the neo-McCarthyite response to a planned Islamic cultural center in New York City.

Newt Gingrich, who fancies himself a possible 2012 presidential candidate, justifies his opposition to the New York Islamic center because "America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization."

He would bar a mosque "near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia" -- as if the constitutionally-protected religious rights of Americans depend on the actions of a foreign government.

Sarah Palin, another GOP presidential hopeful, calls the New York Islamic center a stab in the heart of all Americans and an "unnecessary provocation" that all "peaceful Muslims" must "refudiate [sic]."

Not to be outdone in Islamophobic rhetoric, New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino said that, if elected, he would use the power of eminent domain to stop the building of the Islamic center.

Paladino did not explain how this maneuver would pass muster under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, which states: "No government shall impose or implement a land use regulation that discriminates against any assembly or institution on the basis of religion or religious denomination."

Rick Lazio, another New York gubernatorial candidate, even has a petition on his campaign website calling on visitors t... [Read More]

The Miracle in Albania

Maria C. Khoury, Ed. D.

I always try to count my blessings in life and I try to live by following God’s will but today I have had the most extraordinary life experience that I can only glorify God for answering my prayers of ten years. If you needed prayers answered, please hang in there because in God’s time, all of our prayers are heard and answered. I reassure you that this has been my experience as I have placed my life in God’s hands living in the Holy Land.

I have always admired and respected the amazing work of His Beatitude Anastasios Archbishop of Tirana, Duress and all Albania and today I have experienced the most beautiful liturgy in a language I did not understand in Tirana, Albania at the glorious Annunciation Cathedral where his Beatitude served with twelve other priests.

Archbishop Anastasios generously hosted a consultation at St. Vlash Theological Academy sponsored by the World Council of Churches with Dr. Fulata Lusungu Moyo, the Program Executive of Women in Church and Society bringing together twenty three participants from Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, North and South America. The archbishop’s inspirational words on the wounded-ness and the holistic healing in reviving the faith and hope of the members of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania in the last nineteen years offered an essential context for other deep reflections during the gathering. It is the second such WCC conference that I have personally attended dealing with Orthodox Women Facing the Challenges & Ambivalences of the Post-Modern Societies.

What I personally view as the miracle in Albania is the fact that from the time of communism over 1600 churches where destroyed, damaged, used as storage centers during the period of great persecution a... [Read More]

By Dr. Samir Abu-Ghazaleh

As a physician who has practiced medicine for the past thirty years, I am asked, several times a day, my opinion of President Barack Obama’s health care package. I have watched while the debate has raged on between both parties. Special interest lobbyists representing the insurance industry, pharmaceutical companies, medical product suppliers, and unfortunately some doctors, are all waging a battle against the health care reform package. They recount endless reasons why the plan should be defeated. Many of these reasons are recycled arguments that have been used before, such as cost and how it is to be paid for. New vitriol has been circulated, such as elderly death squads, federally funded abortions, etc. But one group of people has been left out of thoughtful consideration: the fourteen thousand Americans that lose their health insurance every day, due to a number of circumstances. These range from job loss, pre-existing conditions, riders on existing policies that exempt treatment, lifetime insurance payout caps, or jobs where the employer does not offer health insurance.

In developing countries it is our responsibility to see that every member of our society has the right to be treated with dignity and respect, which certainly requires that all receive care for injuries, and illness. One may ask how these people without coverage have gotten along until now. It is true that emergency care is rendered to these patients. But it is the preventive care, and the high cost of medications to treat illness such as high blood pressure and diabetes that have fallen through the safety net. Patients who do not have insurance often do not receive treatment in a timely manner that prevents permanent disability or injury. They also do not get optimum treatment and surgery for their disease. I, as have almost all doctors and hospitals, have provided pro bono treatment to these patients. But this is not a manageable situation. For ... [Read More]

By Ismael Ahmed

Who among us hasn’t heard the stories of small businesses struggling to balance their books forced to cut jobs because they can’t afford the rising cost of insuring their employees?

Perhaps you’re the small business owner having to make these tough choices; or the parent deciding whether you can afford to get your children their flu shots this year; or the senior citizen cutting your medicines in half to make them last longer.

Tough choices indeed. Want a better choice? Then let’s take on health insurance reform.

Forty-five million Americans don’t have health insurance. Some 14,000 Americans lose their health insurance every day. Families’ benefits are eroding because they can’t keep up with the cost of care, higher premiums, co-pays and deductibles.

Simply put, the current system isn’t working.

In Michigan, Medicaid programs provide the threads that make up a safety net for those who are struggling. Today, more than 1.7 million people are enrolled in Medicaid, which helps them pay for medical bills. That’s up from just over 1 million in 2000.

I’m talking about low-income families, refugees, some immigrants, pregnant women, people with disabilities and children – our state’s most vulnerable citizens.

But Medicaid alone can’t keep up. And it shouldn’t have to.

Instead, we should embrace those who seek to reform the health insurance system. Those who seek to make it better for all Americans.

On the campaign trail, President Barack Obama promised to work with Congress, hospitals, doctors, businesses and unions to enact comprehensive health insurance reform. I ask you to join the list of people working together to reduce long-term growth of health insurance costs, guarantee choice of doctors, invest in prevention and wellness, end barriers to coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions, and ensure every American receives the health care they need and deserve.

This isn’t ju... [Read More]

Oktoberfest with First Rock Rap Band in Palestine

Maria C. Khoury, Ed. D.

What more extraordinary event can one imagine in a small ancient village than the collaboration of the Finest in the Middle East with the first rock rap band in Palestine? The Taybeh Oktoberfest, October 3 and 4, 2009 in Taybeh-Ramallah, will have some traditional happenings and certainly some revolutionary happenings.  On Saturday night, 9 pm, is when CultureShoc “will be rocking Taybeh with music styles that go beyond the norm in the Palestinian music scene and following the Holy month of Ramadan releasing songs on radio,” said lead Rapper, Suleiman Harb.

Lead Singer, Amira B. Dibsy, says that CulturShoc creates songs and music arrangements “exclusive to us and an experience like no other... imagine a mix of Arabic-Oriental- Western sounds, blending the essence of Rock, Hip-hop and Rap ....the result is the shock we bring you with each and every song containing an identity of its own and telling a story of its own... beats that will make you sway from side to side or make you want to JUMP!”

This amazing new band includes handsome lead and rhythm guitarist and composer, Ahmad Al Sharif, Apo Sahagian, Amer Yaghmur as bass player and Souheil Abu el Said on drums. The band members admit that fate and luck brought them together in addition to their desire to bring something new to the music scene in Palestine.  They are all Palestinian in blood and up bringing with a few mixed of two cultures but certainly contributing to the very diverse characters reflected in the one very essential denominator they share in music and more music.

CultureShoc launched the first performance in August 2008. The band has gone from seven original songs to a current total of eighteen although the first concerts included performing covers now it’s all about originals and cover, though few, to entertain the crowds’ association with popular songs.&... [Read More]

Oktoberfest in Palestine

By Maria C. Khoury, Ed. D.

During the 5^th Annual Taybeh Oktoberfest, 3 and 4 October 2009, the Taybeh Beer tour is surely to be popular. Amazingly, people from all over the world somehow discover Taybeh and actually visit without having been enticed by major advertisements. Taybeh Beer tours are given daily but even when the brewery is closed on Sundays, if a family member is available, the brewery is immediately opened when we see visitors outside our kitchen window since we live with the famous beer in the Middle East.

We coined the slogan, “The Best in the Middle East” since every successful company has to have a great motto. But truthfully speaking, after the Oslo Agreement (1993) we had the dream that, if the world recognised Palestine and we had freedom, we, too, could make excellent products like other countries. The message came loud and clear from the master brewer, Nadim Canaan Khoury, my brother-in-law, by his personal signature on each and every Taybeh Beer bottle reflecting the high quality and premium status of the Palestinian brew. He is proud to craft the best product made in Palestine.

Oh! Dear Lord! Palestine and Beer? Now that does not sound proverbial. To the shock of many international visitors, we too in Palestine want to be normal people, and like human beings all over the world, want to have a chance to excel in all fields. We Palestinians in Taybeh produce excellent beer, thus keeping a tradition since before the time of Christ, who in his first miracle changed water into wine at the Wedding in Cana.

Cana to Taybeh is a fairly long way whether geographically or historically, but either way we invite all to join us in Taybeh for an incredible open day called the Taybeh Oktoberfest, which has been happening every year since 2005 and has inspired festivals in other locations. As one creative way to... [Read More]

Seeing Israel’s prisons through Palestinian eyes

August 27, 2009

By Sharon Eolis

Gaza Strip

<http://www.workers.org/2009/world/palestine_0903>

The Gaza Strip, populated by 1.5 million Palestinians, is virtually an open-air prison—a place of punishment and exile for Palestinians. No one can officially get in or out of Gaza unless given permission at border checkpoints that are opened at the whim of Israel and Egypt. If your name is not on a pre-existing list, you can’t get into Gaza or leave it.

Mothers in Gaza show pictures of their<br>imprisoned sons. <http://www.workers.org/2009/world/gaza_0903.jpg>

Mothers in Gaza show pictures of their

imprisoned sons.

WW photo: Judy Greenspan

At the end of the recent Viva Palestina U.S. convoy, a Palestinian man with a U.S. passport tried to bring his family out of Gaza so they could travel back to the U.S. Although his spouse and children have U.S. passports, Egyptian border guards refused to allow the bus through the checkpoint with them aboard.

Convoy delegates tried to carry the children across the border, but security guards refused to allow this and held the bus up for over an hour. Only those who had been on the bus when it entered Gaza were allowed to return. The... [Read More]

The remark was most likely uttered by a scrawny desi guy, about 5'6? with a laugh bigger than his biceps, and a sense of style older than your crimper from junior high stuffed away in the bathroom drawer. He has probably never experienced being uphill at any point in his life, aesthetically speaking.  Yet his remark was made with such surety and passion that you really believed him.  

Why did you believe him?  You were probably 24 going on 25 at the time, single with no marriage prospects in sight and a mother who asked “Is there any guy?” whenever you called to say hello.  Even though you were 5'9? inches and gorgeous, the pile of newly purchased eye creams and moisturizers on your nightstand reminded you, every evening, of the fact that you were not getting any younger.  So you heard Scrawny Guy’s opinion and made it your current greatest fear.

Again, why did you believe him?  He told you about his friend Jabeen, a Pakistani girl who was a size 2 until she got married at age 25.  Two years later, she was a size 12 and packing on the pounds faster than Kirstie Alley after her Jenny Craig days.  You knew Jabeen too, but didn’t tell him this. Of course, he failed to mention Jabeen’s one-year-old twins. Instead, he told you desi women don’t work out enough compared to the men. The men play a lot of basketball, he said. You wanted to say that brown men can’t jump, just to tick him off, but you had better manners than him so you kept quiet.

But you’re not like Jabeen because she has a husband and you don’t have one marital prospect. Jabeen can afford to go downhill but you can’t because no man has snatched you up yet. Your thoughts race and already, you’re agreeing with Scrawny Guy’s terminology about your fellow desi sisters. Don’t do it, don’t fall for it.

Face the reality. Scrawny guy is not only scrawny but he is stupid. Don’t listen to h... [Read More]