Tag Archives: religion

Maths and science to be taught in English – The National Newspaper

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ABU DHABI–All pupils in state high schools will be taught maths and science in English by 2012, the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) said yesterday.

At the launch of its 10-year strategic plan, Adec said it aimed to see pupils graduating with equal proficiency in English and Arabic.

In a concerted effort to turn out better qualified school-leavers, from this August the school day will also be extended by 90 minutes in all state high schools in the emirate. Pupils in all Abu Dhabi’s state schools will study for 10 extra days a year.

It follows the publication of results showing that only 13 per cent of applicants to federal universities scored enough in their English exams to bypass remedial courses.

via Maths and science to be taught in English – The National Newspaper.

Language of instruction is always a sensitive issue in the Arab  world for a number of reasons: practical, political and religious, among others.  Arabic is regarding by Muslims as a sacred language, the language in God revealed the Holy Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad, so for many it has a special status above all others.
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It also has a special status as an identity marker.  To speak Arabic was to resist colonial rule or cultural imperialism from the West.  And it is seen as a factor that unifies folks across the region beyond religious ties.  There are Muslim Arabs, there are Christian Arabs and their are even Arabic-speaking Jews.

Arabizing curricula is often a way of asserting a unique, independent identity.  That said, though, Arabization is quite controversial in places where there are minority populations that don’t speak Arabic as a native language.

English, on the other hand, is unquestionably the dominant world language at the moment and there is a certain practicality in acquiescing to that.

In terms of practicality, transforming the language of instruction is always difficult and some of the challenges are pointed out in this article.  Are teachers trained in one language capable of teaching a subject in another?  If you are changing a language of instruction, when do you do so?  Will the College student who was taught a subject in one language follow when they are taught in another?

It’s all very interesting.  I’ll be following how it goes.

BBC Report: One Cleric’s Legacy of Peace

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Dr Safrez Naeemi, Imam of Jamia Naeemia in Lahore, is a Pakistani cleric and advocate of non-violence who was killed on June 12 by a suicide bomber, very likely because of his outspoken criticism of the Taliban.

Muhammed Raghib Hussein Naeemi, Dr Naeemi’s son, heard about the attack in a phone call while he was driving.

He says he was angry, very angry but he knew immediately what he had to do.

“I realised that I would have to be very calm. So I ordered all of my father’s students not to harm anyone, not to start fires, not to kill anyone.”

The story is the subject of a piece from BBC Radio 4 called “One Cleric’s Legacy of Peace.” In a time when so much mainstream Western media only shows us troublesome images from the Islamic world, it is good to see such stories.

But though right-wing talking heads on in print and in the media may insist that Muslim clerics do not condemn terrorism, Dr. Naeemi and his son are not as unusual as the title of this article would suggest. I have grown so tired of hearing that claim because it is so absurdly and demonstrably false, and yet the people who make it, usually neo-conservative pundits, right wing Christians, and others in that vein, are never challenged. And yet in the days following the attacks of September 11th, 2001 Muslim clerics in places such as Iran, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Morocco and other Muslim countries denounced the attacks, and ordinary people paused to remember the victims (click here for a moving photo essay). According to the Council on American Islamic Relations,
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…those who commit acts of terror, murder and cruelty in the name of Islam are not only destroying innocent lives, but are also betraying the values of the faith they claim to represent. No injustice done to Muslims can ever justify the massacre of innocent people, and no act of terror will ever serve the cause of Islam.

A group called Muslims Against Terrorism has existed since 1998. The Fiqh Council of North America has written that people who commit terrorism in the name of Islam are criminals not martyrs. On this page you can read a sampling of condemnations issued by clerics from around the world. Even senior clerics from the Darul Uloom Deoband in India, a radically conservative institution established in 1857 and often linked in the media to the Taliban, issued a statement calling terrorism illicit and immoral.

The other point I’d repeat, as it is one I and others have made before, is that the media’s use of Madrassa is reckless and irresponsible. The term has become synonymous with conservative Muslim religious schools. In fact madrassa is an Arabic word that has found its way into other languages of the Muslim world as well and it simply means “school.” So if you were reading an Arabic text that spoke of the Harvard Business School or the London School of Economics, the names of those institutions would be translated with the world “Madrassa.” When I taught at the King Fahd School of Translation in Tangier, an institution that provides what is essentially a graduate level degree, I taught at the Madrassa Malik Fahd L’Turjama (apologies for the transcription) or the Ecole Supérieure Roi Fahd de Traduction.

In Rabat, Morocco there is a Spanish elementary school an American elementary school, a French elementary school, and I don’t know what else. All of the signs translate the name using the word Madrassa, just as the Moroccan schools do.

So it is not safe to assume that madrassas train students in radical Islamic theory. In fact, they may not teach them about Islam at all.

Video Game Sales in the Middle East

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Here is an interesting post analyzing factors that may be impacting the sale of products such as XBox, Wii and PlayStation in the Middle East.

Video games are on the list of the most popular mainstream media, which makes up an important percentage of social activity for a considerable portion of youngsters worldwide. The Middle East region is no exception; video games are as popular in the region as it is anywhere else in the world despite the minimal support/focus of the major hardware players Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. Their lack of interest in the region – so far – keeps the doors open for piracy to nourish and dominate the regional video games industry. For instance, almost every Nintendo Wii in Saudi Arabia is modified with a special chip to allow the machine to play pirated games that cost 3$ to 8$ in comparison to the original games costing around $80 – $100 in the region – even higher than their prices in many western countries.

Among the factors considered, religious sensitivities, stereotyping, marketing strategies and the impact of piracy. He makes some good points. I would particularly like to see some of the locally produced games.

The offensive portrayal of Arabs in some Western video games has triggered local Arab production companies to come up with their own version of video games to protect their identity and perspective of the state of affairs of the regional conflicts. Afkar Media, a Syrian company, has already produced different games with nationalism streak: Under Ash, a political game that tells the story of the first intifada from the Palestinian perspective. Under Siege, is another political game that tells the story of a Palestinian family and their struggle during the second intifada (1999-2002). Quraish, the first Arabic 3D real strategy game (RTS), tracks the origins of Islam in the desert of Arabic 590 A.C.

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Abstinence-Supporting GOP State Lawmaker Admits To Sex With 22-Year-Old Intern

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Let me be perfectly clear.  I have little interest in the private lives of celebrities and other public figures.  I resent the way they are treated as news equal to events like the protests over the Iranian elections, the global economic crisis or the H1N1 virus.  I don’t think the sexual daliances of politicians or celebrities are anyone’s business outside the circle of family and friends immediately affected.

Unless, of course, the politician is one of those bent on regulating what other Americans do in their bedrooms or with their bodies.   Tennessee State Senator Paul Stanley is one of those.

He’s a solid conservative Republican and married father of two, who according to his website is “a member of Christ United Methodist Church, where he serves as a Sunday school teacher and board member of their day school.”…Stanley recently sponsored a bill designed to prevent gay couples from adopting children. And when a Planned Parenthood official recently sought his support for family planning services for Memphis teens, Stanley told her, according to the official, that he “didn’t believe young people should have sex before marriage anyway, that his faith and church are important to him, and he wants to promote abstinence.”

But Senator Stanley has

admitted to having a “sexual relationship” with a 22-year-old female intern working in his office, and to taking nude pictures of her in “provocative poses” in his apartment.

He also
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works as a financial adviser for the Stanford Financial Group, whose founder, Allen Stanford, has been charged with orchestrating an $8 billion scam.

There are more delightful tidbits about Stanley’s life in the article from TPMMuckraker.  It’s rather Jerry Springer, in fact.  But you can read it there.

My point here is that once again this unbeliever finds himself quoting scripture to those “pious” souls who would regulate everyone by their own standards of morality.  “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone.” John 8 1-11.  Or perhaps ““Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6: 36-38) Then there is How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Luke 6: 42)

Or maybe just some good old fashioned fold wisdom.  “Practice what you preach!  (and what you want to compel others to practice, too!)

Muslim and Christian Coalition to Expand Broadband Access

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The Islamic Society of North America, the National Council of Churches, the US Catholic Conference of Bishops, the United Methodists, the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), the Lutheran (ELCA) have all joined an effort spearheaded by the United Church of Christ

to bring broadband to everyone in the US so that “our poorest communities, our rural areas, our public libraries, our public schools, and community centers” benefit from the communications revolution that the Internet hath wrought.

Known as Bringing Betty Broadband, the initiative is part of a media reform initiative called “So We Might See,”

an ecumenical, interfaith coalition that educates and advocates for media justice, both within and beyond communities of faith.

For the participants in the initiative, bringing broadband to all is a moral imperative, since the lack of access disenfranchises many and thus perpetrates and injustice.

It’s about the “right to disseminate and receive information,” it’s a “right that helps to define ourselves as human beings and political actors,” and it’s absolutely essential for everyone in a modern society.

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A Good Month for Twitter

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Here’s a great collection of posting about Twitter. In part because of the role it played in the crisis in Iran, it is suddenly being talked about everywhere. The Social Networking Weblog has consolidated a lot of the coverage in one posting. Well erectile dysfunction is not a daily issue it only arises when one feels to perform sex cheapest viagra with their partner. Herbs like ashwaganda, muira puama, damina or gingko biloba are cialis france very effective. We know well that super cheap viagra is a well known medicine producing companies have stretched their hands to make this medication work for you. These pharmacies invest a very negligible amount of their cialis without prescription profits on the advertising and promotion of the product as generic drugs are sold under the name of Tadacip by the Indian pharmaceutical company called Ranbaxy by the name of Eriacta. The most interesting perspective is Iran: Just What Twitter Needed?

Of course what all this coverage of Twitter and other social networking sites is neglecting is the large number of Farsi/Persian social networking sites. But that is for another post.

Rediscovering Secular America

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This Fourth of July, those who identify themselves as non-believers, or humanists, or atheists — or a whole host of other names which signify a nontheistic worldview — have much cause for celebration. After eight years in the Bush wilderness — and an even longer period of ostracism by the Washington political establishment — a rising demographic of like-minded Americans and a new president are guiding us back to our roots as a secular nation.

“We have generally been a pariah group in America,” says Woody Kaplan, Advisory Board Chair of the Secular Coalition for America. “Pretty much unrecognized by the political establishment. You should ensure sound sleep daily. viagra samples no prescription Let’s look at how Vardenafil helps to cure male impotence in men. viagra online samples generic viagra mastercard Natural items have turned out to be extremely well-liked in recent years. Probably he or she will be prescribing some effective and cheap medicines like kamagra that contains sildenafil citrate, a chemical, which cures Erectile Dysfunction and enables smooth blood supply sildenafil without prescription to the male sex organ. Yet there’s almost no religious group in America as large as us…. We were that third rail that politicians failed to touch.”

More at TheNation.com