Archive for October 2008
Countdown to the Obama Rapture
Watch as the press corps battles its performance anxiety!
http://www.slate.com/id/2203193/?wpisrc=newsletter
Posted Monday, Oct. 27, 2008, at 5:38 PM ET
With the election just a week away and Barack Obama pulling away from John McCain, tiny tendrils of trepidation are starting to drift over the liberal members of the commentariat and the political press corps.
If McCain wins, ample boilerplate exists from which to form their disposable Wednesday, Nov. 5, stories about his victory: “He took risks and they paid off … courage of his convictions … left for dead one time too many … the pundits eat crow … how could the pollsters have gotten it so wrong—again! … Will his White House harbor Straight Talk or double talk?”
But if Obama wins, these scribes know that they’ll be facing the toughest assignment of their careers. They’ve all oversubscribed to the notion that Obama’s candidacy is momentous, without parallel, and earth-shattering, so they can’t file garden-variety pieces about the “winds of change” blowing through Washington. They’re convinced that not only the whole world will be reading but that historians will be drawing on their words. Will what I write be worthy of this moment in time? they’re asking themselves. It’s a perfect prescription for performance anxiety. Read the rest of this entry »
Britain proposes to name, ban entry of extremists
LONDON (AP) — Britain will publicly list and ban entry of more than 200 people whose extremist views and “violent messages” are a threat to national security, the home secretary said Tuesday.
The plan announced by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith would group together Muslim extremists, animal rights protesters, anti-abortion activists, neo-Nazis and others she said “encourage or spread extremism and hatred through preaching violent messages.” The list would include only people from abroad.
Smith said publishing the names — roughly 230 — amounts to a toughening of existing exclusion orders that already list and ban certain groups from Britain. Authorities expect to publish the list on the Home Office Web site in the coming months. Read the rest of this entry »
A movie drama about the life of the Prophet Mohammad
A movie drama about the life of the Prophet Mohammad is to go into production soon, and will be only the second English-language film of its kind ever made, its producers said Monday.
“The Messenger of Peace” will be a remake of Moustapha Akkad’s “The Message,” a 1977 Hollywood classic starring Anthony Quinn which is often applauded by Muslims as an example of how commercial Western cinema can respect Islam.
“We have only the utmost respect for Akkad’s work but technology in cinema has advanced since the 1970s and this latest project will employ modern film techniques in its renewal of the first film’s core messages,” producer Oscar Zoghbi, who worked on the original, said in a statement.
Akkad, the Syrian-born executive producer of Hollywood’s “Halloween” horror films, was killed in a suicide bomb attack by al Qaeda on a luxury hotel in Jordan’s capital Amman in 2005. Read the rest of this entry »
Protest against Indian rule shuts down Kashmir
* Indian Army kills five Hizbul Mujahideen members
SRINAGAR: Shops, businesses and government offices closed across Indian-held Kashmir on Monday as separatists called a general strike to mark the anniversary of the day Indian troops took control of the region in 1947.
Thousands of Indian soldiers in riot gear patrolled the streets of Srinagar, and prohibited any gathering of more than five people, said senior police officer B Srinivas. Monday’s strike also closed all shops, schools, banks and businesses in Srinagar. Police detained some separatists and lawyers who were expected to lead the rallies.
The ban was aimed at blocking a plan by Kashmiri lawyers to form a human chain to protest the presence of Indian troops in the region.
“It’s an irony that even forming a human chain is a threat to the Indian state,” said Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, the chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference. “This was supposed to be a symbolic protest reminding the world that India has militarily occupied this place.”
Monday’s strike was called by the Jammu Kashmir Coordination Committee, a coalition of Muslim leaders and representatives of businesses, lawyers and government employees. Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, which remains divided between India and Pakistan. The long-time rivals both claim the region and have fought two wars over its control.
The army presence came a day after a student protester was killed and 20 others were hurt when police opened fire and used teargas to disperse thousands of anti-India demonstrators in the Muslim-majority state.
Meanwhile, Indian troops shot dead five militants during a gun battle in the forests of Kishtiwar district, south of Srinagar, said an army statement.
“The five were members of Hizbul Mujahideen,” it said, referring to the region’s most powerful group fighting for Indian Kashmir to join with Pakistan.
Over the last few months, Kashmir has witnessed the biggest pro-independence demonstrations since the separatist insurgency erupted in 1989. The protests have been met by a tough crackdown by Indian security forces. agencies
Muslim Meatpackers Demand Time for Ramadan; Backlash Follows
By Tiffany Ten Eyck, Labor Notes
Posted on October 27, 2008, Printed on October 28, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/104862/
Muslim workers at meatpacking plants owned by JBS Swift in Colorado and Nebraska walked out in September to demand time for prayer and dinner during their holy month of Ramadan. When the company agreed, other workers, largely Latino immigrants, led counter-protests, complaining that the Muslims were being favored.
A month earlier, Tyson chicken processing workers in Shelbyville, Tennessee, represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), signed a contract that made Eid al-Fitr, the day marking the end of Ramadan, a paid holiday they could take instead of Labor Day. The contract triggered community outrage, but the union said it made sense for the hundreds of Muslim workers. Read the rest of this entry »
