Nigeria attacks stir fears of reprisal across ancient divide - Irish Times

The Christmas Day bombings, claimed by Boko Haram, could inflame historical rivalries and rekindle the idea of partitioning Nigeria along religious lines, writes TIM COCKS in Jos, Nigeria

THE LINE dividing Christians from Muslims that runs along a rocky valley in the central Nigerian town of Jos may not be visible to the eye, but it burns in the minds of local people.

The mosque lies barely 200m from the main church in the Congo-Russia neighbourhood, a huddle of tin-roofed homes winding up a hill, and on its sandy pavements women in Muslim headscarves politely greet men wearing shiny crucifixes.

Jos, in Nigeria’s volatile “Middle Belt”, is historically a religious and ethnic tinderbox in the country’s sensitive North-South divide between Muslims and Christians.

Christmas Day bomb attacks by shadowy Islamist sect Boko Haram – suspected of links to al-Qaeda and with ambitions to impose Islamic sharia law in Nigeria – have stoked fears again of sectarian conflict in Africa’s top oil producer and most populous state.

“Over there is the dividing line,” said trader Anthony Baya (30) nodding at some houses cloaked in a haze of windborne dust.

“You can’t just go over to that place as a Christian. The Muslims can kill you,” he said, describing how six youths were hacked to death with machetes and dumped down a well during Jos’s last bout of inter-communal violence in November.

Nigeria’s 160 million people are roughly divided between Muslims and Christians, who mostly live side by side in peace.

But in towns like Jos, ruined buildings with charred walls sprouting weeds testify to past violence, and other flashpoints bear the material and mental scars of bouts of sectarian strife that have periodically bloodied Nigeria since its independence from Britain in 1960.

The Congo-Russia neighbourhood itself is named after the Congolese and Russian UN peacekeepers who kept the two communities from each other’s throats during Nigeria’s civil war in the 1960s.

Boko Haram claimed three bomb attacks on churches on Christmas Day, including one that killed 27 worshippers in a Catholic church just outside the capital Abuja, and one in Jos which had no fatal victims.

The co-ordinated strikes by the northern-based Islamist group, whose name translates as “western education is sinful” in the Hausa language of the region, appeared aimed at prising open Nigeria’s religious faultline in a direct challenge to the government of president Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian southerner.

“Boko Haram is seeking to provoke retaliatory attacks on Muslims in predominantly Christian parts of the country,” said former US ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell, who is the Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

In Jos, local Muslims were wary of a possible Christian backlash.

“We are just beginning to live in peace, so we hope our Christian brothers can help us keep that peace,” said Mohammad Kabir, who like many Nigerian Muslims resents being associated with violent extremism.

“Boko Haram is not all Islam,” he said.

Stirring such fears, unknown attackers threw a crude homemade bomb into a madrassa, or Islamic school, in Nigeria’s southeastern Delta state on Tuesday, wounding seven people including six young children.

For some, such as Papa Jimba (46) leader of the Christian community in the Congo-Russia neighbourhood in Jos, the Boko Haram bombings have rekindled the idea of partitioning the country along religious lines.

“Let us divide Nigeria,” said Jimba, using his hand to trace a line between two halves of his wooden bench by the roadside.

“The Muslims go to their side and the Christians stay on our side. Then peace can come back. I’m even praying for that.”

The latest attacks in what seems to be an escalating campaign of anti-Christian and anti-establishment violence by Boko Haram are also being linked to a long-running political power struggle in Nigeria between north and south.

“There is a clear political dimension . . . there are political forces at play here that are using the religious dimension as a mobilising and amplifying force,” said Jennifer Giroux, senior researcher at the Center for Security Studies at the university of ETH Zurich.

Nigeria’s internal politics have soured again since Jonathan assumed the presidency earlier this year.

His election victory was seen in the eyes of many northerners as breaking a tacit deal to rotate the Nigerian leadership between north and south every two terms.

More than 500 people were killed in post-election violence in the north after Jonathan’s victory, reflecting long-standing northern grievances about perceived alienation and exclusion by the central government from the fruits of national oil riches, concentrated in the south.

In Jos, the bombings also have the potential to inflame local rivalries that are really about land, ethnicity and power, but which have taken on a religious dimension that local politicians have a habit of using to settle scores.

The late deposed Libyan strongman Col Muammar Gadafy, who had long coveted ambitions of leading Africa, suggested in March 2010 that Nigeria split into ethnic regions.

The idea sparked outrage at the time, but has gained currency in some circles.

“People thought Col Gadafy was mad, but I’ve started to see the sense in what he said. If we can’t exist together with our Muslim brothers, then they can build their houses over there, and we build ours here,” said Rev Philip Mwelbish, head of the Christian Association of Nigeria (Can) for Plateau state, where Jos is located.

“We have a proverb in Nigeria: if you push a goat to the wall, he will bite you.

“They’ve pushed us to the wall,” Mwelbish said.

Ayo Oritsejafor, national head of the Christian association, told Jonathan on Wednesday that the bombs were “a declaration of war on Christians” and he accused Muslim clerics of failing to take responsibility for their followers.

Muslim leaders retort that they are not to blame for the actions of a few extremists in the name of Islam.

At the green, yellow and white painted Central Mosque on the busiest street in Jos, Christian and Muslim leaders met on Tuesday in an effort to calm tensions.

“They should understand that we don’t consider the authors of these attacks to be Muslims,” said the mosque’s spokesman Sani Mudi.

“What are their teachings? Don’t forget Islamic scholars have been killed by them too.”

Concentrated mainly in the northern Nigerian states of Yobe, Kano, Bauchi, Borno and Kaduna, Boko Haram became active in about 2003 and is loosely modelled on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

It considers all who do not follow its strict ideology as infidels, whether they are Christian or Muslim, and its followers wear long beards and red or black headscarves.

The group made international headlines in July 2009 when its attacks led to clashes with Nigerian police and army in northeast cities, including its stronghold of Maiduguri. About 800 people were killed in five days of fighting.

In the same month, sect leader Mohammad Yusuf was captured by Nigerian security forces and shot dead in police detention some hours later, triggering vows of revenge by surviving adherents.

From early drive-by shootings against police officers in the remote northeast, the group has moved to more ambitious high-profile attacks, such as the August 26th bombing of the UN headquarters in Abuja that killed at least 24 people.

© 2011 Reuters

Bangladeshi women fall victim to HIV as husbands hide infection - Gulf Times

More and more Bangladeshi women are becoming HIV-positive or even infected with Aids by their partners or husbands who return from work abroad and have unsafe sex with them.
While these men hide their HIV-positive status from their women partners, this has increased the incidence of HIV vulnerability among Bangladesh’s population,
experts said.
A recent visit to the state-run 14-bed Aids ward at the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Dhaka, found all the beds of the ward occupied. A year ago, the average rate of occupancy at this ward was four or
five patients.
Nurun Nahar (not her real name), mother of six, is now undergoing treatment along with her husband Shahinur Islam (not his real name). Islam came back from Jeddah a year back and tested HIV-positive. Both of them were found to be HIV patients last August.
“I was suffering from diarrhoea and fever during Ramadan and went from hospital to hospital for treatment at my home district Comilla,” Islam said, adding: “In a pathological test, doctors found me HIV-positive and immediately asked me to bring all my children and wife to test. Thanks to Allah, my sons and daughters are safe but my wife tested HIV-positive.”
Nahar said: “My husband did not tell me about his disease after his return from Jeddah. I didn’t know anything about this disease before … We are waiting for our
last day.”
“If I had known about the disease, I would have taken appropriate precaution. No one has told me about it. But here in the hospital, I heard from a doctor that health professionals or village leaders are supposed to tell people about the disease,” she added.
Subarna Saha, 24, and her five-year-old daughter were found waiting for a test in the hospital. She came with her husband Shidharth Banik, who returned from Malaysia after working there for 13 years as a construction
worker.
She got married to Banik who had been found HIV-positive seven years back and, obviously, didn’t disclose it to his would-be wife.
“It was an arranged marriage,” said Saha who was preparing her husband’s bed in the Aids ward.
Doctors of the hospital said that most of the Aids patients they had admitted were suffering from multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, which made their suffering worse.
About 62% children of HIV parents were found positive while 75% of HIV male patients were those who have returned from abroad, said a doctor.
HIV/Aids Health Profile of Bangladesh, prepared by United States Agency International Development in 2010, reported that with less than 0.1% of the population estimated to be HIV positive, Bangladesh is a low-prevalence country.
The country faces a concentrated epidemic and its very low HIV prevalence rate is partly due to prevention efforts focusing on sex workers and drug users, the report said.
A doctor of the hospital, seeking anonymity, said: “People who have tested HIV-positive should disclose their status to their families so that their spouses can get proper treatment and help to stop further infection.”
Dr M Selimuzzaman, who has been working on HIV/Aids, said: “People should be taught about infectious diseases, especially Aids and HIV, before they go abroad for work.”
Overall, 2,088 cases of HIV and Aids have been confirmed and reported against 1,745 cases in 2009, 1,495 in 2008 and 1,207 in 2007. The number of undetected cases is believed to be much greater.

Saudi Arabian women driving back up Clinton-Washington Times

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton after remaining silent for the first time this week bowed to international pressure, the Islamic women's driving of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia based lifted the ban on women who wish to have indicated their support.

"This woman is brave, you are doing right and what they are looking for. By that, and Mrs. Clinton"move and support them, Frank told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday, and feminism.

Mrs. Clinton Saudi Arabia women in the comments group, which supports the whole the Department of State for driving Victoria Nuland said the day after, the spokesman said the human rights problems openly selected Secretary ' quiet diplomacy ' is supported, but through the

Catherine Ashtonon Wednesday, the European Union , Saudi Arabia women, came from Foreign Minister in her support Maja Kocijancicaccording to the spokesman.

EU treatment where they stand up for their rights, "he said in support of the people. " Saudi women who [NULL] is that equality requires taking to exercise their rights."

Saudi Arabia womenMrs. Clinton's initial silence on the driving exercise highlights the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Benjamin Joffe-Walt, United States diplomatic sensitivity towards human rights Change.orgCommunity action website, their campaign Saudi women about driving for being used by said Editor.

" Saudi Arabia these statements can be seen as very meaningful, by" Mr. Joffe-the Washington Times said in an e-mail to walk. " The Saudi Government Clinton means nothing if the [wife] Saudi women to do this a month ago have statements she started putting pressure on."

Support Saudi womendriving a month ago on the door of the largely unorganized and growing international support for the exercise highlighted. Change.orgpostings about 25 women through informal group in order to support his cause in person has collected more than 100,000 signatures in 150 countries.

Saudi Arabia Governmentfatwa or religious edict, man, according to the 1991 prohibiting women from taking the wheel by the clergy in the driver's license issued. In the oil-rich Kingdom, as well as a woman in a car, operating on a bicycle was the only country in the world.

Nadya Khalife, human rights watch women's rights researcher for the Beirut-based driver or male guardians employed home said banned without waiting for a call from a woman's mobility in driving at night.

When you start a campaign to topple the driving ban on women's rights activist Manal Shah on May 21, Saudi Arabiadriving in Alkhobar al-Reef, allegedly arrested. The 32-year-old Internet security consultant was arrested by Saudi authorities for 9 days. She has since "Saudi Arabia Rosa Parks," America's civil rights marchers in black-only section of the public bus in the 1960s, refused to ride has been called.

Saudi Arabia women for Member athletic organization via email and Facebook. They held a protest on Friday, country driving ban when the international drivers license Saudi women for several dozen solidarity throughout the country.

" Saudi Arabia with 20 years in the making, this is the home of a woman who grew up in a revolution," Ms. Khalife said.

Women's ' misleading ' Islam-Malta times of abuse

 Maltreatment of women 'misinterpretation' of Islam No binding theological argument excluding women from priesthood

The treatment of women in "so-called Islamic states" is not according to the spirit of Islam, the president of the Ahmadiyya Mulslim Jamaat in Malta said today.

Speaking in a seminar organised by the Islamic denomination to commemorate 100 years of Women's Day, Laiq Ahmed Atif said that Islam favoured equality between both sexes and that the subjugation and cruelty to some women in the Arab world was "a misrepresentation of Islam".

Opening the conference, Michelle Muscat, wife of the opposition leader, said the current state of affairs made it difficult – if not impossible – for women to aspire to a career or politics and raise a family.

The point was also raised by Kate Gonzi, who said that the government and political parties, "made up mostly of men" "need to appreciate the different, albeit complementary contribution that women can make, and embrace female participation".

After both giving speeches on the respect and honour women had in their respective religions, they were challenged by an (Anglican) woman in the audience who asked them why they did not have woman priests and imams.

In his reply, Fr Lawrence Attard said there was "no binding enough theological argument excluding half of mankind from any sacrament".

However, through experience, the introduction of women vicars in the Anglican Church had created a lot of discord, most of which, he was surprised to find, "came from women themselves".

Fr Attard said, however, that if a way was found to introduce female priesthood without creating unnecessary friction, then "we'll try it".

He said that he was still waiting for an official ruling from the Church on the matter.

On his part, Mr Atif said the difference between men and women in Islam was "not negative, as God has put less burden and responsibility on women than on men".

He said that women could be Imams to other women, and that the unfair treatment of women in "so-called Islamic nations" was a "misrepresentation of Islam", and cited various instances of respect to women by Prophet Mohammed.

Saudi women car movement: we Islamophobia-international business times is not an excuse for

United States media Saudi women's movement long Saudi law, banning women from driving to the revocation in religion and culture conflating should be careful about.

Saudi fatwa ­ ­-, or religious edict-getting behind the wheel at car women activists Manal Al-Sharif as banning women in Islam and its role in the [NULL] is about a very bold statement page , and today "brave woman drives car ban them religion to take on." entitled stir publishing

Article included in Google News on the subject were among the most popular.

It's her article while the author notes that "cultural beliefs held [women] wheel, you will not be able to get behind" this title conflates religion and culture.

It prohibits women from driving to many Islam and Islamic theological society are aware of this. Qur'an or Islam holy text later Saudi edict can prove there is no evidence.

Mohammed, Islam's last Prophet's time had no car. And nothing Islamic law car graces for the Protocol.

In addition, Saudi Arabia banned women from driving the Islamic country.

The Middle East, and Manal Al Sharif after his democracy movement non-Muslims in the West of this democracy, women's rights and can do without Western intervention in the Middle East.

This is the refer-a-good time of the spring international community Arab eternal unrest [NULL] are worried about the Arab world for the democratization of Arab and Muslim world for good: the West and the United States women's rights or democracy, not a monopoly. Reply-the West is this title like the Islamic women's rights in the comments about the pose that monopoly re-emphasizes-traditionally women's rights and to the West and Islamophobia, as opposed to the crackdown on the democracy movement in women's rights advocates Nawal El-Saadawi women in the Arab world's hidden face of Eve she wrote in the preface of the classical extreme.

In Washington, d.c. women can actually comment issues and solidarity indigenous movement, but senselessly bash Saudi Arabia Embassy drive around Arab Islam and Muslim women, on their own terms what Manal Al-Slavic House stands on the right to take a stand against.

SCTCC School of Islam-St. cloud times health field to help you familiarize yourself with the

Zamzam salad is not a typical college student.

She has a tattoo on her arm, worn on the headscarf in slim 22-year-old standing in the crowd, but her cultural work, St. cloud technical college in den community that got the attention.

I m medical fields, and helping others with a passion for people, salad, who in 2001, St. cloud in Kenya, who had a better education for Somalia, said.

Salad is the art and science of health insurance, consider a career in other Muslim women inspiration at work in Islamic belief, the class how her instructor training before the associate degree in May with a graduate from the University.

Students need, such as Zamzam come to us they are in the classroom requires their own religious practices honors and talk about their different ... Consciousness and have been really s strength Zamzam, Janet Steinkamp, health sciences and human services, said of Dean.

Islam and education

Salad, Mac, and air University undergraduate and health sciences and cultural competent medical care for the Human Services Department staff conducted a workshop.

A lot of people in the know this country don t many Muslim women ...I always told my classmates so they feel ask anything, just ask, salad said.

So she remains true to her culture to Western-style education while ago technology high school students from Patrick Mac and ER, SCTCC, trainer, and cardiovascular technology program's Director and worked with.

For women in the Islamic faith, cover their heads and they are also all the way to the floor their wrists go all the way down and a long skirt or dress shirts must be worn, and said Mac and Salad, who s adviser and knows her.

Other issues; Myself and other instructors are some of the all male. Impressed with the Islamic faith's men of a bitch you ... When something is demonstrated their hand positioning it a different way of appropriate touch of their hands? ?

Full beard with a former student of Mcguire s student s head cover sterilization special kind of hat and clinical settings, so Mac and salad while offering full beard the same kind of hat, she wear her headscarf, which allowed to continue.

Our instructors and other students; The needs of Muslim students about how to support as a valuable resource to demonstrate that She turn better the future of the Islamic faith to their patients the medical quality SCTCC be able to provide health students help others, then Steinkamp said.

Salad she she sterilization, medical environment to work in scrub wear was needed rather than went to a restaurant on campus she her customary skirt again for example, to change, he said.

Some students ask me not to wear a skirt, the other was talking about the feeling and how they felt uncomfortable with it, but still, it's more like, OK, I m doing my job and my job when I m, still with me and said I m, salads.

Work together

Faculty and health sciences and Human Services Department employee Larry d. Purnell s guide to culturally competent health care, so they health care setting in the cultural issues that are more sensitive, you may receive a copy of.

A cardiovascular technician assists angiograms performed heart procedures, such as, putting regulator, pacemaker generator taking heart, salad said.

There are 27 total graduate programs 2005-2008, related work in the field of possible graduates 92% according to the St. cloud technology in the & Community College.

A lot of girls here scrub ... Together would see me and they d like, Oh, my God! You re in the program. How did I do it? Had a lot of them are scared to even apply because because they didn t know they take away d, their scarves salad firmly said.

Salad in the classroom, clinical settings, or something in her research she had disturbing or her religion, exercise, you will be able to feel her keeping her whenever she talked her instructor, he said.

Every time it came time to pray ... Right back to the rest room change completely from my normal clothes to wear, and at the bottom on my mat and pray again, clinical settings said put my scrub just will say my map.

Salad in place because of the SCTCC put a specific rule, but because of the opening of her needs and beliefs discussed her instructor and colleagues with respect and understanding of the Steinkamp, according to, you can work with.

When talking with her map, she said Zamzam never waited in prayer procedure left but sneak patients between prayer, Steinkamp said.

Because they all worked together and demanded individual open, strengthen the enrichment educational environment. Her commitment to the Islamic faith. people who were unfamiliar with, and assist the Zamzam was known

Women in philosophy background of Hyderabad's attitude ...-Tehran times

Men and women integration of human society is two separate parts. These two parts are free with each other. Allah the great system is implemented with a mission to men and women. Women are the perfect plan towards execution of unique was written as an example. A place in the area of creation and the role of women is very important. A woman from Earth to her role in their area has a dazzling virtuosity. This strange and wonderful world of multi-faced in order to meet the needs of the author against physical and mental characteristics of the two races was created.

His creativity, coupled with the great creator limbs and neurons need women, physical and mental capabilities suitable for work. Multiply, and continued with the presence of humanity for Creator 4 straight steps delineated said: pregnancy, breastfeeding and parenting, provide.

The same pain fraught with risk, women being the mother again a new chapter of responsibility before her. This chapter takes care of itself independently when mother's custody of her responsibility to achieve the phase being able to rest assured that the child's date of birth across from. This growth period mother sharp eyes food and rest, exercise, behavior-children's life to take care of all aspects.

Their glorious location in the late Imam Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran women were established:

"Islamic unwanted girl debacle, or should the goods in the hands of men. Muslim woman's personality and wants to protect important and active person, see her as a. "

According to Imam Khomeini women's obligations to perform their social and religious, their divine and personally to maintain purity and look forward to fit in with public divine atmosphere based on social and political movement to perform. He is the appropriate location, roles, and women in the modern world about respect of the force has given an opinion. In the modern world as well, no, a thousand years of history in women will never progress and dignity of women in Iran today and found the location.

Respect for women, a special interest in Hyderabad in order to focus on the Muslim world Fatima Zahra (SA), women's day is the birthday of the mother's sacred. This Declaration through Imam Khomeini back women their rightful place and women as a result, they lost respect and honor.

Role and position of women in the world for a good time, said: "the woman in society played a large role in the play. Their hopes, aspirations and realizations of humanity is a symbol. "He is the protector of mankind as women. He said: "women in their wheels only to hand it to the community and society, but at the same fighting spirit many social and human values, the towering unfaltering can be collected, as well as because of the same man whom." in the world of the creation of the position of women to identify, Imam opined: "man-woman in the lap of Meraj." he observed: "the role of women in society than people. It is a fact that women, it's all besides the active class by defining their own domain, due to maintain in a different class. "

He added: "I observed a broad and wide that men's society women in society than the amazing change. Respectable women of Iran; proud part of the same change came because invalidating the devilish plots to women in Iran at 50 years ago foreign conspirators and local boot-licker-collaborators and lousy poet, writer, and was hired by a group of public relations. "He also said:" the rise and rise and fall of a society that depends on the woman's society. "

"Hazrat Fatima Zahra (SA) immutable nature reserve and her practical life and life on the translation used on all aspects of Islam, a deep knowledge. She was that age; not ideal for her even when the model of science and technology have made great strides in human civilizations even in these times can be imitated. "

(Source: Al-Shia.org)

More Saudi women records driving video-New York Times (blog)

Shah manal al-Reef, Saudi activist, 2008 television interview in Saudi Arabia to discuss the role of women.

Shah manal al-Reef Saudi activist who is more at least 10 days is detained women drivers in Saudi Arabia to ignore the prohibition of women for the encouragement, was arrested this week, her lawyer told the Ap on Thursday.

Mr Sharif, a 32-year-old IT consultant allegedly showed her driving around the city of Khobar last week upload video to Youtube to disturb public order for the was arrested on Sunday .

Robert booth and Mona Mahmood report Mr. Sharif's arrest since the guardian of different Saudi women video clips of driving themselves, and more than 20,000 fans are Facebook page posted them she-only.

The English-language Arab News, Saudi newspapers reporting that, Adnan Al-Saleh, Ms. Sharif's lawyer denies his client once and for all other local newspapers said the report in the Wednesday in tears and broken down her arrest after she had repented. According to her lawyer Ms. Sharif and said, "I did cry and does not stop."

Arab News also reported:

Both sexes of 1000 citizens on the one hand, the two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Al-Sharif asked the immediate release of the guardian of the petition for signature. Zheng activists, bloggers, academics and students.

Fellow activists who Ms. Sharif during the last week of the drive, Wajiha suggestions Howeidar, my colleagues in the Government of the Kingdom of her friend mobilization planned mass June 17, to protest the ban on driving schedule, and support for Facebook and Twitter were used to the fact that especially threatened Neil MacFarquhar camera process.

The guardian, she was driving around town, she discussed the ban and the amount Howeidar with it shows a campaign against it on the site of the Ms. Sharif's transcript copies driving video has been posted. Three years previously, Ms. Howeidar mark mark international women's day on Youtube, behind the wheel of his a similar video was published.

Eman Al Nafjan, who is on Twitter Saudiwoman , recorded as according to blogger Yang Sharif's arrest by the religious leaders to uniformly in a country that does not support the ban [NULL], stimulating debate about. Writesshe is.

Ultra-conservative Manal has come out in full force against. Sheikh Nasser Al-Omer on the issue of women driving preaching . At the beginning of the video he claims he who United States field, oil Saudi Arabia plan to take the United States are drawing up expert in American newspapers read threatens Iran TV channel as well. So driving women's issues not raised right or whether it is prohibited by Islam; is for it is supported by the Liberals who Shia started by conspiring against the country are secular Jews and the West. [...]

On the other hand, who has come out in support of Manal sheikhs and driving ban. Sheikh Dr. Eissa al-Ghaith, judge, with the support of women driving their Facebook page page on. Dr. Sheikh Mohammed Al Ahmari Manal and driving prohibition for his support very candid . And the recent past, a highly respected Albani who laughed the woman driving from Islam should be banned, including proposed sheikhs.

Saudi Arabia: security forces clamp down behind the alleged campaign that ...-Los Angeles Times

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SAUDI ARABIA: Security forces clamp down on those allegedly behind campaign to defy ban on women driversComments (11) May 23, 2011 |  8:08am

Saudi Arabian authorities have clamped down on women's rights activists after a bold call by a group of women in the ultra-conservative kingdom on social media sites on the Internet to break a ban on women driving.

Saudi police arrested at least two people linked to the campaign and shut down a Facebook page meant to promote civil disobedience, according to the Abu Dhabi-based English-language newspaper the National.

Saudi security forces loyal to King Abdullah, whose family has ruled the kingdom for 80 years, arrested Manal Sharif, a 32-year-old computer security consultant, and her brother, the National reported.

On Facebook and Twitter, activists had launched a campaign calling on women in Saudi Arabia who hold international drivers' licenses to get behind the wheel on Friday, June 17, and drive their cars to protest the country's ban on women driving.

Their call is a daring initiative. Women who have defied the ban in the past have lost their jobs, been banned from travel and denounced by members of the country's powerful extremist religious establishment.

The women say their planned move is not a protest nor an attempt to break the law, but rather a bid to claim basic rights as human beings.

"We women in Saudi Arabia, from all nationalities, will start driving our cars by ourselves," read a statement posted on the group's Facebook site, I will Drive Starting June 17, before Saudi censors took it down. "We are not here to break the law or demonstrate or challenge the authorities. We are here to claim one of our simplest rights. We have driver's licenses and we will abide by traffic laws."

Their Facebook group had garnered more than 11,000 supporters and around 3,000 people follow the group's account on Twitter.

Critics say Saudi, a staunch U.S. ally and largest exporter of oil in the world, has a horrific record on human rights and women's liberties. In addition, it's said to be pumping cash into global Islamic organizations that promote extremist Islamic thinking across the Islamic world, including the nascent democracies in Egypt and Tunisia.  

But some Saudis themselves are trying to challenge the conservativism of their own country.

On recent incident suggests things are already heating up on the women's ban driving issue. A few days ago, 30-year-old Saudi housewife and mother Najla Hairiri told Agence-France Presse how she drove her car in the streets of the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jeddah for four days before getting stopped.

She took the decision "to defend her belief that Saudi women should be allowed to drive" and said she wasn't afraid of being hauled into detention for flouting the driving ban because she felt she was setting a good example for her daughter and other young Saudi women.

"I don't fear being arrested because I am setting an example that my daughter and her friends are proud of,'' she said, adding that she also offers driving lessons for women. 

Below is a video clip showing Saudi women's right activist Wajeha Huwaidar driving her car in a rural part of the kingdom on International Women's Day in 2008 and talking about the problems that come with not letting women drive in Saudi Arabia. 

 

Saudi Arabia adheres to a strict interpretation of the ultra-conservative Wahabi version of Sunni Islam. Aside from being banned from driving, Saudi women face a myriad of other restrictions. They cannot travel on their own without getting authorization from a male guardian, cannot receive an education without male approval, and are not allowed to cast ballots in municipal elections -- the only kind of elections that currently exist in the absolute monarchy.

If the call for defying the driving ban on women materializes on June 17, it will not be the first time women in Saudi Arabia will have gotten behind the wheel and taken to the streets in protest. On Nov. 6, 1990, a group of women drove through the streets of the Saudi capital Riyadh before getting pulled over and stopped.

Several of the women reportedly lost their jobs and were denounced as by powerful religious figures.

Recent comments by Saudi religious clerics about the June 17 campaign suggest the sight of women driving in the streets will go down with the religious clergymen as badly as it did in 1990.

Saudi cleric Mohammed Nujaimi told Bloomberg News that the women's plan was “against the law" and that driving does “more harm than good” to women, because they might intermingle with males who are not their relatives, such as mechanics and gas-station attendants.

 -- Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

Photo: A screenshot of the Facebook group  "I Will Drive Starting June 17". Credit: Facebook. Video credit: YouTube

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Comments (11)

The Saudi royal family are idiots. By being so firmly anti-change that they can't even concede on a little issue such as females driving (which most in power have at least SAID they realize is outdated and irrational) they're validating the point that there can be no change in the kingdom without eradication of the monarchy itself.
Instead of bribing his subjects with two months salary and a day off, the king could tackle big issues in the kingdom himself, addressing all the concerns of the opposition groups and taking the credit for all the improvements himself, saying, "Look how in tune we are with the people's needs. You don't want democracy- a good king will take care of business without all the gridlock of the democratic process. The royal family is the force moving this country forward"
I'm beginning to think the Saudis wrote that secret handbook every Arab leader seems to have when it comes to movements of change.

Posted by:MLE |May 23, 2011 at 10:38 PM

@Desert nomad

I agree that Saudi Wahhabism is one of the most extremist brands of Islamic doctrine, but it's not like other forms of FUNDAMENTALIST Islam are much better. Look no further than other Sharia-infested regions like Egypt & Pakistan to see that ANY form of Sharia Law is Draconian and barbaric:

http://pewglobal.org/2010/12/02/muslims-around-the-world-divided-on-hamas-and-hezbollah/

----

% of Muslims who want DEATH PENALTY for those leaving Islam:

Egypt (84%)

Pakistan (82%)

-----

% of Muslims endorsing STONING TO DEATH of adulterers (98% WOMEN):

Egypt (82%)

Pakistan (76%)

---

SHARIA LAW IS SUCH A MAJOR VIOLATION OF BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS THAT IT CANNOT BE TOLERATED IN CIVILIZED NATIONS...PERIOD.

Posted by:Verballistic |May 23, 2011 at 07:52 PM

Would someone please give the Saudis a calendar?
It is 2011 not 1120.

Posted by:Dave Smith |May 23, 2011 at 06:48 PM

Re: dancing scorpion and others who have made comments, firstly Saudi follow the 'wahabbi' sect which is different to traditional Islam is also banned as traditional Islam gave rights to women. These camel riding donkeys who became rich overnight due to oil are ignorant bedouins and the royal family are linked to mr Wahhabi- please google mr w as he is part of this mess. I am an expat and can truly say I have found it easier to follow traditional Islam in uk rather than Saudi. Driving is the least of my concern, I can't even walk outside, what use is a car when I can't use my feet!!!

Posted by:Desert nomad |May 23, 2011 at 02:01 PM

Sarah and Esther...Hmmm

Posted by:Dancing Scorpion |May 23, 2011 at 12:08 PM

Several studies in America have shown that "women" are the cause of more traffic incidents than males. The answer to Arabia's problem is simply to refuse licenses to "women." No one, after all, wants the intermingling of women at the gas station with ignorant, horny men. And women having to fill their own gas tanks and coming home stinking of gas sounds really repulsive. They also shouldn't be allowed to smoke. Tabacco and "ganga," quite popular in Arabia, adversely affect the unborn. Islam should be respected for the
medieval, non-democratic blood religion that it is. It simply doesn't fit well in the post Magna Carta age of the unwashed, loud-mouthed masses. Therefore, I always strongly urge Muslims not to immigrate to Europe or America. Stay home, stay where you belong, I say. Good advice is very hard to come by, anymore.

Posted by:Dancing Scorpion |May 23, 2011 at 12:05 PM

Saudi Arabia is the same fascist state whose RELIGIOUS POLICE in 2002 forced 15 young schoolgirls back into a BURNING school building because they were not "properly covered" with veils, burqas, etc.

The girls all perished in the fire, in a blatant example of the BARBARIC nature of a Draconian code known as Sharia Law. Sharia Law places ridiculous, twisted rules over & above human rights and cannot be tolerated under any circumstances.

As for those claiming Iran is somehow less fascist than Saudi Arabia it should be pointed out that the ONLY difference is that Saudi Arabia is a SUNNI fascist state & Iran is a SHI'ITE fascist state. If you dont believe me, go to YouTube and do a search for the phrase "Neda Agha Soltan Killed" and you will see a chilling video showing the death throes of a brave young Iranian woman who was brutally gunned down in the streets of Tehran by Iran's RELIGIOUS POLICE aka Adolf Ahmadinejad's thuggish goon squad.

Posted by:Verballistic |May 23, 2011 at 11:44 AM

Sarah, you are %100 on the target. Isn't it amazingly clear how Iran phobia has become a norm and a daily occurrence here!

Posted by:Esther Haman |May 23, 2011 at 09:56 AM

I LOVE IT. MORE POWER TO THESE BRAVE WOMEN OR ARABIA. PUT THE FAT FASCISTS TYRANTS IN THEIR PLACE. PROPHET MOHAMED DID NOT WANTED IT THIS WAY AND HE NEVER DEMANDED HIS WIFE TO TAKE THE BACK SIT TO HIM.

Posted by:Esther Haman |May 23, 2011 at 09:52 AM

Why are we in Afghanistan again? The US needs to be in Saudi Arabia , Bahrain, and Yemen to not only free the people from the dictators of those countries and their ultra-conservative Wahabi version of Sunni Islam, but to also secure their oil and prevent the funding of Islamic extremist groups with money from oil sales.

It really is no surprise that Osama Bin Laden and his suicidal cronies who flew planes into the Twin Towers were from these countries in particular. An environment of extremism fosters more extremism and allows it to spread like a cancer.

Posted by:The_Enlightened_One |May 23, 2011 at 09:16 AM

If Iran was preventing women from driving, stories like this would have been on the front page of every western newspaper.

Posted by:Sarah |May 23, 2011 at 08:34 AM

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About the ContributorsMaher Abukhater
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Jeffrey Fleishman
Amro Hassan
Meris Lutz
Ramin Mostaghim
Ned Parker
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Alexandra Sandels
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Batsheva Sobelman

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Islamic speakers understanding, harmony-Fort Morgan times community fosters the goal

Janice Rhyne, translator and United States Department of justice community relations service in Denver Monday night held at the Fort Morgan high school, and with the audience at the event in General beyond the Arab cultural values. OneMorgan County and Ministerial Alliance, the event was created to help Morgan county Morgan area residents understand the American sponsored Muslims and Arabs, many local immigrants from Somalia. America's melting pot or culture mixed salad as you can see, if the port Morgan is really a microcosm of both.

Port Morgan in the United States long ago, residents in the whole family, but it is also people who have come here very recently, who mostly the city's most other speak the language when it comes to faith and worship, and who have different beliefs.

Culture and some of these more recent immigrants of Islamic religion and learning about the focus of the event is one of thesponsored by Morgan County, Morgan area Ministerial Alliance, United States Department of Justice and social service Monday night in the port Morgan high school.

He showed best practices [NULL] about 45 Morgan County residents to law enforcement authorities for people in other cultures when dealing with video for Christopher Schalberg, coordination experts and United States Department of justice community relations service, says Islam the Arab-American immigrants. Established practices in the video for law enforcement officials by others than many can be applied to the situation, Schalberg said. He is a member of the mounting behind panels, left-to-Janice Rhyne, Jamillah Rehman, such as CRS, Dr. Hussein Khalifa representing all Monday night talk at the event.

Approximately 45 people where they are means of Islam and cultural values in the three Muslim heard from the speakers to present at the event. The audience is also a question to them.

"It is an important discussion," OneMorgan County Director Brenda Zion said. "We have a cohesive community actively participated in the making."

Christopher Schalberg, CR, along with adjustment was one of the professional speakers. He United States and around the World Muslim population of people of faith to talk about.

He is also a stereotype and prejudice and to discuss how the formation in Africa or South Central Asian heritage of Islamic faith and practice more and more people in the United States the Arab intellectual not from the United States most of the Muslims. He is also the majority of Arab Americans, Muslim rather than Christian, noted.

Panel doctor Hussein Khalifa, Colorado about 11 years; Egypt has been practiced, who was born radiation consists of a victim's advocate and former professional women's basketball player Jamillah Rehman; And Denver translator Janice Rhyne, who a few years ago I converted to Islam.

Khalifa-Islam and it is not about the meaning of the story.

"Islam is a religion means surrender, submission, dedication and peace," he said.

He said Islam is a religion, and Muslims who its practitioners.

He also pointed out that Muslims "God" in the Arabic word Allah, worship a God called

"Islam came, it did not come to cancel or force" other religions, Khalifa said. "It's a live social system. Democracy plays a big role in Islam, believe it or not. "

Khalifa was one of the focus of Islam is prayer said.

"We all pray five times a day? No, we're supposed to be, but "Khalifa said."That is what makes you a better human being. "

Prayer, Rehman said, "one thing we try

Dr. Hussein Khalifa, Egypt living in Colorado-United States radiation port Morgan high school building cultural knowledge event Monday night to attend to people who are part of the history and beliefs of Islam. Khalifa asked the audience "moderate Muslims. See Islam through life "do we have to stand before God. "

That's where Mecca and hand washing face and clean of customs that come from, as well as worship and modest rules that control the separation of men and women.

Rhyne and each Muslim women, Rehman they head covering, or hijab, which choose to wear a scarf, a reason for including a story about what.

"This is what we are, our identity," Rehman said. (Muslim) women a lot if they cover their heads naked naked feeling.

"Millions of women cover themselves in different ways," Rhyne said. "It is a personal decision. Wear a scarf, but 10 years after the conversion it didn't wear. It is faith's came to me on my path. Plus, I like being identified with Islam. "

"However, who's back cover (Islam) and sisters have found a picture ID is recognized," Rhyne added.

They also wear tight clothes, so men cannot, in who knees belly, kafiya prayer, or head covering be worn when modesty rules is noted.

Women cultural considerations [NULL] talking about the difference, how Muslim women and the same is not usually or touch handshake in the hands of men like rude is considered law enforcement officers visible.

Also, if someone close to the Muslim woman, she can get offended, Rehman said.

Rhyne said what the audience or Muslims are comfortable for questions on how to "show a lot of respect", and a sense of community toward building can go a long way.

In the end the audience from the Khalifa and said, "we are all different, but in the end we are all the same,". "People through the media (Muslim), we would like to see through. If you understand them, we better, we will help you better integrate United States society. "

One of the event and how an item from the law enforcement can better communicate with Muslim immigrants and cultural differences that may exist.

"I believe that it is very educational," port Morgan police chief Keith Kuretich said. "I'm historically, law enforcement (has been too) we have regular contact with a culture opposed to learning more."

He said "a better understanding of the trust as well as instilling road" offering one such event among the immigrant community in law enforcement.

"It's kind of Islamic culture, you need to know that how to see it, Islam [NULL] to know more about the" Hussein Karshe, who live in the Fort Morgan Sommali immigration Abdinasser Ahmed interpreter said of the event. "Here people Fort Morgan, maybe they don't know what these people are who are Islam."

"I will have more people in this type of meeting would wish to attend the" audience Sandy Harrell later said. "I think if they understand each other, our community would help."

Good chance very qualified Panel questions for those who are in it, said of the Zionist event.

Jenni jgrubbs@fmtimes.comGrubbs contact us.

A New York Jewish girl becomes an Islamist - New York Times

Deborah Baker is a serious biographer specializing in crazy enough writers. His study of the poet Laura Riding, who survived a suicide attempt in 1929, in his 14 household-to-three years with Robert Graves and his wife, was finalist Pulitzer. Then came "A Blue Hand, his portrait of Beats in India, few of them are in robust mental health. Yet, even these have nothing on Maryam Jameelah, New York Jewish convert to Islam, which - as a disciple of world famous more than fundamentalist of Pakistan - a career to condemn West in dozens of books and pamphlets.

Maryam Jameelah in 1962.

Baker makes us not only cares about this disturbed the woman and her prose harassing, she managed to compose a fascinating book on one of the more curious encounters East-West. It proves once again how a marginal cases can be an informative way in the vast and much disputed subjects, namely the meeting of the West and East and the role of women in Orthodox Islam.

Sexual secrets? Suspense? Drama? Reversals? They are all here. With them come compromise on a part of the Baker as a biographer. In a "Note on the methodology", she explains that she presented "rewritten and greatly condensed letters" by Jameelah which are "recreated" from their original versions. It calls the book "a tale" which is basically "a work of non-fiction."

Whatever it is called, it is a thread carefully in New York. Records that are its Foundation are in the section archives and manuscripts to the main branch of the New York public library. When I visited recently, I found nine grey boxes of letters, fiction, controversial, memoirs, drawings, paintings, photographs and videos of this document, the life of Jameelah, born: Margaret Marcus in 1934 in New Rochelle, N.Y.

Most of the letters in the Archives are the parents of Jameelah. Assimilated liberal Jews, they raised him and his sister in the County of Westchester Larchmont village, "a rich suburb of mock Tudor houses." His mother went to Smith, and his father worked in the Affairs of her family tie. Jameelah did not start speaking until the age of 4 years, but when she did, her mother, was in complete sentences. At 10, she was Arab drawing based on photographs in National Geographic magazines in the library of the school and planning to live in Palestine or in Egypt as a painter. At age 15, while his friends were listening to Frank Sinatra, it purchased records by the Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum on the Brooklyn Atlantic Avenue. After the abandonment of the University of New York, she spent years reading Muslim texts in the Eastern division of the public library. At 27, she converted to Islam, with the help of an imam in Brooklyn, and the following year, in 1962, on a freighter for Pakistan, never to return to the United States.

Until she left, she donated a unpublished novel and drawings accompanying to the Eastern division, where she had spent so much time. Lahore, where she resides still, Jameelah continued to send documents to the library through 2005. In the days that I spent Baker used when reading files, I was transported to a version now lost Lahore, but also in New York of the Jameelah. Contrast home affectionate letters clearly with his tendentious books, many of which are fixtures in madrassas all over the world.

Jameelah parents were dumfounded by its zigzagging fixations and flirt - first with photographs of the Holocaust, and Palestinian suffering, then a Zionist Youth Group and, finally, fundamentalist Islam. While his classmates fell happily "boys, dates, dances, parties, clothing and film stars", Jameelah declined, refusing to date or form friendships.

In-depth psychoanalysis does not help to stay in college or get a job. Finally, in 1957, at age 23, she has voluntarily checked in psychiatric hospitals for about two years. The work of the Baker on beats makes it particularly awake the shortcomings of Psychiatry of the time. "Margaret Marcus was not the only transposed the asylum of the 1950s." Artists, poets, homosexuals, Communists and the unfortunate housewives joined him. »

Lorraine Adams is the author of "Port" and "room and the President." She is now writing a novel set in Pakistan.

View the original article here