**TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT: 1) My original picture was the girl and donkey. 2) That chicken poop picture is disgusting. 3) I put the donkey in the air image after finding said chicken poop picture this morning. 4) Retribution will be swift and merciless. In the midst of our recent exciting conversation about an upcoming conference in Michigan, and all the cool things Kabobers can submit on the pretext of being academics and activists (but really just aiming to have a big party), our resident MHMD interjected, "What a bunch of nerds."
(Note: It must be stated that this was in fact a considerably insightful observation.)
I nearly responded by inviting MHMD, who is in Ramallah and who clearly cannot just up and arrive in Michigan, to submit his recent paper and then use the acceptance to get a visa to come with us.
I nearly made myself into a huge ass. HAD I invited MHMD to the conference, he would then have had to explain that well actually, in order to get a visa he'd have to go to Jerusalem or to Amman. Going to Jerusalem is practically impossible; he'd have to get a permit that would take forever to get and probably not be issued anyway. Plus there's the fact that his ID is Gazawi, which means that instead of giving him a permit or even just denying him the permit, they could deport him to Gaza and completely destroy his school, life, etc etc. Alternatively, if he goes to Amman, upon reentry at the border, he'd be herded onto the van for people with Gaza id and sent straight to Gaza, no questions and no exceptions.
I'm glad I didn't make myself into an ass by inviting him to the conference. Only under the strange and inhumane nature of an apartheid regime can such a thing as inviting someone to a conference become an assinine thing to do.
**MHMD corrected me that he does indeed have another passport. What this means is that he can in fact travel overseas quite easily. However, Israel deems its own IDs to have precedence over any other passport anyone might carry- US, Canadian, British, anything. If they can find your Palestinian ID number, you fall under Palestinian travel restrictions. What THIS means, is that were MHMD to leave, he almost certainly could never come back. He would in fact be herded onto the van and sent to Gaza, or not allowed back in at all.
And if he were any number of other people, the above would apply, and there'd be no traveling for you, Joe.
So I need to stop accidentally inviting folks to conferences until Palestine is free, already!
It has been requested recently that letters urging Dr. Al-Arian's release be sent to Judge Gerald Lee of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, to Attorney General Michael Mukasey and to congressional leaders.
Supporters are also being asked to write letters directly to Dr. Al-Arian.
Please write:
Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001 (202) 307-6777 Fax askdoj@usdoj.gov
Glenn A. Fine, Inspector General Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington, DC 20530-0001
House Judiciary Chair: The Honorable John Conyers, Jr 2426 Rayburn Building Washington, DC 20515 (202) 225-5126 (202) 225-0072 Fax john.conyers@mail.house.gov
Senate Judiciary Chair: Senator Patrick Leahy 433 Russell Senate Office Building United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 (202) 224-4242 senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
To contribute to Dr. Al-Arian's legal defense, please send checks to: National Liberty Fund P.O. Box 1211 24525 E. Welches Road Welches, OR 97067
According to the print issue of the International Herald Tribune on Feb 8,
Lawmakers voted early Thursday to approve a constitutional amendment to allow women to enter universities wearing Islamic head scarves, a move that many secular Turks view as an attempt to impose religion on their daily lives.
Lawmakers voted 401 to 110 in a preliminary vote in favor of the government's proposed amendment to the Constitution. The government has defended its plan as a reform needed to give its citizens religious liberty and bring Turkey in line with European Union human rights guidelines.
A second, final round of voting was scheduled for Saturday. (AP)
Well, I should think so!! Forcing women to choose between their religious beliefs and their education is completely and utterly unacceptable, first off. As it stands in Turkey, you can't study at university, or teach for that matter, if you are a religious Muslim woman who wears the headscarf. You either have to violate your religious beliefs, give up your educational career altogether in anything outside Islamic Law, or opt for a third choice: learning an entirely new language in order to study in another country.
I studied Arabic with a young Turkish woman in Jordan, who was studying to master the Arabic language in order to obtain a bachelor's level degree from the University of Jordan in Psychology. The route to higher education in her own country was closed to her, as she chose to wear hijab.
I view any policy that excludes women for wearing hijab as just as offensive and unacceptable as a policy that excludes women who do not. But fundamental personal religious freedoms aside, it can't possibly be in Turkey's best interest as a nation to encourage bright and ideological young people to leave and put down roots elsewhere for the sake of their education.
According to it, two-thirds of women in Turkey cover their hair... that's a lot of people not allowed to attend college classes.
The government's plan to change the law has sparked large protest rallies by secular Turks, who want to defend the legacy of the modern state's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
They fear it may be a first step to eroding the secular system.
Yes! It's a slippery slippery slope, my friends. A SLIPPERY SLOPE! First your religious neighbor's daughter will attend classes with yours, and then there will be NO ALCOHOL SOLD ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY!!!!!! ANYWHERE!!!!!
Not only can you banned from entering the US for donating money to a Muslim charity a la the Muslim Martin Luther King Tariq Ramadan, but now you can be charged for "ideologically-based violence" in the land of the free and the home of the brave. The stuff of the fictionally-based Orwell political doomsday novel 1984, omnipresent big brother surveillance and thought-crime charges, is no longer contained in the realm of fantasy.
House Bill 1955, known on the hill as "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention" bill, and known in oppositional circles as the thought crime bill, amends the 2002 Homeland Security Act by adding the following provisions:
Enables the Secretary of Homeland Security to:
(1) establish a grant program to prevent radicalization (use of an extremist belief system for facilitating ideologically-based violence) and homegrown terrorism in the United States.
(2) establish or designate a university-based Center of Excellence for the Study of Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism in the United States.
(3) conduct a survey of methodologies implemented by foreign nations to prevent radicalization and homegrown terrorism.
The bill, sponsored and introduced by high-standing California Democrat Jane Harman on April 19, 2007, was passed this past October in the House, and now is awaiting a vote on the Senate floor.
That's great May, now back to things that actually matter…
This morning the NY Times reported that Ms. Debbie Almontaser, the founding principle of NYC's Khalil Gibran International Academy, filed a lawsuit against Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Education Department Chancellor Joel I. Klein for suppressing her freedom of speech and "conspire-[ing] to deny her the opportunity to regain her position as principle."
If you recall, a few months ago Ms. Almontaser was pressured into resigning after a few spineless officials - pandering to a gang of racist Zionuts and xenophobic turds who launched a smear campaign against her for explaining that the Arabic word for "intifada" literally means "shaking off" - made it damn near impossible for her to continue in her duties as school principle.
Well, she's suing now. And seeing as this is a clear cut case of her first amendment rights being violated, she's likely to win too. So in advance, I'd just like to thank all the racist douche bags (namely the Stop The Madrassa Coalition) who made it possible for another influential pro-Palestinian to turn millionaire. I'm sure Ms. Almontaser will use her new found wealth for something really evil and anti-Semitic too… like…gasp…education!
Here's an interesting story that's controversial for all the wrong reasons:
Arab students attending the Haifa University distributed on Tuesday a leaflet titles "The Palestinian Student's Journal," which featured texts regarding the reoccupying of Jerusalem.
Pick up on the controversy yet? Here's a hint… it's the reoccupation of Jerusalem. OoooOOOooooh! Can you believe those ungrateful third-class bastards, demanding the reoccupation of land that's legally and rightfully theirs to begin with?
The leaflet was distributed, they said, to mark both the anniversary of Former Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's death, as well as the Arab Keffiyeh Day.
...a holiday celebrated by NYC hipsters all the time.
The flyers – unlike the university's Arab Students' Union's leaflets – were not sanctioned by the university and campus security was able to seize and confiscate a portion of them.
Censorship on a university campus? In Israel? NO WAY! Seems to me like that should be the real controversy here. But alas, in the land of milk and honey and Zionuts - human rights tend to take a backseat to Israeli sentiment. (By the way, I wonder if they also react this way to pro-settler leaflets.)
MK Alex Miller (Yisrael Beiteinu) told Ynet that he had the material reviewed by a legal counsel and that he intended to file a police report against its distributors.
For what, practicing their freedom of speech in a supposedly democratic state? Oh shoot, I forgot! My bad, Israel is only a democracy for Jewish people. Cool rules like that don't apply to stinky Arabs (that have tails and horns and sharp teeth and stuff). Rawr!!!
"The students distributing this material are guilty of incitement and are not worthy to be neither the university's students nor citizens of Israel," said Miller.
Exile citizens for practicing critical free thought - now that's a good idea! Here's another one: If you're really fearful of "incitement," burn Der Judenstaat.
"I intend to demand President Shimon Peres' involvement in denouncing the leaflets' writers and distributors," he added.
Haifa University told Ynet that "when such material is found on campus grounds it is immediately confiscate by our security guards."
Isn't it interesting that campus security at Haifa University is not only tasked with patrolling campus property, but also students' minds?
This, more than any football game, makes me more proud to be a UM graduate. The University of Michigan Press decided unanimously to continue to distribute Pluto Press books. A Zionut campaign pressured the university and the press to cancel the contract because Pluto Press publishes books critical of Israel. They were especially angered by the publication of Joel Kovel's book, 'Overcoming Zionism,' which is anti-Zionism and proposes one state based on equality between Israelis and Palestinians as the basis for peace (how offensive!)
Finally, a kernal of good news. My hats off to the Press for upholding the values of academic debate. I imagine UM Press will publish some pro-Israel tracts to manage the backlash, but we will see.
A video posted on YouTube explores the contest over academic freedom, with a focus on recent Columbia University controversies. The video looks at Campus Watch, Daniel Pipes, Hamid Dabashi, Joseph Massad, Rashid Khalidi, and Hamid Dabashi. It also shows Stephen Walt about the impact of his thesis critiquing the Israel lobby.
