However what I found really amusing was Salamu Alaikom followed by a jolt to find a woman beggar sitting there with her baby, waiting till the men finished praying in order to get a few JDs….

Grizzly’s stories are some of many stories I have been hearing lately about people taking their children (ages begin from a few months on) to the mosque.  A friend was telling me that while she was trying hard to focus on meditation and humility, her mind was taken over by one thought; how she wished she could slap the 3 little girls, who were standing behind her back, watching the praying men from the window and giggling excited! The girls were settling world’s affairs, while worshipers were trying to listen in the most absolute silence.

 In other words    فاتحين دواوين

In yet another incident, my sister was commenting on a woman who was at the mosque with her toddler. The baby was, rightfully, upset being out of home at that late hour and so she started crying … my sister expected the mother to leap immediately out of the mosque in order not to disturb the other women … but the lady sat there  بكل نياطة as if annoying every single woman there was a perfectly respectable thing to do!…  some women  eventually got fed up with her and told her off… she resisted a bit, but then took the baby and ambled out of the mosque so slowly, oblivious to all the women who were waiting patiently for her highness to leave in order to start praying… Her actions almost sound blasphemous!

I wonder why she had to wait till someone gave her a piece of their mind in order to do the decent thing? Is it lack of common sense? Is it selfishness? Is it bad manners?

Since it is Ramadan… I would like to cast my cynicism aside and think that parents take children to the mosque only because they feel it is important to raise children with a strong attachment to their religion.… and not for any other reasons… but part of me still finds it selfish, completely tasteless and an indication of ignorance to take children and leave them unattended.  I mean if a parent insists that their children have to go to the mosque, the least they should do is make sure that they pray next to them so that they behave and not distract those who are actually there to pray.

And then…at that point, when people stop being selfish, even in practicing religion… maybe then, we could become a better nation.

I followed Sarkozy’s historic speech addressing the French Parliament this last June,  where he addressed one of the most debated issues in France, the Hijab!

“We cannot accept in our country women imprisoned behind bars, cut off from social life, deprived of identity,” he said. “That is not our idea of maintaining the dignity of women.” to know more about the story, read here.

What was not clear to me was whether France will ban burqas or was Sarkozy just encouraging people in France to feel and express hostility towards women who wear them? I also did not understand how denying women this choice would enhance their dignity?  It is interesting how the west always assumes that women who wear the Burqa do so because they are forced or pressured into it.   I would like to refer here to an Egyptian Anthropologist… Lila Abu Lughod, who researched the hijab extensively and referred to the hijab as a form of  resistance.

In one of her studies, she was talking about how the Americans made it a point to say that one of the reasons they would go into Afghanistan was to save the Afghani women from the Burqa… I guess they were expecting that all women will go in the street and throw the Burqas the moment they saw the Americans…

It, as we all know,… did not happen.

Actually… I really don’t want to talk about the hijab, this was not my intention in this post. What I really found interesting was that Sarkozy… the man who divorced his wife in a sex scandal after cheating on her with a model was talking about women’s dignity with so much confidence… I am not sure how women who wear the hijab are not dignified, but women who get cheated on through sex scandals by their partners are?…. I, as a women find that interesting, i wonder how other women feel about it? also I wonder how Sarkozy can speak about women’s dignity? when he was checking a young woman’s butt in a very indignified way… not too long ago actually. …

Just to add another dimension to this… researches affiliated with the Sorbonne have recently published a report on inequalities in France… The volume  includes extensive statistical information about social and economic inequalities in France… it addressed the gender inequality… Apparently, women in France are clearly discriminated against in the workplace… till today, these dignified French women don’t earn the same salaries as men, even though they hold the same positions…

I guess we should aspire to a world where women have their full rights, but let’s not get too lost in the western idea of rights to a point where we ignore the right to chose, and the right to be different in the process…

I think that xenotransplantation is acceptable in most religions. (xenotransplantation is the transfer of living organs, tissues, or cells from one species to another to replace the ever increasing organ shortages.) Both Islam and Judaism forbid the eating of pork, but accept xenotransplantation on the basis that humans have a higher place in the world and therefore have the right to use animals for their welfare, as long as the animals are treated with respect.

However the question that poses itself here is if the opposite holds true? Is it possible that Islam forbids eating pork because pigs have proven to be one of the best sources to supply organs to humans?

Maybe we will find a plausible reason soon… and the reason will be more convincing than the old debates about the pig eating its shit, or because it is polygamous!

By the way I know about genetic engineering as much as I know about Chinese language… so I am counting on O.’s contribution here.
Omar
Most organ transplants nowadays are considered to be relatively safe and routine procedures. However, the global demand for organs for patients waiting for transplantation is not being met. Recently, scientists and researchers are placing great hopes on being able to use cross-species transplants between humans and animals to help alleviate part of the shortage. This process is called xenotransplantaion.

Most animal organs have been extensively researched to find the most suitable replacement to that of humans. Of all the different animals, baboons and pigs are the favored xenotransplant donors. Baboons and chimpanzees are genetically close to humans. However, because of their developed social structure, human-like behaviors, and the large number of viruses they host; many ethical and medical issues were raised concerning their use; as a result, pigs became the most likely candidates for the job; mainly because of certain characters they hold, such as: pigs have organ sizes that are very similar to those of humans, and their genes can be easily inserted in human DNA.

Risks
1- Many public health concerns regarding the clinical trials of xenotransplantation have been raised. The major growing fear in transplanting animal organs, cells and tissues into humans is that such transplants might expose humans to the many different viruses primates and other animal harbor
2- Hyper acute Rejection usually caused by the natural antibodies

3- Acute vascular rejection

4- Ethical issues

Madas
This whole debate makes me think of the novel Never Let Me Go by Japanese/British author Kazuo Ishiguro, who also wrote the Remains of the day…The book is disturbing in the sense that when I finished the last word, I realized that I had been sobbing for a while… However it is also absolutely touching. Ishiguro always allows his characters to reveal their human weaknesses via veiled but suggestive language and situations. Usually the feelings feel very real and plausible.

Now let’s try to keep an open mind about this whole interview, there were both positive and negative points in the interview. To start with the positive, she really displayed a lot of courage in saying what no one else dared say. Lets imagine a scenario, a non-Muslim western woman in the Hyatt in Amman,  this imagined lady lost her partner and the love of her life with the explosions… would that person go having positive ideas about Muslims?… lets think of the same scenario in a house in Palestine, where a missile just hit the house and a Muslim visitor has lost her partner and the love her life… would she think positively of Jews?

What I am trying to say is that we Muslims should not fall in the trap of double standards that we condemn all the time… people of the world do think badly of us Muslims. Is it fair? I can’t answer this question… I know that my blood boiled when I heard about the explosions in Amman.

What this Syrian doctor has achieved is made me realize how the world thinks of us Muslims… Now, I know this is not the truth about us, and many Muslims know that Islam is not a violent religion, on the contrary a religion that has showed mercy and leniency all through history. The prophet words were about mercy and leniency, but really is this the case in today’s picture of Islam? Many of her arguments were really and truly valid… her bitter criticism of all these holy people who interpret Qura’an  and say that the murders are justified in the name of religion. Her argument was that in today’s world, Islam which is the religion of a billion people in a world of six billion plus divides people into true believers and infidels, and are called to fight until all people believe, which makes Muslims stand alone in isolation against the rest of the world.

Now to the negatives.  Dr. Sultan did not make any distinction between Islam and Muslims, which I found not fair, what Muslims do, does not reflect the spirit of Islam, especially that these are a minority. She kept mixing national identities with religion in a non-balanced way.  I believe the provocative bit comes from the comparison she made between Muslims and Jews, because her facts were neither accurate nor fair.  are we talking about the land or about the religion?  These are completely different stories. “The Jews have come from the tragedy and forced the world to respect them, with their knowledge, not with their terror; with their work, not with their crying and yelling.”

Is this really true? Would the millions of Palestinians s in Diaspora agree with this? Those who were killed and raped and tortured and thrown out of their lands and houses… would they agree? What about the crying and yelling? Please…. What is the massacre most celebrated in the world? How many massacres happened through the history of the world? How many out there would know about the Rwanda genocide for example vs. how many know about the Holocaust?

Another example is when she said: “We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. We have not seen a single Jew destroy a church. We have not seen a single Jew protest by killing people.” This made me wonder where she has been living the last 50 years.
Maybe they did not blow themselves up, but that does not mean they did not kill people or destroy holly places… as a matter of fact,  there are several events that come to my mind without even thinking; the massacre of Hebron to start with… then the 1200 Islamic mosques that were destroyed in Palestine.  Among the historic mosques that were converted to synagogues or restaurants and bars are Yaquque mosque in Tiberias turned into Hibaquqeu synagogue, Abu Huraira mosque in Ramleh turned into Jamli’el synagogue, Wadi Hunayn mosque also in Ramleh turned into Geulat Yesrael synagogues….etc.
In conclusion, regardless of what she said, I think she would have been a winner if she was more diplomatic in what she said, and if she was fair.  I remember my dad used to tell me as a child, when you are right, you are never afraid… and if we Muslims believe that we are right, we should never be afraid of being questioned,  and we should argue smartly… I insist on smartly, because in this interview the people who were debating were noton equal pace with the doctor.

Violence in the Middle East, like violence elsewhere in the world, is manifested in the hate, prejudice, and selfishness found in all human beings. Unfortunately our spirituality is defined by the same negative attitudes that define our relationships. The competitiveness we have injected into our peaceful religion contains the seeds of the violence destroying our social fabric today (our hello says peace be on you…) . Can it be changed? Gandhi said nothing in this world is impossible to achieve if we have the will to do so.

According to Amnesty International’s 2004 report, we have a high rate of violence, represented in so many forms, political violence, violence against women, Refugee and Migrants.. you name it… however, there is an effort to restore more human rights in the area, more activist groups are emerging and being accepted in different countries across the Arab world.

Now Nawal Sadawi seems to think there is a correlation between violence and sexual frustration; she gives two examples, the conservative American society, where violence is a serious issue. ( Bowling for columbine gives details about violence there… though devoid from this sexual theory) and gives another example the Scandinavian countries where people are not sexually frustrated and violence is very little. (At least against other people… I mean it is reported that the highest suicide rate is in there… I personally think it is because they don’t get enough sunlight!!!)

Speaking of sunlight, it is very sunny outside, so I am going to enjoy the beauty of nature… kite runner turns out to be a good book…I had to stop reading yesterday when the most important thing in the novel happens because I did not want to dream about it. Crescent is ok, the writer made a rather silly mistake… she goes tomorrow is the first day of Ramadan and since the moon is full today… I am going home walking… anyway

The day finished with watching a parade… this weeks is called ´la semana santa´ or the sacred week, that accompanies Easter. I have to admit that i am buffled by this parade… people who are wearing these pointy hats and have the faces covered just like the attire of the KKK movement, they have opening for the eyes and when they look at you, you feel these are not people to mess with… they were holding trumpets and drums, followed by hundreds of people holding candles in silence… . Many of them are bearfoot and other are crawling on their knees as some sort of sacrifice… and I really dont know if this is part of christianity or it is some tradition that came hundreds of years afterwards… templars or Crusaders… or God knows what…actually i am very curious to know more about this… the point of all this, a thought hit me while watching these old ladies crawling on their hands and knees with all the blood and cuts and that is if it is really worth it to do all these physical sacrifices in the name of God or religion… or whatever school of thought we would belong to…

On a happier note.. Santiago is fascinating.. i have been having so much fun watching these young people cruising through the city holding hands and totally in love… Santiago beside its christian place in spain is also a very fanmous campus… and part of how i have been feeling is that i fell somehow in the land of peter pan where everyone is young and enjoying life… and since every year the older ones graduate and leave and a new wave of young people join this campus… it really never grows old… it has this perpetual youth…

Anyway… I need to sleep now, i will start with yet another Isabelle Allende book… beside all the extra terrestrial, vampires, star wars and time traveling … i have passion for isabelle allende!

Before i go further in the story, let me explain what is 3ideh. In islam when a woman either gets divorced or widowed, she can not get married for 3 monthly periods, to make sure she is not pregnant. I asked Abir shocked if her mother in law was planning to get married, and she answered me,no but basically they asked many sheikhs and they told them that a woman is NOT allowed to leave the house for 3 months in case of divorce or widowhood!

I was APPALLED to hear that, but what really HORRIFIED me is the fact, that a perfectly intelligent and liberal woman like Abir would actually believe in something like that, satisfying herself with an answer like “I asked many sheikhs” without even questioning. I was wondering if a smart, highly educated person like her would fall in this trap, who would blame the million of other women around the world who believe in many faulty ideas just because some sheikh said that. In all cases, and since i believe that when you have doubts in religion, there is one and only book you refer to and that book is called the QURAAN! and since i do not believe that i have to put the understanding of a sheikh between God and me, because if Quraan is for everyone, i should be able to understand it as much as any sheikh would… I decided to look this issue up.

I found the answer in Surat al baqara, verse number 228, where is says “Divorced women shall wait concerning themselves for three monthly periods. Nor is it lawful for them to hide what Allah hath created in their wombs, if they have faith in Allah and the Last Day…” Then i decided to look up all known books of explaining the Quraan, (jalalein, Ibbn katheer,…etc)just to see what they say, and they all agreed on the fact that a woman should wait 3 periods before she get married again. and if she is an older woman who does not get her period anymore, or a married woman who has not consumated the marriage then she does not have to wait at all… So where did all these sheikhs come up with this fatwa? i have no clue!

It made me wonder about today with the scientific advancement a woman can know if she is pregnant in a matter of hours… does she still have to wait thrree months? I wont answer that for everyone, but i made up my mind on the answer for myself.

so my advise to everyone is dont accept anything without questioning… i suppose this is one of the reaosns we have our brains to think and question and decide.