At the End of the Day

What is it about Sunday? It seems neither fish nor fowl; is it the end of the week, or the beginning of another, or does it exist somewhere in it's own lazy dimension (on a rainy, dark weekend that we're experiencing here in SWMO, that definitely seems the case).

Let me clear the murk from my mind, and see what I can dredge up for you saucy little squabs (beware of drunken vice presidents with shotguns).

• Does Wikipedia have a prophet motive?

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia, is refusing to remove medieval artistic depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, despite being flooded with complaints from Muslims demanding the images be deleted.

More than 180,000 worldwide have joined an online protest claiming the images, shown on European-language pages and taken from Persian and Ottoman miniatures dating from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, are offensive to Islam, which prohibits any representation of Muhammad. But the defiant editors of the encyclopaedia insist they will not bow to pressure and say anyone objecting to the controversial images can simply adjust their computers so they do not have to look at them.

In a robust statement on the site, its editors state: 'Wikipedia recognises that there are cultural traditions among some Muslim groups that prohibit depictions of Muhammad and other prophets and that some Muslims are offended when those traditions are violated. However, the prohibitions are not universal among Muslim communities, particularly with the Shia who, while prohibiting the images, are less strict about it.

'Since Wikipedia is an encyclopedia with the goal of representing all topics from a neutral point of view, Wikipedia is not censored for the benefit of any particular group.

• Is this what Mike Huckabee had in mind?

Egyptian police have stepped up arrests of persons suspected of having HIV, detaining four men this month in a crackdown that violates basic human rights, two international rights groups said Friday.

New York-based Human Rights Watch and London-based Amnesty International warned in a joint statement that the arrests could undermine HIV/AIDS prevention effort as people in Egypt become increasingly afraid to seek information on the subject.

Police denied making any HIV-related arrests but one police official speaking on condition of anonymity said there is a campaign to get persons registered in hospital records as HIV-positive into treatment in "special clinics." The official said he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The latest arrests bring to eight the number of HIV suspects in detention.

• Speaking of Huckabee, he's making sure that Tom Scholz is not feelin' satisfied.

Tom Scholz, the chief songwriter and founder of the band Boston, has written to Mike Huckabee, complaining of his use of the group’s 1976 song “More Than a Feeling” in his presidential campaign without permission, The Associated Press reported.

Mr. Scholz, who supports Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, for president, objects to the implication that the band has endorsed the candidacy of Mr. Huckabee, a Republican.

• I could take a third of my $$$ and simply set it on fire. It would prove about as effective as this.

President Bush on Sunday said Congress should renew his global AIDS program and preserve a requirement that steers money into abstinence efforts.

Some Democrats want to eliminate a provision in the bill that requires one-third[emphasis mine] of all prevention spending go to abstinence-until-marriage programs. Critics say that while they don't oppose abstinence programs, the inflexible requirement hampers the effort.

• Wait a minute, I think I've seen this movie.

While arguing in court that states are free to enact tougher mercury controls from power plants, the Bush administration pressured dozens of states to accept a scheme that would let some plants evade cleaning up their pollution, government documents show.

Internal Environmental Protection Agency documents and e-mails, obtained by the advocacy group Environmental Defense, show attempts over the past two years to blunt state efforts to make their plants drastically reduce mercury pollution instead of trading for credits that would let them continue it.

An EPA official said the agency's job "is not to pressure states."

Not the agency's job, just a hobby.

There's more: "At the End of the Day" >>

Where are the "property rights" and "religious freedom" Republicans on this?

For the last six years, Muslim families who live and work in the "Research Triangle" around Raleigh-Durham North Carolina have piled into their cars after morning services that signal the start of Eid al-Adha -- or the "festival of sacrifice" -- and driven to the farm of Eddie Rowe.

At his farm, the children play, the wives set up picnic lunches and the husbands wait their turn to go into the barn and slaughter a lamb or a goat in the traditional, halal manner. The tradition of sacrifice goes all the way back to Abraham, the patriarch of all three of the worlds major monotheistic religions. The story of Abraham, set forth in the holy texts of Judaism, Islam and Christianity tells of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on the altar to please God. His willingness did indeed please God, and he was allowed to sacrifice an animal instead. To this day, many Muslims the world over observe the ritual sacrifice by slaughtering a lamb or a goat and sharing the meat.

This year, the state stepped in and put a stop to what has become a tradition among the Islamic doctors and researchers who have been drawn to the area by research jobs at hospitals and universities. They say that Rowe is operating an illegal and unsanitary slaughterhouse.

Rowe said that state agriculture officials did not give him any advance warning, instead a restraining order was sought and served to stop the sacrifice from going forward this year. Some of the people who have made a tradition of sacrificing an animal on Eddie Rowe's farm took their animals elsewhere to perform the ritual, and others took their money back.

The state of North Carolina has offered Rowe plans for a code-compliant slaughterhouse - that would cost three-quarters of a million dollars to build. Rowe, understandably, is reluctant to take that plunge, since he only makes about $20.00 per animal and sells about 250 animals each Eid.

I don't understand his reluctance...He could break even in a mere 150 years.

North Carolina law allows people to slaughter animals they have raised themselves without following codes meant for commercial meat processors. But to be exempt from those codes, Wells said, they may not sell the meat to others.

Rowe's lawyer, Glenn Barfield, thinks the law allows Muslims to slaughter the animals on Rowe's land. The state has suggested that Muslims take their animals to commercial slaughterhouses, but Barfield said many of those would not allow someone to kill an animal themselves.

Rowe and his farmhands said they had a natural sympathy for the Muslims' plight. Local residents, they noted, would not take kindly to a law that pro- hibited them from dressing a deer or holding communal hog killings, long a North Carolina ritual.

So my question is - where are the people who scream the loudest that their religious rights are infringed when a creche is removed from public property? Where are the property rights people who jump up and down and scream that a mans property is his to do with as he damn well sees fit when an endangered species is discovered that prevents him from cutting down a tree or building a garage?

Do they have anything to say about this?

All I hear is crickets...

There's more: "Where are the "property rights" and "religious freedom" Republicans on this?" >>

Haute Couture, Not Hate Couture

This post is meant to be a bit of a companion piece to CJ's below. The rightwing noise machine goes to great pains to foment hate for those that they perceive to be our enemies, and they go to great lengths to pigeonhole and dehumanize them to the masses. This has been done, with a good deal of success, respectively to the Iraqis, the Iranians and to Muslims in general.

Of course, the reality, as is to be expected, is a much more complex and compelling story. More on the flip....

Fashion Week in New York City is not a place one would expect to find a devout practitioner of Islam, much less would one expect to find said practitioner to be a celebrated designer, busy behind the scenes tarting up her models with her latest creations.

Turkish designer Rabia Yalcin is a devout Muslim. In public she wears a hear scarf and conservative dress. But the plunging neck lines, peek-a-boo bras and see-through material reveal her flair for the sensual.

Asked if she would ever wear her garments, Yalcin responds, "Of course I would wear it, but in private at my home." Yalcin believes a girl can have it all, mixing haute couture with Islamic sensibility.

In stark contrast to the couture she supplies her runway models...

...Yalcin is quite modest and traditional in her dress.

In this, she sees no contradiction between her faith and her career.

"My religion has taught me about understanding and loving," said Yalcin. "As far as I'm concerned, I create designs for women of all backgrounds and religions and I don't discriminate, and I have respect and love for all."

Amazing. Not only does this devout Muslim not hate us for our freedom, not only has she not had to been fought "over there" to keep her from killing us, "over here," but she is more than happy to leave us to whatever vices in our own homes and bedrooms in which we may wish to partake. There is is many a religious leader in this little old country of ours that could learn a valuable lesson from this lady.

There's more: "Haute Couture, Not Hate Couture" >>