I am a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew and a Buddhist too. If you don't like it, then this place is not for you, but as long as you don't force your beliefs on anyone, you're welcome to join in, it doesn't matter if you're a liberal, a republican or just simply you.
I got word from Ahmed Marcouch himself and one other source who's a close
friend/associate of his saying how moved he is, expressing his appreciation for
all our support with this petition. And I too must thank you all from the
bottom of my heart for your support and helping raise awareness.
A great big hug to all! :)
Normally I don't put all that much faith in politicians, but with Ahmed
Marcouch it's different, mainly because when I read the newspapers, it appears
that he didn't set out to be where he's at right now with his political career,
he's paving the way as he goes purely with his NO-nonsense approach to whatever
ails the community and just takes care of things. He's now in the position to
possibly become a key lawmaker and a staunch advocate for minorities, the
disadvantaged and education at a national level, purely by popular vote.
At the recently held municipal elections in The Netherlands he was
positioned last on the list of candidates by his political party (PvdA) in
Amsterdam (at #29), but he ended up coming in 2nd (with a little over
12000 votes), securing a spot as a city councilman in Amsterdam. This was
probably due to all the great things he has accomplished in the few years that
he's been district mayor in a highly troubled part of Amsterdam. During that
time, not only did he manage to ease tensions caused by widespread ETHNIC
CLASHES and clamp down on HOMOPHOBIA, which had reached a critical level among
Muslim youth, he actually succeeded in tearing down the entire neighborhood
where the Muslim extremist who murdered filmmaker Theo van Gogh grew up, to root
out evil and send a strong message of TOLERANCE, DIVERSITY and FREEDOM above
all. And the fact that he's a practicing Muslim fighting against
homophobia....I myself as a (non-practicing Muslim) find it truly remarkable.
Take THAT
Ahmadinejad!
Supporter Bryan F. writes:
Thanks for the update. It is very interesting for me to learn of Ahmed Marcouch's message to be one of hope of TOLERANCE,
DIVERSITY and FREEDOM.
Unfortunately in the world today, Islam and Muslims, and even those
who appear to be of Arab ethnicity have been unfairly classified and
categorized as being radical fundamentalists who threaten and plague the
Western World. That fabrication must be addressed and corrected. I
applaud you for taking the time to thoughtfully post a petition on Change.org to enlighten
all regarding this issue.
Keep up the good work, and please keep me informed accordingly.
Zehra
Fazal, a folk-rock
artist from Washington DC, frequently hits the
stage with her "Headscarf and the Angry bitch" show, described as a
tongue-in-cheek exploration of faith, love, sex and what it means to grow up as
a Muslim in America.
With
her weird facial expressions and hilariously antagonizing acts like
"The only thing I'll do five times a day is
you" and "I lost my virginity during Ramadan", no
wonder critics dubbed her "The Muslim Weird
Al".
Surprisingly though, as liberal and thought provoking as she is,
she's been featured on Iranian
TV, but there has been little media coverage on
her show here in the US, despite the fact that it's one of the hottest tickets, selling
out all over town in DC.
An ambiguously shaped stick puppet of Muhammed makes a memorable cameo
appearance, along with a plastic alarm clock shaped like a Mosque that
sporadically and terrifyingly caterwauls throughout the show.
The show’s highlights, however, are its songs. Oh yes, what satire would be
complete without tongue-in-cheek parodies played on an acoustic guitar in a
Flight of the Concords-esque style? Musical highlights from the show include,
but in no way are limited to, “The Only Thing I’d Do Five Times a Day Is You”
and a Michael Jackson Smooth Criminal parody that had half the audience
hyperventilating.
This one woman show is sharp, entertaining, and polished. Once Fazal’s
clarion voice bursts out from behind her hijab, you cannot take your eyes off
her – she’s charismatic and possesses a spastic, almost frantic energy that is
endearing and painfully hilarious all at the same time. At a time when political
correctness is cropping up in epidemic proportions, Headscarf and the Angry
Bitch is a delightful reminder that sometimes there’s no haraam in
laughter.
"Grilled Fish is a fictional novel based on actual facts. It portrays the
lives of a group of young men growing up in Casablanca, Morocco, during the
seventies. The story is told through the eye of Saed, a teenager who, like his
peers, had to deal with the harsh reality of the Moroccan society..."
I'd like to add that yes, "Grilled
Fish" does portray the lives of a group of young Moroccan men during the 70s Casablanca, but I think it's a timeless story that also gives you a
deeper understanding for what drives Moroccan wannabe immigrants who sometimes would do anything,
including risk their lives to cross over to Europe, hoping for a better
existence. And it also puts the spotlight on so many more who won't even dare make
the attempt, simply because they're paralyzed by a draconian system that rules
lives.
Incidentally, Abel is my very first online friend, from when I first joined the
Internet in 1999...I was deeply honored when he asked me to write the foreword
for "Grilled Fish".
She was merely doing her job educating the public and raising
awareness to combat the spread of AIDS, while working for an anti-AIDS
nonprofit organization in a country that has 25,000 recorded cases of
AIDS infected patients.
Now she's being harassed and threatened for causing embarrassment to
the Muslim community, after she was shown on French TV educating
Moroccan youth and prostitutes at an anti-Aids conference on how to
apply a subtle technique to use a condom, especially when a sex partner
refuses to use protection.
The spread of AIDS continues to be a global menace that affects us
all!
Milouda should be hailed as a brave and courageous woman for going
all out to raise awareness on a serious public threat and should NOT be
ostracized for doing her job.
Clearly her intentions are good and
not meant to cause harm or embarrassment to anyone.
Thank you for your attention to this critical matter.
I just translated the first half of the Dutch article I linked to above (starting
with the title), which I think is most relevant to Milouda's case.
Also...it is not clear from this article if Milouda was fired or simply
quit her job out of embarrassment or as a result of being threatened and
harassed.
.........
Little trick with a condom cost Moroccan woman her
career
RABAT - Milouda can be seen only briefly on the Internet. "But those ten
seconds, have ruined my entire career," she says. Milouda is a Moroccan woman
with a headscarf shown on a clip via Youtube, demonstrating how to put a condom
on a penis with your mouth . She is being threatened ever since.
Her aim was so praiseworthy. In the fight against AIDS, she wants to get
prostitutes and young, inexperienced girls acquainted with the condom. Milouda
worked at Doctors Without Borders for ten years she says on Tuesday on the
Moroccan newspaper Akhbar Alyoum, and since 2007 she is working for the ALCS, a
Moroccan anti-AIDS organization.
In late March the ALCS organized a conference on HIV and AIDS in
Casablanca. In response, the French news agency AFP made a movie about HIV and
AIDS in Morocco, which was broadcast on French television. Afterwards, the clip
ended up on Youtube.
It's a neat movie. Himmich Hakima, president of the ALCS, explains that
in Morocco around 25 thousand people are HIV positive. An HIV patient says that
no one dares to talk about her illness and we hear that condoms are not popular
in Morocco.
The movie also shows what ALCS does in terms of AIDS prevention. One of
the actions is a weekly briefing for prostitutes - and the camera zooms in on
the educator, a woman with a black head scarf in the back with a condom. That
woman is Milouda.
Milouda explains how a prostitute can handle customers who do not want the
condom. "If the customer does not want to, tell him that you have something
new," says Milouda. "He will enjoy it." Milouda then crumpled the condom in her
mouth and let it slide down on one of the colored fake penises in front of her
on the table.
[I think this is the part that's most telling]
Morocco's conservative Islamic party PJD said it was a disgrace. Sex
education, fine, but this woman went into too much detail. She didn't need to
say how men like to be satisfied. Even chief editor Rachid Niny of Al Massae,
who is known as enlightened, thought this was a no no. The combination scarf and
condoms, that was what most critics found repugnant.
I was reading this article about the hunt on cats being on the rise in China, because of their "elite" culinary status in Chinese culture and I'm sitting here wondering why chicken soup or beef barley is OK in most cultures, but not vegetable cat soup for instance?
Most people would probably gag at the thought of eating cat or dog meat, but apparently not in Chinese culture, where they're on the high demand list as a delicacy.
Some say this sudden demand for cats is caused by bad economic times, which doesn't make sense to me, because usually when something is in high demand the price goes up too.
Are cats and dogs spared from the butcher's knife in western culture perhaps because of their level of intelligence and the ability to fight back? Or is it because human compassion gets in the way due to the many human-like personality traits cats and dogs possess, which other domesticated animals do not? Or could it be the level of self-esteem and hunger for power or control in a democracy vs non-democracy that people seem to be consumed with, so they take it out on animals? Sound crazy?
Sighhh, so many questions.
I can understand hunting animals for the sake of survival out in the jungle or when you're lost somewhere way out there in the middle of nowhere, but I fail to understand the persistent need to kill another living being purely for gourmet consumption in our modern day civilization, when we have an overabundance in alternative sources for nutrition.
''The police did what they could, but there's little they can do to stop or punish those traders from shipping live animals,'' Lai said.
Zhu Huilian, a nutrition and food safety professor at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, said people usually eat cat in restaurants, not at home.
''There's a famous soup called 'Dragon, Tiger and Phoenix,' '' Zhu said. ''It involves cooking snake, cat and chicken together. In winter more people eat cats as they believe it's extra nutritious.''
This week on The State We're In, we mark 'World Naturist Week', and ask whether the laws against public nudity are in our best interest, or if they restrict our fundamental freedoms to be at one with ourselves and nature. What do you think?
Perhaps it depends on your culture or how you were raised, I don't know.
Growing up in The Netherlands myself, I've witnessed plenty of public nudity on the streets of Amsterdam, at the pools, on the beach, at the park....my experience is that too much of it kills the mystery that drives desire.
Najia is talking about hate sites schlepping up upon the US digital shores because if those sites were hosted in Europe a lot of people could be in jail.
I was, at the time, cheerfully clicking on some links about Second Life and its European counterpart Habbo Hotel.The world of Snow Crash was nowhere near this seamy and litigious, all Hiro and YT had to worry about was a crazy Aleut with a nuke and an egomaniacal evangelist bent on unleashing the ultimate namshub upon the unsuspecting denizens of the Internet.
What am I talking about you ask?Well first there is this 17-year-old youth from Holland who used various unethical means to secure access to other Habbo Hotel user accounts.He then proceeded to loot their accounts of virtual furniture, which he moved to his account.Total cost is estimated at $5,800US since to own stuff in Habbo Hotel requires the users to pay for it from credit cards.
If stealing virtual furniture is not your game then in Second Life they just had their first S&L meltdown.Ginko Bank, after three years virutally open, has suddenly folded taking with it almost 200,000,000 Linden dollars or about $750,000 real US dollars.No word if the bank customers will get any of their money back from this online ponzi scheme.
But if this ever goes to a virtual court, we can thank this case for blazing the way to establishing a virtual judicial system.One enterprising coder has created something to change the Ken&Barbie nueter avatars of Second Life into well developed figures.Leisure Suit Larry games spring to mind all of a sudden.Now he is suing someone for allegedly cracking his encryptions and peddling the SexGen code independent of the developer.To which the avatar in question replied, “So sue me.”No word on how Interpol or other international legal agreements will be impacted by this or vice versa.
And to cover all of these less than legal activities it seems CNN has launched its own Second Life news bureau.No word on the quality of the reporting since anyone can submit stories, so I guess Capt Jamil Hussein and Balil Hussein might start working for SL-I Reports anytime soon; assuming neither meets the gallows in the meantime.
One of Israel's more primitive stereotypes is against the female driver, so it's no wonder heads turn when people see a woman behind the wheel of a bus.
And not only is Nabila one of the country's few female bus drivers, she is the first Muslim to drive a bus, which makes her a particular rarity in her profession.
I just happened to stumble upon this blog and found myself indulging in this man's delightful tales of his travels through Morocco on a bike.
As his blog title indicates he kind of prefers doing his own thing, so if you live in Morocco and you happen to run into him by chance, please leave him be.....but if it's late at night and he happens to look tired, please offer him a place to snooze.
On another express note...
As long as I can remember there has been talk about building a tunnel between Morocco and Spain, so people don't take it seriously anymore, but now maybe they'll change their minds when they hear this.
The cost is unofficially projected to run over US$13 billion and engineers say the tunnel would take about 20 years to construct. Spain and Morocco hope to receive European Union financing if the project gets under way.
Now here comes the part that's scary.
For decades the Strait of Gibraltar was a dangerous and often deadly conduit for Africans seeking to reach Europe, as people packed small, rickety boats to try to reach Spain and gain a toehold on the wealthy continent. Because of a Moroccan security crackdown, these journeys are now attempted further west from the western Sahara and Mauritania.
Ferries that sail across the strait are not known to be a major lure for stowaways, so an extremely high security rail tunnel would probably not contribute either to the flow of desperate Africans trying to reach Europe.
The Strait of Gibraltar, formed millions of years ago when land masses split to form what are now Europe and Africa, is only 14.5 kilometres wide at its narrowest point. But the water is so deep there a rail tunnel would be like a roller coaster slope, so steep as to be out of the question.
So engineers have chosen a longer but shallower path spanning about 35.5 kilometres. Even there, however, the water is about 305 metres deep, five to six times deeper than the water in the English Channel where the chunnel runs.
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