By Salman Masood

Technicians are silhouetted as they work on power lines supplying electricity in Lahore on January 10, 2012. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani fired his defense secretary, a retired general and confidant of Pakistan’s army chief, on Wednesday as the civilian government drew closer to a head-on collision with the country’s powerful military leadership.

Mr. Gilani accused the secretary of defense, Naeem Khalid Lodhi, a former corps commander, of “gross misconduct and illegal action” and of “creating misunderstanding between the state institutions.” He replaced the former general with a civilian aide, Nargis Sethi.

Military officials warned on Wednesday evening that the army would be likely to refuse to work with the newly appointed defense secretary, signaling the possibility of a serious rupture between the army and the civilian government. “The army will not react violently, but it will not cooperate with the new secretary defense,” said a military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the situation.

Tensions had intensified between the government of President Asif Ali Zardari and the army leadership after the publication of a controversial memo, purportedly drafted by the government shortly after an American raid last year killed Osama bin Laden, that solicited help in stopping a possible coup by the humiliated Pakistani military.

Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the army chief, called an emergency meeting of his top commanders on Thursday.

The defense secretary is ordinarily appointed with the consent of the army chief and acts as a bridge between the civilian government and military. The role is more powerful than that of defense minister, a position that is filled by a politician from the governing party.

The firing came as the military warned the prime minister that his recent statements against General Kayani would have “serious ramifications with potentially grievous consequences for the country.”
Mr. Gilani had accused General Kayani and Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the head of Pakistan’s intelligence service, of acting as “state within a state” and reminded them they were accountable to the Parliament.

Those statements were seen as suggesting that they could be removed from power.

The defense secretary’s signature is needed for the appointment — or termination — of the members of the military leadership. By installing a secretary defense of its own choice, the civilian government appeared to be seeking greater leverage in dealing with the military.

Speculation about the government’s intentions to dismiss the two commanders were fueled by news reports in the stridently anti-American press in Pakistan, where many people view the United States as an arrogant adversary instead of an ally. That view has increased in the months since the Bin Laden raid last May and the deaths of 26 Pakistani soldiers in an American airstrike near the border with Afghanistan late last year.

Pakistani analysts said the firing of Mr. Lodhi could be a potentially ominous sign that the festering conflict between the army and the civilian government had reached a critical stage.

“It is a desperate measure,” said Ikram Sehgal, a defense analyst and former army officer. “They want the army to react and to make a coup.”

Hasan Askari Rizvi, a military and political analyst, said the firing would only exacerbate the situation for the civilian government. “If the prime minister now tries to fire the army chief, it will have very dangerous consequences,” Mr. Rizvi said.

General Lodhi, who was only recently appointed defense secretary, became embroiled in a controversy last month after he submitted a statement in the Supreme Court on behalf of the Defense Ministry stating that the civilian government had no operational control over the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s powerful spy agency. Mr. Gilani accused Mr. Lodhi of overstepping and objected to his blunt statement, a public acknowledgment that, while the intelligence services are technically under the control of the prime minister, they are widely perceived to act independently of the civilian government.

A military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said that the relationship between the two men broke down after the prime minister’s staff sought to pressure General Lodhi into contradicting statements by the army and spy chiefs about the controversial memo. The military commanders had told Supreme Court last month that the memo, written by a former ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, was authentic and pointed to a conspiracy against the military. The government and Mr. Haqqani have said they had nothing to do with the memo, which came to light in October.

“The government had prepared a draft that stated that the Ministry of Defense does not agree with General Kayani and Genera Pasha’s opinions about the veracity of the memo,” said the military official, who was present during the discussions. “General Lodhi refused to sign the document, saying those were not his words.”

J. David Goodman contributed reporting.

14-3

By Jon Hemming

ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region is unwilling to hand over Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi despite a formal demand from the central government that he be sent to Baghdad to face charges of running death squads.

While not refusing outright to arrest the Sunni leader and send him to face trial, Iraqi Kurdish officials said the Baghdad government should accept Hashemi’s demand to be tried outside the capital.
Hashemi, who denies the charges, travelled to the Kurdish region after the central government sought his arrest. He says he is willing to face the charges but does not want his trial held in Baghdad where he believes the judiciary is controlled by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government issued an arrest warrant for Hashemi in mid-December, just as the last U.S. troops were leaving the country. That triggered a political crisis that threatens Maliki’s fragile governing coalition, which is led by Shi’ites but claims support of Kurdish and Sunni factions.

Hashemi is a senior figure of the main Sunni-backed bloc. The move against him, and the isolation of other Sunni leaders, have raised fears of a return of the extreme sectarian violence between Shi’ites and Sunnis which killed tens of thousands of Iraqis in 2006-07.

A string of bombings in mostly Shi’ite areas of Baghdad have killed scores of people in the weeks since U.S. troops left.

“The vice-president said he is ready to go to the court and if he is ready to go to the court, why must he be arrested?” said Dr. Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to the president of the Kurdistan region.
“They must prepare a secure and fair place for the trial and if they do that, he will go there himself,” he told Reuters.

Hashemi has suggested he be tried either in the Kurdish zone, or in Kirkuk, a city outside the Kurdistan region but where Kurdish and Sunni parties wield great power.

“Kirkuk is a shared area between myself and them. There are decent and just courts there. I am awaiting a reply from Baghdad on this issue,” Hashemi told the Turkish privately owned Cihan news agency.

KURDS CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE

Hashemi is currently living at a guesthouse of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, in the province of Sulaimaniya, inside the Kurdish controlled north.

“Hashemi is not a fugitive,” Talabani said. “He is still a vice president. Secondly, he is accused but not convicted and according to the law the accused is innocent until proven otherwise. He has not been convicted.”

“He does not disagree with attending court. All he asks … is to transfer the place of trial from Baghdad to Kirkuk and he is ready to go to court in Kirkuk. This is an Iraqi city which belongs to the central government.”

Kurdistan judicial officials insist the central government does not have the right to send security forces to arrest Hashemi in Kurdistan, which has its own military and police.

After rising up against Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Gulf War, the Kurds won de-facto self-rule from Baghdad, a status formalized under the new Iraqi constitution drawn up after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Largely insulated from the sectarian conflict in the rest of Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan has transformed itself from the poorest region of the country to its most prosperous.

Fiercely jealous of their hard-won autonomy, Kurdish leaders are reluctant to get sucked into the deadly squabbles between Iraq’s Shi’ite and Sunni Arabs, and have largely either stood aside, or attempted to mediate between the many factions.

The flight of Hashemi to their midst has thrust the Kurds reluctantly center stage in the unfolding political drama.

During the Saddam era, Iraq’s Kurds had closer relations with the Shi’ite leaders now in power who shared their goal of toppling the dictator, but Iraq’s Sunni Arabs, clustered in the center of the country, are the Kurds’ immediate neighbors.

Bearing in mind Hashemi’s previous vocal hostility to Kurdish aspirations, Kurdistan authorities are unlikely to sacrifice their own interests for the sake of the vice-president, analysts said, but may try to use his presence on their soil as a bargaining chip to further their strategic goals such as gaining full control of Kirkuk and its oil wealth.

Masoud Barzani, the president of the Iraqi Kurdish region, proposed a conference to resolve the political differences around the issue of Hashemi, an idea later taken up by Maliki.

“Of course the place, the agenda, who will be invited these are all issues,” said Hussein, Barzani’s chief of staff. “The government in Baghdad is saying, the prime minister the president are saying that they are going to invite people, but they didn’t decide when and how.”

(Additional reporting by Shamal Aqrawi in Arbil and Aseel Kami in Baghdad)

14-3

By Jim Finkle

(Reuters) – Intelligence analysis firm Strategic Forecasting Inc (Stratfor) relaunched its website more than two weeks after an attack by hackers who had stolen data of clients including Henry Kissinger and former Vice President Dan Quayle.

As the Austin, Texas-based firm re-opened the site on Wednesday, it disclosed that the hackers took credit card data in early December, then returned on Christmas Eve to attack four of its servers, forcing its site offline and crippling its operations.

“It was deliberate destruction,” Stratfor Chief Executive George Friedman said in an interview. “Their only motivation in doing that was to silence us. We don’t know why they wanted to silence us.”
Stratfor is a private firm that publishes research about international affairs. Prior to the attack it had more than 300,000 paying customers including politicians, military officers, government officials and business executives.

Friedman said that the company had drawn on its savings to stay in business because it had lost a month’s work of subscriptions due to the attacks.

“As you can see, we are readily capable of not having revenue for a month and our plan is to not have revenue for another month, so we clearly have the resources to survive this and we will,” Friedman said.

Hackers affiliated with the group Anonymous who have claimed responsibility for the attack have said they possess email correspondence of Stratfor’s approximately 100 employees that they intend to release.

A spokesperson for the hacking group said last month via Twitter that the correspondence would show “Stratfor is not the ‘harmless company’ it tries to paint itself as.”

Friedman said that he would prefer the emails not be made public, but that there were no smoking guns supporting the claims of the hackers that his company is engaged in nefarious activities.
“If they come out, it is certainly something we can live with,” he told Reuters.

HICCUPS

Stratfor put its site back online on Wednesday morning, posting new reports on Lithuania’s energy strategy and Iraq’s intelligence services.

A Stratfor spokesman said that some subscribers had trouble accessing the site as the company adjusted its bandwidth to meet demand.

In late December the hackers released credit card numbers belonging to thousands of Stratfor customers, including former U.S. Secretary of State Kissinger. That prompted security experts to speculate that the company had failed to encrypt the data before storing it on its computer system.

“This was our failure. As the CEO of Stratfor, I take responsibility,” Friedman said in an email to customers.

Stratfor said it would use an outside company to process credit card transactions in the future. It also said that an Internet security firm, Sec Theory, was rebuilding its website, email system and internal infrastructure.

It also said that investigators with Verizon Communications Inc conducted a forensic review of the attack on behalf of Stratfor and that it was cooperating with the FBI’s investigation into the matter.
Anonymous is a loose-knit group of activist hackers that became famous for attacking companies and institutions that oppose WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.

Anonymous has also been linked to attacks on the websites of the PlayStation store, the Church of Scientology and governments around the globe that it considered oppressive.

(Reporting By Jim Finkle, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

14-3

By Jason Burke

After years on the political fringes, the playboy cricketer turned philanthropist and party leader is being widely hailed as the new saviour of Pakistan

The crowd gathered fast and within an hour, the dust of the sports ground below the old city walls of Lahore was obscured by a mass of shouting, grinning, pushing men. Above them, behind a makeshift stage, hung two giant portraits: of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, and of Imran Khan, former cricketer, playboy, the man they had come to see. Slogans boomed out. A chant rose into the air: “Who will save Pakistan?” It was November 1998 and Khan was holding his first major political rally in his home town.

Since then, there have been many more rallies, each with the same banners in green and red of Imran’s party – Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Pakistani Justice Movement), the same portraits, the same drums and fireworks. For many years, too, there were the same smallish, by Pakistani standards, crowds and the same sneers from journalists, local and international.
One English-language newspaper in Pakistan ran a regular column, a spoof diary of “Im the Dim”.

In recent weeks, however, the sceptics have been almost silent. Khan, now 59, appears on the edge of a political breakthrough. After years in the semi-wilderness, Khan – or “Imran” as he is known in Pakistan – is walking through green fields of mainstream popularity. The former cricketer tops opinion polls. For the first time, powerful and established political figures have begun defecting to his party. In October, a rally in Lahore drew at least 100,000.

One in Karachi just before Christmas also saw a huge crowd. Observers noted the variety of supporters: upper-middle-class and elite “aunties”, labourers, shopkeepers, pharmacists and headmasters. They also noted, perhaps unsurprisingly in a country where two-thirds of the population are under 30, the youth of Khan’s fans.

In the early years of his political career, Khan spoke with a rolled sheaf of scribbled notes in his hands. At one rally in 1998, the first line on the first page read in red: “Believe in Pakistan.”
Imran Khan was born on 25 November 1952 into a wealthy and well-connected Lahore family. Ethnically, he is a Pashtun, or Pathan, as British imperialists called the peoples concentrated along what once was known as the North-West Frontier. Educated at Lahore’s Aitchison College, the most exclusive school in Pakistan, and the Royal Grammar School in Worcester, before going to Oxford University, his early years were typical of Pakistan’s anglicised upper classes. A precocious sporting talent meant that, in 1971, the shy teenager made his test debut against England. By 1982, he was captain of Pakistan’s national side.

Imran’s first autobiography, All Round View (1992), recounts his extraordinary sporting career: the victories against the odds in front of the home crowd, the career-threatening injury overcome, the return from retirement to lead his national team once more to glory, the eventual – and lasting – reputation as one of the best all-round cricketers ever.

It is less forthcoming on his non-sporting activities. A string of rich, well-connected, beautiful women earned him a reputation as a player successful off the pitch too. Then, in 1995, he married Jemima Goldsmith, daughter of the late British billionaire James Goldsmith. She converted to Islam and moved to Pakistan. The couple had two sons.

In the mid-1990s, Khan underwent a radical reassessment of his values, in part prompted by witnessing his mother’s painful death from cancer. He built a hospital in her memory and raised the funds himself, auctioning his cricketing trophies. Much of the money came from a series of huge rallies at which people who themselves had virtually nothing threw crumpled 10 rupee (12p) notes into sacks.
No one is asked if they can pay for their treatment at the Shaukat Khanum memorial cancer hospital – remarkable in a country where the rich pay no tax, where the strong bully the weak and the weak bully the weaker, where money means power and vice versa. Khan’s burgeoning interest in religion also began to evolve into a devout faith.

His ambitions extended beyond philanthropy, however, and in 1996 he launched his political party. With no organisation, no funds and no muscle (all usually essential in the brutal game of south Asian politics), few gave him any chance. Speaking at a dinner at her home in Islamabad in 1999, Benazir Bhutto, twice prime minister, patronisingly dismissed Khan’s challenge. “Imran? The people don’t love him the way they love me,” she said. “I suppose I might make him a cabinet minister, if it came to it.”

Bhutto went into exile a few months later; Khan did not. His party had not won a single seat at the first election his party contested, in 1997, and got only one – his own – in the second in 2002. His politics were unclear, his economic proposals undefined; he backed the military coup of 1999 but called for democracy. What was evident however was a deep conservatism, a profound nationalism, a righteous anger at rampant corruption, a distaste for the west and suspicion of the westernised. There was, too, a genuine piety.

Though more people said he would fail, though his marriage foundered, though support was rare, Khan continued to campaign.

In the late 1990s, he had compared his own experience to that of the Prophet Muhammad, who also was spurned in his early years of proselytisation. Khan’s self-belief remained undented.

Yet Pakistan was changing. There were the 9/11 attacks and the alignment with, rather than against, America and the Bush administration. There was the more general radicalisation that resulted from the continuing conflict. As the decade neared its end, Khan’s trenchant criticism of his country’s relationship with the US, delivered in his deep, booming voice with great certainty, touched a vital nerve. Last year saw continuing missile strikes from unmanned American drones killing militants and villagers in west Pakistan, US special forces raiding the country to kill al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Pakistani soldiers killed inadvertently by Nato troops on the Afghan border.

But other trends, less obvious and less talked about, are contributing to Khan’s sudden success, as they have contributed to that of conservative, Islamist politicians elsewhere.

A combination of rapid urbanisation and an economic boom meant the creation of a new urban middle class, many of whom had just clawed their way out of poverty. In the sprawl of the cities, where rural traditions meant little, newer identities exerted a powerful pull.
Contemporary, politicised strands of Islam bound in perfectly with the general resurgent Pakistani nationalism. There was a new questioning of the elite’s desire to be like the west. There was a new, bilious anger directed at the US, fuelled by a newly noisy media. In a time of deep disillusion with long-serving politicians – the country returned to civilian rule in 2008 – Khan is not only different but he says aloud what much of “the Pakistani street” is thinking.
His many critics, particularly among the country’s liberal elite, see him as a stooge for a quasi-Islamist army and a dangerous reactionary. An editorial in The Nation – a newspaper close to the military – last week compared him with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a consummate populist politician who was president and prime minister in the 1970s before being executed in 1979. The comparison is contrived but that it can even be made is remarkable.
It is only a decade or so since ZA Bhutto’s daughter, Benazir, contemptuously dismissed Khan’s political aspirations. She was assassinated four years ago. Her widower, President Asif Ali Zardari, is now the target of much of Khan’s outrage.
The former cricketer no longer needs the handwritten notes he used a decade ago. Precise policies and coherent ideology are not really his thing, anyway.
“Believe in Pakistan,” he still tells the crowds. This is something that tens of millions of people are desperate to do. “Who will save Pakistan?” they chant, as before. “Imran Khan, Imran Khan.”
The Observer

Mahir Rahman has prestigious options

ATLANTIC CITY,NJ–In an era when students and parents worry about paying tuition fees there are some who overcome such hurdles with dint of hard work and planning. Mahir Rahman, an Atlantic City High School senior, has some options. He has received an offer from the prestigious Yale University.

He was recently profiled by the Press for his outstanding accomplishments. He gained the admission offer from Yale  through QuestBridge National College Match, a highly competitive program for students who have excelled academically despite economic challenges. High school seniors accepted by one of the 31 top U.S. schools in the program are guaranteed a free education.
“The moment I found out, I went really crazy. It’s a reach for everybody,” he said of the Ivy League school.

Rahman is part of the first generation of his family to go to college. His father works as a parking enforcement officer.

Meriden Muslims have plans for a new mosque

MERIDEN,TX–A Meriden property owner has applied to the city to convert a former funeral home into a mosque. According to the Record Journal Aminullah Noori has requested an exemption the city’s zoning codes for the first floor to be used as a mosque by the Islamic Association of Southern Connecticut. The request accompanies another one residential use on the second floor.
Because places of worship are considered tax-exempt, special permission is needed from the city. Assistant Town Planner Tom Skoglund told the newspaper that he believed that because the building would be leased to the Islamic Association, it would remain taxable. The application will be held this week.

In the past the city had denied at least two applications to establish mosques over traffic concerns.

Muslim women settles dispute with Allentown diocese

ALLENTOWN–A dispute between a Muslim woman and the Allentown Roman Catholic Diocese has been settled out of court.

Court documents show that a federal lawsuit filed by Omayma Arafa has been dismissed and the matter has been settled.

The terms have not been disclosed, according to local media reports.

Arafa says the diocese fired her from her bookkeeping job in 2009 because she’s Muslim. She also said her supervisor made inappropriate comments about her beliefs.

The diocese maintains it eliminated her position because of financial reasons not her religion.

Khalid Usman receives Ontario’s Medal for Good Citizenship

TORONTO,CANADA–Long time social worker Khalid Usman received Ontario’s Medal for Good Citizenship last month. He has organized fundraising for schools, hospitals and not-for-profit organizations. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Markham-Stouffville hospital, and has volunteered for organizations such as the Unionville Home Society Residence for Seniors, the Canadian Federation of Intercultural Friendship and the International Development and Relief Foundation.

In view of his social services, Government of Pakistan has also announced on August 14, 2011 to bestow upon him the Award of “Tamgha-e-Khidmat”.

Khalid Usman was the first Pakistani to be elected as Councilor (From Ward#7) of the Markhan Town, Ontario, for three consecutive terms (total 9 years) where he also chaired Board of Trade, plus Transport, Finance and Administrative Committees.

Hartford students learn about Islam and other religions

HARTFORD, CT–A Hartford Middle School teacher recently took his students for an educational tour to learn about Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Nick Spondyl, a Canton City School teacher and life-long member of the Greek Orthodox Church,took his seventy students on the tour.

Dr. Nzam Al-Nasir, a Muslim,  gave a presentation about the basic tenets of his faith.

14-2

By Sumayyah Meehan, TMO

By definition the word democracy means, “A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.” In Democratic nations like America, for example, the ability to vote is a right that was especially hard fought by women and minorities. Voting for elected officials is what separates democratic nations from dictatorships. So what happens in a country where wealthy politicians pay for votes and the power of the people is rendered useless? The result is that undeserving politicians are put into a position of power that neither they deserve or are morally fit to serve.

One such country, which has grappled with vote buying for years, is the tiny gulf State of Kuwait. The country is set to hold parliamentary elections this February and has taken proactive measures to ensure that vote buying does not take place. In years past, some wealthy politicians in Kuwait have gone to great lengths to buy as many votes as they can. Some of the most common tactics used to entice votes include holding lavish banquets for voters featuring food prepared by international chefs, passing out gift bags filled with expensive watches and perfumes or simply handing out wads of cash. While vote buying has always been illegal in Kuwait, it has been a difficult law to enforce.

This year, however, the Kuwaiti government is hitting back at crooked politicians with its own wad of cold hard cash. The Kuwait Transparency Society has announced that there is a 5,000 KD (US $17,969) reward for anyone who reports a politician engaging in vote buying. In a statement the society revealed that it expects the reward will deter vote buying and the threat of prosecution will further ensure a fair parliamentary election. 

According to recent reports, approximately 361 Kuwaiti politicians will run in the upcoming parliamentary elections. This year also shows more women participating in the democratic process with an estimated 29 female candidates vying for one of the 50 seats in parliament. Kuwaiti men, however, lead the candidates roster with approximately 332 males running for office. More than 400,000 Kuwaiti citizens are eligible to vote. Yet in light of recent turmoil between the government and protestors, some political commentators expect only half of eligible voters to cast their ballots.

14-2

By Isabel Kershner

BEIT SHEMESH, Israel — The latest battleground in Israel’s struggle over religious extremism covers little more than a square mile of this Jewish city situated between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and it has the unexpected public face of a blond, bespectacled second-grade girl.

She is Naama Margolese, 8, the daughter of American immigrants who are observant modern Orthodox Jews. An Israeli weekend television program told the story of how Naama had become terrified of walking to her elementary school here after ultra-Orthodox men spit on her, insulted her and called her a prostitute because her modest dress did not adhere exactly to their more rigorous dress code.

The country was outraged. Naama’s picture has appeared on the front pages of all the major Israeli newspapers. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted Sunday that “Israel is a democratic, Western, liberal state” and pledged that “the public sphere in Israel will be open and safe for all,” there have been days of confrontation at focal points of friction here.

Ultra-Orthodox men and boys from the most stringent sects have hurled rocks and eggs at the police and journalists, shouting “Nazis” at the security forces and assailing female reporters with epithets like “shikse,” a derogatory Yiddish term for a non-Jewish woman or girl, and “whore.” Jews of varying degrees of orthodoxy and secularity headed to Beit Shemesh on Tuesday evening to join local residents in a protest numbering in the thousands against religious violence and fanaticism.

For many Israelis, this is not a fight over one little girl’s walk to school. It is a struggle that could shape the future character and soul of the country, against ultra-Orthodox zealots who have been increasingly encroaching on the public sphere with their strict interpretation of modesty rules, enforcing gender segregation and the exclusion of women.

The battle has broadened and grown increasingly visible in recent weeks and months. Orthodox male soldiers walked out of a ceremony where female soldiers were singing, adhering to what they consider to be a religious prohibition against hearing a woman’s voice; women have been challenging the seating arrangements on strictly “kosher” buses serving ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and some inter-city routes, where female passengers are expected to sit at the back.

The virulent coercion in Beit Shemesh has been attributed mainly to a group of several hundred ultra-Orthodox extremists who came here from Jerusalem, known as the Sicarii, or daggermen, after a violent and stealthy faction of Jews who tried to expel the Romans in the decades before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

Religious extremism is hardly new to Israel, but the Sicarii and their bullying ilk push with a bold vigor that has yet to be fully explained.

Certainly, Israel’s coalition politics have allowed the ultra-Orthodox parties to wield disproportionate power beyond the roughly 10 percent of the population they currently represent.

The ultra-Orthodox community’s rapidly increasing numbers — thanks to extraordinarily high birthrates — may also have emboldened the hard core, as may have their insular neighborhoods. And their leadership appears to lack moderating brakes.

In any case, the extremists have provoked an outpouring of opposition  from all those who are more flexible, be they ultra-Orthodox, modern Orthodox, mainstream or secular. In fact, it was an ultra-Orthodox-led group that claimed at least part of the credit for making Naama’s story public.

“We are working to save our city and to save our homes,” said Dov Lipman, 40, a local activist, rabbi and self-defined modern ultra-Orthodox, who moved to Beit Shemesh from Silver Spring, Md., seven years ago. Seizing on the public mood of rejecting ultra-Orthodox bullying, Mr. Lipman and a group of supporters have been lobbying the Israeli Parliament, organizing protests and recently hired a media consultant. He said that is how Naama’s story came out.

Built near the ruins of an ancient city of that name mentioned in the Bible, Beit Shemesh was established in 1950, first drawing mostly poor immigrants from North Africa, then immigrants from Russia, Ethiopia and English-speaking countries. With the construction of the new neighborhoods of Ramat Beit Shemesh A and B in the 1990s, the ultra-Orthodox population boomed. Residents say 20,000 more planned housing units are earmarked for the ultra-Orthodox.

In Ramat Beit Shemesh B, signs on the walls of buildings call for modesty, exhorting women and girls to dress in buttoned-up, long-sleeved blouses and long skirts. Outside a synagogue on Hazon Ish Street in the Kirya ha-Haredit quarter, a sign requested that females should cross to the opposite sidewalk and certainly not tarry outside the building.

Naama’s school, Orot, opened in September in an area with a large community of English-speaking observant Jews that borders on the strictest ultra-orthodox neighborhoods. She quickly found she had to run a miserable gantlet to get to school, even dressed in long sleeves and long skirts.

Riots broke out on Monday when the police accompanied media crews into Hazon Ish Street, the area where Naama’s tormentors are believed to have come from. Hundreds of black-garbed men and boys poured out of the synagogue and an adjacent seminary holding handwritten signs calling for the exclusion of women, illustrated with the male and female symbols used for public washrooms. One policeman was injured after being hit in the head with a rock and several arrests were made before the crowds dispersed at dusk.

Many of the ultra-Orthodox agitators blamed the news media for the unrest, saying they had come into the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods to sow hatred and to persecute the residents for their religious beliefs.

Meanwhile, some residents insisted that Beit Shemesh was a tolerant city, but defended at least some gender separation and modesty on religious grounds.

“I think women are very poorly treated in Western society,” said Cindy Feder, 57, a resident of Ramat Beit Shemesh A, who came to Israel from New York in 1970, and who defines herself as an “open haredi,” the Hebrew term for ultra-Orthodox. She said that the objectification of women on some billboards made her feel sick.

In the more austere Ramat Beit Shemesh B, a 32-year-old mother of four defended the gender separation on public transportation, saying that it was necessary to preserve women’s honor on crowded buses that squeezed people like “tomato puree.”

But the woman, who gave only her first name, Rivka, for fear of provoking the disapproval of her neighbors, also told a story that revealed the costs of separation: one night, the extremists came and removed all the public benches from the neighborhood, so that the women could no longer sit outside with their children in the street.

14-2

FAIRFAX,VA–Annandale High School cross country runner Ahmed Bile was named Male Athlete of the Year 2011 by the Fairfax Times. Bile joins the young group of Americans of Somali origin who are winning top laurels at atheletic events around the nation.

According to the Fairfax Time Bile’s career took off in his junior year when he won Northern Region and Virginia state cross country titles. In 2011 he won  the mile at the Northern Region tournament, 800-meter race, 4×400 meter relay and mile at regionals. He also won the  Northern Region and state titles. He then went on to the Footlocker Cross Country National Championships where he placed 12th in the nation.

Coach David O’Hara is all praise for Bile. “There has never been an athlete at Annandale like Ahmed and there won’t be for another 50 years,”  he said in an interview to the newspaper. 

Bile heads to Georgetown University this year. Abdi Bile, Ahmed’s father and 1987 1,500-meter world champion runner, must be really proud of his son’s accomplishments.

14-2

If the whole of mankind and Jinn were to gather together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce the like thereof, even if they  backed up each other with help and support. And We have explained to man, in this Qur’an, every  kind of similitude: Yet the greater part of men refuse  ( to receive it ) except with ingratitude. (Isra 88-89)

Your Brother Hussain Yunus

From the Numeric Miracles In the Holy Qur’an.  Following are some words found in Qur`an, together with the number representing the number of times they are mentioned in that Holy Book.

Dunya, This life, 115; Akhera, The hereafter, 115

Malaekah, Angels, 88; Shayateen, Devils, 88

Hayat, Life, 145; Mawt, Death, 145

Nafee, Usefulness, 50; Fassad, corruption, 50

Nass, Mankind, 368; Russul, Messengers, 368

Iblis, Satan, 11; Iste’atha from iblis, Ask refuge from Satan, 11

Museebah, Catastrophe, Calamity, 75; Shukr, Thankfulness, Gratitude, 75

Infaque, Expenditure, 73; Redha, Contentment, 73

Adhaloon, Misguided, astray, 17; Almawta, Deceased, 17

Muslims, Muslims, 41; Jihad, Struggle for Allah, 41

Thahab, Gold, 8; Taraf, Luxurious life, 8

Asseher, Magic, 60; Albarakah, Temptation, trial, 60

zakat, almsgivings, Charity, 32; Barakah, Benediction, 32

Alaqul, Mind, Brain, 49; Annour, Light, 49

Allessan, Tongue, 25; Almawethah, Sermon, Preachment, 25

Arasghbah, Desire, 8; Arrahbah, Fear, 8

Jahr, Openness, 16; Alaneah, Public Ness, 16

Asheddah, Firm, 114; Assabr, Patience, 114

Muhammad, Muhammad, 4; Sharee’ah, Law, 4

Rajul, Man, 24; Marah (nisa), Woman, 24

Shahr, Month, 12; Yawm, Day, 365

Baher, Sea, 32; Barr, Landmass, 13

Allah knows best!

The word (Sea or Water) mentioned 32 times, and the word (Landmass) mentioned 13 times in the Holy Qur’an, if we add them together we will get 45.

Now let us do some calculations…

•, By finding the percentage of the number of the word (Sea) to the total number of the words (Sea and Landmass) we will have:

(32/45)x100% = 71.11111111111%

•, By finding the percentage of the number of the word (Landmass) to the total number of the words (Sea and Landmass) we will have:

(13/45)x100% = 28.88888888889%

We will find what Allah (swt) said in His Holy Book 14 centuries ago that the ratio of water on earth is 71.11111111111%, and the ratio of landmass is 28.88888888889%, add them together and you will get 100%, and these are the real ratios of the Water and landmass on earth.

So what do you think? Could it be a Chance?!

Who do you think taught Prophet Muhammad (s) all of these?

I am just telling you that “ Nor does he say (aught) of (his own) Desire “ so bow thankful to your Lord for being a Muslim, what you have read is a small part of the Numeric Miracles of the Holy Qur’an, there are big volumes about the miracles of the Qur’an….

And InshaAllah we’ll meet again with more.

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