veiled4allah

can soccer bring people together?

Gulf News reports on a bit of interfaith fellowship:

A team of Christian priests thrashed a group of imams 12-1 to win Germany's first football cup between religious leaders yesterday, but it was all hugs and smiles after the match to promote tolerance. "We have tried for such a long time to strengthen the contact between the three faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam," said Imam Taha, the Muslim squad captain. "I think we can say we have achieved that today." Around 100 spectators cheered and waved banners during the seven-a-side match, played under the eagle eyes of two Jewish linesmen one month before the World Cup kicks off in Germany.

Even simple things like this can improve understanding as people get to know each other and work together.

Seahawks in Super Bowl

I'm not much of a football fan, but how can I resist when our local team is in the Super Bowl for the first time in its history? Go Hawks!

more quick links

The Last Mistake - Steve Gilliard sets out why American Muslims are not a fifth column. A follow-up, Why did Bush do it? is also excellent. The Top Ten Good News Stories of 2005 - Some positive news from the Muslim world you may not have seen Finding Wisdom in a Christina Aguilera Song - Hesham Hassaballa encourages Muslims to keep hope in difficult times

various and sundry

The secret memos (PDF, JPG) the British government doesn't want you to see documenting their complicity with torture (background). It's that time again. Time to nominate the best Muslim blogs for the Brass Crescent Awards. All nominations for veiled4allah are welcome, of course ;) A bit later: *sigh* So I was reading Why European women are turning to Islam and it starts with:

Mary Fallot looks as unlike a terrorist suspect as one could possibly imagine: a petite and demure white Frenchwoman chatting with friends on a cell-phone, indistinguishable from any other young woman in the café where she sits sipping coffee. And that is exactly why European antiterrorist authorities have their eyes on thousands like her across the continent. Ms. Fallot is a recent convert to Islam. In the eyes of the police, that makes her potentially dangerous.

Can we please get away from this kind of stupidity? Islam is a religion. People convert to it because they're looking for spiritual fulfillment. That doesn't make them terrorist suspects, for God's sake! :rolleyes:

various notes

Two quick hits. William Arkin on the reality of Bush's NSA spying:

Come on. The government is not just repeating the targeting of political opponents a la J. Edgar Hoover or Richard Nixon. It is not picking out a Seymour Hersh or a Cindy Sheehan to find their links to foreign influences nor seeking to ruin their lives by developing incriminating evidence on them. I know I sound like some Fox news watching, flag waiving, gun toting, Cappuccino hater defending the national security state. The New York Times and the government may not want to say the obvious, that by and large, it is Muslims in America who are being monitored in the 9/11 Order. It is not the liberal or the literary in the back of the New York City taxicab that is the target. It is the driver.

It's strange that liberals sometimes seem to forget this point and suggest everybody but Muslims as likely victims of the "9/11 Order". From Yemen, a woman is planning to run for president:

As a recent Arab women's conference came to a close, Sumayah Ali Raja, chair of the Yemen-French Forum, announced she would run in the September 2006 presidential elections. But even her supporters are only cautiously optimistic, pointing to the many cultural obstacles women in politics face in an Arab country. Raja will be the first woman to run for president of Yemen. She said in her address to more than 300 conference participants from the Arab world, Europe and the United States that her candidacy would help all Yemeni women attain their legal and constitutional rights. "My candidacy will increase the participation of women in different fields. My nomination will also improve women's political role in the country," said Raja. She called upon the Yemeni political parties and civil society organisations, particularly women's groups, to support her. Opening the conference "Women's Rights in the Arab World: from words to deeds", Prime Minister Abdul-Qader Ba-Jammal encouraged women to fight for their rights, pointing out that Yemen was a country of queens, referring to Queen Bilqis (also known as the Queen of Sheba) in 530 AD and Queen Arwa in 1065. The prime minister promised that his government would take the conference's recommendations into consideration, and vowed compliance with all international conventions ratified by Yemen regarding women.

happy Thanksgiving

Hesham Hassaballa has a lovely post about giving thanks on this day. There is much that I have to be thankful for, particularly my family and the fact that I make my living doing a job that I love. All praise is due to Allah, who has given my these and so many other blessings. Work has been keeping me quite busy lately, but it's a good kind of busy. It just means I don't have as much time for blogging as always. I hope that everybody who is still reading this blog has a wonderful day and a great weekend. :)

busyness

Sorry about the general lack of blog entries lately. I've been absolutely swamped at work since the beginning of the month and just haven't had much time to post unless it's really important (like the post on the terrorist attacks in London). The good news is, I'm going to be moving in the coming weeks to have some new responsibilities. I hope that this will lead to bigger and better things in the future :) It's been almost a year since I first started working for Six Apart, though it was only at the beginning of September that I started my current position working full time for them. This is the best job I've ever had. Thank you, Six Apart!

holidays

June 19th is Juneteenth, a day marking the end of slavery in the United States. It's also Father's Day. Happy Father's Day, Dad, and thanks for everything you do for me :)

learn how to read blogs through RSS feeds

If you're a regular blog reader and you're not already reading blogs through their RSS feeds, you should really give it a try. It's a great timesaver. I pretty much don't read blogs that don't offer RSS feeds; certainly I don't get to them very often. Via Colleen I found an excellent tutorial that explains how to use Bloglines, a free web-based RSS reader. I use Bloglines myself and this is probably one of the best tutorials I've seen. Check it out: Using Bloglines (or How to keep up with dozens of Blogs every day)

looking ahead to Mother's Day

Paradise is at the feet of mothers - Treat your mom with the respect she deserves!