Rep. Pelosi, Can I Tweet You Some Lewd Photos?

Feminist theologians have long pointed out the need to think critically about what is and isn’t called a sin. Naming sins is an enterprise engaged in by the powerful, and it has real effects on those deemed “sinners.” Labeling something a “sin” often works as a bait and switch, distracting people from naming the violence and injustices that really matter. It was pretty convenient for patriarchal religious authorities to call “pride” a sin and “humility” a virtue, pretty savvy to make it a sin for women to speak up and speak out in church, pretty calculating to call submission a godly obligation and resistance an abomination. Those with the power to name what counts as a crime rarely end up in jail.

So here’s my proposal, Ms. Pelosi: If I tweet you the photographs taken by American soldiers of the torture that took place at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, will you call for a House ethics committee to investigate those who authorized that torture? I’m also more than happy to tweet you the link to the torture memos in case you need to read those again to make your case to Congress. Do we have a deal?

Read on: Religion Dispatches

Awfully Dark Before the Dawn

It looked like this in Germany in 1938 on Kristallnacht, in Rwanda in 1994 when the Hutus savaged the Tutsis, in America in 1942 when the Japanese were herded behind barbed wire.

My point is explicitly not that Muslims face mass vandalism, genocide or internment. Lord only knows what they face. Rather, my point is that the psychological architecture of what happened then is identical to the psychological architecture of Murfreesboro now. Once again, we see people goaded by their own night terrors, hatreds, need for scapegoats, and by the repetitive booming of demagogues, until they go to a place beyond reason.

Read More: Miami Herald

Do Terror 'Fusion Centers' Violate Privacy Rights?

South Bay Egyptian Americans Rejoice

Muslim Feminist

"To be a Muslim and a feminist is to stand in the crossfire and yell "Shut the f**k up!" to everyone around you because you know that anything you say can and will be used against you by everyone."

Read more: Jezebel

Why Do These People (i.e. Muslims) Make News?

Amazingly hilarious piece featuring a young woman in support of a mosque expansion project in Temecula. She made the FINAL public comment in a NINE hour city council meeting.



Additional information on the mosque expansion: CAIR-LA

Why Female Politicians Are More Effective

Some dubbed it "The Year of the Woman." But despite "mama grizzly" talk and a crop of high-profile female candidates, last year's elections resulted in no net additions to the female ranks of the Senate and, for the first time since 1978, a net loss in the House. In fact, more than 90 years after the first woman was elected to Congress, female politicians still hold less than a fifth of all national seats, and do only slightly better at the state level. But that's more than just a blow for diversity and equality, according to a forthcoming study in the American Journal of Political Science—because women also rank as the most effective lawmakers in the land.

The research is the first to compare the performance of male and female politicians nationally, and it finds that female members of the House rout their male counterparts in both pulling pork and shaping policy. Between 1984 and 2004, women won their home districts an average of $49 million more per year than their male counterparts (a finding that held regardless of party, geography, committee position, tenure in office, or margin of victory). The spending jump was found within districts, too, when women moved into seats previously occupied by men, and the cash was for projects across the spectrum, not just "women's issues."

A similar performance gap showed up in policy: Women sponsored more bills (an average of three more per Congress), co-sponsored more bills (an average of 26 more per Congress), and attracted a greater number of co-sponsors than their colleagues who use the other restroom. These new laws driven by women were not only enacted—they were popular. In a pair of additional working papers, led by Ohio State political scientists Craig Volden and Alan Wiseman, researchers tracked every bill introduced between 1981 and 2009, and found that those sponsored by women survived deeper into the legislative process, garnered more press attention, and were more likely to be deemed "important" overall. All of which leads the authors of the AJPS paper, University of Chicago Public Policy Professor Christopher Berry and his student and Stanford doctoral candidate Sarah Anzia, to conclude that it’s the women themselves—specifically, their skills at "logrolling, agenda-setting, coalition building, and other deal-making activities"— that are responsible for the gender-performance divide.

So are women just innately better politicians? Probably not. More likely, say Berry and Anzia, female politicians are better than men because, as in other fields, they simply have to be. More than 90 years after the first woman was elected to Congress, female politicians still hold less than a fifth of all national seats, and do only slightly better at the state level. In order to overcome lingering bias against women in leadership positions, those women must work that much harder to be seen as equals.

Read On: The Daily Beast

Va. Teen Detained in Kuwait Returns to U.S.

Gulet Mohamed, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen from Alexandria, entered the arrivals terminal nearly two hours after his United Airlines flight landed. His attorneys said he had been kept after the flight by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.

As he emerged from the gate around 8:40 a.m., his brother Abdi Mohamed, 28, sprinted over and hugged him, shouting "Gulet!" repeatedly.

A sea of media then engulfed the teenager, even before he had a chance to embrace his mother. Mohamed - dressed in a worn hooded sweat shirt and sweat pants, his baby face framed by a fuzzy beard - smiled and pulled his hood over his face.

"My voice has been heard," he said moments later. But "there's other Muslims and non-Muslims that are still being tortured."

Read on: Washington Post

Separate But Equal?

Imagine an eager student anticipating a lecture by a prominent expert. This student, equipped with a notebook and pen, arrives early to ensure a place in the front row. Now imagine that the student is prohibited from entering the lecture hall; she needs to go to an adjacent, smaller room, where she will be able to watch the lecture from a grainy projection screen.

The disappointment, indignation and injustice felt by this enthusiastic student is exactly what I feel each time I go to the local mosque. I wish I could refer to it as “my mosque”; but the possessive pronoun implies a sense of ownership I cannot claim.

More: Ink Paper Mosaic

Only Women Bleed: Menstruation and Prayer in Islam

The overwhelming, sometimes innocuous message being sent to women is that they are naturally dirty and spiritually defiled. That their menstrual cycle is something to be hated and feared. That they cannot walk into a mosque, touch a Qur’an, recite the Qur’an, or become an imam. That it takes women longer to memorize the Qur’an or achieve a religious education, because they are out of commission for 25% of the year. That they cannot cut their hair or clip their nails while menstruating due to impurity. That they cannot touch a prayer mat. That if they apply henna to their skin while menstruating, their impurity will last as long as it takes the temporary tattoo to wash off. That it makes women weak, lacking, imperfect and second class. That if you pray you are a sinner. That it’s a reason why more women are in hell than men. That if you question the ruling not to pray, or feel it is unfair, you aren’t faithful enough — or worse, are deluded by Western notions of equality. This is a bit more involved than just being told you can’t pray.

More at: Wood Turtle

Check out the full article. I'm not sure I'm ready to accept her conclusion; though I appreciate her argument. Regardless, the excerpt above resonated with me with respect to the experience many Muslim woman have.

8 Ways Women Can Get Ahead in the Workplace

1. Quit thinking the workplace is fair
2. What are you waiting for?
3. Don't be afraid to ask
4. Don't ever, ever cry at work
5. Make the most out of feedback and criticism
6. Look outside the office for opportunities
7. Remember wealth is more than a paycheck
8. The way you look and talk matters

Read more: CNN

Muslim Women Gain Higher Profile in U.S.

Yet in their quest to break stereotypes, America’s Muslim women have advantages. They are better educated than counterparts in Western Europe, and also than the average American, according to a Gallup survey in March 2009. In contrast to their sisters in countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, they are just as likely as their menfolk to attend religious services, which equates to greater influence. And Gallup found that Muslim American women, often entrepreneurial, come closer than women of any other faith to earning what their menfolk do.

Read on: NYT

Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders

Muslimah Super Heroes

Words of support from a colleague:

"Many superheroes allow their capes to hang off their back, but I love how you have chosen to wrap yours around your head."

History Lesson: How Hip Hop Was Used to Dumb Down Youth

My Interview on Keith Olbermann's 'Countdown' w/Guest Host Chris Hayes

Rep. Peter King, Bigotry and Hypocrisy All-In-One

If "IRA" were replaced with "Hamas," the sort of fundraising King did would these days earn you a lengthy prison sentence for material support for terrorism.

Read More: Salon

The Republican who will head the House committee that oversees domestic security is planning to open a Congressional inquiry into what he calls “the radicalization” of the Muslim community when his party takes over the House next year.
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Representative Peter T. King of New York, who will become the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he was responding to what he has described as frequent concerns raised by law enforcement officials that Muslim leaders have been uncooperative in terror investigations.

Read More: NYT

Too Many Mosques

Shut Up!

After 35 years of practicing law in the trenches of state and federal courts, I have narrowed my advice for all my clients down to one, simple, direct sentence: "Shut Up."

No kidding. Really. Just shut up.

Living in Florida, I have come to love deep-sea fishing. Enter my law office, and on my walls, above my desk, staring and glaring at my clients, is a stuffed, six-foot steel blue Marlin. Below the fish is a plaque that reads: "Behold the beautiful, majestic Marlin. He would not be here if he had not opened his mouth."

When you are a 7-year-old kid growing up, and your mom catches you with your hand in the cookie jar, you inevitably and sheepishly try to come with an excuse. Mom pushes and prods you to confess, and you do. She then hugs and kisses you, and you make up as she tells you everything is going to be all right.

It does not work that way with a cop when he pulls you over. The police are not your parents. The sheepish lie you first tell him becomes a prior inconsistent statement that is going to be used in a court of law against you. The cop does not hug you, kiss you, and make up. He searches you, arrests you, and locks you up. So what you should do is just shut up.

Do not bargain with cops, negotiate with cops, or promise deals you cannot deliver on. The promises they make on the street are not binding in the courts where prosecutors charge you. Deal with the reality that if you are caught with drugs you are now the prisoner of a drug war. In war, you are only required as a prisoner to give your name, rank, and dog tag number. Do not give consent to search your car, your person, or invite cops back to your home. Do a Nancy Reagan: just say no.

As my friend William Panzer says, an Oakland, California based criminal defense attorney, also on the NORML Board of Directors, "If everyone kept their mouth shut, half the people in jail would not be there. The cop's job is to put you in a cage and anything you say beyond identifying yourself helps them put you there." His advice too: "Shut up."

Read On: Counter Punch

Aspirational vs. Operational

Although many argue that this was simply entrapment, evidence does indicate that Mohamud became increasingly radicalised and voluntarily continued with the FBI's fake terror plot. Regardless, CAIR attorney Zahra Billo told me, "The FBI seek out troubled people – nobody is arguing that some of these individuals aren't deeply troubled – and then enable and facilitate their aspirations. It is the FBI's job to stop operational terrorists. It is not the FBI's job to enable aspirational terrorists."

Read On: Guardian Online

Tension grows between Calif. Muslims, FBI after informant infiltrates mosque

In the Irvine case, Monteilh's mission as an informant backfired. Muslims were so alarmed by his talk of violent jihad that they obtained a restraining order against him.

More: Washington Post