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The average age of marriage in Israel is 27 for men, 25 for women. But in certain groups — among both Jews and Arabs — marrying much younger is a cultural or religious norm. Girls may be "married off" to relieve a family's financial burden, or to protect their "good name" — synonomous with that of the family's.
In Israel, 2,000 girls younger than 17 are wed every year. Between 2000-2005, 10,000 girls under 18 were married; 90% of them were 17, and 10% even younger. Rights activists are concerned that the actual numbers are higher, with marriages being performed by religious figures but registered with state authorities only when couples have come of age. Some are even believed to send their daughters out of the country to be married. Wedding minors outside the present constraints of the law is a criminal offense and punishable by two years in jail, or a fine. Religious courts are instructed to report underage marriages to the authorities but compliance is questionable.
Continue reading "ISRAEL: Age of marriage" »
 Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on Thursday reverberated powerfully in the oil-rich Persian Gulf kingdoms, where many Pakistani and other South Asian expatriates live and work.
Impoverished workers from that region constitute the main labor force driving the Gulf’s booming construction works. The Gulf, emerging as the Middle East's services and financial hub, also attracts skilled and educated engineers, managers and scholars from the South Asian subcontinent.
The Gulf News, a United Arab Emirates English-language daily, said the killing stunned local expatriates. "Pakistanis in the UAE have reacted with shock and grief to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and described her demise as a national tragedy," the paper reported.
Continue reading "PERSIAN GULF: Bhutto's death shakes the region" »
What was Ali Larijani, a representative of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, doing in Cairo? Was Iran's former nuclear negotiator just visiting the pyramids with his family, or was there more to his visit than that?
Many saw the visit as an attempt at healing the long-standing rift between Iran and major Arab powers. Although Larijani was ostensibly on a private trip with his family to Egypt, he seized the opportunity to hold talks with powerful Egyptian officials.
Continue reading "EGYPT: An Iranian in Cairo" »
"It's safe! You can go out, even at night!"
I have been hearing this over and over for the last three months, since violence started to drop in Baghdad. So last week, I told three of my Iraqi colleagues at the Los Angeles Times, "Let's go out and have dinner!"
It had been almost two years since we had ventured out after dark. So we decided to play it safe and chose a restaurant about 10 minutes from our compound.
Continue reading "IRAQ: A night on the town in Baghdad" »
Lebanese bloggers and commentators are all abuzz about the Bush administration's curious choice to help defuse Lebanon's ongoing political crisis: Elliott Abrams, the aide to Vice President Dick Cheney who is known as one of Washington's top neoconservative insiders.
After a long absence by U.S. officials in the country, Abrams, along with assistant secretary of State David Welch, were dispatched twice to Lebanon, on Dec. 14 and 18, from "the heart of the neoconservative stronghold," as an op-ed in Lebanon's English-language newspaper the Daily Star put it this week.
Continue reading "LEBANON: Neocon stopover" »
The Israeli accusations that Egypt was not doing enough to prevent weapon smuggling across its borders has recently caused a storm of fury in Cairo. Earlier this week, the Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni accused Egypt of doing a "terrible" job in securing the borders with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Continue reading "EGYPT: Rage over borders and aid " »
 Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, the mayor of Tehran, is handing out wads of cash, about $2 million, to various religious associations in what some see as a preparation for a 2009 presidential run.
Qalibaf, a former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is giving the money for festivities marking the holy month of Muharram, which is important to Iran's 95% Shiite Muslim majority. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who ascended to the presidency from the Tehran mayor's post in 2005, made a similar move in the run-up to his election.
Qalibaf insists that he is a "modernizer" and not a conservative. He says he has not made up his mind whether to run for the presidency. But some observers insist that he has already started his candidacy.
Government largess has played an important role in cementing the support of pious groups for various conservative political candidates. During the 1989-97 presidency of Hashemi Rafsanjani, then-Tehran Mayor Gholamhossein Karbaschi launched an unprecedented campaign of contributions to mosques and Shiite religious associations.
The cash was meant in part to soothe the anger of hard-liners opposed to new cultural centers built to appeal to more secular-minded youth and the relaxation of strict codes of dress and behavior imposed in the years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
When Ahmadinejad became the mayor of Tehran, government contributions to the Shiite associations increased dramatically, helping garner support for his presidential run.
Qalibaf, a former police chief, ran against Ahmadinejad in 2005 but lost in the first round of voting.
— Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran
Photo: Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf. Credit: Kamran Jebreli /Associated Press
 It's a bittersweet holiday season for Lebanon's Christians. Not since the darkest days of its civil war 20 years ago, have Christians here been as been as politically divided as they are nowadays. A large number of Christians support the pro-U.S. March 14 coalition while others back Michel Aoun's group, which has thrown its lot in with the Shiite Muslim militia, Hezbollah.
They're so divided they've been unable to decide on a president, which in Lebanon has long been drawn from the Christian community.
And the sniping has gotten nasty, with Maronite Archbishop Jbeil Beshara calling Aoun a "tool who can't take any decision on his own" and Aoun lashing back at Beshara's remarks as "immature, irresponsible and inexcusable."
Lebanese politicians today turned down an offer by France to try to once again mediate the months-long impasse. Meanwhile the government of Fouad Saniora unilaterally amended the constitution without parliamentary approval to allow for the ascension of army chief Gen. Michel Suleiman as president.
Continue reading "Lebanese stocking stuffer: a president" »
 Complaints about holiday travel headaches in the United States ring hollow in Iraq where not even Kid Rock, Robin Williams, Miss America and comedian Lewis Black can make the helicopters fly if the wind, sand, and security don't cooperate.
The four were part of a United Service Organizations' Iraq tour and were due to perform Dec. 19 at a military base on the edge of Baghdad. The day got off to an auspicious start. The skies were clear, albeit colder than normal — perhaps in the low 50s, with a brisk breeze. Hours before the show, troops lined up outside gymnasium. The show was first-come, first-served, and there was room for only a few hundred. Chief Warrant Officer Eli Martinez was one of the first in line. "It's a piece of back home," Martinez explained when asked what possessed him to stand outside for hours in the cold.
Continue reading "IRAQ: Trying to fly the not-so-friendly skies" »
It’s done.
Everyone is absolutely shattered. The men are all limping around comically with blistered feet and chafed thighs, laughing as they compare freshly shaved heads.
 Nobody told them it would be this hard. In all their preparations, all their conversations with veteran hajjis, nobody had mentioned the mountains of garbage they walked through in Muzdalifa, or the prospect of marching six miles in cheap sandals through choking crowds desperately trying to keep your group leader's flag in sight.
Several pilgrims have wondered whether there’s some sort of conspiracy of silence at work among hajj survivors.
Maybe people just don’t want to discourage prospective pilgrims; maybe the experience gets rosier upon reflection. Or maybe it’s simply impossible to do these experiences justice with mere words and you simply have to experience it yourself.
Either way, it’s done. It was a religious obligation and it’s done.
For many, it was the hardest thing they’ve ever done, and at times it was sheer misery. But now that it’s over, they’re already getting a little nostalgic.
— Ashraf Khalil in Mecca
Photo: Young California pilgrims relaxing in Mecca after a grueling hajj.
Snapshots of hajj chaos:
• Imad Jomaa and his brother Ali spent hours wandering through the crowds in Mina, searching for somewhere to rest. But they couldn’t even sit on the sidewalk for long without being approached by a Saudi police officer yelling “Move hajji, move!” Finally they were taken in by a group of Iranian pilgrims, who offered food, water and a place to sleep for a few hours.
• Imam Moustafa Al Qazwini had to evacuate his son Mahdi from Mina after Mahdi collapsed due to illness, dehydration and a violent allergic reaction to mosquito bites. The ambulance was completely penned in by the crowds, so he half-carried Mahdi until he found a wheelchair for hire. Then he hailed down a motorcycle and squeezed both of them onboard for the final stretch back to Mecca.
• Yasmina Jennane spent 20 hours straight on a bus as it crawled through traffic on the road from Mt. Arafat. Finally the bus returned to Mecca while Yasmina’s husband Hakim completed the first phase of the “Stoning the Devil” ritual on her behalf. After a brief rest in Mecca, Yasmina and several others walked 45 minutes to Mina to reconnect with the main group, but had a hard time finding their campsite. Exhausted, they lay down and slept on the sidewalk of a highway overpass.
• In the chaotic 48 hours that followed Tuesday’s Mt. Arafat prayer vigil, the Costa Mesa pilgrim group splintered into multiple sub-groups. By Thursday afternoon, pilgrims began straggling back to their Mecca apartment building and swapping harrowing tales of confusion, exhaustion and hunger.
All were relieved to hear that despite the chaos, their pilgrimages were religiously valid.
One key point: the only truly non-negotiable aspect of the hajj is the Arafat vigil. All other steps, if missed, disrupted or taken out of turn can be compensated in a variety of ways — through extra prayers, slaughtering additional sheep or having a proxy perform the step on your behalf.
— Ashraf Khalil in Mecca
 The final step before pilgrims can leave the sanctified state of ihram: a head-shaving for the men and simple, symbolic trim for the women. Teams of barbers are on standby in Mina just outside the "Stoning the Devil" complex to provide the service for about $4 per pilgrim.
— Ashraf Khalil in Mina
A video clip showing pilgrims throwing seven stones each at a large wall symbolizing Satan. There are three walls inside the Mina complex, known respectively as the small, medium and large Satans.
The ritual is meant to symbolize each pilgrim overcoming his or her own temptations and inner demons. It all goes back to the Old Testament take of the Prophet Abraham who was willing to sacrifice his son on God's orders. The details differ slightly between the Old Testament and the Koran, but in the Muslim version, after God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael, Abraham was approached three times by Satan who tried to talk him out of it. Each time he resisted temptation and threw rocks at the devil to send him away.
— Ashraf Khalil in Mina
 An old Arabic saying goes, "What the Egyptians write, the Lebanese publish and the Iraqis read."
Today, this proverb could be easily challenged. The bulk of Arab writers are not from Egypt and the number of those who read books in Iraq, let alone the Arab world as a whole, is alarmingly low.
The only constant is Lebanon, which remains home to the Arab world's most thriving publishing houses. One important reason is the atmosphere of freedom that does not exist in any other Arab country. This results in Arab authors turning to Lebanese publishers for printing books on sex, politics and other sensitive topics.
This hypothesis can be tested these days at Beirut's annual Arabic book fair. Now in its 51st year, it hosts more than 100 Arabic publishing houses mostly from Lebanon, according to Lebanon's Daily Star.
Continue reading "LEBANON: Books unbound in Beirut" »
 After sleeping on the ground for a few hours in Muzdalifa, the pilgrims join a mass procession walking toward Mina to complete the ritual of "Stoning the Devil."  — Ashraf Khalil in Muzdalifa
Anyone out there still harboring any illusions that the hajj is simple or easy, please take a look at the following video clips. — Ashraf Khalil in Muzdalifa
 Here are some photos of pilgrims at Mt. Arafat. Click on the image here to launch a photo gallery.
— Ashraf Khalil on Mt. Arafat
The Costa Mesa pilgrim group has run into problems on the road from Mt. Arafat.
Snafus with the Saudi authorities meant the group's two busloads of pilgrims left late for the Muzdalifa Plain — where they were required to arrive before sunrise Wednesday to head off on foot for Mina and the "Stoning the Devil" ritual.
The Arafat-Muzdalifa road was absolutely jammed and after about five hours, it became clear the buses wouldn't make it to Muzdalifa before sunrise. Imam Moustafa Al Qazwini led one busload, about 40 people, on foot for a two-hour pre-dawn walk through a chaos of teeming pilgrims and choking exhaust fumes. A second bus full of female pilgrims was trapped even farther back on the road and several of the men in our group had no way of knowing if their wives were all right.
Our group arrived in Muzdalifa on time and slept for about two hours on the ground before continuing the foot journey to Mena. There they completed the stoning ritual, but then — according to Shiite custom — had to wait for confirmation that the ritual sheep slaughter had been carried out in their name by Saudi authorities. Until the slaughter is confirmed, the pilgrims cannot remove their ihram clothing.
For reasons still unclear, the slaughter confirmation — which normally takes about three hours — has stretched into more than a day.
As of this posting, it's Thursday morning in Saudi Arabia. The two busloads have split into at least four different groups with many members still unaccounted for. A large pilgrim group remains at a campsite in Mina — essentially trapped in ihram. Small groups are trickling in to the group's Mecca home-base.
"I didn't know it would be like this," said one tearful female pilgrim.
— Ashraf Khalil in Mecca
The little town of Bethlehem has become a giant art project this Christmas season, with Israel’s separation barrier serving as a canvas — and target.
More than a dozen foreign artists have converged on the traditional birthplace of Jesus to splash politically tinged images and messages on various bare walls around town. It’s all part of a happening called Santa’s Ghetto, a yearly forum for the works of street and graffiti artists that is normally staged in London. This time, the company organizing the event picked Bethlehem in order to highlight the barrier, which encircles the town in the form of a nearly 30-foot concrete wall. Organizers say they are politically unaffiliated and don’t speak for the artists.
The event, running until Christmas Eve, revolves around a silent auction of the works of two dozen U.S. and European artists at an improvised gallery on Manger Square, near the spot where the Bible says Jesus was born. Some of the featured artists, including the British graffiti artist known as Banksy, traveled to the Holy Land to spray, daub, stencil and glue new works all over Bethlehem. Proceeds are to benefit a children’s charity, as yet undetermined.
The burst of street art has created a buzz in the normally forlorn West Bank town, which suffered a drop in tourism after violence broke out in 2000 and has yet to recover. Municipal leaders also blame the barrier, which Israel says is needed to block suicide bombers, for the sagging economy. These days, visitors are coming to hunt for the Banksy images, including that of a girl frisking an Israeli soldier and of a flak-jacket-wearing dove in flight. Enterprising taxi drivers are reportedly charging $100 for a tour of the wall art.
On a recent day, the New York street artist known as Swoon braved a sharp winter wind while pasting colorful cloth pockets onto the Palestinian side of the concrete barrier. She was tucking slips of paper with hand-lettered messages into each. Her helper offered us one, a quotation ascribed to Martin Luther King Jr. It read: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” We said thanks, and zoomed off in search of more wall art.
— Ken Ellingwood in Bethlehem
The vegetable seller glides beneath the magnolia on his bicycle; the burned-face boy washes cars in the street for pennies; the dogs retreat; the cats scatter across corners; men in tunics carry shovels, hoes and wrenches, walking through the neighborhood like a tiny army of the dispossessed, offering to fix whatever is wrong. It is a winter morning in Cairo. The night watchmen head home and the sheep will soon be slaughtered, they fidget and cower in the alleys. The sun is hazy, not its vibrant self. Children wear sweaters. The baker's kiln warms the praying men near the train tracks. A Muslim shopkeeper sells blown-glass Christmas ornaments to tourists, and the street-sweeper's broom raises dust amid the battered taxis. A man will bring you croissants, but it is better to choose them yourself, and to find a seat in the sun at the cafe and read the newspaper, feeling old amid the laptops and wireless connections in this ancient city.
The burned-faced boy wants more money. He wears sandals and a cap. He looks cold; his hands are hard and white with scars. It is not his face that makes you sad, but his pants, they are dirty and frayed and have stayed short while he has grown. He smiles. He wants another pound — 17 cents. A boy in this city can be happy for an extra 17 cents; it shouldn't be this way, but it is. He disappears down the wet street. Another boy will come and want to wash the cars, and another after that. But for now all is quiet, except the crinkle of the newspaper and the whispery voice of a woman balancing a child on her shoulder, approaching with a cupped hand. She takes the money, turns and in practiced English says:
"Merry Christmas, mister."
— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo
Here's a quick video clip showing our Southern California pilgrim group in their tent on Mr Arafat. Here, Imam Moustafa Al Qazwini is leading the group through their statement of intent to carry out the noon-to-sunset prayer vigil.
Apologies for the amateur quality of the video and for that annoying bit of dangling rope that I didn't notice when I was filming. — Ashraf Khalil on Mt. Arafat
The dignitaries and other guests — some dressed in traditional robes, others clad in business suits — strolled through the terminal of Basra International Airport towards signs for the “International Arrivals Lounge” and “Passport Control.”
However, few of the esteemed visitors had actually just arrived from overseas. Many were Iraqis, who had come to the airport on Sunday to attend a ceremony marking Britain’s formal transfer of security responsibility to the local provincial authorities.
Basra was the ninth of 18 Iraqi provinces to be given back to the Iraqis, and the last of four southern provinces under British control. Britain is expected to draw down its remaining 4,500 troops to about 2,500 by spring. And all have now pulled back from central Basra city. They say they will only enter Iraq’s second-largest city, when a crisis occurs that exceeds the capacity of the Iraqi security forces.
British military officials also boast that violence in oil-rich Basra has abated to such a manageable level in recent months, as to allow British troops to pull out.
Many Basra residents agree that their city feels safer today. Others, however, worry about the possible escalation of existing tensions between rival Shiite groups that are engaged in an often violence-prone power struggle. Other worrisome aggression in the country’s south has included the assassination of two southern governors during the summer, and several car bombings in the south.
Also troubling for many, is the seeming rise of religious intolerance and extremism that has particularly impacted women in Basra.
Still British and Iraqi officials insist that security is far better than it was even six months ago, and they tout the readiness of Iraqi security to take charge.
Despite this, no one wanted to chance conducting the symbolic handover ceremony anyplace in town. The highly fortified airport, where many of the remaining British forces are now based, proved to be the safer option.
— Ann M. Simmons in Basra, Iraq
National flags are everywhere during the hajj. Both as a display of pride and an attempt to keep track of one another, pilgrims here place their country’s flag on their buses, their bags and even on the back of their veils.
A quick glance through the streets or in Mecca’s Grand Mosque during prayers reveals flags from India, Turkey, Indonesia and Iran. One man sitting in the mosque last week wore a beige vest with “Kazakhstan” across its shoulders in large red letters.
But there are no American flags anywhere — despite a significant number of pilgrims from the U.S.
The group from Al Salam Tours in San Diego may not have U.S. flags sewn on its clothes, but members also aren't hesitant about telling people they’ve come from America.
Despite ongoing tensions between the U.S. and most of the Muslim world, the Southern California pilgrim group members say the issue really hasn’t come up.
“Not that many people have cared, which is actually nice,” said Ellen Hajjali. As a fair-skinned Muslim convert who wears the veil, she’s accustomed to sticking out in America. But Caucasian Muslims are a common sight during the pilgrimage — Bosnians, Albanians and American and European converts.
“There’s lots of people here with fair hair and blue eyes,” Hajjali said.
Blog Mapper: Tracking the hajj
— Ashraf Khalil in Mecca
The cries of the hawkers started up as soon as midday prayers finished at Medina’s Mosque of the Prophet.
“Fifteen riyals! Fifteen riyals!” shouted a young man named Badr, switching between Arabic, Farsi and Urdu.
A crowd of women descended on his box of black and red abaya gowns, rifling through the contents and initiating polyglot negotiations.
Ten feet away, a man who identified himself only as Abdul Rahman sold multicolored scarfs for 5 riyals (about $1.50) each. The crowd nearly engulfed him, pulling fresh packages out of his hands before he could unwrap them.
Always keeping one eye peeled for the baladeya — the local police — the hawkers were doing a roaring business. Inside the more legitimate Medina storefronts, business was equally brisk.
“This month is worth the rest of the year for me,” said Ahmed Ali, an Afghan merchant who owns a clothing store.
Continue reading "SAUDI ARABIA: This month is worth a year" »
According to Hannah Allam of McClatchy Newspapers, those who can’t make it to the hajj this year will be able to experience it virtually.
Just make sure you figure out how to put on those virtual pilgrims' robes first.
Blog Mapper: Tracking the hajj
— Ashraf Khalil in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
The hajj is meant to be an escape from your everyday reality — a time to leave the material world behind, don humble pilgrims' robes and focus 100% on your relationship with God. But according to a front-page article in Thursday's Saudi Gazette, the material world will soon be whizzing through the air around Mecca's Grand Mosque.
Saudi authorities are establishing 70 different WiFi access points throughout the holy sites. WiFi Internet access will even be available inside the Grand Mosque. The spiritual implications of this move are still unclear, but we're expecting a fatwa any day now.
Blog Mapper: Tracking the hajj
— Ashraf Khalil in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
The tide of bodies rises along Mediterranean coastlines. They roll and tumble in the surf, washing up on beaches, getting tangled in rocks amid the seaweed. They are mostly men and boys looking to escape the poverty of Africa; many of them come from Egypt, where high inflation and years of joblessness have forced them to board small, unsafe fishing bound boats from Alexandria and other ports.
The men are the hope of their families, but they have also become a national despair. In October, at least 57 drowned off the coast of Sicily. The other day nearly 40 died off a beach in Turkey. Pictures of them, face down in the sand, haunt and anger Egypt, but still the men go, with a single set of clothes to their name and crumpled phone numbers in their pockets.
Not long ago, mourners gathered in an Egyptian town at the desert’s edge for the funerals of their cousins, sons and uncles delivered back from failed journeys. Men filed down an alley. They sat in a room, and spoke about desperation and risk; death banners waved in the dusk outside.
A boy sat among the men. He was small, wriggling in a chair, his feet not touching the ground. His eyes studied the men, listening to their stories, glad to be counted old enough to sit among them, but still boy enough not to understand why the men tugged their voices tight, speaking at times in whispers. He looked around and seemed to realize that whatever was happening could not be explained. It could only be endured.
— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo
 Recently Tehran's House of Iranian Artists held an exhibition by a young Afghan photojournalist named Fardin Waezi. The lovely old mansion in downtown Tehran has become the site of a political tug-of-war between hard-liners, not so hard-liners and so-called modernizers in the city government. They all want control over the building.
Occasionally, however, some decent paintings and photographs are shown there, so it's still worth a visit.
Organizers were still putting up Waezi's extraordinary pictures from his war-torn land, along with descriptions in Farsi and English.
Many of the people at the exhibit were young Afghan actors playing roles as laborers on Iranian soap operas. They complained about the discrimination they suffered, such as being barred from studying at Iranian high schools or getting a jobs even after graduating from Iranian universities or being derided on the streets as "Afghanis," even though some had been born and raised in Iran.
Still, they were proud that Waezi's photos were being shown at so prestigious a venue. The exhibit included poems written by the photographer. Springs smile!
The spring along with its lovable smile
Season of flowers
Blossoms and beauty for you, and me,
The spring is waiting to you to come and plant a sapling
For our future and the future of lovely Afghanistan.
His photographs of Kabul harkened back to scenes from Tehran 40 or 50 years ago. "Perhaps today's Ankara or Dubai are our fast-forward?" said one Iranian woman visiting the exhibit.
As a character in Iranian filmmaker Bahram Baizai's 1992 "The Travelers," says, "We are all dreams of each other."
— Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran
Photo: A picture of joy from Afghanistan by photojournalist Fardin Waezi, who was featured at a recent exhibit in Tehran. Credit: Fardin Waezi
Along with throngs of pre-holiday shoppers in downtown Ramallah is a new sight: the first female police officers in the West Bank.
The freshly minted cops, wearing navy pants, light blue shirts, and, in some case, Muslim headscarves under their police caps, are directing traffic in Ramallah’s central shopping district after completing their academy training.
On a recent day, about 10 of the rookie officers were trying to untangle the knot of cars and pedestrians around Manara Square, a rotary that is especially clogged with shoppers ahead of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, starting Wednesday, and Christmas. Alongside male counterparts, the female officers sought to keep cars moving and to persuade pedestrians to use the official crosswalks.
Policing is a new role for Palestinian women, who tend to enjoy more rights in the workplace and public life than those in many Arab societies. Palestinian women hold public office and run businesses though the overall society remains traditional in many respects.
One of the new officers said she enjoys the work, even though “people do not seem to listen to orders from the women in blue.” In fact, at Manara Square, it often seemed as if the women would not have been heeded if not for the accompanying male officers. The women are starting with traffic duty, but plans also call for them to help during arrest raids in cases where women are inside the homes in question.
The female officer, who didn’t want to give her name, said people will get used to taking orders from women cops. Some pedestrians seemed to like the idea of female cops. Hasan Abdul Salam, 38, an employee at the social-affairs ministry, said he was on board. “I think it is a healthy and civilized sign to see women doing police work as well,” he said. “Besides, the women may be nicer than the men in dealing with people.”
— Maher Abukhater in Ramallah
Sectarian violence rocked a town in Upper Egypt this week as Muslims set Coptic-owned stores on fire and threw stones on a church.
The violence erupted in the wake of reports that two Copts pulled down the niqab (veil) of a Muslim woman, which provoked many Muslims in Isna town, around 600 kilometers south of Cairo.
This city has recently witnessed skirmishes between Copts and Muslims on the heels of rumors that a group of Copts attempted to kidnap and sexually assault a Muslim girl. In fact, sectarian violence has been common in Egypt since the 1970’s.
Most Copts, who comprise between 6% and 10% of the population, relate the rise of sectarian tension to the spread of religiously-fundamental fervor among Muslims.
— Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo
In an unexpected move, the government decided last Thursday to heed the demands of thousands of real estate tax collectors, who made front page news for ten days with their highly organized protest. After a ten-day sit in outside the cabinet headquarters, tax collectors forced the government to adjust their salary scales and raise their bonuses immediately.
The move took the nation by surprise as the government seemed too stubborn to give in for days. Earlier the finance minister made the government’s position clear by contending that nobody can “twist twists the arm of the government. Let them sleep in the streets if they want to.”
Thus, many observers contend that the sudden change of heart is an indication of the government’s weakness and a serious lack of political vision. The strike stands as a significant precedent that may encourage other state bureaucrats and professionals, who endure poverty, to take to the streets.
— Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo
 Murtaza Sakha, walks on his tiptoes with an exaggerated side-to-side swing, as if his hip-joints are locked in place.
He can’t walk for very long, and often needs to be carried or pushed in a special chair resembling an oversized stroller.
Afflicted with muscular dsytrophy, Sakha, age 9, has been brought to the pilgrimage by his father Moustafa. Both are quietly hoping for a miracle cure for the disease that is systematically weakening Murtaza’s muscles.
Born in Southern California to Afghan immigrants, Murtaza had seen pictures of the hajj before, of course. But to actually be here, he says, is “amazing.”
His disability, however, is a serious concern amid the frantic crowds of pilgrims — particularly during the ritual revolutions around the Kaaba inside Mecca’s Grand Mosque.
“The first time we went, I was in the chair and it was way too crowded,” he said. “So we went back another time and I rode on my dad’s back.”
Blog Mapper: Tracking the Hajj
— Ashraf Khalil in Mecca
A pair of videos courtesy of guest videographer Mohammed Jafri.
The first shows hundreds of pilgrims crowding to get into the tiny cave where the prophet Muhammad is believed to have first received the message of God.
The cave, located in Mt. Hira outside Mecca, Saudi Arabia, is the site of the original miracle that led to the founding of Islam. Muhammad, then a wealthy merchant living in Mecca, is believed to have been meditating inside the cave when the angel Gabriel appeared, bringing the first revealed verses of the Koran, ordering him to read. Muhammad was illiterate, and said he couldn't, and then Gabriel ordered him to recite after him. The second video is MUCH weirder. The area around the cave is inhabited by a pack of wild baboons. On the day this video was shot, one of the baboons made moves to attack a pilgrim. The man fell while running away, badly cutting his foot.
Anyone out there with information or theories on how a family of baboons came to be living on a barren mountain in the Saudi desert, please write in. — Ashraf Khalil in Mecca
Far superior images will be running in the paper soon courtesy of photographer Irfan Khan.
But for now, here's a quick amateur video of Mecca's Grand Mosque shot from the 30th floor of a nearby building. If you look closely, you can see the motion of thousands of Muslim pilgrims performing ritual revolutions around the black cube of the Kaaba. Blog Mapper: Tracking the Hajj
— Ashraf Khalil in Mecca
The longest teachers strike in Israeli history is over. The two-month hiatus ended after a final, 20-hour negotiation push before a court order sending teachers back to work was going into effect. The junior and high school teachers got a raise and promises for reforms, such as reducing the number of students in classrooms.
Israeli Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On hailed the last-minute agreement as "important to education in Israel" and Education Minister Yuli Tamir was pleased the back-to-work injunctions would not have to be enforced. Strike leaders claimed success and achievement of all goals but some teachers felt they were sold cheap and betrayed by their representatives. A placard at a demonstration in Tel Aviv this morning summed up this sentiment with a bitter statement of math: "40,000 teachers, 60 days, 1 knife in the back."
Typically, parents' and students' nerves were stretched to the last minute, as they waited by the radio early this morning until the announcement was finally broadcast not long before beginning of the school day. Hundreds of thousands of teenagers then slouched off to school, where teachers had been told to explain the strike and discuss conflict in democratic societies with their students.
Walking the dog early Sunday morning, I bumped into a dozen or so of the neighborhood's teenagers just getting in from a night-long party. Now kids can expect all-nighters of a different kind — and parents some relief.
— Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem
Bush administration officials are beginning to say that the new intelligence report on Iran, which said Iran had halted its secret nuclear weapons program in 2003, has been a setback to U.S. policy.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in a speech Thursday in San Diego that the report was "a goal against ourselves."
— Paul Richter in Washington
 The Hajj this year is an extended family reunion for Imam Moustafa Al Qazwini, leader of the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County in Costa Mesa.
His brother Mohammed, an imam in San Diego, is here; so are his sons Hadi and Mahdi, who are both studying in the seminaries of Qom in Iran. His father Mortada, who served at a mosque in Pomona for more than a decade and moved to Karbala after the fall of Saddam Hussein, has come to Mecca as well.
Qazwini comes from a family of "sayyids," the honorific bestowed on those who trace their lineage back to the prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatima.
Religious service is in the Qazwini blood. Moustafa al Qazwini’s grandfather died in an Iraqi prison after a crackdown on rebellious Shiite imams. In 1971, when Moustafa was nine, his father fled Iraq with his family — one step ahead of a government execution order. Eventually the elder Qazwini settled in Pomona.
The Qazwinis have become possibly the preeminent Shiite religious family in the United States.
Of the six Qazwini brothers, four are imams in the U.S. and a fifth is completing his religious studies in Karbala. The sixth brother is the odd one out, a professor of biochemistry in the United Arab Emirates.
Now a third generation of Qazwinis is carrying on the family tradition.
“You’re exposed to it at a young age,” said Mahdi Qazwini, 20, who spent a year at Mt. San Antonio College and thought about studying law before deciding to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“You see your father and your uncles and your cousins and everybody doing it, and it does encourage you,” he said. “When you’re part of a sayyid family, you do feel a little obliged to serve.”
Blog Mapper: Tracking the Hajj
— Ashraf Khalil in Mecca
Photo: From left, Mahdi, Moustafa, Hadi and Mohammed Al Qazwini in Mecca
This time it is not textile workers but tax clerks. Thousands of real-estate tax collectors have been on strike for 10 days to pressure the government to re-adjust their salaries, which they contend don’t cover their basic needs anymore. The protestors are asking to be paid a proper share of the annual tax revenues they collect.
“We won't surrender, we won't give our children’s rights up!” shouted the workers.
However, those slogans fell short of persuading the government to address the workers’ demands immediately. The government insists that a new tax law needs to be passed first before any demands can be met. Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali was quoted this week as saying “Nobody twists the arm of the government. Let them sleep in the streets if they want to.”
The minister contends that the total revenues collected by the real estate tax authority are LE 450 million, which are mostly used to cover collectors’ salaries, which he estimates at LE 437. However, the protestors challenged the minister’s claim, asserting that that they collect more than LE 3 billion a year.
The tax collectors’ protest comes amid a series of labor strikes that have rocked Egypt for a year. However, it seems that the disenchantment is not only restricted to the working class. The middle class has recently decided to follow suit. University professors have become vocal in their demands to have their working and economic conditions improved. Also, doctors threatened to embark on a series of protests if the government did not heed their demands.
“Things have come to a head; we can’t take our poor working conditions anymore, or our wages that make us more of slave laborers, or the indifference of [state] officials towards our suffering,” said a statement published by a group of doctors this week.
— Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo
Israeli advertising humor takes (ir)reverence one step forward, then two back: The Village People. YMCA. Dancing ultra-Orthodox Jews. What's wrong with this picture? Uh, lots.
Earlier this month, Yes, the Israeli satellite TV company, launched a new feature: HDTV, high definition television. Basically, this is state-of-the-art technology that allows digital production, transmittal and reception at the highest resolution and best quality available and is supposed to be the cat's meow.
But who cares about the technology? What people are really talking about is the TV commercial.
Continue reading "ISRAEL: Ultra-Orthodox musical about HDTV? Uh-oh..." »
It starts with a head cold then moves into your chest, accompanied by a low-grade fever. The Hajj is equal parts religious ceremony and punishing physical endurance test—and few pilgrims manage the whole process without their bodies breaking down at some point.
It’s a combination of factors: the sun, physical exhaustion, crushing crowds and close proximity with pilgrims carrying exotic contagions from around the world. “Nobody escapes it,” said Imam Moustafa Al Qazwini, who is himself starting to come down with the package of symptoms he calls “The Hajj Flu.”
Several people in Qazwini’s pilgrim group have already succumbed. During quiet moments in Mecca’s Grand Mosque, the sound of pilgrims coughing echoes off the marble columns.
Qazwini, who has made 15 pilgrimages, recalls one trip several years ago where he actually made it through in perfect health. “I came back to California proudly declaring myself the sole survivor,” he said. “Then I ended up in bed for the next two weeks.”
Blog Mapper: Tracking the Hajj
— Ashraf Khalil in Mecca
Maj. Gen. Qais Hamza Mamouri was such a popular provincial police chief that when he was killed by a roadside bomb Sunday in the southern province of Babil, many residents — and policemen — were “hysterical” with grief, according to reports from the area. And with the tears, came the usual barrage of conspiracy theories.
Continue reading "IRAQ: Babil police chief's death sparks conspiracy theories" »
The pilgrim group we’re accompanying entered the sanctified state of ihram yesterday before traveling to Mecca — symbolically donning identical white towels and robes. This first ihram stage lasts less than a day, and is sort of a prelude for the more difficult longer ihram phase coming next week that includes all-day outdoor vigils and treks through the desert.
The following except is from the “The Hadj” by Michael Wolfe — an American journalist and Muslim convert who detailed the sights, scenes and emotions of his first pilgrimage.
“The ihram had a powerful impact on me too. For one thing, it put an end to my months of arrangements. In a way, it put an end to me as well. The uniform cloth defeats class distinctions and cultural fashion. Rich and poor are lumped together in it, looking like penitents in a Bosch painting. The ihram is as democratic as a death shroud.”
Blog Mapper: Tracking the Hajj
— Ashraf Khalil in Mecca
As if the pilgrimage wasn’t steeped in enough religious symbolism, the hajj group from Al Salam Tours has had to contend with the swarms of locusts that inhabit Mecca, Medina and other Saudi cities.
The insects were out in force throughout Medina’s Mosque of the Prophet. At one point pilgrim Ellen Hajjali of Altadena was distracted mid-prayer by a locust that planted itself right in front of her as she was bowing. “It really felt like he was staring at me,” she laughed.
During the five-hour late-night bus trip between Mecca and Medina, the group stopped off at a roadside rest stop. As pilgrims trudged through the parking lot toward the public restrooms, they encountered a virtual minefield of locusts that would flare up to waist-height as they walked past.
This was actually a serious religious challenge for the pilgrims, who at that point were in the sanctified state of ihram. Pilgrims in ihram are forbidden to kill any living thing — even by accident.
When they re-boarded the bus, one young woman discovered that a locust had somehow crawled under her robes and up her arm. There was a brief moment of concern, as the pilgrims debated how to dispose of the insect without harming it. The woman and her husband got off the bus for a minute then returned to report the crisis had been averted: The locust had been freed unharmed.
Blog Mapper: Tracking the Hajj
— Ashraf Khalil in Mecca
Go to mall. Make calls on cellphone. Snack. Sleep. Repeat.
American parents know well this bored-teen routine during holidays and vacations. But consider the especially frazzled state of Israeli parents these days.
High school teachers in Israel have been on strike since October, sending 400,000 squirrely teenagers into the streets and malls for two months. But that’s not the half of it. The strike hit soon after summer vacation and the Jewish High Holidays, meaning students have been at home for all but a few weeks since spring. Making things worse, a separate, rolling strike and the Passover holiday in April kept classes shut for much of the late spring.
Alternating between fiesta and siesta, idle teens are costing their parents an estimated $250 more each month each between partying, snacking and yakking, according to one estimate.
The nine-week strike is over salaries and school reforms. Compared to Europe and the United States, teacher pay in Israel is low — about $15,000 a year for someone with 15 years on the job. Ben Caspit, an Israeli columnist, calculates that monthly pay for a beginning teacher would buy 250 cups of espresso. "That's a lot of coffee,” he wrote, “but very little money."
Many Israelis worry that repeated budget trims have begun to carve into the meat of Israel's public education system. Israeli children ranked poorly in the PIRLS tests that monitor mother-tongue literacy (check out how your kids are doing here), and domestic achievement test results are nothing to smile about either.
Teacher activists have jumped into the Mediterranean to protest the government's "sinking" of public education, dangled from bridges to demonstrate the "hanging" of the same and followed the prime minister on his recent trip to Annapolis, Md.
Meanwhile, a labor court has ordered teachers back to work after the Hanukkah vacation ends on Wednesday. But 1,000 teachers have pledged to resign if forced to return and 50 high schools have already announced their intention not to comply. Parents are (wearily) staying tuned.
— Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem
 Lebanese lawmakers have delayed for a seventh time since Sept. 25 the naming of a president. They're set to convene Tuesday when they may work on changing the constitution to allow army chief Michel Suleiman to become president and name a new government.
Former President Emile Lahoud left his post last month, and for two weeks the Lebanese have been regularly grumbling that, for the first time in their history since independence, they don't have a president. In the clip below a video artist colors the cedar tree in Lebanon's flag black instead of gren. "Let's fill the void," the caption reads, urging politicians from rival camps to put aside their differences and name a president.
Continue reading "LEBANON: No government, no worries" »
News reports saying that the government is considering lifting subsidies on oil and basic goods has raised eyebrows among Egyptians who might not be able to afford further price hikes. On every corner, you find people voicing concerns about inflation and further deterioration of their living conditions. Under the slogan of "achieving social equality", the government announced that it would revamp the subsidy system to "make sure that state subsidies reach those who deserve them."
Continue reading "EGYPT: New price hike on horizon " »
Maybe I’m the only person who’s entertained by these paradoxes, but after the Singing Santas in Bahrain, we now present a Starbucks branch in the shadow of the Mosque of the Prophet.
And yes, I couldn’t resist getting a latte… — Ashraf Khalil in Medina
Arabic is, at its heart, a naturally flowery language. And as the language of Islam, it provides baroque poetic prayers for every occasion.
But the words spoken by all Muslims as they walk past the gravesite of the prophet Muhammad are endearingly simple.
Muhammad’s grave is embedded within the Mosque of the Prophet — a vast marble monument built around the remains of the humble mosque from which Muhammad preached to the first community of Muslims.
Visitors to Medina line up in packs to view the large wooden box that conceals the gravesite. As they walk past, each says just one simple sentence: Assalamu Alaikum ya Rusool Allah. “Peace be upon you O Prophet of God.”
Blog Mapper: Tracking the Hajj
— Ashraf Khalil in Medina
Today’s experiment from the holy city of Medina was to actually manage to take some pictures outside our hotel.
 The crowds of pilgrims are crawling with uniformed and plain-clothed police and even amateur photography is heavily restricted. Our concern was that my colleague, photographer Irfan Khan, wouldn’t last 10 minutes on the streets with his professional camera rig before being accosted by aggressive authorities.
The solution: Secure an escort from the Ministry of Information whose job would basically be to run interference and protect Irfan.
This required months of back-and-forth e-mails with the ministry before our trip. Then after we arrived and realized that our e-mails had produced absolutely zero results, it required a day of frantic phone calls to a half dozen officials.
Finally we got our wish. A ministry employee met us this morning and stuck with us throughout the day as Irfan photographed street hawkers selling scarves and fake gold watches after midday prayers outside the Mosque of the Prophet.
At first it seemed too easy. Irfan wandered the crowds at will and our minder never had to lift a finger.
But the realities of the situation became clearer later in the day. Irfan and I were waiting outside the mosque to meet up with our minder so he could take us up to a nearby hotel rooftop for some high-angle shots. Irfan wasn’t even taking pictures at the time, just standing around with his camera gear.
Suddenly a tall man in a beige robe appeared and started barking at Irfan to come with him. I intervened and the man took me to meet a heavyset guy astride a red moped who identified himself as an officer with the secret police.
I explained who we were, flashed my business card and said that our ministry escort was en route. He seemed satisfied and drove | |
