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4 The Muslim Observer Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014 Plea in Support of Imam Jamil Imam Jamil and his family have received the results of his biopsy from a physician at BOP’s Butner Medical facility. According to the report, Imam Jamil has an early stage myeloma and will not be receiving cancer drugs, radiation or other medical interventions at this time. However, the same doctor stressed the importance of Imam Jamil’s condition being closely monitored, with continued and regular biopsies at two-to-three-month intervals to check for increased levels of myeloma cells. We are deeply concerned that BOP may consider returning Imam Jamil to the Florence ADMAX USP, where he will not receive the proper medical care and follow-up that his condition requires and that is his right. YOUR EFFORTS ARE STILL NEEDED Because of your efforts, Imam Jamil has received a needed biopsy and timely results at a proper medical facility. Your continued efforts are needed to advocate for the medical care and follow-up that Imam Jamil urgently needs. OUR ADVOCACY FOR IMAM JAMIL Our advocacy for Imam Jamil is that: (1) Jamil Al-Amin #99974-555 be housed at a BOP facility in Butner, where (2) he receive regular biopsies to monitor growth of myeloma cells in his body; (3) that he receive the ongoing and qualified medical care necessary to monitor and treat his disease, as is his right; and (4) that he not be returned to Florence ADMAX USP due to that facility’s demonstrated inability to provide for basic medical and dental care or for medical emergencies; let alone the specialized care that Imam Jamil’s medical condition requires, and as is his right. YOUR RESPONSE IS CRITICAL GO TO>>> http://www.bop. gov/inmates/concerns.jsp SELECT LOCATION: Florence ADMAX USP YOUR EMAIL: Include your email to get a confirmation ENTER INMATE: Jamil Al-Amin #99974-555 YOUR CONCERNS: See advocacy above EMAIL NOW: FLM/execassistant@bop. gov Emotions Spill over at Lincolnwood Meeting About Palestinian Flag A Monday night meeting at Village Hall in Lincolnwood got tense near the end, after Mayor Gerald Turry chastised a man who screamed ‘terrorist.’ By Angie Leventis Lourgos A Monday night meeting over a Palestinian flag in north suburban Lincolnwood was intense but civil much of the way before emotions spilled over Lincolnwood, p. 18 a whole. If we can educate more girls, provide them with employment opportunities and give them the right life skills, their world will open up! Girls transformed As I sat in a circle with a group of girls playing a team game about working together and sharing responsibilities, delegating and planning, I could see the true impact of this program. Games like these, alongside Barclays volunteers sharing their financial knowledge, are what help the girls plan, set up and develop their own enterprises. At the end of the session, the girls came together to sing an anthem created especially for them about how “they are taking charge.” I had goose pimples just listening to the power and determination in their voices. They had overcome so many hardships and yet they were ready to take on new challenges and improve the quality of life for themselves and everyone around them. I was truly inspired. I was invited to their marketplace to see the businesses some of the girls have set up with their new found business and saving skills -- making bags, saris and sanitary napkins -- each a story of a girl transformed, taking charge of her life and starting something of larger social relevance. It was a shopping trip with a difference. So what are the ingredients for a strong girl? How can we make sure that “all girls and boys can make their own name and fate and be independent,” as one girl told me. They had overcome so many hardships and yet they were ready to take on new challenges and improve the quality of life for themselves and everyone around them. Here’s my list: • Teach a young adult not what to think but how to think • Encourage young people to dare to believe, to realize dreams • Foster a young girls confidence to voice her own opinions and solve her own problems • Instill an understanding of saving, money and business to become financially independent • Nurture an interest in their community so their impacts can be shared Alongside all this, add a bit of magic, encouraging the girls to share their new power and use it to do good for the community. These girls go out and teach other girls and the ripple of empowerment spreads. It’s a real, tangible, positive effect where is there for all to see. Walking along a path in this quiet village in the middle of nowhere, it is easy to see how a girl can get lost -- lost for life. I was there to meet Sadhana, 23, who had invited me into her home. She was far from lost. One of five sisters, her parents had initially been indifferent and felt burdened by them. The girls were not expected to have a future. Her father was paralyzed and was not able to take care of the family and that’s where his young daughter stepped in. Today Sad- Youth Day, p. 18 op-ed International Youth Day: Priyanka Chopra Inspires Girls to Aim High Actress inspires girls to aim high By Priyanka Chopra, Special for CNN Editor’s note: Bollywood actress, international recording artist and UNICEF India Ambassador Priyanka Chopra, met with young women in Chandrapur, India, to mark International Youth Day and witness how their lives are being transformed through the Building Young Futures program. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author. Chandrapur, India (CNN) -- My latest film, “Mary Kom” is about to hit the screens. In it, I play quite literally one of India’s strongest women -- the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six world championships. Her’s is an inspiring story of a young woman who fought odds that were heavily stacked against her to achieve her dreams. She came from a small town but never let the lack of opportunities or any form of discrimination stop her. With her story still ringing in my head, I set off to a small village near Chandrapur in India’s Maharashtra state on International Youth Day at the behest of UNICEF to visit a new generation of strong young Indian women with some very inspiring stories. The girls I met are part of the Building Young Futures program, or Deepshikha as it is locally known, run in partnership with UNICEF, Barclays and the Government of Maharashtra. The program is determined to challenge the difficulties many girls face across India, providing them with the knowledge and skills required to become strong financially independent women and also very importantly, to become the agents for change and development in their communities. Bursting with potential In my eight years as a UNICEF Ambassador championing the cause of adolescent girls, I am so proud of the work we’ve been able to do together. I passionately believe that young people are bursting with potential, that they can transform society. But they need help. We need to urgently invest in their future and help them realize their potential and I am determined to help make that happen. Consider the numbers and you will see why this is such a critical requirement: There are approximately 1.2 billion adolescents in the world today, according to the United Nations, of which 243 million of them are in India. I remember the dreams I had when I was a teenager. With support, opportunities and a lot of hard work I’ve been able to make them happen. But I know that many youngsters aren’t so lucky. In Maharashtra, like many other states in India, girls are held back by not completing education, early marriage, ignorance around health issues, and lacking financial understanding and a voice for decision making. UNICEF India Goodwill Ambassador Priyanka Chopra We owe them a better life, which in itself will have a positive impact on our nation and society as
Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014 By Chris Hedges By clicking hereyou can see Chris Hedges deliver his speech (transcript below) in a video made by Leigha Cohen. Hedges spoke Saturday at a New York City rally and march in support of the people of Gaza. The address was inspired in part by a short essay on Facebookby Naomi Wolf. God’s covenant in the Promised Land was not made with those who pilot F-16 fighter jets that drop 1,000-pound iron fragmentation bombs over the concrete hovels of Gaza. It was not made with those operating Apache or Cobra attack helicopters that unleash lethal fire over crowded refugee camps. It was not made with drone operators that clinically kill children ... outside mosques. It was not made with M-60 tank units and artillery crews that murder families huddled in terror in their homes. It was not made with those on gunboats that slaughter boys playing on a beach. It was not made with those that fire Sidewinder missiles and drop 250-pound “smart bombs” on apartment blocks. It was not made with snipers from the Golani Brigade that gun down unarmed men and women for sport. It was not made with occupiers that reduce an entire people to a starvation diet—indeed count the calories to keep them barely alive—or to those who use words like “mowing the lawn” to justify the indiscriminant slaughter of innocents. God’s covenant in the Promised Land was not made with politicians—including every member of the U.S. Senate—that mouth words for peace and perpetuate war, that call for justice and perpetuate injustice, that refuse to stand up for the rule of law and the right of a captive people to be free. God’s covenant in the Promised Land was not made, finally, with any race or religion. It was not made with the Jews. It was not made with the Muslims. It was not made with the Christians. God’s covenant—in the Bible and the Koran—was made with the righteous. When Ibrahim asked in the holy Koran if the covenant could be inherited, he was told bluntly: “My covenant is not given to oppressors.” And God’s iron requirement to stand with the oppressed occurs as well in the Hebrew and Greek bibles. Those who turn away from righteousness—be they Jew, Christian or Muslim—violate that covenant. They are not God’s people. God’s covenant is made with those who love mercy and do justice, with those who care for the stranger, the orphan and the widow, with those who frus- opinion Let My People Go A Palestinian walks away from his house, destroyed by an Israeli strike, in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shijaiyah. AP/Lefteris Pitarakis trate the ways of the wicked, with those who bring good news to the oppressed, who bind up the brokenhearted, who proclaim liberty to the captives and release to all those in prison, including those imprisoned in Gaza. God’s covenant is with those men and women—Jews, Christians and Muslims, believers and nonbelievers—who say, “Let my people go, oppressed so hard they could not stand. Let my people go.” And God calls these people oaks of righteousness. And they are God’s people. Why does God weep in the Promised Land? God weeps because families, huddled in terror in their homes, are dismembered and killed by Israeli bombs. God weeps because mothers howl in grief over the bodies of their children in U.N. schools hit by Israeli shells. God weeps because the old and disabled, who could not flee the deadly Israeli advance, died helpless and afraid. God weeps because the powerful, here and in Israel, lie and dissemble to justify murder. And God weeps for all those who stand by and do nothing. God weeps because the assault on Gaza is not about Israel’s right to self-defense or about removing Hamas from power. It is not about achieving peace. God weeps because the assault on Gaza is about the decades-long campaign to destroy and ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people from their land. God weeps because Israel is constructing squalid, lawless and impoverished ghettos where life for Palestinians is barely sustainable. God weeps because Israel restricts or shuts off movement, food, medicine and goods to accentuate the human misery. God weeps because Israel has turned Gaza, now largely without power, running water and sewage [systems], into a vast gulag. Gaza, p. 20 CARTOON OF THE WEEK Submissions: We welcome submissions. Please send to submissions@muslimobserver.com, subject “submission.” Due to some recent confusion,we ask that no submissions be made on behalf of others - by submitting articles you are promising us that you are the author of the article, and granting us a license to print it without paying you. Any items received by us, whether pictures or text, become the property of The Muslim Observer - if you want we will try to return them, but if we do not return them we incur no liability. We reserve the right to make [sometimes extensive] edits - both in body and in title, before any submission goes to print, and by sending us your article you assent to this. Disclaimer: Between the front and back pages of the Muslim Observer are printed the varying and sometimes controversial views (whether in text or graphics) of people who have submitted articles - not every word of these articles has necessarily been reviewed for content, and the views submitted and expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the Muslim Observer or its principals, staff, independent contractors, or advertisers. The Muslim Observer 5 The Muslim Observer Inc. Established in 1998 FOUNDER and CEO A. RAHEMAN NAKADAR, M.D. ceo@muslimobserver.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ASLAM ABDULLAH, Ph.D. editor@muslimobserver.com COMMUNITY EDITOR IMAM ABDULLAH EL-AMIN musings@muslimobserver.com GENERAL MANAGER ADIL JAMES manager@muslimobserver.com CARTOONIST KHALIL BENDIB cartoons@muslimobserver.com ADVERTISEMENTS SYED ASHRAF marketing@muslimobserver.com ACCOUNTING & ADS SUPERVISOR MR. SYED ASHRAF SPORTS: DR. PARVEZ FATTEH REPORTERS AND OTHER CONTRIBUTORS: ILYAS HASAN CHOUDRY, HOUSTON, TX GEOFFREY COOK, SAN FRANCISCO, CA KARIMA FRIEDEMANN, BOSTON MA MHMD AYUB KHAN, TORONTO, CANADA LAURA FAWAZ, DEARBORN MI SUSAN SCHWARTZ, LOS ANGELES, CA NIDAH CHATRIWALA, PHOENIX AZ ABDULLAH TARABISHY, TROY MI NOOR SALEM, DEARBORN MI And many others from the USA and other parts of the world. The Muslim Observer 29004 W. EIGHT MILE ROAD FARMINGTON, MI 48336 TEL: 248-426-7777 FAX: 248-476-8926 E-MAIL: info@muslimobserver.com www.MuslimObserver.com TMO welcomes Letters to the Editor and written compositions relevant to the subject matter of this newspaper. Address them to “The Editor” at the above address. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and content. Major editing is consultatively done. News reports and photos are By Reuters World Service and Reuters Photo Service and AP unless otherwise noted and remain copyrighted to those organizations. TMO does not necessarily agree with the opinions of its writers. All other contents © 2003 The Muslim Observer. The Muslim Observer ISSN 1531-1759 (USP.S. 018-739) is published weekly for $75 per year by Muslim Media Network, Inc., 29004 W. 8 Mile Rd., Farmington, MI 48336. Periodicals postage paid at Farmington Hills, MI, and additional mailing offices. 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