This I Believe...
"I am an American Muslim. I believe in pluralism. In the Holy Quran, God tells us, "I created you into diverse nations and tribes that you may come to know one another." I believe America is humanity's best opportunity to make God's wish that we come to know one another a reality."
This I believe...We Are Each Other's Business
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"But it's hard to be kind. We're not trained for it. Kindness is for sissies; we learn that early. "Nice guys finish last." If they even get invited to the race. Kindness is taken for weakness, rube-ishness, stupidity. No one seems to respect the kind. They respect the killer."
This I believe...The Gift of Kindness
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"I believe that it is only through empathy, that the pain experienced by an Algerian woman, a North Korean dissident, a Rwandan child or an Iraqi prisoner, becomes real to me and not just passing news. And it is at times like this when I ask myself, am I prepared -- like Huck Finn -- to give up Sunday school heaven for the kind of hell that Huck chose? "
This I believe... The Mysterious Connections that Link Us Together
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"I believe there is God,
I believe God is merciful and just,
But if man desires to destroy himself
I believe God will not save him."
This I believe... Human Existence is in Peril
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Read more "This I Believe..." essays...
In other news...Jill Carroll's hostage story
"...the head of the mujahedeen cell I spent most of my time with, once had told me that when they let me go they would give me a gold necklace...Money and gold, that was my ticket to freedom. I figured that if they did give me those things, then the end might truly be at hand...They rushed me into a car waiting outside. I still didn't have gold. I still didn't have money. I began to panic. Abu Rasha was next to me in the back seat. He leaned over me, or so it felt, as I panted, blind, beneath three black scarves. 'Now we're going to kill you' "
posted by FreeCyprus at 7:12 PM
74 Comments:
nice
How the hell can you be kind to scum pigs like these:
Giuliana Sgrena is an Italian journalist for the communist rag Il Manifesto. A ransom of some multi-millions of dollars was paid for her release. She was collected by two members of Italy's military intelligence agency SISMI, one of whom was Nicola Calipari. The CSM article reports that the kidnappers warned her and Calipari "be careful: the Americans don't want you to return to Italy alive".
Then, after they left, the terrorists made an anonymous tip that a car matching the Italians' was on the way to the airport and had a bomb. The car was fired on by US troops when it failed to stop when signaled to.
Calipari was killed and Sgrena was injured.
Jill Carroll's abductors also warned her that "the Americans would try to kill you".
These guys are devils who cannot be trusted and who belong to a 1400 yr-old death cult called ISLAM. Kindness never worked on them...they only understand violence.
You are an interesting person....how did you find my blog? Email me.
I am so impressed now. I saw that Greece will impose a 700 Euro fine for people who pass through a red light, and also increase other fines 400x (from kathemerini).
But, alas, living in Greece for 20 years tells me that you can make a hundred rules, regulations, laws etc, but if police are too shy to enforce them fairly, then what good are they.
Everyone in Greece I know seems to have Meson and can always get out of a ticket. I say, "Everyone gets a ticket, even me and even the parliament". If you run a red light, you get a ticket period!
Oh my
Those are great!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Greece-Australia 72-69
by 2 three-points shot
in the last seconds...
Greece was back 66-69...
God exists....
but in Halkidiki
ergo, thanks for posting (cute pic)
I'm curious to know your thoughts on my actual post...on the "This I Believe" audios
reener, i posted a reply on your blog
harmony and bitmo, thanks
Jack, that's great. Half of those who will be getting tickets will be my uncles and cousins. They have cameras in some Canadian and US intersections and if you run the light, they have your plate and you get the ticket via mail.
anon, you could have reported the facts without stooping to the rascist remarks
The kiss and the blood
To bad that more people don't feel the same. Unfortunately in today's world, there are people who take these beliefs as signs of weakness.
Ergo te Lina said...
Greece-Australia 72-69
by 2 three-points shot
in the last seconds...
Ergo te Lina..are you a basketball fan?
#
Boyhood friend struggles with bin Laden's
terror
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THIS IS NOT ISLAM
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THIS IS NOT ISLAM
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THIS IS NOT ISLAM
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THIS IS NOT ISLAM
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THIS IS NOT ISLAM
#
THIS IS NOT ISLAM
#
THIS IS NOT ISLAM
#
THIS IS NOT ISLAM
#
THIS IS NOT ISLAM
#
I did it to protect ISLAM
you are reasonable in comparison with some of your commentators
Now Shi`ite death squads in Iraq are specifically targeting Sunnis, compelling the latter to pretend to be the former. Across nervous Sunnis are learning to dissemble to avoid the killers, who are often dressed in police uniforms and set up checkpoints to examine people's identity cards for obviously Sunni names. Many Sunnis have invested in forged ID cards. There is a website dedicated to teaching them how to fake it. … The teaching is not straightforward, and the doctrinal differences are often profound."
Most interesting are the tips on being Shi‘i a provided on a Sunni website, the Iraqi League --
Practise imitating another personality and have an ID with another name (you can get these forged IDs from Muraydi market in Sadr city), especially if your name was ‘Umar or ‘Uthman and if your family name was Dulaymi or Janabi, or if your birthplace was in one of the Sunni-majority cities
Memorise the names of the 12 imams
Learn to pray in the Shia way and carry turba [Shia holy clay] in your pocket.
Keep a turba in your house where it can be seen, and put up if necessary a black or a green banner on the roof
Keep a poster in your house of Imam Hussein. You can buy them in Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad
Keep a copy of the Sajadi newspaper [a Shia paper that has Shia prayers] and read some of the prayers, some of them are touchingly beautiful
Keep a latmiya [Shia song] on your mobile phone
Learn how to curse Yazid and Mu‘awiya and Bani Umayya [early Sunni caliphs hated by the Shias] and in the way the Shias do
Wear or keep black clothes in your house, especially in ceremonies that demand it
Learn about the different Shia ceremonies (the death of the imams, their birth and the joy of Zahra)
Pray in a Husseiniya or a Shia mosque. Remember that Shia and Sunnis are not enemies, but there are misled, ignorant people and victims of evil plans who want to spread the breadth of hostility in Iraq
Basketb@ll wow!...
Thank you for the links
The second is from an iranian
woman
Having witnessed the Iranian revolution and the subsequent rise to power of the Ayatollah Khomeini, Nafisi soon became restless with the many stringent rules imposed upon women by her country's new rulers. Because she had lived in the United States before the revolution in Iran, she appreciated the freedom that women in other countries took for granted, and which women in Iran had now lost.
In 1995, finding herself no longer able to teach English literature properly without attracting the scrutiny of the authorities, she quit teaching at the university, and instead invited seven of her best female students to secretly attend regular meetings at her house, every Thursday morning. They would study literary works considered controversial and even dangerous to read in post-revolutionary Iranian society such as Lolita, Madame Bovary and The Great Gatsby, as well as novels by Henry James and Jane Austen, attempting to understand and interpret them from a modern Iranian perspective.
Nafisi finally left Iran on June 24, 1997, moving to the United States
)))))
I actually did read the book, Reading Lolita in Tehran, It was good! I like the "believe" site I'll go back to it and read more. BTW: Milwaukee (also known as "the city of festivals") has a huge weekend long Greek festival. You may add that to your list next year :-).
It's interesting to read a blog from the other side of the world. Makes the world seem not so big.
basketball! Greece is 3 and 0 (damn...Turkey is on fire)
"Basketball is a game of mistakes – the team that makes more mistakes loses."
Panagiotis YANNAKIS (GRE)
ergo te lina, thanks for visiting. Yes the second is from an Iranian woman who taught English literature in Iran. I love the fact that those conservative students of hers defended her
Kiki (Kat) how's Keith the Tortugas these days...when and where is the Greek festival? Any link?
Yemen, thanks for stopping by. I'm doing my best. You have a very interesting site
Anon, my ex-roommate from University (Egyptian and Sunni) was telling me about this. Knowing these tricks can mean the difference between life and death in Iraq he said...
mohammed_siad, I want to believe that most non-Muslims DON'T believe those images reflect Islam
American Crusader...take comfort in the fact that there are also many who feel...that holding onto these beliefs in the midst of hate and violence is...
a sign of strength
Reading Lolita in Tehran, A Memoir in Books is a book by Iranian author and professor, Azar Nafisi.
interesting debate/back-and-forth between ergo te lina and nikos HERE
information overload here! but still good blog
It surprized me that she have
as a friend Paul Wolfowitz..
i don't know a lot about him...
But this would not please
the anti-bush side...
:)
Wolfie is famous as one of architects of Bush/Republican foreign policy. Now he is head of the World Bank.
I don't think the anti-Bush people care that they are friends since I never once heard this woman mentioned by the anti-Bush people. I mean, this woman is not like some hero to the anti-bush people, just they know about her.
:)
Harmony and Ergo Te Lina, yes in the acknowledgements she makes in Reading Lolita in Tehran, she writes of historian Bernard Lewis as "one who opened the door".
Lewis is the author of "What Went Wrong", a book which has been criticized in academic circles for its sweeping generalisations about the Islamic world, and is also associated with neoconservatism. (Wiki)
It's funny though - in the audio she gives hope that conservative Muslims are not as rigid and closed-minded as the Bush administration would have you believe...
Another Iranian female writer:
Azadeh Moaveni - She is married and lives in Tehran with her husband, and reports on Iran for Time Magazine.
Solving the Riddles of Iran
Another article, including mention of another Iranian female writer Afschineh Latifi
There is a growing number of books about the lives of women in the Middle East, says Anne-Marie O'Connor.
When Azadeh Moaveni travelled to Iran as an adult in 1998, a policewoman stopped her and her relatives at the door of a cinema and ordered the women to wipe off their lipstick. They obeyed, but immediately reapplied their lipstick inside. Moaveni learned that Iranian women were equally adept at arranging forbidden trysts with their boyfriends, watching Ally McBeal on forbidden satellite dishes, and engaging in the multiple daily acts of personal freedom that expressed their defiance of the myriad restrictions imposed on them by the Iranian Government.
Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis was accompanied by Hezbollah legislator Ali Moukdat and Lebanese Foreign Minster Fawzi Salloukh as they tour the devastated Hezbollah strongholds of the southern suburbs of Beirut on Wednesday. (AP)
Image
NPR Story
thanks for the satellite links!
free satellite always good
Greece wins fourth straight in World Basketball Championships!
Greece 91, Brazil 80
One article on how some Arab Christians feel:
Arab Christian Groups Villify Israel
more kindness
Whole lot of kindness
By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN
and more kindness
While in Lebanon, I was shown incredible kindness and hospitality, which is a famous Lebanese trait.
wow cool site!
This I believe...
I am an American Muslim. I believe in pluralism...
the ideas presented here give me hope for the world
These are links for the festivals:
http://www.december.com/places/mke/festivals.html
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4196/is_20060209/ai_n16066047
Otherwise Google "Greek Fest + Milwaukee". It's usually held in early July (8-10?).
BTW: The tortuga is still small and smelly. I'd like to ship him to Greece! he's such a poor excuse for a pet. :-)
Thanks for visiting my page.
May i please know the who all are they ,in the picture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WLoasfOLpQ
Dr Wafa Sultan speaks out about the problem with some Muslims
Hi Friends
Could you someone tell
who has the best educational
system
Canada or Us?...
:)
deepak, click on the links to find out more about those people. Then you can also listen to them reading their "This I Believe" essays
zappergirl and david, thanks for visiting.
peaceman, i think you posted this previously
ergo, if you went to school in canada "Canada has the best school system!"
if you went to school in the US, "The US has the best school system!"
my Greek cousins say "Greece has the best school system!"
See a pattern here?
Kat, thanks for the links, updating soon
"Greece has the best school system!"
Unesco and experts can better judge that.....
:)
The students may think
whatever less effort
as good....
any links you can share about the Greek education system and it's quality?
Unesco - Education in Greece
Literacy rates seem very high: 97%+
It looks like the Middle East, South+West Asia and Sub-Sahara regions are very poor regarding literacy rates....if money is not going into education...where could it be going....
World Adult Literacy Rates
Literacy Statistics - Updated: 2006-05-19 4:40 pm
do you mean greeks make "less effort" ?
if so that's insult to me because i worked very hard, every year of schooling and now I am lawyer
@Literacy rates seem very high...
but the government is not pleased
by the practical results...
@"less effort"...
maybe you are the exception...
:)
any links that show "the government is not pleased
by the practical results..."
Seems there are many Greeks who have worked hard at Greek schools and have made a name for themselves, not only in Greece, but throughout the Greek diaspora.
"less effort" - yes, I can see that as insulting
"maybe you are the exception..." - I can also see this as insulting. My friends and family who attend classes and stay up until 3 am studying fall into what category for you?
Greek Scientists
Greek Politicians
Greek Physicists
List of Greeks, some of whom I'm guessing became successful, wealthy, famous or all three without much schooling at all.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Well, I don't think the American school system is very good, as a whole. There are areas where schools are better, but even in Nashville there was maybe one school in each "level" (ie. elementary, junior high, high school) that was considered THE good public school (not counting the magnet schools, which are different).
I really love the "we are each other's business" article.
Recent educational news
The Universities closed for two months
Ergo, appreciate the links.
Melusina, thanks for dropping by.
I think there one of the problems in the US is that teachers don't get paid much? So talented people not entering the profession?
I think the salaries in Canada are significantly higher...
Ergo, any links showing teacher salaries in Greece? pre and post secondary...
Days of Kindness
Greece is a good place
To look at the moon, isn´t it
You can read by moonlight
You can read on the terrace
You can see a face
As you saw it when you were young
There was good light then
Oil lamps and candles
And those little flames
That floated on a cork in olive oil
What I loved in my old life
I haven´t forgotten
It lives in my spine
Marianne and the child
The days of kindness
It rises in my spine
And it manifests as tears
I pray that a loving memory
Exists for them too
The precious ones I overthrew
For an education in the world
Leonard Cohen,
Canadian poet, novelist, and singer-songwriter.
Hydra, 1985
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Well it s a big discussion
Teachers here are not pleased with their
salaries....
There are many bright Greek minds
as you mentioned
but they want to go to US
for challenging better conditions..
US is big...much more opportunities...but still not condemnation of Greek education system...
Greece smaller than US...so obviously more "challenging better conditions" exist there, even more than in Canada and UK
Are there some European academic competitions that Greece participated in?
Any links showing Greek education system as lower quality compared to rest of Europe or North America?
Links help...
:-)
!
GREECE 76 | 69 Turkey
Greeks all over the planet celebrating today...and they're not even in the quarters yet (they gotta beat CHINA first)
Let The Ouzo Flow...(I prefer Moosehead Beer)
After China the winner of Angola-France
and at quarter finals
against US....
Top 500 World Universities
"I believe that it is only through empathy, that the pain experienced by an Algerian woman, a North Korean dissident, a Rwandan child or an Iraqi prisoner, becomes real to me and not just passing news."
so true!
.
The US...ahh, who's afraid of them.
(oh please get kicked out before Greece meets you..)
Ergo te lina...there must be something wrong with the way the Chinese compiled that list.
The following universities are missing from the list:
Sorbonne (Paris)
Yale (USA)
Harvard (USA)
Oxford (UK)
University of Toronto (Canada)
McGill University (Canada)
Princeton (USA)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA)
Peking University (China)
Cambridge (UK)
See this list
I just googled it...any other lists out there?
Also...Carlton is an ok Cdn University, but certainly not in the top 500 of the world (maybe not even top 25 in Canada)
Macleans.ca Canadian University Rankings Chart
.
@FreeCyprus
there is no something wrong ....
Harvard etc are at the top
i gave you of 500
the list between (302-403)
that shows the rank
of Greek universities
if you want to see all 500
Academic Ranking of World Universities - 2006-Updated
ahh...my apologies
So this Chinese list has
the two Greek universities in the "301-400 section"...does it damn the Greek education system or does it just mean there are 300 greater universities than the great universities in Athens and Thessaloniki?
:-)
Any other lists out there?
very nice blog. im impressed:)
thanx for dropping by on my blog - will def be returning.
take care
True, teachers in the U.S. are barely paid a living wage salary - in the public schools. But there are still a lot of good people who aspire to be teachers in the public school system (I knew three of them).
The Greek education system seems relatively strong to me, at least as far as things like literacy rates go. My problem is that there are no "checks" along the way really, aside from normal class testing, that show how well schools, teachers, and students are doing. And then the last couple of years of school seem to be solely focused on passing exams - which of course is important, but I think it overshadows the *real* education. I don't like the college placement system here - not that I can think of an easy fix, but I don't think it is an accurate assessment of students and their capabilities.
BTW, Greece can totally beat the US in basketball! At least, I'm turning traitor hoping that they'd beat them! Go Greece!
LONDON (Reuters) - Police charged a 12th suspect on Thursday over an alleged plot to blow up U.S.-bound airliners.
Umair Hussain, 24, was charged with failing to disclose information that could have prevented a terrorist attack, police said. He is due to appear in a London court on Friday.
Police announced on August 10 they had thwarted a plot to blow up U.S.-bound airliners over the Atlantic by smuggling liquid explosives onto flights.
On Monday, prosecutors charged eight British Muslims with conspiracy to murder and preparing acts of terrorism. They were accused of plotting to smuggle parts of home-made bombs on to planes, then build the bombs and detonate them.
A 17-year-old was charged with possessing items useful to a terrorist, including a book on home-made bombs, suicide notes and wills "with the identities of persons prepared to commit acts of terrorism", prosecutors said.
Two other suspects, including the mother of an 8-month-old baby, were charged with failing to report the plot.
Education in middle east:
The Middle East region is less and less attracting for its own lot of white-collar immigrants to Europe and the USA. As to the youth without higher education qualifications, many of them try the clandestine immigration while others turn over to the radical islamism and become militants out of despair.
full article:
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/34590
Yiassou!
Very nice post and sorry for not visiting!!!
So what? Turkey lost!!! Nonetheless we were better!!!
Noo, just kidding:))
Take care!
I am visiting again and again there is always something interesting here
ektwras, your visits are always welcomed (and thanks)
cevris, yiassou and thanks. Turkey does have an awesome team (and their record reflects that)
Zee, thanks for the compliment and for stopping by.
melusina, it does seem that the American educational system needs an overhaul - curriculum as well as teachers' salaries. Do they follow the Chinese model where my friends had no spare time for anything but studies? Or is that too much on the other side of the spectrum...
I think I agree with your criticism of the Greek education system - it's strong, but also needs to be re-examined and over-hauled
No, the American educational system isn't like that - if anything it is imbalanced - some schools are more challenging while others aren't challenging at all. It is a mess.
At 10:14 AM, Anh Khoi Do said...
Hi, Ergo te Lina, in general view, the Canadian educational system is far better than the one of the US, because Canadians get an education that is quite opened on the world. For this reason, Canadians know the History of the Western civilization more than most Americans. Needless to say that a certain knowledge of the French and British History is required to know the Canadian History. Furthermore, as opposed to the US, superior education (i.e. university and college) in Canada is within most people's financial reach, because each province's government pay a certain part for the access to this form of education per student. The other part is paid by the student. This is why in the USA, not everybody can go to university and that many Americans are not intellectually as resourceful as Canadians.
At 5:45 AM, Anonymous said...
True, the Canadian education is more accessible but it's obvious that higher US education is far better than Canadian (much more funding, more diversed programs, etc.). McGill's OK, but it doesn't compare to MIT, Caltech or Harvard...
"many Americans are not intellectually as resourceful as Canadians" I doubt that is true. The US universities are VERY generous in terms of scholarships, unlike Canada.
Two Canadian Answers about comparing education systems
Arab Racism
bismillah
assalamu alaikum
A few days ago I was with an Arab brother who while talking mentioned something that showed he has a slight dislike of black people. This came to me as no surprise as I am an Arab and I know how alot of Arabs think. However, I decided to not let this one go without the proper verbal beating it deserved. He told me he agrees that all people are the same, however people from central and South Africa never did have any historic achievements and have always been a backwards people whilst the rest of the world at least had a period where they achieved something.
First and foremost there is nothing in the Quraan and Sunnah that says there are any distinctions between white people and black people. On the contrary, in the prophet's last sermon he (pbuh) said;
""All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white (person) has no superiority over a black (person) nor a black has any superiority over a white except by piety and good action."
Also Allah (swt) said:
"And mankind is naught but a single nation."
Holy Quran 2:213
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