Clipmarks | arifsali's clips

Pakistan fashion week defies Taliban

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:56:43 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Pakistan's fashion week began on Wednesday in defiance of the Taliban's preference for strict adherence to modest Islamic veils.

As Pakistan's army battled religious extremists in South Waziristan, Karachi's top designers sent models down catwalks with bare shoulders and exposed navels in an unusual display of skin in a country where most women cover up.

Tags: fashion, pakistan

Clinton in Pakistan encounters widespread distrust of U.S.

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:04:34 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: The last sentence speaks volume.

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

The discontent is not just from radicals, even college students and respected journalists question Washington's intentions in Pakistan. Some liken U.S. drone missile strikes to terrorism.

Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan - Every time Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to win over Pakistanis during her three-day charm offensive last week, they fired back a polite but firm message:

We don't really trust your country.

Some of the most biting criticisms came from well-mannered university students and respected, seasoned journalists, a reflection of the breadth of dissatisfaction Pakistanis have with U.S. policy toward their country.

"You had one 9/11, and we are having daily 9/11s in Pakistan," Asma Shirazi, a journalist with Geo TV, told Clinton during the Islamabad town hall meeting.

Tags: pakistan, terrorism, united states

UN: Arab World Rife with Illiteracy & Lacks Innovation

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:45:35 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.themedialine.org

U.N. report finds one third of Arabs illiterate and only $10 per person spent on scientific research.

The level of education, research and innovation in the Arab world is appalling, a new United Nations report has claimed.

The report, produced as part of a partnership between the United Nations Development Program and the United Arab Emirates-based Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, found that despite the efforts of scientists and researchers throughout the region, the Arab world makes up only 1.1% of global scientific publishing and the low level of investment into research has led to relatively low levels of innovation throughout the Arab world.

Tags: arab, education

The other side of Angelina Jolie

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:24:12 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: i48998.posterous.com

Tags: hollywood

12 Google Wave Invitations

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:26:00 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: I can give out 12 to fellow clippers if you are still enthusiastic enough. First priority to those who are already following me on Clipmarks.

FYI, I don't use Wave, it is not useful for me at the moment.

Clip Source: wave.google.com

Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation
and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

Tags: google, wave

10 Fascinating Recently Discovered Photographs

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:53:12 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: listverse.com

Scopes Trial

Taken: 1925
Discovered: 2005

Florence Nightingale

Taken: 1858
Discovered: 2006

Jonathan

Taken around: 1900
Discovered: 2008

Lincoln’s Second Inauguration

Taken: 1865
Discovered: 2008

Neil Armstrong’s Face

Taken: 1969
Discovered: 2009

New York City

Taken: 1848
Discovered: 2008

King Edward VII

Taken: 1909
Discovered: 2009

Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan

Taken: 1888
Discovered: 2008

Peter Schiff

Taken: 1939
Discovered: 2008

Phineas Gage

Taken: Around 1850
Discovered: 2009

Tags: history, photos

Religious sensitivities on all sides

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:35:16 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: The reason I'm clipping this is because religious sensitivities are back in the news and Muslims are not the only one apparently offended all the time. The other reason I'm clipping this is because I've been watching Curb Your Enthusiasm (not this episode though) and I think Larry David should have folded his show last season. The episodes in the new season are utterly ridiculous and not funny. Like Seinfeld, his show has always been brilliant though but I think he has lost it by now.

Clip Source: newsbusters.org

HBO's hit series "Curb Your Enthusiasm" has pushed the comedic envelope for many years, but what happened in Sunday's episode was so disgraceful it's already received comment from the Catholic League's Bill Donohue.

The set-up is the show's star and producer Larry David is taking some medication that is making him urinate quite forcefully.

It's so powerful that while urinating in his assistant's bathroom, he accidentally splashed some of it on a picture of Jesus Christ hanging on a nearby wall.

Tags: comedy, entertainment, tv

Islam and the Environment

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:56:28 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: A short documentary about Muslims and the environment.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: environment, green, muslims

Islamic countries push a global 'blasphemy' law

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:55:47 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.csmonitor.com

As a new member of the UN Human Rights Council, the US must persuade other countries not to go along.

Remember the Danish "Muhammad cartoons" that set off riots by offended Muslims more than three years ago? The debate pitted freedom of press and speech against notions of freedom from insult of one's religion. It rages still – but now in a forum with international legal implications.

For years, Islamic nations have succeeded in passing "blasphemy" resolutions at the United Nations (in the General Assembly and in its human rights body). The measures call on states to limit religiously offensive language or speech. No one wants their beliefs ridiculed, but the freedom to disagree over faith is what allows for the free practice of religion. The resolutions are misguided, but also only symbolic, because they're nonbinding.

Symbolism no longer satisfies the sponsor of these resolutions

Tags: muslims, world, human rights, religion

People give birth and die on Facebook (internet actually)

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:56:19 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: The thing about Facebook and Twitter is that unlike earlier times on the Internet, these two companies have shaped the perception of people connected to each other more closely than ever before. Everyone is on-line on FB or Twitter or both!. Not that people were not connected earlier via email or email groups (and some exclusively still are), but FB and Twitter are humongous instant messenger type services where everyone perceives as something where you know others are on (email does not give a perception that you are on and individual instant-messenger were always individual).

So as Facebook comes up with ideas on what to do with people who are dying on the internet, I think they should also come up with some special arrangements when people are born. I'm not talking about some FB application (I hate them and they are annoying). There is no denying that babies are being born on Facebook every day (it sounds weird but that is a truth).

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Facebook has announced that it will be giving friends and family the option to "memorialise" the profiles of members who have died.

It follows some cases of members receiving updates about dead friends.

If a user is reported as deceased, Facebook will remove sensitive information such as status updates and contacts.

Tags: facebook, internet, life

What kind of couples are most likely to have a happy marriage?

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:12:31 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The secret to a happy marriage for men is choosing a wife who is smarter and at least five years younger than you, say UK experts.

These pairings are more likely to go the distance, particularly if neither has been divorced in the past, according to the Bath University team.

The researchers studied interviews of more than 1,500 couples who were married or in a serious relationship.

Five years later, they followed up 1,000 of the couples to see which had lasted.

They found that if the wife was five or more years older than her husband, they were more than three times as likely to divorce than if they were the same age.

If the age gap is reversed, and the man is older than the woman, the odds of marital bliss are higher.

Tags: marriage, men, women

Who Speaks for Islam: Ray Suarez with Reza Aslan

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:46:04 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: coexist101.wordpress.com

“Who Speaks for Islam?,” the title of a two-part series beginning on Sunday on Link TV, is a benign case of bait and switch. The answer to the question, we’re told, is that no one speaks for Islam — it is too vast and diverse, spreading across too many countries and cultures, to have a single, authoritative voice.

As the Middle East analyst Reza Aslan puts it, Americans are looking for a “united voice of condemnation” of militant violence — a representative of the world’s Muslims who will unequivocally say the things they want to hear — but “there is no such person in Islam.” The voices that fill the void are those of the militants, simply because they’re loudest.

http://www.linktv.org/video/4520/who-speaks-for-islam-what-a-billion-muslims-really-think

Tags: islam, united states

Waziristan musician prays for Taliban defeat

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:08:50 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.dawn.com

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Mohammad Akbar says he prays every day for the Pakistani army to crush the Taliban so he can make sweet music once more without fearing for his life.

‘I recite from the Holy Koran every morning and pray for the success of the military operation and when they are defeated I will buy another rubab’: musician Mohammad Akbar, pictured here sitting in queue to register with authorities in Dera Ismail Khan after fleeing his native South Waziristan. —Photo by AFP

‘They smashed it into pieces and warned me of serious consequences if I ever played it again,’ said Akbar as he recalled the day two years ago that the Islamists forced him to give a recital of his rubab — a traditional lute-like instrument that is popular in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The 39-year-old was speaking in the dusty town of Dera Ismail Khan where he fled with his wife and seven children to escape a major offensive by the army against the Tehrik-i-Taliban in neighbouring South Waziristan.

Tags: taliban, pakistan, music

How do you know what you know about Islam?

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:56:15 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: ismailimail.wordpress.com

Professor Asani poses the question, “How do you know what you know about Islam?” He offers an insightful analysis of the modern-day “clash of ignorances” and briefly discusses the serious consequences of cultural and religious illiteracy for a world that is multicultural, multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-religious.

Professor Asani problematizes traditional textual and devotional approaches to studying religion as static and limited. Instead, he advocates a “contextual approach” to the study of religion that promotes an understanding of Islam and Muslim communities within their particular cultural, socio-political, and economic contexts. Through pointing out the co-existence of diverse conceptions and experiences of Islam worldwide, Professor Asani suggests the importance of asking questions such as, “Which Islam? Whose Islam? In which context?”

Introduction from Professor Ali Asani’s forthcoming book “Infidel of Love: Exploring Muslim understandings of Islam” (forthcoming 2009)

Tags: islam, muslims, book

Muslim Spaces of Worship and Gathering

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:21:33 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: These are not traditional mosques.

Clip Source: iis.ac.uk

The zawiya, literally corner, refers to a section of a home or, in more recent times, to a purpose-built structure in which Sufi communities (tariqas) congregate for their weekly dhikr sessions. They are most often found in northern Syria and Egypt.

The khanqah is one of the earliest institutionalised spaces for the practices of Sufi communities. In Egypt, they have existed since at least the 11^th century and were encouraged by the Ayyubid leader, Salah al-Din. Many monumental examples survive in Cairo’s Old City. The khanqah complex coupled religious piety with a place for wayfarers which provided food, shelter for novices and travellers passing through the city. The khanqah is most prevalent in Egypt, Syria and Iran with examples in India. It is often equated with the term tekke or tekkiyeh, which are in more common use in Turkey and Iran.

Tags: religion, islam, architecture, sufism