Hada dishdasha Saudiya akhi, the one i prefer to wear but with a small Qatari-like collar, where is the UAE dishdasha? ps is that you?

Can the tech-freaks please give us a low down on the New PS3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6132212.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6142688.stm

Religious hatred is no more than a variety of racism The demonisation of Islam by politicians and pundits benefits only the extreme right Soumaya Ghannoushi Monday November 13, 2006 The Guardian After his acquittal on the charge of inciting racial hatred, Nick Griffin was asked whether he was a racist. He replied that he was no longer one, that he is now a "religionist". But should we believe that Griffin has really abandoned the racism that frames his ideology and that of the party he leads? Of course not. All Griffin has done is stretch from one category of racism to another - without breaking with the former: from a discourse founded on racial hatred to one based on religio-racial hatred. In the speech for which he and his assistant, Mark Collett, were taken to court, the two shifted effortlessly from referring to Islam as "this wicked, vicious faith" that "has expanded from a handful of cranky lunatics about 1,300 years ago", to speaking of Asian "muggers", "rapists", "*******s", "cockroaches" and "ethnics" who need to be "shown the door". We are witnessing the emergence of a new type of hatred, where religion and culture overlap with race and ethnicity. The climate generated by the war on terror - stoked further by the inflammatory speech on Friday of the MI5 director general Eliza Manningham-Buller - has allowed the far-right to redirect its poison of exclusionism from specific racial minorities to specific religio-racial minorities: from the black and Asian, to the Muslim black and Asian. Across the channel, Griffin's words are echoed by the far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, who speaks sometimes of "diseased" Arabs and Africans, at others of barbarians and Muslims. For all the ugliness of their thinking, the BNP and French National Front and their like expose the fragility of conventional distinctions between race and religion. When we speak of Islam, for instance, we speak of a religion, the bulk of whose followers are not white. This also applies to the Muslim communities of western Europe, whose origins are found outside Europe's imaginary frontiers. The majority are former colonials who have made the metropolis their home. The relationship with these minorities incorporates a multiplicity of dichotomies: between the colonial and the coloniser, the black/brown and the white, the Christian and the Muslim. To reduce the terms of this relationship to race alone is a crude simplification. That race and religion go hand in hand in the definition of the self and the other is nothing new. In medieval times, Latin Europe referred to its Muslim neighbours with a mixture of racial and religious terms: Saracens, Hagarenes, Arabs, Muhammadans and Turks. The same mechanism is at work today. Religious communities are no less susceptible to discrimination, stigmatisation and demonisation than those determined exclusively on the basis of ethnicity. With the tragic events of 9/11 and the July 2005 London bombings, the threat of violent groups such as al-Qaida, and the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, an explosive political climate was born. In this context, a dangerous language emerged, one that moves smoothly from race to religion, from terrorism to Islam, from al-Qaida to Muslims. The dominance of this discourse is such that it is no longer necessary to explicitly link these terms together. It is sufficient to invoke fanaticism, violence and extremism for Islam and Muslims to spring to mind. Today we have slid further towards the explicit and direct association of Islam and Muslims with all that is "wicked", "vicious" and dangerous. On the day that Griffin was cleared, Manningham-Buller delivered a public speech on the terror threat. Instead of the secrecy and discretion we are accustomed to from the intelligence services, the head of MI5 seemed to metamorphose into a politician. We cannot undermine the seriousness of the threat, but these statements are certain to be exploited by numerous media and political players. The MI5 director general insisted she knew of 30 major terror plots. If that is the case, why haven't the plotters been arrested, and why did she give credence to patently unreliable surveys suggesting 100,000 British Muslims supported last year's London bombings? Just as the war-craving Sun turned the government dossier claim of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction into "Brits 45 mins from doom", the Daily Telegraph gave a twist to the MI5 chief's words. "Al-Qaida threat" was transformed into the "Muslim threat", and "attempts to radicalise and indoctrinate our youth" into "the next batch of terrorists is still in the classroom". Thus even Muslim children find themselves targets of suspicion from all, including their schoolmates. We are sowing fear and doubt in our classrooms, bequeathing the creation of otherness to our children. Day by day we are moving towards a society of fear and suspicion. Al-Qaida certainly bears a large part of the responsibility, but the reckless games of politicians, media pundits and religio-racists are no less responsible. We, the majority and minority, are caught in between. · Soumaya Ghannoushi is director of research at IslamExpo; next Monday she will be speaking at the End Attacks on Muslims rally in London called by the British Muslim Initiative and Liberty soumaya@islamexpo.com guardian.co.uk

^^Plenty of traffic though. Cars, taxis, coaches, buses, pick-up trucks everywhere!!! You got a promotion and are well established in your job. Alxamdullilah deh! NG, did you wear these funny looking dishdashers/thobes when you was younger? What does the long piece of string represent ya akhi?

^^Its just the same routine saxib but without the bad weather :cool: there is no slacking when working for a Brit Co unlike working for a Kuwaiti one Yalla! Ps last nights game was not good!

Seeker, expedia.co.uk is usually a good bet but what makes you think there is no flu there? Val, at least you have xmas and new year holidays to look forward to (Eidul Adxa on New Years Eve i think)

^^Its called 'nationalism' Kashow!

Qaadisiya.com

SNM gangs

I have almost forgotten how a good run can make wonders for the body and mind. Only one cup of coffee today, not yawning! Plus the wknd has arrived and the weather is very pleasant!

sponsor-a-brother@hotmail.co.uk Anyone who wishes to contribute, please email me at the above address. I will in turn send the account details when the time is nearer IA. ps i will run the 10km road race!

Abwwan, please send me those details again. Training has started with a new pair of Addidas runners. I feeeel goood, dana dana dana na, i knew that i would, dana dana dana na, I feeeel goood, dana dana dana na, i knew that i would, dana dana dana na, so good, so good

I should be on the list!

Court grapples with lawyer's veil AP London: A Muslim lawyer was at the centre of another controversy in Britain over the wearing of full-face veils yesterday after she twice refused to remove one during a hearing, leading the judge to adjourn the case. Shabnam Mughal, 27, insisted she had the right to use the black veil covering all but her eyes during the immigration tribunal hearing in central England at Stoke-on-Trent on Monday, despite the judge saying that he could not hear her. That led officials on Tuesday to ask the president of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal to issue a decision about how to resolve the courtroom stand-off between Mughal and Judge George Glossop. When Mughal, who was representing a man appealing a Home Office decision denying a family member a visitor's visa, first refused to remove her veil, the case was adjourned until later in the day, the Tribunals Service said. She refused a second time when the hearing was reconvened on Monday afternoon. "You are clearly aware of my position on the grounds of my religious beliefs. I won't," Mughal told the judge, according to yesterday's Daily Express newspaper. Glossop adjourned the hearing until next week so he could seek a ruling from Sir Henry Hodge, the president of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, on how to proceed. "We haven't come across this before. No precedent has been set," a spokeswoman for the tribunal said. Mughal is a lawyer for the Law Partnership Solicitors in Coventry. Last month, former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw wrote an article on Muslim women's veils that triggered an emotionally charged debate. http://www.gulfnews.com/world/United_Kingdom/10081095.html

^^ a good analysis.

EDIT The bad: You speak like a man (Woman)

UAE people dont know how to drive. I have turned into one. No indicating, dangerous manouvering, beeping horn every minute, not allowing people to change into my lane etc. The standard of driving is shocking! I see approx 6 minor accidents everyday (if not more).

The Bad: On your first day, you spill coffee on your boss's table when he/she is not there. What will you do?

Found it So much for people trusting one another :rolleyes:

Red Sea i cant see the Burco pics mate!!

NG, i know saxib, i have been lazy lately. It was on bbc.co.uk Africa News. Cant find it today. Tunisia and Morroco are getting very peculiar these days in their stances on Islamic duties.

Moroccan airline bans prayer time Morocco's state airline Royal Air Maroc has banned its staff praying at their offices and headquarters. The company says that in the past its workers have abused the privilege of praying, by taking too much time away from their desks and their customers. But the airline's workers as well as Islamist politicians say it is part of a crackdown on their religious freedom. Praying is one of the five pillars of Islam and regarded as a crucial part of a Muslim's way of life. The state airline, partly owned by the Moroccan royal family, is a great source of pride and prestige in the country. But this latest move threatens to exacerbate divisions in Morocco. Workers say that they have been banned from praying at work and that a number of prayer rooms have been closed and that they are forbidden from going to the mosque during work hours. The company would not give an interview but issued a statement saying that while there is no official ban on praying, they had to do something to stop people taking lengthy breaks away from work. But critics say the issue of praying, like the veil, is part of a more sinister move to rob the country of its Islamic roots. Political "I feel very angry about this decision," says Moustapha Aramid from the Islamic Party for Justice and Development. "Moroccans have had their liberty and their religious freedom taken away from them. It is very damaging. Royal Air Morocco obviously has absolutely no respect for Islam." Analysts say the ban on prayers is really a political move aimed at stamping out radical Islamism. When an alleged terrorist cell - Ansar el-Mehdi - was broken up earlier this year - two of the suspects charged were the wives of two Royal Air Morocco pilots. There is a feeling that the company had to do something to respond. Other complaints from airline staff are that pilots and stewards were not allowed to fast during the month of Ramadan and that female staff are not allowed to wear the veil - although that has been an unwritten rule at many companies for several years. These issues are becoming a focal point for some very hard questions being asked of this moderate Arabic country - something that is causing serious friction between liberals and traditionalists. ------------------------------------------------- What is going on? Surely 15 mins for salaat in a Muslim country is not too much to ask. Or is it?

cant imagine why anyone would want to study in that country. They are not very kind to immigrants, are they? The awful weather isnt appealing either. I wish you well though. Go ahead, give some encouragement why dont ya! :rolleyes: But Russia is becoming a hot bed of education for African students.

Just paid attention to the title of the thread. What is determinated?