Malaria No More

http://www.malarianomore.org

Malaria No More is determined to end malaria deaths.
A child dies every 30 seconds from malaria—so every second counts. The fastest way for us to have impact is to blanket Africa with mosquito nets, effective medicine and targeted spraying to stop people dying from malaria. Our role as a catalyst is to maximize opportunities to save lives through communications, resources and investments. Each area of our work leverages the others to form a virtuous cycle for impact.

Malaria No More was born of a simple, startling insight: that ending malaria's death grip on Africa is the best humanitarian investment we can make in the world today. Nothing else can have the same impact on as many people's lives and livelihoods as quickly or cheaply.
"An approach as bold as our ambitions and as audacious as our name."Peter CherninChairman, Malaria No More
We have the tools (mosquito nets, medicine, spraying) to eliminate malaria deaths, but we need to dramatically scale up efforts to deliver them to the people who need them most. The challenge is principally operational, not scientific, and therefore amenable to business-style problem solving. Malaria No More was established in December 2006 by two widely respected business leaders—News Corporation President and COO Peter Chernin and Wall Street pioneer Ray Chambers—who are applying their private-sector experience and considerable networks to tackle this problem.
Malaria No More is not a typical global health organization. We aren't strictly a funding body, or a grassroots movement, or an advocacy shop, or an on-the-ground implementer. Rather, we are a uniquely entrepreneurial organization with elements of each. What unites these disparate activities is leverage.
We are a catalyst for impact. Everything we do is designed to spur the community toward ending malaria deaths. In its two-year history, Malaria No More has been at the center of some of the biggest successes in the malaria fight:
We co-hosted the White House Summit on Malaria and prompted U.S. participation in World Malaria Day.
We educated more than 40 million Americans about the disease and raised tens of millions of dollars through our involvement in two "Idol Gives Back" charity specials on American Idol.
We were instrumental in securing a pledge of 100 million mosquito nets at the July 2008 G8 meeting in Japan.
Our direct investments have helped mobilize 15 million mosquito nets to protect 30 million African mothers and their children from malaria.
"It's an approach as bold as our ambitions and as audacious as our name,” says Chairman Peter Chernin. "It's just what's required to make Malaria No More."

http://www.malarianomore.org

Women of God : Syrian Women Muftis

A project unique in the Islamic world is training Muslim women to become muftis in Syria.

June, Syria’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Badruddin Hassoun announced that he is personally supervising a project that trains Syrian women to serve as muftis – Sunni religious figures officially authorised to issue Islamic religious rulings. While a handful of Syrian Muslim women scholars and preachers are already unofficially issuing rulings, known as fatwas, and conducting Islamic lessons in mosques and elsewhere, the grand mufti’s initiative will for the first time allow women to officially interpret Islamic law.

The move to train women as muftis has been welcomed by the Syrian government as giving Syria’s 9 million Muslim women a great push forward, particularly among extremely conservative members of this community.

“I think the mufti wants to send a message to Syrian society and the world at large that there is no difference between men and women in work, life, mental stature and even religious positions,” Dialah Haj Aref, minister of Social Affairs and Labour, said. “It also shows that women and men are equal in giving advice and opinions and in issuing fatwas.”

Asma Kiftaro, a feminist Muslim scholar at the Damascus-based Islamic Studies Center, said the move to train female muftis would be welcomed by Syria’s Muslim women. “It is an important and courageous step by the grand mufti,” she said.

Kiftaro, who is presently being considered as an advisor to the Ministry of Religious Affairs, said female Muslim scholars are increasingly calling for a greater role in government and religious institutions in line with their modern aspirations.

While Syrian women occupy 12 percent of the country’s parliamentary seats and a number of high positions within the government, including the vice-presidency, no official female Muslim scholar has gained such a position. “There are many women in parliament but not one of them is a Muslim scholar who speaks in the name of Muslim women,” Kiftaro said.

Religious and secular concern
While government figures have publicly welcomed the move, heralding it as a positive push in the development of women, the decision to train women as muftis has drawn heavy fire from conservative clerics.

Nominating a woman to a position on the Syrian Iftaa Council, the institute in charge of issuing fatwas, is seen by many as the first step in introducing female muftis throughout the Muslim world, a move many bitterly oppose.

“I have met with many conservative scholars who have expressed their strong opposition to the mufti’s statements,” Kiftaro said

The new breed of female Muslim scholars is not only causing concern among Syria’s conservative religious scholars. The growing organisation of Islamic women’s groups is also causing much angst among Syria’s secular community.

Attallah Rumheen, a professor at Damascus University who has documented the rising fundamentalism within Syria’s universities, said religious fundamentalism has long been on the rise in Syria.

“In the 1960s and 70s there were two or three muhajabah (women who wear Islamic head cover) students out of 100 female students in a class,” Rumheen said. “Today it’s the opposite. Today I only see a few female students without a hijab in my class.”

Georgette Attiah, a secular Syrian feminist writer, said what concerns the country’s secular society is not the number of women wearing the hijab, but rather the number of female Islamic groups and organisations that are expanding their activities in the fields of education, social services and charity. Many like Attiah feel such activities are simply a cover for the wider goal of Islamising Syrian society.

“These groups attract Muslim women who are mothers, sisters and wives. By appealing to them they can extend their influence into all families who make up the country’s Muslim community,” Attiah said. “They want to Islamise Syrian society, which is not purely Muslim.”

Qubaysiat
One of the most secret and controversial of these Muslim groups is the Qubaysiat, a quasi-Sufi Islamic group that was founded by Munirah al-Qubaysi in Syria and has reportedly spread to many other countries.

Qubaysi, 75, graduated from Damascus University with a degree in natural sciences in the mid-1950s and began working as a school teacher. In the early 1960s, Qubaysi began mixing preaching with teaching from the Abu Nour Mosque, at that time headed by Syria’s late and long-serving Grand Mufti Ahmed Kiftaro, Asma Kiftaro’s grandfather.

The group, which shuns media attention, organises religious lessons in homes and has been instrumental in spreading religious sentiment among young women throughout the Middle East. According to a report in the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat newspaper, the group now boasts some 75,000 members throughout the Muslim world.

Iman, a 36-year-old mother and housewife from the conservative Damascus suburb of Midaan who attends Qubaysiat meetings, said the group does not face problems from authorities. “We are a peaceful group and we call for believers to pray to God and follow Islamic principles through peaceful means,” she said.

Others, however, are not convinced the group is devoid of political ambition. Ubai Hassan, a Syrian expert on Islamic movements and minorities, said women’s Islamic groups have mushroomed rapidly in Syria as there are very few other forums for women to voice their problems. “Women are joining Qubaysiat either to root their position in society or for prestige in the upper class,” she said.

SYRIA TODAY : http://www.syria-today.com/pkg05/index.php?page=view_article&dir=articles&ex=2&id=782&First=0&Last=9&CurrentPage=0&src=archive&cat_id=1&issue_id=45

Beyong Green Living

OVERWHELMED WITH GOING GREEN?Not sure where to start? Think that it is outrageously expensive and there is no way you could afford it? Are you interested but just cannot find the time or money to make the necessary changes? Or have you started and want to do only what is clean and sensible, avoiding all the hype? Where ever you are in the path to greener and cleaner living, Beyond Green Living is here to support, help, and guide your transformation.
WHY BEYOND GREEN LIVING?Because we are not about the hype; this is a way of knowing and being. As “green” gets more hip, what is truly good for us, the communities of the world, and our planet earth, gets more and more confusing. Beyond Green Living is about doing the necessary, the essential and the absolutely easiest changes that create a haven in your home. A haven where you body, mind and soul can eat, rejuvenate and play in good health, clean air, and with a clear conscious.
Beyond Green Living personal consultants are knowledgeable, professional and above all else, ready to help you transform to not only green, but clean living. Beyond Green Living…easy, affordable, and necessary change tailored to your life.


Check this out http://www.beyondgreenliving.org/index.html

This is Sick but it happens, How can we stop it ?

This is really sick but it happens regularly in India and Pakistan. Its not nothing to do with religion but domestic violence in these two countries is very high. I think it is more do with culture. Having maximum respect for the husband.I was reading an article, it was about Kitchen Death.In India if the wife is not fully respectful to the husband, she can suddenly die because of Kitchen death and got seriously injured. The husband and his mother harm the wife in the kitchen by pouring hot food on her face that is boiling. It also to a certain extent happens in Pakistan too. So its not a religious phenomena but a sick cultural custom.The picture below is of a women who suffered this fate .....God give her strength and ease her pain..ameen

Answer some questions please ?

Very interesting.... Lets see if you can get this right, All you have to do is anser two questions!!

Question 1: If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8 kids already, three Who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had Syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion? Read the next question before looking at the response for this one.

Question 2: It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote counts.
Here are the facts about the three candidates.

Candidate A: Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists. He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 Martinis a day.

Candidate B: He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in College and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.

Candidate C: He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks An occasional beer and never committed adultery. Which of these candidates would be our choice? Decide first... No peeking, and then scroll down for the response.













Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Candidate B is Winston Churchill. Candidate C is Adolph Hitler.
And, by the way, on your answer to the abortion question: If you said YES, you just killed Beethoven. Pretty interesting isn't it?

Makes a person think before judging someone. Remember: Amateurs ... Built can build an ark. Professionals ... can build the Titanic

Some Quotes

"Paradise lies under the feet of your mother." (Muhammed peace be upon him)

" Beware to whom you give your heart" (Do not know who said this; might have been William Shakespeare)

" And that is secret of this world if you remove love of dunya from your heart, the dunya is yours for the taking.You can have the dunya; because its in your hand and not in your heart".(Shaykh Hamza Yusuf)

"Failing to prepare is preparing to fail." (Wayne Gretzky)

“Develop a built-in bullshit detector.” (Ernest Hemingway)

"Everybody wants to help Save The Earth, but nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes". (Tom McMahon)


The world is a garden, whose gardener is the state;The state is the sultan whose guardian is the Law;The Law is a policy, which is protected by the kingdom;The kingdom is a city, brought into being by the army;The army is made secure by wealth;Wealth is gathered from the subjects;The subjects are made servants by justice;Justice is the axis of the prosperity of the world.(Jami' al-'ulum, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi)

Remember By Christina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti

Remember

REMEMBER me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

Sexual Harrasment It Has To Stop

This is just so sick , I feel like crying inside. Is this what life is like for a muslim women in an muslim country ? God please protect my sisters and keep them safe from these fools.

Seven Egyptian women talk about their experience of sexual harassment on the streets of Cairo. It is an increasingly common problem, with a recent survey suggesting more than four out of five women have been sexually harassed, while nearly two-thirds of men admitted assaulting women.


Noha Wagih

Once I was out driving with my brother when he stopped at a supermarket and I waited for him outside. Two guys got out of a car and walked towards me in an intimidating way. They started commenting on the way I look and the way I'm dressed. I usually don't answer back, but this time I said: 'I'm not here to get picked up, you know.' This was too much for one of them who started shouting that I was crazy. I replied that even if I were a prostitute, I wouldn't give him a second glance. This made him mad. He came right up to me, shouting that he was a policeman and he would 'show me'. In no time three more cars pulled up, and a group of men got out and started yelling at me and my brother.I wrote down the number of the first car saying I was going to report him. He got so angry I thought he was going to beat me, so I slapped his face and started shouting 'Rape!' They all ran away, and I was left alone with my brother shaking with fear.After this experience I want to make a programme for TV about sexual harassment.

Posy Abdou

I get harassed 100 times a day. I tried everything to stop it but it doesn't stop. I wear loose clothes, I don't wear make up, I spend more than an hour in front of the mirror everyday thinking of ways to hide my body.I walk home everyday. It only takes me 15 minutes, I cross the bridge. It is usually very loud and busy, but that does not stop men from approaching girls, any girl, good looking or bad looking, covered or not. I remember so many scary harassments. There was this guy who followed me and suddenly grabbed my bottom in front of everyone. I screamed but he ran away and no one interfered. Once I was shopping with my father and aunt, and this guy kept staring at me and blowing me kisses. My dad shouted at him and started hitting him. I think men are doing this because they are jobless and have no manners.

Nora Khaled

I get harassed everyday, during the five minutes I walk from my house to the main street to take the school bus. Also in the seconds I cross the street when I finish my swimming class at the sports club. I was waiting for the school bus once when a microbus driver followed me and kept calling me very bad names. I was so scared and embarrassed, I cried.

Nancy Fakhr

I don't walk a lot in the streets, because I have a car. But I get harassed by guys driving close to me, they try to grab my attention, it could lead to accidents.The worst harassment I remember was last winter. I didn't have my car and I was sleeping over at my sister's house. I got up at 0700 to catch the bus and go to work. A guy followed me and kept calling me very bad names. I was horrified and I started walking fast, even running. When he got very close to me, I was scared he would touch me, so I picked a stone from the floor and threw it at him and ran as fast as I could until I got to the main street and took the bus. I was shaking and trembling. When I arrived at work, I collapsed and cried for a long time. When my colleagues asked me what is wrong, I lied and said I have family problems.

Zeinab Boulaki

I get harassed whenever I walk down the street; even during the seconds I cross the street to take my car. Yesterday, when I was parking the car in front of my house, a guy grabbed my bottom, I shouted at him, and insulted him. At least I did something about it. My mother says I shouldn't answer back, but I think this is wrong. This way they will think they can harass anyone and get away with it. I know that shouting at someone who harasses me verbally or physically is not enough but at least it makes me feel better than doing nothing.

You can read the original article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7593765.stm#zeinab