A debate is raging in Toronto this week about Muslim elementary students conducting Friday prayers at Don Mills public school. The issue at hand is whether the practice of girls praying behind boys is a discriminatory practice of Islam, and if so, is the school complicit in this discrimination by allowing its Muslim students to conduct prayers on school premise during school hours.

An example of the flame war can be found in this story by Toronto Star Columnist Heather Mallick. And yes, I do recognize that this is Toronto (Fox North) Star, so I won’t claim that this is the sentiment of the majority of Torontonians.

My partner brought the story to my attention. We have a unique relationship to this story: she’s a staunch agnostic feminist, while I would describe myself as a moderate or light-practicing Muslim, born in the Middle East to a moderate Muslim family (a match made in heaven! If she believed in the existence of one). Naturally, we indulge in frequent discussions about raising kids in such a dynamic, if we ever decide to have some.

As any inter-faith couple would attest, these discussions are often… intense. I’m yet to walk away from one feeling like I’ve won the argument properly articulated my point of view. Needless to say, this particular story initiated a similar discussion, and we (ehm!) agreed to disagree. But just to be safe, I think I should send flowers tomorrow.

So here’s what I think about this story.

Is this Gender Discrimination:

We can’t call Muslim prayer line-ups discrimination when those who wish to practice differently are not prevented from doing so. This isn’t Rosa Parks being prevented from sitting at the front of a bus.

I don’t think schools or governments should get into telling entire religious groups how they should practice their religion as long as they follow the law of the land. Just because a parent or even a minority group in the same social/religious group takes issue with a practice shouldn’t lead to the annexation of the wish of the majority. At the same time, the wish of the majority shouldn’t preclude the minority from practicing and engaging fully in what they think is right, within the confines of law/policy.

So, really, if someone has an issue with Muslims conducting their prayers according to the customs observed by over 1 Billion of them around the world, we should ask two questions. First: is the person with the issue a Muslim? If not, then that person is free to voice their opinions, but their individual inconvenience or distaste of the practice should not trump the rights of an entire social group to assemble and practice their religion according to their custom.

Second question is whether a minority of members of the same social group are taking issue and feeling like this practice is precluding them from full participation. If so, then I believe that one group’s practice shouldn’t stop the other from practicing as they wish. In fact, that right is guaranteed to them by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

If the liberal group would like to pray at a later/earlier/same time and have a co-ed prayer room with mixed rows, then this isn’t an issue of discrimination, it’s simply an issue of school policy. The school can decide to make accommodations for two prayer sessions, or not. The conservative group can come out to pray on-time following the teachings they believe in, and the smaller group of modern interpreters can have a co-ed session whenever they want.

Now, to me, this sounds like a lot of “accommodation” for a school to be making. If every religious group wanted similar arrangements this can get out of hand. My personal opinion, as a pragmatic ‘modern Muslim’, is that Friday prayers should not take place in schools of a Country that does not have existing policies to accommodate such interruptions to the school day. Islam has made an ‘accommodation’ for such cases as well, allowing Muslims to make-up for missed prayers at a later time if they are unable to practice their worship due to hardship or circumstances outside their control. Although, despite hardships, some Muslims would still go the extra mile for additional brownie points.

Kansas University junior Bazigha Tufail prays in the Spahr Engineering Library on Wednesday after her 1 p.m. structural engineering class. The Muslim student prays five times a day and often feels misunderstood by other students. Photo by Nick Krug

Therefore, the discussion should remain confined to policy. Should schools accommodate religious practices, for all religions, and how? A school shouldn’t attempt to determine whether a particular religious practice of a specific group is discriminatory. There are other avenues for that. These doctrines have been around for thousands of years and no school board should touch that land mine with a 10 foot pole.

The question in this case is not whether a particular religious practice is discriminatory or not. The question is whether prayers can happen at schools. You can’t piecemeal a religion and say “only that part of your prayer is OK with us non-Muslims, but the other part is weird and we don’t understand/like it, so you can’t do that one”. If some Muslims take offense to the way prayer line-ups are formed, they have the full right and freedom to worship as they wish (like I do), so I’m not sure how they’re being discriminated against if their rights are not withheld by anyone.

Policy or Social Engineering?

Canada is a multicultural melting pot where everyone can maintain their unique culture and religious practices while adopting Canadian values and way of life. That was the social contract that most Canadian Muslims were born or immigrated under, unlike France where the social contract clearly opposes multiculturalism when it comes to religious practice. It’s not fair to bait and switch on people who thought they can enjoy a certain amount of religious freedom and accommodation in this great country. These people are now faced with calls to change their practices, not so much because they’ve been proven as discriminatory, but because their practice has now crossed into the visible public domain and people are offended by its strangeness.

Talking in generalities is knee-jerk xenophobia. And flogging this particular religious practice as a means to score points on a larger discussion of morality, social values, student/child development, and gender issues is not fair to Muslims. Some folks are suggesting that this religious practice in Islam is an example of anti-social practices that engineer Muslim children along gender lines and affect their long-term development and integration into Canadian society, and that making accommodations for Muslims to pray in schools on a Friday assists in this negative social engineering.

There are many contributors and factors that affect the development of young adults in Canadian society, both girls and boys. Schools are but one factor. Home environments, peers, media, pop culture, and religious subscription are other factors along with many more. Weekends in Canada have been selected to accommodate Christian prayer practices, and those practices contribute to the development and social positioning of Christian teens just as much as practices of any other religious group in Canada affect the teens of that particular group.

And the hypocrisy of it all…

We don’t flog the government for instating Sunday as a holiday to allow the practice of a religion that discriminates against women even more than Islam does, and we don’t call on Catholics to abandon their subscription to the concept of “original sin” if they want to pray in publicly-funded areas like Muslims are being asked to change the way they line-up, and how they “think” about women, if they want to pray in public schools.

So why is Sunday a government-sanctioned holiday for a religion that doesn’t ordain female priests and dictates that men and women should be separated in Church? Because of Canada’s Christian heritage. And because subscribers to the faith are free to worship as they please: those who want to attend a conservative Church with separate seats for men and women can, and those who want to attend a Church the allows people to sit where they wish can do so as well. That answer is enough for me.

And why do Muslims pray the way they do? Because their heritage dictates it, and other Muslims who wish to do it differently can do so in Canada. That answer should suffice for the majority of those crying foul at how Muslims line up in their area of prayers.

In psychology, Stockholm Syndrome is a term used to describe a real paradoxical phenomenon wherein hostages express empathy and have positive feelings towards their captors; sometimes to the point of defending them. These feelings are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, who essentially mistake a lack of abuse from their captors as an act of kindness. – (Wikipedia)

I believe that regime supporters are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. What’s worse is that Yemenis do receive abuse from the regime, yet they continue supporting its sweet torment.

EXHIBIT 1:

The supposedly uncoordinated spontaneous ‘celebration’ of the survival of Yemen’s benevolent dictator after suffering serious injuries in an assassination attempt on June 3rd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1BoR8Y6Jps

The outrageous display of jubilation by Saleh supporters resulted in scores of injuries and deaths across the city as the multi-caliber offerings of gratitude were rejected by the heavens and bullets of joy rained on regime supporters and protesters alike. With near complete absence of law enforcement and a functioning justice system, victims of the celebration have no recourse for the damages they’ve suffered enjoyed.

EXHIBIT 2:

A barefooted child laborer (likely homeless) selling lemons at traffic stops in the capitol city of Sana’a while wearing a clip-on that translates into “Joyous be a people who have you as their leader”. In proper English, the sign says “We’re lucky to have you, Mr. President.”

It’s probably relevant to note that Yemen is near the bottom of almost every category of the United Nations Human Development Index. Nearly 50% of the population lives on less than $2 a day, with over a Million children who have to work to stay alive. 43% of children under 5 are malnourished and 52% of the population live without access to proper water sources. (UNDP 2010 Yemen Report)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKOGIcXjKyg

After 33 years of Saleh’s rule, it’s understandable why some people feel a sense of panic and impending loss as the revolution rages on and Saleh’s ouster is all but certain. Much like a kidnap victim raised in captivity, Yemenis have grown accustomed to the tuna sandwiches that Saleh gave them as they raised his rape-children in the locked basement of his kind benevolence.

Yemenis can’t imagine life without Saleh because their long years in captivity to his regime have taught them that the only reason they’re alive, and eating tuna, is because he lets them live.

Umbrella group Civic Coalition of Revolutionary Youth (CCRY) releasing list of demands for immediate transfer of power.

SANAA, YEMEN – Youth activist group Civic Coalition of Revolutionary Youth is calling for continued protests in advance of its press conference tomorrow. The group represents a coordinated large scale body of activists supported by activist parliamentarians, civil rights activists, and politicians.

“Our membership is the voice of a diverse group of activists, local influencers, professional associations, civil organizations and tribal groups,” says Husam Al-Sharjabi, Chairman, CCRY. “These groups have each expressed their aspirations, in one way or another, for freedom, democracy, and justice in Yemen. They reject tyranny and the monopolization of power and wealth.”

On March 23, 2011, CCRY will release its charter and a list of demands at a press conference on 9:30 a.m. at the “Yemeni Writers’ Union” in Raqqas Street, Sana’a. The Coalition’s charter lists one of its main objectives as the creation of a modern democratic nation for all Yemenis to enjoy equally under the rule of law.

This list of demands also includes:

• Immediate dismantling of the current regime.
• Arrest of all those involved in committing criminal acts against citizens and/or against the public’s interest through fraud and corruption.
• A constitution that transforms the governance system from presidential to parliamentarian.
• A decentralized government that ensures unity of Yemen while protecting the unique interests of different regions.
• Full transparency.

“The Coalition must warn all factions to refrain from attempts to divert the revolution from its stated goals, or try to take custody of its methods or agenda,” says Ahmed Saif Hashed, parliamentarian, CCRY. “We hereby call on all our brothers and sisters in protest squares across the country to continue their perseverance until a peaceful transfer of power to a civilian authority is completed.”

The Civic Coalition of Revolutionary Youth is headquartered in Sana’a. It brings together Yemen’s four main youth groups – Alliance for the Youth’s Revolution, Alliance of the People’s Youth Revolution, Alliance of Youth and Students for a Peaceful Revolution, and the Coalition of Change Leaders – under one umbrella. It formed in response to the January 16, 2011 uprising at the University of Sana’a by students and youth.

However, many signs of recovery are abound in the M&A world. In 2010, Google made six acquisitions, many in the mobile app arena. Meanwhile, Yamli has been steadily growing its profile. Nearly all the items on my wish list for Yamli (noted in the previous blog post) have been developed over the past three years by Yamli’s founder, Habib Haddad, and his team. Consequently, Yamli reported last week that approximately 2.5 million Arabic words are typed daily using its service.

Given the pace of recovery, and assuming Yamli continues to do all the right things, I believe Yamli will be looking at options by summer 2012.

The interview notes that the current dialogue is focused, in principle, on the following six points (as agreed in a previous attempt at national dialogue in early 2006, which went no where):

1. Freedom of expression (including protesting) is guaranteed if done by peaceful means without violence.
2. Ceasing public demonstrations and attacks on the media to create a better environment for returning to dialogue.
3. Conducting a national dialogue beginning with the quartet committee, then to the committee of 30, and finally to the 200 member committee.
4. Formation of a national coalition government to oversee the parliamentary election and to guarantee its conduct in a free, fair and transparent way under local, national and international monitoring.
5. The President commits to not running in 2013 and reaffirms what he announced in the two-chamber meeting, that is no extension of his presidency, no hereditary succession and no renewal of his term.
6. The President is committed constitutionally to preserve and maintain security and stability in the homeland and to maintain the tranquility of Yemeni citizens.

The idea is that these are the broad strokes, with the details of what concrete actions to take and how/when to implement them being left to committees to figure out.

While the above six points are of merit, they are disconnected from what the Yemeni street is demanding in terms of immediate, tangible actions. In business terms, the problem is being defined through the eyes of management instead of the voice of the customer. Therefore, the solutions that continue to be proposed are management-centric and don’t address the needs of the market or the customer (though they make management feel better about having done something). So before the government and President Saleh loose their business, the customer need must be identified accurately so that the public can see, and accept, the value of proposed solutions.

What I find objectionable in the noted six-point framework of dialogue is that none of them directly address key grievances of the Yemeni “street”, such as decentralization of power, the use of state funds for the benefit of the ruling party and its leadership, and establishing the rule of law and justice by prosecuting corrupt officials at any level of government. It is disingenuous to classify these issues as “details” and bury them in discussions of the umpteen committees that have traditionally never been able to address these issues.

The above issues are at the core of public discontent and are directly correlated to the deterioration of the economy and the erosion of public revenues. Political and power inequities between the ruling party and traditional (or yet-to-be-created) opposition parties stem from the regime’s illegal monopolization of the nation’s resources, and its distribution/use of basic infrastructure and public funds as means to subvert and buy political allegiances from rural leaders and tribal Sheikhs. Having a ‘clean’ election under these circumstances (i.e. no cheating) may be possible, but having a ‘fair’ election is not. The regime is predestined to win all future elections unless it is stripped of the public tools that it uses unfairly, and illegally, to gain political favor and advantage.

An empowered justice system that punishes the use of public funds for the benefit of a party or an individual is a key point, not a “detail”. Prosecuting those who are known to have pillaged the riches of the nation is a key point, not a detail. Put those in the six points as actionable preconditions to dialogue and watch the impact on protests. There is a real value proposition there that can grab the attention of the public. One that is unique and significantly different from any of the cliche promises that the public has grown numb to.

An immediate, just, and satisfactory resolution to these issues first and foremost should be presented on a platter to the Yemeni street. Only then will the goodwill of political reconciliation initiatives may have an effect on protesters.

Your World Today has been following the development of Masdar City since the project’s announcement in 2007 (See Post 1 and Post 2 for background). Below is an animated video that explains the vision. Many are likening the Masdar initiative to The Venus Project.

Next week, I will be joining meetings between Masdar officials and Nova Scotia’s Department of Environment. Mirroring the aspirations of Abu Dhabi, Nova Scotia is already a North American leader in sustainable waste management, with composting rates at 200% the Canadian average, and near 100% of residents having access to curbside collection of paper, food, and recyclable waste. Nova Scotia’s Waste management experts, together with stakeholders from academia, government, and industry, are working to create an international Waste Resource Management Institute right here in Nova Scotia. The institute’s mandate will be to share the province’s expertise with the world to promote sustainable, community-driven environmental initiatives.

Similarly, Phase 1 of Masdar City included plans for a world-class institute of science and technology with a focus on graduate-level research in clean energy and green technologies. So where are those plans now? I’m happy to report that the institute was the first building to be completed in Masdar City, and the first cohort of 88 students (selected from a pool of 1200 applicants from 22 Countries) commenced their studies in the Fall of 2009 as the first residents of Masdar City! The Masdar Institute is operated in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Masdar Institute

Another plan for Phase 1 of Masdar City was to power the construction phase using renewable energy sources. In June of 2009, a $50M Solar power plant came online to power the construction of Masdar City. The 10 Megawatt plant occupies 55 acres and is the largest photovoltaic system in the MENA region. The plant was designed and built by Enviromena: a young UAE-based company whose four founding members are all Canadian!

And before I conclude this update, I will leave you with a video demonstration of the driver-less, track-less electric cars that will be the main mode of transportation in Masdar City’s ULTra – PRT system (Urban Light Transit – Personal Rapid Transit). The system is developed and implemented by 2getthere, a company based in the Netherlands.

Below is the report that was issued by the initiative to carry the voices of Yemeni youth to participants of the international summit on Yemen that was held in London, UK, on January 27.The report is titled “Combating Terrorism in Yemen — A Youth Perspective”. You can download an English or Arabic version of the report by clicking the appropriate image.

Midman International supported the initiative through consultations on campaigning, social media, and PR activities. A Facebook group was established and (within 10 days) became the largest Yemen-related group on the popular social networking site. Press releases were issued in English and Arabic, and were published on 7 news websites and three print newspapers.

An organized youth campaign beat the Yemeni government and was first to receive an official and comprehensive statement (in video!) from the British Secretary of State, Ivan Lewis, regarding Britain’s intent from the summit on Yemen called for by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkOk-gX7LrM

With increased attention on Yemen (following the failed 2009 Christmas Day bombing attempt of a US plane over Detroit), organizers of the initiative believe that discussions about combating terrorism in Yemen are missing a key partner. Since 70% of Yemen’s population are under the age of 25, there is a good argument that involving youth representatives is more than just good politics.

“When was the last time you heard of a 50-year old suicide bomber?” said Rafat Al-Akhali, the Canadian-based founder of the initiative. “Any serious discussions about tackling terrorism should always involve youth representatives from the problem regions.”

90 per cent of the September 11 hijackers were under the age of 30. The shoe bomber was 28 when apprehended, and the Christmas bomber is 23. The data overwhelmingly points to youth being the key target demographic for terrorist/jihad recruiters.

The report was delivered to The Yemen Forum at Chatham House, a center for international studies in London, the US Embassy in Yemen, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, as well as a number of local and international NGO’s and journalists/researchers interested in Yemen. The report was also sent to officials in the Yemeni government who showed their interest and support for this initiative.

An interview about the initiative was published by the Yemen Times and can be viewed here.

[via AdblogArbia]

Questions about tourism security in Yemen are misinformed at best. Brazil and Colombia have the highest rates of kidnappings in the world, yet that’s not the first  picture that pops to mind when thinking about an exotic vacation to Rio.

2008 Carnival in Rio de Janeiro (Attrib: Photo by sfmission.com provided on flickr under CC attribution license)

Research by the London-based ‘Control Risks Group‘ shows that between 1992 to 2000, only 52 people were reported as ‘kidnapped’ in Yemen. That’s about 6 people a year during the height of the kidnapping era in Yemen back in the 90′s.*

During the same 8 years, Colombia reported 5300 kidnappings, and Brazil reported 521. That’s an average of 2 people EVERY DAY in Colombia, and 65 people kidnapped annually in Brazil. The USA had 155 reported kidnappings, nearly 3 times the number of people kidnapped in Yemen during the same period.*

What’s worse is that since the year 2000, Yemen’s rate of kidnapping has steadily declined, while Brazil and Colombia went up. In  2003, Colombia averaged 10* kidnappings per day!

Yemen is the Biblical land of the Queen of Sheba, and purported ‘Cradle of Humanity’.  Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t want to check out scantly clad Brazilians in fantastic costumes parading the streets of Rio to hot Latin music during carnival. But please don’t raise your eye brow when you (or someone you know) are considering a visit to Yemen.

Just remember that on any given day, you are a thousand times more likely to be the victim of violence in Rio than you would be in Sana’a, the capitol city of Yemen.

(Concert infront of the old city in Sana'a, Yemen)

Here is a video from a tourist’s recent visit to Yemen. I found this on YouTube and it is the only video I have seen so far that captures the ‘essence’ of Sana’a like no doctored tourism video has ever been able to: the people, the noise, the architecture, the dust, the customs, the smell, and the utter simplicity wrapped in cultural complexity.

(* Source: “Meeting the Challenges of Global Terrorism” – Dilip K. Das, Peter C. Kratcoski, 2003.)