#islamic teacher official

[dratefahmed1]

Ramadan Dua Day 23 #shorts #ramadan #dua #muslim #islam #ramadantogether #ramadanspecial #ramadan

#shorts #ramadan #dua #muslim #islam #ramadantogether #ramadanspecial #ramadan2023 #ramadanmehndi #ramadanbarengvindes #ramadanrecipe #ramadanershaitan #ramadanaroundtheworld #ramadanaftereffects #ramadanalbum #ramadanbayan #ramadanbersamaknorr #ramadancalendar2023 #ramadancalendardesign #ramadancallbackevent #ramadandrawing #ramadandiviu #ramadandiy #ramadandecor #dramadance #ramadanetouba…

[fromchaostocosmos]

Dublin resident Justine Zapin’s two sons, ages 8 and 10, arrived at their public elementary school earlier this month to find Irish lawmaker Chris Andrews outside handing out “Free Palestine” bracelets to pupils. The bracelets caused discomfort for the brothers and some of their Israeli classmates. When they asked a third classmate if he would be willing to remove his, he became upset and reported them to the teacher. The 8-year-old later said he “felt like he got in trouble” with his teacher for expressing his unease, while his older sibling faced peers questioning his objection with remarks like, “But Israel started the war,” and “Israel’s killing babies.” After the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023, a classroom discussion implied that “the Jews deserved this,” Zapin said, with objections receiving minimal response from school officials.

More recently, the school — part of the Educate Together network, which, according to its website promotes equality-based and inclusive education — dismissed a pupil’s Nazi salute as “boys being boys.”

In one example highlighted in the report, a religious studies textbook cited Islam as being “in favor of peace and against violence,” while Judaism “believes violence and war are sometimes necessary to promote justice.” The New Testament parable of the “Good Samaritan” is illustrated with an image of a boy wearing a Palestinian scarf protesting against Israel. A history textbook refers to Auschwitz — the Nazi concentration camp in Poland where over 1 million Jews were murdered — as a “prisoner of war camp.” In a children’s textbook retelling the story of Jesus, a comic strip contains the line, “Some people did not like Jesus,” with disapproving figures depicted in distinctly Jewish attire, including tallits and kippahs. In another instance, Jesus is described as having lived in “Palestine.”

The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, the main body of representation for the Irish Jewish community, told the London-based Jewish Chronicle that young Jews felt “under siege” in the classroom, forcing a number of them to change schools due to antisemitism. JRCI chair Maurice Cohen said his efforts to discuss concerns with Irish Education Minister Norma Foley were repeatedly denied. Her department told the newspaper, “There is no evidence of antisemitism being taught in Irish schools.”

[girlactionfigure]

BREAKING:

The “few bad apples” line pushed by the UN has just been obliterated. The Wall Street Journal front page is reporting that an estimated 1,200 Unrwa employees in Gaza are actual “operatives” of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and about half have close relatives who belong to the Islamist terrorist organizations, according to Israeli intelligence estimates shared with the U.S. government. 

The report said 23% of Unrwa’s male employees—the agency has a total staff of 12,000 in Gaza—took active part in the Hamas organization’s military or political framework, a higher percentage than the average of 15% for adult males in Gaza. 

The information in the Israeli intelligence reports is based on sensitive signals intelligence as well as cellphone tracking data, interrogations of captured Hamas gunmen and documents recovered from dead terrorists.

Nearly half of all Unrwa employees—an estimated 49%—also had close relatives with official ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups. 

The Oct. 7 intelligence reports seen by the Wall Street Journal identified an Unrwa Arabic teacher who was also a Hamas terrorist commander and took part in a terrorist attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, where 97 people were murdered, and about 26 people were kidnapped and taken as hostages to Gaza.

Another Unrwa employee, described in the dossier as an Unrwa social worker, played a role in absconding with the body of a dead Israeli soldier, which was taken to Gaza, the reports said. He also coordinated trucks and munitions distributions for Hamas before being killed.

@cjkeller8 &

@davidluhnow

@WSJ: https://wsj.com/world/middle-east/at-least-12-u-n-agency-employees-involved-in-oct-7-attacks-intelligence-reports-say-a7de8f36

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Rinat Harash

How do children react when they are caught red-handed? They blame someone else and cry.

Which is exactly what the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) did on Thursday (May 30), in an op-ed published by The New York Times.

In the article, titled “Israel Must Stop Its Campaign Against UNRWA,” Philippe Lazzarini whines that his organization is under attack by the Jewish state, which has accused it of having links to Gaza terror groups.

The gist of his over-simplistic argument, that omits Hamas as the real target of Israel’s war effort, is as follows: UNRWA is attacked by vicious Israelis for no reason, and the world must do something about it.

In his own dramatic words, it sounds like Israel’s war aim is to target and harass innocent UNRWA employees and not Hamas terrorists:

As I write this, our agency has verified that at least 192 UNRWA employees have been killed in Gaza. More than 170 UNRWA premises have been damaged or destroyed. UNRWA-run schools have been demolished.

Israeli officials are not only threatening the work of our staff and mission, they are also delegitimizing UNRWA by effectively characterizing it as a terrorist organization.

How can this be possible? Where is the international outrage? Its absence is a license to disregard the United Nations and opens the door to impunity and chaos.

While Israel has long been hostile to UNRWA, following the abhorrent attacks of Oct. 7 it unleashed a campaign to equate UNRWA with Hamas and depict the agency as promoting extremism.

All of the above allows Lazzarini to deflect criticism and avoid holding himself and his organization accountable in the face of Israeli allegations.

While he refers to the dozen UNRWA employees who have been accused by Israel of participating in the October 7 massacre, he treads lightly: He says that UNRWA investigates Israel’s allegations but at the same time creates the impression of a false dichotomy between the organization and its employees.

In fact, he ignores evidence suggesting that UNRWA has become a Hamas front:

Israel has said that 190 UNRWA employees, including teachers, have doubled as Hamas or Islamic Jihad terrorists.

Israel uncovered a Hamas facility under UNRWA headquarters in Gaza.

The IDF regularly releases data showing that Hamas terrorists use UNRWA schools in Gaza.

UN Watch exposed that 3,000 UNRWA teachers were in a Telegram group that celebrated the October 7 attack.

Why does Lazzarini not address these allegations head-on in an apologetic op-ed?

Interestingly, in his frenzy to attack Israel, he seems to admit that Hamas uses UNRWA facilities in Gaza.

This point was ironically reinforced on the same day of Lazzarini’s article’s publication, when the IDF revealed that Hamas had fired an anti-tank missile at its troops from an UNRWA school in Gaza.

But Lazzarini seems to be unaware of his own responsibility for the utter moral bankruptcy of his organization.

He cannot even bring himself to mention Hamas’ October 7 atrocities, which he refers to only in the 9th paragraph as “an abhorrent attack.”

Like the child caught red-handed, he accuses the neighborhood “bully” and expects an adult — or in this case “the world” — to help (and perhaps renew the flow of pocket money that has been suspended.)

Perhaps he thinks he can get away with it, because UNRWA has always been seen as a favorite child, who is nothing but virtuous.

But the world needs grown-ups who clean up their own mess, instead of blaming others for exposing it.

[recentadultburnout]

Chapter 21: Religion (Buddhism)

This chapter will mostly be my viewpoint and opinion rather than a concrete fact lol. It will be pretty messy even when compared to just my own writing.

I actually touched on this topic a bit before in Ch. 5 (beliefs about merit, sin, and karma), Ch. 7 (Buddhism ceremony), and Ch. 13 (percentage of each religion), but I think this chapter will be where I put all the Buddhism-related topics in from now on.

There are five religions in total that are officially recognized by Thai law as religions. Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Brahmanism-Hinduism, and Sikhism.

The biggest religion here is Buddhism.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_in_Thailand

According to the National Statistical Office, in 2018 there are about 93% of the population who are Buddhist, about 5% are Muslim, and about 1% are Christians.

As you may know, Buddhism and Thai culture are tightly intertwined, but what you may not have known before is that, at the same time, Thai people are not a religious bunch.

The most basic thing Buddhism asks people to do is follow five precepts.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_precepts

Don't kill, don't steal, don't commit sexual misconduct, don't lie, don't use alcohol or intoxicants.

Most of us are Buddhist. very few of us actually strictly follow that very basic request Buddhism asks.

Kill some ants or mosquitos, drinking, gossiping, lying. Is it bad? Yes. Do people do it all the time? Yes.

Many would also casually get into other beliefs while at the same time not renounce their Buddhist status.

Someone could say they are Buddhist but also worship Hindu gods, random ghosts, Shinto gods, Greek gods, or whatever at the same time, and no one will bat an eye.

The reason why it is like this, in my own personal opinion, is due to the nature of Buddhism itself.

Buddhism is pretty loose on how one should live their life.

Islamic teaching is pretty clear about how things should be done on a daily basis, right? (Let me know if I'm wrong😅)

Buddhism teaching is pretty much like, Here are some principles you SHOULD learn and do. Go study it and see for yourself if it's good. Interpret it yourself. You don't want to? Ok, it's up to you. How should you live your life? You are the only one who can decide.

And while there are things that are said in Buddhism as good or bad, there are no punishments from Buddhism.

There are social judgments. There are laws. There are effects of it on your body, your mind. And that's about it.

There are no real incentives for people to practice Buddhism either. Other than it would be good for your mental health, there are no rewards. Heaven could be real, or it could be just a fairy tale.

There are no gods or deities out there that will give something to you. They might or might not exist, and that is irrelevant anyway. You still have to do everything yourself.

If you do something good, then you probably get something good, and if you do something bad, then you probably would get something bad, all because of some kind of logic.

The concepts of the afterlife, heaven, and hell are there but not reinforced by society as a whole as something that really exists.

Different from other popular religions, Islam or Christianity, for example, where there are rules from God. What Buddhism has is some guy's teaching.

He is a great guy that we believe in, of course. But he is a teacher who already passed away 2567 years ago, not a god or some powerful being that will personally come at you for doing something or not doing something. The pressure isn't that much.

If we can follow his teaching, then it would be great for our own self. But if we don't follow his teaching, then we don't follow his teaching. We might end up where we regret it deeply, or maybe we won't.

It's kind of like when you know you should exercise but still choose not to, you know?

Ok, now let's talk about Buddha's lore.

Here is the Wikipedia page.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_mythology

And if you want something else, I'm sure you could find some out there.

Here is a short version by me.

There is a prince who one day becomes aware of the fact that life has an inescapable suffering built in with it and wants to find a way to stop the suffering. He left everything behind and went searching for the way, trying many ways from many beliefs that already existed and still couldn't find it.

Eventually, he finds the way himself and becomes a buddha. (The inescapable suffering is still inescapable. We just have to know how to deal with it when it eventually happens.) After that he spends his life teaching that knowledge to people.

There are many miracles in the story. But most people regard that aspect of the story as a fiction rather than a fact. Some may even go as far as to say everything in the story is fictional. (For Buddhism, that is not as controversial as saying that the Bible is entirely fictional. As a Buddhist, you shouldn't believe something just because anyway. See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesamutti_Sutta)

It's not important, though. Whether the lore is true or not is irrelevant to the point of Buddhism.

While Buddhism lore is part of Thai culture, Thai society, the core of Buddhism, is about one's relationship with themselves, what we choose to do, what we don't, what we think, and not whether or not those miracles ever occur.

And because it's not important. How much and what a Buddhist believes about our own lore are pretty varied. Some people believe heaven and hell are actual places that we can go to. Some believe that they are all metaphors.

My mom believes in rebirth until one achieves enlightenment but not that heaven and hell exist. I believe in none. I believe that heaven, hell, and enlightenment are all states of mind, and after death there will be no mind at all.

We are close. We talk every single day, but I didn't share her opinion. In fact, I only know her opinion about this now because I just asked her now because I was writing this. Why is that? Because it doesn't really matter. It just isn't.

Next topic. As a queer series enjoyer, some of you may wonder about Buddhists' views on queer people.

Is being queer a sin? According to some beliefs (not a core teaching. Many beliefs that are popular among Buddhists are labeled by a smaller number, but still quite a few other Buddhists, as superstitious and not true Buddhism.), being born as something is due to karma from your past life.

Being born misfortunate is due to bad karma (sin).

Being born as a queer person, which makes your life more difficult, would be due to your past life's bad karma but not a sin in itself.

There are rules about ordaining that prohibit gay or trans people from being ordained. That is a fact. Interpret it as you will.

Personally, I take that it is for the sake of maintaining order between monks. Also, there is a rule that a monk is prohibited from touching a woman to be absent from lust. It's probably about the same principle.

Many of the rules and traditions are about society and not about Dharma teachings.

To be honest, some of them are straight-up just there because of patriarchy and no other reason.

Index

[gusty-wind]

CHILLING REPORT FROM HOLLAND'S Prime Minister Geert Wilders

Every word in this paper has deep thought-provoking effects.

Dear friends,

Thank you very much for inviting me. I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself. It is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The United States was the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe.

First, I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. To close I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem.

The Europe you know is http://changing.You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration. All throughout Europe, a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighbourhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It's the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders, if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I can not read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe . These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe , street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, and city by city.

There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe . With larger congregations than there are in churches. In every European city, there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam , Marseille, and Malmo in Sweden . In many cities, the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighbourhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities.

In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims.Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear 'whore, whore'. Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin.

In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin . The history of the Holocaust can no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity.

In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system. Many neighborhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels , because he was drinking during the Ramadan.Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya , Israel . I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization. A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live.

San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.

Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening  if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate.

[proclaimtheword]

(Photo credit from another site. I redacted a name often accused against the pope because I don’t like throwing that word around and I don’t believe in using it against other people, no matter how much I disagree with them.)

It has been more than a week since this happened and the pope said this before a congregation on an official trip to Singapore. I’m appalled that catholic tumblr is utterly silent on this, but not surprised. They really only get up to defend their church against protestants, and then even happily side with unbelievers. I hate fighting with other Christians, of all people, and many times avoid it and just move on. But THIS. Come on. COME ON. I thought we at least agreed Jesus is the only way to salvation! How could you not say something? At least don’t be blind to false teaching!

A catholic, of course, tried to defend it, who actually said the pope is not infallible—but I corrected him on that one (I grew up catholic you’re not fooling me, and yes I have been catechized enough)—then came back to say it only applies ex cathedra: meaning, only when he is ‘in office’ with “full authority.”

I said my pastor then has more integrity. He’s not perfect, but at least he says the same thing whether he is on the pulpit or not. He preaches the same gospel whether at church or in a grocery store. And I never have to make up new doctrine to make him or his job infallible, or exalt him more than necessary to a level higher than a church leader or teacher (I am looking at the saint and blessed pope).

Jesus says, I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life. No comes to the Father except through Me.

How clear can that be? I’ve said this before, No wonder Muslims love Catholics (I constantly refer to Islam on this blog because I live in Middle East; this is also where I converted, and I had never known what it was actually like to be Christian until I lived here). If the world had a favorite type of Christian, it might be the Catholics. And if the world had a least favorite type of Christian, I am sure it’s evangelicals. I mean, even other Christians hate us.

Today I went to church. Have I mentioned we don’t actually have a proper church building? We rent a small villa in a far-side residential area with over 50 people at a service (Praise the Lord! Even in a cramped area and with a tight budget, God still fills our house). We don’t have a name or sign plastered outside identifying as a church. We’re scared because it’s not actually legal to run an evangelical church in this country. But there are Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox churches at least one of each in my city. As I’ve said before, evangelism is illegal, but they will openly convert you to Islam. (I don’t blame them, it’s their country, we’re just here as immigrants and treated accordingly. We don’t try to change laws or culture, and we try our best to live according to the rules. As long as we keep to ourselves and treat it nothing more than a closed gathering, we’ll be fine).

Trust me, I missed being Catholic - because I was just happy and carefree. I didn’t know much of the world or the Word. Ignorance is bliss. But my life changed as soon as I became Christian - when I professed that faith, took it seriously, and preached the gospel boldly. Now I understand the Bible even more intimately - anytime it speaks of persecution, insult, and suffering, I can relate to it. When Jesus says ‘love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you,’ it has more weight.

I don’t know where I am going with this post other than it’s a rant and a writing of personal experience. My journey as a Christian is both a blessing and a curse - in the same way the apostles have written about it. But narrow is the way that leads to life. I know persecution is part of Christian life, and I shall rejoice in it.

Repent! I say this to myself more times in a day than I address it to others. I am a sinner. Always will be. But by the grace of God and blood of Jesus on the cross I shall be justified.

Jesus is the Way. There is no other way.

[eretzyisrael]

ByGabe Kaminsky

“It was a lesson when imam told me to go speak to people,” Walz also said at the event. “I have pushed back through my whole career on the demonization of Islam, on the demonization of immigrants. … In this space, Imam Zaman is right on this, there is Islamophobia, there is a hatred that is being stirred.”

Zaman, who is the director of Minnesota’s Muslim American Society, asserted on Oct. 7, 2023, that he “stands in solidarity with Palestinians against Israeli attacks” after 1,200 Israelis were killed by Hamas terrorists. His organization, which has a related chapter that once came under fire following children at a 2019 event it hosted calling for murdering Jews, said on Oct. 7 that it “reaffirms its unwavering support for the Palestinian people in their struggle against the Israeli occupation.”

Zaman’s social media history includes sharing a link to an article on a website in 2015 for a pro-Hitler film called The Greatest Story Never Told and, in one 2016 example, an official press release issued by Hamas. The press release mourned the death of an Islamist leader in South Asia who was executed after being convicted of war crimes.

In a Friday statement, the Anti-Defamation League said Zaman “has a troubling history of playing into classic anti-Jewish themes and justifying violence against Israel.”

“Given his hurtful remarks post-Oct. 7, and absent any recognition of the pain he has caused the Jewish community, we urge all public officials and leaders to avoid meeting with him in the future,” the Anti-Defamation League told the Washington Examiner. “Those who have met with Imam Zaman should clarify that they don’t agree with his toxic views about Jews and the Jewish state.”

[sag-dab-sar]

The Need to Recognize Christmas' Preferential Treatment 🎄

Christmas is seen as "stolen" from pre-Christian traditions or described as "not really Christian". Some of it is legitimate (e.g with specific local or national folk traditions), a lot of it is pseudo-history (e.g Mithras birthday, an entire Christmas tree, lights) but frankly neither actually matter. Because, in our modern world, Christmas holds a prestigious place due to Christianity.

.🔹.

Here are examples that showcase Christmas' ubiquitous, unquestioned place in many Culturally Christian nations and why we need to recognized its ubiquity:

Appropriation of Judaism, re-imagined for Christmas exists like this. @/koshercosplay has basically an infinite amount of examples to use for these posts and even gets sent asks of more examples.

There is no Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu or other religions' holidays reserved as an official federal holiday in the US. So all non-Christian religious holidays are labeled as "accommodations" while Christmas is a given.

While my post targets the US because thats were I am from, this isn't US only. Christmas is a public holiday in a large protion of countries around the world (see map).

Hallmark Christmas movies, that are made by the dozens at this point and are a US Christmas staple, are propaganda longing for a better ""family friendly"" white washed Christian version of America that never existed.

Hallmark has added anti-semitism into it's Christmas movies.

A Hanukkah presentation was banned in a Florida school meanwhile the same school was celebrating Christmas activities and decorations. Justified by Florida's Parental Rights Bill ("Don't say gay" bill) "obligating us to follow the 5th grade standards [...] At this time, a Chanukah presentation is not in our standards." It was only reversed to to social media outcry.

Something similar also happened in a Vancouver school where Christmas decorations were allowed because they "aren't religious" while Hanukkah ones were explicitly denied.

Fasting and breaking for prayer during Ramadan is seen as an inconvenience to employers, who need "guidance" on how to "accommodate" their Muslim employees. And has led to Muslims being straight up fired. Whereas Christmas decorations, events, or music in a work setting is fine.

Universities won't hold classes on Christmas but will reverse their practice of not holding classes on Yom Kippur & Rosh Hashanah because not holding classes on those holidays is "intended to insure greater continuity in the academic schedule and minimize course disruption for students." Those two holidays are a debate at the university— Christmas is never a debate.

Not holding classes on Eid al-Adha is also controversial! This also included reversing the decision to not have classes. The decisions to not hold classes on the holiday is a debate at the school board— Christmas is never a debate.

To make it all worse in the US: Christian Nationalism is dramaticlly increasing x x x

.🔹.

No matter what pagan-ness or secular aspects can be found in Christmas it has a privileged special place in our culture— that is afforded to no other religion— specifically because it is Christian. There are a few examples where this isn't the case (e.g Japan) but those are very few and far between

In my strong opinion: if you choose to celebrate the holiday, as a Christian or non-Christian, you should recognize the special spot & privilege it has.

You shouldn't dismiss that fact and the above examples because "pagan origins" or "celebrating it in a secular way"

Maybe next time when your classmate, your child's classmates, or you sibling's friend want to put up Hanukkah decorations in school next to the Christmas ones you can speak against the school administration that bans it, or against the teacher who gets upset at the idea.

Or perhaps you can be the person at the school board meeting who points out that Christmas isn't any more special than Yom Kippur or Eid al-Adha so why are those debatable when Christmas isn't.

Recognizing these things is not raining on Christmas' parade nor does it mean you should feel guilty for celebrating, its simply a matter of expanding you view of the world and learning the obstacles other people face.

.🔹.

P.S

Recognizing its preferential spot is paramount imo but if you'd also like to touch on the history of the matter:

Here is some info on the "Christmas is stolen" argument, as well as tracing secular and religious history of the holiday.

The origins of Christmas and its traditions are marred with psudeo-history plastered all over news websites, blogs, and supposedly reputable sources. But many of this comes down to secondary sources citing each other in a loop without primary sourcing. Here is an example of how that can happen (not xmas related).

-

-Dyslexic, not audio proof read- | -repost-

[good-old-gossip]

Annihilation of education: 100 European academics sign Euro-Med Monitor petition against systematic Israeli destruction of Gaza Strip’s educational system

Occupied Palestinian Territory - About a hundred leading European academics have condemned Israel’s genocide against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, ongoing since 7 October 2023, and its physical and cultural liquidation of them. including the systematic destruction of the educational system in the Gaza Strip.

In a Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor petition titled “Annihilation of Gaza Education: Israel is systematically erasing the entire educational system”, the academics decry Israel’s physical and cultural liquidation of Palestinian civilians in the Strip and express deep concern about the Israeli army’s continued targeting of academics, educational institutions, and cultural heritage sites there.

The scholars point to knowledge and education as fundamental to human civilisation worldwide, but emphasise that for an occupied people like the Palestinians, education plays a distinctly vital role in society. Education preserves hope and freedom against oppressive, apartheid-era, and depressing policies, plus fosters culture and is essential to the achievement of both individual and societal prosperity.

The current Israeli military assaults on the Gaza Strip have caused the entire educational process there to be completely disrupted, assert the scholars. The petition warns of grave long-term ramifications due to the bombing of homes of academic, scientific, and intellectual figures without prior notice, which has already led to the killing of hundreds of teachers and thousands of students. The academics also cite estimates from the International Monetary Fund that 70% of the Strip’s colleges and universities have been destroyed, costing the education sector $720 million.

Israeli military attacks have entirely or partially destroyed six universities in the Gaza Strip: Islamic University, Al-Israa University, Rabat University, Al-Azhar University, Al-Aqsa University, and Al-Quds Open University.

The academics state that on 11 October 2023, Israeli airstrikes completely destroyed the Islamic University in Gaza City—one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the besieged Strip—in violation of the rules of international humanitarian law. These rules prohibit deliberate attacks against civilians and require the distinguishing of civilian objects from military objectives; they also call for special protection for educational and cultural institutions.

Al-Israa University was completely destroyed after the Israeli army blew up all its buildings and facilities on 17 January 2024. Before attacking the school, Israel had turned it into military barracks and then used it as a temporary detention centre. The destruction included the National Museum, which housed over 3,000 rare antiquities under licence from the Palestinian Ministry of Antiquities. The university’s administration affirmed in an official statement that the antiquities are believed to have been stolen by the Israeli army.

Additionally, three university presidents have been killed in the Israeli attacks, along with more than 95 university deans and professors; 68 of whom held professor’s degrees. Meanwhile, 88,000 students have been deprived of receiving their university education, and 555 students were not granted the international scholarships they were offered prior to the genocide.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Education, 4,327 students have been killed and 7,819 others have been injured during the ongoing attacks, while 231 teachers and administrators have been killed and 756 injured.

The Israeli military actions may amount to premeditated killing and destruction, i.e. an attempt to kill and silence scholars involved in the Palestinian education system, which would have a massive impact on Palestinian future generations. The petition states that attacks by Israeli forces on civilian objects, particularly those classified as historical or cultural monuments protected by special laws, not only constitute a grave breach of international humanitarian law and a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, but also fall under the purview of genocide.

Signatories to the Euro-Med Monitor petition urge academics, scholars, and higher education institutions worldwide to vehemently denounce Israel’s unlawful killing of Palestinian academics and its systematic destruction of Palestinian cultural and historical assets in the Gaza Strip, such as schools, universities, libraries, and archives. The academics call for the international community to shed light on this specific example of Israel’s crime of genocide, which aims to physically and culturally destroy the Palestinian people as a whole and render the Gaza Strip uninhabitable, in order to force them to relocate.

The petition demands a boycott of Israeli academic institutions that support the occupation of Palestinian lands, especially those situated inside illegal Israeli settlements and in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. These establishments normalise apartheid policies against the Palestinian people, gradual ethnic cleansing, and occupation, contend the academics.

In the same vein, over 180 British academics recently signed a separate petition denouncing the effects of the ongoing Israeli military assaults on Gaza Strip educational institutions as well as the targeting of professors, researchers, and students.

Both petitions stress that these Israeli military attacks against educational institutions in the Gaza Strip represent a clear violation of international humanitarian law, and, in addition, express solidarity with the people of Gaza, particularly students and researchers, in light of the targeting of their basic rights to survival.

Source - https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6220/Annihilation-of-education:-100-European-academics-sign-Euro-Med-Monitor-petition-against-systematic-Israeli-destruction-of-Gaza-Strip’s-educational-system

[dratefahmed1]

Ramadan Dua Day 11 #shorts #ramadan #dua #muslim #islam #ramadantogether #ramadanspecial #ramadan

#shorts #ramadan #dua #muslim #islam #ramadantogether #ramadanspecial #ramadan2023 #ramadanmehndi #ramadanbarengvindes #ramadanrecipe #ramadanershaitan #ramadanaroundtheworld #ramadanaftereffects #ramadanalbum #ramadanbayan #ramadanbersamaknorr #ramadancalendar2023 #ramadancalendardesign #ramadancallbackevent #ramadandrawing #ramadandiviu #ramadandiy #ramadandecor #dramadance #ramadanetouba…

[xxxg0ryygurlll13xxx]

i think i really confused my religion teacher (again) by telling her my dad is jewish

so we just finished this like initiation ritual powerpoint project where we researched christian, hindu and jewish initiation rituals (baptisms) and she came around asking us after we turned in some reflection questions what we learned. I answered that its easier to convert to islam than i thought like the official process doesnt have much to it. she asked if i was christian and this is how it went:

me: yes im catholic but my dad and his family are jewish

teacher: ohh uh interesting? he didnt convert? like does he keep kosher? is he religious?

me: no he doesnt keep kosher and yes hes pretty religious fasts on yom kippur, goes to temple sometimes

teacher: but ur catholic???? and ur mom??

me: also catholic

teacher: really she didnt convert????? how??? like what abt thier wedding????

me: jewish wedding.

teacher: this is so interesting Lina ur the first person ive ever met w parents of 2 faiths. howd they figure ojut they wanted to raise u catholic?

me: *i go on to explain the ins and outs of being jewish by ethnicity and the matriarchal parts of it"

poor women seemed very confused by me. oddly enough this convo happens like once a year w religion teachers to me cause ive gone to catholic school the general assumption is everyone is from a christian family and while half my family is the other half isnt. ive come across 3 diff reactions that religion teachers have to this information (which inevitably comes up)

anti-semitism/disgust- at that neither of my parents converted or just ur run of the mill dirty looks at me and my dad

confusion- the most common

infatuation- this only happened once w my freshman year religion teacher

[girlactionfigure]

Tonight, Israel attacked (for the first time) the Palestinian refugee camp of Al Bas in Tyre.

Fatah Sharif, chairman of the UNRWA teachers' association, was killed in the attack .

Hamas publishes an official proclamation in which it announces that the fresh elimination is none other than:

الشهيد القائد فتح شريف أبو الأمين قائد حركة المقاومة الإسلامية حماس في لبنان وعضو قيادة الحركة في الخارج

Commander of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas in Lebanon and Member of the Movement's Leadership Abroad

Hamas is a central pillar of UNRWA, as it was in Gaza, so it is in Lebanon.

I circled in red in the attached photo the logo of UNRWA behind Sharif.

And here is the chairman of UNRWA's teachers association on an official Hamas proclamation with the special title: commander in Hamas in Lebanon.

Fatah Sharif, commander of Hamas in Lebanon, according to the official definition of the movement, receives a letter of appreciation from UNRWA, for his work (2019)

[petervintonjr]

Everybody say hello to Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons: activist, teacher, and researcher. Born in 1944 Memphis, Gwendolyn was the first generation in her family to attend college (Spelman, 1962). She credits her grandmother, Rhonda Bell Robinson, with having instilled in her the family's history and its reckoning with slavery, her own hardships growing up as a sharecropper, and how Mississippi was objectively the "worst of the worst" for Black people. Gwendolyn solemnly promised her grandmother that she would never go to Mississippi. (And don't even get her started on the epic confrontations with teachers and school officials about the "inappropriateness of her hair." Boy, it's sure nice that that sort of racial dress-code pettiness isn't a thing anymore, huh?)

In the 1960's, inspired by several Spelman professors (to include Howard Zinn), Gwendolyn actively and enthusiastically became involved in the SNCC against her family's wishes. She participated in sit-ins and endured several arrests, ultimately jeopardizing her Spelman scholarship. She helped prepare curricula for Freedom Schools and coordinated mock voter registrations, working under Bob Moses (see Lesson 112 in this series) and alongside James Forman and her fellow Spelman alum Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson (see Lesson 66). Eventually she came into the orbit of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and ultimately found herself taking over as director of the Mississippi Summer Project in 1964 when its previous director, Lester McKinney, had been picked up by Laurel police. She herself was arrested in Jackson following a march; being held, beaten and tortured for 15 days in a makeshift prison constructed on the county fairgrounds.

Gwendolyn later moved briefly to New York, and then to Atlanta where she worked on Julian Bond's state campaign (see Lesson 72). She continued to work with the local chapter of the SNCC, authoring a controversial position paper on Black Power that argued against expelling its white members. Around this time Gwendolyn also (unsurprisingly) found herself on the FBI's notorious Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) target list. Inspired by the speeches of Malcolm X, Gwendolyn joined Nation Of Islam in the late 1960's and changed her name to Zoharah (also taking her husband Michael Simmons' last name), and moved to Philadelphia. However her strong feminist principles contravened a number of NOI teachings, putting her at odds with the organization's stance on women as submissive helpmeets. Over the next 20 years she worked for the American Friends Service Committee, travelling to Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and (significantly) Palestine.

Gwendolyn retired from the University of Florida in 2019; conducting and leading research that explores Islamic feminism and the cultural impact of Sharia law on Muslim women. Today Simmons is senior lecturer emerita, continuing to travel and lecture on gender equality, and on many other issues affecting Black Americans, feminism, and social inequities. Her and Michael Simmons' daughter Aishah Shahidah Simmons, is herself an accomplished documentary filmmaker. (Teachers: Need some resources to engage your students this Black History Month? I'll send you a pile of these trading cards, no cost, no obligation. Just give me a mailing address and let me know how many students in your class. No strings attached, no censorship, no secret-relaying-of-names to Abbott or DeSantis or HuckaSanders.)

[247reader]

Day 27: Shaykhah Shuhdah, Fakhr-un-Nissa!

Fakhr-un-Nissa Shuhdah was the daughter of Abu Nasr Ahmad ibn al-Faraj al-Dinawari, a Kurdish scholar in the Persian city of Dinawar, in modern-day Iran. He ensured that his daughter received an excellent education, and she studied with some of the most significant Islamic scholars of her day, becoming an expert in Hadith, the records of Muhammad’s actions outside of the Quran, as well as a noted calligrapher. Settling in Baghdad with her husband, she became a teacher herself - in fact, students travelled from across the Abbasid Caliphate to hear her speak on theology, literature, and history, and she earned the title, among others, of Shuhdah al-Baghdadiyyah, the “Writer of Baghdad,” for her literary and calligraphic accomplishments.

After the death of her husband, Fakhr-un-Nissa, now middle-aged, devoted her time even further to her academic pursuits. With the assistance of a land donation for the Caliph, she opened a school, with free tuition for scholars. By the time of her death in 1112, the ninety-year-old teacher was famous and beloved, and her funeral was attended by thousands, from impoverished students to state officials.

[auburnflight]

Guide to a few common Genshin Impact mispronunciations!

I am politely asking my fellow fans to take a moment to consider that, in a game taking inspiration from so many languages, characters' names will probably *not* be pronounced how they look like they would with English phonetics.

Biggest recent one being GAMING - I *know* it's tempting to say it like the English word "gaming." But it's not. This character is from Liyue. And if the English Genshin dub is faithful to any of the authentic pronunciations of names from the original language, it's Liyue. I don't have personal experience in any Chinese language, so I don't know which syllable has emphasis, but I can be pretty certain even before the character's official release that it's pronounced "gah-ming."

While I'm at it, I want to spread awareness about the correct pronunciation of TIGHNARI. I'm honestly a bit baffled about how Anglo-centric the dub (and the fandom) went in the mispronunciation of this one. Why assume that "igh" is pronounced like the English "high" if it's not an English name? In actuality, the "i" is short, and the "gh" is a unique, guttural Arabic phoneme. The closest way I can describe it from hearing my Islamic Art & Architecture teacher say it is, it's almost like a light grumble, or halfway between a "g" and silence? I'm sure there's videos out there on how to correctly pronounce Tighnari from those who actually speak Arabic. Since I don't, and haven't grown up making that exact sound, I approximate by saying "Tig-nari" and just putting the G halfway there, or making it a bit more breathy.

I'm also gonna talk about my personal favorite mispronunciation: KLEE. Looks easy, right? It actually is! The double "e" in German is said like "ay", so her name is said like the English word "clay." NOT rhyming with "glee." Please.

(Please feel free to add your own, or expand upon/correct the info here if you're a native speaker of one of these languages.)