Islam is the real positive change that you need to change for being a better person or a perfect human being, you can change yourself if you read QURAN, IF YOU DO THAT !! you will change this UMMAH, say I am not A Sunni or Shia, BUT I am just a MUSLIM. Be a walking QURAN among human-being AND GUIDE THEM TO THE RIGHT PATH.
Are there too many Jews in France? How would
you react if your daughter married a Muslim? These are some of the
opinions sought by a poll on racism in France published Sunday that has
caused as much of a stir for its questions as its answers.
Published in French weekly Le Journal Du Dimanche,
the survey is billed as a “an investigation that’s out of the ordinary,
in nature and in scope” – an 18-month study on French attitudes to
racism, religion, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, specifically questioning Muslims and Jews as well as the general population.
At a time when France is still struggling to come to terms with the impact of two major terror attacks – on Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish grocery store in January last year and November’s shootings and suicide bombings across Paris
– the results of the poll carried out by Ipsos and commissioned by the
French Judaism Foundation paint a picture of prejudice, suspicion and
division.
To the question “Do you think a racist reaction can be justified”, 30
percent said yes, some 91 percent of people said that Jews in France
“are very insular” and 56 percent that they “have a lot of power”.
Nearly a quarter (23 percent) said they had witnessed violence or
aggressive behaviour towards someone because of their religion, while 54
percent believe that immigration does not benefit France. ‘Have you ever been assaulted by a Muslim?’
But it is the provocative line of questioning that has garnered the most attention from commentators.
Questions asking people if there are too many Jews in France (13
percent said yes, rising to 18 percent among Muslims) and how they would
react if their daughter married a Muslim (56 percent said they would
react “badly”) were blasted on social media for being unnecessarily
inflammatory and divisive.
But the sternest criticism was sparked by a question that asked
people if they have “ever personally encountered problems” such as being
insulted or assaulted by a range of different religious and ethnic
groups, including Roma, Muslims, Jews, people from the Maghreb and those
from sub-Saharan Africa.
Angered Twitter users, including several French politicians from both
the left and right, claimed that the question not only inappropriately
conflates ethnicity with religion, but also asks people to make
assumptions about the beliefs and origins of others.
“How can you publish such a poll? Being Muslim, Jewish or Catholic is
not a “type of person”, it’s a belief!” tweeted, Gérald Darmanin, a
lawmaker from the centre-right political party Les Républicains (formerly UMP).
Alexis Corbière, national secretary of the far-left Parti de Gauche political party called the survey “shameful”.
Another Twitter user asked: “How does that work? After being insulted / assaulted by someone, we ask for their religion?”
“I want to vomit,” said another.
Others went as far as to suggest that Ipsos and Le Journal du Dimanche may have broken French law, which bans collecting statistics on citizens’ ethnic and religious backgrounds.
“Dear Minister of Justice … could you take action immediately against
@leJDD,” tweeted Nathalie Goulet, a French senator with the centrist
UDI. 'Serious study'
Ariel Goldmann, president of the French Judaism Foundation, defended the poll, however, saying in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche itself that it was a “serious study” that was intended to “raise the alarm”.
“It is a measure of the ills that plague us as French citizens,” he
said. “It is addressed to all those that want to fight against
prejudices.”
Goldmann admitted that, “we waited and even hesitated before making [the survey results] public”.
But recent news stories such as the stabbing of a Jewish teacher in Marseille and the subsequent appeal by the leader of the city’s Jewish community for Jews not to wear skullcaps in public to avoid being targeted prompted its release, he said.
"Instead of apportioning blame, we need to understand what is happening and this study shows that,” he told the newspaper.
France’s minister for women’s rights on
Wednesday compared women who choose to wear conservative Islamic dress
to the “American negroes” who once supported slavery, sparking anger and
accusations of racism.
The remarks by Minister Laurence Rossignol, during an interview with
French TV channel BFM, came as she railed against fashion retailers
H&M, Marks and Spencer and Dolce & Gabbana for launching
products designed specifically for Muslim women, such as hijabs and the “burkini” – a swimsuit with a built-in hood designed to cover everything except the hands, feet and face.
Such companies were “irresponsible” and guilty of “promoting the confinement of women’s bodies”, said Rossignol.
When the interviewer pointed out that many Muslim women freely choose
to adhere to conservative Islamic dress codes, Rossignol responded: “Of
course there are women who choose it. There were American negroes who
were in favour of slavery.” ‘Error of language’
The comparison – and particularly the language used – sparked an immediate reaction online.
“Racism starts with Laurence Rossignol and ends with insults, violence and blood,’” said one Twitter user, @oboerythme.
“@laurossignol must have missed the government’s anti-racism classes,” said @widadk.
An online Change.org petition was also launched calling for Rossignol to face “sanctions” for her comments.
“It is with anger and exasperation that we have been once again
confronted with the verbal violence of a political leader,” wrote the
organisers. “Invited to partake in a false debate on ‘Islamic fashion’,
[Rossignol] made scandalous propositions, fuelling the conflation and
stigmatisation of both Muslim women and the millions of slaves
transported [from Africa].”
By midnight the petition had more than 14,600 signatures.
Speaking to AFP later on Wednesday, Rossignol said she had made an
“error of language” by using the word “negro” while stressing she would
never use the word “except when talking about slavery and the slave
trade”.
“But I didn’t take into account the most widespread perception [of
the word] – that one doesn’t say ‘negro’ even if it is allowed in
respect to slavery,” she said.
"Outside of this error of language, I am not retracting a single word I said" about Islamic dress, the minister added.
In 2010, France controversially introduced a ban on wearing the full Islamic veil,
or niqab, in public. Proponents of the ban argued that wearing a veil
violated the country’s values of gender equality and secularism, though
critics decried it as an infringement of individual liberty.
FRANCE
France to spend €100 million tackling ‘unbearable’ racism
For Musa Syeed,
a sense of place, past and culture are indelible parts of his work. A
son of immigrant parents, the filmmaker has never failed to create
compelling, quietly interesting narratives whether in documentary or
fiction film that are uniquely grounded in the communities in which they
are set. Previously, the filmmaker made the international Valley of Saints, (which he spoke to The Credits about in 2013) a complex love story teeming with the culture and lush setting of Kashmir.
Video of mwlDz5rC9Uo
This time around, Syeed has set his action in a place slightly closer to home with his lyrical and impactful A Stray. Set in Minneapolis and based a small community of Somali immigrants, A Stray follows Adan (played by the wildly impressive Barkhad Abdirahman ofCaptain Phillips
fame), a young Somali refugee whose life is turned upside down by the
entrance of a stray dog in his life. It’s a quiet film, but one whose
steadily directed hand and careful composition makes it stand uniquely
as an updated twist on the traditions of the day-in-a-life film
featuring a uniquely necessary look at immigrant life.
At SXSW where the film had its world premiere, The Credits
had a chance to sit down with Musa Syeed to discuss the life moment that
served as the spark of inspiration, the real life Somali community in
which he filmed and the nitty gritty details of his speedy 15-day shoot. I guess we’ll start at a very basic level, which is where did
the kernel of this idea come to you? It’s your second feature and a bit
of a departure.
The story kind of came from a personal experience where my wife took
in a stray dog. We didn’t grow up with dogs in the house or being very
comfortable around dogs and that experience, she sort of forced me to
get along with it. And then eventually forging a relationship with this
dog, and I ended up giving it up at a shelter and sort of regret that. I
had that moment at the shelter where I looked at the dog for the last
time before I gave it away and it was a very heartrending kind of
experience. So yeah, that’s part of where it came from. And then you plug that kind of experience into this very specific story set in a Somali community...
Doing a film in the Somali community, with the last film it was a
very community based, site-specific film. When I finished the first film
I wanted to do something completely different before I realized I
really liked making a film that way, really embedding myself in a
particular community and getting to know people, building relationships
and working with non-professional actors, that kind of thing. But I
didn’t want to travel halfway across the world this time to make a
movie, so I’d known about this Somali community in Minneapolis for a
while, and I just thought it’d be really a rich environment to make a
film in, a community we don’t often see in media. What was filming in this community like?
It offered an opportunity to really immerse myself in a world that’s
there already, I didn’t have to create it because there are mosques, the
restaurants, the museum, all of these locations we were able to take
advantage of because they were already there. This time it was different
because I didn’t have a personal relationship to the people
necessarily. We connected to a certain extent because I am Muslim, that
helped in some ways to get my foot in the door. It took some time to
also develop that trust to the point where people are really jumping in
and helping to make the film. Was it a difficult process to get into that community at first?
It’s not a well-known community nationally, but in Minneapolis
there’s been a lot of coverage locally and I think in the community
people feel as though it’s been very negative, stereotypical, their
focus is on the problems the community has and not so much on the day to
day. For me, coming in, I think a lot of people were wary of media in
general and a guy they don’t know saying things and making promises. But
it was good because once they saw me come back and come back and come
back again, just spend time without a camera and spend time listening to
people, they realized I was there for the long hall. And I also had to
be more open in the process like sharing the script earlier on than I
usually would and trying to make sure I meet some of their needs as a
community in terms of how they want to be represented, so the script
definitely was shaped by a lot of their input as the film was being
developed. That was a difficult thing for me to be open to that and not
be so protective of the idea and to let it be open a little to that kind
of feedback. It really helped me tell a more authentic story. Did you get to cast some of the locals in the film?
Barkhad, the lead, was in Captain Phillips, and I spent
most of my time initially there in a community center, in the
neighborhood that employs a lot of East Africans and also employs a lot
of East African youth. And I was there all the time for these meetings
and programs and people thought I worked there, kids would ask me if
they could go to the bathroom because they thought I was a counselor or
something. [laughs] But I met Barkhad at a town hall meeting about
housing issues in the community, and I hadn’t planned on meeting him but
a friend introduced us and said, “Why don’t you guys work together?”
And pretty soon after, I brought him out to New York to stay with me for
a few days and talk about the script and we biked around Brooklyn and
just bonded, and I got a sense of who he is. Yet you've also got a lot of nonprofessional actors?
There are a lot of nonprofessionals, the imam in the film is a real
imam in the community, he let us shoot in his mosque which is a really
big deal. Mosques have been under such scrutiny, and I shared the script
with him and he read it and he liked it and felt like it spoke to some
of the issues that the youth in his film were facing. And it was funny
because at first he was like, “I’m very busy, one hour of shooting.” And
he is a fairly substantial character in the film. We showed up at
sunrise and he was like, “Okay, I’ve got an hour,” and we were shooting
with him and he started to like it, and he was like, “I’ll give you
another 15 minutes, 15 minutes.” So we ended up getting three or four
hours each day as opposed to getting an hour. And he was great, he
didn’t need a lot of direction, he kind of got it. He’s a natural. I
guess leaders of faith communities have to be a little performative, so
he used some of that theatricality I guess. So do you speak Somali? Because it’s certainly not an English film, it’s about 50/50.
I don’t speak Somali, I speak Arabic and there’s a good crossover so I
could sometimes understand what was going on more or less. I wrote it
to be mostly in English, but I realized it would feel more fake if they
were speaking English in environments that they wouldn’t in real life.
In the community, there are people who have been there for different
times, some people have arrived a few months ago, some were born there,
so you have varying levels of language abilities or whatever, but I just
felt like Barkhad was most natural when he was speaking Somali, so it
just made sense. He could be more creative with the language then, too. Is it difficult to direct a language that you’re not super familiar with?
I think in some ways it helps because you get to focus less on the
pronunciation or the correct intonation of a word or a syllable, you can
just sort of really be about how they look on camera. That ultimately
is what sells the performance—not if they put the question mark in the
right place. In some ways, it’s easier. Subtitling is its own art where
afterwards you have to decide how you translate things, but I don’t mind
directing in languages I don’t speak. Can you talk about finding the dog?
Sure, we worked with a local animal talent woman, who just has a
massive database of dogs, all animals really. So she just sent us lots
of pictures of dogs and we sort of made our choices. We narrowed it down
to three or four just from photos and we met them at a dog training
facility and we brought Barkhad in person for the casting session to see
how he interacted with them. The dog we ended up casting, Aila, she’s a
pet of her owners, but they train her for agility and for sports
competitions. But she was great. The big thing for me in terms of
casting a dog was looking for a dog that had eyes you could look into
and make a connection with. So Aila, aside from her scruffy look, she
kind of had that. And she had the right personality of being very chill
and calm, she’s friendly but she’s not like a puppy. Oftentimes in American film, dogs are really framed as super
lovable, and it was interesting to see that cultural difference of
looking at dogs as sort of dirty or not friendly. It was certainly
unique to see a dog character that was treated with a healthy distance.
Yeah, man and dog is sort of an American thing and it’s sort of a
barometer of how American you are to some people, so I thought it would
speak to a lot of questions around assimilation and how do these things
that seem irreconcilable, how do they find connection and how do they
work through that and negotiate that. It feels kind of specifically necessary to be seeing films
about immigrants at this point in time in America and in the world, was
that something that sort of coalesced organically or were you spurred on
by current events to pursue something like this?
I come from an immigrant family so for me it’s always been an
interesting topic. I’ve done films in different immigrant communities
and I thought the refugee experience has been one that hasn’t been
explored enough. The Syrian refugee crisis has been going on for three
years, but it hasn’t really been become a prominent story until this
past year and the discussion was hitting its peak after we had finished
shooting it, but I tried to weave it in as best as I could. I don’t
think they even say the word refugee in the film, but it was sort of
part of the environment of making the film ultimately. There’s always
going to be questions of what’s American and what’s not, I think. So, this is your second feature. Is there anything you
learned working on the first one to this one that you knew you had to do
or had to avoid this time around?
It was pretty different in that our main actor Barkhad was SAG for
one thing, and we were shooting on a 15-day schedule as opposed to in
Kashmir for the first film we were shooting over the course of 2 months.
We had planned for a month shoot and it became two months because our
pre-production and production got scrambled because there was a military
curfew so that shoot was about finding ways around that. But doing that
really helped this film in that even though we were shooting on a much
more compressed timeline, we still had locations dropping out at the
last minute, actors would drop out at the last minute. We were trying to
shoot this very scheduled film in a community that is working and has
their own things. Things would come up and we’d have to show up at a
random location and hope it worked out or we wouldn’t see a location
until we were setting up the camera. On the first film, we were always
saying, “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good,” and that kind of
mentality of embracing the limitations that we had helped. Obviously we
didn’t have a lot of money either, so how do you confront everything
head on and not be too precious about a specific location or a piece of
art direction. Go with the flow. Especially working with a dog that
became even more important because there were things you couldn’t do or
needed more time or be lenient. So that mentality of embracing the
limitations became really important. From the time you submitted the film to SXSW to now, how different has the film been in terms of tune-ups?
It was fairly different, but it was just a compressed timeline to get
the sound and the music and everything else done, a lot less time than I
would have liked but it was good. At a certain point, you’re just
looking at the film like, “What’s going to happen now?” I was getting to
the point where I was feeling more like it was done than I had first
submitted. And it was nice that even at its point of not being finished
someone thought it was good enough to accept and then I had a chance to
sort of finish it up from there.
Aubrey Page
Aubrey Page is a freelance culture writer living in Brooklyn, NY. You can follow her on Twitter @aubreypage_
Protesters hit the streets in eastern Saudi Arabia in late 2015.
When Salman bin
Abdulaziz Al Saud became Saudi Arabia’s king in January 2015, there were
calls for him to implement economic and social reforms in the kingdom —
long considered a key ally of the United States in the Middle East —
and improve its human rights record.
More than one year later, those calls continue.
Faced with a resurgent Iran, economic distress from falling oil
prices, pressure from religious conservatives, and wars in Yemen and
Syria, King Salman’s government has made some reforms — but it
also ordered Saudi Arabia’s largest mass execution in nearly three
decades.
Now, some ordinary people inside the country are fighting back.
As FRONTLINE’s March 29 documentary, Saudi Arabia Uncovered,
reveals firsthand, a new generation of men and women inside the country
are risking everything to challenge the status quo and try to bring
about change. Here’s how.
They’re secretly filming parts of Saudi Arabia the government doesn’t want you to see.
Members of the Saudi royal family are among the wealthiest people in
the world, and the Saudi Arabia the world often sees is a country of
wealth and luxury shopping malls. The government has spent billions on
social welfare, yet it’s estimated that up to a quarter of Saudi
Arabia’s population still lives in poverty. Even though filming in the
slums could land them in prison, a network of activists is documenting
what life is like there. This undercover footage obtained by FRONTLINE
was taken in a slum on the outskirts of Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.
Women are driving.
King Salman has enacted changes enabling women to vote and stand in
local elections. Yet under a strict, state-sponsored interpretation of
Islamic tradition, women are still banned from taking the wheel. In late
2014, a woman named Loujain Hathloul took matters into her own hands
— filming herself trying to drive into Saudi Arabia from the neighboring
United Arab Emirates. Moments after her filming ended, Hathloul was
arrested. As Saudi Arabia Uncovered recounts, she’s gone on to become one of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent women’s rights activists.
They’re fighting back against public violence.
One particularly disturbing scene from Saudi Arabia Uncovered
shows a woman who had been convicted of killing and sexually assaulting
her stepdaughter being publicly beheaded on a city street, while
screaming, “I didn’t do it.” Others show women being knocked to the
ground by men in public places. Activists are secretly filming public
violence like this, and sometimes, the footage shows how ordinary Saudis
are reacting — including some women fighting back. In the below scene,
after being whipped in public, several women turn on their attackers.
They’re blogging.
In 2012, a secular activist named Raif Badawi took to his website to
publicly criticize the close relationship between Saudi Arabia’s rulers
and the country’s conservative clerics, who are supported by much of the
population. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for
insulting Islam. He has spent much of his sentence in one of Saudi
Arabia’s most notorious prisons. As Saudi Arabia Uncovered reports, his family — now living in exile — hasn’t stopped fighting for his freedom.
They’re protesting.
It was a bloody way to ring in the new year: In January of 2016, the
Saudi government oversaw the mass execution of 47 people on terror
charges. It was the nation’s largest mass execution in nearly 30
years. Many of those executed were convicted Al Qaeda terrorists, but
one of them was the controversial Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr
— widely seen as the spiritual leader of Saudi Arabia’s 2011 Shia
uprising. Footage from Saudi Arabia Uncovered shows how the Sheikh’s execution sparked the first major protests in the East of Saudi Arabia since the Arab Spring. To learn more about Saudi Arabia today, and to the meet citizens
there who are challenging the government, watch FRONTLINE’s Saudi Arabia
Uncovered on Tues., March 29 starting at 10 p.m. EST/9 p.m. CST on PBS
stations (check your local listings) and online at pbs.org/frontline.
Kamran Jebreili—APTwo Emirati officials watch a high-rise
building as a fire spreads up the side of the building in Ajman, United
Arab Emirates, early, March 29, 2016.
"All I have left are the clothes on my back"
A large fire engulfed at least two buildings in a residential tower complex in the United Arab Emirates city of Ajman late Monday night.
Dubai-based Gulf News reports that the blaze gutted two
buildings in the Ajman One Towers, a residential cluster of 12
buildings. There was no immediate word on casualties but local media reported the buildings were evacuated.
Distraught residents could only watch as the fire spread up the side of the buildings.
“All I have left are the clothes on my back,” one tenant told Gulf News. “My colleague is coming to pick me up. I am too disturbed to make sense of it all.”
The blaze began at around 9:45 p.m. local time — authorities have not
yet publicly identified the cause — and persisted into the early hours
of the morning.
Videos posted to Twitter by the local law-enforcement agency shows
burning debris falling to the ground as the fire engulfs the side of the
tower.
The fire is the latest in a string of similar incidents in the Gulf
nation. On New Year’s Eve a huge blaze ripped through a 63-story luxury
hotel in central Dubai, injuring 16 people, reports the BBC. And in February 2015, a fire damaged the residential Torch skyscraper in Dubai.
[Gulf News]
أتلانتا، الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية (CNN)--
كشفت نجمة الأفلام الإباحية السابقة، بري أولسون، قصة ما تعرضت له بعدما
تركت صناعة الأفلام الجنسية، وشاركت برسالة للفتيات عبر سلسلة من مقاطع
الفيديو كجزء من حملة "نساء حقيقيات، قصص حقيقية."
إذ كانت أولسون واحدة من مجموعة الفتيات التي عُرفن بلقب
"إلهة"، الممثل الأمريكي، تشارلي شين، اللاتي عشن مع شين في منزله مع نساء
أخريات خلال انهياره عام 2011.
وتقدر أولسون أنها كانت تتقاضى مبالغ تتراوح بين 30 و60 ألف
دولار شهريا في صناعة الأفلام الإباحية، قبل أن تتخلى عن تلك المهنة وتترك
شين. ومنذ ذلك الحين، تقول أولسون إنها تحاول الانتقال إلى الحياة العامة
ولكنه لم يكن بالأمر السهل، وشاركت أولسون بقصتها عبر سلسلة من مقاطع
الفيديو كجزء من حملة "نساء حقيقيات، قصص حقيقية."
وقالت إنها تجد صعوبة في العثور على عمل وتكوين صداقات، إذ لا
يريد أحد أي علاقة بها بعد اكتشاف حياتها السابقة. ودون الخوض في تفاصيل،
قالت إن الناس الذين يتعرفون عليها في المناطق العامة، يصفوها بالقبيحة
ويستخدمون ألقابا مهينة. وأضافت أولسون: "عندما أخرج، أشعر كما لو أن كلمة
’عاهرة‘ محفورة عبر جبهتي."
وتابعت أولسون: "وصلت فعلا إلى نقطة حيث هناك أيام تمتد إلى
أسابيع أحيانا لا أترك فيها البيت لأنني لا أريد مواجهة العالم.. يعاملني
الناس كما لو كنت أعتدي جنسيا على الأطفال، ولا يتعاملون معي كما لو كنت
أعمل في تجارة الأفلام الجنسية، يعاملونني كأنني بطريقة أو بأخرى سأضر
الأطفال."
وأكدت أولسن أنها تعرف أن السبب في معاملتها بتلك
الطريقة هي حياتها الماضية في صناعة الأفلام الإباحية. رغم ذلك شددت على
أنه "لا يوجد شيء خاطئ بالإباحية،" ولا شيء خاطئ بتقبل حياتك الجنسية، على
حد تعبيرها، ولكن "هناك بعض الأمور التي، مهما كنت منفتحا، لن يتقبلها
الآخرون أبدا." وترسل أولسون رسالة للفتيات: "لا تدخلن صناعة الأفلام
الإباحية."
New York, March 23, 2016 -- A
military court in Mogadishu on Sunday upheld sentences imposed on six
people convicted in connection with the December 2015 murder of Somali
broadcast journalist Hindia Haji Mohamed.
The defendants had appealed
the original ruling, but the military court fully upheld the verdicts
and sentences, which had first been announced on February 25, according to news reports.
"The pervasive culture of impunity in Somalia undermines press
freedom," said CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney. "Efforts to
reverse this trend are important, but we urge authorities to do so by
ensuring fair and transparent trials, and sentences that adhere to
international standards."
Two of the six men whose convictions were upheld Sunday, Abdirisack
Mohamed Barrow and Hassan Nur Ali Farah, were sentenced to death. Four
others were sentenced for their roles as co-conspirators in the murder:
Mo'allin Mohmed Abukar Ali and Mo'alin Mohamed Sheikh Yusuf were each
sentenced to life in prison; Ali Hassan Aden Tooni and Muheyadin Osman
Mohamed Awale were sentenced to 15 and 10 years in prison, respectively,
according to news reports.
Hindia was a journalist for the state-run broadcasters Radio
Mogadishu and Somali National TV. She was killed when her killers
detonated a bomb planted under the seat of her car by remote control, a
Somali journalist told CPJ
soon after she died. Hindia was the widow of Somali journalist Liban
Ali Nur, who was murdered for his own work on September 20, 2012, according to CPJ research. No one has been convicted in that murder.
At least 23 journalists have been murdered in Somalia in the past five years, according to CPJ research. The country ranks at the top of CPJ's Global Impunity Index, which highlights countries where murders of journalists go unpunished.
A military court in Mogadishu on March 3 found Hassan Hanafi guilty of being either partly or directly responsible for the killings of Mahad Ahmed Elmi, director of Capital Voice radio, a private station run by HornAfrik Media; Ali Iimaan Sharmarke, the founder and co-owner of HornAfrik Media; Said Tahliil Ahmed,director of HornAfrik for TV and radio stations; Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe, a reporter for Radio Shabelle; and Radio Mogadishu reporter Sheikh Nur Mohamed Abkey, the only murder to which Hanafi confessed, according to CPJ research. The murders spanned the years 2007-2010. Hanafi was sentenced to death by execution.
There's been lots of buzz in March, 2016, on whether or not you should eat the seed of an avocado.
AP Photo/Matthew Mead, File
AA
A viral video posted to Facebook earlier this month shows how to pulverize the seed of an avocado into a powder usable in smoothies or shakes.
The
video, which had over 26 million views as of March 19, claims the seed
is the most “nutrient-dense part of the fruit” and recommends people eat
it instead of throwing it away.
Other health blogs claim the seed contains nutrients that can help fight cancer cells.
But some people, including the California Avocado Commission, say you shouldn’t eat the pit avocado.
“The seed of an avocado contains elements that are not intended for human consumption,” reads a statement on its website. READ MORE: An avocado a day keeps the cardiologist away, new research suggests
So the question remains: what, if any, are the actual health benefits (or pitfalls) of eating an avocado seed?
The science on what exactly is in avocado seeds is scarce.
Health Canada only lists the nutritional value of the pulp of the fruit on its website.
The
George Mateljan Foundation for the World’s Healthiest Foods said that
“research on avocado shows that the greatest phytonutrient
concentrations occur in portions of the food that we do not typically
eat, namely, the peel and the seed,” but doesn’t list the specific
nutritional contents of the seed. Registered holistic nutritionist Ciara Foy
says that the seed of the fruit does contain high amounts of soluble
fibre and anti-oxidants – in amounts higher than any other vegetable.
Those can help control your blood sugar or reduce inflammation respectively, she told Global News.
But
she also warned while there’s been data which showed people have been
eating this part of the fruit historically, there haven’t been a lot of
studies done on the effects of eating the seeds.
“It’s
one of those things that comes from the fact that indigenous cultures
[ate] it,” she said. “Then they start to research it. It’s not a typical
thing to eat.”
“Even when I went to school (which was in 2004), there was no discussion of eating the avocado seed.”
Study shows avocados help lower bad cholesterol
She said one study from 2013 showed that the seed had a positive
effect on fighting leukemia cells, but there hasn’t been any testing or
studies involving humans.
As for the claim that the seed contains “elements not fit for human consumption?”
“All
plants have natural ‘toxins’ that protect it from being
eaten/destroyed. In large quantities these can be detrimental to
humans,” she explained.
“But we are talking very large amounts … In small amounts, [it’s] beneficial, but should not be eaten in large quantities.”
It also has a bitter taste, she said.
So
as it stands right now, “there’s nothing different about an avocado
seed [from any other vegetable] that’s going to make me eat it despite
the taste,” Foy said.
And there’s plenty other fruits and vegetables with the same type of nutrients, even if it’s not in the such high quantities.
“I think it’s a bit trendy … so it’s not something I’m going to recommend that much.”
Other experts agree.
Dietitians contacted wouldn’t comment on the issue because it’s not clear where the buzz is coming from.
“It’s
difficult to make health statements when one doesn’t even have solid
information regarding the nutritional profile of avocado seeds,” one
dietician told Global News by email.
“There is a body of evidence
exploring potential health benefits in extracts of the avocado seed, but
these potential benefits versus risks of eating the avocado seed are
not well fleshed out,” Marisa Moore, RDN, MPH, an Atlanta-based
nutritionist told Health Magazine.
أخواتي وعزيزاتي
هذه قصة كان لها الوقع الحميد في تقربي إلى المولى عز وجل لذا أحببت أن
تطلعوا عليها .. وأسأل الله تعالى أن تستفيدوا منها .. وأن تكون عظة وعبرة
لكل من يقرأها
اقتربت الساعة من الرابعة صباحاً..
كل شيء حولها ساكن لا شيء يتحرك سوى أوراق الشجر عندما يداعبها نسيم
السَّحر.. أغصان الشجرة تتدلى بالقرب من النافذة تكاد أن تعانقها.. الهدوء
والسكينة يعمان كل شيء.. فجأة انطلق صوت المنبه.. تررررن.. تررررن.. تررر..
أسكتت خديجة هذا الصوت المزعج في سرعة فائقة وهبت من الفراش., توجهت
متثاقلة إلى دورة المياة.. مشيتها الثقيلة صارت معتادة بالنسبة لها؛ فهي في
نهاية الشهر الثامن من الحمل.. بطنها كبير وأرجلها متورمة.. أصبحت تتعب
بسهولة.. وحتى تنفسها تجد فيه صعوبة.. وجهها شاحب.. جفونها متدلية من كثرة
البكاء.. ولكنها لا بد أن تقوم في ذلك الوقت.. فلم يبقَ على آذان الفجر سوى
ساعة واحدة!!
خديجة من أقرب صديقاتي.. كان قد مر على زواجها حوالي ثلاث سنوات فبالطبع
كانت فرحتها وفرحة زوجها غامرة عندما عرفا أنها حامل. ولكن في أحدى زيارتها
للطبيبة المتخصصة وبعد إجراء الاختبارات اللازمة أخبرتها الطبيبة أن
الابنه التي تحملها في أحشائها عندها كلية واحدة فقط!!
سبحان الله! الأطباء هنا في الغرب بالرغم من تفوقهم العلمي إلا أنهم
يفتقدون المشاعر الإنسانية؛ فها هي خديجة في صدمة رهيبة مما سمعت والطبيبة
تخبرها في منتهى البرود أنه لا يوجد حل فوري ولكن بعد الولادة من الممكن أن
تجرى فحوصات على المولودة لتحدد صلاحية الكلية الواحدة, وإن لم تكن صالحة
فعمليات زراعة الكلى أصبحت مثل عمليات الّلوز!!
خرجت خديجة من عند الطبيبة وهي في حالة ذهول.. لا تدري كيف وصلت إلى
بيتها!! أول مولودة لها و بكلية واحدة!! ما العمل؟ هل من الممكن أن تكون
الطبيبة مخطئة؟ بحثت خديجة وزوجها عن أحسن الأطباء في هذا المجال ولكن كل
طبيب كان يأتي بنفس التشخيص.. كلية واحدة!! ومع كل زيارة لكل طبيب منهم
كان أملها يقل ويضعف وفي النهاية سلمت للأمر الواقع. وآخر طبيب قال لها ألا
تتعب نفسها فالوضع لن يتغيير.. وأدركت خديجة في تلك اللحظة أنه ليس بيدها
شيء سوى التوجه إلى الله بالدعاء.. ومنذ ذلك اليوم قررت أن تقوم في الثلث
الأخير من الليل للصلاة والدعاء لابنتها التي لم تولد بعد؛ فقد أخبر سبحانه
وتعالى في محكم التنزيل
وأيضاً
ورد في الحديث الشريف, عن أبي هريرة رضي الله عنه أن رسول الله صلى الله
عليه وسلم قال: "ينزل ربنا تبارك وتعالى كل ليلة إلى السماء الدنيا, حين
يبقى ثلث الليل الآخر فيقول: من يدعوني فأستجيب له, من يسألني فأعطيه, من
يستغفرني فأغفر له" (رواه البخاري ومسلم)
أيقنت خديجة أنه لا ملجأ إلا إليه فلم تتردد في القيام يومياً قبل الفجر
بساعة أو أكثر بالرغم من التعب الذي كانت تعانيه من الحمل ومن قلة النوم..
يومياً تتجه في الثلث الأخير من الليل إلى سجادتها في مصلاها وتسجد في خشوع
وتسأله سبحانه وتعالى أن يرزقها ابنة بصحة جيدة وكليتين! كانت تلح في
دعائها وتبكي إلى أن تبتل سجادتها. لم تكل يوماً أو تمل.. جسدها أصبح
منهكاً.. الركوع والسجود أصبحا في غاية الصعوبة ولكنها لم تتراجع أو تشكو
ولو مرة واحدة.
وكلما أخبرتها الطبيبة بنفس النتيجة مع كل زيارة ومع كل فحص ازداد عزم خديجة على القيام في الثلث الأخير من الليل. أشفق عليها زوجها من كثرة القيام
وخشي عليها من الصدمة عند مولد الابنة ذات كلية واحدة وكان دائماً يذكرها
بأن الله سبحانه وتعالى قد يؤخر الاستجابة؛ فقد روى أبو سعيد رضي الله عن
النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: "ما من مسلم يدعو الله بدعوة ليس فيها إثم
ولا قطيعة رحم إلا أعطاه الله بها إحدى ثلاث: إما أن تعجل له دعوته, وإما
أن يدخرها له في الآخرة, وإما أن يصرف عنه من السوء مثلها" رواه أحمد في
المسند.
وكانت هي تذكر زوجها بأن لا حيلة لها إلا أن تسأل الله؛ فإن لم تسأله هو سبحانه وتعالى فمن تسأل؟؟!! لا تسألنَّ بني آدم حاجـــة وسل الذي أبوابه لا تحـــجب
الله يغضب إن تركت سؤاله وبني آدم حين يُسأل يغضب وكيف لا تسأله وقد أخبرنا الرسول صلى
الله عليه وسلم في الحديث القدسي الذي رواه عن ربه تبارك وتعالى: ".. يا
عبادي لو أن أوَّلكم وآخركم وإنسكم وجنَّكم قاموا في صعيد واحد فسألوني,
فأعطيت كلَّ إنسان مسألته, ما نقص ذلك مما عندي إلا كما ينقُص المخيط إذا
أُدخل البحر" (رواه مسلم)
قبل الموعد المتوقع للولادة بحوالي أسبوعين حضرت خديجة لزيارتي، ودخل وقت
صلاة الظهر فصلينا وقبل أن نقوم من جلستنا امتدت يد خديجة إلي وأمسكت
بذراعي وأخبرتني أنها تحس بإحساس غريب. سألتها إن كانت تحس بأي ألم فأجابت
بالنفي ولكن للزيادة في الاطمئنان قررنا الاتصال بالطبيبة فطلبت منا
مقابلتها في المستشفى. حاولنا الاتصال بزوج خديجة لكن بدون جدوى؛ فهو في
صلاة الجمعة. فتوكلنا على الله وذهبنا إلى المستشفى وتعجبنا أنهم أخبرونا
أنها في حالة ولادة!! فجلست بجانبها أشد من أزرها وأربت على كتفها... وكانت
والحمد لله كثيرة الدعاء، وبالرغم من الآلام إلا إنها كانت تسأل الله أن
يرزقها ابنى بصحة جيدة وكليتين!!
وولدت فاطمة.. صغيرة الحجم.. دقيقة الملامح.. وجهها يميل إلى الزرقة، وفي
ظهرها نقرة (نغزة) صغيرة قرب موقع الكلية، كأن جسدها الصغير امتص فراغ
الكلية الناقصة.. بكيت وبكت خديجة ووسط دموعها كانت تتسأل عن حالة ابنتها..
بماذا أرد؟! ماذا أقول لأم أعياها السهر وتهدلت جفونها من البكاء وما زالت
تتألم؟!! "ما شاء الله حلوة".. حاولت أن أقول شيئاً أخراً ولكن الكلمات
انحبست!! وسبحان الله ما كانت إلا دقائق معدودة وتحول اللون الأزرق إلى لون
وردي، ودققت في وجه فاطمة.. سبحان الخالق.. وجهها جميل، ولكن كل ما نظرت
اليها تذكرت المشاكل التي قد تواجهها بسبب الكلية الواحدة. لم أتكلم ولم
تتكلم خديجة فكل واحدة منا كانت تفكر.. ماذا سيكون مصيرالطفلة ذات الكلية
الواحدة؟!!
حضر أطباء الأطفال وأجروا الفحص المبدئي وأبلغونا أنها فيما يبدو طبيعية
ولكن لا بد من إجراء فحوصات مكثفة لمعرفة صلاحية الكلية وهذا لن يتم إلا
بعد أسبوعين من ميلادها.
ترددت خديجة كثيراً في أخذ فاطمة لإجراء الفحص الشامل. قالت لي في يوم من
الأيام "قدر الله وما شاء فعل.. لا داعي لأن أرهق جسدها الضيئل بتلك
الفحوصات". ولكنها أخذت بالأسباب وقررت إجراء تلك الفحوصات.
وجاء اليوم الموعود وجلسنا في غرفة الانتظار نترقب خروج الطبيبة لتخبرنا عن
حالة الكلية الواحدة.. هل ستحتاج فاطمة إلى كلية "جديدة" أم أن كليتها
الواحدة ستقوم بعمل الكليتين؟؟!!
وخرجت الطبيبة وعلى وجهها ابتسامة باهتة.. توجهت إلينا وقالت "لا أدري ماذا
أقول ولا اعرف ماذا حدث!! لكن ابنتك بصحة جيدة وبكليتين!!"
أتهزأ بالدعاء وتزدريه وما تدري بما صنع الدعاء!!
ما أجمل أثر الدعــاء وما أرحـــــــــم الله بخلقه!!
Kannywood actress Fatima Yola on a Kano film set, shooting a scene for the movie Ankon Biki [Femke van Zeijl/Al Jazeera] Kano, Nigeria -
Fatima is sitting on the queen-size bed next to a young man in a baban
riga robe. They are involved in a lively conversation in Hausa. The
bedroom can hardly contain the film crew; the cameraman, sound engineer
and director stand squeezed in between the bed and the vanity table. The
spotlight pointed at the talking couple adds to the oppressive
afternoon heat, but the actress does not break into a sweat.
At the age of 22, Fatima Yola (her stage name) has played in tens of
movies and is used to the hardships of filmmaking. She also knows the
bounds of what is permitted on screen: Even though according to the
script the couple are married, the actress keeps her distance from her
onscreen husband and carefully avoids touching him.
Kannywood movies are big sellers in Kano traffic [Femke van Zeijl/Al Jazeera]
Movies in Hausa, the language of the largest ethnic group in northern
Nigeria and the lingua franca in that region, are extremely popular in
the predominantly Muslim north. In traffic, the DVDs with their
candy-coloured covers are big sellers, and it is not uncommon to see a
film crew shooting scenes in the streets of Kano, the largest city in
the north.
This
film industry has been coined Kannywood, after the city it originated
in. According to statistics from the National Film and Video Censors
Board, its movies make up about 30 percent of the films produced by the
Nigerian-based film industry popularly called Nollywood, which is often
portrayed as the third-largest in the world, after Hollywood and
Bollywood. Kannywood even has its own TV channel, Africa Magic Hausa,
showing Hausa-language movies on satellite TV.
Mishmash
On a recent Sunday afternoon on Africa Magic Hausa, the first movie,
Ladiba, saw the lead character, after whom the film is named, get her
daughter's rapist and murderer put behind bars, even though he is the
son of a "big man" politician. In one emotional flashback, the mother
remembers how perfectly her little girl used to recite verses of the
Quran.
The second film features a father who realises his daughter is too
precious to marry off to an old chief in the village and decides to put
her through school instead. And in the third movie, so enigmatically
subtitled that a non-Hausa speaker can only but guess the storyline, the
actors occasionally burst into song, accompanied by background dancers
in glitzy costumes.
Kannywood treats the viewer to a mishmash of cultural influences.
Before the local film industry came into existence in the 1990s,
northerners watched Hindi language films from India. The glamour of the
Bollywood musicals has rubbed off on the Hausa movies, some of
which feature singing and dancing.
Their tone is devoutly Muslim, though, and quite often the very last
line of the end credits is "Glory be to God". Many of these movies also
denounce the hypocrisy of the ruling classes who preach piousness in
public while sinning in private.
Hausa movie plots are often based on soyayya novels, popular local
romance novels mainly written and read by women. The love stories -
soyayya means love - evolve around relationships and marriage.
They don't shy away from the problems women face in everyday life,
such as forced marriage, sexual molestation, the lack of female
education, and domestic violence - matters this society is not
accustomed to discussing openly.
It is hardly surprising that women, who for the first time see their
own experiences reflected in the public domain, form a significant part
of Kannywood's audience. They also play a considerable role in the
industry itself. According to the Motion Pictures Practitioners
Association of Nigeria, 75 percent of the Hausa movie actors are female,
as is the case for two-thirds of the association's members - from
singers and producers to actors and make-up artists.
These women have one thing in common: they all have to juggle their
professional life and their reputation as women in a traditional Islamic
society, albeit one that is changing as more and more women begin
claiming public space. Parental approval
Fatima Yola has just rounded up the bedroom scene in her movie, which
is called Ankon Biki, after the clothes that wedding guests wear. The
young actress recently moved to Kano to be in the hub of the film
business. She does not live with her parents any more, which is unusual
for an unmarried young woman in these parts.
In the past, most Hausa parents did not support their daughters
pursuing a film career, and many of the young unmarried women who
started acting had run away from home - sometimes to escape a forced
marriage.
Kannywood actress Halima Ahmed says her parents support her acting career [Femke van Zeijl/Al Jazeera]
T
hese days, however, parents are more supportive, says Halima Ahmed,
the ingenue in Ankon Biki. She lives in her parental house in Kaduna, a
city south of Kano, and says her parents approve of her acting career.
"We
like watching movies at home. Now, they even call me when they've seen a
trailer that I'm in," she says. "Since my mother approves, I don't care
what anyone else says."
The 20-year-old has appeared in about five films, starting as a
supporting actress and working her way up. That is why she is not too
demanding when it comes to pay, as she explains in between shooting
scenes: "I am still building my career, so I take what they offer."
She started acting after she finished Tafawa Balewa Girls Secondary
School in her hometown, but hopes eventually to enrol in university. "I
want to read law. I am saving what I make with acting for my school
fees," she says. Then the director calls her name and she rushes back on
to the set.
Fatima Yola has just finished filming - scenes are rarely shot more
than once - and comes out of the house to get some fresh air. When asked
about her ambitions, she doesn't mention university. Fatima's goal is
to get married.
Will she still act after her wedding day? "Of course not. You cannot
combine a man and a film career," she says. "Our culture does not
support that. If my husband would allow me to keep on filming, it would
mean he wouldn't love me. I'd rather stay at home."
As an unwritten rule, women stop acting once they marry. Elderly
actresses, therefore, are hard to come by, and the talented ones are in
high demand. They turn up in every other Kannywood movie. One of these
well-known faces is Hadiza Mohammed, who plays the mother of the leading
actress in Ankon Biki. Elderly characters
Hadiza Mohammed is in her 40s, and only plays elderly characters:
mothers, widows, aunts and older sisters. These roles often surpass her
age, but she has mastered the art of acting old: once the cameras roll,
her voice cracks, her eyelids droop, and she dawdles like an elderly
senescent person.
While the crew is preparing the next location off Zoo Road, the
street where most of Kano's film-related businesses are located, she has
some time to talk.
Hadiza Mohammed is not married and still lives with her parents. The
actress can afford to live on her own, she says, but as a single woman,
she gets more respect under her father's roof. When she started
acting 15 years ago, neighbours and family members tried to persuade her
mother to order her to give it up, but she never forced her daughter to
do so. "She said, 'I raised you well. Why would you misbehave?'"
The general perception in society has changed since then, and she
feels that actors are cast in a better light. "Everyone watches movies
nowadays. Kannywood stars are invited to the UK and the US and big
companies organise award ceremonies for us."
The fact that she
makes a good living, drives her own car and takes care of her parents
adds to the respect. "Now, people rush to me when they need help because
they think I'm rich," she says with a smirk.
Also, the Kano-based film industry is providing jobs and business to
the city, something that went a long way towards improving public
opinion of the profession. It helps that major mobile providers such as
Glo and MTN have contracted Kannywood stars as their brand ambassadors
in multimillion-naira deals.
But that does not mean that Hausa movies are entirely
uncontroversial. In fact, not more than 10 years ago, a moralistic
backlash triggered by a sex scandal almost destroyed the local film
industry. As is often the case in public fights about morality, the
female body was the battleground. Blue movie
In August 2007, a video taken privately on a mobile phone was leaked
online. It showed popular Hausa actress Maryam Hiyana having sex with
her boyfriend. The video immediately went viral, and the whole of Kano
began talking about it as the first Hausa "blue movie". The Kano State
Censorship Board (KSCB) hit back with a vengeance.
The Censorship Board came into existence before the scandal in 2001,
and is a combined initiative of the local film industry and the state
government. It was a response to the adoption of Islamic law in Kano a
year earlier.
Under the law, filmmaking was under threat of being abolished
altogether. In order to avoid that, Kannywood voluntarily subjected
itself to stricter censorship.
This
compromise worked relatively well, until the Hiyana scandal broke out
and a new KSCB executive secretary took it upon himself to "sanitise"
Kannywood.
He announced stricter guidelines, such as the banning of married
women from acting, while also requiring all women in the industry to
have a male guardian who would be legally responsible if their ward
broke the rules.
Nigeria-based researcher Carmen McCain, who has extensively studied
Hausa films in Kano, describes in an article about that era how the
local censorship crisis drove filmmakers out of the state, as thousands
of people in the industry were arrested, fined and sometimes jailed.
DVDs for the Kano market have to pass through the Kano State Censorship Board [Femke van Zeijl/Al Jazeera]
She also describes how the public did not quite share the
indignation: Maryam Hiyana became an unexpected champion among young
people who disliked how she was being victimised. Until today, some cars
in Kano feature faded stickers bearing Hiyana's face.
The overly zealous KSCB executive lost his moral authority when the
police caught him in a compromising situation with a young girl in his
car, and Kannywood celebrated when, in 2011, the newly elected governor
appointed a new head of the Censorship Board. Preserving Hausa culture
"That's all in the past. Things have gone back to normal now," says
Isma'el Muhammad Na Abba about the 2007-2011 Kannywood crackdown. He is
the current executive secretary of the KSCB, and used to be a filmmaker
himself. He describes the task of the board as "preserving Hausa
culture".
What does that entail exactly? "We don't like to see body contact
between men and women. No handshaking, let alone kissing," he says. "And
no nudity or transparent dresses." The general secretary explains how
things such as prostitution, lesbianism and adultery may be portrayed,
as long as it is clear to the audience that they are unacceptable. Song
and dance are permissible, as long as there is no physical contact
between the sexes.
Films are reviewed several times before they make it to the marketplace [Femke van Zeijl/Al Jazeera]
The films are reviewed several times before they make it to the Kano
market. Everything - from the script, the rough draft to the final cut
and the DVD cover - needs the approval of the board, and if there are
any issues, the director will be asked to change a line, a scene or a
too-revealing cover picture.
The secretary-general defines the average of two or three corrections
per film the board requires as minimal interference. Furthermore, he
argues, since he took charge five months ago, not a single movie has
been rejected, proving the industry and the board are no longer on a
collision course. "Filmmakers themselves understand they have a task to
educate people and cannot go against society," he says. Empowering messages
Censorship or not, Kannywood movies do transmit empowering messages
to a female audience. That is the opinion of sociologist Fatima Adamu of
the Usmanu Danfodiyo University in Sokoto, northwest of Kano. She
observes how storylines are "testing the waters" to see how far they can
"push society's boundaries".
She takes as an example a film in which a woman resists her husband's
wish to bring in another wife. The liberating message here, says the
sociologist, is that resistance is possible in a society where women are
often expected to accept a husband's decision. "They say, 'Yes, you can
fight,'" she says.
Actresses openly showing their beauty also is
emancipating in a society where female beauty is supposed to be hidden,
she adds. "It shows women: Your body is yours alone, and you can do
with it what you want."
Adamu
doesn't feel that the occasional retaliations against Kannywood are
supported by the audience. "It's the masses who watch Kannywood movies,
not the elite. The general public is more ready for social change than
political and religious leaders."
Women in the business, however, still encounter many gender-related
impediments. In spite of the high number of actresses, female producers
are rare, let alone female directors. Married women who take up
directing often find the limits of married life challenging. Just as an
example: A leading female executive producer declined to be interviewed
because her husband wouldn't approve.
Producer Umma Ali says she finds it hard to get funding for her films [Femke van Zeijl/Al Jazeera]
Even
57-year-old producer Umma Ali had to sneak out of her house for the
interview. When she started filming 18 years ago, she says, men couldn't
cope with a woman being in charge. Until now, most female producers
work with a male assistant to get things done on the ground.
Getting funding to shoot a film is their biggest obstacle. Ali has
several movie ideas but has not been able to produce any for years
because she lacks the money, and the old-boy network of investors and
grant providers is beyond her reach. "You have to know someone in the
right position to help you. And most women don't," she says.
The producer does feel that she and her female colleagues have made a
difference in Kannywood, though. "Our films address different issues
from the movies men make. Men used to dismiss problems like domestic
violence. We put that on the map."
And, she says, film crews are very happy to work under a female
producer. "We treat our people better. Male producers sometimes do not
even provide lunch for their crew. That's why actors beg me to be cast
in my movies. They know they will eat good food." WATCH: Welcome to Nollywood
