Sunday February 3, 2008
Fishy therapy
By SANDRA LOW


It is the first of its kind to open up in Malaysia and worldwide. It promises a spa experience like no other with a bit of tickle thrown in. Fish, anyone?

WHEN the elegant Pavilion in Kuala Lumpur newly opened its doors to the public, I came across a banner advertising the availability of a “Fish Spa” on Level 5 and wondered whether it was a spa for humans or one meant for your pet fish.

It was definitely worth checking out so I popped into the Spa and the friendly receptionist explained that the Fish Spa offers half hour sessions for adults and children, and she quickly reassured that the fishes in the tanks were toothless!
Soak in the ambience of Kenko Spa and leave the exfoliating to the fish.

Evelyn Leong, the business development manager for Kenko Reflexology & Fish Spa at the Pavilion proudly announces that not only is this the first time in Malaysia that a Fish Spa is built in a shopping mall, but that it is also a first in the world.

Leong explained that the Singaporean founder of Kenko Reflexology & Fish Spa, Dr Jimi Tan, a practitioner of Chinese and American techniques of reflexology, set up this business with the aim of providing wellness for customers, rather than the traditional tagline of pampering.

“The fishes are called Garra Rufa and they originated from a hot spring near Kangal in Turkey where they were first discovered for their healing power. They are also called ‘Doctor Fish’ as these fishes help in easing the symptoms of those suffering from skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema. They actually nibble away your scaly and dead skin, leaving your skin smooth and glowing,” says Leong.

She adds that they only eat dead skin so the fishes will leave your healthy skin alone. Leong says that children, who have young skin, seldom attract a large school of fish while adults with more dead skin are more attractive to the Garra Rufas.

Since this Fish Spa in a shopping mall is the first such concept in the world, Leong says that they sought the expertise of Aquaria KLCC in setting up the tanks. They also come in regularly to check on the health and well-being of the Garra Rufas. These hardy fishes from the carp family can survive in temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius but the spa maintains a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius for the comfort of customers.

Leong says: “These fishes are basically our employees and we want to ensure that they are well taken care of, so they are fed with red worms and spirulina daily to maintain their diet and health.”

Leong ushered me in to start off with their signature treatment, a 45-minute Kenko reflexology plus a shoulder massage and then to a 30-minute fish spa experience. As I am seated in a cozy chair, Ming, my reflexologist, filled a sunken ceramic bowl, at the feet of the chair, with warm water to cleanse and soak my feet for several minutes.

A sheer curtain separates each chair. As I sit comfortably propped, sounds of birds chirping, water flowing and the tinkling of the piano are heard throughout the reflexology session. It was a good try at attempting to create a zen-like and relaxing ambiance, but I felt that having three separate auditory effects simultaneously was trying just a little too hard.

Having traipsed all over town to try out various reflexology centres and finding most places offering a similar technique, I was eager to see how different the Kenko reflexology technique would be.

Ming started by applying pressure on various parts of my toes and each contact was made with an intense rubbing motion, emulating a jerky caterpillar movement. This approach was repeated on the sole, side and top of my foot right up until my knee. The massage technique was surprisingly different and painful but bearable, at times!

The unique thing about the technique employed here is the fact that no oil is used and only powder applied from a pepper shaker! After having both my feet kneaded, I headed to another area where I was seated on a specially designed chair for the shoulder and back massage.

Seated facing the floor in a 45 degree angle with my head peeking through a hole, Ming proceeded with the shoulder and back massage, applying strong pressure with his hands and elbows. It was the pummelling that I needed to realign a mass of knotted muscles, and it was one of the better shoulder and back massages I have experienced, although it was over too soon.

I was then ushered to a washing area to cleanse my feet before entering the Fish Spa. As I scouted for my spot, I noticed that some areas of the fish tank were filled with fishes that were about five cm in length while there were other areas with fishes that were smaller, about two cm long resembling harmless “anchovies”. I was pretty sure that they looked much smaller from the reception, and decided to go with the harmless “anchovies”.

As I sat on a cushion and dangled my legs into the tank, a large school of grayish brown Garra Rufas swarmed my legs. For a moment, I felt a slight panic as mental pictures of piranhas in a feeding frenzy caught on, and immediately lifted both my legs out of the water. I seriously wondered how I would entertain 30-minutes of anxiety.

There was no way that I was returning to the office to tell my editor that I was afraid of a tiny anchovy-like fish and braced myself for another attempt. This time I decided not to look into the water and submerged my legs gently.

Within seconds the feast began. The more than enthusiastic Garra Rufas starting pecking at my skin and it felt incredibly ticklish and squeamish at the same time. It wasn’t painful but because of the repeated pecking, the larger fishes obviously applied more pressure to the skin and it felt more intense. The fact that they are toothless does provide a degree of comfort.

My 30-minute Fish Spa included a routine of lifting legs out of water repeatedly, and I noticed the other clients doing the same amidst squeals of laughter and controlled giggles.

After about 15 minutes I started to get the hang of these Garra Rufas feeding off my legs but it certainly wasn’t a stress-reducing experience, especially for a first-timer. Having said this, I would return for another experience, simply because it is such a bizarre and amusing way to have my legs exfoliated.

Clear and clean
How clean is the water in the Fish Spa?

The water in the tanks are changed once a day, and every hour 10% of the water is pumped out while fresh water is pumped in.

How is the water treated?

The water is treated with 2000W Ultra Violet Sterilization to kill virus and bacteria, an ozone treatment is administered to break any urea, blood, sweat, etc. back into oxygen and natural water form, and a sand filter acts to sift out big particles like fish food, fish waste, etc.

Is psoriasis infectious and are customers with psoriasis allowed to do their treatment in the Fish Spa?

Psoriasis is not infectious. However, for the comfort of all customers, there is a special treatment tank separated from the public, specifically for the privacy of psoriasis patients.

Are children allowed in the Fish Spa?

As long as they are accompanied by an adult. Children below 12 years of age pay half while there is no charge for children below 4 years of age.

How often should one repeat the Fish Spa treatment for effective results?

Preferably twice a week, with each session lasting a minimum of 30 minutes but not more than an hour.

# Kenko Reflexology & Fish Spa is located at Level 5, Pavilion, Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. Operating hours are between 10am and 10pm daily. The Fish Spa therapy is priced at RM38 for 30 minutes while foot, hand and shoulder massages are priced between RM22 and RM149. Membership packages and corporate gift vouchers are also available.

I did this today!!

Malay sunset

As the sun set on what I can describe as one of the rainiest days ever, the horizon appeared a gold/pink colour...it was absolutely breath-taking...

Dragon Fruit!

So H and I have moved to Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur to be precise. I can't begin to describe how excited I am...but at the same time I'm freaking out.
Yesterday I ate a purple fruit, it's the same colour as a beet root, had an incredibly odd taste.


There are other dragon fruit with a white inside, dotted with black seeds.

Muslim Home Schooling

The NY times posted an article about Home Schooled Muslim children, and I honestly thought it was horrible! I think it was very limited to South East Asian children...married off to villagers? huh? Sent off as soon as they hit adolescence? I think there is a very limited group of 'Muslims' who actually do this. And since when was home schooling seen as something out of the ordinary, the system of actual schooling is less than 200 years old and is in fact quite an experiment- don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-schooling, it's just seen so many failures, as regards a child's mental, spiritual and social flowering...Anyhow here here is the article...

AUC and the Niqabi!

Egypt court rules against US university on face veil

Published Date: June 10, 2007

CAIRO: An Egyptian court ruled yesterday that a US-accredited university in Cairo was wrong to bar a female scholar who wears an Islamic face veil from using its facilities, court sources and a lawyer for the woman said. The American University in Cairo, seen as a bastion of Western liberal education in Egypt, had revoked the woman's longstanding library privileges after she donned the niqab, a face veil that leaves only the wearer's eyes uncovered. In its ruling, a special chamber of the High Administrative Court upheld a 2001 court ruling that the school could not bar Iman Al-Zainy from its campus over the niqab because her decision to veil was a matter of personal and religious freedom. Hossam Bahgat, a human rights lawyer who was part of Zainy's legal team, described the ruling as a precedent-setting victory for "women's autonomy over their body and dress code".

"The court said in the strongest of terms that it is up to women to decide about their clothing, and that women should not be discriminated against because of the clothes that they choose to wear," he told Reuters. "A complete ban on the niqab is now outlawed as a matter of principle." The American University in Cairo said it was consulting with lawyers following the decision, but that some of the principles mentioned by the court appeared to support its position.

Court sources said yesterday's ruling does allow the university some leeway in placing restrictions on the niqab due to public necessity. Female students, for example, could be required to reveal their faces at the university gate to a designated male security guard or female staff. In 2001, Zainy was a doctoral student of English at Egypt's religious Al-Azhar University but had for over a decade held privileges at the American University in Cairo library. Bahgat said Zainy, who has since obtained her PhD and was pursuing the case out of principle, did not object to revealing her face at the campus gate for security reasons.

Security concerns

The American University in Cairo, whose downtown campus is a prominent central Cairo landmark, said that while it recognized the need to respect the religious values of students, it had barred the niqab due to safety concerns. Egyptian authorities have feared that Islamic militant groups that fought a 1992-1997 campaign to topple the government could use the niqab as a disguise.

The American University in Cairo has been seen as a potential target for Islamic militant groups, and students and faculty must already pass through a metal detector and show identification cards to guards to gain access. "The policy prohibiting face veiling was established by the university because all members of the AUC community have a basic right to know with whom they are dealing, whether in class, labs or anywhere else on campus. It is not a religious issue," the university said in a statement after the ruling.

The university said the court verdict was not the final word in the case. Court sources and Bahgat said the decision, by a special chamber of the court's most senior judges that is tasked with unifying conflicting legal rulings, could not be appealed. While the niqab is banned at the university, students are allowed to wear the more common Islamic headscarf, the hijab, which covers a woman's hair but leaves her face visible. Many Muslim women see the veil as a sign of piety and morality. Students at Egyptian state universities are generally allowed to wear the niqab, although they have sometimes faced resistance by university administrations. - Reuters

For some countries, America's popular culture is resistible

For some countries, America's popular culture is resistible
By Tyler Cowen
Thursday, February 22, 2007

American movies and music have done very well in some countries, like Sweden, and less well in others, like India. This may sound like a simple difference in human tastes, but choices about culture also have an economic aspect.

Loyalties to cultural goods and services — be it heavy metal music or the opera — are about social networking and choosing an identity and an aspiration. That is, we use culture to connect with other people and to define ourselves; both are, to some extent, economic decisions. The continuing and indeed growing relevance of local economic connections suggests that "cultural imperialism" will not prove to be the dominant trend.

Local culture commands loyalty when people are involved in networks of status and caste, and they pursue religious and communal markers of identity. Those individuals use local cultural products to signal their place in hierarchies.

An Indian Muslim might listen to religious Qawwali music to set himself apart from local Hindus, or a native of Calcutta might favor songs from Bengali cinema. The Indian music market is 96 percent domestic in origin, in part because India is such a large and multifaceted society. Omar Lizardo, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame, explains this logic in his recent paper "Globalization and Culture: A Sociological Perspective."

Today, economic growth is booming in countries where American popular culture does not dominate, namely India and China. Population growth is strong in many Islamic countries, which typically prefer local music and get their news from sources like the satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera.

The combination of these trends means that American entertainment, for largely economic reasons, will lose relative standing in the global marketplace. In fact, Western culture often creates its own rivals by bringing creative technologies like the recording studio or the printing press to foreign lands.

American popular culture tends to be popular when people interact with others from around the world and seek markers of global identity.

My stepdaughter spent last summer studying French in Nice, with students from many other countries. They ate and hung out at McDonald's, a name and symbol they all share, even though it was not everyone's favorite meal.





Globalization is most likely to damage local culture in regions like Scandinavia that are lightly populated, not very hierarchical and looking for new global cultural symbols. But the rest of the world's population is in countries — China and India, of course, but also Brazil, Mexico, Egypt and Indonesia — that do not fit that description.

"American" cultural products rely increasingly on non-American talent and international symbols and settings. "Babel," which won this year's Golden Globe award for best drama, has a Mexican director and is set in Morocco, Japan and Mexico, mostly with non-English dialogue.

Hollywood movies are popular in Europe in part because of the successes of European welfare states and of European economic integration.

Western Europe has become more egalitarian in its treatment of citizens, it has moved away from an aristocratic class society, and it has strong global connections. All those factors favor an interest in American and global popular culture; Hollywood movies often capture 70 percent or more of a typical European cinematic market. Social democracy, which the Europeans often hold up in opposition to the American model, in fact aided this cultural invasion by making Europe more egalitarian.

Many smaller countries have been less welcoming of cultural imports. It is common in Central America for domestically produced music to command as much as 70 percent of market share. In Ghana, domestic music has captured 71 percent of the market, according to Unesco figures.

Critics of cultural imperialism charge that rich cultures dominate poor ones. But the data supplied by Lizardo show that the poorer a country, the more likely it is to buy and listen to its own domestic music. This makes sense given that music is a form of social networking and the relevant networks are primarily local.

That said, the poorest countries don't produce many of the films they watch. Making a movie costs much more than cutting an album. So as the world becomes richer, the relative market share of Hollywood movies will probably fall more than the relative market share of American popular music.

Furthermore, moviegoers are starting to look to Bollywood films, or other Asian productions, rather than Hollywood, for their markers of global identity.

The complaint of cultural imperialism is looking increasingly implausible. As I argued in "Creative Destruction: How Globalization Is Changing the World's Cultures," the funk of James Brown helped shape the music of West Africa; Indian authors draw upon Charles Dickens; and Arabic pop is centered in France and Belgium.

Western cultural exports are as likely to refresh foreign art forms as to destroy them. Western technologies — from the metal carving knife to acrylic paint to digital filmmaking — have spurred creativity worldwide.

Culture is not a zero-sum game, so the greater reach of one culture does not necessarily mean diminished stature for others. In the broad sweep of history, many traditions have grown together and flourished.

American popular culture will continue to make money, but the 21st century will bring a broad melange of influences, with no clear world cultural leader.

Tyler Cowen is a professor of economics at George Mason University and co- author of a blog at www.marginalrevolution.com.

Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 Misinterpreted

http://www.laweekly.com/news/news/ray-bradbury-fahrenheit-451-misinterpreted/16524/

Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 Misinterpreted
L.A.’s august Pulitzer honoree says it was never about censorship

By AMY E. BOYLE JOHNSTON
Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - 7:00 pm

Bradbury still has a lot to say, especially about how people do not understand his most literary work, Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953. It is widely taught in junior high and high schools and is for many students the first time they learn the names Aristotle, Dickens and Tolstoy.

Now, Bradbury has decided to make news about the writing of his iconographic work and what he really meant. Fahrenheit 451 is not, he says firmly, a story about government censorship. Nor was it a response to Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose investigations had already instilled fear and stifled the creativity of thousands.

This, despite the fact that reviews, critiques and essays over the decades say that is precisely what it is all about. Even Bradbury’s authorized biographer, Sam Weller, in The Bradbury Chronicles, refers to Fahrenheit 451 as a book about censorship.

Bradbury, a man living in the creative and industrial center of reality TV and one-hour dramas, says it is, in fact, a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature.

“Television gives you the dates of Napoleon, but not who he was,” Bradbury says, summarizing TV’s content with a single word that he spits out as an epithet: “factoids.” He says this while sitting in a room dominated by a gigantic flat-panel television broadcasting the Fox News Channel, muted, factoids crawling across the bottom of the screen.

His fear in 1953 that television would kill books has, he says, been partially confirmed by television’s effect on substance in the news. The front page of that day’s L.A. Times reported on the weekend box-office receipts for the third in the Spider-Man series of movies, seeming to prove his point.

“Useless,” Bradbury says. “They stuff you with so much useless information, you feel full.” He bristles when others tell him what his stories mean, and once walked out of a class at UCLA where students insisted his book was about government censorship. He’s now bucking the widespread conventional wisdom with a video clip on his Web site (http://www.raybradbury.com/at_home_clips.html), titled “Bradbury on censorship/television.”

As early as 1951, Bradbury presaged his fears about TV, in a letter about the dangers of radio, written to fantasy and science-fiction writer Richard Matheson. Bradbury wrote that “Radio has contributed to our ‘growing lack of attention.’... This sort of hopscotching existence makes it almost impossible for people, myself included, to sit down and get into a novel again. We have become a short story reading people, or, worse than that, a QUICK reading people.”


He says the culprit in Fahrenheit 451 is not the state — it is the people. Unlike Orwell’s 1984, in which the government uses television screens to indoctrinate citizens, Bradbury envisioned television as an opiate. In the book, Bradbury refers to televisions as “walls” and its actors as “family,” a truth evident to anyone who has heard a recap of network shows in which a fan refers to the characters by first name, as if they were relatives or friends.

The book’s story centers on Guy Montag, a California fireman who begins to question why he burns books for a living. Montag eventually rejects his authoritarian culture to join a community of individuals who memorize entire books so they will endure until society once again is willing to read.

Bradbury imagined a democratic society whose diverse population turns against books: Whites reject Uncle Tom’s Cabin and blacks disapprove of Little Black Sambo. He imagined not just political correctness, but a society so diverse that all groups were “minorities.” He wrote that at first they condensed the books, stripping out more and more offending passages until ultimately all that remained were footnotes, which hardly anyone read. Only after people stopped reading did the state employ firemen to burn books.



Most Americans did not have televisions when Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451, and those who did watched 7-inch screens in black and white. Interestingly, his book imagined a future of giant color sets — flat panels that hung on walls like moving paintings. And television was used to broadcast meaningless drivel to divert attention, and thought, away from an impending war.

Bradbury’s latest revelations might not sit well in L.A.’s television industry, where Scott Kaufer, a longtime television writer and producer, argues, “Television is good for books and has gotten more people to read them simply by promoting them,” via shows like This Week and Nightline.

Kaufer says he hopes Bradbury “will be good enough in hindsight to see that instead of killing off literature, [TV] has given it an entire boost.” He points to the success of fantasy author Stephen King in television and film, noting that when Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451, another unfounded fear was also taking hold — that television would destroy the film industry.

And in fact, Bradbury became famous because his stories were translated for television, beginning in 1951 for the show Out There. Eventually he had his own program, The Ray Bradbury Theater, on HBO.


Bradbury spends most of his time now in a small space on the second floor of his home that contains books and mementos. There is his Emmy from The Halloween Tree, an Oscar that belonged to a friend who died, a sculpture of a dinosaur and various Halloween decorations. Bradbury, before a stroke left him in a wheelchair, typed in the basement, which is filled with stuffed animals, toys, fireman hats and bottles of dandelion wine. He referred to these props as “metaphors,” totems he drew on to spark his imagination and drive away the demons of the blank page.

Beginning in Arizona when his parents bought him a toy typewriter, Bradbury has written a short story a week since the 1930s. Now he dictates his tales over the phone, each weekday between 9 a.m. and noon, to his daughter Alexandria.

Bradbury has always been a fan, and advocate, of popular culture despite his criticisms of it. Yet he harbors a distrust of “intellectuals.” Without defining the term, he says another reason why he rarely leaves L.A. to travel to New York is “their intellectuals.”

Dana Gioia, a poet who is chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, and who wrote a letter in support of granting Bradbury a Pulitzer honor, compared him to J.D. Salinger, Jack London and Edgar Allan Poe. Another supporter wrote that Bradbury’s works “have become the sort of classics that kids read for fun and adults reread for their wisdom and artistry.”

In June, Gauntlet Press will release Match to Flame, a collection of 20 short stories by Bradbury that led up to Fahrenheit 451. Pointing to his unpublished proofreading version of the upcoming collection, Bradbury says that rereading his stories made him cry. “It’s hard to believe I wrote such stories when I was younger,” he says.

His book still stands as a classic. But one of L.A.’s best-known residents wants it understood that when he wrote it he was far more concerned with the dulling effects of TV on people than he was on the silencing effect of a heavy-handed government. While television has in fact superseded reading for some, at least we can be grateful that firemen still put out fires instead of start them.

BushMonkey and the World Bank...AGAIN!?

What I don't get, is the same monkey who appointed Wolfowitz (or as we say in the Arab world, WolfoZIFT) is once again being asked to appoint the head of the World Bank...since when did the World's richest country get a say in who rins the WB, and why in the World does it have to be an American?? Explination??





Bush to nominate Zoellick as World Bank president

End Britain’s arms trade with Israel

Dear Prime Minister,



We are horrified at the abduction last week of 33 Palestinians, including the Minister of Education and other elected representatives by the Israeli army in yet another stunning violation of international law. South Africa’s Intelligence Minister, Ronnie Kasrils, has said it was “disgraceful for a government that projects itself as democratic to behave this way”.



Every day brings more death and destruction to the Palestinian people as Israel bombards a captive population. At least 30 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks over the past week. Meanwhile the world has imposed sanctions on the Palestinians for voting in fair and democratic elections for a leadership disapproved of by the US, British and Israeli governments. Israel and its allies are deliberately creating a political and humanitarian crisis.



The evidence of the economic and humanitarian plight of the Palestinians is overwhelming with recent reports from Oxfam, UNWRA and the World Bank setting down the devastating effects of Israel’s occupation and expansionist policies and the economic siege imposed by Israel with the support of the US, EU and Britain.



This tightening of the noose on the Palestinians is succeeding in heightening internal tensions, particularly in Gaza, but while Israel and the US may see this development as helping to achieve submission to their objectives, it is a highly dangerous strategy.

The Israeli government is not only using the current Palestinian internal turmoil but is fuelling it. Israel’s current actions are focused on fostering a civil war with the press openly discussing the ‘battle between Hamas and Fatah’. The unity government is being boycotted. The Arab League initiative for peace, based on UN resolutions, is ignored while Israel looks at an ‘alternative response’. And while the US pours in arms to President Abbas, Israel ‘allows’ extensive training of the President’s forces.

We deplore Britain’s support for this blockade which is causing severe hunger and impoverishment and has helped Gaza become an open-air prison, with its 1.4 million residents unable to leave and their lives controlled by the Israeli army.



We call on you to help achieve justice and peace by initiating changes to British policy:

· end Britain’s support for the siege on the Palestinians

· demand the release of elected representatives

· recognise the democratically elected Palestinian government

· press for EU sanctions on Israel until the illegal occupation ends

· end Britain’s arms trade with Israel.


Yours sincerely,

Betty Hunter, General Secretary, Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Mohammad Sawalha, British Muslim Initiative

Dr Hafiz Al Karmi, Palestinan Forum in Britain

Ismail Patel, Friends of Al Aqsa

Mohamed Abdul Bari, Muslim Council of Britain

There are madrassas in the UK? Huh?

IHT: Government-backed program to teach British citizenship lessons in
madrassasUK Government
Tuesday, 22 May 2007
The Associated Press

LONDON: Britain is funding a curriculum aimed at teaching Muslim children in
madrassas how to steer clear of extremism, but some of the lessons are
raising eyebrows among Muslim educators.

One lesson plan goes something like this: A group of Islamic extremists want
to buy fertilizer that could be used to make a bomb. Should the shop keeper
sell it to them, even if she suspects it will be used for "holy war?" Or
take Ahmad, whose jihadi friends want to attack a local supermarket in
retaliation for the war in Iraq. Is it right for Ahmad to harm innocent
Britons just because their government invaded a Muslim country?

The curriculum's answer in both cases is no, but the fact that these
scenarios are being considered at all has prompted concern among Muslim
educators, who question whether they are appropriate for young students.

Some also feel insulted that the program appears to make the assumption that
madrassas - or Muslim religious schools - are teeming with budding
terrorists.
"In an educational setting, those propositions are a bit stark," said Tahir
Alam, chair of the Muslim Council of Britain's education committee. Today in
Europe Britain accuses Russian in murder of Litvinenko Bulgarian relics
spark an international scuffle Bomb kills 5 in Turkish capital; dozens
wounded

The British government acknowledged that the curriculum raised sensitive
issues, but said they were needed to give Muslims the practical skills they
needed to reject extremism.

"The project ensures that young Muslim students learn the true teachings of
Islam," said a spokeswoman for the Department of Communities and Local
Government, while speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government
policy.

"There will be difficult issues and scenarios to discuss - but it would be
wrong to shy away from them," she said.

Ten Muslim clerics have been teaching the lessons in six madrassas and a
school in Bradford - a religiously diverse city about 200 miles (320
kilometers) north of London. About 500 students have already completed the
course, versions of which the communities department hopes to roll out
nationally.

The project, called "Nasiha," or "guidance," draws on the Quran, Shariah
law, and traditional Muslim scholarship to show that British laws are in
harmony with Islamic values. Its lessons will be taught in madrassas, which
in Britain are usually unregulated after-school programs based in mosques or
private homes.

The stated objective is to teach children, most between the ages of eight
and 14, "to realize that to harm or terrorize citizens in the UK is not
something permitted in Islam," and "to be able to identify individuals or
groups who preach hatred and learn ways of avoiding them."

While some of the lessons cover day-to-day situations such as bullying or
good manners, others are explicitly aimed at defusing Muslims anger over the
war in Iraq.

Teachers are asked to remind their students that some of their schoolmates
may be in the military, and that as a citizens "they should take an active
role for their safe return in what many may consider an unjust war."

A homework assignment asks students to list "some of the peaceful things you
can do to show you are not happy about your country going to war."

One counterterrorism expert had mixed feelings.

"One lesson from school is not going to change fundamental attitudes," said
Peter Neumann, the director of the Center for Defense Studies at King's
College, London. But as part of a broader strategy, he said, the lessons
could play a valuable role in getting Muslims to place more trust in the
British authorities.
"Whether (or not) that's the right way of approaching kids, in principle
it's not a bad idea to say: 'Actually, you can trust the authorities. If
there is someone talking about jihad, then police is the place you should go
to.'"

Sajid Hussain, the program's project manager, said the lessons needed to be
taught.

"They were issues young people definitely needed some direction on: For
example, whether young Muslims have a responsibility to prevent harm in
society when they know that older Muslims may plan something," he said.

The curriculum, which is due to be published as a book in December, was
still open to amendments, he said, acknowledging that some of the examples -
like the fertilizer store - were a little too explicit.

"Originally we thought it would be best to start looking at these issues a
little bit head-on," he said, "but we're dealing with the issues a little
more tactfully."

The Nasiha curriculum has received 100,000 pounds (US$197,522; €146,562) in
government money as part of a larger program intended to fight extremism in
the Muslim community.

Outside of the East London Mosque, one of the city's largest, opinion was
broadly favorable to the idea of lessons to counter extremism.
"The terrorists try to brainwash the young because they are vulnerable,"
said Asef Zia, 45. whose son, Muhammad, clutched at his shirt.

"Muslims are good people," Muhammad, 12, said. "But some bad people say they
are Muslims and act wrong and we can teach them."

There are some 100,000 madrassa students in Britain, according to the
communities department.

Myths of Muslim Terror Support

By Kenneth Ballen, Fri Feb 23, 3:00 AM ET

Those who think that Muslim countries and pro-terrorist attitudes go hand-in-hand might be shocked by new polling research: Americans are more approving of terrorist attacks against civilians than any major Muslim country except for Nigeria.

The survey, conducted in December 2006 by the University of Maryland’s prestigious Program on International Public Attitudes, shows that only 46 percent of Americans think that “bombing and other attacks intentionally aimed at civilians” are “never justified,” while 24 percent believe these attacks are “often or sometimes justified.”

Contrast those numbers with 2006 polling results from the world’s most-populous Muslim countries - Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. Terror Free Tomorrow, the organization I lead, found that 74 percent of respondents in Indonesia agreed that terrorist attacks are “never justified”; in Pakistan, that figure was 86 percent; in Bangladesh, 81 percent.

Do these findings mean that Americans are closet terrorist sympathizers?

Hardly. Yet, far too often, Americans and other Westerners seem willing to draw that conclusion about Muslims. Public opinion surveys in the United States and Europe show that nearly half of Westerners associate Islam with violence and Muslims with terrorists. Given the many radicals who commit violence in the name of Islam around the world, that’s an understandable polling result.

But these stereotypes, affirmed by simplistic media coverage and many radicals themselves, are not supported by the facts - and they are detrimental to the war on terror. When the West wrongly attributes radical views to all of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims, it perpetuates a myth that has the very real effect of marginalizing critical allies in the war on terror.

Indeed, the far-too-frequent stereotyping of Muslims serves only to reinforce the radical appeal of the small minority of Muslims who peddle hatred of the West and others as authentic religious practice.

Terror Free Tomorrow’s 20-plus surveys of Muslim countries in the past two years reveal another surprise: Even among the minority who indicated support for terrorist attacks and Osama bin Laden, most overwhelmingly approved of specific American actions in their own countries. For example, 71 percent of bin Laden supporters in Indonesia and 79 percent in Pakistan said they thought more favourably of the United States as a result of American humanitarian assistance in their countries - not exactly the profile of hard-core terrorist sympathizers. For most people, their professed support of terrorism/bin Laden can be more accurately characterized as a kind of “protest vote” against current US foreign policies, not as a deeply held religious conviction or even an inherently anti-American or anti-Western view.

In truth, the common enemy is violence and terrorism, not Muslims any more than Christians or Jews. Whether recruits to violent causes join gangs in Los Angeles or terrorist cells in Lahore, the enemy is the violence they exalt.

Our surveys show that not only do Muslims reject terrorism as much if not more than Americans, but even those who are sympathetic to radical ideology can be won over by positive American actions that promote goodwill and offer real hope.

America’s goal, in partnership with Muslim public opinion, should be to defeat terrorists by isolating them from their own societies. The most effective policies to achieve that goal are the ones that build on our common humanity. And we can start by recognizing that Muslims throughout the world want peace as much as Americans do.

* Kenneth Ballen is founder and president of Terror Free Tomorrow, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to finding effective policies that win popular support away from global terrorists.

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