US schools, publishers scrambling to explain Islam

WASHINGTON, Dec 18: The Sept 11 attacks on New York and Washington and the subsequent war in Afghanistan have generated an enormous amount of interest in Islam, and schools, publishers and the media are scrambling to meet the new demand.

The American Muslim Council this month sent to Government agencies about 10,000 copies of a full-color brochure explaining the basic tenets of Islam, which has over one billion believers worldwide and is the fastest-growing religion in the United States.

"On Sept. 12 and Sept. 13, the phone was just ringing and ringing nonstop," said Zulfiya Kadir, a spokeswoman for the group. "All kinds of people were looking for information or wanting to express their opinion. Most of them were supportive."

Kadir said she was stunned by the surge in interest in all things having to do with Islam, ranging from basic questions about the principles of the religion to detailed queries such as whether autopsies were permitted in Islam.

She said her organization was gratified by the huge amount of space and air time devoted by the mainstream US media in recent months to Islam and the 7 million muslims who live in the United States.

"Every day we can see news and programs about islam. I have never seen this before," she said. "Even one year ago, it was a challenge to find information about Islam. You had to search online for hours, but now it’s everywhere."

Scholastic Corp, a large children’s publishing and media company, responded quickly after the Sept 11 attacks and President George W Bush’s call to avoid discriminating against Muslim or Arab Americans.

The company, which reaches 25 million children in nearly every school across the United States, issued weekly magazines crammed full with information about the attacks, maps of Afghanistan and Muslims — all replete with calls for tolerance.

"We’ve gotten thousands upon thousands upon thousands of responses from teachers and also, obviously, students," said David Goddy, editor-in-chief of scholastic magazines.

"They’ve been asking for, and we’ve been providing, a large volume of material," he said.

Goddy said scholastic had been including Islam in its coverage of world religions for at least five years, driven partly by rising immigration to the United States from Muslim countries and growing openness by teachers.

"The difference is that ... Where people are ignorant, they admit their ignorance, that people are open to learning about ramadan and the holidays of other religions," Goddy said. "More and more across the country, they are doing more to teach children about all of the different religions and the holidays. I think it’s significantly more inclusive these days than it was even five or 10 years ago."

Scholastic, which publishes 30 magazines and a large web site (www.Scholastic.Com), covers the five major world religions —Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism — in its magazines and publications, Goddy said.

As well as providing basic information to students at all levels, scholastic has also raised concerns about civil liberties violations and discrimination against Arab and Muslim Americans.

The company also launched a new campaign this fall, entitled "keep the cool in school," which is aimed at curbing verbal abuse and violence in the nation’s schools.

The campaign, developed together with child trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry, emphasizes the skills children need to grow up to be health, caring individuals who value diversity, Goddy said.

The campaign grew out of the company’s concern about violence in schools and school shootings, but has proven useful this autumn as children struggled to cope with the Sept. 11 tragedy and the ensuing war. Goddy said the response had been "enormous" and "very, very positive."

Moira Megargee, publicist for interlink publishing, a small independent publisher based in Northampton, Massachusetts, cited huge demand for a translation of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, as well as historical books about the Middle East.

Even a volume of poetry by arab women was selling much better than before Sept. 11, Megargee said. "Our books are on display at the chains. We’re getting e-mails from friends all over the country, saying, ‘hey, I saw your book."

"We’re just seeing a greater interest in everything having to do with the Middle East," she said.

Mosques have hosted open houses to help educate their communities, while churches, schools and synagogues have invited Muslims from the community to come and speak there.

Jim Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, which has also provided information kits sent to teachers by the National Education Association, lauded bush for his leadership in preventing a greater backlash against Arab and Muslim americans.

"By near identical margins of 6 to 1, US opinion has a favorable attitude toward Arab Americans and American Muslims," zogby wrote in a recent column," he said.

Moreover, he said, 83 per cent of people polled in a recent survey said they were "concerned about the treatment of Arab Americans during this crisis" with 84 per cent similarly "concerned about the treatment of Muslim americans". (AGENCIES)

Desert fortress was Bin Laden son’s home: Neighbour

KANDAHAR (AFGHANISTAN), Dec 18: One day last month, Mir Ahmad Shah’s neighbour knocked on his door with a strange request.

"He asked us not to enter his home while he was gone because it was full of mines and booby traps," Shah recalls. "He said the Americans would be coming to search it but it was all right if anything happened to them."

The home he was talking about was a desert fortress on the outskirts of the southern city of Kandahar, now pulverised by US bombs. The man, says Shah, was Osama bin Laden’s son.

For five years, Shah says he watched the 60 Saudi Arabian families who lived in the fortress coming and going in their fleet of 30 landcruisers and pickups, apparently leading a normal, if relatively luxurious, expatriate life.

They went to work in the morning, came back in the evening and occasionally fished in the irrigation channel that separated them from Shah’s simple packed-mud home.

Like most people in Kandahar, Shah paid little attention to the wealthy foreigners who made the city their home under the Taliban, many of them training in the art of death and destruction at a camp near the airport known as Lewa Saradi or Wolf’s frontier.

Unwittingly, he played a bit part in the drama that unfolded around Osama bin Laden — the man wanted by Washington for the September 11 suiciide attacks on the United States —and the subsequent war in Afghanistan.

"We didn’t take any notice of the Arabs at first," said the 48-year-old rickshaw driver, stroking his bushy grey beard. "We thought they were refugees or something."

Shah says he first met Bin Laden’s son a couple of years ago when he struck up a conversation in persian with the tall, well-built Arab as he fished from the opposite bank of the irrigation ditch.

"The name Bin Laden meant nothing to me at that time," said Shah, who never asked for the man’s full name.

But when he heard later that Osama bin Laden had been accused of the 1998 bombing of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Shah started feeling uneasy about his reclusive neighbours.

Then, Osama himself visited the fortress for his son’s wedding, swooping up in a convoy of 15 black landcruisers with tinted windows, Shah says.

"He had a long white beard and a thin face with a long nose," he said. "He gave 10 sheep to the mosques to be sacrificed. He gave us one too."

Shah continued to make small talk with Bin Laden’s son as they fished on the banks of the irrigation channel, but when he heard about the September 11 attacks, he became increasingly anxious about his own family’s safety.

"I was really worried because I knew if the Americans attacked, my home would be in danger too," said Shah, the head of a family of 13. "I thought about leaving the house but I was worried about being robbed."

Then, in the middle of the night on November 26, the Arabs suddenly packed their bags and Bin Laden’s son appeared on his doorstep.

"He said he had made a deal with the Baluch tribes in Iran and was leaving," said Shah. "We never saw them again."

The warning about the mines was no idle threat. Shah said a robber who tried to break into the compound had his leg blown off by a mine. "He lay their screaming for two days — no one dared to go and help him."

No independent verification was available of Shah’s tale, but five days after his neighbour left, Shah’s worst fears were realised when US bombs rained down, smashing the fortress to pieces and blowing in the front rooms of Shah’s courtyard home.

"We were running this way and that, trying to escape the bombs. We didn’t know which direction to go," he said.

Miraculously, none of Shah’s family was hurt.

Looking back, he says he is angry at his Arab neighbours for unleashing US firepower on war-torn Afghanistan.

He also blames the United States for not using its diplomatic and financial clout to force the Taliban to hand over Bin Laden.

"I am angry with the United States for bombing our homes and killing our people," he said. "They have so much money, so much power."

The United States has offered 25 million dollars in reward money for the capture of Bin Laden and leaders of his Al Qaeda network.

"If I’d known he had 25 million dollars on his head from the start I would have captured him myself and handed him over to the Americans," said Shah.

Fasion to cater to nesting instincts in 2002

PARIS, Dec 18: Say goodbye to flashy logos, spike heels and camouflage prints.

As the world recovers from the September 11 attacks on the United States, people are seeking refuge at home and the guiding concept for fashion in 2002 is comfort.

Style consultants say the big trend for next year is nesting — this decade’s sociable version of cocooning. Couch potatoes no longer spend hours slumped in front of the television. Instead, experts predict a big rise in laid-back home entertaining.

"There is a return to real values and the things that are important to us, our wellbeing and the wellbeing of our family," said Pierre-Francois Le Louet, Managing Director of the Nelly Rodi Trend Consultancy in Paris.

The yen to go back to basics means consumers will shun garish status symbols to focus on core values like quality.

With firms firing staff and stock markets tumbling, it may seem tasteless to flout a new 600 dior "saddle" bag, but buying a cashmere sweater from Donna Karan qualifies as an investment.

"We have to face it. The go-go days of the 1990s are gone," said Christophe Girard, Director of Fashion Strategy at LVMH, the world’s biggest luxury goods firm whose brands include louis vuitton leather goods and dior perfumes.

Designers heralded the change in mood at the spring-summer catwalk shows in October, which saw a return of the soft, romantic silhouettes of the hippie era after a season that gave birth to such dubious trends as "terrorist chic".

Camouflage prints and cartridge belts, now deemed inappropriate, were sent to the scrapheap.

Key looks that will hit stores in February include puff-sleeved blouses in crisp embroidered white cotton or distressed fabrics with a vintage, victorian-era feel.

Fringed tunics, tie-dye patterns, suede boots and even kaftans are set to make a comeback as designers hark back to the peace-loving 1969 "summer of love".

And ruffles will be absolutely everywhere, softening the neckline of a blouse or adorning the hem of a peasant skirt.

Prominent shades include coral pink and yellow, mainly in mellow tones of buttercup and cream. But trend mavens agree the big colour story of 2002 is white.

"By spring 2002, people are going to want some relief," said colour specialist ben gomes, Vice-President of Creative Services at Style Consultancy Opr in New York.

"They want to start anew and white is the freshest colour. It’s pure, it’s clean, it can be fun, it can be carefree and it can be casually elegant," he added.

America’s infatuation with the patriotic red, white and blue of the US flag, a source of solace in the wake of the attacks, will lose steam by the middle of next year.

"I think from that point on, people are going to start to overdose on red, white and blue. It will return to its place as a basic," said Gomes.

Most importantly, industry oracles believe no single look will overshadow the rest. The growing focus on self-expression is set to breed a more individual way of dressing.

As interest soars in crafts and home improvement, customising clothes will become de rigueur. Trawling shops for ribbons, beads and buttons is seen as a hot fad for autumn. (AGENCIES)

Officials, documents detail big fish besides Bin Laden

WASHINGTON, Dec 18: It is the blackest of blacklists: names of the top Al-Qaida terrorist leaders that the United States wants dead or captured.

Some are almost universally known - there’s Osama bin Laden, of course, and his top deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahri. Others are publicly identified among the FBI’s most wanted terrorists, or in other un or US Government lists and documents, but few details are provided.

Still other senior lieutenants are known only to US intelligence and military officials. Get them, and you hurt Al-Qaida, US officials and experts say.

"It disrupts the channels of communications. It disrupts the chain of command," said Stan Bedlington, a retired senior analyst from the CIA’s counterterrorism center. "But the cells on the ground are allowed a certain freedom to operate. We can expect some of the cells will continue to operate."

At least three lieutenants are dead, including Mohammed Atef, an Egyptian who was among Bin Laden’s top aides, killed in an air strike near Kabul. Two more high-ranking Egyptians, Tariq Anwar Al-Sayyid Ahmad and Muhammad Salah, were killed in another strike near Khowst.

Many of the rest are thought to be in Afghanistan, although some, if they’re still alive, may have escaped to Pakistan or elsewhere.

In addition, some leaders of terrorist groups affiliated with Al-Qaida have drawn the attention of US authorities.

They include: Farooq Kashmiri, leader of Harakut-ul-Mujahidin, operating in Kashmir; Prof Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, leader of Lashkar-e-Toiba, also operating in Kashmir, and Maulana Masood Azhar, leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed, another militant group active in Kashmir. (AP)

| home | state | national | business | editorial | advertisement | sports
| international | weather | mailbag | suggestions | search | subscribe | send mail |