Philippine volcano blasts intensify

Volcanologists monitoring the rumbling Mount Mayon volcano in the Philippines say the danger of a major eruption remains high, although when that might happen remains impossible to predict.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Thursday, Renato Solidum, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said explosions coming from the volcano were growing in intensity.

Experts observing Mayon are concerned that a violent, pyroclastic explosion could devastate the area surrounding the volcano.

"Since Sunday the explosions have become larger and larger, but not to the extent that we can consider this as a hazardous or major eruption," Solidum said.

Lava has been flowing from the dome of the volcano for 10 days, with clouds of ash ejected up to 2km into the sky.

Nearly 50,000 people have been evacuated from the area surrounding the volcano, but many have reportedly tried to return home for the Christmas holiday despite the continued danger.

Christmas is the biggest annual festival in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines.

In an effort to keep residents from returning, troops have been ordered to enforce an extended 10km no-go zone around the volcano and have imposed 24 hour curfew.

Quakes

Mayon, the most active of 22 volcanoes dotted across the Philippines, has been rocked by hundreds of increasingly powerful earthquakes in recent hours, suggesting a major explosion could be imminent.

However, volcanologists studying the rumbling mountain say that at the same time the volcano may yet calm down or settle into a more moderate eruption phase.

Meanwhile residents living outside the evacuation area are reporting health problems from the clouds of volcanic ash ejected from the volcano.

Villagers have said the ash is stinging their eyes and irritating their skin.

Medical officials have warned that the tiny ash particles could cause respiratory problems or skin diseases and have advised residents to cover their mouths and skin when they go outside.
Source: Al Jazeerea

China dissident jailed 11 years

A Chinese court has sentenced a leading dissident to 11 years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power".

Liu Xiaobo, a 53-year-old academic, who was previously jailed over the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, had been charged for co-authoring a report appealing for political liberalisation.

The verdict was handed down by a Beijing court on Friday after a two-hour trial on Wednesday in which prosecutors accused Liu of "serious crimes".

Liu's wife, Liu Xia, had said on Wednesday that her husband had no plans to appeal.

Condemnation

The highly-sensitive case has been criticised by human rights groups and Western governments who had urged China to drop the charges and immediately release Liu.

Rights groups add that the trial was deliberately timed by Chinese authorities to coincide with the Christmas holiday period, in the hope that international media and foreign governments will overlook the case.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement condemning Liu's conviction on Friday, calling it a "travesty of justice", reflecting "yet again the government's willingness to use the law as a weapon to silence dissent".

"The severity of Liu's sentence puts the lie to the government's lofty rhetoric on commitment to rule-of-law and human rights," it said.

The case against Liu centres on his co-authoring of a petition titled Charter 08, which calls for the protection of human rights in China and reform of the country's one-party communist system.

According to China Human Rights Defenders, a network of activists, the petition had been widely circulated online, and was signed by more than 10,000 people, including other dissidents and intellectuals.

It specifically calls for the abolition of subversion in China's criminal code - the very crime with which Liu has been convicted.

Bao Tong, an aide to Zhao Ziyang, the late general secretary of the communist party purged for sympathising with the Tiananmen protests, also signed the petition.

Bao himself spent seven years in prison for sympathising with democracy advocates.

Liu is the only person to have been arrested for organising the Charter 08 appeal, but others who signed it have reported being harassed.
Source: Agencies

Europe's Identity Crisis

It seems that the targeting of Muslims and Islam has become a kind of national theater in France. Unlike theater, however, the disturbing trend can and will turn ugly. In fact, to a degree, it already has — if the French government does not get a grip on reality. The world, including France, is a complex, multifaceted, and fascinatingly diverse place; it cannot be co-opted to fit national specificities determined by a group of irritable far-right racists with a distorted interpretation of themselves and others.

Unfortunately, France is not alone; it merely highlights the most obvious manifestation of growing anti-Muslim sentiments throughout Europe. Unearthing the reasons behind the disturbing phenomenon is hardly an easy task, for it arguably requires a greater examination of the political, economic, and social woes of European states than it does of the "shortcomings" of Muslims.


Introducing Islam

Islam is a great religion in many respects; it has endured for more than 1,400 years. Its membership is never confined by skin color, culture, political ideology, or geographic boundaries. Its views of antiquity, on equality, women's rights, and peace, are considered progressive, even by today's standards.

The detractors of Islam fail to see all this. If Islam is dissected politically or "academically," the investigation is done for the sake of destroying its repute and discrediting or humiliating its followers.

The Swiss People's Party (SVP) may claim that its commitment is to keep Switzerland secular and devoid of symbols of oppression "as in a mosque's minaret," but this only sounds like incoherent blabber and reflects nothing but a growing tendency toward racism, intolerance, and ethnocentrism. These trends are glaring violations of the liberal philosophies associated with European countries, which guarantee individual and collective rights, including those of self-expression and freedom of speech.

In France, the phenomenon is protracted and more dangerous. As France is home to five million French Muslims, right-wing tendencies threaten future discord in the country.


Assault

The Washington Post reported on December 19 that the Bilal Mosque, in the tranquil French town of Castres, was desecrated by unknown assailants. "Two pig's ears and a poster of the French flag [were] stapled to the door; a pig's snout dangled from the doorknob. 'White power' and 'Sieg heil' [a Nazi salute] were spray-painted on one side … and 'France for the French' on the other."


Shahid Malik

Here, one must recall the alarming words of Britain's first Muslim minister, Shahid Malik. Himself a victim of hate crimes, Malik lamented a year and a half ago that many Muslims feel targeted like the "Jews of Europe," and that many British Muslims feel like "aliens in their own country."

While Many Muslims share the same feeling of nationalism and patriotism in their homelands in Europe, right-wing racists — who are unfortunately becoming a dominant force in shaping public views in various European states — insist on a very narrow definition of what makes a French, a British, a German, or a Swiss.

Identity Crisis

There is indeed an identity crisis that is real and frightening. And it is one that is not engulfing Europe alone; it also affects and in some instances has devastated many cultures all over the world. While it is a byproduct of a misguided and unchecked globalization, in the case of Europe itself the issue is very national and very personal.

The European Union, which started as a purely economic body, has morphed into a political and pan-nationalist organization that is attempting, by accident or design, to define a united Europe and a prototypical European. This has raised fears of the loss of national identities or whatever remains of it. Expectedly, it is the politically misrepresented, socially marginalized, and economically disadvantaged groups that often pay the price of this sort of national resurgence.

Targeting Muslims is a common denominator that now unifies a great proportion of European political elites and media. The reasons are numerous and obvious: Some European countries are at war (which they have chosen) in various Muslim countries; desperate and failed politicians are in need of constant distractions from their own failures and mishaps; associating Islam with terrorism is more than an acceptable intellectual diatribe — it is a topic of discussion that has occupied more radio and television airtime than that of any other topic; also, pushing Muslims around seems to have few political repercussions — unlike the subjugation or targeting of other groups with political or economic clout.

But is there more to this?

A 2007/08 Gallup poll asked the following question: Does religion occupy an important place in your life? The vast majority in Western European countries answered with a resounding "no." Only 9 percent of Turkish citizens — whose country has a Muslim majority — shared the popular view.

Most European Muslims strongly identify with their religion, which has preserved their sense of community and helped maintain a degree of cultural cohesion and a semblance of collective identity at a time when many in Europe are losing theirs. Muslims must not be blamed for this loss, nor should they be punished, derided, or targeted for their daring to hold onto their beliefs.

French Anti-Muslim Measures

Back to France, what is most alarming about the anti-Muslim measures is that they are largely led by the government itself, rather than a fanatical group of disenchanted ideologues. Eric Besson, the French Immigration Minister, stated on December 16 that Muslim veils will be grounds of denying citizenships and long-term residence. Besson was only echoing the disquieting policies of Conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy, who has started a "national identity campaign" for ensuring an exclusive identity of France — a campaign that is occupied with the targeting of immigrants, particularly Muslims.

Sarkozy, Besson, and Europe's right-wing and far-right politicians must understand the possible ramifications if they continue to press with their reckless and alienating policies.

Radicalization is an unavoidable offshoot of group alienation, which is sadly being used to further fuel the anti-immigrant fervor throughout the continent. It is a vicious cycle, the blame for which lies squarely with the savvy politicians and their obvious agendas. As for those who insist on blaming Islam for Europe's woes, they should really find another pastime; the self-indulgent game is too hazardous and must stop.

Ramzy Baroud is an internationally syndicated columnist and the editor. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story (Pluto Press, London), now available on Amazon.

Obstacles to a Sustainable Egypt

In environmental activism circles around the world, sustainability has been the buzzword for the last decade or so and for good reason. Earlier last month, local and international activists convened in Cairo to discuss this issue.

"Towards a Culture of Sustainable Development: Economies and Environment" was the conference's title, which captures the essence of the issues raised and experiences shared in this get together. It was mainly concerned with the cultural aspects of sustainable development: how people's everyday actions define the sustainability of their society, and how a society as a whole self-organizes to handle and to benefit from its waste products (i.e. recycling).

Its prime focus was, therefore, the subculture which deals with waste. This subculture is known by many names such as garbage collectors, waste pickers, recyclers, and perhaps best of all reclaimers.

In the last few years in Egypt, the way in which the government has dealt with this subculture and the whole issue of waste management have both made headlines and stirred public dismay. This has accumulated in the appallingly increasing piles of garbage in all residential areas (Cairo's posh areas not excluded) over the last several months.

To draw conclusions and to understand this waste management crisis that Egypt faces, this conference served as an international gathering where people told their success stories so that they may be repeated elsewhere.

Facing a Global Crises

Laila Iskander, the conference's chairperson, commented that their networks (recyclers, environmental activists, and slum dwellers) are all linked on the big issue of climate change among others.

Dr. Mawaheb Abou Al-Azm from EEAA (Egypt Environmental Affairs Agency) defined the main crisis the world faces today as "a widening gap between what's available from natural resources and what's required of them."

Ann Leonard, an environmental campaigner and creator of the short film "The Story of Stuff" about the production and consumption cycle, implied that the problem may only be solved if we can slow down the current from its source by making a change in our consumption habits.

Hossam Allam from the Center for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE) focused on the issue of electronic waste. Current estimates put the yearly amount of discarded electronic devices and components at 40 million tons a year.

Allam suggested that one viable solution to this problem is that a product tax program be implemented, which the consumer contributes to, so the company becomes obliged to take back their used products.

In India, as well as other developing countries, piles of e-waste stretch out endlessly in the slums. Slum Dwellers International (SDI) is a group aiming to change such situations from the ground up by working at the local level and engaging in negotiations with the state.

Sheela Patel from SDI acknowledged that negotiating with the state is not an easy feat and corruption often stands in its way. The group works with 7.5 million households in 70 cities in India alone.

Informal Development: A Local Crisis

Egypt like most developing countries has a considerable percentage of its citizens dwelling outside of the formal settlements overseen by the state and operating within the grip of its laws.

Manal Al-Batran, a Professor of Urban Planning at the Housing and Building National Research Center, posed the crucial question of how to achieve successful urban planning in Egypt. She had to admit at the end of her talk that no satisfying answer currently exists.

According to Al-Batran, Egyptian researchers divide non-formal settlements into two categories: those on public land, called squatter settlements, and those on private land, called informal settlements. Both are seeing an expected unprecedented growth in Egypt as the total population continues to grow.

"Since 2006, the government is not responsible for helping low income housing. Instead, the private sector, which gets land from the government at a subsidized rate, is the one responsible," she asserted.

Another major change in governmental policy took place in 2004. Before then, construction was prohibited on agricultural land, but after 2004, this prohibition was loosened to become a controlled prohibition.

When it comes to the topic of providing sufficient housing units to accommodate Egyptians in the near future, Al-Batran mentioned that current statistics point to an expected need for about four hundred thousand units per year, yet the current formal/governmental plan is to build only five hundred thousand units in the coming six years!

This, however, doesn't include figures for the expected construction of informal settlements. "The informal section doesn't get loans simply because they build, unregulated, without permits," she added.

Recycling: A Local Crisis

When it comes to recycling, Ann Leonard opines that the informal sector are the real experts in this area, and, therefore, must be involved.

She noted that recently there has been a mass migration of "dirty" waste management companies from the the US and the EU to developing countries. These companies manage waste by the not so efficient process of incineration, a waste treatment technology that involves the combustion of organic materials and/or substances.

These companies have come up with new names to brand their operations like waste to energy. "But incinerators destroy resources. They should be called waste of energy not waste to energy," Leonard commented.

On the other hand, recyclers at the conference agreed that any society as a whole benefits more from the human garbage treatment/recycling. First, by helping the people performing the recycling, who are usually in need of better living standards and employment.

Second, it helps keep money in the country. Third, the country gets carbon credit which is both good for the planet and is in itself of monetary value.

Arguments against the importance of helping recyclers and their "backwards" methods were met with the assertion that their backward technology is the only way recycling can be done efficiently.

This issue of garbage collection and recycling has recently made its impact in Egypt especially since the government decided in 2004 to hire foreign waste collection and management companies and to do without the service of Egyptian garbage collectors. The garbage collectors/recyclers community in Al-Moqattam were the ones who were affected the most by this decision.

Ezzat Naem Guindy of the Spirit of Youth group in Al-Moqattam spoke out to the Egyptian officials saying "we are ready to clean Cairo if you help us upgrade our systems."

In fact, they have been efficiently cleaning Cairo for a long time, but the government is yet to organize their efforts and help them obtain the tools needed to do their job more efficiently.

After the recent pig culling that took place in Egypt, and with the garbage collectors no longer interested in collecting organic waste from the streets of Cairo, the city's residents have seen how crucial the garbage collectors are to its cleanliness.

In its swine flu panic, the rash governmental decision to slaughter the garbage collectors' pigs has resulted in massive piles of garbage on every corner of the city. This is the exact opposite of what it aimed at simply because the reaction of Cairo's recyclers and their role wasn't taken into proper consideration.

On a more promising note, Mobinil, one of the largest mobile phone companies in Egypt, has started a pilot recycling project with a group of Egyptian recyclers called "The Spirit of Youth."

The project aims to train the group on mobile phone recycling techniques. Mobinil's CEO, Alex Shelby noted that "this pilot project [is] just starting but we would love to expand this project and we have every intention of doing so."

Youssef Faltas is an Egyptian freelance writer. He can be reached by sending an e-mail to sciencetech@iolteam.com.

Muslim Christmas

WASHINGTON – A brightly decorated Christmas tree welcomes visitors to Sarwat’s house along with the traditional "Merry Christmas" greeting in a typical Christmas scene.

The only thing exceptional is that the host and her family are practicing Muslims.

"It was in 1970 that I and my husband started to invite people to our house to celebrate Christmas," Sarwat Husain, president of the San Antonio, Texas, chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

"Our celebration has continued ever since."

Husain says her celebration of Christmas began even before she came to the US as a teenager with her parents.

"It was our family tradition to celebrate Christmas, and my father used to take the occasion to let us read the Bible and the Old Testament and the Qur’an to learn from them and discuss prophets stories," she said.

"The discussions were mainly about prophets Abraham, Jesus Christ and Muhammad, peace and blessings on all of them."

Christmas is an annual holiday celebrated by Christians worldwide to commemorate the birth of Jesus and reach its peak at 12:00 PM on December 24 of every year.

Muslims believe in Jesus as one of the great Prophets of God and that he is the son of Virgin Mary but not the son of God. He was conceived and born miraculously.

As for his crucifixion, Muslims believe that Jesus was not crucified but was lifted up to heaven.

Muslims believe he will come back to earth before the end of time to restore peace and order, fight the Anti-Christ (Al-Masih Al-Dajjal) and bring victory for truth and righteousness.

Educating

Husain continued the family tradition of celebrating Christmas after she got married.

"Me and my husband invited our neighbors and colleagues and made big celebration."

But Husain insists that her way of celebrating Christmas is special and educational.

"When we came to the US, I was so stunned by the big celebrations. I thought ‘where is the story about Jesus and his teachings in all this’," she recalls.

"We are not celebrating it the way it is celebrated here. What you see under the surface is the commercialization of Christmas and that is what we don’t like."

She is more interested in spreading the knowledge of one of the prophets the Noble Qur’an describes as the word of Allah.

"It is mainly about prophet Jesus life, what he taught us to do what we should do during Christmas."

Husain also commemorates Christmas by giving money to a nearby church which uses it to buy necessary goods to charities and people in shelters.

She recalls that when she first started this tradition with her husband no questions were asked.

"Today it is a different environment and many question everything Muslims do. There are those who do not understand where this is coming from," she notes.

"But when I explain to them they understand.

"This is all about communication and understanding."

By Dina Rabie, IOL Staff

Give Kashmir Autonomy: Indian Committee

CAIRO – A high-level committee appointed by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is recommending that India gives autonomy for the disputed Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir, Indian Express reported on Thursday, December 24.

"The matter being 60 years old should be settled once for all," Justice Saghir Ahmad, who heads the Working Group on Centre–State Relationship, wrote in his report.

The committee advised the government to "restore the autonomy to the extent possible."

The Muslim-majority Himalayan region has been divided between India and Pakistan since 1947 after independence from Britain.

The India-controlled part of the disputed region once had a large degree of autonomy over all sectors excluding communications, defence and foreign affairs.

The special status gradually eroded over the past decades with greater control exercised by the federal government.

In 2000 the Kashmir assembly voted in favour of full restoration of the state's autonomy.

But India's then Hindu-nationalist government rejected the measure.

The high-level committee also recommended reviewing the Armed Forces Special Powers Act to decide whether it can be withdrawn from any parts of Kashmir.

Premier Singh appointed the working group in 2006 to try to find a permanent solution to the conflict in the scenic Himalayan region which claimed more than 47,000 lives.

Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since the 1947 independence over the region.

Mixed Reactions

The committee's recommendations drew mixed reactions.

"It reinforces the importance of our demand," Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said after receiving the report.

He advised Kashmir Law & Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohd Sagar to "prepare an action plan for its implementation" in consultation with the federal government.

Autonomy has been the main demand of the ruling National Conference, Kashmir's biggest pro-India political party.

The federal government in New Delhi has so far not comment on the advisory panel's report.

But the far-right Hindu nationalist party stoutly rejected the recommendations.

"It is a farce," BJP leader Arun Jaitley told the Daily Pioneer.

"It is not a report of the Working Group because I am a member of the Working Group and the Group was never consulted on this report."

Many of the groups fighting India's rule want Kashmir to become part of Pakistan while others support independence.

Pakistan and the UN back the right of the Kashmir people for self-determination, an option opposed by New Delhi.