Japan and the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant

Looking at what is happening in Japan right now, we are faced with multiple and conflicting situations.  Over spring break

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/japan-nuclear-crisis-atomic-samurai-not-afraid-to-die/story-e6frf7lf-1226023634089

Reading Assignment

BOOK ASSIGNMENT

Choose and read one of the books listed or one of your own choice (it must be approved by Mrs. Hayashi).

Journal as you go - As you're reading the book, keep two-sided entries in your journal. The left side should have quotes from the book and page numbers. The right side should have your questions, thoughts, observations, revelations, etc.

In addition, complete any two of the assignments below:

1. Discuss in depth the relevance of the title.
2. Write a letter to the author.
3. Use two other sources to research and write a report on an issue from the book.
4. Write and produce a one minute radio or television PSA on this issue
5. Q & A - Pretend you're interviewing a person from the book. Write your interview in question and answer format.
6. Compare and contrast the book with another you have read on a similar topic.
7. Discuss cause and effect relationships you found in the book.
8. Write an editorial based on a controversial issue in the book.
9. Create a glossary of unfamiliar words and phrases.
10. Choose your favorite passage from the book. Copy it down and discuss what you found appealing about it.
11. Top 10 List - list ten things you learned from this book.
12. You're the reporter. Write a front page news story or create a tv or radio report live from the scene.

Your work will be posted on the walls outside the classroom.

Social Justice (General)

• Beyond cynicism: towards ethics in leadership
• Moral courage
• Why social justice matters

The Law and Aboriginal Rights

• Raven's children: aboriginal youth health in BC
• Imaginary Indian: the image of the Indian in Canadian culture
• Where the pavement ends
• A Long and terrible shadow: White values and native rights in the Americas since 1492
• The Unjust Society
• The Marshall decision and native rights
• Justice for Canada's Aboriginal peoples
• Indians of North America - Tsawout Band - Land claims
• This land is our land: the Mohawk revolt at Oka
• Nisga'a: People of the mighty river
• Nisga'a Final Agreement
• Inuit and their land
• Blood of the land: The Government and corporate war against First Nations
• What's the deal with treaties?
• People of the pines: The Warriors and the legacy of Oka
• Enough is enough: aboriginal women speak out
• Treaty talks in British Columbia
• Native people's access to justice
• Aboriginal issues today: a legal and business guide
• Legacy: Indian Treaty Relationships
• Native law
• Spirit dance at Meziadin: Joseph Gosnell and the Nisga'a Treaty
• Death feast in Dimlahamid

Racism

• Voyage of the Komagata Maru
• Racism
• Racism
• Racism in Canada
• Racial profiling in Canada
• Neo-Nazis: A growing threat
• Better day coming: Blacks and equality, 1890-2000
• Civil rights: the struggle for black equality
• Redress: inside the Japanese Canadians call for justice
• End of apartheid in South Africa
• Colour-coded : a legal history of racism in Canada, 1900-1950
• Forces which shaped them
• Black like me

Poverty

• In the realm of hungry ghosts
• Street stories: 100 years of homelessness in Vancouver
• Street people speak
• Pathologies of power: health, human rights, and the new war on the poor 
• War at home: an intimate portrait of Canada's poor
• On the streets
• Hope in the shadows
• Race against time
• The Blue sweater
• The end of poverty
• Dying for a home
• Pay the rent or feed the kids
• All our sisters
• No-nonsense guide to world poverty
• The Life you can save
• Out of poverty: and into something more comfortable
• The Place I call home: voices and faces of homeless teens
• Homelessness
• Cesar Chavez: labor leader
• Motorcycle diaries: notes on a Latin American journey
• Angela's ashes: a memoir of a childhood

LGBTQ Issues

• Sexual spectrum: exploring human diversity
• Free your mind
• Two teenagers in 20
• In your face
• Revolutionary voices
• Gender outlaw: on men, women, and the rest of us
• Now that I'm out, what do I do?
• Outing yourself
• Becoming two-spirit
• Hear me out
• GLBTQ*
• Is it a choice?
• Civil wars: the battle for gay marriage
• Just a Mom
• Love makes a family
• 50 ways to support lesbian and gay equality
• She's not there: a life in two genders

Women and Gender Issues

• Stolen innocence
• Under the banner of heaven: a story of violent faith
• Gender outlaw: on men, women, and the rest of us
• My gender workbook
• Women in the Arab world
• I am woman
• Suffragettes and votes for women
• Complete idiot's guide to women's history
• Women in the world of India
• The Montreal massacre
• On the streets
• Enough is enough: aboriginal women speak out
• All our sisters
• Unruly women: the politics of confinement and resistance
• My forbidden face: growing up under the Taliban
• As nature made him
• Reading Lolita in Tehran
• Canadian women's issues: Volume 1 - Strong voices

Genocide

• Fear in Chile: lives under Pinochet
• From peacekeeping to peacemaking: Canada's response to the Yugoslav Crisis
• The Lion, the fox & the eagle
• We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families
• Zlata's diary
• Night
• Surviving Hitler: a boy in the Nazi death camps
• Rescuers: portraits of moral courage in the Holocaust
• Iron furnace: a Holocaust survivor's story
• Man's search for meaning
• Breakup of Yugoslavia
• Ghosts of Medak Pocket: the story of Canada's secret war
• Me against my brother: at war in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda
• Devil came on horseback: bearing witness to the genocide in Darfur
• Not on our watch: The Mission to end genocide in Darfur and beyond
• Unscathed: escape from Sierra Leone
• Life after violence: a people's story of Burundi
• Shake hands with the devil

Globalization

• Bitter chocolate
• Greed Inc. : why corporations rule our world and how we let it happen
• Globalization: the human consequences
• Blockbusters and trade wars : popular culture in a globalized world
• Shock Doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism
• Disposable people: new slavery in the global economy
• What would Gandhi do?
• Capitalism in crisis: globalization and world politics today
• Reefer madness: sex, drugs, and cheap labor in the American black market
• Modern slavery and the global economy
• Fences and windows: dispatches from the front lines of the globalization debate
• George Soros on globalization
• No logo: taking aim at the brand bullies
• Global showdown: how the new activists are fighting global corporate rule

Africa

• Cry the beloved country
• The end of apartheid in South Africa
• Wildlife poaching
• Power of one
• Crossing the line
• John Newton and the slave trade
• Eating apes
• Race against time: Searching for hope in AIDS ravaged Africa
• White necklace
• Tandia
• The betrayal of Africa
• My Maasai life
• Black death: AIDS in Africa
• Poisonwood Bible
• Bloodsong and other stories of South Africa
• Rivers of blood, rivers of gold: Europe's conquest of indigenous peoples
• 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa
• Me against my brother
• Dead aid
• Blue Sweater
• The invisible cure
• Chanda's secrets
• Taking away the distance

Other Social Justice Topics

• 67 ways to save the animals (animal rights)
• Ethics into action : Henry Spira and the animal rights movement (animal rights)
• When elephants fight (child soldiers)
• A real nice but (people with disabilities)
• Ending slavery (slavery)
• Understanding global slavery: a reader (slavery)
• Bitter chocolate (slavery)
• Disposable people: new slavery in the global economy (slavery)
• Keepers of the flame (Amnesty International)
• Hope & despair: my struggle to free my husband, Maher Arar (human rights)
• Future: tense : the coming world order (human rights)
• Reefer madness: sex, drugs, and cheap labor in the American black market
• Child labor today (child labour)
• Modern slavery and the global economy
• Listen to us: the world's working children (child labour)
• Animal underworld: inside America's black market for rare and exotic species
• Eating apes
• Dead aid (international aid)
• Race against time: searching for hope in AIDS-ravaged Africa (international aid)
• Small, good thing: stories of children with HIV and those who care for them
• The Invisible cure: Why we are losing the fight against AIDS in Africa
• 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa
• Our stories, our songs (AIDS)
• Until you are dead: Steven Truscott's long ride into history (Capital punishment)
• Capital punishment
• Within these walls (capital punishment)
• Non-nonsense guide to fair trade
• Brewing justice: fair trade coffee, sustainability, and survival
• The Lady: Aung San Suu Kyi
• Eyes which have seen too much: refugee children in Azerbaijan
• Long way gone: memoirs of a boy soldier

How to Take Action

• Free the children
• The world needs your kids
• The tipping point: how little things can make a big difference
• 500 ways to change the world
• Be the difference: a beginner's guide to changing the world
• The Troublemaker's teaparty: A Manual for effective citizen action
• 50 ways to support lesbian and gay equality
• What Would Gandhi Do?
• Ethical shopping: Where to shop, what to buy and what to do to make a difference
• Notes from Canada's young activists
• Another day in paradise
• Everyday activist
• Raise your voice, lend a hand, change the world
• It's our world, too!
• Global showdown: how the new activists are fighting global corporate rule
• Cesar Chavez: labor leader
• Terry Fox: His story
• Gandhi: the young protester who founded a nation
• Rick Hansen: man in motion
• Me to we: turning self-help on it's head
• At the border called hope: where refugees are neighbours
• Three cups of tea
• How to live your dream of volunteering overseas

Action Plan

Perhaps the most important part of this course is the action plan.  What can you do to change the world?  Perhaps your little piece seems like nothing...

...but in fact, each piece that you contribute adds to the millions of other pieces that people around the world are contributing.

SOCIAL JUSTICE 12

ACTION PLAN

1. Identify the issue, challenge, or problem to be addressed

The purpose of an action plan is to organize and develop solutions to address a specific issue, challenge or problem.   For this assignment to have meaning to you, it should concern an issue about which you feel passionate.  Possible general topics could include:

• Globalization
• Genocide
• LGBT issues
• Child and youth issues
• Women’s rights
• Poverty
• Aboriginal issues
• Rights for the alternatively abled
• Sizism
• Ageism
• Animal rights, etc.

Keep in mind that these are general topics and you will have to decide on a specific problem within the general topic to be addressed, i.e. Animal Rights – there is no off-leash park for dogs to run free in your community.

Jot down a few challenges or issues you are aware of either that exist either at school, in your community or in the world around you.

2. Evaluate the issue

Now, examine the list of challenges again and choose one that you feel most committed and confident about addressing through a plan of action. Once you’ve done this, the next step is to evaluate the challenge more objectively and thoroughly. Evaluate the challenge in relation to five primary areas:  background, need, constraints, resources available, and resources needed.

1. Background refers to the history of the issue/challenge, including the cause and other individuals and programs that have tried to address it. If you are not familiar with the issue, this may take a little research on your part. However, based upon what you understand now, what is the history of this issue in the given context?
2. Need has to do more with solutions to the issue or challenge. Essentially ask yourself: “What needs to happen to effectively address this issue?”  Brainstorm a list of actions that could help solve this problem.
3. Constraints are those factors that are keeping you from addressing the challenge.  They might include lack of time, money, education about the issue, volunteers, etc.  Brainstorm a list of possible restrictions that you are aware of:
4. Resources Available are those resources that are easily and readily available and accessible right now to address the issue. So, what are your available resources?
5. Resources Needed are those resources that are not easily and readily available and accessible right now to address the challenge.  So, what resources do you need?

3. Develop a Mission Statement

Now that you have developed a more thorough understanding of the issue/challenge, you can now work to refine the purpose of the action plan and the project it will initiate.  The Mission (or Vision) Statement aims to be a broad and concise description of your purpose for creating an action plan to address the problem. It does not establish specific tasks that the organization will accomplish, but rather what the problem is and generally how it will be addressed.

An example Mission Statement from an action plan to address the effects of poverty in a high school might state:

“Recognizing that some students on campus are coming to school without breakfast or without coats in cold weather, I am committed to changing the situation for them by providing food and coats for free.”

As you see, the Mission addresses the context and states a related purpose. You don’t have to do it in that way, but it may be helpful.

Create a possible Mission Statement for your action plan.

4. Create Goals

Goals function as a kind of thesis statement or purpose for the action plan. They explain exactly what the intended tasks will be in order to fulfill the mission. Keep in mind that effective goals are action oriented, clear (who, what, where, by when), and are related directly to the problem.

You may want to tailor your goals to meet the criteria of being SMART:

S - specific

M - measurable

A - achievable

R - realistic

T - time-bound

Example goals from the school poverty action plan might be:

By the end of the year, I will:

• Find a community sponsor to provide fruit, bread and peanut butter for students once a week.

• Sponsor a winter coat drive/swap in the autumn.

• Facilitate at least one workshop in the spring for students to learn how to write resumes, take interviews, and find jobs.

Now brainstorm 1-3 goals for your action plan:

1)

2)

3)

5. Construct Action Steps

Now you’ve arrived to the most crucial part of the action plan: the action steps. Essentially, the action steps are a realistic list of solutions and activities that will address the challenge, thus fulfilling the goals and working to achieve the mission.  But to develop the action steps, you must first brainstorm a list of possible solutions using your background evaluation earlier developed. Especially keep in mind your Need, Constraints, Resources Available, and Resources Needed assessment.

For example, the Need part of the school poverty project would require initial approval from the principal.  An action derived from this would be:

“Present initial ideas for dealing with the effects of poverty at school to the principal.”

If this is your primary action step, determine (using your evaluation) if there are any constraints and if there are resources to conduct a presentation to the principal. (Make sure to do this for all of your primary action steps.)

Next decide 3 more things:

• If you will be enlisting volunteers to help you, who will be responsible for coordinating or carrying out the action?

• A time by which that action might occur.

• The intended outcome of the action.

Example action step chart for the school poverty plan:

What	By Whom?	By When?	Expected Outcome
Meet with the principal.	All of the volunteers and me.	By the end of September.	We will get approval for the project.
Contact local grocery stores and food banks.	Josh and Carrie	By mid-October.	We will get regular donations for a breakfast program once a week.
Advertise the coat drive/swap with posters and on the announcements.	Me and Carrie	By the end of October.	Students will bring used and outgrown coats to the English portable.

Create an action chart on poster paper for your action plan.

6) Format your action plan

Now arrange the plan into a formal document that you can easily refer to or distribute to any volunteers or anyone just interested in knowing your plans (like me!).

Suggested action plan format:

Title

1) Mission Statement

2) Goals

3) Issue and Background

4) Action Steps (including the chart)

7) Execute and evaluate your action plan

Now that your action plan is ready to go, execute your plan.  As you go, you may find that you may need to change some of your goals and plans.  Be flexible but make notes of all the changes so you can report them to me by the end of the semester.

Once your plan is executed, go back and evaluate your success.  Answer these questions:

1. Did you accomplish each goal?  If not, why not?
2. Did your action steps actually lead you to accomplishing your goals?
3. Did you have to make changes to your plans?  Why was this necessary?  What did you learn from this?
4. Give yourself a letter grade for your over-all project.

8) Present your action plan for teacher evaluation

Your evaluation and grade for your action plan, which is 20% of your total mark, will be based on your presentation.  For your presentation you should include:

• The document of your action plan (this needs to be detailed).  30%
• The chart with your action steps.  5%
•  Photographic or video evidence of the execution of your plan.   30%
• A reference letter from someone who witnessed or benefited from your action plan.  5%
• Your verbal explanation of your action plan.  This should include a brief summary of your document, an explanation of your experiences, anecdotal successes or failures, an explanation of your beliefs that led to this project, a self assessment of how you have changed or grown from the beginning of the course to the end, your understanding of the systemic nature of change and how that is reflected in your project, and a possible future application of your action plan. 30%

 The presentations of your action plan will take place during the final exam week.  This will take the place of a final exam. 

These steps were adapted from the Bonner Foundation Action Planning Curriculum.

Neil Tubb - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

DSM IV
309.81
Quote:
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
A. The person

Current Events: Pan-Arab Unrest

The Muslim World vs. The Arab World

We have been watching some of the events in North Africa and the Near and Middle East.  It is important to know what area we are discussing. 

First we will look at the Muslim world.

When you compare it to the Arab world you can see it is quite different.

The unrest/protests are spreading across the Arab world and into places like Iraq, Greece, and Pakistan.

This woman is holding a sign to show what she hopes is happening.

Mubarak chose to step down in the face of the wishes of the Egyptian people.

Other leaders may choose different paths, like Gaddafi of Libya who has said that he will fight until he "dies like a martyr" and has vowed to crush the growing revolt.

Jordan

Libya

Yemen

Bahrain

Iraq

Syria

Tunisia

Morocco

Greece

For homework, read the articles in the handout and look in the newspapers and online for more information.  Plot on the map where there is political unrest and mark why the people are unhappy.  This map is due on Friday, March 4th.

Homophobia Around the World

 I found this article on the blog LLWorldTour

Homophobia around the world, Alive and Well?

Around the world, tolerance and diversity have been taking a beating.
Recently Uganda threatened to jail anyone taking part in homosexual activity – in other words, if you’re gay, you’ll go to jail, possibly for life, this despite an outcry around the world. Malawi’s police are actively hunting down people they think might be gay, and Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe once called homosexuality ‘un-African’. Across Europe, spikes of discrimination are casting a shadow over the continent’s once exemplary tolerance. Worldwide, hate groups are becoming more active, in person and online.
But the voice of reason may prevail. Everywhere people are speaking out. People who are gay, of course, but also people who are not.

• South Africa’s constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the first one to do so.
• Archbishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has spoken firmly against homophobia.
• In Canada, Spain, Belgium and several other countries, same-sex couples have the same rights as everyone else to marry.
• The UK, Sweden and Norway have made development assistance conditional on supporting human rights, threatening to withhold it – from Uganda and elsewhere – in the face of discrimination against homosexuals.
• Across conservative Africa, human rights groups are making themselves heard, as is the continent’s largest trade union, COSATU.
• In Scotland, educational authorities have decided that every high school will receive a powerful anti-homophobia DVD.
• In the European Parliament, politicians are pushing back discriminatory laws.
• Daniel Radcliffe, better known for his role as Harry Potter, has spoken out publicly and is taking action.
• In the US, the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy in the armed forces is being watered down, and television stars are taking part in public service announcements against homophobia.
• Just 24 hours after Britain made history by holding Parliament’s first same-sex marriage in late March 2010, the Household Cavalry – one of the oldest and most distinguished regiments in the British Army – celebrated its first gay wedding.

Sometimes, people can go to almost ridiculous extremes to stay away from homosexuals. Constance McMillen, a lesbian student in Fulton, Mississippi, wanted to attend her high school’s senior prom with a female date. After a federal court ruled in her favor, the school board cancelled the prom so McMillen could not attend. According to The Guardian, this was replaced by a privately organized prom, open to all students. This story was then contradicted by gay blogs in Mississippi who claim school authorities pulled a fast one, organizing the ‘real’ prom elsewhere behind Constance’s back… If this weren’t so sad, it would be funny.

Rights of Women - Focus on Afghanistan

This very shocking picture of a young Afghan woman with her nose cut off appeared on the cover of Time Magazine on Thursday, July 29, 2010.  The message of the picture and the headline is clear.

Read the article and the NY Times response posted below.

Article

NYtimes article

Taliban vs. Muslim

What happened to Aisha at the hands of the Taliban is terrible, however, it is important to understand the difference between Taliban beliefs and Muslim beliefs.  The abuses that we hear about that women face in Afghanistan and in some other Muslim countries are not according to Muslim law.

Think of Christianity.  There is a wide range of religions under the blanket term "Christianity": Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox.  And under these headings there are even more divisions.  The range of beliefs and practices amongst Christians - from United Church to Southern Baptist to Roman Catholic to Fundamentalist Mormon - are very wide.

Look at the wide range of attitudes by these famous Christians:

Archbishop Desmond Tutu 

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

Rowan Williams, Archbiship of Canterbury


“I am certainly not ascribing to the defenders of euthanasia or assisted dying any motive but the desire to spare people unnecessary suffering,”

Jerry Falwell


"Homosexuals are brute beasts…part of a vile and satanic system that will be utterly annihilated, and there will be a celebration in heaven."

Bono - "To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater."

Pat Robertson - (About Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez)  

"...if he (Chavez) thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it."

Mother Teresa 

"If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive."

Just as there are a wide range of Christian groups, there are also a wide range of Islamic groups: Shia, Sunni, Kharijite, Sufi, Ahmadiyya, and others.  And as with Christian groups, amongst Muslims there is a wide range of attitudes.

Shirin Ebadi (First Iranian and first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize) 

“We must not enable anyone to impose his personal view regarding religion on others by force, oppression, or pressure.”

Sheikh Haron (Muslim cleric, peace activist and lawyer speaking to the Australian prime minister about Australia's role in Afghanistan) 

 "I have a question, did your stomach turn when you heard the news that the Australian army has killed innocent civilians."

Osama Bin Laden 

 “Every Muslim, the minute he can start differentiating, carries hate towards Americans, Jews, and Christians; this is part of our ideology. Ever since I can recall I felt at war with the Americans and had feelings of animosity and hate toward them.”

Shaykh Waleed Basyouni (scholar) 

"The Muslim ummah (an Arabic word meaning "community" or "nation") cannot take another war. Let’s unite on our common grounds rather than focus on our differences. Let us focus on what we agree upon and negotiate/discuss matters based upon them. You will find that most of these differences will begin to melt away."

Hassan Al-Banna (schoolteacher and imam) 

"The supreme martyrdom is only conferred on those who slay or are slain in the way of God. As death is inevitable and can happen only once, partaking in jihad is profitable in this world and the next."

Dayiee Abdullah (only openly gay imam) 

“To be gay and Muslim, at times, people will say that it is an oxymoron. But in actuality, it’s a formulation that shows the diversity within Islam; that people can be a variety of backgrounds. The Quran says to look to the nature of the world. And from that, you can see the diversity and understand that Allah’s understanding of the world and the universe in which he created is full of diversity; but you find the oneness, the tauheed unification of all, through those various diverse aspects.”

Muslim Law, or Sharia:

The following description of Sharia comes from The Council on Foreign Relations at http://www.cfr.org/religion/islam-governing-under-sharia/p8034

What is Sharia?

Also meaning "path" in Arabic, sharia guides all aspects of Muslim life including daily routines, familial and religious obligations, and financial dealings. It is derived primarily from the Quran and the Sunna--the sayings, practices, and teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. Precedents and analogy applied by Muslim scholars are used to address new issues. The consensus of the Muslim community also plays a role in defining this theological manual.

Controversy: Punishment and Equality under Sharia

Marriage and divorce are the most significant aspects of sharia, but criminal law is the most controversial. In sharia, there are categories of offenses: those that are prescribed a specific punishment in the Quran, known as hadd punishments, those that fall under a judge's discretion, and those resolved through a tit-for-tat measure (ie., blood money paid to the family of a murder victim). There are five hadd (bounds of acceptable behaviour) crimes: unlawful sexual intercourse (sex outside of marriage and adultery), false accusation of unlawful sexual intercourse, wine drinking (sometimes extended to include all alcohol drinking), theft, and highway robbery. Punishments for hadd offenses--flogging, stoning, amputation, exile, or execution--get a significant amount of media attention when they occur. These sentences are not often prescribed, however. "In reality, most Muslim countries do not use traditional classical Islamic punishments," says Ali Mazrui of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies in a Voice of America interview. These punishments remain on the books in some countries but lesser penalties are often considered sufficient.

Despite official reluctance to use hadd punishments, vigilante justice still takes place. Honor killings, murders committed in retaliation for bringing dishonor on one's family, are a worldwide problem. While precise statistics are scarce, the UN estimates thousands of women are killed annually in the name of family honor (National Geographic). Other practices that are woven into the sharia debate, such as female genital mutilation, adolescent marriages, polygamy, and gender-biased inheritance rules, elicit as much controversy. There is significant debate over what the Quran sanctions and what practices were pulled from local customs and predate Islam. Those that seek to eliminate or at least modify these controversial practices cite the religious tenet of tajdid. The concept is one of renewal, where Islamic society must be reformed constantly to keep it in its purest form. "With the passage of time and changing circumstances since traditional classical jurisprudence was founded, people's problems have changed and conversely, there must be new thought to address these changes and events," says Dr. Abdul Fatah Idris, head of the comparative jurisprudence department at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. Though many scholars share this line of thought, there are those who consider the purest form of Islam to be the one practiced in the seventh century.

It is important to look at certain practices in Islamic countries/regions in the context of the entrenched customs and cultural practices that occur there.

This cross-over between culture and religion is not unique to Islamic countries and regions.  For example, there are still older people in villages in Sicily who believe in "malocchio" or the evil eye.

There are many Muslims all over the world that are horrified by the Taliban interpretation of Sharia - just as horrified as people of other faiths.

A good website to look at to see the treatment of women in Afghanistan is the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). 

 

For homework, look through the website and write a response to this in your journal, keeping in mind what you have learned about Islam today.