Islam is the Solution

Hamas gains ground in historic Palestinian vote

By Vivian Salama

Daily Star Egypt

January 26, 2006

EAST JERUSALEM:  Across from the Damascus Wall on Salah El Din Street in East Jerusalem – the city’s Arab section – journalists and television cameras surround a young man as he professes in broken English his desire for peace, and greater opportunity for the Palestinians. 

            “I hope one day we live together – peace, no killing,” said Atef Badran, 22, outside the main polling station in East Jerusalem. 

            After getting their soundbite, the cameras leave.  Realizing that I speak Arabic, Badran looks around as though to ensure that they’d all gone away.  Then he continues.

            “The only answer for peace, for change for the Palestinians, is for Hamas to take control,” he says, almost whispering.  “They are not criminals.  They are not warriors.  We’ve seen what Fatah can and cannot do.  Hamas is the best representation of the Palestinians and the only ones who can make a difference in the lives of those who need in the most.”     

            Early opinion polls leading up to yesterday’s historic election – the first in which Hamas participates – indicated that the militant Islamic group might walk away with as much as 40 percent of the newly-expanded 132-seat legislature, on the tail of the ruling Fatah party, under Abbas.  Concerns are high among Israelis, as well as neighboring countries with moderate, secular governments – such as Egypt and Jordan – that an Islamic stronghold in the Palestinian parliament might further aggravate decades of tension. 

            Voting in East Jerusalem has been a point of contention between Palestinian and Israeli authorities as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas threatened to postpone elections should the city’s 3 million Palestinians be barred from voting.  Last week, Israel’s cabinet, under acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, voted unanimously to allow voting in East Jerusalem, though Hamas was banned from campaigning there. 

“Don’t think that just because they prohibited Hamas from campaigning here that they have no representation – on the contrary, the Arabs of Jerusalem support Hamas,” added Badran.  “People around the Arab world are realizing the benefits of having Islamists in control.”   

            Indeed, the campaign slogan “Islam is the Solution” has gained ground outside of the Palestinian territories as well.  Just over a month ago, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood saw unprecedented gains in parliamentary elections, winning 88 of Egypt’s 144-elected seats.  Running under the slogan “Islam is the solution,” independent candidates supported by a reformed Muslim Brotherhood, relied less on touting Islamic ideologies of shar’ia law, and more on the basic principles of government and humanity. 

            “The major concern now is that the gains of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the first time participation by Hamas might enhance other Islamic movements,” explains Khaled Dozdar, head of the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information in Jerusalem.  “The whole region is experiencing this.  They are bringing dogmatism to the region via another form of tyranny – dogma, not just to the peace process, but to the socio-economic level.  The only side to blame for this is the authorities because this is the complete result of years of neglect and misuse of power.”

            “For me, it isn’t about voting for Hamas, it’s about a change of power,” says Adel Adwayat, a native of Jerusalem.  “I think that just like the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas will grow in strength because they are working a real political campaign, not a campaign of fear as they have done in the past.”

            During the first intifadad, Hamas was founded in the Gaza Strip in 1987 as a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.  The group’s military wing dedicated itself to the destruction of the State of Israel.  When the group rejected the Oslo Accords, however, it opened the door for Fatah to engage in dialogue with the West.  It is the rejection of the Oslo Accords and firm stance against Israel that some experts believed actually boosted Hamas’s support in the region.

            “The people are comforted knowing that Hamas is political active,” says Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, Essam Al-Arian.  “We support all the Palestinian people.  This is not an ordinary election because it will decide the fate of this conflict.  Everyone will see that the Palestinians support the Resistance Group, not the corrupted one.  The people are comforted knowing that Hamas is politically active.” 

            Despite their reputation for militant activity, Hamas is active on the community level, running preschools, youth clubs, and health clinics.  It has regularly provided financial assistance to the needy people of Palestine.  Despite their civic contributions, however, Egyptian officials have adamantly supported the ruling Fatah party as some fear Hamas might benefit from the vulnerability of the Gaza Strip following the withdrawal of the Israeli military last August. 

“Total chaos will equally affect the two neighboring countries – Egypt and Jordan, as well as Israel,” says Dozdar.

“Hamas was not born yesterday – Israel is showing they are afraid for nothing,” insists Mohammed Asem Ibrahim, Egypt’s Ambassador to Israel.  “At the same time, if Hamas does interfere in the process taking place these coming days, then of course, Israel has a point to say that there are no partners for peace here.  And it is the responsibility of Egypt and Jordan, given their peace treaties with Israel, that they play a role in this process.”

More than 35 delegates have been sent from Egypt to monitor the electoral process in the West Bank and Gaza.  Last year, some 500 international monitors traveled to the Palestinian territories to monitor the first presidential elections since the death of longtime leader, Yasser Arafat.  Egyptians hold a stake in overseeing the withdrawal and rebuilding of the Gaza Strip, as lax security and governing could expose the Sinai to exported fundamentalism.  Still, with poverty and lagging revitalization in Gaza, many believe it will boost Hamas’s reputation among Palestinians as the people’s party.          

“Remember, the enemy of our enemy is our friend,” notes Al-Arian.  “I think Israel’s restriction against Hamas will only add to their power and popularity.”

      

           

Middle East & North Africa Risk HIV/AIDS Epidemic

By Vivian Salama

Daily Star Staff

Click here for Daily Star link

CAIRO:  It was 1986 when the first case of HIV was reported in Egypt.  The patient, a man in his 20s, was quarantined against his will at one of Egypt’s local fever hospitals.  Reluctant to stay, the infected patient attempted to escape.  A hospital security guard shot him dead. 

            Another case surfaced at the same hospital some months later.  A woman diagnosed with HIV had gone into labor and was taken there to give birth.  Terrified by the consequences of attending to her, doctors and nurses abandoned the mother-to-be.  The baby was born with the help of one of the hospital janitors.

            Nearly a decade has passed and HIV/AIDS awareness in the region has made noticeable advancements.  Disposable syringes have, at many places, replaced traditional glass needles, and health care workers are better equipped to respond to patients diagnosed with the syndrome.  Taboos have been abated through educational campaigns and the Arab world has managed to steer clear of the pandemic that has swept Sub-Saharan Africa, due in large part to the reinforcement of religious ideologies surrounding abstinence before marriage. 

            Conservatism in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been challenged in recent years, however, as economic hardships force delayed marriage, and premarital sex, while discouraged, is practiced with greater frequency.  According to the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population, there are approximately 1,800 cases of AIDS and asymptomatic HIV in Egypt today.  The World Health Organization (WHO) challenges these statistics, reporting an estimated 8,000 cases of HIV/AIDS in Egypt.  Furthermore, UNAIDS reports in 2004, 540,000 cases of HIV/AIDS were documented in MENA, with an estimated 28,000 deaths due to AIDS last year.  Experts admit the numbers may be even higher, citing the inability to track and monitor infected patients as a major fallback. 

            “We have a low number of cases now, but we have all the potential for rapid spread,” says Ahmed Ragab, professor of reproductive health at Al-Azhar University and author of the study “Gender and HIV/AIDS in Egypt: Challenges and Solutions.” “We have to guard against it.  It is a minor threat now, but it has the potential to be a major threat in the future.”

            In his research, Ragab interviewed a number of community members, health professionals and religious leaders in several of Egypt’s governorates, from metropolitan Cairo and Alexandria to the rural governorate of Minia.  In one interview, a laboratory technician spoke of one case where infected prostitutes were left to roam the streets without surveillance. 

            “Police captured a prostitute who was working in Minia… a blood test for her found that she is carrying the virus,” the technician reported.  “Once she was released she escaped to another governorate.  We could not trace her. The problem is that she is young, beautiful, apparently healthy, and she has no source of income except prostitution – this is very dangerous.”

            “The problem with commercial sex workers in Egypt is they are available, accessible and affordable, but commercial sex itself is illegal in the country,” Ragab explains, noting he does not condone prostitution.  “So, with this illegality, there is no way to supervise them, to counsel them, to promote condom use, to screen them for HIV.”

            Promoting condom use, however, strikes discord among religious leaders who in many cases believe that promoting safe sex is promoting safe adultery.  While family planning programs have adopted condom use as one of many methods for protection, condom promotion via HIV/AIDS programs continues to be a subject of contention. 

“I had a Gonorrhea case and he was cured, then he went and had sex with the same girl and got Gonorrhea again,” recalls Hisham Issa, a lecturer of laboratory medicine at Cairo University.  “The concept of safe sex is not there.  When someone talks about sexual education in schools, people say ‘it’s not ethical, it’s bad to talk to children about these things and it should come by nature.’”

Egypt’s National AIDS Program reports the majority of HIV/AIDS cases last year were transmitted through heterosexual relations, making up an estimated 30 percent of all cases.  Blood transfusions account for the second highest mode of proliferation at 20 percent, and homosexual transmission makes up 10 percent of HIV/AIDS cases in Egypt. 

Experts say it is impossible to survey mode of transmission given the current surveillance systems in place.  Egypt’s street children are a major point of apprehension among health professionals.  Their testimonies show the vast majority of them are repeatedly raped or bribed for sex, and many report having been drugged – all of these factors exposing them to infection and ultimately, the spread of infection.

“People cheat young street children telling them they will provide them with working opportunities, then rape them,” one street youth, age 18, was quoted in the study.

“The young children are more vulnerable,” another youth, age 17, was reported to have said.  “Once they get used to having sex, they like it and even demand it.”

 Levels of infection among antenatal women or blood donors can be contained, the study reports, but concerns surround high risk groups, such as sex workers, homosexuals, frequent travelers, and intravenous drug users.  Drug use is attributed to the majority of HIV infections in Algeria, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.  In Iran, 15 percent of HIV cases reported since the rise of the epidemic were in 2003 alone, according to UNAIDS.  Experts say the sudden escalation is mainly due to increased drug use. 

            “One of the magazines published an article about a queue in a graveyard, the City of the Dead in Cairo, where drug addicts had – for one needle – a queue waiting to have this fix,” tells Ragab.  “In my research, there was evidence that the same happens in Alexandria, so drug use is important.”   

            In Libya, excessive drug use has caused heightened concerns over the spread of HIV.  According to UNAIDS, some 90 percent of the total reported cases are attributed to intravenous drug use.  Additionally, 90 percent of the 5,160 cases reported by the end of 2002 had occurred between the years 2000 and 2002 alone.  Currently, the courts in Libya are considering an appeal filed by five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death after they were convicted of transferring HIV to 426 Libyan children in 1999.  Some health experts have rallied for the medical team, saying the outbreak began before the nurses arrived and was probably caused by poor hygiene.

            Ragab’s study finds that concerns surrounding the sanitation of hospitals and clinics when dealing with HIV/AIDS patients are in some cases legitimate.  In 2003, the Ministry of Health and Population, WHO, the Ford Foundation and the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit launched the Infection Control Program, making disposable needles and instruments widely available.  Not widely enough, however, as a shortage of medical supplies complicated matters, and reusable and glass syringes are still used by many health workers today. 

            “In my laboratories, sexually transmitted HIV is minimal,” says Issa.  “Most of the cases I’ve seen have gotten it through blood transfusions.  But testing for HIV has definitely increased, because to travel to the Gulf, you have to be HIV negative.  It’s the same thing at many embassies if you are applying for immigration.”

            Increased awareness has certainly eased taboos to a degree.  Until five years ago, all those who were tested for HIV/AIDS in Egypt had to be reported to the Ministry of Health and Population.  Prior to ten years ago, those who tested positive were quarantined in special hospitals and left to die.  Many people interviewed by Ragab were quoted as saying AIDS is a foreign disease and does not exist in the Arab world.  While the culture has evolved to a certain degree, treatment and education are lagging behind most of the world. 

            According to UNAIDS, MENA saw 55,000 new cases of HIV in 2003, while Central and Western Europe saw an estimated 35,000 new cases.  However, it is AIDS-related deaths in those regions that reveal the shocking realities.  In 2003, 45,000 AIDS-related deaths were reported in MENA, whereas only 3,000 people were said to have died from the disease in Central and Western Europe.

            “This shows the relative containment of the epidemic in the Western Europe, while the same epidemic is rapidly expanding in the region,” insists Ragab.  “There, treatment is better, behavior especially toward those living with HIV/AIDS, personal habits and counseling is better; people living with HIV/AIDS there have better chances.  Here, since there is no real treatment, they died of neglect.” 

            Health professionals such as Ragab and his colleagues insist that there are immediate steps that can be taken to alleviate this growing threat.  The struggle to have the study of HIV/AIDS added to the standard curriculum of many schools in the region continues to this day.  Meanwhile, activists believe the only way to abolish false stereotypes is through educational campaigns.  Since it is impossible to control people’s actions, awareness campaigns are the only route for reaching them and ultimately, for preventing an epidemic. 

            “The high stigma that surrounds HIV/AIDS prevents people from going for testing,” admits Ragab.  “Poverty leads to prostitution, leads to street children, leads to desperation; the lack of enforcement and education regarding drug use – all of these things, if we work on them, can really make a difference.” 

Making Prayer Work…

Making Prayer Work
Every employer is familiar with the need to walk a delicate line when addressing prayer in the workplace. How can employees lead a productive religious life without sapping a company’s productivity? Trusting workers to monitor themselves is important, but it doesn’t hurt to remind anyone that working hard is also a virtue.
By Vivian Salama

Business Today Egypt

Everything stops. It’s midday on a weekday. From workplaces across the country, the faint voice of a muezzin can be heard calling salat al dhuhr, the afternoon prayers. Workers gather but only after the ablution required before any prayer during which worshippers wash the face, hands and arms up to the elbows, then pass their hands lightly over their heads and wash their feet up to the ankles. The concept, as written in the Qur’an, is to be pure when approaching God in prayer.
Sherif Samy, chairman of Skill-Link.com, an internet-based job search and career advice provider, describes a scene that has become familiar in many workplaces.
“Imagine at least 50 or 60 percent of the workplace having to go to the bathroom at the same time to perform their ablutions. It’s a bit messy, especially if you don’t have your towels. Then they have to wait for each other, which by default is a slower process than if you’re praying on your own. Then they go back to work. All this time, moving to elevators, or stairs, to the bathroom, to prayer, chatting after the prayer, it’s only human,” he says.
In the end, a process that can take an individual no more than 15 minutes can take up to 30 or 40 minutes.
It may be a bit messy, as Samy suggests, but more and more workplaces are finding the need for creative solutions to make room for God in the workplace. There is no debating whether prayer should be allowed. Followers of any religion consider it a privilege and a right to serve God in this way. And now, more than ever, people worldwide are searching for spiritual enlightenment. What complicates this trend is that it is taking place as work demands more time and energy from us than ever before.
As with any activity that takes place at work, it all boils down to the concept of time management, and how employers can encourage a healthy balance between productive work practices and the need for religious fulfillment.
“Supposedly, if a person works for eight hours, he will have a break,” says Al-Azhar scholar Sheikh Khaled El-Guindy. “In theory, that person will use this break for eating and al dhuhr prayer. Al ‘asr [afternoon] prayer can be done at home, that’s not a problem. So in this half-hour break, he is able to eat, pray, do whatever he wants.”
The experience seems to vary from person to person. “Maybe in some places, the productivity point is not really emphasized,” says Samar Shams El Din, recruitment specialist at Skill-Link, who tries to be aware of the clock when he goes to pray. “We say, ‘You guys, let’s finish because we all have to go to finish our work.’ We don’t really waste much time.”  (more…)