Author: Mick Hartley

Via Metafilter, here’s a story from Daily Kos to bring tears to your eyes:

When I was 9, I caught my grandfather shaving in the bathroom and that is when I saw it: His Camp Number – 58877241.

Not knowing any better, I asked him why he got such a “stupid tattoo”. He told me that he really didn’t want to get it and quickly tried to cover it with a towel. I followed him asking him, “Why don’t you get it removed then?” He stop dead in the hallway and without turning around said “So I don’t forget.” We never discussed it again.

When he died last summer, I told myself that he was finally at peace. As I stood over his coffin with my wife, I reached down and took his arm in mine. I unbuttoned his sleeve and rolled it up. I looked at the number again – 58877241. My wife looked at me and asked “Why are you doing that?” All I could say was “So I don’t forget.” Right then I made my promise to him – Never again.

Moved? Of course you are. But there are lessons to be learned:

Now when I see the hate and bigotry that comes out of those that call them “Christians” or “Moral People”, I know that this is how it began seven decades ago in Europe. It was too late, when people finally woke up, millions had been carted away in cattle cars to their deaths.

I don’t want to see that here or anywhere else. I do not want there to be cattle cars filled with people that these hate mongers scream out against. I do not want to see gays, liberals, Mexicans, hippies, Hollywood Actors, or anyone else have to be tattooed with a number. No more 58877241s.

This summer, my family and I will be traveling to Auschwitz, so my children understand what there grandfather went through. I want my daughter to know why I see him in her eyes. And then everytime I look in her eyes I will see hope and love and not 58877241.

There’s a follow-up:

After writing my diary “A Promise to My Grandfather” yesterday, I received over 40 emails from all over the country (I am still getting some right now) from those that were also impacted by the Holocaust. I read each one of them and shed a tear for every word. Many thanked me for sharing the story of my grandfather, but I should thank all of them for their stories. It helped me see that I am not alone in my pain, but also to see that there is hope. Hope that there are those that want to fight the hate that is now forming and stop it before we repeat it.

I am not alone in my pain?

How to trivialise the holocaust in one easy lesson.

c. They could wear a headscarf as long as it conformed to certain criteria. In order to satisfy the needs of the diverse background of its students, the school consulted with pupils, parents, schools and leading Muslim organizations when it was formulating its uniform policy.

And yet this was not enough for Shabina who wore the shalwar kameez from the time she enrolled at the school when she was 12 until September 2002 when she suddenly decided to wear the jilbab, a long loose fitting one-piece item that covers the body from head to ankles.

Her school refused to allow her to attend until she resumed wearing the approved uniform. Shabina took the school to court but her case was rejected by High Court judges last summer. The school had argued that allowing her to wear a jilbab would impact on the rights of other Muslim girl pupils who opposed allowing the jilbab as they felt that it would create a hierarchy of belief at the school.

Her school was right. What has become of our faith that it has turned into a competition over who can cover the most? Who convinces young Muslim women that they must cover more and more, going far beyond what is deemed the modest clothing that Islam requires of men and women? […]

The Guardian reported that Lord Justice Brooke, vice-president of the civil division of the court of appeal, ruled that Shabina’s school had: unlawfully excluded her; unlawfully denied her the right to manifest her religion; unlawfully denied her access to suitable and appropriate education.

Lord Justice Brooke has committed the simplest mistake that a non-Muslim commits – he accepted at face value the assertion by Shabina and her lawyers that the jilbab, an especially strict interpretation of modest dress, was a requirement for Muslim women.

Shabina chose to go beyond a uniform that was deemed acceptable for the other Muslims and denied herself the ability to continue attending her school. She claimed that her school’s refusal to allow her to attend classes in a jilbab was a result of post-9/11 bigotry. I assert that Lord Justice Brooke’s ruling is a classic example of liberal guilt over the ugly Islamophobia that many Muslims have faced since 9/11. Instead of standing up to a growing conservatism among some Muslims, many liberals will simply give in rather than appear prejudiced. Sadly, most of the points they give in on have to do with Muslim women. […]

This is nothing short of the racism of lower expectations – they expect Muslims to be extreme, they expect Muslim women to be covered. The Guardian newspaper, which I reported for from the Middle East, committed a grave error in reporting Shabina’s story. It did not interview a single Muslim woman who could have told them there is more to being a Muslim than a jilbab and that such a jilbab was over and beyond what is deemed modest.

Slavery is still widespread throughout the southern Sahara. Now, in another sign of the times, a Tuareg chief in Niger is freeing 7000 of his slaves:

It is the first time since the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade that such a number of slaves will be voluntarily given up by their master, after a change in the law to make slavery punishable by a 30-year jail term.

Slavery in Niger, a practice dating back centuries, was outlawed during independence from France in 1960, but the new constitution carried no penalty. Although the French had stamped out the trafficking and slave markets, they refused to class bonded workers as slaves, terming them “voluntary labourers” in a 1905 survey. Post-colonial administrations have until now turned a blind eye to the mass bondage of their people, most captured as the spoils of war, kidnapped or traded as dowry.

The practice is still widespread throughout the southern Sahara, in Mali, Mauritania and Chad. Slave masters and slaves are often from the same tribe. The chief of Inates, Tuareg Aristal, is the first to voluntarily release his slaves. He is a strict Muslim and has said that owning slaves is “incompatible with the Koran”. He will be spared prosecution, and despite intense pressure from other slave masters, he will today condemn the practice.

Update: or maybe not:

A human rights group in the West African desert nation of Niger called off what had been billed as a mass liberation of 7,000 slaves after none showed up for the ceremony. It blamed government threats against local leaders for the failure of any slaves to attend.

What’s that Dave Weedon trying to imply? To set the record straight: I’ve never worn a nose ring or a lip ring in my life, nor did I get sent home from school for dyeing my hair blue.

Our fingers, apparently, provide a window into our souls (via Secular Blasphemy):

The length of a man’s fingers can reveal how physically aggressive he is, Canadian scientists have said.
The shorter the index finger is compared to the ring finger, the more boisterous he will be, University of Alberta researchers said.

But the same was not true for verbal aggression or hostile behaviours, they told the journal Biological Psychology after studying 300 people’s fingers.

The trend is thought to be linked to testosterone exposure in the womb.

Another sign of the times: MEMRI translate an article from progressive intellectual Tarek Heggy, urging the Egyptian government to confront the spirit of religious intolerance shown towards the Copts:

“With regard to the general climate which breeds a spirit of hateful fanaticism, this did not come about by a governmental decree or a political decision, but was a natural result of the defeat of the Egyptian revival project, especially after the June 1967 debacle. The vacuum was quickly filled up by a fundamentalist ideology and culture, which put itself forward as an alternative to the movement for a new Egyptian awakening. With the spread of the cultural values of this trend … the general climate fell prey to the forces of conservatism and regression which inevitably bred a situation of hostility towards the Copts. As a noted Egyptian intellectual once put it, whenever the revival project is defeated in Egypt, this has negative repercussions on two groups of Egyptians: women and Copts. The opposite is equally true: in a vital and dynamic cultural climate, the attitude towards these two groups is enlightened and in keeping with the values of civilization and progress…”

“[The government] must adopt a policy aimed at the positive reinforcement of a culture of religious tolerance in place of the spirit of fanaticism threatening us all. While educational curricula and information media are the right place to start, we must not forget the importance of religious pulpits in shaping public perceptions. For there can be no hope of progress if Islamic religious institutions oppose a cultural project aimed at eradicating the spirit of religious intolerance which has taken hold in our society. […]

“With regard to the widespread feeling among Copts that their representation in public life has shrunk considerably over the last few decades, this is borne out by official statistics. However, this should not be seen as a deliberate attempt by the regime to keep Copts out of public office. It should be seen, rather, as a negative phenomenon that grew insidiously over the years, unnoticed by successive governments and driven by its own dynamics, until it reached its present unacceptable proportions. But whatever the reason, the fact remains that the Copts are marginalized in Egyptian public life and this is a situation that merits serious study.”

“I for one believe the explanation for the phenomenon lies in the mindset our public officials have developed in recent years, which is characterized by a refusal to admit to the existence of problems and an insistence on claiming that all is best in the best of all possible worlds. This mindset is rooted in another cultural specificity, which is a refusal to accept criticism and an inability to engage in self-criticism.

Examination of Homo Floresiensis brain cavity provides conclusive evidence that the hobbit is indeed a new species, according to a study published today in Science:

Reconstruction of the brain of Homo floresiensis, the 18,000-year-old hominid standing just over 3ft tall, revealed features that put it firmly on a different branch of humanity’s family tree. The findings refute suggestions that the skeleton belonged to a pygmy, or a modern human being with microcephaly, a congenital disorder that stunts brain growth.
Homo floresiensis’s brain is markedly different from that of either, and from that of chimpanzees and Homo erectus, the human ancestor from which it is thought to have evolved. “What we have here is a little brain unique in its appearance compared to anything seen before,” Dean Falk, Professor of Anthropology at Florida State University, said.

“It’s got to be a new species. The scaling of brain to body isn’t at all what we’d expect to find in pygmies, and the shape is all wrong to be a microcephalic. This is something new.”

Carl Zimmer has more.

An intriguing story from the Times:

Christchurch, one of Oxford’s most eminent educational establishments, is considering installing vomit points.

Buckets and sand will be available to students who feel compelled to bring up their good night out.

The move comes after the introduction of penalty charges for wantonly throwing up. Judith Pallot, the college censor, has decreed that there has been an “unacceptable amount of vomit”.

A good idea, but, alas, the discipline and clear-headedness required may be lacking in the circumstances. “Excuse me, I wonder if you could direct me to the nearest vomit point.” If only we were as civilised as the Germans.

e forced to kill their favorite sister.

One of the unsettling truths about Hatin’s death [described earlier in the article] and the plight of many Muslim women is that it took the comments of three Turkish boys and the outrage of a male school director to get people to notice. When the murder first happened, it sent no shock waves through the mainstream German press. It only became big news when a group of 14-year-old Turkish boys mocked Hatin during a class discussion at a school near the crime scene. One boy said, “She only had herself to blame,” while another insisted, “She deserved what she got. The whore lived like a German.” The enraged school director not only sent a letter home to parents, but also to teachers across Germany. The letter ignited a media fury. Less known, however, is that the letter also hit a nerve among educators. “Teachers from across the country wrote back saying they had had similar experiences,” Boehmecke said. They reported Turkish boys taunting Turkish girls who don’t wear headscarves as “German sluts.” “That’s the part no one has written about. Clearly there is huge potential for similar violence across Germany,” Boehmecke said. “Not just in the big cities, but all over. It’s a problem many politicians haven’t been willing to face.”

One of the reasons given by Denbigh School in Luton for their ban on the jilbab was that it would create pressure on other girl pupils, who could then be seen as somehow less devout.

The school argued that other Muslim girls relied on the protection of the uniform policy to resist pressure in the community to adopt the jilbab.

Oh well.

upporting the militias.

Human Rights Watch said Mr Hilal made the allegations during a videotaped interview in Arabic, conducted in September last year.

The group released part of the interview on Wednesday, saying that translation and formatting of the tape had delayed its publication.

“All the people in the field are led by top army commanders,” Mr Hilal told researchers during the interview.

“These people get their orders from the Western command centre and from Khartoum.”