From The Times
Pakistan has a hard job rooting out militancy. But it cannot let Jamaat-ud-Dawa carry on fooling people about its aims.
Wriggling under the illumination of media scrutiny after accusations of its involvement in the slaughter in Mumbai, Jamaat-ud- Dawa's response last week was a workmanlike PR counter-move. Journalists were taken on a guided tour of the organisation's headquarters, 30 miles from Lahore, where a civilised lunch of spiced chicken and rice accompanied declarations of innocence, condemnation of the terrorist attack and claims to be nothing more than a charity group involved in relief work.
Terrorists? Not us, guv. But in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, just three weeks before the Mumbai attacks, the advice of PR gurus was noticeably absent when I met a leading official from the group. “We don't like democracy,” Atiq ur-Rahman told me, eyes ablaze. “Our struggle is to establish an Islamic caliphate throughout the world. Whichever force tries to resist it shall be shattered.”
He bubbled with the internal rage so characteristic of militants, and having given a perfunctory resumé of JuD's relief work among Pakistani civilians displaced by fighting and natural disaster, launched himself into a diatribe against India and the West. The rant concluded with an amazing on-the-spot attempt to recruit my interpreter, citing the abuse of Muslims by infidel forces in Somalia, Chechnya and Kashmir. In the embarrassed silence that followed his departure we were left to flick through a copy of Why We Are Performing Jihad, the jihadist manual that he had handed us to further his case.
Though designated as a terrorist organisation by America in 2006, Jamaat-ud-Dawa remains a legitimate organisation in Pakistan where it has hundreds of offices and numerous “relief camps” throughout the country.
Over and above similar militant organisations in Pakistan that have, more or less, been ostracised by Pakistani authorities in recent years, JuD is of specific importance now in highlighting the limits of Pakistan's commitment to combating regional and international terrorism, with special significance to the UK.
Thanks to its high-profile relief work, notably in the wake of the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir, and a continued desire to preserve strategic assets to counter India's regional jockeying, Pakistani authorities have to date been unwilling to close down JuD offices, despite growing evidence of its involvement in terrorism.
Shehzad Tanweer, one of the 7/7 London Tube bombers, allegedly met al-Qaeda commanders at the JuD madrassa in Lahore in 2004 and Hafiz Saeed was himself briefly detained there in 2006 - where he was questioned by British anti-terrorist squad detectives - and investigated for connections to the British-based terror cell plotting to blow up airliners over the Atlantic. (Rashid Rauf, the former baker boy from Birmingham on the run from authorities for his involvement in this plot, was killed by a US drone in Pakistan just a week before the Mumbai attacks.)
Britain's worries are more acute and related directly to the disproportionate number of Kashmiris among the UK's 480,000-strong Pakistani population. Since 2001 British intelligence officers and diplomats have noted with alarm al-Qaeda's success in merging Kashmiri militants with the global jihadi network. British passportholders are particularly attractive recruits and the JuD, its offices and camps so far untouched in Pakistan, is now regarded as a key portal for young British Muslims seeking to join al-Qaeda. “These training camps... pose a real threat to the UK,” a diplomat in Islamabad told me in October. “Which is why Britain is asking for them to be closed down.
The militants who killed Hindus, Christians and Jews in Mumbai evidently saw their cause as part of a struggle connecting India with Kashmir, America, Afghanistan and Britain. If they are to be successfully countered, the moves against them will have have to be as many-headed, as widespread, and much more sophisticated

AN Islamic school facing bitter criticism for banning the national anthem has overturned the ban, allowing it to be sung during yesterday's assembly.Stung by a public backlash over the ban, revealed by The Courier-Mail, the Australian International Islamic College suddenly embraced Australia's national song.
The Durack school's spokesman Keysar Trad blamed the ban on "a communication breakdown" and said it had been a "unilateral decision" by the outgoing principal.
The ban attracted national controversy and drew a huge response from the newspaper's online readers.
It came only days after a protest on the Gold Coast against the school's proposal to open another campus at Carrara for 60 students.
Outgoing principal Azroul Liza Khalid said she implemented the ban in July on advice from a board member who told her that Friday, the day for school assembly, was a holy day.
The Malaysian-born principal, who said she knew little of Australian culture, sent a memo to teachers telling them that after considering the Islamic view and ethos "... the singing of the anthem will be put on hold".
The memo was in response to a request to sing the anthem by former teacher Pravin Chand.
Mr Chand, 38, was sacked last month in a letter from school chairman Imam Abdul Quddoos Azhari.
The letter stated: "The College Board has decided to terminate your employment on the ground you are not fitting into the school's ethos."
The school denied any link between Mr Chand's anthem requests and his sacking.
According to Goldcoast.com Mr Chand is an experienced teacher who has taught in both Australia and the UK for some years. He also claims that some non-muslim women teachers have left the school as they were being pressured to wear hijab.
Ms Khalid was recruited this year from Malaysia, despite not being registered to teach in Queensland.

From The Local, Swedish news in the English language.
In a nod to women not wishing to reveal too much, an indoor public swimming pool in Sweden has begun renting out burkinis, full-body swimsuits that cover everything but the face, hands, and feet.
For 30 kronor ($3.75), the Stadsparksbadet pool in Borås in western Sweden now offers bathers who would rather not bathe in traditional swimwear something more comfortable that allows them to utilize the co-ed public pool.
“[Previously] there hasn’t been a well-functioning alternative,” said pool head Anette Ekberg to the Borås Tidning (BT) newspaper,
The issue of appropriate attire for women at Sweden’s indoor public pools has received attention at both ends of the spectrum in the last year.
Back in February, the city of Gothenburg was ordered to pay damages to two Muslim mothers who were kicked out of a swimming pool for not removing their veils. The city appealed the ruling to Sweden’s Supreme Court, which has yet to try to case.
And in May, the central Swedish town of Enköping decided it would prohibit women from bathing topless at the town’s indoor pool.
The move came on the heels of the opposite decision by officials in Sundsvall in northern Sweden to allow women to swim topless following pressure from the Bara Bröst network - which translates both as 'bare breasts' and 'just breasts'.
Ekberg claimed the pool’s decision to offer the burkini was a response to growing demand from bathers, as well as a way to avoid the hygiene issues associated with bathing in regular clothing.
". .  . It loosens more particles from the clothes and that forces our cleaning system to work harder,” she explained.  “Therefore we’re asking those who are interested to use the burkini. That way we can reduce the level of chlorine in the water.”
Sheeda Firouzfateh, a local resident who arranges women-only swimming sessions at another pool in nearby Sandared, thinks the 30 kronor rental price may be low enough to entice women to use the burkini.
However, she isn’t sure that the burkini will be enough to make modest Muslim women comfortable with bathing in the presence of men. “I’m not so sure. It’s pretty tight and still shows your body. Maybe it’s easier for some, but others can still probably not think of showing themselves in that way in front of men,” said Firouzfateh.

This picture is a bit small so I suggest you look it up in one of the bigger sizes on a site offering it for sale as a print. Some of them also have sections of the detail.

Pieter Brugel depicts Joseph and Mary on the donkey arriving in a village, meant to be Bethlehem under Roman occupation, in reality a Netherlands village, itself under occupation by the Hapsburg empire.

I have seen this picture described as "cosy" or "A Christmassy winter scene". If you look closely the people are very poor; they are struggling in a grim winter, although the children playing on the ice are finding something to enjoy, as children will.
The picture was very popular and Bruegel's pupils and his son and later his pupils made many copies of it, and their own versions. Eventually the copies became so stylised that some of the gestures made by the figures became meaningless and rather odd.

Update - thank you Albert and Fiona - this is much better. I was working in the library last night and only had 10 minutes before they closed. Much obliged to you.

The Telegraph is the first news site to mention the "Asian" element and the Eid celebrations. Which narrows the description "asian" down a bit.
Dozens of Asian inmates destroyed workshops at a young offender institution after running riot during Eid celebrations.
Up to 80 detainees at Aylesbury YOI, including a large group of Asians, armed themselves with hammers, knives, saws and other tools as they kept prison officers at bay for six hours during the major disturbance.
More than 100 specially trained prison staff in riot gear eventually stormed the workshops at 5pm to end what the prison service described as "concerted indiscipline" but not before "significant damage" had been caused.
The ringleaders were last night expected to be split up and sent to other centres.
The unrest began around 11.15am at the Buckinghamshire centre, which holds up to 435 young men, including some of the worst, most violent young offenders.
The incident, described by the Prison Service as "concerted indiscipline," was believed to have broken out during protests as Asian inmates celebrating the festival of Eid.
An inspectors report in 2005 revealed the majority of inmates are serving long sentences and there is a large ethnic minority population.
The disturbance was contained to the centre's two workshops, which inmates are believed to have trashed during the incident, although there was little structural damages according to Ministry of Justice sources.
Tom Robson, executive officer of the Prison Officers' Association, said at one point staff were having to "fight" with the inmates to restore order.He said it was a "serious incident" and officers from other prisons had been called in to help.

From a Muslim who deplores the fact that for so long Islam was off to one side, almost hidden from view, as when the Jihad against Israel was -- inaccurately, he insists (and here he insists correctly) -- for so long depicted as a war of Arab nationalism.

Here is an excerpt: 

"My goal in this article is to prove that the September [11] raid was a victory, not a defeat. Everyone knows that most of the events discussed in the global media since the 1940s have had to do with the war between the Arabs and the Israeli enemy. [These media reports] always refer, justly or unjustly, to the pan-Arab movement that has dominated the national struggle [for decades]. This has emptied the Palestinian problem of its religious content, denying its global Islamic character. [Moreover,] the Arabs have come to be stereotyped as primitive and reactionary Nazi terrorists, who have no ideology or banner except those of Arab racism.

"[However], the September [11] attacks placed Islam at the top of the global agenda. They brought it out of the [realm of theoretical discussion] and out of the hallways of secular pan-Arab politics, and set it in its proper place: [in a position of] pioneering leadership and impact on world events. [Even] if that is the only achievement of the September [11] attacks - it is enough.

"The attacks alerted the people of the West to [the advent of] this new future [based on] divine values and directives. Despite the intensive media assault on Islam and its symbols in the wake of 9/11, miraculously, the peoples of Europe, Russia, and America rushed to the Islamic centers, looking for every scrap of information they could find about Islam and its teachings - so much so that the Islamic centers [soon] ran out of materials on the tenets of Islam.

"Within a few months, the mosques and Islamic centers filled with visitors and individuals who embraced Islam by the multitude. They were joined by thousands of Muslims who returned to their faith after having forgotten it - [Muslims who had] forgotten their origins [and], assimilated into Christian European society, and had been on the verge of losing their identity and religion. When the security and supervision apparatuses [started to] pressure them and use racial discrimination against them, they remembered the power of their faith and returned to the path of Islam.

"According to reports by Western strategic studies institutes, Islam is infiltrating the very strongholds of Christianity, and is threatening [Christianity's] continued hegemony in Europe. [In fact,] academic studies show that in some European countries, Muslims will become a majority within a few years."

The September 11 Attacks Restored the Honor of the Muslim Nation, Proving It Could Defeat Its Enemies

"Additionally, one of the great benefits of the September [11] events is that they restored the Muslim nation's honor and self-confidence, and demonstrated to the entire world the ability of this jihad-fighting nation to cause the gravest harm and inflict the greatest blows on enemies that attack it, teaching them a lesson they [can] never forget. "

Full text here: 

http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD214208

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RWYlgRL1lyw

And don't forget, one mo' time, this: 

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nDGN78kS9X0

Geneticists have found markers for Sephardic Jewish ancestry in 20 percent of males in the Iberian Peninsula, and markers for "North African" ancestry -- which presumably means Berber, or to a much lesser extent Arab, or other North African ancestry (possibly overlapping, again, with Jews). It has long been known that many Jews sought refuge in the New World, and that a very high proportion of the Spanish who settled in the New World were "secret Jews." If the number of such people was itself underestimated, it might be that there is  a very significant population that in South and Central America that may possess genetic markers suggesting Jewish ancestors. What if this were to be investigated and found to be true? What if it turned out, for example, that Brazil, and not Israel, was the most populous Jewish nation? Would those possessing such genetic markers be indifferent? Would they, possibly, be  hostile, eager to deliberately distance themselves from such an ancestry in the most obvious and disturbing way? Or would many of those who discovered they possessed such a chromosomal link choose another reaction, one of being even pleased or proud, and possibly taking a sudden interest in, and possibly display sympathetic identification with the most persecuted tribe in human history, and perhaps begint to see things differently, as they had not before, not because an appeal had been made to history, to reason, and to their sense of justice (that only works with the most advanced) but because they now felt somehow implicated, they could now begin to read the news in a different light, all because of a genetic link? 

And might this knowledge that so many -- a third, perhaps, or even more, of the population of Latin Americans with "Spanish ancestry" might be involved -- turn out to have Jewish ancestors possibly, if handled correctly, prove not to be a cure (there is no cure to this disease), but conceivably something that would now immunize a much larger part of the population, at least in Latin America and wherever -- see the United States -- a population from Latin America can be found? And would it not also, if handled correctly, also create a potential new source, by the tens or hundreds of millions, of unexpected sudden reinforcements to the beleaguered Twelve -- or is it only Ten, since two seem to have gone missing? -- Tribes of Israel?

Speculate all you want. I'm going to --  why shouldn't you? Some may suggest that this idea is nutty, but without nuttiness such things as modern Israel would not have been possible to create. In the Western past there are examples of hopes pinned on imagined allies across lands and seas. For example, there was the fabled Kingdom of Prester John. Many Christians in Europe, terrified of the Muslim threat, came to believe that over the seas, beyond the now-Muslim-ruled lands, there was a fabulous ruler, Prester John, whose Christian Kingdom was a natural ally of Western Christendom. In the Western imagination, the Land of Prester John was placed originally in India, and then moved closer, to the admittedly Christian, but not strong, Kingdom of Ethiopia. 

And if noting, to those of Spanish and Portuguese descent, that many of those Spanish and Portuguese ancesters were Spanish and Portuguese Jews, is seen as strange, would it seem strange for India's Hindus -- and for Infidels everywhere -- to begin to remind the Muslims now living in India, in Pakistan, in Bangladesh (or those Muslims from those countries now living in Europe and North America) that they surely should recognize that their own ancestors were Hindus, were Jains, were in some cases Buddhists, and their Muslim descendants should begin to recognize the conditions that forced their Hindu  (Jain, Buddhist) ancestors to accept Islam.  

So it may not be a bad thing if a third, or half of Latin America, is encouraged to begin to wonder about its own ancestry, in a way that makes identification with Israel, and indignation over antisemitism, more rather than less likely.

As the famous singer said:

There are strange things happening everyday.

And here, by the way, is that story of genetic investigations on the Iberian peninsula:

MADRID, Dec 5 (Reuters Life!) - From the 15th century on, Spain's Jews were mostly expelled or forced to convert, but today some 20 percent of Spanish men tested have Sephardic Jewish ancestry, and 11 percent can be traced to North Africa, a study has found.

"These values are surprisingly high," the researchers wrote in their report, published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

They checked the Y chromosome, a stretch of DNA carried only by men and passed down with little change from father to son. Mutations in this gene can be used to trace ancestry, and some have been clearly linked to Sephardic Jewish and northern African populations.

"The genetic composition of the current population is the legacy of our diverse cultural and religious past," one of the report's authors, Francesc Calafell, from the evolutionary biology faculty at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, said on Friday.

Along with researchers from Britain's University of Leicester and Wellcome Trust, the scientists analysed DNA samples from 1,140 men in Spain, Portugal and the Balearic Islands and compared them to Moroccans, Algerians, and Sephardic Jews in Istanbul and Israel.

"The work shows that religious conversions and subsequent marriages between people of different lines had a significant impact on modern populations both in the Balearic Islands and in Portugal," Elena Bosch of the University of Leicester said in a statement.

One of the most surprising findings is the percentage of Spanish genes whose origin can be traced to Sephardic Jews, although Spain had a relatively small Jewish population compared to its Moorish population.

Some of these genes may pre-date the Sephardic Jewish culture, the researchers said, noting that the Phoenicians also share some of the genetic characteristics.

The Moors invaded the Iberian peninsula in 711 and remained until defeated in battle by the so-called Catholic Monarchs in 1492. Moorish influence is still very noticeable in Spain's language, architecture, music and other aspects of its culture.

Jews lived in Spain before the Moors arrived and although small in number played a significant cultural and economic role.

Hundreds of thousands of Jews were expelled from Spain in various repressive moves, started by the Catholic Monarchs. The study suggests many Jews converted rather than face repression.

Some Sephardic communities to this day speak Ladino, which is similar to medieval Spanish and can be understood by present-day Spaniards.

(Reporting by Teresa Larraz, writing by Sarah Morris, editing by Maggie Fox and Michael Roddy)

Spilling Over: A Fat, Queer Anthology

Submission Deadline: December 1, 2008 [but hurry, if your submission is especially good they may overlook the deadline]

Despite the attention given by queer studies to the materiality of bodies and the cultural and social inscriptions that designate them, still a dearth of both scholarship and literature exists around intersections of gender, sexuality, and fatness. As fat studies begins to emerge as a viable academic location of inquiry, questions surface as to how fat bodies, deemed "excessive" in their trespasses of size and space, create even more complex subject positions when compounded by queer desires. This proposed anthology seeks contributions addressing junctions of "fat" and "queer" in pieces that consider the representations and resistances of non-normative corporeality and also writings considering the theoretical conceptions of these intricate subjectivities. Spilling Over will reflect the notions of excess, boundaries, and containment implied by the labels "fat" and "queer" both singularly and collectively.

By December 1, 2008, please send your 2,000 - 6,000 word submission, along with your complete contact information and a 50-100 word biography, to spillingover@gmail.com with the subject line of "Spilling Over - Submission." For more information, please contact the above website.

http://www.utexas.edu/diversity/ddce/gsc/notices.php