Bearing the Responsibility of the Age of Information

Received this from a friend? Subscribe.

Forward this email to a friend.

Trouble Viewing? View it on the web here.

Issue 16 04.15.10 We live in the Age of Information. Everyday we acquire limitless information about what is happening around the world. We benefit in countless ways from increases in information through technology; however, as we become better educated on human rights situations around the world we also become more responsible. We look this week to Kosovo as we see them embrace an ideology that says “no” to head coverings in an effort to curb radicalism. On the other end of the spectrum, we see Yemen where in the past week one young girl was murdered, and the other brutally injured, because they were forced to be child brides. Finally we see a short video that highlights a web of coordinated radical Islamic terrorists, based in New England with ties to terrorist groups over seas. The digital age of information has proved to us that the threat of radical Islam knows no boundaries. We can find out just as much about horrific terrorist attacks in Iraq and Russia as we can in London or Madrid. We see pictures of child brides and we are reminded how children are children, despite where they live, and we know we cannot stand by while these avoidable atrocities continue to take place. By bearing witness (even online) to these events, we must take responsibility for what happens to not only the neighbors who live on our streets, but also those who live across oceans. We must educate others and ourselves and work together to come up with a solution. Kosovo Says No to the Headscarf in Public Schools by Stephen Schwartz The young Kosovo Republic, with an overwhelming Muslim majority but a tradition of moderate Islam and a secular constitution, has joined Tunisia and France in prohibiting girls attending public schools from wearing the headscarf (hijab). As in Turkey, where the ban on headscarves, instituted in the 1920s, has become a matter for judicial controversy, decisions against the headscarf by local and school authorities have produced a legal case and complaints of discrimination. For now, headscarves cannot be worn on school property in most of Kosovo. A 16-year-old girl, Arjeta Halimi, from the small town of Viti, which includes Albanian Catholics and Christian Orthodox Serbs, was barred from school in January 2009. She was not been allowed to return, although school authorities will permit her to take her final examinations while in hijab. In the meantime, she is studying at home. She also takes three hours of Islamic religious classes each day. According to local media, the teenager was ordered by the principal and a security guard at her school to remove the scarf or … The Sad Reality of Child Brides Over the past week, we have heard about two extremely tragic incidents from Yemen regarding child brides. Last week a 13-year-old bride bled to death after she was married. Her husband forced her to have sex and eventually raped her to death. A few days ago, a second story surfaced of an 11-year-old girl who was hospitalized with genital injuries. In this case her husband said that he would wait until she reached puberty to consummate the marriage, but unsurprisingly he did not. In February of 2009 a law was introduced in Yemen stating that girls could not marry until the age of 17, but the law was repealed because some lawmakers viewed it as “un-Islamic.” This statement reinforces the notion of child brides is in fact supported by Islam. We often hear about these stories from human rights organizations, such as UNICEF and Oxfam, but they claim to treat these situations carefully for fear of an explosive political issue. However, we must ask: if this issue is not worth fighting against what is? TAKE ACTION - DID YOU KNOW? Find out five important facts about child brides today. Then, it is your responsibility to raise awareness about the horrible human rights tragedy that is happening everyday. We are making it easy for you to make a difference. Educate yourself today. 1. Did you know that it is estimated that there are over 60 million child brides around the world? 2. Did you know that in Yemen ¼ of all females marry before the age of 15? Click here for facts 3,4,5 and educate yourself and others today. Watch this Eye-opening Video – Sudbury to Mumbai: Connecting the Dots In This Issue Age of Information Kosovo Says No Child Brides Take Action! Watch This Video Featured on RadicalIslam.org On RadicalIslam.org UNDERSTANDING RI TAKE ACTION DONATE BLOG The Third Jihad Radical Islam's Vision for America is a documentary that alerts Americans to the danger radical Islam poses to the United States and to Western civilization as a whole. Watch The Third Jihad Trailer About RadicalIslam.org RadicalIslam.org, the flagship education tool of the Clarion Fund, was developed to spread awareness about the threat of Radical Islam in the United States and to provide practical response tools. The portal acts as a social networking tool, uniting individuals across America to take a stand against Radical Islam. Users are encouraged to express themselves through comments on website blogs. RadicalIslam.org also has a live-blogging presence on Twitter: No2RadicalIslam. Clarion Fund 255 W36th St New York NY 10018 USA Forward this email to a friend. Received this from a friend? Subscribe.