Democracy
Pakistan abortion hotline sparks controversy
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The June launch of a Pakistani birth-control hotline has garnered a mixed bag of praise, skepticism, and condemnation from medical and religious leaders in the country.
Democracy
Muslim Discrimination, From Massachusetts to Mindanao
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Four Muslim truck drivers for FedEx in Massachusetts are suing over claims that upper management ignored racist verbal abuse and unfair work assignments. A judge has ruled that the suit can proceed because the men are employees and not independent contractors — a finding that also undermines the company’s case against a unionization bid by its 15,000 truckers. On the overwhelmingly Christian island of Mindanao in the Philippines, Muslims say they have been barred from working at malls over fears that they might be suicide bombers. Critics say this increases tensions in a province with a decades-old Islamic independence movement, where Muslims tend to be poorer, and have shorter life expectancies than average. Sources:
“Arab Americans charge harassment by FedEx”
Reuters, March 10, 2007
“Philippines: Muslims ‘banned’ from working in malls in Mindanao”
ADNKRONOS International, March 9, 2007
Culture
Outnumbered, But United, in Germany and Pakistan
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The more than three million Muslims living in Germany are on the brink of overcoming ethnic and religious differences to form a new advocacy group that would give them, for the first time ever, a “united voice,” Deutsche Welle reports. In Pakistan, one of the heartlands of Islam, Hindus are taking similar steps, forming the Sindh Minority Alliance in the face of “growing incidents of kidnapping, extortion and other torture cases,” the Times of India reports. Sources:
“German Muslims want unified voice”
Deutsche Welle, March 5, 2007
“Pakistani Hindus form party in Sindh”
The Times of India, March 5, 2007