Viviane's Corner

edited by Aimee Kligman


Female Muslim medics 'disobey hygiene rules': Muslim medical students are refusing to obey hygiene rules brought in to stop the spread of deadly superbugs, because they say it is against their religion. Women training in several hospitals in England have raised objections to removing their arm coverings in theatre and to rolling up their sleeves when washing their hands, because it is regarded as immodest in Islam. (ed: I suppose they'd rather kill the patients) Documents from Birmingham University reveal that some students would prefer to quit the course rather than expose their arms, and warn that it could leave trusts open to legal action.

female muslim medic

Hygiene experts said last night that no exceptions should be made on religious grounds. Dr Mark Enright, professor of microbiology at Imperial College London, said: "To wash your hands properly, and reduce the risks of MRSA and C.difficile, you have to be able to wash the whole area around the wrist. "I don't think it would be right to make an exemption for people on any grounds. The policy of bare below the elbows has to be applied universally." (ed: the solution is simpler than taking candy from a baby: obey the rules or find a different occupation!!) more>>

Girls hike out in Israel: Where the tradition started is anyone's guess, but women in America like to kick back and spend "girls only" time together. Now, due to an increase in disposable income, vacation companies recognize that career women, who are marrying late, or not at all, are important customers. Tour companies, large and small, are now giving these women safe and interesting travel experiences - among other like-minded "girls." (ed: you can count most Egyptian born Jewish girls out; I had tried something like that with my girlfriends who all thought I was abnormal)

Helping encourage more women to experience the Holy Land on foot is Judy Mizrachi from the United States, who founded WomenWalkers Travel two years ago. Since then, she's brought seven small groups of women to Israel and is set for the next group to arrive this September, before the Jewish New Year.

While American Jews travel to Israel frequently, Mizrachi finds that a significant number of non-Jewish women from all over the world are looking to experience Israel in an alternative way. She tells ISRAEL21c that she does very little advertising for her organized hiking tour, yet women seek her out from around the world. They include women from the United States, Australia, Switzerland, Canada and Holland. Sometimes women even bring their daughters. continued>>

Muslim MP becomes justice minister: Britain's first Muslim minister, Shahid Malik, has been promotedy to the department of justice as part of Gordon Brown's cabinet reshuffle. The DewsburMP, who is currently a minister for international development, said he hoped to make Britain "a more just society" in his new role as a minister in the department for justice. "While I have truly loved my international role working to deliver justice for the poorest around the world, I'm now relishing the opportunity to make Britain an even fairer and more just society for all its citizens," he said.

As an MP, Malik gained experience of violent youth crime in Britain when a teenager was murdered by a gang of young people in his constituency in May this year. After the killing, the MP, who lives just a few minutes walk from the scene of the attack, called for "a change in society", warning that too many young people were adopting a culture where violence was an accepted part of life. more>>

Le concours de "Miss Bonne Soeur" annulé en Italie: Le prêtre italien Antonio Rungi voulait lancer le premier concours de beauté pour religieuses. Il a renoncé à son projet devant les réactions négatives et déplacées qu'il a depuis soulevé.

Le prêtre italien Antonio Rungi a beaucoup d'idées, parfois farfelues, pour sauver l'Eglise - EPA

"Je dois dire qu'il y a des gens qui ont volontairement mal compris cette initiative innocente et qui ont décidé d'en tirer profit", a estimé le père Rungi. "Le concours pour la sœur la plus belle avait pour seul but de faire connaître sur internet un aspect positif de la vie des religieuses". (ed: magnoun, walla eh?) en savoir plus>>

Haifa Chief Rabbi: No Forgiveness for Pope Pius: Haifa Chief Rabbi Sha'ar Yashuv Cohen informed the Vatican on Monday that he opposed the beatification of Pope Pius XII, the Holocaust-era leader of the Catholic Church.

"If I had known… I might have refrained from coming because we feel that the pain is still here. I have to make it very clear that we, the rabbis, the leadership of the Jewish people, cannot as long as the survivors still feel painful, agree that this leader of the Church in a time of crisis should be honored now. It is not our decision. It pains us. We are sorry it is being done," he said.

In an address to the supreme body of the Catholic Church, the Synod of Bishops, Rabbi Cohen said that Pope Pius "may have helped in secrecy many of the victims and many of the refugees but the question is, 'Could he have raised his voice and would it have helped, or not?'" more>>

Le combat d'un Juif converti: Depuis qu'il a décidé faire son aliya en août 2007, José Portuondo-Wilson, un jeune Américain de 25 ans doit affronter la bureaucratie israélienne pour prouver la sincérité de sa conversion et le caractère légitime de son judaïsme. Elevé dans une famille catholique d'anusim, - ces Juifs qui ont caché leur judaïsme pendant l'Inquisition espagnole et leur expulsion en 1492 - Portuondo-Wilson a découvert ses racines juives en 2002 puis a été converti en avril 2007 par la cour rabbinique de Chicago par trois rabbins orthodoxes. Après un premier refus du ministère de l'Intérieur, Portuondo-Wilson a patiemment attendu une nouvelle année dans sa communauté comme Israël l'exige, jusqu'en avril 2008 pour refaire sa demande d'immigration. L'Agence juive lui a alors assuré que sa conversion serait approuvée. Or, le 21 août, sa deuxième demande a été rejetée par le ministère de l'Intérieur. Raison invoquée : la cour rabbinique a jugé que sa conversion n'était "pas reconnue". en savoir plus>>

They Don't CAIR Much for Free Debate: Islamists cannot tolerate open discussion of their faith and those who act in its name. We witness this phenomenon time and again from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which increasingly forgoes combat in the arena of ideas, preferring instead to intimidate or litigate opponents of the Islamist agenda into silence

The latest example comes in response to the Clarion Fund distributing twenty-eight million DVDs of Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West via direct mail and newspaper supplements in September. The film exposes the teachings and consequences of Islamic extremism through media footage and commentary from experts, including Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes. CAIR has filed complaints with both the Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service, alleging that the Clarion Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness of national security issues, violated its tax-exempt status by using the DVD as an election prop in swing states. In its complaint to the FEC, CAIR wrote that "analysts say the distribution of the Obsession DVD was designed to benefit a particular presidential candidate, namely Sen. John McCain." (ed: which is absolutely true, incidentally). more>>

The 'Eurabia' myth deserves a debunking: by Doug Saunders. There is Europe and there is “Europe,” the fantasy kingdom wished into being by North American ideologues to turn their silly ideas into action movies.

It is conservatives who fabricate a mythic “Europe” to serve their ends. In this scenario, a lazy, culturally exhausted atheist society has stopped having babies and is being overwhelmed by baby-booming Muslim hordes that are on the verge of becoming a majority and imposing sharia law and Islamist government on the continent. (ed: really?)

The champion of this “Eurabia” myth is Canadian Mark Steyn, who was once one of the world's best writers on musical theatre. continued>>

Un palais pourrait réchauffer les relations israélo-russes: Ehoud Olmert, qui tente de dissuader Moscou de vendre des missiles à la Syrie et à l'Iran, fait voter la restitution d'une ancienne propriété de la famille impériale russe, au nord des remparts de Jérusalem.

Chef de gouvernement démissionnaire, Ehoud Olmert est arrivé lundi à Moscou pour son dernier voyage à l'étranger. Il devait tenter de convaincre les autorités russes de ne pas vendre à l'Iran et à la Syrie le nouveau système de défense antiaérienne S-300, dont les performances inquiètent les Israéliens. Il devait aussi convaincre la Russie de continuer à participer aux efforts diplomatiques internationaux pour stopper le programme nucléaire iranien.

Or les relations russo-israéliennes, rétablies à la chute de l'URSS en 1991, sont entrées dans une période délicate. La Russie a notamment vivement reproché cet été à Israël l'aide à la Géorgie fournie au cours des dernières années. Le statut d'allié privilégié dont jouit Israël auprès des États-Unis ne dispose guère non plus la Russie en sa faveur. en savoir plus>>

Iranian boy is treated for brain tumour at Israeli hospital : The 13-year-old, who has been identified only as Roy to prevent him and his family facing persecution on their eventual return to Iran, arrived in Chaim Sheba hospital in Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv, on Friday, after a journey assisted by an Israeli businessman of Iranian origin.

When surgery, chemotherapy and radiation at medical facilities in Iran failed to help their son, the boy's parents took him to Turkey, where doctors advised them to seek treatment at Sheba. The hospital has a highly regarded cancer treatment programme.

The Israeli embassy in Ankara issued permits for them to enter the country. "As far as we are concerned, we are not involved in politics," the chief executive officer of Sheba hospital, Zeev Rotstein, said.

"He is from a country that doesn't really like our existence here, but I think part of our job is to prove to countries like Iran that we are here to help the regular people." continued>>

A free-wheeling new Muslim culture grows in Dubai: In his old life in Cairo, Rami Galal knew his place and his fate: to become a maintenance man in a hotel, just like his father. But here, in glittering, manic Dubai, he is confronting the unsettling freedom to make his own choices.

Here Galal, 24, drinks beer almost every night and considers a young Russian prostitute his girlfriend. But he also makes it to work every morning, not something he could say when he lived back in Egypt. Everything is up to him. Everything: what meals he eats, whether he goes to the mosque or a bar, who his friends are.

Hamza Abu Zanad, right, smoked shisha with friends at an exclusive bar in Dubai.

(Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times)

"I was more religious in Egypt," Galal said, taking a drag from yet another of his ever-burning Marlboros. "It is moving too fast here. In Egypt there is more time. They have more control over you. It's hard here. I hope to stop drinking beer - I know it's wrong. In Egypt, people keep you in check. Here, no one keeps you in check."

In Egypt, and across much of the Arab world, an Islamic revival is being driven by young people for whom faith and ritual are increasingly the cornerstones of identity. But that is not true in the ethnic mix that is Dubai, where 80 percent of the people are expatriates, with 200 nationalities. continued>>