MPV Innaugural Webinar This ought to be a really good event!

Muslims for Progressive Values

Learn about progressive interpretations of Islamic law and how they positively affect GLBITQ rights.
Discuss love's centrality to a Muslim's spiritual life.
Get involved by submitting your questions and comments live!
Read and reflect on the talk on our blog at ProgressiveIslam.org

El-Farouk Khaki (born October 26, 1963) is a Canadian refugee and immigration lawyer and human rights activist on issues including gender equality, sexual orientation, and progressive Islam. He is the New Democratic Party's candidate for the House of Commons in the riding of Toronto Centre in a by-election being held on March 17, 2008.

In 1993, he founded Salaam, the first queer Muslim group in Canada and second in the world. In 2003, he organized the first female-led, mixed-gender Muslim congregational prayers in Canada for the Salaam/Al-Fateha International Conference, and in 2005, organized the first such prayers anywhere to be held in a mosque, and he has been involved in every such public event in Canada since. Among other involvements, he has served on the Toronto Mayor’s Committee on Community & Race Relations, on the board of The 519 Community Centre, and is now elected chair of Africans in Partnership Against AIDS.

Khaki regularly speaks publicly at events and in news media on issues ranging from refugee protection, to the global AIDS crisis, Canadian multiculturalism, racism, persecution of sexual minorities around the world, and religious and racial profiling in the war on terror, among other topics. His appearances include CTV's morning television program Canada AM, CBC Radio One's The Current, and others.

In spring 2007, Khaki received the prestigious Steinert and Ferreiro Award from the Lesbian and Gay Community Appeal Foundation for his "major role in paving the way in Canada for refugee protection on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender", and ground-breaking work on gender equality in the Muslim community. The previous summer, Pride Toronto, one of the world’s largest gay-pride festivals, recognized his work building tolerance and inclusiveness in the Muslim community with the 2006 Pride Award for Excellence in Spirituality.

Access the seminar LIVE at 5pm EST on Sunday, February 24^th by visiting http://www.mpvusa.org/news/values-live/seminar-on-glbtiq-rights/.
The talk will also be available for future download.

Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) seeks to bring together progressive Muslims and friends who share their values to work for a more humane world. We welcome all who are interested in discussing, promoting and working for the implementation of progressive values — social justice, human rights, economic opportunity, separation of church and state — as well as tolerant and inclusive understandings of Islam.

  ¶ 10:40 AM 0 comments links to this post

  Torture and what you can do about it Today the CIA revealed details about its use of the waterboarding technique at Guantanamo, or what the NPR reporter described as controlled drowning. Some people may dismiss this case as something that occurred years ago, and in a limited quantity. But the fact of the matter is having done it once, the CIA can easily justify doing it again. We need to put a stop to waterboarding and other torturous interrogation methods.

In mid February, the Senate is expected to vote on very important anti-torture legislation (Section 327 of H.R. 2082 - the Intelligence Authorization bill). This bill would require the CIA to comply with the restrictions in the Army Field Manual on interrogation of detainees. The U.S. Army Field Manual prohibits torture, as well as cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

Several senators have threatened to raise procedural roadblocks to Section 327 (the anti-torture provision). We need 60 votes in the Senate to keep Section 327 in the bill. It would be very helpful if you would take a few minutes to contact your Senators to urge them to support the Army Field Manual provision in the Intelligence Authorization Conference Report.

You can contact your Senators by calling the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Alternatively, you can look up your Senators' direct lines and email addresses at http://capwiz.com/c-span by entering your zip code and then clicking on the names of your Members.

Please take time this week to contact your Senators to let them know how important it is for them to support the Army Field Manual provision in the Intelligence Authorization Conference Report.

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Fact Sheet on Section 327 of H.R. 2082 (the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008)

1.) Section 327 prohibits all agencies of the U.S. intelligence community, and their contractors, from subjecting detainees to any treatment or technique of interrogation that is not authorized by the Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations. In effect this would extend the McCain torture ban (which currently covers only the military) to all U.S. intelligence agencies. The text of Section 327 can be found at the bottom of this document.

2.) H.R. 2082 (which includes Section 327) is a conference report - that is, it is the final product of a compromise between House and Senate conferees on two versions of the same bill. This conference report passed the House in December on a 222-199 vote. It is now before the Senate for its approval. The text of the conference report can be found at: http://intelligence.senate.gov/conference2008.pdf

3.) Senate Republicans have placed a hold on H.R. 2082 pending the outcome of a parliamentary objection to Section 327. Since Section 327 was not part of either the original House or Senate versions of H.R. 2082, Republicans will probably be able to raise a point of order against Section 327 in order to strip it from the bill. To overrule a point of order requires 60 votes. The U.S. Senate will probably vote on the bill in mid-February.

4.) Senate Republicans have also threatened to filibuster H.R. 2082. To defeat a filibuster also requires 60 votes.

5.) There are a number of Republican Senators who have voted against torture in the past, so even though we need 60 votes to pass this bill, it is possible.

Senators who might vote either way on Section 327 include:

OR - Smith
NH - Sununu
FL - Martinez
KS - Brownback
TN - Alexander
ME - Collins
PA - Specter
MN - Coleman
IN - Lugar
OH - Voinovich
AZ - McCain
VA - Warner
NE - Ben Nelson
CT - Lieberman
IN - Bayh

Text of Section 327:
SEC. 327. LIMITATION ON INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES.
(a) LIMITATION.—No individual in the custody
or under the effective control of an element of
the intelligence community or instrumentality
thereof, regardless of nationality or physical location,
shall be subject to any treatment or technique
of interrogation not authorized by the
United States Army Field Manual on Human
Intelligence Collector Operations.

(b) INSTRUMENTALITY DEFINED.—In this section,
the term ''instrumentality'', with respect to
an element of the intelligence community, means
a contractor or subcontractor at any tier of the
element of the intelligence community.  ¶ 7:21 PM 1 comments links to this post

  Afghani sentenced to death You may have heard of the young Afghani journalism student who has been sentenced to death for an article he passed around in his class. Chances are strong that the "justice" to which he has been subjected has a lot more to do with putting pressure on his older brother, a full-fledged journalist who has been outspoken in his criticism of corruption in the Afghani government. Nonetheless, we once again see a defilation of Islam, and a utter neglect of fundamental values of Islam... freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of thought, freedom of information.

My column on the issues is up at On Faith.

Click here to read it.
  ¶ 6:45 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Sun Valley A picture from my recent trip to Sun Valley to visit my mom and dad with my youngest daughter.



It was cold and sunny, and a lot of fun. The best was the hot tub in the backyard of the house my parents are renting for the winter.

Sorry... no pictures of me rising from the steam in all my glory...  ¶ 10:27 AM 2 comments links to this post

  Barak or Hillary or Edwards? There are times when you have an embarrassment of riches. And this year I'd say the Democrats are suffering from just that. I could vote for any of these three (or for my old favorite Denis Kucinich).

I am agonizing over this year's vote not because I don't like any of the candidates, but because I like things about each of them, but each has a caveat.

I want to vote for Edward because of his dedication to the working class and his analysis of the pernicious effect corporate America has had on politics and the quality of life of your average worker. He is right on in this issue which for me is a biggie. For that reason I really lean towards him. But... he represents the status quo in terms of being yet another while male.

I want to vote for Hilary. It is way past time since we had a female president. I am impressed with her dignity under fire, and I believe in the sincerity of her commitment to important progressive issues like women's rights, and universal healthcare. But... she seem too calculating, to willing to say or do what is politically expedient. I worry that under her leadership ideals would take a back seat to deal brokering.

I also want to vote for Barak. It is way past time we had a black president. He is eloquent, and I believe he is solidly for progressive values. But... I worry that he is inexperienced and will find it difficult to work with world leaders or even congressmen and women who perceive him as naive and overly idealistic, and thus not a real force to be contended with.

And voting for Barak means not voting for Hillary. Voting for Edwards means not voting for Barak.

I can only hope that if Barak wins the primaries Hillary is his choice for VP, and Edwards gets appointed as Secretary of the Treasury or some other high lvl cabinet position. And similarly, if Hillary wins, that she take on Barak as her VP. Then at least we'd get two out of three, with influence from the third.  ¶ 9:52 PM 5 comments links to this post

  A Land Called Paradise Aside from the fact that Kareem Salama is the first self-proclaimed Muslim country musician (which is quite something in itself) this video is really wonderful. It brings tears to my eyes... which I guess goes to show the depth of my own need to be seen as an individual human, not some automoton of religiosity, some nameless faceslesss "Muslim other." That, of course, is indicative of the state of mind of the entire American Muslim community at this time. After 9-11, far too many of us have felt others viewed us as some how now quite fully human, not quite whole, but as a caricature of Islamic identity, a epitome of Muslimness, and a Muslimness which is understood in horrible terms - violent, irrational, full of anger and hate, misogynistic, homophobic, extreme and backwards. The depth of pain that our community feels at these terrible judgements shines through this video which is a testament to the humanity of average Muslims.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. If the video doesn't work you can find it at: http://www.linktv.org/onenation/films/view/238

  ¶ 11:34 AM 2 comments links to this post

  Humanity Prevails The House voted today to outlaw waterboarding and other interogation methods that do not meet the Geneva convention standards for the treatment of prisoners of war.

Thank God for small miracles.

Let us hope that the Senate follows suit, and Bush doesn't veto it.

Call your senator today and tell her/him to support the ban on torture.  ¶ 3:30 PM 0 comments links to this post