President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama Speech in Chicago - Nov 4 2008 - Video 17 Mins
Barack Hussein Obama will become the most powerful man in the world when he becomes president, and it’s not just the US which is waitng to see what happens. Independent correspondents from around the world explain what other countries are expecting.
EUROPE
By John Lichfield
After eight years of a Bush administration which divided, ignored or patronised Europe, EU leaders are bubbling with excitement at the prospect of a more creative, transatlantic partnership with President-elect Barack Obama.
The European Commission president, Jose-Manuel Barroso spoke of a “new deal” between the US and the EU, to shape the global agenda from trade to human rights to climate change. The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, said: “At a time when we all face immense challenges, your election will inspire immense new hope in France, in Europe and in the entire world.”
The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, said, pointedly, that she that she looked forward to a “closer and more trusting cooperation between the United States and Europe.”
Others warned, however, that, once the gloss wore off, an Obama presidency was likely to bump against fundamental differences of interest between Europe and the US on issues ranging from trade, to climate change and how to handle a more assertive or belligerent Russia.
There was also a notable difference of tone yesterday in the reactions of those countries dismissed by the Bush administration as “Old Europe” and the reactions of some of the former Soviet bloc countries, which had aligned themselves with the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld worldview.
Obama’s triumph was received ecstatically in Germany and above all in France, where over 90 per cent of people had told pollsters that they wanted a Democratic victory. John McCain’s defeat was seen as a crushing disavowal of the conservative and neo-conservative forces which orchestrated a bullying campaign of denigration of all things French after Paris had actively opposed the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
In Poland and the Czech Republic, the reaction was more muted. The Polish foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, said that he hoped the future President Obama would ignore Democratic Party misgivings and push ahead with the Bush administration’s plans for an anti-missile defence and radar shield based in Poland and the Czech Republic. The shield – angrily opposed by Moscow - is likely to become a key litmus test of future US and European dealings with Russia.
FRANCE
by John Lichfield in Paris
In no other western country was a Barack Obama victory more anxiously awaited than in France. More than 90 per cent of French people – more than 90 per cent of the parliamentary deputies in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right party – had told pollsters that they preferred Obama to John McCain.
The Democrat’s sweeping victory was seen in France as an opportunity to create a more cooperative – and more equal – relationship between Europe and the United States, on issues ranging from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to the global financial crisis and climate change.
More than that, Obama’s triumph was seen as a crushing disavowal of the conservative and neo-conservative forces which orchestrated a bullying campaign of denigration of all things French after Paris had actively opposed the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
“Where George W. Bush pronounced, bulldozed and failed, Barack Obama will listen, cooperate and then decide,” said Alain Duhamel, one of France’s wisest political commentators.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has annoyed many French people – including some in his own camp – by ingratiating himself with the formerly frog-bashing Bush administration since his election 17 months ago. Even he, however, has scarcely hidden his preference for Obama in recent weeks.
In a glowing congratulatory letter yesterday, M. Sarkozy addressed to “Dear Barak (sic)”, the president said that Mr Obama’s “brilliant victory” and “exceptional campaign” had demonstrated to the world the continuing strength of American democracy.
“At a time when we all face immense challenges, your election will inspire immense new hope in France, in Europe and in the entire world,” President Sarkozy said.
Francçis Hollande, the leader of the main opposition party, the Parti Socialiste, paid tribute to the “audacity and courage” of the American people for electing a “man of progress” despite the “colour of his skin”.
He warned, however, that President Obama would govern in what he saw to be America’s best interest. Despite the global excitement, Obama could not, and would not, be a “president of the world”.
French diplomats issued similar words of caution in private. An Obama presidency, they said, should create a more equal and more cooperative transatlantic relationship. Once the gloss wore off, they warned, American interests would reassert themselves on such potential transatlantic flash-points as trade, global warming and relations with Russia.
IRAQ
By Patrick Cockburn
It became clear during the presidential election that neither Barack Obama nor John McCain had much idea of what was happening in Iraq. During the early stages of the campaign the two men were divided over the question of an American military withdrawal.
Mr Obama was only in the race because he had opposed the invasion in 2003. Mr McCain claimed the war could still be won.
This debate is now out of date, though nobody in the US has paid much attention to this in recent months because of the economic crisis. The Iraqi government is confidently demanding that the US withdraw its combat troops from the cities at the end of June 2009 and from Iraq entirely at the end of 2011. The timing of the pullout is not very different from Mr
Obama’s plan to withdraw over sixteen months.
The danger is that the new Democratic administration will be paralysed by fear that it will be accused of selling out Iraq just when victory was in sight. Mr Obama may also be tempted to appoint tired old foreign policy veterans of the Clinton administration, regardless of their previous lack of achievement in the Middle East, in a bid to reassure the powers that be
in Washington that he plans no radical changes.
Iraqis, with the exception of the Kurds, will in general be overjoyed to see the back of President Bush. There is nothing new in this. Polls in Iraq have always shown that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was popular outside the Sunni community but the US military occupation was never accepted. The Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki is now portraying the stalled Status
of Forces Agreement with the US as a way of ending the occupation. It will be easier for Mr Obama than Mr Bush to make the necessary concessions, many of them cosmetic, to get the measure past the Iraqi parliament.
There is another area in which an Obama administration could make vital changes in policy. The two main allies of the present Iraqi government are Washington and Tehran, yet Mr Bush deluded himself that Iranian influence in Baghdad could be minimized. From the beginning his occupation of Iraq was undermined by his foolish portrayal of the invasion of Iraq as a staging post on the way to overthrowing the Iranian and Syrian governments.
Not surprisingly they made sure the occupation never stabilized. Once this self-destructive policy of confrontation is reversed and the US talks seriously to them then one of the main sources of instability in Iraq will disappear.
MIDDLE EAST
By Donald Macintyre
Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday warmly congratulated Barack Obama for his “historic and impressive” victory. And certainly strenuous efforts have been made by Obama allies to reassure Israelis that they will in the words this week of Martin Indyk, Bill Clinton’s one time ambassador to Tel Aviv, have a “true friend” in the new White House.
Much will depend on what you mean by friend. Given that Israel is facing an election of its own which could return the right under Benjamin Netanyahu to power, it is hard to forget Mr Obama’s own remark, during the Ohio primary, that you didn’t have to sign up to every policy of Likud—Mr Netanyahu’s party—to be a friend of Israel.
The Israeli right has –surely correctly–feared that the new President, will not be the kind of friend who can make a Knesset speech, as his predecessor did earlier this year, which utterly fails even to exhort Israel to make concessions for peace.
The left has hoped that he will be the kind of candid friend who pushes Israel towards the agreed end to the occupation which they hope he believes is in its own –and America’s–interests.
Some in the middle—and in the Israeli establishment—actually see the Obama victory as a positive on Iran despite worries about his willingness to engage with Tehran, on the grounds that he has a much better chance of building an international coalition to stop it building nuclear weapons. Their fear is rather that domestic preoccupations — notably economic — will stop him prioritising the Middle East, including a deal with Syria, which would require the US at the table.
Bush has left more of an Israeli-Palestinian process, however flawed, than Clinton did after the collapse of Camp David. It is beset with problems including the control of Gaza by Hamas, whom Obama has said he won’t talk to unless they transform their stance. And many Palestinians, their hopes raised and dashed so often before, are anyway sceptical if an Obama presidency will make much difference. But Ghassan Khatib, the moderate Palestinian intellectual and former minister said yesterday by defusing the Iran crisis Mr Obama could create a markedly better atmosphere in the region, including for progress in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Their hope will be that he will at least fulfil his promise this year to make—in stark contrast to Bush and several other presidents—to make the Middle East a first term priority.
PAKISTAN
By Andrew Buncombe
Pakistan is the crucible of south Asia whose stability is key to containing the spread of Islamic militancy. More than a year ago, Obama angered Pakistan by voicing his support for airstrikes against al-Qa’ida militants inside the country on the border with Afghanistan and even the deployment of troops if Islamabad “cannot or will not act” against them. His promise to “take out” militants in the tribal areas was not well received.
In reality, the Pakistan government would have worked with the administration of whichever candidate had won. The policies of Mr Obama and Mr McCain were little different in regard to targeting militants in the tribal areas. Both men have also stressed the importance of the military operation in Afghanistan. Mr Obama said he will send an additional 7,000 US troops.
Pakistan’s prime minister congratulated Mr Obama, saying he hoped he would promote peace and stability. “I hope that under your dynamic leadership, the United States will continue to be a source of global peace and new ideas for humanity,” said Yousuf Gilani.
While some commentators in Pakistan have pointed out that “Democrats traditionally support India while Republicans favour Pakistan”, few are expecting a radical shift in US policy. “It’s not going to make much difference,” said Dr Rasul Baksh Rais, of the Lahore University of Management Sciences. “The US will continue its policy in Afghanistan. As far as this is concerned there seems to be consensus.”
More recently the now president-elect had talked of India and Pakistan finding a solution to the Kashmir problem. He said Pakistan needed to concentrate on dealing with militants, rather than the perceived threat from India. Many thought it was commonsense, but some in India believed he was proposing a US involvement in the issue, even raising the prospect of former president Bill Clinton being dispatched as a special envoy.
Unsurprisingly, in both India and Pakistan Obama has captured the imagination of younger people. While Indian culture traditionally respects its elders - and elects leaders who might look decidedly antique almost anywhere else - in India his campaign has received celebrity-style coverage in the run-up to the election. For a part of the world that for some long lived under foreign, white, ruled, the election of a non-White president by the world’s most powerful democracy clearly has resonance.
In a message to Mr Obama, India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said: “Your extraordinary journey to the White House will inspire people not only in your country but also around the world.”
AFRICA
By Daniel Howden in Nairobi
Barack Obama’s victory was greeted with such enthusiasm across the largest and poorest continent on earth that it seemed at times to be an African, not an American election. It is here that the people he invoked “huddled around radios in forgotten corners of the world,” are to be found.
However, Africa was almost invisible in the candidate’s position papers, with references to Sudan, Aids and aid all largely indistinguishable from those of John McCain.
He is feted as a symbol, as a communicator and as an agent of change, and many suspect his greatest impact is likely to be limited to the first of those three.
In Kenya, the land of his father’s birth, expectations and reality clash most obviously. The country already enjoys a serious aid budget and the continent’s largest US diplomatic presence, change is unlikely.
Liberia’s president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a close ally of Washington, welcomed his election but said that Africans should not expect anything dramatic, especially while the US has its own economic crisis.
Not everyone moved to dampen expectations though. South Africa’s president Kgalema Motlanthe said: “We express the hope that poverty and under-development in Africa, which remains a challenge for humanity, will indeed continue to receive a greater attention of the focus of the new administration.”
The one area likely to be addressed in some form is Sudan. Darfur, and before it the plight of Christians in South Sudan, has captured the attention of the American public and by extension its politicians.
There is a perception that Democrats have taken a softer approach to the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.
LATIN AMERICA
By Paul Scheltus in Buenos Aires
Latin Americans are hoping for more carrot and less stick from President Obama than under his predecessor, President Bush. Immigration will be top of the agenda for most governments. Legalising the estimated 15 million illegal workers in the US and introducing a temporary worker programme, as well as secure borders are a priority for all Latin American nations, according to former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castañeda.
In Buenos Aires yesterday morning young people from several Latin American nations echoed that theme. “It was time for a change,” said 24-year old Nacho Giretti. “I hope that from now on the treatment of immigrants in the United States will be more humane.” Under President Obama, relations with Cuba are expected to change. Obama has said he will ease travel restriction and allow unlimited remittances to be sent. Those signs were welcomed by dissidents and party officials in Cuba alike.
Pending free trade agreements, drug trafficking and energy policy are just some of many regional issues that need urgent attention. All require that President Obama “extend a hand” to Latin America, as he has promised he will.
CHINA
By Clifford Coonan
Although China is not a democracy and is run as a single-party state by the Communist Party, there has been keen interest in the election among the Chinese.Beijingers enthusiastically welcomed the election of Barack Obama as a victory for an attractive young candidate who would boost US-Chinese relations and resolve the global financial crisis.
“Obama is great. This election has really changed the history of America and racism in America. Obama can handle the economy better than Bush, he is more open to new things and also he won’t start a war somewhere,” said Hu Feimin, 26, a secretary from Anhui province.
The Beijing leadership is anxious to ensure change in the world’s most powerful country does not harm the interests of China, an emerging superpower.
“America has changed colour, it’s good. Now I hope to see practical progress in future relations between China and America,” said Liu Chenbing, 32, an engineer from Shanxi province. “What I hope for most is that America can do something good for unification with Taiwan and that the American financial crisis can be dealt with quickly and effectively,” he said.
President George Bush is popular here, but state media ran resoundingly positive coverage of Obama’s win, suggesting the official view on Obama is this is a president the Chinese leadership can do business with. State broadcaster CCTV hailed his Confucian qualities of filial piety and his strong family values.
Pundits hailed the incoming president as a positive symbol of change of the US.
“In the last 30 years, the relationship between China and the USA has come a long way. I believe the new government will continue to strengthen the cooperation between China and the U.S.A.,” said Tao Wenzhao, an American Studies researcher at the influential Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Shen Tianhong, 25, who works at a property management company, was surprised by the result.
“I thought white people dominated America and the presidency. But it’s a good decision,” she said.
“This is better for the world. And Obama can handle the American financial crisis more quickly, so that is good for China,” said Ms Shen.
Zou Qinyue, manager of a Sichuan restaurant, was focused on the economic aspect.
“Black or white, he must have something special to become president. I hope the economy stabilises, because then the global economy will stablise.”
Some young people learned what they know about US politics from watching US TV shows.
“The funny thing is that in “24″, there is a black president also. A black president can do good in his presidency, just like David Palmer,” said university student Zhu Ming.
President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama Speech in Chicago - Nov 4 2008 - Video 17 Mins
Nairobi, Kenya - Nairobi declared Thursday Nov. 6 a public holiday to celebrate the poll victory of Kenya’s favorite grandson - U.S. president-elect Sen. Barack Hussein Obama (D-IL).
In his congratulatory note, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, said, according to BBC, “We the Kenyan people are immensely proud of your Kenyan roots.”
Obama’s father (who has passed away) hailed from Kogelo Village in western Kenya. Following Obama’s triumph over rival Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the whole nation celebrated. Obama’s step grandmother, Mama Sarah Hussein Obama, was spotted by BBC dancing outside her house as soon as it was confirmed he won.
Prior to the official declaration of Obama’s victory, Mama Sarah cautioned against early celebrations, but instead urged her countrymen to continuously pray for her grandson.
The rest of Africa was also in jubilation since Obama is the first African-American to become U.S. president.
South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, in a letter, said, “Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare a dream of wanting to change the world for a better place.”
Barack Hussein obamaObama’s Kenyan relatives dance in the streets
In unison they began chanting in the Luo tongue: “Obama biro! Yao neyo,” or “Obama is coming! Clear the way!”
As the government in Nairobi declared the day a public holiday in celebration, the people of Nyangoma Kogelo, a small village in the hills of western Kenya where Mr Obama’s father grew up, were celebrating the ascension of their relative to the highest office in the world.
When CNN called the election in Mr Obama’s favour, the family ran out of the homestead of their matriarch, Mama Sarah, the President-elect’s step-grandmother. “We’re going to the White House! We’re going to the White House!” they cried as they danced down the driveway.
“This is what true democracy and humanity is all about,” said Malik Obama, his stepbrother.
Kezia Obama, who was the first wife of Mr Obama’s father and now lives in Bracknell in England, sat next to him in a burgundy dress and headscarf.
“First and foremost, let me congratulate my brother on his – our – victory. It is a great accomplishment. The American people have spoken and the world appreciates it. May Almighty God, Allah , peace be upon him, bring peace and blessing on all of us and our wonderful world,” said Malik Obama.
Despite the encouraging opinion polls, the family had controlled their expectations, said Reyson Obama, 32, a local barber. “I was just waiting for the result. When people are going to the ballot box you can’t judge before it’s finished.”
As the result became clear, a crowd of local well-wishers marched into the compound, ululating with joy, chanting and waving freshly-cut branches in the air, a traditional Kenyan celebration, before parading a cardboard cut-out of Mr Obama around the homestead.
Mama Sarah, 86, said: “I’m very happy for what’s happened and I’m happy for the whole world.”
Most residents of Nyangoma Kogelo are poor subsistence farmers. The Obama family home is modest and the dirt road to the village is only now being graded.
To one side, a group of men cut Barack Hussein Obama to pieces and hung them from a tree in preparation for a feast. The bull, named in honour of the new president, may have been the only McCain supporter for miles. He was doomed from the moment Ohio was called.
August 2008 Import Highlights: October 14, 2008
Preliminary monthly data on the origins of crude oil imports in August 2008 has been released and it shows that two countries exported more than 1.40 million barrels per day to the United States. Including those countries, five countries exported over 1.00 million barrels per day of crude oil to the United State s (see table below). The top five exporting countries accounted for 66 percent of United States crude oil imports in August while the top ten sources accounted for approximately 86 percent of all U.S. crude oil imports. The top sources of US crude oil imports for August wereCanada (1.833 million barrels per day), Saudi Arabia (1.533 million barrels per day), Mexico (1.292 million barrels per day), Venezuela (1.146 million barrels per day), and Nigeria (1.035 million barrels per day). The rest of the top ten sources, in order, were Iraq (0.663 million barrels per day), Angola (0.483 million barrels per day), Algeria (0.348 million barrels per day), Ecuador (0.291 million barrels per day), and Colombia (0.247 million barrels per day). Total crude oil imports averaged 10.284 million barrels per day in August, which is an increase of (0.183) million barrels per day from July 2008.
Canada remained the largest exporter of total petroleum in August, exporting 2.198 million barrels per day to the United States, which is a decrease from last month (2.390 thousand barrels per day). The second largest exporter of total petroleum was Saudi Arabia with 1.573 million barrels per day.
Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries
Crude Oil Imports (Top 15 Countries)
(Thousand Barrels per Day)
Country
Aug-08
Jul-08
YTD 2008
Aug-07
YTD 2007
CANADA
1,833
1,960
1,890
1,968
1,884
SAUDI ARABIA
1,533
1,661
1,542
1,468
1,418
MEXICO
1,292
1,200
1,207
1,381
1,447
VENEZUELA
1,146
1,187
1,051
1,136
1,120
NIGERIA
1,035
741
998
1,200
1,028
IRAQ
663
696
675
520
479
ANGOLA
483
640
512
400
524
ALGERIA
348
232
312
572
509
ECUADOR
291
226
209
240
196
COLOMBIA
247
178
190
152
126
KUWAIT
203
122
205
139
187
BRAZIL
169
241
217
250
168
CHAD
139
108
106
62
67
AZERBAIJAN
133
134
67
33
47
EQUATORIAL GUINEA
123
66
68
0
55
Total Imports of Petroleum (Top 15 Countries)
(Thousand Barrels per Day)
Country
Aug-08
Jul-08
YTD 2008
Aug-07
YTD 2007
CANADA
2,198
2,390
2,427
2,527
2,467
SAUDI ARABIA
1,573
1,675
1,560
1,499
1,443
MEXICO
1,399
1,290
1,315
1,474
1,578
VENEZUELA
1,304
1,340
1,210
1,320
1,357
NIGERIA
1,166
822
1,067
1,224
1,076
IRAQ
663
696
675
520
479
ALGERIA
530
456
525
827
736
ANGOLA
495
652
523
412
536
RUSSIA
472
556
484
416
419
VIRGIN ISLANDS
298
294
326
320
326
ECUADOR
298
227
216
240
201
COLOMBIA
257
191
210
181
144
UNITED KINGDOM
222
187
218
174
300
BRAZIL
208
272
244
280
214
KUWAIT
203
122
207
139
192
Note: The data in the tables above exclude oil imports into the U.S. territories.
Good news - Nelson Mandella has been removed from the US Terrorist watch list.
In 1990, Mandela was freed after 27 years in prison for crimes committed during the struggle against Apartheid, a repressive regime that subjugated black South Africans. In 1994, he was elected South Africa’s first black president.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says “common sense” suggests Mandela should be removed. He says the issue “raises a troubling and difficult debate about what groups are considered terrorists and which are not.”
When ANC members apply for visas to the USA, they are flagged for questioning and need a waiver to be allowed in the country. In 2002, former ANC chairman Tokyo Sexwale was denied a visa. In 2007, Barbara Masekela, South Africa’s ambassador to the United States from 2002 to 2006, was denied a visa to visit her ailing cousin and didn’t get a waiver until after the cousin had died, Berman’s legislation says.
The Islamic holy month of Ramadan began Monday. Among many things, it is a time when Muslims are called to practice charity, or zakat, to the needy at the same time they practice fasting during daylight hours.
In the Valley and in 17 major U.S. cities today, the national Islamic Relief Foundation is hosting the Day of Dignity “to give Muslims an opportunity to fulfill their Ramadan obligation to help the needy.”
The Cultural Cup Food Bank, a Muslim-operated food bank in Phoenix, is leading the Day of Dignity effort, which actually began Friday and runs through Sunday, intentionally bridging the three days in order to be an interfaith project that can better involve Christians, Jews and Muslims whose weekend days of worship vary.
The main activities will be 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at the Human Services Campus, 1125 W. Jackson St., Phoenix, when more than 200 volunteers will distribute food, clothing, hygiene items and toys. There will be health screenings for those in need. “It brings people from different faiths and backgrounds together in a common effort to relieve the suffering of those in need,” said Zarinah Awad, founder and director of the Cultural Cup.
Awad started the food bank in her home in 2003. “I knew a lot of families, Muslim families, and immigrant Muslims that needed help with food, so I started this out of my home,” Awad said. Some of the economic problems, she said, were related to a backlash toward Muslims in wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America.
Her efforts snowballed, and she secured a small building in downtown Phoenix from which to dispense food and clothing. Then it moved into a larger building at 537 E. Osborn Road, where it barely has enough space for a food pantry, offices and a Saturday wellness clinic.
Few know a Muslim food bank exists, Awad acknowledged. There may even be the stereotype that Muslims take care of their own needy, as is especially seen in such faiths as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Muslims are just like anybody else,” she said. “We live here in the United States, and we are suffering with the economy like anybody else. It is affecting us, too.” She said Muslim refugees arrive in the Valley and may have great difficulty finding jobs.
“A lot of them are farmers who come here, and they don’t know how to do some of the things that we expect them to get into as soon as they get here … so we help them out with food, housing and every other thing,” said Awad, 60, who has four grown children.
Raised Roman Catholic in Berkeley, Calif., as Frances Marie Dromgoole, Awad said she was someone who always had lots of questions, but was told by her mother not to question her Catholic faith. “I didn’t really understand it. I wanted to know about God, and there were questions when I was sitting in the services,” she said. “They never had anyone who looked like me. I could never relate.”
In time, she would explore the Baptist faith and Buddhism. During her 20s, she worked in a radio station in San Diego, Calif., hosted a show with entertainers and scholars, and gained many contacts in the music and entertainment industry. She would serve as mistress of ceremonies for bands like Earth, Wind and Fire and party with such celebrities as comedian Richard Pryor. “It was very exciting, but a lot of bad lifestyle,” Awad said.
When she came across an Islamic newspaper, she read it and went deeper into its beliefs. Awad decided to convert in 1977 and to actively practice Islam, including visiting Muslims in prisons. In the mid-1990s, she met and married a Muslim man, who soon wanted to return to his roots in Kenya and Somalia. The family went with him. But after six months, she said, she found the culture, language and economy too much to handle. “We found it was just very difficult” and “we really couldn’t survive there,” she said, noting she also had health issues living in Somalia.
“I came back here with my family because he (her husband) refused to return back here,” she said. “I decided we needed to come home and start all over again here in America.” They settled in Phoenix partly because it had a strong Somali community. She said it felt like being Somali refugees.
“They helped me get temporary housing in the Somali village off Black Canyon Highway in Phoenix,” she said. Awad said she encountered problems getting food boxes, including foods acceptable to the Muslim diet. They must be “halal,” or permissible, including meat from animals properly slaughtered according to Islamic law. Pork is forbidden.
Awad said when she sought food boxes from agencies, she found it “not geared for everybody. Someone basically said to me, ‘Beggars can’t be choosers — take what you get.’ ”
“People should not have to go through this just because you need help,” Awad said.
In its five years, the Cup of Culture has established itself as a food bank that helps about 300 families a week. The St. Mary’s Food Bank provides two deliveries weekly, with grocery chains and food drives supplying much of the rest. At several points each week, “we are totally out of food,” Awad said. She estimates about 20 percent of families served are Muslims. So far, the operation has not received United Way allocations, but it has developed strong support in the social services network to meet some of its needs.
“I like helping people out,” said Tabib Baraka, a volunteer for 2 1/2 years at the food bank. He said he finds families “feeling good about themselves” after going home with groceries. “It is one way people feel good. When they get a package, they say, ‘God bless you.’ People have tears in their eyes,” he said.
The food bank’s volunteer chairman, who goes simply by Mini’imah, said Awad has worked hard to start the food bank from scratch and is now developing grant proposals and working on building designs for a larger center if funding can be found.
“I do wardrobes for women for job interviews, and when they come back, they let us know that they have been successful in their job interviews,” said Mini’imah, who has done community work for 44 years.
Job training, finding house goods and directing people to other social services are other efforts offered at the Cultural Cup, she said. “We have to show people why we are here,” Awad said. “We do it because we want to help.”
By TONY MARRERO at Hernando Today
http://www2.hernandotoday.com/ - Published: June 12, 2008
BROOKSVILLE, Tampa FL (USA) - For some three dozen local Muslim physicians, calling Hernando County home means more than living and practicing here.
It also means making a contribution, said Dr. Husam Zarad, a Brooksville internist.
Now Zarad and his colleagues are set do that by helping uninsured residents who often go without medical care because they lack the means to pay.
The physicians will open the Crescent Community Clinic in Brooksville within the next two weeks to provide free medical care to uninsured, low-income residents.
“Hernando is really our hometown, and this is where the need is,” Zarad said Wednesday as he stood in the foyer of the clinic, located at 656 S. Broad St. in the Brook Plaza.
Physicians in the county’s Muslim community are donating time and money to the cause.
The clinic is modeled after similar ones in Tampa, Chicago and Los Angeles, Zarad said.
The 1,400-square-foot clinic, which features four examining rooms, will initially be open every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and at least one weekday, though the day and hours haven’t been set yet, Zarad said.
Jean Rags, the county’s director of health and human services, said the clinic will help meet a burgeoning need. The county’s uninsured rate is about 17.5 percent and likely growing, Rags said during a press conference at the clinic Wednesday.
There are social service programs to help the uninsured and needy, but Rags said the new clinic will help provide much needed reinforcements.
“We can’t do it alone,” Rags said. “That’s the bottom line.”
The clinic will work similar to the Project Access program of the Hernando County Health Department, which serves patients who are uninsured and who have an income within 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
Haydee Santana, who coordinates the Project Access program, said the new clinic will be especially helpful because a number of specialists have already signed up to participate. Project Access, which also relies on volunteer physicians, has had trouble recruiting specialists, Santana said.
“Having a group of people like that working together will be really great,” Santana said.
Zarad said he already has some 15 specialists on the volunteer staff.
Dr. Allam Reheem of Spring Hill, a pain management specialist, is one of them.
“It’s a way to give back to the community, and it’s a service that’s badly needed,” Reheem said.
Also on hand Wednesday was Ahmed Bedier. Bedier is the former director of the Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and now is serving as a spokesman for the clinic.
Bedier acknowledged the somewhat rocky history Hernando has had with the Muslim community, including shots fired into a mosque here a few years ago and, more recently, the firestorm created by the comments about Islam made by a former county commissioner’s wife.
The Crescent Clinic transcends politics, religion and ethnicity, Bedier said.
“We’re not going to ask (patients) if they’re conservative, liberal, Muslim or Jew,” Bedier said, “we’re just going to ask how we can help them.”
Lafreda Shannon of Brooksville stepped outside the coin-operated laundry business next door to the new clinic to watch the press conference.
Shannon, 32, of Brooksville, says she has insurance but knows many people who don’t and who would benefit from the clinic.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Shannon said. “I’ll be putting out the word.”
To find out more about the clinic and its services, call 352-799-5500.
Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com
CHICAGO - As Marcia Macy chatted with her dog walker in the driveway of her Wheaton, Ill., home recently, a young Muslim man passed her and hooked a plastic bag containing a Quran on her doorknob.
Unlike most religious solicitors, the man didn’t try to speak with her or engage her in debate. He simply left her a 378-page paperback English translation of the holy book of Islam.
“I’d read it just to see what it says, but I believe in Jesus, not Allah ,” said Macy, a longtime Christian. “They have a right to do it … but I feel pretty strong in my faith.”
If Macy reads the text, she will have fulfilled the goal of the Book of Signs Foundation. The Muslim organization says that since July it has distributed more than 70,000 free English Qurans to homes in the Chicago area and an additional 30,000 around Houston.
The Christian stronghold of Wheaton, Ill., is the group’s latest stop. The foundation spent the previous three weeks in Chicago’s Hyde Park and Jackson Park neighborhoods.
Organizers said their aim is to help people develop their own opinions about Islam instead of being misled by common misconceptions about the faith that have been especially egregious since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“We’re just trying to be honest brokers of information,” said Wajahat Sayeed, founder and director of Book of Signs, which also is known as al-Furqaan Foundation. “You make your own judgment.”
Distributing free scripture is not new, of course. Many Christian groups pass out Bibles; Gideons International distributed almost 450,000 in September in a weeklong “New York Bible Blitz.” And other Muslim groups have given away free Qurans. Lake County’s Ahmadiyya Muslim Community reports distributing more than 1,000 since 2005, with a boom in requests for Spanish-translated Qurans in the last year.
But the Book of Signs’ long-term goal is particularly ambitious: that each household in the U.S. possess a Quran, even if the residents are not Muslims.
On Thursday, two teams - each with two walkers and one person driving a minivan full of books - crisscrossed the manicured neighborhoods of Wheaton.
Their chosen approach is non-invasive. Walkers don’t hand the books directly to residents or engage in debate. Some people who were out walking their dogs or planting annuals said they assumed the men were passing out newspapers or delivering advertisements.
The book includes a phone number where people can leave a message if they have questions or comments, and Sayeed checks those messages daily. He said about 30 percent are appreciative. An additional 30 percent are indifferent and request that someone return to pick up the book. The rest are often expletive-laden.
, peace be upon him, bring peace and blessing on all of us and our wonderful world,” said Malik Obama.