Behind the tears she shed on CNN this past 4th of July weekend is a brilliant, brave and beautiful 25 year old woman by the name of Slma Shelbayah. A doctoral student in Journalism and guest professor at Georgia State University, it appears the system geared up against her in a most ill-mannered way. It seemed okay in 2008 for a University Professor to harass a Muslim student and get away with it...
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — A Georgia State University professor quit this week as director of the school’s Middle East Institute, alleging that GSU failed to properly handle incidents of anti-Muslim bias against one of her students and then took action against both herself and the student when they complained.
“One of my real concerns is that the way the college handled the original grievance and the way in which the college retaliated in the aftermath has sent a very clear signal around the university that, if you’re a faculty member or if you’re in a position of power, it’s OK to discriminate,” said Dona Stewart, who has been at the school for 13 years and has been reassigned to the department of geosciences. “For me, this is not necessarily a Muslim issue, it’s a civil-rights issue.”
The incident began last August, when Slma Shelbayah, then studying for a Ph.D. and working as a visiting instructor at GSU’s MEI, complained that a communications professor had harassed her during a departmental breakfast for Ph.D. candidates, according to a complaint she filed in November with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission. Stewart filed a separate complaint in January.
Contributing Writer
Monday, June 29, 2009
Category: News > City > Business
Local Islamic leaders and city officials said they are open to the possibility of Berkeley being home to the first fully accredited Islamic college in the nation.
Zaytuna College, located in Downtown Berkeley at 2070 Allston Way, Suite 300, is moving ahead with plans to seek accreditation as a four-year institution after graduating its pilot class of five students in 2008, according to the college's Web site.
Advisors for the project have scheduled a June vote to decide whether Zaytuna College could open as an officially accredited institution as early as fall 2010, according to the Associated Press.
"I think it would be wonderful to have," said Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. "It would be a nice addition to our academic and religious community."
Two prominent American Muslim scholars, Imam Zaid Shakir and Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, are behind the project, having spent years developing a curriculum that incorporates a liberal arts education and training in Islamic scholarship, according to the AP.
Officials at Zaytuna College were unavailable for comment.
The college will offer courses in Arabic language and in Islamic theology and law, said Munir Jiwa, who works regularly with Zaytuna College and founded the Center of Islamic Studies at the Graduate Theological Union.
The college will represent a "collaboration" between scholarship and the practice of the Islamic faith, providing training for the Islamic religious leaders who are much needed throughout the country, he said.
"This collaboration is important for increasing the role religion plays in public life," he said. "Zaytuna, UC Berkeley and the GTU are leaders in these conversations."
Ramy Salah, former president of the UC Berkeley Muslim Students Association, said that the association has strong ties to Zaytuna and looks forward to its becoming more established.
"American Muslim identity is something new and evolving," Salah said. "The American Muslim scholars at Zaytuna have the resources for American Muslims to develop their identity and knowledge of the religion."
Tags: Zaytuna University
Article Link: http://www.dailycal.org/article/105981
Like the light of a meteor streaking across the crisp, cold, clear sky of a winter’s night, Michael Jackson streaked across the sky defining this country’s cultural horizons. None of us coming of age in urban America will forget Michael’s debut onto the public stage with his brothers as part of the phenomenally successfulJackson 5. Hit after hit, “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” “The Love You Save,” “I’ll Be There,” rocketed up the Billboard Charts to number one. I can still reel them all off from memory some forty years later. For better or worse, they are indelibly etched into my mind, and have played a part in defining my soul.
In the manner of Elvis or the Beatles, Michael is unwittingly both a cause and a symptom of America’s national obsession with celebrity, currently on display in the American Idol mania. Celebrity trumps catastrophe every time. Far too few of us make any attempt to understand why jobs are drying up, why mortgages are collapsing, why we spend half-a-trillion dollars to service the interest on the national debt, why our government’s administration, despite being elected on an anti-war platform, is still committed to two unnecessary and unjust wars waged by the earlier administration, wars that continue to involve civilians casualties on an almost daily basis. Instead, we drown in trivia, especially trivia related to celebrity. And the response to Michael’s death is part of the trivial pursuits of American popular culture. The real news about death in America is that twenty Iraq and Afghan war veterans are committing suicide every day. But that does not make the front page nor is it discussed as seriously as the King of Pop’s cardiac arrest.
