A fellow at New York City's Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Sam Parnia is one of the world's leading experts on the scientific study of death. Last week Parnia and his colleagues at the Human Consciousness Project announced their first major undertaking: a 3-year exploration of the biology behind "out-of-body" experiences. The study, known as AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation), involves the collaboration of 25 major medical centers through Europe, Canada and the U.S. and will examine some 1,500 survivors of cardiac arrest. TIME spoke with Parnia about the project's origins, its skeptics and the difference between the mind and the brain. Read details ...
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You are Invited to Join Faiths Act Fellowship
Dear Friend,
I believe that young people will lead the way in building inter-religious cooperation for the 21st century. That is why I am so pleased that on September 25, 2008 we have launched a partnership between the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and my organisation, Interfaith Youth Core, to engage exceptional young people whose leadership motivated by faith
will result in real impact on the lives of others. As changemakers for current and future generations, young people have the opportunity to establish a new vision of inter-religious interaction that places protecting the welfare of the world's poorest at its centre
The Faiths Act Fellowship
brings together thirty young leaders drawn from the different faiths from the US, UK and Canada to embark on a 10 month journey of interfaith service. Training begins with a two-month intensive initiative that includes fieldwork with primary health care partners
fighting deaths from malaria in Africa. Fellows will return to their home countries for 8 months to mobilize young people of faith to raise awareness and resources to promote the Millennium Development Goals. They will particularly focus on fighting deaths from malaria.
Jess Kent is an example of one such young person. Inspired by the Jewish notion of tikkun olam, or repairing the world, Jess has been mobilizing student religious groups at Brandeis University to work together to make progress on the Millennium Development Goals. Partnering with nonreligious students, humanists, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Muslims, Baha'is, Buddhists and Christians on campus, Jess has mobilized support to sponsor a Millennium Village and donate anti-malarial pills and bed nets with Brandeis University's Positive Foundations club. These students are now planning a trip to Rwanda so they can see first-hand the enormity of the challenges that they believe can be eradicated through sustained partnership across faith divides.
The Faiths Act Fellowship is an opportunity for young leaders like Jess from the UK, US and Canada to become ambassadors for interreligious cooperation in the fight against deaths due to malaria and progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. If this sounds like you or someone you know, I strongly encourage young people aged 18 - 25 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada to apply to join the Fellowship.
Working together, across faiths and across borders, we can both prevent the unnecessary deaths of millions of people and build more peaceful communities around the world.
Assalaam alaikum,
Eboo Patel
Founder and Executive Director
Interfaith Youth Core
Photos: Interfaith Youth Core
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Pembangunan 500 Madrasah Satu Atap dan Pengalihan Pinjaman Lunak ke Diknas
Departemen Agama melalui Direktorat Jendral Pendidikan Islam, menargetkan 500 Madrasah Satu Atap terbangun atau terealisasi hingga tahun 2009. Demikian ditegaskan Dirjen Pendidikan Islam (Pendis), Prof. Dr. H. Mohammad Ali, MA dalam perbincangan di Kantor Depag, Jakarta Kamis (25/9). Details ...
Konsep pembangunan madrasah satu atap sangat menarik sekaligus cerdas dari sisi hitungan ekonomi. Akan tetapi, apakah sekolah seperti itu akan memiliki lingkungan belajar yang baik bagi siswa-siswanya? Indonesia adalah negara yang berpenduduk besar sehingga membangun dua atau tiga sekolah dalam satu kompleks akan menyulitkan ruang gerak siswa-siswa. Ruang gerak sangat penting bagi proses pertumbuhan fisik dan sosial mereka. Kompleks sekolah yang terlalu padat mengesankan lingkungan 'kumuh'. Kedua, saya tidak mengerti mengapa pihak Depag hanya menggunakan tawaran dana yang sifatnya grand dan menyerakan ke Diknas bantuan yang sifatnya pinjaman lunak. Bukankah hal ini justru akan semakin mempertajam kesenjangan antara sekolah di bawah Diknas dan Depag. Kesenjangan kualitas dan kuantitas pendidikan antara kedua sistem sudah lama tercipta. Mengapa anak-anak bangsa ini harus dikotak-kotakkan hanya karena kepentingan orang-orang tertentu yang mereka tidak mengerti? Pendidikan adalah sebuah proses yang sangat menentukan 'nasib' setiap individu dari anak bangsa ini. Sangat tidak adil rasanya apabila salah seorang dari anak bangsa ini tidak dapat mengubah kelas sosial mereka di masa mendatang lewat pendidikan hanya karena struktur sosial dalam sistem pendidikan yang diciptakan oleh orang-orang yang berkuasa.
Konsep pembangunan madrasah satu atap sangat menarik sekaligus cerdas dari sisi hitungan ekonomi. Akan tetapi, apakah sekolah seperti itu akan memiliki lingkungan belajar yang baik bagi siswa-siswanya? Indonesia adalah negara yang berpenduduk besar sehingga membangun dua atau tiga sekolah dalam satu kompleks akan menyulitkan ruang gerak siswa-siswa. Ruang gerak sangat penting bagi proses pertumbuhan fisik dan sosial mereka. Kompleks sekolah yang terlalu padat mengesankan lingkungan 'kumuh'. Kedua, saya tidak mengerti mengapa pihak Depag hanya menggunakan tawaran dana yang sifatnya grand dan menyerakan ke Diknas bantuan yang sifatnya pinjaman lunak. Bukankah hal ini justru akan semakin mempertajam kesenjangan antara sekolah di bawah Diknas dan Depag. Kesenjangan kualitas dan kuantitas pendidikan antara kedua sistem sudah lama tercipta. Mengapa anak-anak bangsa ini harus dikotak-kotakkan hanya karena kepentingan orang-orang tertentu yang mereka tidak mengerti? Pendidikan adalah sebuah proses yang sangat menentukan 'nasib' setiap individu dari anak bangsa ini. Sangat tidak adil rasanya apabila salah seorang dari anak bangsa ini tidak dapat mengubah kelas sosial mereka di masa mendatang lewat pendidikan hanya karena struktur sosial dalam sistem pendidikan yang diciptakan oleh orang-orang yang berkuasa.
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Letters: Principal's firing over Islam | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
Letters: Principal's firing over Islam | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "The unfortunate Friendswood 'Islam 101' incident is a local example of the stereotypical American religious and racial intolerance that has earned the United States the disdain of much of the rest of the world." Find more ...
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Rowling dispels controversy as she works magic on university audience - Scotsman.com News
Rowling dispels controversy as she works magic on university audience - Scotsman.com News: "WHEN it was announced last month that JK Rowling was to give Harvard University's most important address of the year, she was dismissed as a 'flash in the pan'.
However, any suggestion she was unwelcome was forgotten, as she received a standing ovation lasting one minute and 50 seconds from 15,000 people attending the Ivy League university's graduation ceremony on Thursday." Read more ...
However, any suggestion she was unwelcome was forgotten, as she received a standing ovation lasting one minute and 50 seconds from 15,000 people attending the Ivy League university's graduation ceremony on Thursday." Read more ...
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Indonesians use Koran to teach environmentalism
BANTUL, Indonesia: Sitting cross-legged in the dirt beneath a canopy of jungle vegetation, Nasruddin Anshory, with his Koran open in front of him, was telling a group of visitors about their ordained responsibility to protect the environment.
"As a Muslim," he said, "you have to do something."
His visitors were a mix of people from universities and mosques all over the island of Java, seeking to broaden their understanding of Islam. Off to the side were several students from Gajah Mada University nearby, eagerly taking notes in preparation for their dissertations, all of which will focus on promoting conservation through Islam.
Nasruddin founded Ilmu Giri, an Islamic school devoted to environmentalism, five years ago. But in the past couple of years, as global awareness of climate change and related problems has increased, interest in the school has swelled.
During the Islamic holy month of Ramadan last year, Nasruddin said, thousands visited Ilmu Giri. At the United Nations conference on global climate change in Bali last December, Nasruddin was something of a star. One local newspaper called him a "hero."
His school, however, represents just the latest manifestation of an important strain within Islamic education in Indonesia. Koranic environmental principles form the core tenet of many schools here.
This belies a common perception abroad that pesantren, as Islamic boarding schools are called in Indonesia, are mostly extremist breeding grounds. Only a few hours away from Ilmu Giri is Pesantren al-Mukmin, some of whose graduates are associated with the Southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah.
But Ahmad Suaedy, executive director of the Wahid Institute, an organization based in Jakarta that promotes peaceful and pluralistic Islam, said pesantren are more often than not involved in positive social and economic development. Environmentalism, he said, is just the most recent pesantren cause.
"Environmental awareness is growing more and more among the pesantren community," he said. "This is partly because there is more attention to the environment in Indonesia in general and the recent United Nations conference in Bali."
The first environmental pesantren in Indonesia, however, was founded long before the United Nations or anyone else took notice of climate change.
On the island of Madura off northeastern Java is Pesantren Guluk-Guluk, also called Al Nuqayah, which was established in 1887. Its founder, Muhammad Syarqawi, who had traveled to Mecca, originally opened the school to spread Islam on an island that was then a lawless place, often a violent one.
He soon concluded that the fundamental problem was the small island's devastated environment. It was desperately dry, and fresh water was scarce.
So Syarqawi shifted his focus to teaching the island's villagers, with the help of the Koran, about conservation.
The Koran, Suaedy says, contains numerous references to environmental protection, including the line: "Don't do destruction upon this earth." At one point, the Koran equates a human life with that of a tree: "Do not kill women, elders, children, civilians or trees."
Saleem Ali, associate dean of graduate studies at the Rubenstein School for the Environment at the University of Vermont, says Islamic environmentalism can be traced back to the religion's origins in the seventh century.
"The advent of Islam as an organized religion occurred in the desert environment of Arabia, and hence there was considerable attention paid to ecological concerns within Islamic ethics," he said. "There is a reverence of nature that stems from essential pragmatism within the faith."
Guluk-Guluk, which is coeducational and whose students and range from elementary to university age, has won several prestigious local and international awards, yet it remained the only one of its kind for decades.
Attendance in the past 20 years, however, has ballooned to more than 6,500 from 1,200, and a number of its graduates have gone on to open schools all over Indonesia.
But it is the much smaller Ilmu Giri near Yogyakarta, in central Java, that is drawing the most attention these days. That might owe something to Nasruddin's sprawling network of friends across the globe.
He is a former researcher for several private organizations, work that took him to more than 60 countries. He also produces television soap operas and is an award-winning poet. His writings are mostly protests against government neglect of economic and social needs.
"It makes me tremble to see average Indonesians suffer as their government ignores their problems," he said in an interview at the school.
The school itself resembles a sort of tiny outdoor summer camp, complete with cabins and a makeshift volleyball court, in a hillside hamlet made up mostly of farmers. The few buildings, including the small mosque, are open structures of bamboo, but many of the discussions take place outside anyway. Trees seem to be slowly swallowing up the buildings. Chickens, cows and other animals roam freely. Source
Technorati Tags: Indonesia, Koran, environment"As a Muslim," he said, "you have to do something."
His visitors were a mix of people from universities and mosques all over the island of Java, seeking to broaden their understanding of Islam. Off to the side were several students from Gajah Mada University nearby, eagerly taking notes in preparation for their dissertations, all of which will focus on promoting conservation through Islam.
Nasruddin founded Ilmu Giri, an Islamic school devoted to environmentalism, five years ago. But in the past couple of years, as global awareness of climate change and related problems has increased, interest in the school has swelled.
During the Islamic holy month of Ramadan last year, Nasruddin said, thousands visited Ilmu Giri. At the United Nations conference on global climate change in Bali last December, Nasruddin was something of a star. One local newspaper called him a "hero."
His school, however, represents just the latest manifestation of an important strain within Islamic education in Indonesia. Koranic environmental principles form the core tenet of many schools here.
This belies a common perception abroad that pesantren, as Islamic boarding schools are called in Indonesia, are mostly extremist breeding grounds. Only a few hours away from Ilmu Giri is Pesantren al-Mukmin, some of whose graduates are associated with the Southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah.
But Ahmad Suaedy, executive director of the Wahid Institute, an organization based in Jakarta that promotes peaceful and pluralistic Islam, said pesantren are more often than not involved in positive social and economic development. Environmentalism, he said, is just the most recent pesantren cause.
"Environmental awareness is growing more and more among the pesantren community," he said. "This is partly because there is more attention to the environment in Indonesia in general and the recent United Nations conference in Bali."
The first environmental pesantren in Indonesia, however, was founded long before the United Nations or anyone else took notice of climate change.
On the island of Madura off northeastern Java is Pesantren Guluk-Guluk, also called Al Nuqayah, which was established in 1887. Its founder, Muhammad Syarqawi, who had traveled to Mecca, originally opened the school to spread Islam on an island that was then a lawless place, often a violent one.
He soon concluded that the fundamental problem was the small island's devastated environment. It was desperately dry, and fresh water was scarce.
So Syarqawi shifted his focus to teaching the island's villagers, with the help of the Koran, about conservation.
The Koran, Suaedy says, contains numerous references to environmental protection, including the line: "Don't do destruction upon this earth." At one point, the Koran equates a human life with that of a tree: "Do not kill women, elders, children, civilians or trees."
Saleem Ali, associate dean of graduate studies at the Rubenstein School for the Environment at the University of Vermont, says Islamic environmentalism can be traced back to the religion's origins in the seventh century.
"The advent of Islam as an organized religion occurred in the desert environment of Arabia, and hence there was considerable attention paid to ecological concerns within Islamic ethics," he said. "There is a reverence of nature that stems from essential pragmatism within the faith."
Guluk-Guluk, which is coeducational and whose students and range from elementary to university age, has won several prestigious local and international awards, yet it remained the only one of its kind for decades.
Attendance in the past 20 years, however, has ballooned to more than 6,500 from 1,200, and a number of its graduates have gone on to open schools all over Indonesia.
But it is the much smaller Ilmu Giri near Yogyakarta, in central Java, that is drawing the most attention these days. That might owe something to Nasruddin's sprawling network of friends across the globe.
He is a former researcher for several private organizations, work that took him to more than 60 countries. He also produces television soap operas and is an award-winning poet. His writings are mostly protests against government neglect of economic and social needs.
"It makes me tremble to see average Indonesians suffer as their government ignores their problems," he said in an interview at the school.
The school itself resembles a sort of tiny outdoor summer camp, complete with cabins and a makeshift volleyball court, in a hillside hamlet made up mostly of farmers. The few buildings, including the small mosque, are open structures of bamboo, but many of the discussions take place outside anyway. Trees seem to be slowly swallowing up the buildings. Chickens, cows and other animals roam freely. Source
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Indonesia: New Text Book On Human Rights
Hukum Hak Asasi Manusia is the title of the new text book on Human rights in bahasa Indonesia, financed by the Norwegian Center for Human Rights (NCHR) in Oslo.
"This book is a text book which is a general introduction for students in Human Rights Law. A number of International and Indonesian experts have contributed to this book", says Mr Knut Asplund, programme manager at the NCHR.
The text book, which is edited by Mr. Eko Riyadi, has a preface by UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Mr Philip Alston and catholic philosopher Frans Magnis-Suseno. It is the result of a long-term relationship between Norwegian Center for Human Rights and Center for Human Rights Studies at the Islamic University in Yogyakarta.
The first edition is printed in 1000 copies and is the most comprehensive text book on human rights ever to be published in bahasa Indonesia. The target audience is both law school students and the general public.
On Saturday 19 April, the text book was launched in Yogyakarta. Principal Edy Suandi Hamid at the Islamic University i Yogyakarta (middle in the picture above) performed the official ceremonial launch of the book. This event was followed by a seminar on implementation of human rights in Indonesia. Find more ...
Technorati Tags: human right, human right in Indonesian, text book
"This book is a text book which is a general introduction for students in Human Rights Law. A number of International and Indonesian experts have contributed to this book", says Mr Knut Asplund, programme manager at the NCHR.
The text book, which is edited by Mr. Eko Riyadi, has a preface by UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Mr Philip Alston and catholic philosopher Frans Magnis-Suseno. It is the result of a long-term relationship between Norwegian Center for Human Rights and Center for Human Rights Studies at the Islamic University in Yogyakarta.
The first edition is printed in 1000 copies and is the most comprehensive text book on human rights ever to be published in bahasa Indonesia. The target audience is both law school students and the general public.
On Saturday 19 April, the text book was launched in Yogyakarta. Principal Edy Suandi Hamid at the Islamic University i Yogyakarta (middle in the picture above) performed the official ceremonial launch of the book. This event was followed by a seminar on implementation of human rights in Indonesia. Find more ...
Technorati Tags: human right, human right in Indonesian, text book
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