Pemerintah Turkey Menawarkan Beasiswa untuk s1, S2 dan S3

Pemerintah Turkey menawarkan 30 Beasiswa,terdiri dari 10 beasiswa untuk tenaga peneliti, 10 beasiswa untuk post graduate (setingkat megister dan Doktor) dan 10 untuk tingkat pendidikan tinggi. Selengkapnya ...

A Disguised Indonesian Muslim Cleric Got Married with a 12-Year Child, Victimizing Islam

Indonesia's media and people were preoccupied with the eccentric action of a wealthy Muslim clerics named Kyai Puji who recently (August 8, 2008 at 03.00am) got married to a 12 years child in Semarang, Middle Java, Indonesia. This news became very attractive among people after he announced his plan to marry other two children, each of 7 and 9 years old (he will not sleep on them before they have mens period). His action brought about controversies among activists and religious leaders, including the Indonesian Muslim Scholars Board in Jakarta. This organization called for other Muslim religious leaders not to follow Puji's action because it will cause social problems from women and bring negative image to Islam and Muslim. Further, Musda Mulia, a well-known Muslim gender activist, accused Kyai Puji as an agent of religion-disguised pedophilia perpetrator. He used the 14-century old practice of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) who got married with 'Aisyah (may Allah bless her) when she was 9 years old. Therefore, many called for bringing Puji to the trial due to his breaking several laws related to the children protection and age limit (16 year old) for women to get married according to the Indonesian law.
From my point of view, Puji's condition is not comparable to the Prophet Muhammad. When the Prophet Muhammad got married with 'Aisyah, his first wife, Sitti Khadijah who was accompanying him in the best way for 25 years died. When she died, Muhammad (peace be upon him) was very desprate  and felt abondaned because his granfather and uncle who had supported his struggle against the traditional power had all died. Sitti Khadijah was 40 year old when Muhammd (still 25 year old) married her. During that time, Muhammad (peace be upon him) had not had thought to get married with anyone. Secondly, marriying more than one woman was not sexually driven practise by him, but it was a social and political movement to maintain social integration among Muslims in Madinah and all Arab penunsilla at that time. This inter-religious and racial marriage was a common practise among the leaders at that time, even worse. Muhammad acted in a paternalistic way at that time to save severly degrading status of women in the society. During his period and long before, women were cheap labors and sexually highly exploited by men. Men could do anything toward women. This practise achieved the level of it was very shamful to have a girl child. If one gave birth to a girl child, she was most likely to kill her and throw her away. So, I don't see any place to compare and justify Puji's action based on Muhammad's deed. I think Puji has his own personal reasons to do so and Islamic teaching is used by him as an ideology to justify his action. Islam is a religion that has a zero-tolerant justice principle. When one uses it as a justification for his or her unjust action, Islam in fact is free from it and it is really 'victimized'.

7 in 10 Americans know very little about Islam

Most recently, former Secretary of State Colin Powell rebuked those responsible for spreading the Obama rumor, adding, "What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no, that's not America."

It is well-known that most Americans have feeling of hatred toward Muslims, including Muslim Americans, especially after 9/11. This is, according to a Duke University sociologist Jen'nan Ghazal Read, really "exceptional' in a country where social boundary is 'limited' and diversity is welcomed. Read mentions two common perceptions that might have led most American to this negative direction toward Islam and Muslims. First, they are trapped to the illusion of Muslim unidimentionality. They do not understand that Muslims are very diverse. Muslims that are associated with terrorism, like al-Qaedah, are very minor. Amazingly, they can become the most salient brand of Islam. Second, they think that being a Muslim is the only identity that Muslims have. However, Read's finding shows that in general Muslim Americans are just like the mainstream Americans in different aspects of life and attitudes. They have Islam as their common identity, but this identity does not prevent them from being American citizens like others.

Teknologi informasi dan perkembangan otak manusia

Sangat menarik untuk pendidik. Pernahkah Anda mendengar perbedaan struktur jaringan otak seorang musisi profesional, seperti Eby Giade berangkali atau yang lain dari seorang atletik profesional? Pernakah Anda mengenal istilah 'digital native' dan 'digital immigrant'? Sebuah hasil penelitian melaporkan bahwa anak yang sekarang yang tumbuh berkembang sebagai digital native atau asli generasi digital-kesehariannya selalu diisi dengan aktifitas yang identik dengan fasilitas digital seperti mengirim sms dan internet-memiliki jaringan otak yang lebih rumit dan kuat ketimbang kita yang tergolong generasi imigran digital-mengerti dan mengenal alat-alat digital seperti laptop dan hp setelah dewasa.

those who reported using the Internet regularly in their everyday lives showed twice as much signaling in brain regions responsible for decision-making and complex reasoning, compared with those who had limited Internet exposure.

Mungkin ini yang menjawab pertanyaan yang kadang terlontar dari mulut sebagian orang tua, "Kok anak-anak sekarang itu masih kecil-kecil udah pada cerdas ya? Pintar ya?" Tapi tunggu dulu, kita mesti hati-hati juga sebab jangan-jangan ini kerjanya orang-orang IT supaya produk digintalnya makin laku. Tapi tidak apa-apa juga sih kalau memang benar-benar produk itu baik untuk manusia dan bukan akal-akalan, apalagi kalau baik untuk perkembangan otak manusia.Namun demikian perlu tetap diingat bahwa dibalik sesuatu yang baik apabila berlebihan seringkali membawa dampak negatif yang tak terduga.

Three Physicists Don't Expect Nobel Prize

2008 Nobel Prize for Physics go to 3 physics, an Japanese-American Yoichiro Nambu, 2 Japanese physicists for their discovery of tiny breaks in the symmetry of nature's fundamental particles that facilitate people to explain reason behind the universe existence and persistency. Amazingly, none of them has expected to win Nobel Prize. They only pursue their interests in physics. This is actually a noble value that plays an important role in keeping scientist to work for the sake of humanity.Yoichiro Nambu, of the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago, will receive half of the $1.4 million prize for work he did nearly half a century ago.

Women achieves economic independence in a Iranian Way

Islam should be an underlying principle of every aspects of a Muslim, both man and woman. life. Unfortunately, the attitudes of several Muslim thinkers and Muslims in general do not show original creativity to develop practical ways of life that get along with Islamic values. They like to import everything from the West when they are facing social problems. They think that every problem that they have has its own answer in the West. This example is very clear in the field of women movement in several Muslim countries, like Indonesia., under the flag of feminism or gender study I think we must appreciate what the Iranian society initiate in their efforts to make Islam as their way of life. See this interesting news to think about their creativity. This news contains Western bias, but at least it can make you think and be more creative like Iranian society.

Get Rid of Capitalism: A Call from a Muslim Clerics

An Muslim clerics called for getting rid of capitalism in order to recover from social drawbacks. He asserted, "We will be free from disaster if we leave capitalism."

BOGOR  -- Ustad Anwar Iman mengajak umat Islam termasuk di Indonesia melepaskan diri dari sistem kapitalisme agar bisa terlepas dari keterpurukan. "Kita akan lepas dari keterpurukan bila menanggalkan kapitalisme," katanya di depan jamaah salat id yang memadati area parkir Botani Square yang berada di komplek IPB International Convention Center (IICC), Jalan Padjajaran, Bogor, Selasa. More Details ...