Sunday, January 15, 2012

Misogyny – Stereotyping women - manipulating women

 Content development: 

Women are 51% of our population, yet they are not fully represented in the government and leadership of the nation in civil and religious corridors. This has got to change for the sake of creating a better society. It should be your character and skills that determine your abilities and NOT your race, gender or religion.

Women have been taken advantage of throughout the history and throughout the world be it Arab, Chinese, Europeans, Latinos, Chinese, Indian, Americans or others, you still push around women to a secondary role.

We have to come together and respect and honor each one of the 7 billion of us equal beings in creating a better world. Each one of us has to do our personal share of work in seeing a better world.

Here is a video to begin with.

The media's manipulative influence over your morals.

Step up and do your share.

Mike Ghouse

About Us - America Together Foundation

OUR MISSION

Our Mission is to build a cohesive America, where no American has to live in anxieties, discomfort or fear of the other.

OUR VISION

It is our individual and collective responsibility to keep law and order and faithfully guard the safety of every citizen. Hate, prejudice and stereotyping are some of the many root causes of disrupting the peace in a society and it is our duty to track down the source of such ill-will and work on mitigating it.

We believe humans are open to choices and will make best choices if the path is paved for them. It has been our experience through our annual events like Unity Day, Reflections on Holocaust and Genocides, Thanksgiving, Conferences, that our participants have walked out with a commitment to be less biased, less prejudiced and willing to stand up for the others for the sake of general good of mankind.

We are committed to enhance the efforts nationally, one brick at time in building a cohesive America, where each one of the 312 Million Americans feel safe in their homes, at their jobs, places of worship and in the public places.

ENTITY

America together foundation is incorporated as a non-profit organization and pending the IRS Approval from 501 (3) (c) status.

America Together Foundation
2665 Villa Creek Drive, Suite 206
Dallas, TX 75234
IRS' EIN # 45-3851252
Registered with the Secretary of State of Texas 801508675

SERVICES

1. Education
2. Media Relations
3. Workshops
4. Conferences
5. Publications
6. Advocacy & Action
7. Grass root movement


GOALS


1. Commitment to safety and Prosperity of One America
2. Know thy neighbor - Grass roots programs
3. Standing with others, standing for others
4. Participatory Citizenship
5. Contributory Citizenship
6. Future Leaders of America
7. Dream of a Cohesive America


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America together foundation will carry over all the events and programs established by the Foundation for Pluralism.

Board of Directors will ensure that all the activities of the organization meet the mission and vision of the organization.


The Advisory board members would represent different faiths, civil society, politics and business leadership. We hope to invite those members who can advance the idea of building a cohesive America. We are all in this together.
America together, Americans Together is an educational and pragmatic initiative to wean out myths from reality, which is hurting the social cohesiveness of America. The myths are vigorously propagated by a few to disrupt the delicate balance in our society by pitching one American against the other for their perceived gains.

The purpose of “Americans Together” is to remove such myths in an open discussion forum and restore the cohesiveness of our society and work towards building a safe and secure America for every one of the 312 Million of us.

As a society, it is our responsibility to keep law and order and faithfully guard the safety of every citizen. Hate is one of the many sources of disrupting the peace in a society and it is our duty to track down the source of such hate and work on mitigating it and nurturing goodwill.

DETAILS
Ever since we declared our independence, we have been tested time and again by various political, economic and religious forces to divide us, however, at the end we have come out strong as one nation. The Civil War, the Great Depression, the World War, Pearl Harbor, Women’s rights, Abortion, the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, Budget Deficits, Unemployment, 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan War have all been difficult, but we will make it through and sanity will prevail.

The controversy over the Muslim Community Center in New York has unraveled the difficulties Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Wicca and others have endured.

We have come a long way to embrace and accept the otherness of other. However, this year has given rise to yet another temptation; to blame Islam, calling it an evil, evil religion and calling its prophet a false prophet. No American has to live in fear of the other, nor live in anxieties or discomfort.

Religion has been “abused” and “misused” to someone’s advantage, as Americans, are we going to let that happen? No, we can pull ourselves together and not fall for the temptations to divide ourselves.


Goodness will come to our rescue, if we make an effort. Mike Ghouse adds, “As members of diverse family of faiths, we seek to demystify the myths, malice and falsification of our respective faiths. It is time for all of us to gather and understand the Qur’aan, the holy book of Muslims, which has been the subject of attack by a few among us. Indeed, a conference is a positive response to negative sermons delivered from a few pulpits of America this year.”


The first successful event was the Conference which placed Quraan in the hands of panelists made up of Pastors, Rabbis, Pundits, Shamans, Clergy, lay persons, elected officers and the public. The uniqueness of the event is highlighted by facing the “terrifying passages” of Quraan. For the first time in history, the actual verses from Quraan will be read directly and explained by panelists made up of Pastors, Rabbis, Pundits, Shamans, Clergy, lay persons and elected officials who have a deep interest in bringing Americans together on common grounds. The Muslim scholars either affirm their reading or share the additional information right from the very Quraan for further understanding.


It is time now to replace the ill-will with goodwill; no American has to live in anxieties, discomfort or fear of the other. The purpose of this conference was to remove such myths in an open forum in the public and restore the cohesiveness of our society and work towards building a safe and secure America.

We hope to address all the issues before 2012 Elections, so our politicians can be freed from myths to focus on the reality – creating Jobs and putting food on the table in an American Family.


Mike Ghouse
Americans Together
Building a cohesive America
www.AmericaTogtherFoundation.com

Sharia Conference

www.ShariaLaws.com
As American Muslims we are committed to the safety, security and prosperity of America. That's a pledge we take seriously and act upon it. We are considering a Sharia conference in every major city in the US to demystify the myths about it. Every Republican candidate is talking about it without a clue and much of his/her talk is anti-fellow Americans, rather Anti-American. It is embarrassing to hear their ignorance when a good reporter asks questions.

Sharia will become a dominant theme in the 2012 Presidential Elections; the one who speaks the loudest earns the tea party support assuming that Tea Party represents the main stream Americans.  I am not sure, if we the Americans would gulp down their rhetoric or would have the time to question the veracity of the comments.

The responsibility falls squarely on us, the American Muslims to become contributors and participants in the well being, peace and prosperity of America.

We are considering a Sharia conference in every major city in the US, it will be professionally developed with the help of our Imams and Scholars and those who have problems with it. We have to answer every possible question that there is. If you are cooking things up in your mind and judging, you must be a darn Republican.

If you have the will, it’s easy to do it.

Muslims together can work and build a safer and secure America for every one of the 301 Million Americans.  This is your conference in your town, organized and managed by you. I hope all of us can call ISNA, CAIR, ICNA and other national organizations to take this project up.

 We can do this for under $ 5000.00 per city. I have done over 40 events including the ones over 600 attendees within that budget.  We should not expect the national organizations to put this event out, we have to do it on our own with their supervision to standardize the event. You’ll have to raise the funds locally- 100 Muslims $50/each or other combinations will do it. The question we have to ask is, are we willing to do it or find it comfortable to talk about our love of Islam without doing a thing.
    I am a volunteer and will be happy to assist anyone anywhere. 
Together we can come up with great plans and just do it.

For the starters, I have pulled a few key articles together; there are much better articles out there, Insha Allah, we will gather them all and urge Muslims to post on their sites, the more places it is published, the better off we are.

10 ARTICLES

The articles range from simplicity for a lay person to understand  ( Sumbul, Nezar , Nasim, Amjad and Mike’s articles) to Mainstream press writing ( Amy Sullivan and Justin Elliott),  to Scholarly presentations ( Dr. Yusuf Zia Kavakci and  Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq) . I hope to gather article critical (Plenty) of Sharia as well. If you know a great article, please share, together we can complete the spectrum and add value to its understanding. I further request that you post this on your site or ask those who have a site to post. The more it shows up in search engines, the better off we are collectively.

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Sharia in one Gulp – Mike Ghouse

Sharia in its simplest form is a how-to manual based on the Qur'an and the Hadith (Prophet Muhammad's sayings). It is a human effort to understand the concept of justice enshrined in the Qur'an for day-to-day living.

http://sharialaws.blogspot.com/2011/07/sharia-in-one-gulp.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/sharia-law-not-in-america_b_653250.html 

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What Sharia law actually means – Justin Elliott

Sharia is more than simply "law" in the prescriptive sense. It is also a methodology through which a jurist engages the religious texts to ascertain divine will. As a jurist-made law, the outcome of this process of ascertaining divine will is called fiqh (positive law), which is the moral and legal anchor of a Muslim's total existence.
http://sharialaws.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-sharia-law-actually-means.html

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Who's Afraid of Sharia? – Sumbul Ali Karamali

Hasn't the whole notion of shariah in America gotten a bit out of control? No, it hasn't -- it's gotten hugely, obscenely, ignorantly out of control. Aha! The six principles must be about killing infidels, veiling women, stoning people for adultery, honor killings and female genital cutting, right? Nope.


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Sharia the law system inspired by the Quraan - Wikipedia

Sharia is often referred to as Islamic law, but this is wrong, as only a small part is irrefutably based upon the core Islamic text, the Koran. Correct designations would be "Muslim Law", "Islam-inspired", "Islam-derived," or even "the law system of Muslims."This is well known to most Muslims, yet Sharia is always referred to as "based upon the Koran", hence it is the "will of God."http://sharialaws.blogspot.com/2011/03/sharia-law-system-inspired-by-quraan.html

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Sharia is Not what you think it is – Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid

When some American pundits call sharia, "a growing threat to the United States," Muslim Americans wonder what in the world are they talking about. Sharia is overwhelmingly concerned with personal religious observance, not with constitutions and laws.


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The Myths of Sharia Law in America – Amy Sullivan

If you are not vitally concerned about the possibility of radical Muslims infiltrating the U.S. gove
rnment and establishing a Taliban-style theocracy, then you are not a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination. In addition to talking about tax policy and Afghanistan, Republican candidates have also felt the need to speak out against the menace of "sharia."
http://sharialaws.blogspot.com/2011/07/myths-of-sharia-law-in-america-httpwww.html

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Sharia – Dr. Muhammad Omar Farooq

"While Islam under the leadership of Prophet Muhammad brought liberation and freedom from human bondage and ushered in scientific, technological, economic and cultural progress as part of a dynamic civilization, the Shariah as it is being presented today seems to do (and probably promise more of) just the opposite. Why? In this essay, it is argued that one pivotal problem has to do with some fundamental misunderstanding about Islam and Shariah.


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Sharia, Fiqh and Islamic Law – Imam Dr. Yusuf Ziya Kavakci
Dr. Kavakci is one of the 500 most influential Imams in the world
Sharia recently became a hotly debated subject. Archbishop of England made a statement at the middle of many statements, that has given the opportunity of Islamic law and Shari to be discussed and debated by westerners and some times the discussion apparently was taken out context. It is, as I believe, a fact that Sharia, Fiqh in its early stages got established and developed in the wide area of the world, mainly where Roman law was dominant.
http://sharialaws.blogspot.com/2011/07/sharia-fiqh-and-islamic-law_15.html

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Demystifying Sharia - Nasim Rehmatullah and Amjad Mahmood Khan

Shariah is a misunderstood and misused concept. Critics of Islam frequently employ terms like "creeping shariah" to stoke fear amongst the masses. The Park 51 controversy and the increasing media focus on Islam provide an opportunity to educate Americans about the true teachings and practices of Islam concerning shariah.
http://sharialaws.blogspot.com/2011/07/demystifying-shariah.html

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Sharia law is not a threat – Nezar Hamze, Cair


You can’t turn on the news these days or pick up a newspaper without seeing or reading about Islam, Muslims or Sharia law. Unfortunately, most of what you hear is from politicians with a religious viewpoint or media outlets creating an illusion of an enemy.

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Mike Ghouse committed to nurturing the pluralistic values embedded in Islam.  More about him at www.MikeGhouse.net

Stereotyping

Content development: 
Please note that this is the draft.

This is the most common form of ignorance that surfaces every minute of the day in our lives. Our freedom to think is lost when we stereotype people and fall in ditch when we justify it. If we want others to treat as fairly, we have to do it too.

If I murder someone, it is my heinie that needs to be hauled off to the jail and mete out the deserved punishment under the law and serve justice. Stereo typing in this instance would be to blame my race, parents, siblings, spouse, nationality or religion, it is dumb isn’t it? Yet we do it and let others do it without even imploring them to think. What has India or Islam got to do with my criminal act?  

Shame on you and I to allow the mind to believe that the murder by a black man allows us to gossip that blacks are criminals, and start justifying some creepy facts to suit our beliefs.  Oh well, the educated ones are not… that is even wronger than the first statement…Are all white people ruthless and war mongers? Are Muslims terrorists? Jews will get you one way or the other?

Catch yourselves in your stereotyping, where you make judgments about a people


Reaction of Americans when a Muslim is mistreated.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJikXyoYpgo&feature=share

….


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The media's manipulative influence over your morals.

….
PLANNED CONFERENCES
·                     Anti-Semitism
·                     GLBT Conference
·                     Islamophobia
·                     Native Americans
·                     Quraan Conference
·                     Racial Profiling
·                     Sharia
·                     Stereotyping

Your participation is invited

Mike Ghouse

GLBT LGBT Gays and Lesbians

Content development: 
Please note that this is the draft.

There is a bold, unchecked hatred towards the people who are Gay, Lesbians, Bi-Sexual, and transgender. It is just not hatred for them in the play,  but a determined effort to make their lives unlivable.  This is not good for America.

It is embarrassing to watch our presidential candidates’ vitriolic against GLBT’s, yet they subscribe to our constitution where all men are equal, what hypocrisy? This may be a case of pandering to appease to the extreme and primitive interpretations of religions, where God punishes the Gays and lesbians in Bible, Quraan, Torah and other holy books.

For God’s sake, God may not have meant that at all, even if he were, why do we want to act God?

As a society, the only things we should be responsible for are; containment of those who steal, lie, beat others up, disturb peace, damage other’s properties or break the civil contracts between individuals and businesses. What you believe in your heart, what you do in privacy is between you, your conscience and God.

We need to understand this phenomenon and really understand the holy books and God’s words and hold off becoming Gods to other people.


It is in the interest of America to build a cohesive society through dialogue and understanding. As an example, I have share my personal work, together we all can produce work that will mitigate Islamophobia and hope all of us Americans can live without the fear of other that is our goal.

I have participated in many Gay and Lesbian events including fund raising. When Gays and Lesbians meet they do the same thing you and I would do – talk about politics, sports, family, friends, food, and movies. We need to clean our minds from imagining things that aren’t there.

The question is how many of you stood up when you hear Gay bashing? Would you want others to do that to you?  

There is a lot of material; we need precise points in developing the program and content. Please join us.

A few of my personal examples:

In the parliament of world’s religion in 2009, there was a session about GLBT and the house was packed, the presenter was a Chief Judge of one of Australia’s provinces, who was a Gay. In the Q&A session, I spoke up in support of understanding the scriptures correctly and not go by what has been dished out for thousands of years… after the session, several people gathered around me to ask if I was a Gay, I asked them, do I have to be a Jew to defend the humans rights of a Jew? Do I have to be Hindu or a Muslim to defend the rights of Hindus or Muslims? To satisfy their curiosity, I told them that I was as  straight as they were, but I feel it is the right thing to speak out against bigotry, prejudice etc and that is what every religion teaches, including mine; Islam.

I was in a fund raiser for Aid’s at the GLBT gathering at the Love Field Air Museum. There was an Indian fellow out there who was trying to hide from me, he and I were sticking out like sore thumbs in the gathering of nearly 400 people, yet he was attempting to hide, thinking that I will tell the Indian community about his gayness, he may not be as I was not.  The idiot could have equally told about me being there. The important thing is if you are embarrassed with your company because what others say, you will live your whole life in embarrassment. Have the balls to be who you are and be free to live the life you want and let every American live his or her life freely without apprehension, discomfort or the fear.

Share your stories of resistance against bigotry.

Mike Ghouse

Islamophobia, Anti-Muslim phobia

Content development:

Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism, Racism, Xenophobia (hatred of Hindus, Buddhist and all others), Islamophobia are expressions of insecurity in men, they are frightened that their way of life will be replaced with something they don’t like. The extremists (Islamophobes, anti-Semitic, racists….) are just a handful among us and we need to take time to understand and lean and share that most of the fears are unfounded.

Islamophobia is a daily staple for the politicians. It’s a shame that a few of our politicians pander to the base emotions of a few to have a political gain, shame on men and women who fall into their trap. If we do not check this evil, it will eat us all out over a period of time.

It is in the interest of America to build a cohesive society through dialogue and understanding. As an example, I have share my personal work, together we all can produce work that will mitigate Islamophobia and hope all of us Americans can live without the fear of other that is our goal.

The question is how many of you stood up when you hear someone maligning Muslims, would you want others to do that to you? Do you know if it is the truth?

The origins of organized Islamophobia go back the 11th century.
http://quraan-today.blogspot.com/2008/03/islamophobia-and-quraan.html

Please share how we can mitigate the prevalent Islamaphobic thoughts in the market.  

The biggest story of 2011 is the Islamophobes pushing Lowes to pull out their sponsorship of America Muslims, a reality show depicting Normal day to day Muslims who are not different than others. The Family association of Florida wanted a depiction of terrorism…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/lowes-all-american-muslim_b_1145048.html

There is a lot of material; we need precise points in developing the program and content. Please join us.

Anti Semitism, Anti-Semitism

Content development:

Not a week goes by when someone is making an anti-Semitic remark, and shame on us for not saying a thing about it. If each one of us can stand up against prejudices in the form of Anti-Semitism, we will individually contribute towards a better society that we really want to live in. It is subtle. Should others do that to you?


I am sharing a few personal examples to prompt you to share yours.

1.      In Dallas City Council around 2005, someone made a comment looking at a Jewish council person "You People" - and thank God I wrote my outrage about it and published in Dallas Morning News.

2.      I have written quite extensively about an incident where a Muslim made such a remark and I was on his tail all over, until he renounced and proved that he will not do that. http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Articles/Jewish-Muslim-dialogue-a-necessity.asp

3.      There are numerous examples I will be listing here that I have dared to speak out against, in the process I have lost many a “friends” but really, they were not friends. It is a choice we make to lose friends or do the right thing. At the end of the day, you have to decide to pile up guilt’s and weaken your soul or…

Please share real examples and link.

Please remember time is of the essence and want succinct, clear information that we can share in a conference or workshops.

Thank you
Mike Ghouse

Racism and racial profiling

Content development:

We are developing the content for understanding racism and hope to make short documentaries and find solutions to remove this evil from our society to a great extent, it will not go away for a few generations, all we can do is to make an effort to reduce it and bring awareness to the society, how it hurts and affects the overall society. If each one of us can stand up against racism, we will individually contribute towards a better society that we really want to live in.

I just watched the following video, it is worth watching.
I have witnessed three such events in real estate business 
How many times do you find yourselves watching injustice to others?
Should others do that to you?

1. I was discouraged to rent an office space in a posh building in Dallas
2. A prominent Real Estate company denied leasing a home to a lady because she had accent
3. I refused to serve two customers who wanted a neighborhood with no blacks
3. Took a black lawyer to buy a house at a home builder - the words were exactly the same as in the following video
...

I urge you to share your comments and possibly links with comments towards understanding racism.
Here is a perfect video

Racism Hidden Camera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kg4DTssWTQ&feature=related