Blog 10: Hardest Decisions for Islamic Education System

American Freelance Writer, Fatimah Abdulmalik, wrote an article focusing on the hurdles of Islamic Education in the West. “A large problem that Muslims in the West are faced with is that quality of education for their children.” Muslims in the West have no idea which direction or decision will help their children in the end. It seems that they are faced with either sending their children to public schools with good secular education or enrolling them in Islamic institutions that excel in religious subjects. There are very few institutions that are providing quality in both religious and secular subject areas. There are only a handful of good Islamic schools in western societies. Having the desire to keep Muslim children out of the public education sector is not enough.  The community has to have a plan with clear steps to obtain their goals. Although the curriculum may be different in each school, having the right qualified teachers is key.

I greatly understand the confusion and hesitation in figuring out what education path is great for their children. The secular subjects in the western schooling is pertinent in life, however the religious aspect of the other path helps them learn about their religion, rituals, customs, and beliefs. As parents, they want to find the best for their children, including an institution with a lot of space and great quality of curriculum. Education is essential in making a life for you especially in the Muslim community. This article opened my eyes to the decision of what to expose to your children. 

Bria Broadway 4/21/13 9:14pm

http://www.onislam.net/english/family/gender-issues/education-for-life/462344-the-hurdles-of-islamic-education-in-the-west-.html

Blog 10: Education in Chile

On Thursday, thousands of students flooded the streets of Chile on Thursday in one of the largest demonstrations demanding free education. The people of Chile believed the education system is out of control and the government is not doing anything about. These students have been protesting for years in order to change the education system that is better for them. After two years of student marches that have paralyzed Chile's major cities and generated expectations of change to a troubled system, the crisis over education reform remains a key electoral issue ahead of November's presidential election. However, Thursday’s protests were mostly peaceful. Students waved flags, chanted slogans and danced in the streets. "Chile is one of the most segregating countries when it comes to education," said Bachelet, who is widely seen as the center-left's opposition best hope of winning the election. Fighting visions of Chilean education appeared during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship. Chile's schools were free before Pinochet introduced privatization and ended central control and funding of primary and secondary schools. Public education in poorer districts suffered even as a voucher system directed billions of dollars in public funds to privately-run high schools. Many Chilean families bore these burdens for years before student activists gave them a voice.

I am glad that the Chilean youth are speaking up and standing up for free education. For some years now, they have been suffering from the education and system because outrageous loan rates and high pay for private schooling. I am saddened by the decisions the government is making on the funding for schools and the resistance to free public education. I pray that one day the Chilean government act accordingly and provide education for all. This fight will not be done until free education is granted, nothing less, nothing more.

Bria Broadway 04/12/13 5:05pm

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/04/11/chilean-students-stage-widespread-protests-demanding-education-reform/

Santonio Thompson, Crime in Haiti

In this article I learned that Haiti has come a long way when it comes to crime rates. Haiti is actually “one of the safest destinations; not just in the Caribbean, but throughout all the Americas.” If you think of Jamaica and how many people travel there and vacation but it is also a very violent place in many areas. Why is Haiti not like that right now? “In 2012 according to the UNODC, Haiti's violent death rate of 6.9 out of every hundred thousand Haitians is among the lowest rates in the Americas, and the same as Long Beach, California.” Such a low number of death rates could not just be coincidence, there has to be a driving force that has sustained Haiti’s crime rate. One reasoning behind the crime rate being so low is “focus on the strengthening and modernization of its security forces.” Which makes sense if the security is more up to date and it is being monitored better then you have less crime. Another cause for Haiti’s low crime rate is because of “its pledge to increase the size of its National Police by 50%, allowing them to fight crime more effectively.” Also Haiti has “increased the size of its force, the Haitian National Police (HNP) is counting on innovative technologies to track down criminals.” I think because Haiti’s population are said to be more worried about “cost of living, than with crime” then crime becomes less of an issue because the people aren’t speaking of it and making it as big of a deal. I think that other places with high violent crime rates, and other high crime rates should look into trying to increase their police force and doing similar things that have brought Haiti so much success.  

http://www.eturbonews.com/32953/haiti-among-safest-destinations-americas

4:53 pm 4/12/2013

Blog 8: Gender Segregation in the Classroom in Gaza

            Recently, in the Hamas government in Gaza has passed a new education law that upholds gender segregation. This law also bars men from teaching at girls’ schools and the integration of boys and girls in one classroom. This law raised many flags and has brought massive criticism, including the accusation of Islamizing Palestinian Society. At a conference on March 31^st, Osama Muzaini, the minister of education in the government of Hamas, officially announced the adoption of the new law and fully supports the law because it is concrete and not based on customs. However, not everyone thinks of this law as “helping” or “improving” the education system. The Center for Women’s Legal Research and Consulting (CWLRC) in Gaza does not support this law because they believe it is yet another attempt to control the rights of women and insists that it will do nothing but hold the country back from progressing. Although CWLRC is against this law, the article states that in the customs and traditions of the Palestinian community, gender segregation is required. Although the law is set in stone, it has raised many fears of restrictions on women through gender segregation in all institutions.

                Although, it is a part of the Palestinian customs and traditions, I cannot support this law in any shape or form. In agreement with the CWLRC, this law is just another attempt to hold the women back and control their daily lives. I was in shock when I read the article because I was thinking that this has to be illegal, but I forgot where I lived. In America that is completely illegal and it just shows the difference in customs and beliefs. I don’t see how it will help with socialization because it is just saying that women and men are not equal.

Bria Broadway 04/07/13 1:59pm

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/gaza-education-law-gender-segregation.html

Crime in Afghanistan Santonio Thompson Jr.

The reason why I chose this article is because it was such a shocker to read. When I think of crime I think of stealing, and murders, breaking into peoples houses. But in different place we view things that are just normal as a criminal act. In Afghanistan "running away is considered a "moral crime" ". Even things such as being raped could land the victim of the rape to be held behind bars because sex before marriage is illegal there. What if the woman is forced? Even then it is often considered adultery which is yet another moral crime in Afghanistan. "Despite progress in women's rights and freedom since the fall of the Taliban a decade ago, women throughout the country are at risk of abduction, rape, forced marriage and being traded as commodities." Think of how difficult it would be for a woman to have to constantly live in a house hold with a man that beats her because she is afraid to leave because she would face going to prison. There was one young woman who "  was stabbed repeatedly with a screwdriver in the head, chest, and arms by her husband who accused her of adultery for inviting a man into the house, the rights group said. But afterwards, she was arrested, he was not." I look at Afghanistan is makes me that much happier to be in the United States rather to be in a under developed country. 



April 4th 4:56 pm

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/03/28/10897062-400-women-held-in-afghanistan-for-moral-crimes-such-as-fleeing-domestic-abuse?lite

Blog 7: Education in Portugal

On March 20, 2013, Jonathan Blitzer wrote an article on the downfall of the education policy in Portugal. Apparently, the Portuguese government is not making the best decisions for the education system. According to the article, in movement to improve the quality of education, the government combined public schools into clusters known as “agrupamentos. “ They did this so it would be easier to monitor the children, but the violence within these mega groups is ridiculous. Later in 2010, the Education and Science Ministry approached a plan to merge elementary, middle and high schools which came to be very chaotic. This plan is just not right for Portugal for the main reason of over overcrowding in schools and the lack of teachers. According to the article, more and more teachers are retiring, at a rate faster than those being hired. Not to mention the escalating violence within the school and the major budget cuts that is affecting everyone from the teachers to the parents.

This article is just heart-wrenching because neither the children nor the teachers have a voice in the decisions controlling the classroom. The people that are making these decisions have no clue how hard it is to control a mega group of three thousand students while managing to keep the violence down with limited administration. The children are truly suffering here, not knowing if they will go home to their parents because of the high volume of violence inside the school. I pray someone comes in and give them the space they need. I hope someone can instill hope and faith into the schools for a better education system. It is easier for policy makers to make these decisions because they are not the ones looking at these children suffer daily. I believe outside forces may need to come in and help the education system in Portugal.

Bria Broadway 10:48pm March 20, 2013

http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/20/lowering-the-education-tab-in-portugal-comes-at-a-human-cost/

Santonio Thompson, Japan and crime

In this article I learned that Japan has and has always seemed to have a very low murder rate. “In 2008, the U.S. had over 12 thousand firearm-related homicides. All of Japan experienced only 11, fewer than were killed at the Aurora shooting alone. And that was a big year: 2006 saw an astounding two, and when that number jumped to 22 in 2007, it became a national scandal.” Many think the reason behind the death rate being so low is because of their gun policies. This makes since in a way if there aren’t many people with fire arms in their houses then it’s harder to kill someone. However many others would contribute japans low murder rates to “cultural” aspects. The author speaks of making America “more Japanese” in an attempt to lower the death rate by doing things like “ending immigration and multiculturalism and there is little doubt, statistically, that this would do far more to lower our homicide rate, than banning guns.”

I definitely think that in order to lower America’s murder rate we are going to have to do much more than to get rid of guns. One because change doesn’t happen like that rapidly it’s gradual.  Japan has “gradually” become a place with low murder rates because of the course of time their culture has driven them to be a less violent race. I think that is the key to the goal for America, the reason why we have a higher murder rate than many other places is because we have “gradually” become a more violent race of people.

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/japans-low-murder-rate-is-due-to-its-immigration-policies-not-its-gun-control/

3/8/2013 4:00 pm

Crime In Greensboro, Santonio Thompson

In the article I read it stated that Greensboro's crime rate is actually higher as a city thatn North Carolina as a state. The article stated that "Greensboro, North Carolina has a violent crime rate of 864 incidents per 100,000 people. This compares with a rate of 710 in North Carolina and a rate of 676 nationally." Greensboro actually is in the higher percentage also for violent crimes nationally, and city to city has a higher violent crime rate than a very large portion of other cities in North Carolina. In 2008 it was also reported that "Greensboro, North Carolina has a property crime rate of 6334.7 incidents per 100,000 people. This compares with an average rate of 5547.7 in North Carolina and an average rate of 3727 incidents per 100,000 nationally." Once again Greensoro having more crime in a certain area then North Carolina as a whole.
I decided to choose Greensboro because I was interesting in seeing how the crime really is here. it shocked me a lot to see that Greensboro as a city trumps North Carolina in more than one area of crime. I think one of the reasonings behind this would probably be the sixe of Greensboro. it's one of north Carolina's bigger cities so I guess it would only be natural that it would have a high crime rate. I also think Greensoro crime rate is high because of all of the colleges in the area. I am not suggesting that the college students are committing the majority of the crimes, however, I do feel that having so many colleges one attracts youth from all over from areas like Charlotte, Raleigh, and Durham to come to Greensboro. For those youths that come here that do not attend school or work full time resort to crime. I think having so many college students also makes the students easy targets for older and more experienced offenders also because for many of us students it's our first real chance of being truly out on your own. So we are easy targets.


http://www.homesurfer.com/crimereports/view/crime_report.cfm?state=NC&area=Greensboro


3/1/2013  2:37 pm  Soc 202-02

internet fraud in Africa, Santonio Thompson

This article is about Nigeria and Ghana, becoming number one in the world for online fraud. The article stated that seven percent of all the transactions recorded by Nigeria were fraudulent, “Africa was followed by Asia (5% of all transactions fraudulent), South America (4% Fraudulent), Europe (2% fraudulent) and North America (1% fraudulent) ”  Many of the online fraud happen on dating websites and retail websites, the most common offences were credit card fraud and identity theft.  I think that when most people think of crimes their usually violent ones but if you’re only focused on violent crimes then crimes such as these being committed in Africa so often would go under the radar. Scams on the internet are not anything new and they definitely don’t seem to be going away anytime soon. People have to learn how to protect themselves from internet scams more efficiently. One way to do this is not giving your credit card information to any kind of website because once you've put something on the internet there’s no taking it off.  I also believe that the government needs to crack down on trying to keep those people who are using the internet to scam others. It’s only natural for these criminals to continue to try and scam people because we aren't putting enough focus on catching them. I know it would not be a overnight fix but something needs to be done. Everyday people’s lives are being ruined by these schemes.  I think the best solution to the problem is to simply be more cautious if you aren't on a official retail website such as Abercrombie or Rue 21 or any well know clothing stores then you shouldn't give out your information. And anything that prompts you to enter your credit card info even if it says it’s no charge don’t do it.   

http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2013/02/22/ghana-nigeria-said-to-make-africa-worlds-number-one-online-fraud-continent/

2/22/2013  3:12 pm                                                                 

Santonio Thompson Crime in Sri Lanka

Crime in Sri Lanka

Why is crime so bad in Sri Lanka?  For Sri Lanka most of its violent crimes actually

happen’s within the local communities so much crime that in the article I read online “Sri Lanka Country Information “ which is actually  from a state travel website gives specific tips on what not to do to avoid being a statistic of crimes. Such as “women travelers should travel with other whenever possible, be vigilant when traveling in areas not visited by many tourists, walking alone in isolated areas anytime of day should be avoided.” How does a place like Sri Lanka become so violent in the first place.  Much of this is lingering over from the war against the LTTE a terrorist organization. Since this organization was the defeated the crime rates improved but there is still criminal activities in the country. Such as “kidnapping and murders and most of this happens in their local communities.” I think one of the reasons why these violent crimes continue to happen is because of the availability of police.  If you called the police in the U.S you will always get crime fastest response but in Sri Lanka sometimes there can be up to a couples hours before you get a policeman to come out to the scene of the crimes. How far could the criminals get in a few hours time compared to a few minutes of police respondance. More physical evidence is lost and more detective work will have to be implicated. I believe one of the best solutions to trying to bring down the crime rates there is to simple get someone out to the crime scenes faster.

2/15/2013 3:47 pm    Soc 202-02

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1025

Santonio Thompson Crime Rates in New York

“After two consecutive years of plunging citywide crime rates, fresh New York City police statistics show that murder, burglary, robbery and other serious crimes are dropping sharply again this year across the city and once again at an accelerating pace.” In 1996 the crime rate in New York City had been falling tremendously. In this article by Clifford Krauss the author stated that If current trends hold, the city will experience its lowest number of murders since 1968, when there were 986 homicides. So in 1996 as you can see New york was on the right path not many big cities in that time frame crime rates were decreasing much if at all. The reasoning we are giving behind this drastic drop in 1996 was for a number of reasons. Such as new crime tactics and focus on trying to catch the hard core repeat offenders and put them behind bars. However if you look at the crime rate for 2012 for New York City you will see that any thoughts and ideas about the crime rate to keep going down were thrown out of the window. “Major crimes are up 4.2 percent so far in 2012, the New York Post reports, marking the first time in eighteen years that all eight NYPD "patrol boroughs" have seen an increase. That includes grand larceny, sex crimes, and shootings, which have all jumped since the same period in 2011, although murders are down 15.6 percent.”  How very different these both of theses articles start off from 1996 to 2012 what is the biggest difference why did the crime rate rise again? There could be many reasons for this one is the population growth in New York more people more crimes, other’s would say that the documentation of crimes have diminished. Meaning that there may not even actually be more crimes being committed now then back then but now they are just documented better.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/06/why-are-crime-stats-up-in-nyc-2012.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/03/nyregion/1996-data-show-crime-rates-are-still-falling-in-new-york.html

Soc 202-02  4/8/2013  3:18