links for 2009-07-04

"The political clamor to ban the burqa is not an evidence-based policy. It is a misguided effort to enhance the status of women grounded in speculation about what a woman hidden in a burqa must feel. Yet whatever she feels will certainly not be changed by a law telling her what not to wear. And were there a law, how would it be enforced? Would there be a fine for wearing a burqa? Would there be clothes police? The whole notion is reminiscent of the prohibitions applied to women in Afghanistan before the Taliban lost power."

"Rhode Island has a lightning rod of a formal name — State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations — that harks back to its prominent role in the slave trade and makes some of its residents cringe."

"The arson attack on the Greenwich mosque comes after a very similar attack on a mosque in Luton last month, which I blogged about at the time, and an attack on a mosque in Bishop's Stortford the month before that. Those attacks too are believed by the worshippers to have been far-right inspired, with the Luton one coming as it did in the wake of several written threats of a racist nature."

"Just before 2PM, Lieutenant Connoly of the Midtown Taskforce demanded that the People of Color Contingent leave the parade. The reason given was that a delay of 6 blocks existed between the People of Color contingent and the contingent in front of them. NYPD raised the issue of the gap once and POC contingent marshals were in the process of closing the gap. Kris Hayashi, Executive Director of Audre Lorde Project (ALP), and Loyda Colon also of ALP explained to Lieutenant Connoly, that they were in the process of closing the gap and Lieutenant Connoly refused to listen. Lieutenant Connoly then insisted that the POC contingent leave the parade, and attempted to arrest both Colon and Hayashi. Lieutenant Connoly then ejected Harlan Pruden, the driver of NE2SS’ support vehicle and co-founder of NE2SS, other members of NE2SS (who led the People of Color Contingent), and Hayashi from the parade. Hayashi was physically dragged off the parade route."

"Al Sawaf echoes Al Awadhi’s views on the alarming impact of gender-insensitive soaps on children. She warns that young viewers grow up believing these are normal and acceptable and this could make young males more violent towards women and young females more submissive to violence."