Are C-Sections Overused? Rethinking Induced Labor
The rise in cesarean-section deliveries in recent years has been
characterized by some as a key indication of the overmedicalization of
childbirth. While the procedure undoubtedly saves lives and leads to
better health outcomes for mothers and infants who face problems during
pregnancy and labor, many experts say the procedure is being performed
too often, and in many cases for nonmedical reasons, putting healthy
women and babies at undue risk of complications of major surgery.
ht: dave p
German soccer gets ruling on Ramadan fasting
BERLIN (AP)—A Muslim group and German soccer authorities said Wednesday they have determined that professional Muslim players may break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
The announcement followed a dispute involving second-division club FSV Frankfurt, which last year gave a formal warning to three of its players for fasting.
During Ramadan, devout Muslims fast from dawn to dusk, abstaining even from water. The club had a clause in contracts stating that wasn’t allowed without its express permission.
Germany’s Central Council of Muslims said it sought advice from Al-Azhar in Egypt, the pre-eminent theological institute of Sunni Islam, and elsewhere.
Al-Azhar ruled that if a player is obliged to perform under a contract that is his only source of income, if he has to play matches during Ramadan, and if fasting affects his performance, then he can break his fast, the council said.
The European Council for Fatwa and Research supported that ruling, it added.
“The Muslim professional can make good the fasting days in times when there are no matches, and so continue to pay God and the holy month of Ramadan honor and respect,” Aiman Mazyek, the general secretary of the Central Council of Muslims, said in a statement.
He noted that “keeping the body healthy plays a leading role in Islam.”
“We very much welcome it that an arrangement has now been found that allows players to carry out professionally their work in high-performance sport and in doing so live their faith to the full,” FSV Frankfurt manager Bernd Riesig said.
http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=ap-germany-ramadanfasting
Syria bans face veils at universities
Female students wearing a full face veil will be barred from Syrian university campuses, the country’s minister of higher education has said.
Ghiyath Barakat was reported to have said that the practice ran counter to the academic values and traditions of Syrian universities.
His ruling, published on the All4Syria website, was said to be in response to requests from students and parents.
The issue of full face veils has caused controversy in other countries.
“Start Quote
We have never gone to the extreme left or the extreme right”
End Quote Kinda al-Shammat Law professor, Damascus
Kinda al-Shammat, a law professor and women’s rights activist in Damascus, welcomed the decision and said it was in line with the Syrian belief in moderation.
“We have never gone to the extreme left or the extreme right,” she told Al-Arabiya TV.
Secular identity
However the BBC’s Lina Sinjab in Damascus says the ruling could be a sign that Syrian Society is becoming more conservative.
“In recent years, Syria has witnessed an Islamic revival with more and more women wearing the Hijab,” she reports.
“This decision could be seen as a step by the government to enforce its secular identity.”
In 2009, Egypt’s then foremost Muslim cleric, Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, barred female students from wearing the full-face veil at the al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam’s centre of learning and scholarship.
He also upset other Muslim scholars by saying French Muslims should obey any law that France might enact banning the veil.
Earlier this month, France’s lower house of parliament overwhelmingly approved a bill that would ban wearing the Islamic full veil in public.
It must be ratified by the Senate in September to become law.
Belgium’s lower house of parliament has also passed a bill to ban clothing that hides a person’s identity in public places, although it does not specifically refer to full-face Islamic veils.
I am both the disciple of God (murid allah) and His desire (murad Allah) The chain of my discipleship is connected with God without any mediation. My hand is a substitute for the hand of God. I am a disciple of Muhammad connected with him through many intermediaries : in the Naqshbandi order there are twenty one intermediaries in between; in the Qadiri, twenty-five; and in the Chishti, twenty-seven; but my relationship with Allah as a disciple is not subject to any mediation, as has already been related. Hence I am both the disciple of Muhammad the Messenger of Allah and his co-disciple (ham pirah), that is, we are both disciples of the same master: Allah). Though I am a parasite at the table of this wealth, sitting near the Prophet , yet I have not come uninvited; though I am a follower (tabi), I am not without a share of genuineness (asalah); though I am a common believer (ummat), I am sharing in the wealth. This is not a sharing from which a claim of equality would arise; this would be infidelity (kufr). It is a sharing of a servant with a master. Until he called, I did not come to the table of this wealth and until he expressed his wish, I did not stretch my arm to partake in it. Though I am Uwaysi, I have an Omnipresent and All-seeing instructor (murabbi-yi hazir o nazir) . Though in the Naqshbandi order my instructor is Abd al Baqi yet the One who has undertaken my instruction is the Everlasting One (al-Baqi) . His glory is great and is munificence all-pervading. I have received my instruction through His) grace and I have gone the way of the elect. My chain [silsila] is that of the Merciful (rahmani), because I am a servant of the Merciful (abd al-rahman). My Lord is the Merciful One – great is His glory and all-pervading His munificence – and my instructor is the Most Compassionate ahram al-rahimin).
My path is the path of Subhani. I have gone the way of the tanzih; through Name and Attribute I am not seeking anything but the Essence. This subani is not the subhani which was the creed of [Abu Yazid] Bistami. The two do not have anything in common. That one [Bistamis] has not gone out of the circle of the souls: the one [mine] is beyond the souls and the horizons. That one is tashbih cloaked in tanzih; this one is tanzih untouched by even a grain of tashbih. The Most Compassionate did not use in my case anything but muaddat as a means of instruction; His grace was the only active factor in it. His great generosity, care and zeal for me prevented Him from allowing anyone else to take part in my instruction, but I have approached someone else in this matter. I am a divine disciple (murabba-yi ilahi-great is his glory and and elect of His boundless grace and generosity.
Maktubat III 145-146
I have not been brought into this world for the sake of Sufi Instruction (piri) or discipleship (muridii). I was not created in order to perfect and guide the people. My work is different and so is my workshop. Whoever has the proper attitude in this matter will receive the divine bounty; others will not receive it. The work of perfecting and guidance [of the people] is, in comparison with that work [of mine], like a thing lying rejected on the road (ka al matruh fi al tariq). The call (dawah ) of the prophets is also of the same standing when compared with their esoteric mission (muamalati- batiniyah). Though the office of prophecy came to an end, yet the perfect followers of the prophets have a share in the perfections of prophecy through their following and inheritance.
Maktubat II 16-17
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Frank Talk on 
Zeynep on 
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