Israel's attack on UN-run school in Gaza - 07 Jan 09

War on Information: Palestinian and Israeli side of the story

It has been 12 days, 12 short days for the ones who could sleep, and 12 long days, for the ones who could not sleep because of the bombings of all day and nights and moaning of the families praying for their death bodies lying on the streets in Middle East. Unfortunately, world is in one more time so much in need of information about the war zone and that is why these 12 days were also hectic for the war journalist. Quite recently, when I was skimming some of the newspapers, I have realized that the war is not just in the shabby streets of Gaza, but also on the coverage of newspapers. The authorities and leaders in the region do not want any journalists, being present in the region and covering well balanced stories.


War of information is an old trick

It is obvious that the both sides of the conflict some how needs to convince the public about the legitimacy of their final actions in the region. It is certainly not a new trick to use the mass media for wining the war with the help of mass mediums. In WWII Hitler (with the help of Gobbles) and Mussolini were to be the best in that, and then in cold war times US took the leadership to convince many to believe in “American dream”, with the 1st Gulf War, for the first time live war on news channels. From our houses, we could watch the planes dropping bombs in Iraq over and over. 2nd Gulf War also started as a information war, on one hand US was making claims about the mass destruction weapons hidden in Iraq and Saddam’s hidden agendas in the region and on the other hand there was Iraqi Information Minister Muhammad Saeed al-Sahaf making “patriotic speeches” against US and the west. In the beginning, US was the first one to handle mass communication professionally, but after a while with the news and photos coming Abu Ghraib, US started to loose in the communication battle since these photos were telling more than the “claims of brining democracy” to the poor peoples of Iraq. Basically world reacted so much and some kind of awareness about war appeared and inside stories of the war started to be covered by world wide on TV channels and newspapers. There appeared a careful audience who do not approve any terrorist activity, and do not want to see war crimes taking place in other parts of the world with the help of internet, blog journalism, and even youtube. (The point where Hypodermic Needle and Magic Bullet Theories start shattering)

Control over the information

On 6th of Jan, on New York Times, Ethan Bronner (Israel Puts Media Clamp on Gaza) dealt with the information side of the war and how Israel State is trying to control journalist with the some reasons in order to keep the information in their hand and only release with their approval. Basically, Israel want “their stories to be covered about the region” in the world.

In his news, he states; “Three times in recent days, a small group of foreign correspondents was told to appear at the border crossing to Gaza. The reporters were to be permitted in to cover firsthand the Israeli war on Hamas in keeping with a Supreme Court ruling against the two-month-old Israeli ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza.” He adds; “Each time, they were turned back on security grounds, even as relief workers and other foreign citizens were permitted to cross the border. On Tuesday the reporters were told to not even bother going to the border.”

It is not surprising to see that Israel seems to be much more in control and ruling and regulating how the world will see the war, because “wining a war in the eye of people” sometimes even more matters than “wining a war in a battle”. In his interesting news Bronner also states; “Like all wars, this one is partly about public relations. But unlike any war in Israel’s history, in this one the government is seeking to entirely control the message and narrative for reasons both of politics and military strategy.”

But there is also no surprise that Hamas wants to control the information in the region and it is not easy for the foreign journalists to work freely there and as it is stated in the news “…unable to send foreign reporters into Gaza, the international news media have relied on Palestinian journalists based there for coverage.”
It is clear that Israel is much more organized to keep the message controlled, and they are working very carefully to create their “own right public message” Avic Shir-On, Deputy director general for the Foreign Ministry states “We are trying to coordinate everything that has to do with the image and content of what we are doing and to make sure that whoever goes on the air, whether a minister or professor or ex-ambassador, knows what he is saying,”


Al-Jazeera and CNN

CNN has been always one of the major sources of the world, together with BBC and there is no doubt that their peak times were 1st Gulf War, when the world was watching the war on TV and trying to understand the reasons of war. There is in recent years another challenge by the east the visual and online journalism by Al-Jazeera and it seems that as a news source it is gaining more and more popularity to give some other stories which are not covered in elsewhere.

But it is important to see that CNN journalists are not happy with the fact that Israel is not letting journalists to be in Gaza. Campbell Brown anchors CNN's "Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull", states “We have been trying to report as accurately as possible on the fighting in Gaza. But that is without question a challenge when we do not have reporters on the ground who can bring you first-hand information about what is taking place” and adds “the reason we have no reporters on the ground in Gaza is because Israel will not allow foreign journalists into Gaza” On Tuesday night's broadcast.

In the article, named “In USA, Gaza is a different war” by Habib Battah, there is an attempt to show how the conflict differently represented in the western news sources according to them. For example, Battah emphasizes the claim that the news are not balanced on Washington Post by stating that “when the front page photographs of the two women were published on December 30, over 350 Palestinians had reportedly been killed compared to just four Israelis. What if 350 Israelis had been killed and only four Palestinians - would the newspaper have run the stories side by side as if equal in news value?”

It is certainly a hard case to decide how much the coverage will take and considering the death and wounded people in one side and Israel’s standance in the other side. But it should definitely a journalistic responsibility to present both of the claims and how the people are feeling in the both sides of the history.

I do believe that there are not just Palestinians who are already fed up with living under the bombs with in poverty but also Israelis, desiring so much a peaceful life in the region. Civil people should be more in focus rather than the politicians to tell their own stories. Journalists should be really careful to not to be the voices of politicians whose voices are already heard quite loud and frequent, but being the “voice of quiet people”, “voice of unheard people”, from streets of Israel, and from the streets of Gaza and elsewhere in the world.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Boris Vian Le Deserteur English Subtitles

Boris Vian and his anti-war song from 1950's.

Gaza is under attack; 10.000 Israeli troops are going deep in Gaza

Just before the Christmas time, rocket shooting started from the Palestinian side to Israel, known as fired by Hamas and Israel has started a heavy bombardment against Gaza Strip of Palestine and caused more than 500 to die and around 900 civilians are wounded in the region. The situation is escalating and a serious attempt from the world power is waited to come calm down the situation and end the war with a ceasefire.

Hamas is hold responsible by the Israel authorities since they kept shooting rockets to the Israel side and it clear that Hamas is seen as a terrorist group by Israel Government. But more importantly, it is crucial to understand that Hamas is generally supported by the public in Palestine. Mark Tran from Guardian, uses some of the comments taken from the blogs around the world and Tom Sagev writing in Ha’retz, thinks Israel is repeating the mistakes of past and believes that they can get rid of Hamas militarily. In the same news, published in Guardian, Sagev adds, "But Hamas is not a terrorist organisation holding Gaza residents hostage: It is a religious nationalist movement, and a majority of Gaza residents believe in its path.”
It is not a surprise that Hamas is strongly supported with in Palestine and also in other countries of Middle East undercover, because "Since fall of 2007, Israel has kept the 1.5 million Gazans under a blockade, interdicting food, fuel and medical supplies to one degree or another” and it seems that Israel do not want to work on changing the minds of Palestinians and politically moving them to any other milder alternative which might even take some part in cooperation with Israel and neighbouring countries. The solution seems to be easy and sharp; kill them all! Unfortunately, just as it had happened before, this reckless decision of Israel is far from being rational and it seems that extreme groups of Middle East will gain more and more public support in the long run.

Humanitarian side of the story seems to be one of the most disastrous one ever took place in Middle East in such a short time, Red Cross and ambulances are not allowed to carry any help and open air markets, universities, mosques, hospitals are even under bombardment according to recent news. More than the pain and the sorrow in the region, it seems that the tension is bound to rise immensely, if there would no emergent measure taken by US, EU and UN. There is no doubt that the Bush is still in his office and even in his last few days refuses to take a serious action to end the war. Except France, EU is also tented to emphasize the need to take an action after the rocket shootings of Israel. UN Security Council is one more time, could not function and come up with a serious resolution which would guide the sides of the conflict.

Jackson Diehl from Washington Post also points out the same important side of the story by looking at Israeli PM Olmert last actions; “he will be remembered for fighting two bloody and wasteful mini wars in les then three years in power” and he also adds “The first one, in Lebanon during the summer of 2006, punished but failed to defeat or even permanently injure Hezbollah, which is politically and militarily stronger today than it was before Olmert took office. This one will probably have about the same effect on Hamas, which almost certainly will still control Gaza and retain the capacity to strike Israel."

Politicians and the decision makers are, in general, expected to be rational and making sensible decisions, but it is obvious that rather than calming down the already boiling pot of Middle East, adding a bit “more gasoline on the fire” might also discomfort Israel as well as Palestine in the long run. Extreme religious groups in both sides can well be see the situation as a “new crusade” or a kind of “jihad”, but more than these word, rational politicians should start thinking peace in the region and showing the needed efforts urgently, since the each casualty creates more hate and sorrow which are the main fuels of the any extreme groups taking violent actions in the region.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Reference: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2008/dec/29/israel-gaza-attacks-motives

LIFESTYLE 2: Magnificent History of Coffee

The history of coffee bean, the magic beans that activate billons of people in the early mornings, goes back to tenth century. It’s evolution through the timeline and variety of uses serves for different purposes makes this fascinating beans much more than basic fruits of a regular plant, but a source of beverage which still attracts entrepreneurs, investors and marketing people from all around the world.

It is known as the coffee beans were discovered in Ethiopia, and it is recognized as the motherland of it. From that time, coffee has been a well appreciated economically valuable product which later travelled to Arabian Peninsula whit the hands of traders. Attractiveness of the taste was also irresistible for the traders and name of coffee reached to India and later on to Europe via Turks who gave the used the word “kava” which derived from Arabic. In 1683, with Vienna Siege of Ottoman Turks, remarkable journey of coffee on Europe started. It is believed that the Turks left the city in a rush after the siege and they left the coffee bean bags in Vien. A man named Kolschitzky knew what these beans were used for and naturally he became the owner of the first coffee shop in Vienna. Around the same, even earlier Venetians also traded coffee in small quantities since there were numerous people who knew about it and also Arabs were strict about the trade since it was thought that coffee beans could have used to grow in other lands too. What was not known that the climate was not suitable to grow it in Europe naturally but only in green houses? It has been thought as a sinful drink which was maybe coming from Muslim lands and identified very much with Arab and Turks. But there is not sure that the actual product began to be served first in Venice in coffee houses and then these coffee houses spread around all Europe.

The coffee was banned for some time until it was blessed by Pope Celement VIII who tried it and enjoyed the taste very much. In 17th century Dutch people brought coffee beans from Malabar and grew them in green houses and they were amazed with the possible income that they can have if they had larger lands where they can grow them without green houses. This led Dutch colonies such as Java in Asia and Surinam in America to be one of the most important suppliers of Europe.

Britain, even though it is much more associated with tea, has been also an important spot for the traders after the 1674 with the opening of the first coffee house in London by a Lebanese Jew. In central Europe, coffee and coffeehouses became one of the symbols of liberty which is often now associated with “comfort” and “joy” in today’s advertisements. There have been various attempts to grow this magic product and be independent from Arab traders. This has been achieved first by Dutch and then by French entrepreneurs with the help of green houses. This was a new method to grow the beans in Europe and with Dutch’s gift; noble tree, the method was used to produce billions of Arabica trees which were used in various French colonies in Latin America and Central America. It became a way of living and representation of values such as "Liberté, égalité, fraternité, ou la mort!" ("Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death!")" in French revolution against bourgeoisie.

Later on from the beans of Noble Tree, Chevalier Gabriel Mathiew de Clieu produced immense amount of new trees which were used to produce coffee in Haiti, Caribbia, and Mexico and spread to all Latin America after 1720’s. While the coffee and this addictive joyful habit was spreading all around the world, in every spot, it was being prepared in a different way and named according to preparation process. Such as mocha, frappachino, latte, Turkish coffee, macchiato. Espresso and so on. Coffee houses and their purposes was also varied, some were used as a meeting spots for a break in daily rush, some were used a meeting place for sharing political ideas such as Sons of Liberty of American Revolution and abortive Beer Hall Putsch by German Nazi Party in 1923. Boston Tea Party which is known as a place where United States Declaration of Independence was read was also a coffeehouse in a contradiction to its actual name.

Coming to 20th century. Brazil became the main and the biggest produce of the coffee and it continued to be the monopoly until new countries such as Colombia, Guatemala, Vietnam and Indonesia started to be highly productive countries of coffee to sell the various coffee chains surrounding the main cities day by day. Through out the coffees’ journey from one continent to the other, there is great fact that coffee itself moves from being just an ordinary drink but a powerful sign of a wealth for the traders for centuries and a trendy choice for the customers living in big cities in their rush times. There is no doubt that the coffee is today not just a drink but a beverage which brings set of rules both for consuming and marketing. According to the needs of the consumers, in 21st century, the coffee might be served after different processes, grinding types, shapes and kinds of beans, as an instant or fresh, cold or hot, iced or flavoured, in glass on ceramic mugs, as take away or in cosy chairs with house music. Is that all? Certainly not! Coffeehouses, coffee chains and side products in 21st century makes coffee a kind of extension of customers own identity with their personalized drinks. Even though the standard component can be seen as the coffee beans, outcome so always varied with partial configurations just as in most of the products in 21st century markets.

In today’s world, according to statistics given by NCA coffee drinking survey in 2000, the average coffee consumption per capita in the United States is around 4.4 Kg. Among coffee drinkers (i.e. not per capita) the average coffee consumption in the United States is 3.1 cups of coffee per day (NCA). Per capita men drink approximately 1.9 cups per day, whereas women drink an average of 1.4 cups of coffee a day. Still these numbers are showing that coffee market still expand since there is a strong capability as long as right strategy and marketing methods are used as well as configuration of the product and service according to the varied needs of customers.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Bibliography

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/coffee/history.htm
http://www.coffeeresearch.org/market/usa.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee
http://www.decentcoffee.com/history.html

LIFE STYLE: Café Guide of Turku; Coffee is never just caffeine!

Turku…for the ones who never heard of the name of the first capital of Finland, the name is not coming from Turkey and the actually it is believed that the word comes from Slavic languages, meaning “market place”. Basically Turku has both sea and river and should be counted as one of the lucky city. But funnily enough except few close districts Naantali, Kaarina, and the city harbour, the city seems to be turned its back to the sea and more in love with the river called “Aurajoki” side one. Most of the cafes and restaurants are mainly either in market place “tori” or by the river banks.

The coffee has a very meaningful part in Finnish life since according to many statistics; they are the first one in the consumption of coffee. The morning starts with coffee and the dark days enjoyed with strong and attractive smell of coffee. Since Finnish people like spending time at home, they are also into buying from basic filter coffee machines to very sophisticated espresso machines. But day by day, in each corner, you can see new coffee houses opening and it seems that coffee is more than loading caffeine in their body but sharing every moment with the friends and having long chats just like in southern Europe. To get a nice grasp of a the city, one should definitely know the nice cafes since they do not make a lot promotion and stay as humble alternative for the “coffee lovers”. In last one and a half year, I spend most of my time in Turku and I would like to share my comment and suggestions on the cafes in the city.

I will try to tell you “best” ones first and then I will also give few examples of the “army cafeterias” called so because of being far from a coffee house. Starting with the best one, there is no doubt it is Three Beans in the centre of Turku. (Humalistonkatu 3).From the moment the one opens the door of this unique and mini place, the coffee smells get you to another world. Owner is so friendly and running the place by herself but for sure preparing the greatest mocha you can drink in Turku. Prices are affordable even for low budged students and the second cup is always with discount. Good coffee, friendly owner, handy location and nice decoration…Ten out of ten. The best of Turku and at the top of the list!

The second alternative is Café Brahe on Yliopistankatu 37 and now it has also a new branch in Hansa Shopping Center. More than the new one, the one of Yliopistankatu has a character and a nice view of the most vivid street of Turku. Coffee is accompanied with “giant muffins”, well enough for two people and wide variety of pastries, cookies and sandwiches.

Art Café by the river on Läntinen Rantakatu 5, (ph:2719000) is also another good choice. Cheese cakes are worth to mention and espresso and cappuccinos. They always care about the service and the happiness of the customers. The decoration is really artistic and the river view from the windows really moving while you are having your coffee. They also place some chairs and tables by the river outside in summer time the ones “sunshine and coffee lovers”.

Alwar, it is a great place because of many reasons. You can just get addicted there since it offers everything in this small city. People working there are not just working but enjoying every moment, and becoming your friends. They always treat you as their friends and after a while know you likes and dislikes. The music is always good and the relax young and middle ages people, musicians, students, authors, poets hang out in this semi-bohemian café bar. There is only filter coffee and hot chocolate but there is a great selection of world beer and comfortable smoking section as well as window side, street viewed tables. If you want to know more people and make new friends, it is the first step you should take in Turku, a “must visit” regularly.

Coffee World is chain coffee house and recently there is a new one in the Tori (right on the corner of the main square) and it offers luxury and wide variety of selection but it a bit impersonal. Just as in other chain stores, like Starbucks and Gloria Jeans, people working are just working and they will never remember you and what you get all the time even if you go every day. But still the interior decoration is impressive and location is very central. For the ones to take a little coffee break, it offers nice coffee and comfort.

Café Serious, on Linnankatu 2 is an alternative for the sophisticated customers since it is right inside of the main library. Regular visitors of the library have their lunches and also coffees in this small but very cosy café. Stefano is the Italian owner of the place and he is always friendly and welcoming. He will offer you the best espresso and tiramisu cake; there is no doubt about it.

Naantalin Aurinkoinen on Hämeenkatu 3 (Ph:075 325 7313) is a typically Finnish chain and it has many specialities of Finnish deserts. On specific days such as Christmas, Easter, Midsummer festival, you can always find something “Finnish” to eat with you coffee. It has a warm and humble atmosphere and best filter coffee of Finland; Juhla. Finns basically likes the taste of Juhla even though it is not really my favourite.

The other good alternatives are Domcafe under the first floor of the main church of Turku (Tuomiokirko) and Aschan, another chain café of Finland (Eerikinkatu 15, in Hansa, on Kauppiaskatu 9, Eerikinkatu 16, Humalistonkatu 5, Hämeenkatu 8, and Yliopistonkatu 20 in Hansa). The prices are always more than what you get and the coffee is not the best but not the worst, on average. But if you are into coffee and hot chocolate and want to give a kick to your caffeine crises, the Robert’s Coffee on Kauppiaskatu 11, is a good alternative of an internationally known chain.

Arnold is always cheap and easy to access and the favourite place of youngsters because of the doughnuts (Eerikinkatu 15 in Hansa and Viilarinkatu 3). In Hansa, the well known shopping centre of Turku, you can find a café of Stockmann. Stockhmann is known as the most of expensive clothing store of Finland and basically the coffee is also expensive enough to make you forget its taste. Nothing really special but maybe a bit of comfort, and taking a part in high class of Turku if you are into fashion and luxury. But if you are driven by the need of coffee, I would recommend you the top names in the list I mentioned before.

Rento and Poro are right on the vivid street called Yliopistonkatu but they are not really customer friendly, too snobby and nothing reminding coffee but mass of people staring at each other in high volume of disturbance, and soccer matches on TV screens not watched by anyone but heard since you could not avoid. Security of Poro is also known as not accepting foreigners few times and I personally experienced one case. With his broken English he said I could not get in (daytime) with my German and Italian friends since we are all foreigners and he said some foreigners caused some problems a day before. Funny and irritating but definitely they do not represent friendly Finns and they need to learn about welcoming foreigners since Turku will be the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2011 and streets will be packed with the wonderers soon, want to learn about Finnish culture and Turku.

In general, there are many good alternatives, absolutely inviting and charm of coffee is for sure enough to make your day a nice one. You can take walk in the small and handy centre of the city and also take a brake in one of these cafes and enjoy your memories in every sip of your freshly brewed coffee and make your plans for discovering new parts of the city. Coffee is sure not coffee for Finns and they know how to appreciate the chat and coffee together, and they will always reward you back if you once invite them for a coffee joy out in the centre. Next time you will be called back and basically coffee will be the first step of your friendships…enjoy your coffees and enjoy Turku.

1-Three Beans
2-Café Brahe
3-Art Café
4-Alwar
5-Coffee world
6-Café Serious
7-Naantlain Aurinkoinen
8-Domcafe
9-Robert’s Coffee
10-Aschan

Gokhan KURTARAN

Turkey has blocked blooger.com

(Cartoon by Cem Yalcin; "“Testing, 1,2 , ich bin haynnin siwanynin, hmm, sound test 1,2,3,4, Heil Tayyipler, hmm this will succeed!”)

Turkey has added a new worldwide known blog base; blogger.com to the internet banning history of the country on this Friday. Bloger.com is a blog publishing system first crated by Pyra Labs. and owned by Google in 2003.

Today, many internet users in the country were shocked to see that they can not access to Blogger.com which is was ranked 16 on the list of top 50 domains in terms of number of unique visitors in 2007 in the world.

Millions of blog user updating their sited regularly and sharing new ideas, publishing their own thoughts, sometimes about minor things about daily life but sometimes about the news which are skipped by the main stream TV channels and newspapers in the world.

According to the news of Today’s Zaman; “there are currently 853 Web sites banned in Turkey, including video-sharing site Youtube and dailymotion.com, placing Turkey in the league of countries such as China and Saudi Arabia, famous for restricting freedom of speech.”

Local Criminal Courts of Turkey do have the right to ban a web site and some of the sites have been banned without no justification such as gundemonline.com. The sites are generally banned on the grounds of claims of insulting the founding father and the First President of Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, or having sexual content, containing violence, gambling etc. Youtube.com was banned more than six months this year and now the world wide meeting point of blog users; www.blogger.com is also banned. No justification has been made by the court yet on the ground of the decision.

Turkey is not alone in its antidemocratic attempt to ban the free thought and expression right of internet users in the world. China, Armenia, Iran, Tunisia, Indonesia, Syria and Saudi Arabia have the similar kinds of banning record.
Government of Turkey, does not seem to be taking any part in making regulations in order to put Turkey into the league of shame in 21st century and more than the videos of insulting Ataturk, current ruling politicians of Turkey seems to be disturbed by the criticisms they are receiving from internet.

Prime Minister Erdogan also known as taking Musa Kart and his newspaper, Cumhuriyet, to court after he was portrayed as a cat entangled in a ball of wool. He also launched a lawsuit against a small, local newspaper, Sakarya, which reprinted the cartoon. Few weeks ago, he also called the whole nation to protest and not to buy and read the newspapers owned by Aydin Dogan. It is highly luckily that Justice and Development Party this time is disturbed by the bloggers writing against them.



There are still ways to access to banned sites

Thanks to international platforms such as ktunnel.com and vtunnel.com which allow internet users of Turkey to access the banned sites. Because of the banning of the courts well known web sites, popularity of the bridge web sites has increased rapidly and according to the statistics of August, they are ranked as 37th most visited sites.
Gokhan KURTARAN

“Islam in Finland” Seminar in Turku

“Islam in Finland” Seminar took place under the theme of “Muslims and Researchers in Dialogue” on Tuesday, at 10.15, in Axelia, Auditorium Salin of Abo Academia in Turku, Finland with the support of 1001 Actions for Dialogue, The Anna Lindh Foundation. Leading researchers in the field and students took part in the interactive seminar and had the chance to search for a possible co-operation between different religious groups. “Islam and Suomessa” (Islam in Finland) book is also released in the before the seminar written by Tuomas Martikainen, Tuula Sakaranaho & Marko Juntunen.

In the morning part of the seminar, Tuomas Martikaninen from Abo Akademi greeted the participants and Marko Juntunen, Tuomas Martikainen, Minna Säävälä, Antero Leitzinger, Hanna Virtanen, Mari Maasilta, Karin Creutz-Kämppi continued with their views in the matter. Ahmed Akar fom Kulttuurikeskus Caisa of Finland also shared his view in the frame of “Islam in Finland”.

Islam in USA: Contemporary Trends in Religion and Immigration

Second part of the seminar was chaired by Prof. Antti Laato and Prof. Alex Stepick from Florida International University, USA made his presentation on “Contemporary Trends in Religion and Immigration” which really contributed another approach from the examples of US experience of immigration and adaptation of immigrants in their new environment. Generally, he started with the researches done on the “understanding of religion and God” in US and in comparison with Europe. According to him, more or less, religion is important to %60 of the Americans in USA, while it’s only 20% of in Europe. In USA, %63 the respondents also stated that they know God exists and in Europe around %20 of the respondents stated that they know God exists. According to statistics, %44 of the respondents attend the worship at least once a week, while in Europe it is around %15. In conclusion, “religion is very important in social life in US” stated Mr.Stepick.

He also supplied information on Islam in US and gave approximate numbers on Muslims living in US. According to him, there are over 12,000 mosques and more than half of them are founded in last 25 years. Islam is still the fastest growing religion in US and approximate Muslim population is around 5, 8 million and %30-%40 of them are African Americans (non-immigrants), 25% of them are South Asians, around 25% of them are Arabic speaking and rest is from N.Africa. First Muslim settlement was N. Dokato in 1900’s and later on Indiana Islamic Center was founded in 1914 in Iawo, the oldest American mosque still exist there and actively used. What was interesting is both states are in the heartland of US, still known as the most conservative parts of US.

Prof. Alex Stepick went on by giving information on immigration waves of US and on average Muslim goers. In 1924, US shut down all the immigrations, and 3rd wave immigration started only in 1947, dominantly from Pakistan and India. 4th wave followed in 1965 with mainly highly qualified professionals due to the immigration regulations. According to Mr. Stepick, average Muslim goers today “has a Bachelor degree of higher”, “earns around 74 thousand US dollar”, and “married with children” in US.

Prof. Alex Stepick: Path towards Integration

According to Prof. Alex Stepick, tension between religiously differed groups is inevitable. But “cooperation can be encouraged” and “positive context of reception” can be attainable and integration process might be successful with “strong leaders” and “cooperative activities”. Spots, music, food can well be used as a common international bridge between different groups.

He also emphasized the importance of “welcoming” immigrants in their new environment. It generally produces a smooth integration process and well adapted immigrants at the end. The other way to “reject” them and this act highly luckily to crates reactive response, and emphasizes on differences rather than commonalities.

Prof. Alex Stepick stated that he found Bush having a positive response toward US Muslims after September 11 was worked well to distinguish the terrorism and Muslims living in US. Certainly this example was highly debatable on. He concluded his words summing up his core points; such as “religious leadership”, “projects moral authority”, “links congregants with power or people who come to power”, “cooperative activities that effect solidarity” (such as food, dance, music, sport, education and our communication rhetoric”.


Dr. Sean McLoughlin :Muslim Leadership and Public Engagement in Britain

Dr. Sean McLoughlin from University of Leeds, UK took the stage and overviewed his presentation under the topics of “Muslim in Britain”, “From Race to Faith: The State Multiculturalism”, “From Local to National: Old & New Movement”, “The Rise and Fall of Muslim Council of Britain” and “The State & Muslim Leadership after 7/7”

He pictured the current Muslim demography in UK and stated that 1/3 of all the Muslims of UK live in London. According to Religious Question 2001, there are around 1,6 million Muslims living in UK and the number grew up around %60 since 1991.Generally Muslims are in UK described as “less mobile and more conservative” than other groups and the word of YUMMies (Young and Upperly Mobile Muslims) often used to describe the new generation.

In the “From the Race and Faith Relations”, Dr. Sean McLoughlin made an outline of immigration, citizenship, race and ethnic relations in UK. First started with Post Colonial Commonwealth Citizenship and race riots of 1950’s. Immigration legislation from 1950’s and discrimination legislation after 1966 were important attempt to create a base for unity in diversity. Multiculturalism was seen as a way out from most of the problems by the liberals starting from 60’s and the same thinking went for quite a long time. Dr. Sean McLoughlin continued his presentation with “From Race to Faith Relations” and gave the examples of “Riots in Northern mill towns”, “failure in multiculturalism”, “islamaphobia”, and possibility of “shared experiences and common citizenship to minimize the further disorder”.

He also overviewed the attempts of Muslims to be organized in UK under an umbrella organisation such as a council or a council in order to defend their rights. This came to real in 1997 with the name of “Muslim Council of Britain” as something similar to Jewish Board of Deputies”, but the council lacked representatives of Pakistani Sufis while the majority of the Muslims in UK are Pakistani originated. At the end, in 2006 Sufi Muslim Council appeared on the stage as a power. They called themselves as “the silent majority” but lacked the institutional expression. Meanwhile traditional Islamist took the stage under the name of “struggle for Islam”. Generally Dr. Sean McLoughlin stated that there seems to be tendency towards “wider trends since Sept. 11, mature, self critical, cosmopolitan Muslim voices”.



Dr Anas Hajjar:Finnish Muslims and Dialogue of Religions

Dr Anas Hajjar from Islamic Council of Finland started giving information on his background as an immigrant who came to Finland 22 years ago. He overviewed the history of Islam in Finland by referring to Tatars who came from Russia in 19th century to Finland as Muslims. In 1940, Tatars even found their first mosque in Järvenpää. Later on 1980’s, a new wave of immigration started mainly from Middle East and Africa to Finland and in 1990’s Somalians, Kosovians and Bosnians came as immigrants due to the conflicts in their own regions. Muslim population is thought to be around 40.000 and Dr Anas Hajjar stated that 7000 of them are registered members of Islamic Council of Finland and rest prefers to be free believers of Islam rather than having any ties with any council or associations.

He stated that, after September 11, President of Finland and leaders of religious groups wanted to meet more often to know more about each other and have talks about a possible cooperation. Dr Anas Hajjar stated that it is about cooperation not about bossing to prove who is better than the other, or who is more right, but mainly for dialogue between religions on an equal level and understanding of each other in order to work together for a better society. He stated that the regular meeting between the leaders of different religions still taking place in Finland.

Director Seppo Rissanen :The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Dialogue

Director Seppo Rissanen from The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission also informed the audience about his background and told that they are having regular meeting with the countries; Lebanon, Syria and Iran for cooperation. He stated that dialogue attempts are quite new not because they did not want but it was because there were not a Muslim community existing other than Tatars. According to him, all together number of Tatars and Jews were around 2000. But the whole picture started to change in homogeneous Finland in especially 90’s with new immigrants. Especially with the rise of religious extremism, dialogue stated to be a new challenge. “Peace between religions can not be taken for granted” Director Seppo Rissanen stated. Because the whole situation can turn into intolerance, discrimination, and violence at the end.

He gave an example of an actual case happened few years ago in south west of Finland; young Finns and young Muslims had a fight on the street and after the fight the leaders of religious groups condemned the action all together. According to Mr.Rissanen, moment of crises can be used as a starting point of active cooperation. He also stated that they have open invitation to other religions to come together and discuss and cooperate. He said twice a year, they are having such meetings and so far there has not been any tense argument. He said they are aware of they are major differences in their beliefs but it does not prevent them to respect each other. “Personally I am convinced dialogue is becoming part of our life” stated Director Seppo Rissanen.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Economical Crisis; finding a way out within complete chaos

Right in the middle of the most chaotic days of the economic crises, there are many crucial questions to be asked and answered immediately. Immediately, because it seems that the world does not have a long time to think, negotiate, vote and decide in the European standards. The domino effect of the crisis is faster than precautions and the complete chaos is spreading from Wall Street to even villages of Finland.

Is it really end of capitalism and the liberal values in the world, with serial state intervention into the market and strict regulations and flow of financial support to the banks in order to stabilize the current situation? It is still discussable. But there are various theories and most of them are related with the lessons taken from the biggest economical disaster in west; Great Depression. Some says that the world will never have a similar experience again, but if we have not something in similar way, maybe a minor model of the crisis, would the people able to survive while the life conditions might change rapidly? Is west really ready for that in upcoming years?

Is another Great Depression on the way?



A prominent journalist and columnist of Turkey, Altan Oymen (Radikal, 11.10.08) stated “ let’s look after 1929; USA somehow managed to be solving the problem in the democracy, UK and Switzerland, and Scandinavian countries almost did the same way, they managed to put the things right. But Germany could not do that. They found the way out of unemployment and other disasters related with crisis, in Hitler’s Nazism. And some other European countries also undergone through dictatorial regimes. Italy was already in Mussolini’s fascism. Mussolini used the crisis to reinforce his power in Italy and region. USSR also emphasized “how Marxism was right” and used the crisis as the proof of the “fact”. The crisis worked well for Stalin in over there too.”

He also emphasizes that there is a great change in everything in today’s age, so it does not mean that the same things will happen again in Europe or in any part of the world. But what is not thought and analysed today, who might be benefiting in today’s economical crisis? What sort of political movements might use the crisis as a scenario of the last day of the world, in order to gain the public’s support? How would the whole situation affect the actors of the world in the political-economical-sociological senses?


When will Europe act together?



It seems that every economic and political change in the world is a test for Europe’s acting together or independently. Unfortunately, the system which does seem to be perfect, does not really work in the practice since EU first could not agree on a common reaction after the Georgia and Russia Conflict broke out on 08.08.08. There are variety of opinions with in EU about the situation, such as the one of the Finnish Ambassador stated "Europe has been watching the actions of Russia in a state of paralysis, and has taken hardly any concrete action in the matter” in his two pages of assessment on the situation in the world asked by Finnish Foreign Minister Stub. According to the news of another Finnish ambassador also wrote “Europe is increasingly dependent on energy from Russia, and in Georgia, Russia showed how easy it would be to cut off the important pipelines to the west as well. Russia has already used the energy weapon in its foreign policy, when the state-owned company Gazprom turned off the taps to its pro-Western neighbour Ukraine for some time” in his assessment. The description is really telling a lot about the current situation in EU; “paralysed” by the Finnish Ambassador.

The second biggest test about the unity of EU was the economical crisis and it seems that one more time member nations are acting independently rather than acting as one actor. It seems that the decision taking process with in EU makes the actions to be take immediately almost impossible and the leaders of EU are finding the only way out by securing their own garden with the fences, not thinking about the neighbourhood that they are living in.

Changing roles and new infrastructure

Whether we like or not, it is time for questioning the economical and political pillars of EU, rather then praising “how good we are” then the other parts of the world. “The others” of Europe for centuries are finding their own ways and whether they are democratically ruled or not, countries are like Chine, India and Russia seems to be the new economical fore leaders of the world. They do consider all the options and they play this chess game according to its own “liberal rules”. Certainly, meanwhile this economic power does not stay as “innocent economic power” but evolve into a strong, willing and daring political power. We can see that clearly, day by day Chine and Russia having more “say” in every matter and “Russia” is so much aware of the west to be dependent on new energy sources. The whole matter might lead us to the question; is it really still matter to be part of EU or not? If the nations of EU will act independently in major cases as we have seen in Russia-Georgia Conflict and current economical crisis, does it still carry a meaning to be called a “union”? Sooner or later we will learn the answers of these questions, hopefully not through sad experiences.

Note: In the second picture, unemployed people are lined in order to get food and drink in 1927.


Gokhan KURTARAN