The Michigan Daily - michigancailymcom
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
ANNAPOLIS, Md.
Palestinian, Israeli
leaders vowjump
start to peace talks
Sealing their pledge with an
awkward handshake, Israeli and
Palestinian leaders resolved yes-
terday to immediately restart mori-
bund peace talks. President Bush
said he will devote himself to end-
ing the six-decade conflict in the 14
months he has left in office.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert and Palestinian Presi-
dent Mahmoud Abbas, troubled
leaders with fragile mandates for
peace, told international backers
and skeptical Arab neighbors that
they are ready for hard bargaining
toward an independent Palestin-
ian homeland, a deal that has long
eluded Mideast leaders and Ameri-
can presidents.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
Musharraf to
quit as chief of
Pakistan's army
Pervez Musharraf will retire
as chief of Pakistan's army at mid-
week, his aides announced Monday
as the embattled leader grappled
with a political scene roiled by the
return of an exiled former prime
minister in time for crucial Janu-
ary elections.
Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by
the 1999 coup that put Musharraf
in power, quickly registered Mon-
day to run in the election although
he didn't drop his call for a boycott
that could undermine the ballot's
legitimacy.
Sharif appealed for support
from Pakistanis unhappy with
Musharraf's U.S. alliance, portray-
ing himself as a politician who
kept himself at arms length from
Washington in contrast to the U.S.-
friendly stance of the president and
the other key opposition leader,
Benazir Bhutto.
TEHRAN, Iran
Iran's military
claims it has new
weapon
Iran's military said Tuesday
it has manufactured a new mis-
sile with a range of 1,200 miles
capable of reaching Israel and
U.S. bases across the Mideast,
the official news agency IRNA
reported.
The defense minister, Gen.
Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, did
not say whether Iran had test fired
the Ashoura or had plans to do
so, according to the IRNA report.
The name means "the tenth day"
in Farsi, a sacred reference among
Shiite Muslims to the martyrdom
of Islam's third imam.
Iran already had reported
improvements in a previous missile
that would give it the same range
as the Ashoura, and Najjar did not
elaborate about whether there are
any differences between the two
weapons.
VILLIERS-LE-BEL, France
Youth riots
continue in
French suburbs
Youths rampaged for a third
night in the tough suburbs north
of Paris and violence spread to a
southern city late Tuesday as police
struggled to contain rioters who
have burned cars and buildings and
- in an ominous turn - shot at offi-
cers.
A senior police union official
warned that "urban guerrillas" had
joined the unrest, saying the vio-
lence was worse than during three
weeks of rioting that raged around
French cities in 2005, when fire-
arms were rarely used.
Bands of young people set
more cars on fire in and around
Villiers-le-Bel, the Paris suburb
where the latest trouble first
erupted, and 22 youths were
taken into custody, the regional
government said.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
U,.S. DEA 5
3,878
Number of American service mem-
bers who have died in the war in
Iraq, according to The Associated
Press. No service members killed
in Iraq were identified yesterday
Muslim girls turn
to Scouts to fitin
MSA President Zack Yost apologized to MSA Rep. Tim Hull last night for creat-
ing a Facebook.com group with the description "I'll give that kid a fucking dis-
ahility he can write home soabout ihekeeps sending these code amendments to
everyone." Hall hss Aspergers syndrome.
FACEBOOK
From Page 1A
changes to the assembly's Com-
piled Code since he was elected.
These proposals are often met
with strong opposition from
other MSA members.
Currentlythe private Facebook
group has only two members,
Baker and Yost, Baker said. At one
time, the group had more mem-
bers, including current MSA rep-
resentatives, both Yost and Baker
said. Neither student would name
any other members ofthe group or
say how manythere were.
Hull, who found out about the
group from Baker just before
last night's meeting, said he was
disappointed in the assembly,
saying it "put on a happy public
face, and stabbed me in the back
behind closed doors."
"I used to think that this
assembly was accepting of me,"
he said.
After the meeting, Hull said
Yost should resign his post as
president of MSA.
"Zack and any other executive
involved in that group needs to
resign, period," he said.
In March 2006, then-MSA
Rep. Ari Liner had to resign after
he sent an offensive e-mail to a
student and the student's mother.
Baker, who has been a mem-
ber of the Facebook group since
it was created, said he waited
to speak up until now because
he forgot he was in the group.
Many representatives last night
questioned his choice to wait on
making the information public
until the meeting before student
government elections.
Baker is planning on starting
a new student government party
next semester.
Although several MSA repre-
sentatives said they were upset
ELECTION
From Page1A
tee,which oversees the assembly's
funding of student groups.
Last year's DAAP presidential
candidate, LSA junior Maricruz
Lopez, and vice presidential can-
didate, LSA senior Sarah Bar-
nard, are both running for LSA
seats on MSA. LSA-SG and MSA
president and vice president are
elected in the spring election.
MAP candidates are run-
ning unopposed in some schools
- accounting for all the candi-
dates in schools like the College
of Engineering and Ross School
of Business. But races for seats
representing some of the smaller
programs, especially graduate
programs like Rackham and the
School of Information, are being
contested largely by indepen-
dents and DAAP candidates.
MAP is an umbrella party
without an official ideology.
Many of the candidates have
advertised platforms that are
similar to many MAP candidates
in last year's elections, as well as
echoing a few things from the
previously dominant Students 4
Michigan.
These include things .like
expanding Entree Plus, longer
library hours and more money
for student groups.
The new MSA intern program,
created this semester to famil-
iarize new students with the ins
and outs of the assembly, yielded
a single candidate: freshman Joe
Marshall, a candidate for an LSA
representative seat.
Earlier this semester,there was a
debateoversemanticsintheassem-
by Yost's involvement in the
Facebook group, a few attacked
Baker for the decision to bring it
up at the meeting and for being a
member of it.
"I think it's hypocritical,"
MSA Rep. Stella Binkevich said
during the meeting.
She said that the Tuesdaynight
MSA meetings aren't the place to
air these concerns, and that they
should be discussed in private.
"That's not what we gather
here to do," she said.
MSA Rep. Randal Seriguchi
echoed Binkevich's sentiments.
"A public forum is never the
place to bring a secret group or a
personal problem," he said.
Later in the meeting, Yost
admitted he had created the
group and apologized for it. He
called the group a "crass, inap-
propriate joke."
"Tim, I'msorry,"Yostsaid dur-
ing the meeting. "I don't know
what to say. I'm an asshole."
Yost said after the meeting
that he was concerned that Bak-
er's disclosure of the group may
have been motivated by political
reasons, specifically by the loom-
ing new party.
Early this morning, Hull criti-
cized Baker for only telling him
of his plans to reveal the group
half an hour before the meeting
and for exploiting the situation
for his own political gain.
"I think Zack should resign,
but I think (Baker) should resign
even moreso," Hull said.
After the meeting, Yost for-
warded a December 2006 Gmail
chat to The Michigan Daily in
which Baker wrote to Yost "YOU
ARE MY HERO" about the new
Facebook group.
Yost also forwarded an e-mail
to the Daily that had been sent to
him by Baker last year, in which
Baker asked to run as vice presi-
dent alongside Yost with the
Michigan Action Party.
bly aboutcwhetherthe undergradu-
ate Public Policy School should
receive a seatin the election.
The conflictcover the seat led to
the election date being changed
twice, while the assembly tried
to figure outchow to deal with the
issue.
The school did end up receiv-
ing a seat, for which only
current MSA Rep. Max Lebow-
itz-Nowak, a junior in MAP, is
running. Lebowitz-Nowak was
one of the more vocal members
of the assembly in calling for a
Public Policy seat. He's currently
an LSA representative. He was a
student in the school until this
semester, when he transferred to
public policy.
The constant shuffling and
lack of a solid election date could
have led to the relatively quiet
election period, said MAP Chair
Alex Blouin, an LSA junior.
"This is one of the most inter-
esting (elections) because the
election date changed twice," he
said. "People don't know as much
about the election than others."
DAAP's slate, especially in
LSA, is considerably larger than
in the past few years. Lopez,
who also acts as party chair,
attributed her party's fielding
of more candidates than in the
past to increased activism on
campus.
"It's definitely a reflection
on campus - a reflection of the
whole country," she said. "The
entire country is becoming more
andmore politicized overthe last
couple years because of things
like the immigrant rights move-
ment and because of things like
the varied attacks on affirmative
action."
Girl Scout troops
formed to help
overcome cultural
differences
By NEIL MACFARQUHAR
The New York Times
MINNEAPOLIS - Sometimes
when Asma Haidara, a 12-year-
old Somali immigrant, wants to
shop at Target or ride the Min-
neapolis light-rail system, she
puts her Girl Scout sash over her
everyday clothes, which usually
includes a long skirt worn over
pants as well as a swirling head
scarf.
She has discovered that the
trademark green sash - with
its American flag, troop number
(3009) and colorful merit badges
- reduces the number of glower-
ing looks she draws from people
otherwise bothered by her tradi-
tional Muslim dress.
"When you say you are a Girl
Scout, they say, 'Oh, my daugh-
ter is a Girl Scout, too,' and then
they don't think of you as a person
from another planet," said Asma,
a slight, serious girl with a bright
smile. "They are more comfort-
able about sitting next to me on
the train."
Scattered Muslim communi-
ties across the United States are
forming Girl Scout troops as a
sort of assimilation tool to help
girls who often feel alienated
from the mainstream culture,
and to give Muslims a neigh-
borly aura. Boy Scout troops are
organized with the same inspira-
tion, but often the leap for girls is
greater because many come from
conservative cultures that frown
upon their participating in public
physical activity.
By teaching girls to roast hot
dogs or fix a flat bicycle tire,
Farheen Hakeem, one troop
leader here, strives to help them
escape the perception of many
non-Muslims that they are dif-
ferent.
Scouting is a way of celebrating
being American without being
any less Muslim, Hakeem said.
"I don't want them to see
themselves as Muslim girls doing
this 'Look at us, we are trying to
be American,"' she said. "No, no,
no, they are American. It is not an
issue of trying."
The exact number of Muslim
Girl Scouts is unknown, espe-
cially since, organizers say, most
Muslim Scouts belong to pre-
dominantly non-Muslim troops.
Minneapolis is something of an
exception, because a few years
ago the Girl Scout Council here
surveyed its shrinking enrollment
and established special outreach
coordinators for various minori-
ties. Some 280 Muslim girls have
joined about 11 predominantly
Muslim troops here, said Hodan
Farah, who until September was
the coordinator for the Islamic
community.
Nationally, the Boy Scouts
of America count about 1,500
youths in 100 clubs of either Boy
Scouts or Cub Scouts sponsored
by Islamic organizations, said
Gregg Shields, a spokesman for
the organization.
The Girl Scouts' national orga-
nization, Girl Scouts of the USA
has become flexible in recent
years about the old trappings
associated with suburban white,
middle-class, Christian scouting.
Many troops have jettisoned tra-
ditions like saying grace before
dinner at camp, and even the Girl
Scout Promise can be retooled as
needed.
"On my honor I will try to
serve Allah and my country, to
help people and live by the Girl
Scout law," eight girls from pre-
dominantly Muslim Troop 3119
in Minneapolis recited on one
recent rainy Sunday before set-
ting off for a cookout in a local
park.
Some differences were readily
apparent, of course. At the cook-
out, Hakeem, a former Green
Party candidate for mayor, nego-
tiated briefly with one sixth-
grader, Asha Gardaad, who was
fasting for the holy month of
Ramadan.
"If you break your fast, will
your mother get mad at me?"
Hakeem asked. Asha shook her
head emphatically no.
The troop leader distributed
supplies: hot dogs followed by
s'mores for dessert. All was hal-
lal - that is, in adherence to the
dietary requirements of Islanic
law - with the hot dogs made of
beef rather than pork.
It was Asha's first s'more.
"It's delicious!" she exclaimed,
licking sticky goop off her fin-
gers as thunder crashed outside
the park shelter with its roaring
fire. "It's a good way to break
my fast!"
All in all, scouting gives the
girls a rare sense of belonging,
troop leaders and members say.
"It is kind of cool to say that
you are a Girl Scout," Asma said.
"It is good to have something to
associate yourself with other
Americans. I don't want people
to think that I am a hermit, that I
live in a cave, isolated and afraid
of change. I like to be part of soci-
ety. I like being able to say that I
am a Girl Scout just like any other
normal girl."
ACLU slams
Central's
taping rules
Group calls video
restrictions
unconstitutional
LANSING (AP) - The American
Civil Liberties Union wants Central
Michigan University to end its poli-
cy barring a student from videotap-
ing people on campus without their
permission.
The ACLU sent a letter to the
school's president yesterday say-
ing the videotaping restriction is
unconstitutional.
Outspoken conservative student
Dennis Lennox has followed assis-
tant professor Gary Peters around
the campus with a video camera to
pressure Peters to choose between
his three-year teaching post and a
congressional run.
Peters, Michigan's former lot-
tery commissioner, is seeking the
Democratic nod to face Republican
Congressman Joe Knollenberg in
Oakland County.
A spokesman for Central Michi-
gan declined comment.
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