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Category Archives: Hasan Askari
Hasan Askari, Hasan Askari 1932-2008, Inter Faith, Inter Faith Dialogue, Inter Religious Dialogue, Spiritual Humanism
Inter-faith pioneer Prof. Syed Hasan Askari interviewed by Rev Earl Hanna – 1988 radio show "An Endless Search". A beautiful encounter through dialogue between spiritual seekers on topics such as : religious diversity, Oneness of God, theological challenges, critique of religious exclusivity, co-presence, mutual mission in dialogue, inner spirituality, the need for the Abrahamic witness. At the time of the interview Prof. Askari was Louise Iliff Visiting Professor at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver. Prof. Askari speaks also about his experiences of being engaged with inter-faith dialogue through his consultations with the World Council of Churches from the 1970s. On dialogue encounter Prof. Askari says, "For me dialogue is an occasion to be born spiritually as persons before each other, before God."
Inter FaithInter Religious DialogueRev Earl HannaSpiritualSyed Hasan Askari
Hasan Askari, Ruh, Soul, Spiritual Humanism, SpiritualHuman
February 5, 2015 spiritualhuman	1 Comment
By Hasan Askari (Towards A Spiritual Humanism).
By joining both the hands in greeting the other, we greet in all our totality. In our wholeness of being, with our conscious and unconscious minds having become one mind, with our outer and inner realities having risen into one reality. When we greet the universe or a child, we say that our Soul is One Soul, that our God is One. Then we have abolished otherness we have abolished fear, we have all come home in each other. Then we know who we are, who is in us and in whom we are.
Hasan Askari, Inter Faith Dialogue, Inter Religious Dialogue, Soul, Spiritual Humanism
Professor Linda Woodhead MBE DD teaches sociology of religion in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University. Her work delves in to the relationship between religion and society. Co-founded the Westminster Faith Debates which fosters debate and discussion aided by the latest research.
Sincere thanks to Linda Woodhead for agreeing to this interview.
Musa Askari: "It was Wilfred Cantwell Smith, whom I first met in 1965 and then again in 1968 at a seminar in Bangalore, who gave me the insight and direction I was seeking. When I attended that seminar….I had no idea that it would open a new path for me and bring me into the very heart of the interfaith dialogue across continents. Smith's distinction between faith and belief provided me with a foundation to relate positively to "the other". While belief is a part of the cumulative tradition, faith is the personal immediate possession of each individual by which one relates to one's life, to all those whom one encounters, faith being a vast world in which all can participate. Faith is thus an inner ability to relate and communicate without fear. I now had the spiritual basis to respect and listen to others." (Prof. Syed Hasan Askari – Solomon's Ring)
In your opinion what do people mean by the words "faith" and "belief"? From surveys commissioned of public opinion is a distinction between "faith" and "belief" recognised and how is this distinction expressed within the field of sociology of religion?
Linda Woodhead: I think the general perception would be that 'faith' means something personal, existential and 'inner', whilst 'belief' has more to do with external religious formulations. To that extent, there is an overlap between the faith/belief distinction and the spirituality/religion one. Moreover, where 'beliefs' seem to define particular religions and distinguish them from one another 'faith' is a more inclusive term (despite Christian associations). I was speaking to a university chaplain the other day who told me that when they renamed the 'Chaplaincy' 'Centre for Faith and Spirituality' the number of people coming through the doors almost tripled!
Another way of looking at it is that there are two dimensions of religious identity – the collective identity which I inhabit, and the inner dimension of that identity which, to some extent, is private to me alone. People may be able to pigeonhole me in terms of the collective identity, but my personal identity is part of my inner life, and – a religious person might say – 'known to God alone'.
Musa Askari: Professor Askari in his 2004 article, "From InterReligious Dialogue to Spiritual Humanism" discusses the threefold need to revive the classical discourse on soul: theological, philosophical and psychological.
As well as understanding the number and various sub-set distribution of those who identify themselves as "religious" or "spiritual but not religious" does reference to "soul" feature in the studies and opinion polls you have conducted? What is meant by the word "soul" and are the various definitions people offer contextualized depending on which faith or spiritual attitude the person belongs or ascribes to?
Linda Woodhead: There are plenty of surveys which show that belief in the soul has been growing in the UK – despite the fact that other elements of religious belief, including belief in God, have been declining. It is hard to pin down exactly what people mean by 'soul', and my interviews and talks with people suggest that different people mean different things. But the word seems to help people express their intuition that there is 'more' to me – and other humans, and possibly animals as well – than mere flesh and blood. This 'something' may be hard to pin down, but it can include the belief that people have a unique, irreplaceable value, and that that value is never completely destroyed – even by death. So the 'soul' names something of great value, something which transcends the mundane and utilitarian aspects of existence.
But people don't always mean something eternal when they say soul – and often they make no reference to God at all (atheists can believe in a soul). Here soul may simply mean the essence of a person, their deep identity. It's also interesting to note that souls are not necessarily good! We may say 'poor soul' of someone we pity. And 'she has a beautiful soul' of someone we admire. But we also say 'he has no poetry in his soul', or 'his soul is in danger' and 'he is an unhappy soul'.
Musa Askari: If religion is a particular "faith body" then "spirituality" is its temperature reading varying in intensity from the individual to the collective. It is an impossible task perhaps to capture a spiritual reading through social attitude survey-opinion polls. We are perhaps using the wrong tools to grapple with that question. Would you agree to ask about spirituality, before we arrive at any expression of say religious faith, is to ask also more fundamental questions? Namely, "who are we" or "who am I".
Can these be considered the cornerstones not of doubt but a deeply felt sense of spirituality? This couplet of questions, over and above all cultural-social-ethnic-national and religious identities is, would you agree, "The Identity Question"? It is from here we start our journey, consciously or otherwise. Some may even refer to it as the beginning of a spiritual quest. (for reference please see interview with Dr. Rowan Williams.
Linda Woodhead: The question of identity can certainly be the starting point for a spiritual or moral question. 'Who am I?', 'what am I really like' are questions which we all have to answer at some point in our lives, and which crises can precipitate. We can get stuck in a particular identity, including one which others want us to inhabit, but the construction of identity can also be an ongoing process. This is not to make it all sound like an individual or individualistic matter: we construct identity in relation to given social identities ('a good daughter', 'a good Muslim', 'a respected professional', 'a tough man') which are often conveyed by images and stories and real people we know. And we constantly negotiate our identities in relation to one another: how you feel and speak about me may shape who I am. For religious people, god, goddess, goods and holy places are important elements in this whole process.
Musa Askari: The question on knowing our place in the world, some would argue, is more than to ask about our physical existence as a planetary form of life. Is it not also, together with the physical, a spiritual non-material question which goes beyond our empirical existence? If "spirituality" is also that which expresses our longing for "transcendence" then humanity's quest to know its place in the world, in the cosmos, the whole endeavour of human thought, has been and remains perhaps a super-trans-historical spiritual pursuit.
I would be grateful for your thoughts on if the hidden debate between all of us as communities, as one "Human Self" (sacred – secular, religion-humanists, spiritual-atheist, physical-metaphysical) is a spiritual one also and that such a term of reference requires admission into the continuing debate/dialogue between religion and humanism, towards a spiritual humanism? (for reference please see section on Human Nature by Prof. Syed Hasan Askari )
Linda Woodhead: To 'Know my place in the world' is a very good starting point – and perhaps ending point – for a humanist or a spiritual quest. How many of us really know our place? We can take up too much space, or too little space. To know one's place is a very difficult and demanding task, and it means making proper allowance for the space that other people, creatures, plants, and other elements of the natural world occupy. We have to give space as well as take it, and in doing so we find out who we really are. I think this may be a point on which humanists, atheists, environmentalists and many religious people would agree. There are also powerful traditions within many theistic religions which speak of God having to withdraw Godself to make space for the created order.
Musa Askari: From his reflection, "There are only Four Communities" (Alone to Alone: From Awareness to Vision), Hasan Askari writes, "There are those who do not look beyond this world and its appearances, who are attached to its fortunes, however fleeting, and who insist, either on account of their personal conviction or under the influence of some dominant ideology, on a materialistic outlook. They are to be found in every age, country and culture….There are those who call themselves religious but are strongly attached to the outward forms of their beliefs and practices….There are those who look beyond the outer forms of this world and of their religion and culture. They look at their inner meanings and correspondences. They are the individuals….And there are those who have gone beyond both the outward and the inward. They have gone beyond themselves. Though they appear as present, they are in reality absent. "
I am interested to understand if it is possible not only to enquire if a person identifies themselves as religious or otherwise, but if there is any work undertaken to capture an understanding of the outer and inner aspects of one's religious, spiritual life and mystical life? Is the question asked on a recognition of inner and outer? For example take Islam where we have the outer enactments of faith, "salat"- canonical prayer, "Haj"-pilgrimage and so on all pointing to something beyond the outer act itself, a way to transcend as it were. On the other hand we notice a calling in the Quran to remember God, to contemplate and reflect in silence even outside of the prescribed rites of faith.
Linda Woodhead: I think we live in an age which is very focused on the external life – on how I act into the world, what material success I have, my relations with people and things. The price of this emphasis is often a neglect of the inner life. Mystical traditions saw nothing odd in a person dedicating the whole of life to exploring 'inner space' – a world which is invisible. Today many people would regard that as a wasted life, and think that such a person was being escapist, and retreating into an illusory world. At the same time, however, we all know that we have an 'inside' which we often find it hard to understand and articulate. We may need help – a friend or a therapist – to explore it. It is wonderful when we meet someone who can understand us, who can 'see inside'. When this happens, the fundamental loneliness we al live with can be lifted in a miraculous way. Some people may experience this in prayer, some in nature, some with people they love, some watching movies or reading poems. You can call this 'transcendence', but it is a transcendence which at the same time roots us more deeply in who we really are.
Collective IdentityFaithHumanistinnerLinda WoodheadMysticalSoulSpiritualSpiritual HumanismSyed Hasan AskariWestminster Faith Debates
Hasan Askari, Inter Faith, Inter Religious Dialogue, Islam, Spiritual Humanism, Tim Winter
February 4, 2013 spiritualhuman	7 Comments
Tim Winter / Abdal Hakim Murad is lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge, and is dean of the Cambridge Muslim College, UK, which trains imams for British mosques. In 2010 he was voted Britain's most influential Muslim thinker by Jordan's Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre. His most recent book is Commentary on the Eleventh Contentions (2012). Abdal Hakim Murad regularly leads Juma prayers at the Cambridge central mosque, and has preached in major mosques in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Spain, and the United States. Recordings of his khutbas and lectures are widely available in Islamic bookshops. His articles have appeared in The Independent, the London Evening Standard, the Daily Telegraph, The Times, the Catholic Herald, Islamica, Zaman, Neue Zrcher Zeitung and Prospect. He is also a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4s Thought for the Day.
Sincere thanks to Tim Winter / Abdal Hakim Murad for this interview.
Musa Askari : What does the term "spiritual" or "spirituality" invoke within you? Despite various manifestations of spirituality in the world do you sense at the heart of "spirituality" itself some common ground where people of different faiths or none may encounter each other? Do you recognise such a thing as "trans-spiritual"?
Abdal Hakim Murad: The meaning of the category of the 'spiritual' has been so heavily debased by vague New Age appropriations that, although I have sometimes used it myself as a kind of shorthand, I usually find it useless. So many people tell me that they are 'spiritual but not religious'; but have nothing to say when asked what this means, other than offering a woolly, half-finished sentence which indicates that they have experienced an emotional high in certain situations. If we try to use the term more exactly, we may find that the use of the word to indicate the action of the spirit – either God's or our own – breaks down when we admit, as most religions do, that everything in existence is in fact the operation of the spirit. Again, the word typically leads us to confusion. It's probably better to be Platonic, and speak in terms not of 'spirituality' but of beauty, which is 'the splendour of the Truth' – wherever beauty is discerned, the spirit is engaging in authentic perception, intuiting, whether we admit it or not, that beauty in the world is the sign of the sacred. That includes beautiful conduct, as well as physical or aural beauty. This would bring us closer to the semantic range of the Islamic word ihsan.
On that kind of category we can of course speak of the possibility of forms of mutual recognition between adherents of outwardly very disparate paths. No sacred tradition has ever marginalized beauty. On a rudimentary level we agree that modernity has replaced beauty with a love of newness and originality; and our leaders normally lament this as a disaster. That is a significant, although rather negative, basis for unity and mutual comprehension. More subtly, it is interesting how the recognition of beauty in, say, music or architecture, very often leaps over formal religious boundaries. Buddhists can feel transformed in cathedrals; and American Catholics admit that they are moved when they visit the Taj Mahal; and so on.
Musa Askari: At times I have, innerly – intuitively, been moved to tears by either reading aloud or remembering the beautiful verse in The Quran, "We are of God and unto God we return" (sura 2: ayat 156) At some inner level something is stirred within the soul (a memory perhaps) and those tears are as gifts, the after effects, powerful but secondary. The primary effect is with the soul, our non-material, invisible, indivisible companion, catching a glimpse of the coat tails of this beautiful verse on "returning" and following it. I recall Hasan Askari sharing the metaphor of a child at play upon hearing the voices of it's parents calling, leaves the play and rushes to greet them. It is perhaps in that swing from the heart to soul we move from the outer meaning to the inner meaning, from the manifest to the hidden. From the particular to the universal, from multiplicity to unity.
I found it moving and a deeply spiritual statement where in your 2010 interview with The Independent you referred to your conversion to Islam as, "the feeling of conversion is not that one has migrated but that one has come home". I would be grateful if you could share more about the feeling of "coming home" and perhaps consider relating it to the verse quoted above on returning to God or any other verse you feel relevant?
Abdal Hakim Murad: To enter Islam is to repeat the Shahada (the Testimony of Unity and Prophecy); and the Shahada is really nothing less than a testimony to our Source which is also our native land: our point of origin and our place of return (mabda' wa-ma'ad).
Rumi says in his Divan: 'We were with the spheres, among the angels – let us return there, friend, for that is our native city.' This is another universal kind of statement. In the context of the Holy Qur'an (7:172), it is the Primordial Covenant which was the 'big bang' moment at which the points of reflected divine light we call souls came into being and were summoned to testify to their Lord. The Black Stone in the Great Sanctuary is said to contain, in a mysterious way, that covenant; it is 'God's right hand on earth'. This is in a homily by Imam Ali: 'when God took the covenant from all souls, He fed it to this Stone, which testifies to the believer's faithfulness, and to the betrayal of the rejector.'
The five canonical Prayers are an enactment of this: the shahada during the prayer, said facing the House, affirms the House's representation of the eternity of God, and also our remembering of the Primordial Covenant. In that sense the Prayer is 'the pillar of Islam.' It is our formal act of love and obeisance, and our highest dhikr – recollection of the Beloved. 'Give us peace, Bilal', the Holy Prophet would say when he wanted the Call to Prayer to be heard; and he said 'the coolness of my eye is in prayer.' The Hajj is a different kind of reenactment, taking the form of a symbolic journey from the periphery to the centre. Like the Prayer, it recalls the Ascension of the Holy Prophet, in which he left his earthly city for the Heavenly Abode.
It is that Abode which is, as the Qur'an reminds us, our 'refuge' (ma'wa), and our Abode of Peace (dar al-salam). The Garden is our home; but we can experience an intoxicating breath of its fragrance on earth, if we love and recognize the Gardener, and love and care for His garden and its other guests. The only true disaster for us in this place of wonders and signs is to look around us, and allow the demon within to say: 'There is no gardener; this is only energy and matter'. From that expression of the ego's defiance, all sin, without exception, flows. Put differently, it is also the true source of our alienation. In a sense the lover of God is always at home, because he feels around him the traces of his Beloved, on all side, in every moment. Love is to be at home, as well as to long for it.
This is why the true Qur'anic believer follows the counsel of the Holy Prophet: 'wherever he finds wisdom, the believer has the most right to it.' He knows that although outward adherence is essential; inward adherence may recognize value and beauty in the most unexpected places and people. Wherever the Beloved is yearned for sincerely; the believer will be respectful, for Beauty and sincerity are always to be honoured. This is the meaning of Sufi 'tolerance' – it is not a political or doctrinal category – for God's Law is always to be revered; it is an acknowledgement, rooted both in scripture and in our social experience, of the reality of inward transformation in people of other traditions.
I believe that your father, rooted in the ancient and nuanced sapiential world of Hyderabadi mysticism, made that the basis of his interreligious work. One starts not with the One, but with the Many – for that is where we find ourselves and in the context of which we build our relationships. Great Muslim cities – and in the days of the Nizams, and for some time thereafter, Hyderabad was certainly one of the greatest – maintained a cosmopolitanism that sat easily with inward sagacity, an urbane and literate courtesy, and also with a passion for the outward resources of Islam. Your father was a product of that world, a representative of a classical Islamic deepness and certainty which is fast disappearing today. The young, although desperately in need of an awareness of the sanctity of religious others, often have no idea it ever existed. In today's multicultural world, fundamentalism and xenophobia seem to be replacing humility, empathy, and the courage to learn from others. Perhaps this is the greatest tragedy of our times.
Musa Askari: In this clip you read aloud an excerpt of the story "Read in the Name of thy Lord" by Hasan Askari from his book "Alone to Alone: From Awareness to Vision"
It is the story of a mother's devotion to The Quran, the inner etiquette with which she approaches the scripture, the silence of the moment and being moved to tears by the beauty of the calligraphy. She was a "conscious soul". Hasan Askari concludes the story with, "The entire world stood still at this amazing recital without words, without meaning, without knowledge. With that touch a unity was established between her and the Quran. At that moment she had passed into a state of total identity with the word of God. Her inability to read the scripture was her ability to hear once again: Read! Read, in the Name of thy Lord."
At times our calling upon God is not a shared experience. It is not as communities or as collective identities that at times we turn to the Almighty for guidance but in the company of solitude. As a muslim leaves their shoes outside upon entering the mosque so too one perhaps leaves at the threshold of the inner door – one's inner sanctuary, collective associations (not abandoning them). It can be an experience or "moment" of utter helplessness, of being completely alone with oneself as slowly the "presence" of silence fills the room like a beautiful "fragrance" and there leaps forth from our heart and soul a "calling" upon God.
Can you please talk about what forms the "calling upon God" take within Islamic tradition? From the formal prayer (salat) to spontaneous heartfelt utterances? Also in your opinion to what extent does "silence" play a role in the spiritual life of Islam?
Abdal Hakim Murad: I often reflect, as I listen to sermons, that the virtue of silence is not sufficiently cultivated among my contemporary brothers in faith. Or, I might venture to add, among my sisters. Imam al-Ghazali, borrowing from Ibn Abi Dunya's book of homilies, The Book of Silence (Kitab al-Samt), sums up very finely the Islamic teaching here. As always, a middle course is required. On the one hand, Almighty God, in whose image we are called to remake ourselves, speaks, and has done so often! Who can count the number of His words and scriptures? 'Were the sea to be ink for the words of my Lord, the sea, and the like thereof, would run dry'. And His prophets, and most of His saints, speak. But their words are wisdom, springing from the Divine self-communication, Speech, Logos – which is from the Essence and is ultimately something so pure it was can be seen as uncreated, partaking in the Divine pre-existence (azaliyya).
A word can heal a soul, or save a marriage, or bring a saint to completion. But a word can also declare war, or break a heart, or send an innocent man to jail. 'Whoever can guarantee for me what is between his lips, and what is between his legs; I guarantee Paradise for him!' promises the Blessed Prophet. It sounds easy, but each of us knows how difficult it is. So the teeth, for the Sufis, are a cage, restraining a lethal beast; the Sufi teachers remind us also that God has given us two ears, but only one tongue. We should listen, and listen to ourselves as well. Very often what we say is to vindicate ourselves; only seldom is it to glorify God or to vindicate others. Hence the cage. But it is the ego which is the touchstone. Imam al-Junayd said: 'If you crave speech, be silent; if you crave silence, speak!'
Your father's story about the illiterate woman engaging with the Word of God is one I have used often, or at least once a year, in my Cambridge Islam course. It underlines something that non-Muslims forget: the saving, incantatory, brilliant presence of the uncreated Book, which 'saves' and 'heals' and 'shows mercy' even if not a word of it is formally understood. Most believers are shown, at some point of their lives, the miraculous nature of the Book, when it 'moves in their hands'; these are the 'bibliotheophanies' which strengthen faith and increase our love and awe. I have seen non-Muslim students reduced to tears on reading the Qur'an, whose 'wind bloweth where it listeth.'
Musa Askari: Hasan Askari from his 1995 speech on Spiritual Humanism: "I asked my self this question: Why? Why more than one religion? In other words I was asking for a theology of world religions. I was asking for a global understanding of religious diversity. Because the diversity was there staring into my eyes. It was there un-mistakably present. And therefore, that was the first stage of my journey; to ask a theological question about more than one religion. It was Brumana consultation in 1972 in Beirut the biggest Christian – Muslim consultation of the century, that in my paper I made it absolutely clear that perhaps, perhaps we need more than one religion. How could one dare to equate the Almighty Unity and Transcendence and Mystery with the form of one faith and practice? If we do so then that one religion becomes a god. And it is a blasphemy. As God's Transcendence is ineffable, as His Might and Power is infinite, as His Attributes are countless and therefore, there should be as many forms of praising Him, worshipping Him, adoring Him, showing love and devotion to Him. And therefore I came home in a multi religious world. As a muslim it was easy for me to arrive at this position because the Quran is the first scripture in the world which started an inter-religious dialogue. It accepted the reality of revelation being given to all communities across the world. The Quran gave me the first clue to understand the theological enigma of more than one religion. "
When you met with Hasan Askari in the 1990s I expect this may have been one of the topics you discussed. I would be grateful if you could share your thoughts on religious diversity and how these have developed over time? I am asking I suppose the same question Hasan asked himself, "Why more than one religion?"
Abdal Hakim Murad: The Qur'an celebrates human diversity; indeed, it is unusual among monotheistic scriptures in doing so. Significantly, it does not include the Tower of Babel story. The 'difference of your languages and colours' is a sign of God. In this, the text, in its original distant Arabian cradle, is anticipating its gigantic global reach. More than any other premodern sacred culture, Islam embraced a diversity of worlds. Vincent Monteil, the late professor of Arabic at the Sorbonne, and a committed Muslim and Sufi, wrote of the 'five colours of Islam', in a volume which was a tour de force of scholarship, dealing with the Islam of Africa, the Middle East, the Turkic world, the Perso-Indic world, and the Malay nusantara. In all these places a diversity of humanity has sought the shade of the Holy Prophet's tree, and all those cultures burst into fruit and flowers when Islam reached them.
Religious diversity, however, is not necessarily part of this; because the Qur'an is also insistent on the absolute importance of truth. The God it describes, with the 99 Beautiful Names, is not just another possible account of an Ineffable Noumenon, it is a true God, and those Names describe Him truly. Hence the law of non-contradiction ensures that different religions, which insist on different accounts of deity, cannot simultaneously be true. To claim that their discourses should be regarded as purely relative, is to denigrate them. Humans have the right to expect that their beliefs will be taken seriously on their own terms, rather than just seen as a set of picturesque metaphors which help our inward transformation.
Musa Askari: From the book "Towards A Spiritual Humanism : A Muslim – Humanist Dialogue" 1991,(Chapter 2, page 24), Hasan Askari writes, "The basic concern for me is the way in which we can reconcile our modern discoveries and our ancient insights. For instance, I subscribe to the theory of evolution, say tentatively, but that theory pertains to the evolution of our physical form, of our physical entity, of our animal identity vis-a-vis the environment – it has nothing to do with our "being" as rational and self conscious. I mean our cognizing identity…………..as soon as we enter into known history we notice a very vast gap between the material evolution of our society, and our mental, philosophical and spiritual evolution. We notice a chasm between the material progress of communities and the great philosophical strides they made. Furthermore, we notice that every great leap in consciousness in the past four thousand years is both a leap in that moment and also an epitome of the entire history of the mental life of mankind. It is the meeting point of both the part and the whole. In no other manner could I explain the emergence of the Upanishads and the Gita in a civilisation that possessed a primitive technology. Similarly, in no other manner could I explain the emergence of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle in a small mercantile economy. I am at a loss to explain the emergence of very penetrating insights and formulations into questions of metaphysics in backward civilizations. Consider for one moment the emergence of Muhammed on the Arabian peninsula. Whatever one says, either for or against him, he was nevertheless a phenomenon. How could a primitive nomadic Bedouin culture produce a mind like his capable of transforming world history – it is simply bewildering…………..it is the phenomenon of the individual leap in evolution which to me contradicts the entire theory of materialistic evolution."
Where do you see opportunities for non-ideological co-operation/dialogue between secular humanists and people of faith not only in terms of human rights but also on re-examining issues relating to our origins as human and spiritual beings as the above quote from Hasan Askari attempts to do?
Abdal Hakim Murad: Well, there are several questions here. One is the frequently overbegged question of whether 'human rights' should be understood through the lens of one culture alone. We speak of 'universal human rights' when in reality the rights concerned, for instance in the various generally impressive UN declarations, are those which were acceptable to Western or Westernised intellectuals in a particular historical period. John Gray's Straw Dogs contains an amusing and rather shattering discussion of this. In fact, the author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a Lebanese Catholic intellectual who founded the Phalangist militia which massacred thousands of Palestinian civilians at Sabra and Chatila in 1982. And recently we have seen how most Americans have failed to protest against torture, black sites, special rendition, and state surveillance of civilians, as part of the 'War on Terror'. In practice, the authors of these declarations promptly set them aside when it suits them to do so.
There may be a disturbing and deep cause for this. It seems to me that one of the weak points of the modern discourse is the disjuncture between 'humanism', with its often lofty ideas about the human capacity for altruism and nobility, and the hard Darwinian paradigm of the 'selfish gene', which holds that we are the consequence of a billion years of blind selfishness. Hitler was a much more consistent Darwinian than are liberal democrats. This unpleasant truth about the implications of strict materialism has not been honestly faced.
The question of the emergence of Islam as an abrupt paradigm shift in history has attracted much attention. It is hard to find another historical event which changed so much so swiftly. Thanks to the profound love and fellowship among the Companions, a new human type seemed to be created overnight, and great civilizations quickly followed. This does, I think, challenge mechanical understandings of the human species as being reducible ultimately to the 'selfish gene' and natural selection over immense periods of time. We have the right to be a little Hegelian here: there are 'world-historical individuals' through whom astonishing things are accomplished. Hence Carlyle's inclusion of the Holy Prophet as perhaps the most salient chapter of his book Heroes and Hero-worship. As Hans Küng has written: 'Muhammad is discontinuity in person'. Here, more than in any other historical event, we find a challenge to evolutionary reductionism; I think your father was being very wise here.
Science is steadily turning into scientism: a rampant total Theory of Everything, which increasingly either patronises or demonises religion. Believers, whatever their tradition, should help scientists to recognize that a true humanism will be alert to ultimately irreducible, personal, aesthetic and ethical dimensions of human consciousness, and will resist, to its dying breath, the reduction of the sons and daughters of Adam to 'meat machines'.
Abdal Hakim MuradBeautyCambridge UniversitydhikrDivineHajjHans KüngHasan AskariHuman RightsHumanismHyderabadImam al-GhazaliImam AliIslamLoveMuslimPlatoPrayerQuranRumiScienceShahadaSilenceSoulSpiritualSpiritual HumanismSufiTaj MahalThe Black StoneTim WinterVincent Monteil
Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Hasan Askari, Soul, Spiritual Humanism, SpiritualHuman
January 3, 2013 spiritualhuman	1 Comment
originally published in InterReligious Insight – July 2012
If we are going to address ourselves to the issue of terrorism let us state the obvious and most important at the outset: the threat of nuclear weapons. The weapon announced its arrival to the world by unleashing its horror over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, stayed within our collective consciousness during the cold war and now, due to the one-sided debate on group terrorism, faded into the background. But it remains nonetheless real. It is impossible to comprehend fully the potential horror of such a weapon unleashing terror across the planet faster than any virus mutating across national boundaries.
The weapon and its fallout, like a virus, ignore national boundaries, recognising neither friend nor foe, neither oppressor nor oppressed. It is does not discriminate. It is non-ideological. The hypnotic pull of the weapon is in the illusion of power it offers those in possession of it. Furthermore, the hypnosis is so far reaching we remain reluctant to be rid of it. The ultimate paradox is that we are protecting ourselves by sustaining a weapon which holds within its capability the destruction of its creator, humanity itself.
A call from the Russell-Einstein Manifesto can be understood as a call to humanity to wake up from the spell of collective hypnosis:
"We are speaking on this occasion, not as members of this or that nation, continent, or creed, but as human beings, members of the species Man (sic), whose continued existence is in doubt."
The threat to humanity's continued existence from weapons of mass destruction, stated by Russell-Einstein, is the canopy of "terror" under which humanity has been conducting its affairs for the last seventy years or so. It is a threat that has become embedded in our consciousness to such an extent that it assumes fantastical and mythical proportions. As Hasan Askari puts it: "After all, what is a myth? A myth is a public dream. What is a dream? A dream is a private myth." It is a dream one remembers dreaming but cannot recall the details fully upon awaking.
More immediate and urgent than ecological concerns, if not on a par with them, humanity needs to be free from the terror of all weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, chemical and biological. To fulfil this extra-ordinary call, heeding the warning of Russell-Einstein, we need an equally extra-ordinary response of freeing ourselves from the grip of collective hypnosis. Unless we give up the old habit that by violence one can defeat violence we may not be able to save any innocent child's life, born or unborn, now or years from now.
The nuclear weapon has no loyalty to either democratic or totalitarian nations. Is it not utterly shocking that the human intellect which unlocked the science to create such a weapon has resulted, through its proliferation, in creating a situation where the weapon can now destroy its creator? If this is not hypnosis then what is hypnosis? This is the unconscious terror under which we live and dare not look in the face: to behave in such ways where we believe we have freedom of choice when in reality our choices are governed by hypnosis.
To refer to Einstein once more: "God doesn't play dice with the world." We may now add: humanity does indeed play dice. What dangerous game of chance is it where the bet being waged is the continued existence of humanity? Whether one describes oneself as spiritual or a secular humanist, what is the value of that spirituality and humanism when such a weapon exists and we do not address ourselves to it? On this greatest of questions for human survival we require a combined, wholehearted, sustained spiritual-humanist response. When we talk of terrorism should it not be a minimum requirement to talk about the greatest threat humanity faces?
The real achievement of collective hypnosis is in its being hidden from our consciousness; by denying its own existence it continues to exist. At least a stage hypnotist asks for consent from an audience and removes the hypnosis at the end of the act. Collective hypnosis, on the other hand, neither asks for permission nor considers removing its influence. Let me cite again Hasan Askari:
"When I spoke in India after the atomic bombs were dropped over Nagasaki and Hiroshima, I said then (1950) that the ideology was dead, the weapon had surpassed it all. A quarter million people were destroyed in a couple of minutes. Man had acted against his own survival. Oppenheimer, the architect of the first nuclear device, while watching the mushroom cloud, had shouted that he had become the destroyer of the world. He then spoke on behalf of those governments of the world who could go on producing more and more deadly weapons, thinking that these weapons would give security and peace to the nations of the world. The irony is that the very ideological division in whose context the weapon was invented had vanished. But the weapon remains. The knowledge that produced it remains. Its potential users are all there. All these years I have waited for that idea that will surpass the weapon of mass destruction and the philosophy and the technology that produced it and that dark psyche which may use it. Hence, whichever ideology claims to meet the challenges of the world at this critical hour must call upon all mankind to rise to abolish weapons of mass destruction and abolish war altogether and every violent means to achieve any national or ideological ends. We then require a total commitment to honour and uphold each individual life. We have limitless resources within our soul to repel evil by the good, repel violence with non-violent means knowing that the truth has its own might to defend and protect itself."
On one level the general debate seems fundamentally flawed, reduced to questions of power and control. On the one hand, it lends itself easily to rightly denouncing acts of violence carried out by interest groups, while on the other hand it is inconsistent in that equal attention is not paid to similar, if not worse, acts of aggression and violence linked to conflicts past and present by those in political power. A life lost is a life lost despite the ideology that inspires the act of violence. A life lost from either a suicide attack or a guided missile launched from thousands of feet is a precious life. At both ends of the spectrum of violence there is a person, family, neighbourhood, a child, hopes and aspirations. Thus any discussion of terrorism which does not look at the greater issue, loss of human life from any form of violence, is bound to fail due to its one-sided character, and this in turn perpetuates illusions, self- righteousness and collective hypnosis.
(The United Nations and security in a nuclear-weapon-free world)
SPIRITUAL CRITIQUE REQUIRED
A noticeable omission, so it appears to me, in the general news media is we are yet to be presented with some meaningful insight into the thinking of individuals, charged with or suspected of allegedly trying to commit horrific acts of violence. There is much news and information on movement between countries, occupations, academic backgrounds, other general details and so forth. One may track, locate and stop those who are committed to doing something deadly serious. However, beyond this physical security-led approach an attempt to present a spiritual critique becomes relevant when we come to religiously inspired group terrorism.
We may never know the inner psychological make up of each individual case. What we do know is that so-called religiously inspired terrorists, of whatever collective religion and political persuasion, present themselves as people of faith and that opens up the possibility of a spiritual response which both secular and faith-based humanists should be able to make together. Humanists cannot afford to wait on the sidelines and not participate in a joint spiritual-humanist critique of terror acts. A rationalist critique only of organised religion from humanists will not do. The time to revisit that is later.
We require a spiritual-humanist response addressed to the individual committed to acts of violence. The focus of our attention in any response must have at its heart the individual who would carry out a devastatingly merciless act of violence. If that means humanists and religious people need to go down the path of inquiring about spirituality together, so be it. It is in the individual where the hypnosis of terror takes hold, as it tempts individuals (and consequently nations) to respond to violent acts of terror with ever more violence, believing that "terror" has a physical locality – that if it is defeated by physical means in one place it will be defeated in every place. Let us admit that once and for all such an approach is absurd. We should have listened more attentively to those who were advocating an alternative to ever more violent responses to terrorism.
It is a trap we have fallen into it and tragically so many individual lives have been lost – individuals who make up a neighbourhood, city and country going about their daily lives. Whether it was Hiroshima or Nagasaki, Vietnam or Cambodia, Sri Lanka or Palestine, Chile or apartheid South Africa, Afghanistan or Iraq – a suicide attack by a Kamikaze pilot or a bomb exploding in some busy street – who can deny that in every instance the loss of individual lives is tragic beyond measure?
INDIVIDUAL GRIEF
It is individuals related by family or friendship who are left to suffer tremendous sorrow and heartache. They cope in their own way, with immense courage, to somehow carry the grief of their loss. As individuals we suffer, as individuals we grieve, as individuals we hope to rise again above the waterline of trauma and re-gather the shattered pieces of our lives, never forgetting to honour those who have been taken from us prematurely. Should we notice the grief and hear the testimony of mourners we are humbled. Should we hear one story of heartache surely we must also recognise and pay tribute to all such stories across the world, regardless of circumstance, political grievance, national and religious boundaries.
Why are we not permitted to hear, in her own traumatised voice, in her own language, the pleas of a mother in Afghanistan cradling her new born child who was alive only moments ago and now is no more? Why do our news media, for example, seem to insist in having an intermediary to that grief by placing their reporter on the television screen between the victim and ourselves? Who other could do justice to that grief but the grief-stricken themselves?
I am reminded of the 2011 January 25th protests in Egypt where a man turns to the camera with his mouth bloodied saying: "Here is blood, there is terrorism". Behind him on that night in Cairo we see crowds rushing for safety at the advance of security forces while the sound of gunshots can be heard. It is frightening watching it and one can only wonder what it must be like to have been there. What shall we say of any purpose behind violent acts of aggression by terrorist groups or states?
By "purpose" I imply something greater, universal, a goal to which every member of the human race can feel akin. A purpose which recognises that humanity's past, present and future is both secular and sacred. Such a purpose excludes all forms of violence. A purpose which is a conscious self-thinking act by humanity. This to me is a purpose worth striving for in all peace. This to me is for the "common good". What could be more common between each and every human being than "life" itself? What further good between us could there be than to honour the life of each and every self? Why should we not take a new direction and outdo one another in ever more greater acts of kindness, compassion and generosity upholding the common good, the principle of life?
SPIRITUAL SELF-PERCEPTION
With regard to so-called religiously inspired terror acts I would suggest that what is required is the shattering of religious self-righteousness. If one believes in a merciful and compassionate God, the Lord of "heaven and earth", then is the mercy and compassion which characterises that Lordship to be understood as limited to a particular religion, region or piece of land, or is it not properly to be understood as universally transcending all divisions which we have created between us? We may need to take into account not only how a person perceives themselves socio-religiously but also "spiritually" – through what I would term "spiritual self-perception".
By considering individual spiritual self-perception, asking questions about it, by altering the direction of our inquiry, we may yet steer a course away from a troubling development – a development which is another trap of collective hypnosis – that is, identifying the whole terrorist motivation of a small group of religiously motivated individuals with all of the followers of that religion worldwide. By doing so we do an injustice and miss the individual altogether, amplifying the effects of the physical horror, converting it into a general social suspicion of a faith body. Spiritual self-perception is a means to avoid all such developments, keeping our focus on the individual, thereby saving us from demonizing the other.
The ultimate responsibility for an act of terror cannot lie anywhere else but with the individual who commits it. Not a community, not a collective identity but simply and clearly the individual in sharp focus. An individual is more than a representational mix of collective identities. Let us not fall in to the trap laid by collective hypnosis of collective recrimination, isolating communities from each other.
The act has an actor. The script and stage may be controlled and set by others in power (groups/states). However, we cannot deny that the actor, as an individual, still has a choice to play the part or not. The sniper hiding in the rubble and the suicide bomber, both as individuals, have a choice to withdraw from the act. The choice, if it comes at all, may come very late, perhaps only moments before the act, or build up within the conscience of the individual. It is there, within the individual, that the sharp edge of terror, entering the world in a physical form, is born. It is to that moment of individuality that a narrative of spiritual self-perception attempts to speak to. How shall we speak to that individual?
Let us "speak" to that mind-set not just socially, morally, legally but also spiritually. Let us "ask" that individual to see others as individuals and think again.
It would be a mistake in my view, when preserving life is the prime motive, to neglect the question, "what is the individual spiritual self-perception foundation of any religiously motivated act of violence?" There should be no substantive objection to the word "spiritual" when we are attempting to use it in terms of preventing life from being taken prematurely. The value of the word is not whether a secularist agrees with the concept of spirituality or not. The value is in the potential for presenting a critique to religiously inspired terror – a critique which both secular and faith-based humanists should be able to make independently or together.
Why should there be any objection to the word "spiritual"? Why should we not together bring to bear the whole of human experience (secular, religious, scientific, mystical and spiritual) on problems? As one could say to any religious extremist, "do you worship your religion as a god or do you worship God?", so one could ask a secular humanist who objects to the word spiritual, "which is more important; your world view or saving Life?" We cannot afford the luxury of conflict between secular, religious and spiritual outlooks when trying to pursue all peaceful avenues for preserving life.
The individuality of the individual, however submerged and drowned out by collective identities, still remains; perhaps latent but not absent. Otherwise how can one seek to explain the phenomenon of those who were once terrorists but speak now against the dogma they once believed, unless they had come to assert some form of individuality? That trace of individuality can also be noticed when we learn of soldiers who are or have been conscientious objectors and refuse to serve any longer. Quoting Hasan Askari, "unless one becomes a universal being one remains below humanity."
In the arena of universal individuality we may have a chance to appeal to those more valued principles shared by much of everyday humanity. Rebel against that foisted identity and come out of that collective hypnosis which sees violent reprisals as the only effective means. The focus of this reflection is on honouring the most universal of things, individual human life and the common good. For that principle of life to be universal it must sit outside, over and above, all ideology and collective identity.
Outwardly, to "love thy neighbour" may be understood as to love that other who bears no resemblance to one's collective identity of nationality, creed, language, race or religion. However, before the outer comes the inner. Before a thought there comes the thinker of that thought, the individual. Therefore, on the inner plane, there is another "neighbour" who both secular and faith-based humanists could have no disagreement about. It is a neighbour we take for granted far too often. Only when it has moved from its proximity to ourselves do we notice its absence. We abuse it, terrorise and torture it. We pay lip service to it and do not value it universally. It is all about us, it is all within us. Without this neighbour even our negligence of it is not possible. We raise countless tributes to it openly, only to betray it in secret. We honour it at one moment and in one place, at the same moment in a different place we dishonour. Through it all, throughout millennia, throughout all the wars humanity has conducted it has remained by our side. It has remained our constant companion even when we did not give it due recognition.
Who is this "neighbour" which has every right to seek justice for every injustice? It is simply and wonderfully, Life! From the sunrise of humanity to its sunset, each day, each night it is Life that is our nearest and dearest, our true next of kin. It is a kinship that bonds us to each and every human being on the planet. What a wondrous kinship it is indeed where it breathes through all outer kinships, through all divisions, through all diversity; it is the unity that binds us to each other. It is the Life of Humanity. As my late father used to say, "just reflect on the word Life!" I ask anyone contemplating any act of terror toward their fellow human beings to reflect on the word Life!
To repeat: as individuals we are more than any personal or collective identity; we are more than a nationality, creed, race or ethnicity, religion, caste or sect. May I suggest as humanists we cling to our identities lightly but not tightly: that such identities may inform our thinking but it is not essentially who we are. Spiritually, I would suggest we cling to such identities lightly with the hope that eventually we may let go of them so that what remains is the undivided individual. One un-differentiated self.
Nameless, we are born from our mother's womb, unique and mysterious. In an attempt to identify that mystery, we are named. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why it is a moving experience when the names of those who have died are read aloud at remembrance gatherings throughout the world. How many names are forgotten? How many children have perished in acts of violence? Let us pay tribute to that mystery of life universally so that when we remember the innocent victims of one attack in one place we remember all such victims in all places, from people living under oppression to those in so-called free societies.
When we claim our individuality do we really mean it? Or do we think of ourselves as individual representations of a collective identity. That individual representation can become, under the spell of collective hypnosis, very easy to ridicule and dehumanise. We have seen it in the past, we are seeing it now. When one stops "seeing" the other as an individual another kind of birth mentally has taken place: the birth of the oppressor.
Where pride in collective identities, in extreme cases, takes on an exclusive one-sided face there we are entering a hypnosis which, in preservation of that identity, can readily ignore the injustices inflicted upon others. A self conscious good takes hold. In preserving any collective life by oppressive means, psychological and physical, it begs the question: where is the individual when gripped by collective hypnosis? Quoting Hasan Askari again:
"Jung was critical of world events, and he put forward the notion of the collective consciousness or the collective hypnosis created by religion, race, culture and language. In that sense, I believe that what Freud calls illusion, what Marx calls the opium of the masses, what Durkheim calls collective representation, and what Jung calls collective hypnosis, all sum up the phenomenon of collective history restricted to one particular formulation."
In recent times one of the most powerful symbols of individual non-violent responses to terror has been the image of "The Tank Man" from Tiananmen Square; a lone citizen making an unarmed stand against the march of tanks. The footage is deeply moving. A lone man standing in the middle of a boulevard, straight, still and defiant. No weapon, just his individuality. Outwardly on one side there is the "Tank Man", alone. On the other side there is a line of tanks, a symbol of state military power. Inwardly, what in my opinion is also spiritual, the "Tank Man" has a far greater number standing behind him and beside him. They are invisible to the naked eye. They are to be found in every age and culture and in every place where people live under oppression and terror. They are the "individuals".
We should recall there were two "Tank Men" that day. One standing before the tank and the other hidden from view driving the lead tank. What transpired between those two individuals staring at each other on that afternoon we will never know. What was he saying? Who was he? It is a mystery. At least this image is known. What of the unreported and ignored lives of those equally brave individuals standing up peacefully to terror and oppression all across the world? We saw them and we heard them during 2011 in what has become known as the Arab Spring. They continue their struggle.
The recognition of suffering and grief in order to be a true recognition must, as a consequence, involve the recognition of suffering and grief of all people everywhere. The people concerned cannot look the other way. One can only imagine what immense heartache they undergo and even after such imagining and empathy there is still perhaps an abysmal gulf between our imagination and their reality. A spiritual-humanist response to all forms of terrorism starts not in the world out there but instead within the heart and mind of each individual. To quote Hasan Askari:
"In my view, there should be a two-fold response to idealistic and ideological developments which result in self-complacency or collective hypnosis. First is a sociological response which helps people or the communities involved in knowing why a particular idealism / ideological formulation is becoming relevant to people at one time in history. The sociological critique would liberate us from a collective hypnosis and lead us into an objective self-understanding."
"The second corrective is, in my view, a psychological critique that this one-sidedness has far reaching consequences for the human personality because here its humanity will be deformed, will be partialised, will be fragmented. In order to create a synthesis of the sociological and the psychological critiques we have to enshrine in our understanding and in our reflection another category, not just of attitude, but also the very characteristic of the truth we are seeking, namely openness, or willingness to listen to the other in his or her otherness."
A Spiritual-Humanist response to all forms of terror, as well as being a questioning of power, oppression, violence and war, is also a journey to seek the truth of our inter-connections as individuals. It will be a multi-faceted journey with many co-travellers: secular and faith based humanists being co-present recognising one another, bearing co-witness for the mutual goal of preserving and valuing LIFE in all its diverse and wondrous manifestations. The best among them being the Life of a child who expects the world to save it from the worst of what humanity has done in the past and who hopes for a different future.
Finally, concluding these, admittedly broad, reflections let me re-state the greatest threat to human survival: the nuclear weapon, which, in my view, is a crime against every single living individual human being. As we worry rightly about handing over to future generations the problems of ecological disaster, let us not also hand over to a future humanity an inheritance which includes the terror of weapons of mass destruction. The taking of any life anywhere, regardless of who comes to know about it, through any form of terror act, is a crime against the whole "single cell" of humanity. A humanity richly diverse is a wonder and mystery – secular and religious, material and spiritual, physical and meta-physical. As Hasan Askari put it, humanity "stands for a hidden, universal unity across all physical and racial boundaries."
Human Nature by Hasan Askari
Spiritual Humanism speech by Hasan Askari, 1995
Ideological Dogmatism by Hasan Askari
From Inter Religious Dialogue to Spiritual Humanism by Hasan Askari
"Bulletin of Atomic Scientists"
Article VI – NPT Treaty "Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control."
http://www.interreligiousinsight.org/bedlam_code/data/2012-07_a4.pdf
Inside the Centre: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Ray Monk (review via London Review of Books)
Collective HypnosisCommon GoodGriefHasan AskariHiroshimaLifeNagasakiNuclearRussell Einstein ManifestoSoulSpiritualSpiritual HumanismVirus


Sacred Heart School complies with the policies issued by the Diocese of Joliet Catholic Schools Office in all its curricular matters. Continuous progress exists throughout the school in areas of textbooks and concept continuity. Students have six hours of formal instruction daily. This includes religion, language arts, reading, social studies, mathematics and science. The core learning materials are constantly updated to keep the curriculum relevant to the child's needs. Fine arts, physical education and computer classes are also conducted. The school has two basic organizational patterns. Grades Pre-School through 5 are considered self-contained. However, within each grade level there are large and small group discussion, flexible scheduling and ability groups. Each grade has limited departmentalization. Grades 6 through 8 are departmentalized and share the resources of several teachers.


text:
Q: Redirecting in website using .htaccess Can any one please help me how redirect all http://example.com and http://www.example.com to https://www.example.com. I have recently purchased an ssl for my site and hence needed it to be redirected. Redirecting using .htaccess will be more useful for me. Thanks in advance.

A: There are a lot of solutions out there. Here is a link to the apache wiki which deals with this issue directly.
http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/RewriteHTTPToHTTPS
RewriteEngine On
# This will enable the Rewrite capabilities

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
# This checks to make sure the connection is not already HTTPS

RewriteRule ^/?(.*)$ https://www.example.com/$1 [R,L]
# This rule will redirect users from their original location, to the same location but using HTTPS.
# i.e.  http://www.example.com/foo/ to https://www.example.com/foo/
# The leading slash is made optional so that this will work either in httpd.conf
# or .htaccess context

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


BRL Test is your authorized TekBox distributer.
The TBSWA2/40dB wideband preamplifiers are connected between EMC probe and Spectrum Analyzer to increase the dynamic range of the measurements.
TBWA2 wideband RF amplifiers are versatile building blocks that can easily be integrated into laboratory setups. With a 3dB bandwidth of 3MHz to 3GHz and a usable frequency range up to 6GHz, they are ideal to boost the signals picked up by our EMC near field probes. The TBWA2 wideband amplifiers are available with 20dB or 40dB gain.


text:
Zelená píce patří mezi objemová krmiva rostlinného původu. Podle hlavních složek se rozlišuje na sacharidovou, bílkovinnou a polobílkovinnou.

Sacharidová zelená píce

Hlavními plodinami této kategorie tropů a subtropů jsou kukuřice, slunečnice, čirok a cukrová třtina, dále sem patří proso, mohár, čumíza a sudánská tráva.

 kukuřice setá (Zea mays)
 slunečnice (Helianthus)
 čirok (Sorghum spp.)
 cukrová třtina (Saccharum officinarum)

Krmivářství

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
@implementation UIFont (MavenPro)

+ (instancetype)mavenProRegularFontOfSize:(CGFloat)size {
  static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
  [GFIFontLoader loadFontFile:@"MavenPro-Regular"
                   fromBundle:@"MavenPro"
                    onceToken:&onceToken];
  return [self fontWithName:@"MavenProRegular" size:size];
}

+ (instancetype)mavenProMediumFontOfSize:(CGFloat)size {
  static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
  [GFIFontLoader loadFontFile:@"MavenPro-Medium"
                   fromBundle:@"MavenPro"
                    onceToken:&onceToken];
  return [self fontWithName:@"MavenProMedium" size:size];
}

+ (instancetype)mavenProBoldFontOfSize:(CGFloat)size {
  static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
  [GFIFontLoader loadFontFile:@"MavenPro-Bold"
                   fromBundle:@"MavenPro"
                    onceToken:&onceToken];
  return [self fontWithName:@"MavenProBold" size:size];
}

+ (instancetype)mavenProBlackFontOfSize:(CGFloat)size {
  static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
  [GFIFontLoader loadFontFile:@"MavenPro-Black"
                   fromBundle:@"MavenPro"
                    onceToken:&onceToken];
  return [self fontWithName:@"MavenProBlack" size:size];
}

@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
package fsharp.jvm.life

sealed trait Command {}

case class Go() extends Command
case class Stop() extends Command
case class Reset() extends Command
case class Quit() extends Command
case class MouseDown(x: java.lang.Integer, y: java.lang.Integer) extends Command
case class MouseUp(x: java.lang.Integer, y: java.lang.Integer) extends Command
case class ScrollViewport(x: java.lang.Integer, y: java.lang.Integer) extends Command


As a result of the UK's referendum on membership of the European Union, the Management Team at PICS Telecom International is actively engaged in staying ahead of the potential impacts of Brexit for our business partners, our European colleagues, and the economy. In anticipation of any potential complications, PICS has secured permission to use a new export license issued by the Department of International Trade in the event of a no deal Brexit.
This open general license of export will come into force on the 29th of March 2019, only if the UK leaves the European Union without a deal. The license will give PICS the ability to export dual use goods to the European Union without disruption to our EU customers, as there will be no additional paperwork for customers to complete before the export of cryptographic goods to EU member states from our facility.
PICS is one of the first companies in the UK to receive permission to use this new license and will be in the best position possible should a no deal happen as far as our EU exports are concerned.
PICS wishes to take this opportunity to inform our partners, customers and suppliers alike that PICS will continue to remain being a premier asset management and service provider. As a company, we will take all necessary steps to protect the integrity of our relationship with you.
If you have concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Brexit team at Brexitqueries@picstelecom.com.
PICS is Excited to Launch New Website!
Your source for all things PICS, now with more resources, features, and capabilities than ever before! We've redesigned our website to bring you a better experience and the features you've been asking for. Check out our fresh new look www.picstelecom.com!
As a result of the UK's referendum on membership of the European Union, the management team at PICS Telecom International is actively engaged in investigating the potential impacts of Brexit for our business partners, our European colleagues, and the economy. PICS will continue 'business as usual', maintaining continuity to provide a high level of customer service.
Uncertainties of a new trade deal with the European Union can take several years, and details remain unknown. While the UK will continue being an important market for the European Union and vice versa, we are confident that a new trade deal will be beneficial for PICS and its partners within the European Union.
PICS is dedicated to ensuring that our staff are well-informed and protected against any significant employment law changes. We will develop and enhance internal policies and procedures to protect workers' rights once key Brexit developments become more tangible. In addition, our ongoing efforts to ensure compliance under the new General Data Protection Regulations will safeguard our staff and the role that they play in making PICS a long term viable trading option for our geographically diverse business partners.
PICS Telecom International EMEA HQ located in Bristol, UK has recently been awarded a Silver Medal for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Management by the assessment firm EcoVadis. This ranking places PICS in the top 23% of all assessed companies worldwide, with only 5% of companies achieving a Gold Medal.
The EcoVadis methodology is based on international sustainability standards (Global Reporting Initiative, United Nations Global Compact, ISO 26000), and administered by a scientific committee of CSR and supply chain experts. EcoVadis ratings and scorecards provide businesses with a reliable indicator of their CSR performance. PICS is honored to be awarded with a Silver Medal following the assessment.
PICS is a leading global distributor of telecom and data equipment, backed by over 25 years of industry experience. Our exclusive Network Lifecycle Optimization Model offers sustainable solutions and provides efficient, integrated, and streamlined services worldwide.
Copyright ©2018 PICS Telecom | International Telecom Solutions Provider | Rochester, NY | Bristol, UK | Shatin New Territories, Hong Kong All Rights Reserved.
By submitting this form I consent to PICS Telecom contacting me by phone and email to follow up my enquiry.


In business, data exploitation promises to create value in a variety of operations, from the optimisation of value chains in global manufacturing and services more efficient use of labour and tailored customer relationships.
The adoption of 'smart-grid' technologies is generating large volumes of data on energy and resource consumption patterns that can be exploited to improve energy and resource efficiency.
The public sector is also an important data user but also a key source of data. Greater access to and more effective use of public-sector information (PSI), as called for by the OECD Council Recommendation on PSI, can generate benefits across the economy.
Greater access and use of data creates a wide array of policy issues, such as privacy and consumer protection, open data access, skills and employment, and measurement to name a few.
Providing policy guidance on how to maximize the benefits of the data-driven economy, while mitigating the associated risks.
This new OECD project analyses how enhanced access to data can maximize the social and economic value of data, and at the same time address legitimate concerns of individuals and organisations.
Four approaches for enhancing access to data will be covered in more detail: open data, community-based data sharing agreements, data portability, and data markets.
The project will assess the social and economic costs and benefits of each approach as well as policy challenges that need to be addressed to foster the coherence of data governance frameworks applied across application areas and sectors.
The OECD held an expert workshop on 2-3 October 2017 to kick-start the project. It aimed at moving the policy agenda further by filling existing knowledge gaps and in particular identifying best practices in the public and private sector.
This Recommendation of the OECD Council calls upon countries to develop and implement health data governance frameworks that secure privacy while enabling health data uses that are in the public interest. It is structured according to twelve high-level principles, ranging from engagement of a wide range of stakeholders, to effective consent and choice mechanisms to the collection and use of personal health data, to monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. These principles set the conditions to encourage greater cross-country harmonisation of data governance frameworks so that more countries are able to use health data for research, statistics and health care quality improvement, as well as for international comparisons.
Participants at this November 2016 forum agreed that advanced artificial intelligence is already here and that there are few limits to what it will be able to do. There was a call to focus on 'applied AI' that is designed to accomplish a specific problem-solving or reasoning task. However, several participants felt that policy-makers could not ignore the possibility of a (hypothetical) "artificial general intelligence" (AGI) whereby machines would become capable of general intelligent action, like a human being.
Today, the generation and use of huge volumes of data are redefining our "intelligence" capacity and our social and economic landscapes, spurring new industries, processes and products, and creating significant competitive advantages. In this sense, data-driven innovation (DDI) has become a key pillar of 21st century growth, with the potential to significantly enhance productivity, resource efficiency, economic competitiveness, and social well-being.
Greater access to and use of data create a wide array of impacts and policy challenges, ranging from privacy and consumer protection to open access issues and measurement concerns, across public and private health, legal and science domains. The report Data-driven Innovation: Big Data for Growth and Well-being aims to improve the evidence base on the role of DDI for promoting growth and well-being, and provide policy guidance on how to maximise the benefits of DDI and mitigate the associated economic and societal risks.
Dementia Research and Care: Can Big Data Help?
OECD countries are developing strategies to improve the quality of life of those affected by dementia and to support long-term efforts for a disease-modifying therapy or cure.
This report follows a September 2014 workshop that aimed to advance international discussion of the opportunities and challenges, as well as successful strategies, for sharing and linking the massive amounts of population-based health and health care data that are routinely collected (broad data) with detailed clinical and biological data (deep data) to create an international resource for research, planning, policy development, and performance improvement. The workshop sought to provide new insights into the opportunities and challenges in making "broad and deep" data a reality – from funding to data standards, to data sharing, to new analytics, to protecting privacy, and to engaging with stakeholders and the public.


The Shoe Gallery is ready for Christmas and ready for you .
For more information please see their website or telephone us Monday to Friday 9:30am – 5:30pm 01273 488 011.
The Shoe Gallery has been very busy with back to school shoes.
The Shoe Gallery is open over the Easter School holiday and ready to assist with your child's back to school shoes.
The Shoe Gallery is proud to announce that we are the winners of the Footwear Industry Awards 2016. Fashion Independent Footwear Retailer of The Year. Thank you to all that recommended us.
Footwear Industry Awards 2016 is a highly acclaimed measure of shoe shops and their positive relationship with customers and suppliers.
… Look out for many new pages including 'Children's', 'Women's' and 'Men's'. In addition, we have a 'More' section that allows shoes that include orthopedic shoes and slippers.
… and we are very close to the main celebrations, you can see many of the celebrations and bonfire societies from a location close to the Shoe Gallery. Therefore, do have much safe fun and enjoyment!
The Shoe Gallery is situated in Lewes, East Sussex however serves customers in Lewes, Brighton, Hove, Eastbourne and surrounding areas.
Websites for new and start up businesses.


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Ballyhaise (iriska: Béal Átha hÉis) är en ort i republiken Irland.   Den ligger i grevskapet An Cabhán och provinsen Ulster, i den norra delen av landet,  km nordväst om huvudstaden Dublin. Ballyhaise ligger  meter över havet och antalet invånare är .

Terrängen runt Ballyhaise är platt. Den högsta punkten i närheten är  meter över havet,  km söder om Ballyhaise. Runt Ballyhaise är det ganska glesbefolkat, med  invånare per kvadratkilometer. Närmaste större samhälle är Cavan,  km söder om Ballyhaise. Trakten runt Ballyhaise består i huvudsak av gräsmarker.

Kustklimat råder i trakten. Årsmedeltemperaturen i trakten är  °C. Den varmaste månaden är juni, då medeltemperaturen är  °C, och den kallaste är januari, med  °C.

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Orter i Cavan


Author of the New York Times bestseller "Uplifting Service: The Proven Path to Delighting Your Customers, Colleagues and Everyone Else You Meet" and 14 other books on service, business and inspiration.
Ron Kaufman is the world's leading educator and motivator for uplifting customer service and building service cultures.
Rated one of the "Top 25 Who's Hot" speakers by Speaker Magazine, Ron presents powerful insights and global best practices from working with clients on every continent for more than twenty years. His energetic keynote speeches and workshops have inspired millions.
Ron's experience and passionate commitment to results have been distilled into proven methods to help clients upgrade service performance and build strong service cultures. His unique approaches to learning and leadership have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.
Ron Kaufman was invited to Asia in 1990 by Singapore Airlines and the government of Singapore to create and launch a national service quality training organization.
He is a graduate of Brown University, USA with studies in France, London and Berkeley, California. He is a professional member of the Author's Guild, Global Speakers Federation and International Association of Learning Providers.
To book customer service speaker Ron Kaufman call Executive Speakers Bureau at 901-754-9404.
In today's global economy, customer expectations in almost every industry are rising. What was once considered a perk, bonus or plus is now a promise clients expect – and even demand – time and again. And while everyone may agree that providing superior service is essential to continued success in a competitive world, too many executives still regard service as "the fuzzy stuff" they don't know how to measure, manage or make happen on a companywide scale.
Uplifting Service is an entertaining and interactive presentation that shows everyone from the C-suite to the front lines specific actions and concrete steps to fly over customers' rising expectations and immediately improve the quality of service delivered at all levels of the company. Packed with real-life examples, powerful principles and tried-and-true techniques, this session will educate, motivate and inspire everyone on your team to take new action now.
The secret to seeing the world from your customers' point of view.
The six proven steps to going from "basic" to "unbelievable" service.
Transforming complaints into opportunities, creating positive word of mouth and valuable customers for life.
Three strategies and tactics for managing customer expectations.
Bouncing your way back through service recovery.
Shifting from blame, shame and justification to taking personal responsibility.
A superior service culture does not happen by accident but instead requires committed managers willing to walk their talk – and motivated staff inspired to deliver on-the-spot service daily. But beyond this, the driving force of a service-focused culture is a group of inspired leaders who are convinced of, and committed to, the long-term value of Uplifting Service.
Leading The Service-Focused Culture facilitates your senior leadership team in building the alignment needed to embrace a common service vision – and then take the actions required to make that vision a reality. In this hands-on session, participants review the culture-building activities currently in use in the organization; identify opportunities for new service initiatives; learn best practices for becoming a service-focused culture and commit to taking action to align and strengthen the service focus.
Best practices for engaging everyone from the top down in a continuous cascade of positive actions for Uplifting Service culture.
Quantifying benefits of a service culture in terms of customer experience, competitive positioning, talent development and business results.
Choosing compelling language to create an engaging service vision.
Communicating the vision effectively with all service providers.
Creating the alignment and service commitment to help cross functional teams communicate more effectively with each other and within their own departments.
In a world where customers and staff have increasing options, companies with a powerful service reputation and an Uplifting Service culture are attracting and retaining the best talent, achieving market leadership and enjoying sustainable success. In fact, building a service-focused culture today is no longer an option — it's a competitive necessity. This session provides senior executives with the opportunity to step back and answer the question, "Is the service culture that exists in my company today providing me with a strong competitive advantage for tomorrow? If so, what can I do to keep it growing stronger? And if not, what can I do to make it better right now?" Packed with case studies and best practice examples from companies around the world, Capturing The Power Of A Superior Service Culture shows you why some organizations succeed beautifully – and others fail miserably. Participate in this presentation to find out what works, what doesn't, what your organization should do, and what you must avoid.
Why an Uplifting Service culture earns you a sustainable advantage.
How to engineer your service culture with a proven three-part architecture and implementation roadmap.
How to align The 12 Building Blocks of Service Culture™ to get more impact from the activities you are already doing.
How to track, improve and measure the value of your service culture.
Why a weak service culture leads to more complaints, lower margins and higher staff turnover – and how you can avoid these problems.


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MS: Max Smith's blog
History to the Defeated
every smith: independent creative consultants
Words: Max - a brief bio
Leamington Letters #41: Whither goest thou?
Gareth Brynmor John
How was your week-end? We had a great time, thank you. We went to London.
My nephew Gareth was singing at the Wigmore Hall and his grandmother was coming down to see and hear him and meet up with other family members at a Mothering Sunday lunch before the gig.
Jill and I used the opportunity to do a number of things which we had left undone: in other words, wine tastings, restaurant meals, and gallery visits.
We started at the home of Karl Marx in Dean Street. This is now, and has been since the year of the General Strike, a restaurant called Quo Vadis. It is, in a familiar phrase, something of a Soho institution, and has had its gastronomic ups and downs over the years, but has reinvented itself in the last 12 months by giving a free hand to Chef Jeremy Lee, who was poached from the Blueprint.
The food is a sensational combination of technical accomplishment and no nonsense. I indulged recklessly with a starter of rabbit livers and a main of ox liver – both sublime. But the highlight was Jill's hare pie: not a ramekin with a puff pastry top, but a pudding bowl with real pastry, and inside, a huge quantity of the most delicious jugged hare. Jill allowed me only a single tasting mouthful, but it was enough to make me regret my organic choice, although not the choice of restaurant. Quo Vadis is first-class, even down to the half bottles on the wine list (such circumspection necessary because we had sampled apéros at Vinoteca on Beak Street on the way and I had a wine tasting at Berry Brothers in St James scheduled for later in the afternoon).
In short, a great start.
And the weekend continued in the same vein. The Manet exhibition at the Royal Academy, a tasting of 2011 Rhones at BBR, the early Picasso exhibition at the Courtauld, and an extraordinary show of paintings of Cornish fishermen at No 2 Temple Place, a late Victorian arts and crafts house on Embankment, which belonged to the Astors in the '20s, and now restored is worth a visit even if there is no exhibition on display. The Picasso was under-whelming, serving to illustrate how derivative was the 20 year old; but the Courtauld also has in its permanent exhibition many of those iconic paintings which one knows so well but, in my case, had never actually seen before. Degas, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Manet, Monet, Renoir … each room, each wall, is a surprise, a delight, an education.
But the highlight of the weekend, surely, was the Wigmore Hall on Sunday afternoon. My sister's boy Gareth Brynmor John was the choral scholar at St John's Cambridge and is currently at the Royal Academy of Music, where he is completing the Opera course whilst forging a serious reputation in the musical world and winning countless competitions.
On Sunday, he performed a great deal of Britten, and a little of Britten usually goes a long way.
But yesterday, Britten's settings of Songs and Proverbs of William Blake did not go far enough. The power of Gareth's voice, combined with the ability to convey the subtlest of nuances of meaning and emphasis, bestowing gravitas even where there was none originally, made us want for more.
And I will long remember the beauty, in the setting of the Tyger, of that final couplet:
Dare frame they fearful symmetry?
Today's listening: It should be Britten, I guess, but thanks to links from Rick Hough in Boston and Michael Gray in the south of France, it's ABB - the Allman Brothers Band.
William link
And how did the 11's taste?
Universally good. But the most interesting 'Rhone' I drank over the weekend was from the Drome. Philippe + Vincent Jaboulet. And bag-in-box! This at Vinoteca. Lovely people, passionate about wine. Unfortunately, they import it themselves and are running out. Shame.
You should persevere with Britten. It's better than it sounds. But meantime your time with Duane will be well spent.
Lol. That was Beecham on Wagner, wasn't it? At Rick Hough's instigation, Duane focus has been on the difference between the 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival and Fillmore later in the year. Rewarding and fascinating.
... and serendipitously, Michael Gray posted a link to an ABB gig last week at the Beacon Theatre with a brilliant performance of Tears of Rage. It's on YouTube and it's extraordinarily fine.
The Courtauld is so beautiful. One can understand why Sir Anthony was so reluctant to leave. The collection of Manet is far better than the much trumpeted show at the RA. And you're right about the Picasso. I left amazed that the man responsible for these works went on to create such stunning works for another 60 years.
I'm ashamed to say this was my first time. I always thought it was an academic centre rather than a public gallery. I need to go again soon because I had no time to see the Rubens and Renaissance stuff.Do you know 2 Temple Place, just down the road on the river? It's an astonishing building and the current exhibition is wondrous.
Max Smith
European writer, radical, restaurateur and Red Sox fan. 70-something husband, father, step-father, grandfather and son. Resident in Warwick, England.
French Letters
Leamington Letters

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Why Are Suspects In Repeated Sexual Abuse Of 10-Year-Old Girl Free, While She Was Locked Up In A Psychiatric Facility?
By Dave Savini February 18, 2021 at 10:33 pm
Filed Under:10-Year-Old Girl, Charles Golbert, Cook County Public Guardian, Dave Savini, DCFS, Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, sexual abuse, The Dreamcatcher Foundaton
UPDATED 2/25/2021 10:20 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) — Police and child protective services are scrambling to explain why multiple men who sexually abused a 10-year-old girl remain free, even though the suspects are known.
CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini revealed Thursday night how the system failed to protect the little girl, despite years of warnings and calls for help.
At the Grand Motel at 10022 S. Halsted St., on the top floor, in room 324, something terrible happened to a little girl just 10 years old. Not even out of elementary school yet, she was taken there by a 47-year-old man from her neighborhood and sexually exploited.
This type of abuse is something Brenda Myers-Powell has been fighting, to protect victims, as co-founder of The Dreamcatcher Foundation.
"We have no idea what type of ugly things he did to her in that room," said Myers-Powell, who describes the type of person she believes does something like this as "a dog; a predator; a very, very sick person."
No one from the motel would talk about the incident. But CBS 2 Investigators obtained police records showing motel staff called 911 and told officers the man's name and date he checked in with the girl. It has been four months, yet no one has been arrested.
"Why wasn't he locked up? That needs to be answered. Why did they not lock that man up?" said Myers-Powell, who was appointed to the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking.
Hearing about what happened to this little girl, she said, "It just made me sick." She said she plans to bring this case to the national council.
Police reports reveal for nearly half the little girl's life, from age 7 to 10, she was sexually assaulted by at least five different men – including men in their 40s and 50s.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) was alerted to these and other abuses dating back to 2016. Numerous reports called into the abuse hotline including calls from her school.
Despite all this, the little girl was never placed in protective custody. Instead, the abuse continued until she was finally found at the motel in October.
The DCFS refused to say anything about the pattern of abuse this child endured. CBS 2 Investigators used Chicago Police reports, obtained through a public records request, to piece together a tale of systemic failures that let her down – how her abusers were never charged, and how child protective services failed to get her the help she needed to escape a horrifying world of child exploitation.
In fact, just days before she ended up at the Grand Motel, police had their grasp on another one of her alleged abusers. He too is accused of taking her to a motel, and he also was never arrested.
Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert has spent 30 years working to protect abused children. It is his job to challenge the DCFS when they fail.
He said the girl should have received protective services when she was first assaulted at age 7. He also wants to know why the accused men have not been arrested.
"I've seen a lot. This has to be one of the very worst cases," said Golbert. "It's just, it's disgusting."
He confirms it was not until workers at the Grand Motel called 911 last October that the DCFS finally went before a Cook County judge to get approval to move the girl into the custody of a state-funded protective care program.
"DCFS commonly leaves kids in very dangerous situations, where they continue to be abused, instead of bringing cases to court and rescuing children," Golbert said. "This case illustrates that."
He said because the child did not get help sooner, when the abuse first started, her emotional issues grew drastically worse – leaving deep and lasting effects on the victim.
"And so now, a judge is really mad at DCFS," said Golbert, "for not doing anything for four years."
Golbert said the judge also is angry "because DCFS says they have nowhere to place her, because her emotional problems are so advanced."
DCFS ended up placing the girl in a psychiatric hospital in December. By mid-January, she was finally cleared to be released to a residential care facility.
It has now been more than a month since she should have been transferred. Instead, she still remains locked up inside a psychiatric facility.
"This girl has been in a locked psychiatric hospital for a month after she's been ready for discharge," said Golbert, "because DCFS has nowhere to place her – a long standing problem."
He explained what life is like for children committed to psychiatric units when they don't need to be.
"It's horrible," Golbert said. "You're locked up indoors all day. They get about one hour of outdoor recreation every day. They lose schooling."
While this little girl has remained locked up, her offenders remain free. It sends dangerous message to the child, said Myers-Powell.
"That says: 'I'm the garbage that the man who abused me said I was,'" she said. "That says that I don't matter, and the world showed me I don't matter because I'm locked in a box."
Just Wednesday, DCFS admitted in court they can't even find their own case reports showing what, if anything, they did to help this girl when she was first assaulted at the age of 7.
The CBS 2 Investigators also learned that when police found the girl at the Grand Motel in October, they simply took her home instead of to a hospital to be examined. On Thursday night because of our CBS 2 investigation, the CPD said it is now launching a thorough review of how they handled all the abuse cases involving this girl.
Chicago Police issued the following statement:
"Protecting the lives and wellbeing of children is the highest priority of the Chicago Police Department. We have initiated a thorough review of how this disturbing series of allegations of abuse and neglect was handled by CPD. While the criminal investigations are ongoing, CPD is taking a close look at our policies around missing youth and we are committed to strengthening our guidelines, training, and protocols. We are also working with our partners in social services, education, and healthcare to be more extensive and trauma informed to better support youth and families. We are all committed to ensuring the safety of Chicago's children."
DCFS issued this statement:
"DCFS takes any allegations of abuse or neglect very seriously, and is working diligently to ensure this youth receives the appropriate care. We cannot comment further due to ongoing investigations."
Golbert has since sent a letter to Chicago Police Supt. David Brown and Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, calling what happened in the girl's case an "appalling failure of law enforcement and child protective services to protect this little girl over three years," and demanding a detailed response on how their offices are "proceeding to bring the perpetrators to justice."
"As shocking as this crime is, it's equally shocking that the identities of at least five of the perpetrators are known but no charges have been brought.
"The Chicago Police Department (CPD) told CBS-2 Chicago News that there would be a thorough review of how CPD handled the investigation. The lack of charges and prosecutions send a message to D.T., other trafficked girls, and the public, that D.T. and young girls like her are not valued. Her abusers treated her like garbage and, by their inaction, CPD and prosecutors behave as though D.T. is a throwaway child."
Dave Savini
More from Dave Savini


From the Las Vegas Licensing Expo 2015, Warner Bros. has released a new official synopsis for Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice. The synopsis confirms many of the plot points that fans have long suspected, based on filming rumors and scenes shown in the first trailer. Here is the new official Warner Bros. synopsis.
Of course, the first part of the synopsis describing Superman as a god-like Super Hero ties into the image from the trailer of the fallen Superman statue with "false god" spray painted on it in red. The second part about a new threat quickly arising that puts mankind in great danger certainly sounds like it could match up with the much-rumored Doomsday.
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is directed by Zack Snyder and stars Henry Cavill as Superman, Ben Affleck as Batman, and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is scheduled to be released in movie theaters on March 25, 2016.