Islam Archives | machetemag

Man as God? Five Percent Nation of Islam | Nation of Gods and Earths

Uncategorized

Updated: August 3, 2009 – originally written: November, 2008. See our Update Below.

The Nation of Gods and Earths (NGE) is a religion that was started in 1964 which borrows ideas from traditional Islam. The NGE is also known as the Five Percent Nation of Islam, which refers to the NGE’s explanation that 5% of black people are chosen ‘Gods’ of the world and Islam is the black man’s natural culture (but not religion):

The 5%, who are the enlightened divine beings, the poor righteous teachers, having repossessed knowledge of the truth regarding the foundations of life and of oneself, and seek to liberate the 85% through education. (Wiki)

Banning the Burqa: France’s President Sarkozy Sets the Stage

Current Events, Public Policy

Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France, publicly stated (June 19) his disapproval of the burqa /niqab, stating that it is not welcome in France and renders women “prisoners behind a screen.” His statements have set the stage for a possible nationwide ban – this ban would obviously apply to everyone in France…but reasonably speaking, it only targets the Muslim population, which makes up between 5-10% of the total population (64 million). Continue reading …

Women Sworn to Virginity, Living as Old Men in Albania

Ethnography

Women in Albania…living as men – Their number is diminishing but a good handful of elderly women several in their late 70s still live on in northern Albania. These ‘sworn virgins’ each took a personal vow of celibacy in order to preserve their position as the head of household, maintaining the same level of control and power over their own households and communities as the next man. By taking the oath of virginity these women enjoy rights usually available only to men: the right to own a weapon, move about freely, even pray in the mosque alongside men.

Armenian Genocide Resurrected, Blamed on Ottomans, Turkey's Government is Upset

International Affairs, Research

The details of the brutal and tragic mass genocide of Armenians in 1915 are discussed in exhaustive detail on the Armenian Genocide wiki page.

Armenia’s president, Robert Kocharian, is adamant at proving his point – whatever it is! He’s looking to bring accountability to Turkey’s government for facilitating the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians…and he wants these evil acts ‘acknowledged fully in U.S. policy toward Turkey’. So on Wednesday, October 11, the bill to condemn the massacres was voted on by the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the majority supported the measure.

Turkey feels insulted. They sent a U.S. envoy home and forced him to leave the country, insisting that the action was not to indicate a deterioration in relations between the two nations. And many people, including president George Bush disapproved of this action – perhaps not for the same reasons but the disapproval was there. Continue reading …

Exporting Democracy to Iraq

International Affairs, Public Policy

Lately there has been much talk about exporting the essence of the U.S. democratic system into other countries across the globe, in particular, the most recent commotion has had to do with Iraq.

After the removal of Saddam Hussein in December 2003, the United States’ most immediate goals in Iraq became the elimination of the pro-Hussein insurgency and the installation of a functioning democratic government.

In March 2003 the majority of Americans (72%) supported armed involvement in Iraq to achieve these goals; nevertheless, conditions have become more realistic and the Gallup poll conducted on July 8th reported that the majority of Americans (62%) believe this whole Iraq situation was a ‘mistake’ (Iraq War Gallup Poll, July 2007). Continue reading …

Marketing at Three D.C. Metro Non Profit Organizations

Marketing, Nonprofits

** If you’re looking for marketing advice for your Nonprofit – please contact me at Nova Advertising **

CrisisLink (Arlington, VA)
Coptic Orphans (Falls Church, VA)
Muslim Association of Virginia (Prince William County, VA)

Introduction

Nonprofit organizations play an important role in the operation of day-to-day activities in the United States; furthermore, they can be very sophisticated international entities that are operated by “well-trained MBAs and ex-businesspeople” (Strategic Marketing, 5). The Washington, D.C. metropolitan area is home to a lot of nonprofit organizations including three from Virginia that will be analyzed in this report: CrisisLink, Coptic Orphans, and the Muslim Association of Virginia. Each of the aforementioned organizations is unique in their respective missions and also overlap in certain aspects of their services. Throughout this report we will analyze how they fall into the following five aspects of nonprofit marketing: Customer Orientation, Strategic Planning and Organization, Developing and Organizing Resources, Designing the Marketing Mix, and Controlling Marketing Strategies.